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I'm having trouble building a bard NPC/Cohort for a game I'm playing. I've read through the guides, but I'm still having trouble.

Here's what I've got to work with:

Race: Half-Elf
Stats: [16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10] Array
Starting Level: 9th
Anything Paizo is allowed, 3rd party would be on a case by case basis.
We'll assume normal PC WBL since it's coming out of my character's pocket and he's got some money to spend.

My goals right now are party buffing and some capability in combat. I think that this is pretty doable under normal circumstances using either the standard bard or the arcane duelist archetype.

The problem is that this character will always have the disadvantage of being a few levels behind.

So, given my goals, what are my best options? Can I build something that will hold up in combat?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret the terrain bond spell in conjunction with the horizon walker's terrain dominance.

You call upon the spirits of nature to help you adapt to your environment. You treat the terrain you are in as your most favored terrain until this spell ends.

If you do not have the favored terrain class feature, you gain no benefit from this spell.

Say my most favored terrain is underground, and I'm in a desert. I have terrain dominance for underground. Does it:

a) allow me to treat desert as if I had terrain dominance in desert since I have dominance in my most favored terrain?

b) allow me to treat desert as though it was underground?

c) afford only ranger favored terrain bonuses to desert terrain for the duration of the spell.

If it's b), does that extend to creatures such that desert=underground means (native to desert)=(native to underground)? That would essentially mean that anyone trying to use the homefield advantage just gives you an even bigger homefield advantage.

Also, how on earth do you determine a creature's native terrain? This spell seems much less straightforward than instant enemy.

So I'm playing a game with a 3 person party and our characters are going to be gestalt to make up for the fact that we originally had 5 people. I've decided to keep my original master of many styles monk and just tack another class (probably fighter) onto it.

Since I don't need armor training if I go the fighter route, what's a good archetype to take? Brawler looks pretty good, but dawnflower dervish and two weapon fighting feats would allow something pretty close to a move action and a flurry of blows.

Are there any other really good combinations I'm missing? I'm not necessarily set on fighter, but I feel like it's the best option at this point.

So I decided to play a master of many styles in a new game and I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out what order to pick up feats in.

I've started out with crane style since I can get a pretty cool defensive ability with a human monk at level 1 (Dodge>Crane Style>Crane Wing). The problem is what styles to use and what order to get the feats in.

I was thinking I would use crane, snake, dragon, and panther. I may add a fifth style at the end just because you can use five styles at once for the capstone.

So far, what I've planned looks like this:

H: Dodge
1: Crane Style
1 B: Crane Wing
2 B: Crane Riposte
3: Snake Style
5: Combat Reflexes
6 B: Snake Fang
7: Dragon Style
9: Dragon Ferocity
10 B: Dragon Roar
11: Elemental Fist
13: Panther Style
14 B: Panther Claw
15: Panther Parry

My reasoning is as follows. Master of many styles gives up flurry of blows, making full attacks undesirable. Investing in standard action attacks isn't a good way to put out damage either. That leaves attacking on the opponent's turn.

Snake style allows me to make attacks of opportunity if they attack me and miss. Combined with combat reflexes and high dex, I can basically make a full attack on an opponent if he makes a full attack on me, but every one of my attacks is at my highest BAB. I can also opt to try to shut down an opponent's full attack with a stunning fist on my attack of opportunity.

At 8th level, I can roll dragon style into the mix to get even more strength damage on my attacks. Since I took dragon style, taking elemental fist gives some extra damage to one attack each round.

Panther style comes in last for a couple of reasons. I can't force any enemies to make opportunity attacks when I move by them, and I need a fair amount of movement to really do this well.

I'll probably take monkey style at level 17, simply because going prone next to a group of enemies seems like a good way to draw attacks and make more attacks of opportunity since I'll have the same AC while prone.

Now, with all that said, is there a style combination I'm missing that should be considered? Am I missing out on a lot by putting so many feats into styles?

I'm playing a ranger in a campaign and I'd like to be able to do well in melee and ranged, while utilizing my animal companion.

My preference for an animal would be a roc, using reduce animal or some sort of polymorph on it to get it into dungeons. Under this scenario I have air superiority outdoors for ranged combat and hopefully a decent melee partner in dungeons.

My character thus far:

Human Ranger 3
Str 18
Dex 18 (16+2 Racial)
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 12

Feats
(H)Quick Draw
(1)Power Attack
(2)Rapid Shot
(3)?

Now that I've said all of this, would I be able to get a significant boost in combat ability by investing in a few teamwork feats? Maybe combat reflexes with paired opportunists and/or outflank? Is there something better I can do with those feat slots (teamwork or otherwise) that would be better for me?