How's my hunter?

[claudekennilol]

The fixed stuff that I have to work with is Human with a 15 point buy. And we're starting at lvl 2. Other than that, it's mostly Core and Ultimate books with other stuff available (paizo only, within reason) at the GM's discretion.

So I have a human hunter. We have a party of 4. We've got a Fighter, Swashbuckler, and Wizard/Slayer. I was going to make a Warpriest, but they've already got melee covered and a ranged Warpriest just doesn't seem fitting to me, so I decided to go with a hunter. The swashbuckler is going to be the party's face.

str: 12
dex: 18 (16 +2 human)
con: 12
int: 10
wis: 13
cha: 8

First ability point at lvl 4 into wisdom then all into dex.

First question is I'm considering dropping cha to 7 and raising int to 12. It would give me 2 more skill points and the low cha already fits with the character's background, but that would stunt my Handle Animal checks..

I'm focusing on ranged attacks (hence the dex).

My feats

human: Point-Blank Shot
1: Rapid Shot
2: Precise Shot (from Precise Companion class ability)
3: Deadly Aim
3 (teamwork feat): Distracting Charge
5: ?
6 (teamwork feat): Enfilading Fire
7: ?
9: Manyshot
9 (teamwork feat): ?
I'm not planning anything beyond this as I doubt it'll ever make it this far.

Traits:
Deadeye Bowman (negate soft cover when shooting through at most 1 ally)
Suspicious (sense motive +1 and it's now a class skill) goes with my characters background

Spells I've got picked out

Orisons x5:
Light
Stabilize
Read Magic
Detect Magic
Spark

1st x3:
Gravity Bow
Aspect of the Falcon
Speak with Animals
plus Summon Nature's Ally 1 from class

For my Animal Companion I'm taking a big cat. One of the things I'm strongly considering is dropping my human bonus feat to get +2 sense motive and give my cat 2 extra int. This would allow me to get him Dragon Style at lvl 8 (which would help with pounce that he just got at lvl 7). Plus the sense motive fits my character. I'm also worried about shooting better than everyone else melees, and by dropping Rapid Shot to lvl 3 (we already start at 2nd lvl so it's only one more lvl since I'd get it). It also fills in some of the feat holes I'm missing. Lastly that's 2 extra int for 6 more trick slots, which are even better since I'm a hunter so my pet can get skirmisher tricks. Honestly the more I write it out the better it sounds.

Animal feats:
light armor proficiency, power attack

Any thoughts?

[claudekennilol]

Any input from anyone?

[Chess Pwn]

Go ahead and drop your charisma, you get a pretty big bonus to your handle animal from it being an animal companion, so as long as you put ranks you'll be fine after a few levels. I don't know how it's giving you two extra skills though.
Also I suggest keeping the feat, I don't think you need a smarter companion that early.

[GM_Solspiral]

I'm a fan of the Primal Companion Hunter Archetype. Swift action for a pool of evolution points on your animal companion. You can basically evolve it on the fly. The added versatility of a pool of evolution points is of extreme strategic value, much more than the animal aspect.

Archery is powerful and I have no real comment on that.

[Dafydd]

Overall, looks good to me.

I would personally go with melee with the AC, but ranged is a fine option too. If the party is snatching up teamwork feats, melee becomes better. Outflank is powerful as far as teamwork feats go.

Big Cat is a good choice as far as AC goes. Only one I consider "better" is the dino in CRB, but not all GM allow dino AC. Additionally, the pet's feats. You can go with those, but the bonus damage from Power Attack slowly loses its effectiveness at later levels. Also, I tend to skip the armor skills for AC. Personal choices,

Spells look good, I would just suggest CLW instead of Speak with Animals.

IMO, you are better off reducing STR to 10 to get the 12 INT. You are using a bow, you do not need that STR very often. However, dropping CHA is also a decent option.

[claudekennilol]

What feats would you suggest for the pet in this case?

[Dafydd]

Increasing its defense and any utility feats (skill feats).

Later levels, since it is a heavy combatant, I spend all the feats on Improved Natural Attack.

[TGMaxMaxer]

If you aren't planning to get past 8/9th level, then a spread of
Str 14 Dex 17 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 7 is about as good for a divine casting archer as you can get.

That +2 damage/shot will matter, and buying the 18 to start vs the 17 at creation costs you 2 points in other stats, yet is effectively the same thing at level 4, and never gets to make a difference since you are not planning on getting it to 20 by level 8 anyways.

Also, Faerie Fire has no save, negates invis, blur, displacement, mirror image, etc. So, pick that as a 1st level spell later on.

[Landerk]

Normally you cannot pick up Improved Natural Attack more than once per attack type, so as a big cat you can get it twice, once for claws, once for bite. Power Attack, Iron Will, and Weapon Focus (Claws) are all good choices.

Primal Companion Hunter, big cat, becomes large at level 7, pick up the evolution to increase a large pet to huge, then cast animal growth on it, all that will stack with improved natural attack, and the evolution for improved damage, so you are doing damage as colossal then increase that die type once. Even though you already have a bite attack, you want to pick up Bite as one of your first evolution's so that you are doing str and a half, and getting the better bonus from power attack with your bite. Also you can pick up pounce, and grab early, when you get them naturally from Lvl 7 advancement then you just rebuild without them.

The animal growth does not come in until level 10, but the rest of it is all available by level 9.

And don't forget to add this if you get to level 9.

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5le1h?NPC-Codex-Preview-Animals-Cant-Vo te#29

[Dafydd]

I was actually commenting on the Deinonychus, which has 5 attacks across 3 types at level 7. It needs 3 of the INA feats to improve all of the attacks.

I like the primal companion thought, make the companion even more deadly.

You can also get the greater dire collar(supposedly affordable by level 6, more realistic around level 8) to have 1pd Animal Growth.

[claudekennilol]

Anything that has to do with evolution points probably won't work for the campaign.

[Hmm]

Chess Pwn wrote:

Go ahead and drop your charisma, you get a pretty big bonus to your handle animal from it being an animal companion, so as long as you put ranks you'll be fine after a few levels. I don't know how it's giving you two extra skills though.

Also I suggest keeping the feat, I don't think you need a smarter companion that early.

I am going to advise exactly the opposite. Eye for Talent is one of the best feats you can take to boost your companion's effectiveness.

My IQ 4 Tiger started game with 13 tricks. You can take maneuver tricks. You can flank. You can aid others in combat.

You also get access to any feat that the animal can qualify for. My tiger at level 2 has improved unarmed strike and improved grapple. It can take down people we want to capture without damaging them, and it provides a great opportunity for me to intimidate. (I'm a little str 7 sorcerer. Me intimidating is hilarious, but somehow effective when I mention, "My tiger is hungry. Are you sure you don't want to cooperate with us?"

I play PFS, and capturing guys alive is important. I couldn't do the kind of tactical things I do with Pumpkin if his int were lower.

Keep that int high, and reap the rewards!
Hmm

[claudekennilol]

Dropping me cha from 8 to 7 gives me two more points to spend. That's enough to buy my int from 10 to 12 which is a +1 mod from a +0. That means an extra skill point per level. So since I'm starting at lvl 2, that's how dropping my cha would get me two more skill points.

And yeah, IUS and Improved Grapple is exactly the kind of feats I want. I planned on taking IUS anyways for Dragon Style so my panther can charge better.