So the Falconer has this to say about the companion.
At 1st level, a falconer earns the trust and companionship of a bird of prey. The bird can be of any type of large hunting or scavenging bird (even a vulture). This ability functions like the druid animal companion ability (which is part of the nature bond class feature), but the falconer must take the bird animal companion, and that companion has only half the normal hit points. The falconer cannot teach the bird of prey the work trick, but can teach it either the roam or distract trick for free. Whichever trick the falconer does not pick then can be picked as a trick later.
Bolding is mine. I am trying to figure out wat is meant by (even a vulture). Does this mean I can take the giant vulture companion as well? That seems to be false because of the second bold statement about taking the 'Bird" animal companion. However bird animal companion only lists (Eagle/Hawk/Owl). What is your interpretation felow board goers? Can I take the giant vulture or was the part about the vulture just a flavor tidbit that's confusing.
The Bird animal companion is more representative of the vulture than the Giant Vulture.
I am not entirely sure, whether Ultimate Combat or Bestiary 3 came out first, but it is very likely that the writer of Falconer haven't taken the other into account.
Allowing the Giant Vulture, or the Roc AC, for that matter, wouldn't be gamebreaking. But it is a much stronger choice, that severely reduces the drawbacks of the Falconer, so any GM should take that into account before allowing it.
The bird in the picture doesn't look small...
|
Negative. The falconer archetype was printed before the Bestiary 3 ever hit the shelves. The archetype allows you to use the bird animal companion, alone. Instead of your bird being a hawk, eagle, or owl, however, a falconer ranger's bird animal companion can be any type of large hunting or scavening bird (even a vulture). Your animal companion choice is still "bird," however, not "giant vulture."
That said, now that there actually is a giant vulture animal companion, it seems a reasonable ruling to allow it.
By the way... if you're planning on running this archetype, note that it stacks with the trapper archetype. Run the enemy into a snare trap, then dive-bomb them repeatedly with swooping charge. Throw in a swarm trap for good measure, go for a ranged combat style, and you've got a trifecta of doom on your hands. I ran this combo as a solo NPC boss once. Gave the ranger himself archery feats, hid up in a tree, and beat the "economy of actions" problem pretty soundly.
One PC with apparent ranks in Climb actually freed up his hands and moved toward my tree. He got auto-staggered every other round with repeated swooping charges while I Rapid Shot him (with Manyshot). The fighter (who was naturally leading the party at the start of the encounter) couldn't kill the bird because he was stuck in a snare trap and covered in ants from a swarm trap.
The sorcerer never made it to his first action. Surprise round + Rapid Shot in the first round put him down. The inquisitor was stuck on makeshift "healing duty." Eventually the PCs prevailed, but the ranger actually did escape thanks to a longstrider spell, a head start, and the general unwillingness of the party to prolong the encounter.
The bird didn't make it, though.
I just found somethign relevant in the swooping charge trick you mentioned.
The falconer’s bird companion flies up and then swoops down into a charge. To perform this trick, the companion must be able to fly, and it must be outdoors or someplace with enough room for the bird to fly great distances in (a grand cathedral may have enough room, but dungeons usually do not). It spends a full-round action flying to a high vantage point, and on the next round makes a charge attack upon an enemy the falconer designates. If that charge attack hits, the bird deals 2d4 points of damage instead of 1d4 with its bite and gains a ×4 critical modifier when making the attack. If the bird hits, the target is staggered for 1 round.
I think if I took vulture, or roc for that matter these tricks would be unavailable. Looks like hawk is the ticket. I had considered trapper but I was also looking at skirmisher. My wis is only a 12 so the trap dcs would be low. However the skirmisher can help me run the fudge away which is good because this character will be in a low magic world(no healing)