While huntmaster and boon companion can help, how do you keep up you effective druid level on two animal companions at a time at mid to high levels?
Well, I suppose that it might work somewhat if you boon one, and then the other about 4 levels later. Does hunts master affect both animal companions at once. If so, then...yeah, it mostly just needs you to put in feat investments to keep them at or one level below you at all times.
What exactly are the advantages of the dog companion anyway? The birds have the whole 'I get three attacks at full BAB to use your challenge abilities with', which can mean up to 60 extra DPR. The only good things I saw in your guide was that the dog had a better free maneuver and CMB... but trip seems like a loosing game when you compare it to your average wolf companion, who gets the trip ability (+4 to attempts), large size size (bonus to CMB and ability to trip creatures in higher size categories), and great base strength when it becomes large. I suppose it does benefit from getting a false iterative from the AC's multiattack ability, but it still seems to pale in comparison to the bird as well.
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I'd say multiple companions are mostly viable at low levels.
The dog has far better ability scores, especially after 4th level.
Bird: Str 13, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 6
Dog: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 6
The dog can also serve as a mount for a small character.
Both have their merits and the huntmaster can exchange them easily.
I think the bird is the best choice, blinding is topnotch and has a chance to work against anything. With Spear Dancer you can dazzle them, and have the bird go right to blinding.
Huntmaster (Human) helps with the birds level too, I feel it would add to each of the companions but that's just an opinion.
Eye for talent, human racial, would let you add +2 int to each bird in order to take any feat.
I'm not really sure what kind of feedback you're looking for here since there's really not a lot of information that you're giving.
True. It is a nice enough review of some of the high points, but we have yet to really get into how one really exploits those nice little abilities too much (other than the whole 'birds get a ton of challenge attacks' thing).
Looking into spear dancer and reach builds is a fairly good start though, since it begins to talk about what the Huntsmaster himself can do.
I theory crafted a build for a huntmaster a while back. I went with a human with eye for talent and the huntmaster feat. I was thinking of a bodyguard build and as many birds that was optimum. With boon companion and huntmaster that's +5 effective levels per companion so you could have a lot of small pets but that costs a feat per pet to get the 4 level boost. I was thinking 4 birds at 10 effective companion levels combined with a bodyguard build on the huntsman or even on all the birds in order to prolong bird life. Really need more ways to increase the effective levels to make it work well.
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Huntmaster
You are an expert trainer of horses, hounds, falcons, or hunting cats.
Prerequisites: Handle Animal 1 rank; either the animal companion, divine bond (mount), or mount class feature; human.
Benefit: If you have the animal companion class feature, pick one of the following types of animal companions that this feat affects: bird, dog, small cat, or horse. If you have the divine bond (mount) or mount class feature, this feat always affects horses.
You gain a +2 bonus on Handle Animal and Knowledge (nature) checks with creatures of that type of animal. Furthermore, you are treated as one level higher when determining the abilities of your animal companion or mount, as long as it is of the chosen type.
Huntmaster only increaser your effective druid level.
The huntmaster can have more than one animal companion, but he must divide up his effective druid level between his companions to determine the abilities of each companion. Each time a huntmaster's effective druid level increases, he must decide how to allocate the increase among his animal companions (including the option of adding a new 1st-level companion). Once an effective druid level is allocated to a particular companion, it cannot be redistributed while that companion is in the huntmaster's service (he must release a companion or wait until a companion dies to allocate its levels to another companion). The share spells animal companion ability does not give the huntmaster the ability to cast a single spell so that it affects all of his animal companions.
So, a fifth level human huntmaster who spent all of his feats on Boon Companion could have four birds with an effective druid level of 5 and one with an effective druid level of 1. At this point, it's an effective (and annoying for everyone else) tactic, especially with challenge.
I have to check the math, but I'm afraid it will be pretty hard to use more than two companions, but the Flockmaster is one of themax(4+(l+1)/n,l), where n is the number of companion and l your class level, so you could have, for example, have three level 8 companions at 11th level. The problem is their reflex save of +8 and their 45 hp (52 with toughness). They have evasion, but if they fail their saves, area effects have a pretty good chance to kill them.
I also added some stuff, though nothing indepths yet.
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Paladin3 or 4 /Oracle(Nature)1 seems like a pretty good dip if you want some use for charisma. Lay on Hands/Channel that scales on Cavalier levels, charisma on saves and AC, the ability to speak with one type of animal, granting animals a bonus on saves and best of all, an intelligent mount with an effective druid level equal to your character level. It will not get your full challenge bonus, but it's still useful.