Wild Shape + Shaping Focus + Shapeshifting hunter

[Phasics]

Little combination question.

Shapeshift hunter lets you combine ranger and druid levels for wildshape/day, shaping focus lets you add 4 druid levels for wildshape.

So a Druid 4/Ranger 4

has Wildshape of an 8th level druid 8hr duration but has the wildshapes/day of a 12th level druid ?

And a Druid 4/Ranger 10 has 8th level druid 8hr duration but has wildshapes per day of 18th level druid (8/day the maximum)

So Huge Animal Forms 8/day for 8hrs each with BAB of +13 (character level 14)

right ?

[Golden-Esque]

What is Shapeshift Hunter? The closest Archetype I see to what you're referring to is the Shapeshifter Ranger archetype, and that archetype doesn't interact with the Druid's Wild Shape at all.

[Phasics]

Golden-Esque wrote:

What is Shapeshift Hunter? The closest Archetype I see to what you're referring to is the Shapeshifter Ranger archetype, and that archetype doesn't interact with the Druid's Wild Shape at all.

Shapeshifting Hunter is an Ultimate Combat Feat

[SunsetPsychosis]

I don't believe it works that way. I think both feats are different sides of the same coin.

Shapeshift Hunter specifically increases your uses per day, but says nothing about increasing your effective druid level to determine what forms you can turn into.

Shaping focus is the opposite, in that it specifically increases your effective druid level for purposes of forms, but has no effect on the uses per day.

So a Ranger 4/Druid 4 would have to take BOTH feats if he wanted to be effectively an 8th level druid for the purposes of wildshape forms and uses per day.

He would not get to count either his Ranger or Druid levels twice for the effects of the feats.

[Foghammer]

SunsetPsychosis wrote:

I don't believe it works that way. I think both feats are different sides of the same coin.

Shapeshift Hunter specifically increases your uses per day, but says nothing about increasing your effective druid level to determine what forms you can turn into.

Shaping focus is the opposite, in that it specifically increases your effective druid level for purposes of forms, but has no effect on the uses per day.

So a Ranger 4/Druid 4 would have to take BOTH feats if he wanted to be effectively an 8th level druid for the purposes of wildshape forms and uses per day.

He would not get to count either his Ranger or Druid levels twice for the effects of the feats.

This. Feats that treat you as X levels higher for purposes of class features as a general rule do not increase your effective level above your character level. A druid 6/ranger 2 would be treated as an 8th level druid, not a 10th level druid.

Same goes for the Boon Companion feat. You get four effective druid levels for your companion's advancement, but only up to your character level.

[thepuregamer]

yeah shaping focus says it caps out at your character lvl.

So you are druid lvl +4 from shaping focus and you are druid lvl +ranger lvl +4 for how many times per day you can wild shape(up to a max of your character lvl).

[Tharg The Pirate King]

Foghammer wrote:

SunsetPsychosis wrote:

I don't believe it works that way. I think both feats are different sides of the same coin.

Shapeshift Hunter specifically increases your uses per day, but says nothing about increasing your effective druid level to determine what forms you can turn into.

Shaping focus is the opposite, in that it specifically increases your effective druid level for purposes of forms, but has no effect on the uses per day.

So a Ranger 4/Druid 4 would have to take BOTH feats if he wanted to be effectively an 8th level druid for the purposes of wildshape forms and uses per day.

He would not get to count either his Ranger or Druid levels twice for the effects of the feats.

This. Feats that treat you as X levels higher for purposes of class features as a general rule do not increase your effective level above your character level. A druid 6/ranger 2 would be treated as an 8th level druid, not a 10th level druid.

Same goes for the Boon Companion feat. You get four effective druid levels for your companion's advancement, but only up to your character level.

Unless noted in the description of the ability/feat/etc a caster level increase can increase past your actual HD level. and example of when it says this would be Magical Knack (trait)

Spoiler:

Magical Knack

You were raised, either wholly or in part, by a magical creature, either after it found you abandoned in the woods or because your parents often left you in the care of a magical minion. This constant exposure to magic has made its mysteries easy for you to understand, even when you turn your mind to other devotions and tasks.

Benefit: Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t increase your caster level higher than your current Hit Dice.

Without that extra line, there is no reason to suggest that caster level is limited to HD.

Many feats can be used together to increase caster level some that work (Varisian Tattoo,Bloatmage Initiate,Spell Specialization,Spell Perfection) all can be combined to increase caster level. They do not have in description anything that would indicate you cannot go past HD level.

Heck if that was true and cant go past HD then why do Sorcerers want to take Stormlord Bloodline since its main power is your CL is +2 higher when you are within any precipitation??? That would make no sense.

[StabbittyDoom]

@Tharg: I believe the "as a general rule" thing wasn't mean to be "by RAW, this." It was meant to be "This is how they usually work." You have listed some good exceptions (all of which are caster level related).

What they're talking about here is a bit bigger than "caster level" though, it's more like the ability that prestige classes get to boost your casting full (more per day, more known, higher level spells, etc) and these types of abilities generally are designed to either make it impossible to go above HD (by making you get them once per level or less), or have specific wording to prevent it.

Things that say "+ X, but only for the purposes of Y subset of that ability" do not generally have this cap, which you have noted.

[Phasics]

SunsetPsychosis wrote:

I don't believe it works that way. I think both feats are different sides of the same coin.

Shapeshift Hunter specifically increases your uses per day, but says nothing about increasing your effective druid level to determine what forms you can turn into.

Shaping focus is the opposite, in that it specifically increases your effective druid level for purposes of forms, but has no effect on the uses per day.

So a Ranger 4/Druid 4 would have to take BOTH feats if he wanted to be effectively an 8th level druid for the purposes of wildshape forms and uses per day.

He would not get to count either his Ranger or Druid levels twice for the effects of the feats.

Shaping Focus

Benefit: If you are a multiclassed druid, your wild
shape ability is calculated as though your druid level
were four higher, to a maximum level equal to your
character level.

That says nothing about only applying to forms, simply says the wildshape ability as a whole is calculated at as if you were 4 levels higher to a max of HD.
Thus it applies to everything, forms, duration, uses/day.