Tengu Natural Attacking Ranger

[davidernst11]

I have a Tengu Ranger for Pathfinder Society. My concept is that he lived in a Tengu settlement that was commonly tormented by a local Tien village, so his Favored Enemy is Humans (he especially dislikes Human children). I took the Claws alternate racial trait to gain two claw attacks in addition to my bite attack so I could have three natural attacks per round. However, now I need to make a choice. I could do one of these four things

1: Stay straight Ranger. I would need to find a level 3 feat to take, which might be Combat Reflexes (to take advantage of my Wolf animal companion's trip attacks later down the line) or Improved Grapple.
2: Take a level of Fighter. This would give me the feats I would need to get me Feral Combat Training (Claws) and Boar Style. I love the idea of my character attacking someone, dealing bleed damage and flying away to wait for them to die.
3: Take two levels of Barbarian. I could take Extra Rage as my level 3 feat and Fiend Totem, Lesser to gain a Gore attack during Raging. Obviously, this could raise my damage potential quite a bit, but I would lose a level of my animal companion.
4: Take the two levels of Barbarian and the level of Fighter. I would be a natural attacking fiend, but would lose two levels of my animal companion, and three levels of all my Ranger, plus all the Feats that the build would require (Weapon Focus, Feral Weapon Training, Boar Style, Extra Rage)

Here is my idea for a feat tree, if I went straight Ranger:

1 Power Attack
2 Weapon Focus
3 Improved Grapple?
5 Boon Companion
6 Aspect of the Beast (Night Senses)
7 Tengu Wings
9 Tengu Raven Form
11 Quick Draw
11 Improved Vital Strike

My concern is that I feel like getting Favored Enemy bonuses and high level spells (such as Instant Enemy) is going to be more important than doing tons of damage. Another concern is that lots of natural attacks is only really a benefit at low levels. At higher levels, around 11 or so, it will nearly always be more effective to utilize a Two Handed Weapon, especially if I am hasted. If I take two levels of Barbarian and a level of Fighter just to enhance my natural attacks, I'm losing a lot of better balanced Ranger features at higher levels.

Which way should I go? I feel like I need to have a plan before I play him again.

[lemeres]

Have you considered taking multi attack and throwing in a one handed weapon? You qualify for the feat from level 1, so that should not be a problem.

I am suggesting this because a single longsword could provide up to three extra attacks at higher levels. There is a reason why rangers often use TWF: their static bonus to damage against favored enemies makes having more attack, even if some are weaker, a valuable asset. You would end up with a full iterative, with no penalties, plus two attacks at your full BAB-2. Not bad. You can also easily switch to using two hands on a one handed weapon, which would mean that there is only a slight disadvantage compared to the DPS of two handed weapons due to damage dice. So maybe make this kind of switch around level 11, where the number of iteratives finally justify the switch.

[davidernst11]

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't given it much thought, but yeah that would give me greater incentive to keep the full Ranger Favored Enemy bonuses.

Perhaps I should take Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword) then. Multiattack when appropriate with a 1d10 weapon and a bite/claw attack, and perhaps carry around a large Bastard Sword that deals 2d8 when DR cannot be overcome. Lead Blades and Enlarge Person could get that up to 4d8, and an Improved Vital Strike can deal 12d8.

I like feats that serve two purposes, so perhaps that's what I should do.

Still thinking about it though.

[lemeres]

And while you are waiting to get all the feats and spells to carry out this plan, you can just fight tooth and nail while pulling out the bastard sword as a two handed martial weapon for when you have to deal with DR and such. That lets you ease your way into the style. Heck, it would make a great character arch as the character learns to go beyond his physical advantages and focus on the sword skills commonly associated with his people.