Does a Hunter lose their abilities if they change alignment when changing classes?

[DungeonmasterJim]

Hello,

I'm just trying to be thorough with this. My character concept is to do the following:
Human 1st Cavalier - Gendarme archtype
at 2nd lvl become Hunter with no arch-type
at third level change to paladin and stay paladin for rest of character history.

Cavalier can be any alignment. A Hunter has to be any neutral. Paladin has to be Lawful Good.

I am not seeing any entry on the Hunter that restricts ex-hunters such as the parent class druid stating changing alignment makes a druid lose abilities and spells. Ranger has no such restrictions and is also a parent class.

The hunter aspect is important for the spell Leaden Blades.

My feats are important because I'm trying to make a medium mount size charging character.
1st lvl - Undersized Mount (planning to ride a pony)
Human - Mounted Combat
Gendarme 1st lvl bonus - Ride By Attack
3rd lvl - Spirited Charge (triple damage for a lance)

So I'm hoping by 3rd character level to round one of combat cast Leaden Blades making lance damage go from 1d8 to 2d6. Then round two charge on pony using Spirited Charge feat to raise the 2d6 lance damage to 6d6 for a minute of combat at least when able to charge. Also, I believe there should be the Hunter animal emulation Bear to raise for a +2 STR enhancement and maybe even add in paladin SMITE for one potential huge hit/damage.

Is anyone seeing flaws in this? I'm planning to get this character started in 7 days of this posting.

Thanks!

[RumpinRufus]

Hunters do not seem to lose any class features if they become non-neutral. You just wouldn't be able to take any more hunter levels unless you became neutral again (and then you would lose your paladin abilities.)

[DungeonmasterJim]

That's what I was thinking as well but I wanted a second or more opinions. Thanks Rumpin!

[Kiinyan]

If your only goal is to get the Lead Blades spell, then I'm going to say it's really not worth it. Legally, yes it works, but all you're doing is investing an ENTIRE class level to cast a first level spell a limited number of times per day to slightly enhance your weapon die damage while spending an action doing it. I would suggest instead taking ranks in UMD (synergising with a higher paladin charisma) and just buying a 750gp wand of Lead Blades if you want it that much.

[DungeonmasterJim]

Thanks for the heads up Kiinyan, I hadn't thought of that. I have to weigh that option.

In further looking at my character the Hunter class has a fairly big thing for my particular character that I didn't really catch at first. I'm looking to have a medium sized mount instead of large. This character will be in Pathfinder Society where a large mount is usually a pain in the ass. It also contributed to getting one of my characters killed because that character of mine had limited spaces to occupy because of someone else's 4 square steed and my character ended up in the wrong square and got mauled by all the bad guys. I don't want my mount to contribute to killing another PC.

By Society rules it seems Cavalier and paladins can only select camel or horse while a hunter can pick a pony.

Also, it's not great but if I'm reading it correctly my character can get a +2 Str enhancement for animal emulation using Bear for strength for one minute.

So I think my math worked out to be at 3rd level my charger should miss the first round of combat casting Leaden Blades but then have +8 to hit and 6d6 with +5 dam and when charging for the rest of the combat.

I'm not sure if you play Pathfinder Society but it can be a bit generic with 2 or 3 combats per scenario which is why I'd only need only a few castings of Leaden Blades per day.

[Dafydd]

If all you want from Hunter is Lead Blades, there is another class that gets it. Metal Oracles get it at 2nd level from the mystery.

Back to your main question, if you go with the Divine Hunter Archetype, you can pick a LG, NG or LN diety to worship and not have to worry about alignment issues.

A Minor ring of spell storing (18k) and a very long scroll of lead blades (1pp scroll would have 6 Lead Blades written on it) gets you what you want too for the most part.

[DungeonmasterJim]

I hadn't bothered to look at the Divine Hunter archetype. Thanks for the heads up! :)