Greetings,
I am playing a third level catfolk rogue currently who specializes in natural weapon combat. I plan on taking a level of druid once I hit fourth level and continue on the druid path until seventh level when the character gains wild shape so I can take the feat Shaping Focus. I may take two more druid levels later on for additional wild shape uses each day. I plan to take the Nature Bond of a domain instead of an animal companion. I thought about the animal companion as it would be nice to have a constant flanking buddy and extra damage. The problem is that the animal companion would be too weak, even if I were to take the Boon Companion feat at fifth level once the character reaches level nine and beyond. I am unsure of which domain would be of benefit and fit the flavor of my character. I thought about the Feather sub-domain as it would provide access to the Feather Fall spell as well as the bonuses to perception and surprise round initiatives. Unfortunately, the domain also provides an animal companion, which would be even weaker.
The character uses acrobatics to help avoid attacks of opportunity when moving into flanking position. I chose the Scout archetype to provide sneak attack damage on a charge when I gain a fourth level in rogue at eighth level. The plan is to use the dire feline wild shape to pounce (a type of charge) the target and gain five attacks with sneak attack damage. I thought about taking improved natural attack (Claws) later on for the character to increase the claw damage from 2d4 to 2d6 in dire tiger form. I wanted to take the feat at fifth level but did not have the required base attack bonus to qualify for the feat to increase his claws from 1d6 to 1d8 in humanoid form. I am not sure what would be a good feat to take at fifth level. I thought about the racial feat Black Cat to help negate possible critical strikes against the character as a fifth level feat.
Perhaps the animal companion could be a good choice with Boon Companion or perhaps I should level the rest of the way as a druid. Perhaps I could go 4 levels of rogue and the rest as druid, even with the average wisdom score to gain access to the Scout's Charge. I am also wondering what may be a good druid archetype to chose for this character. Any helpful advice is appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Ability Scores: STR 14, DEX 18, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 12, CHA 10.
Current level 3.
LVL1 Rogue 1: Catfolk Exemplar: Claws.
LVL2 Rogue 2: Rogue Talent: Vicious Claws.
LVL3 Rogue 3: Aspect of the Beast: To increase claw damage from 1d4 to 1d6 each.
LVL4 Druid 1:
LVL5 Druid 2: Perhaps the racial feat Black Cat.
LVL6 Druid 3:
LVL7 Druid 4: Shaping Focus.
LVL8 Rogue 4: Scout's Charge. Rogue Talent: ?
LVL9 ?: Perhaps Natural Spell.
LVL10 ?
LVL11 ?
LVL12 ?
LVL13 ?
LVL14 ?
LVL15 ?
LVL16 ?