What class should i pick to match my character idea?

[Crimlock NL]

I want to play a character which is very skilled with a 2 handed blade, but also can change into an animal. He is a hunter of supernatural/unnatural beasts and monsters. To help with tracking and stalking/sneaking up upon his prey he will use animal shapes and when fighting them he will use his blades and spell buffs or when that doesn't work rage as a bear in beast shape.

I was thinking feral hunter or druid/ranger for this build. But I am unsure what would be best and what feats to take... or should i take another class/classes?

Any thoughts about what I should do?

[Torbyne]

Alchemist with feral mutagen or druid. Half-orc Druid gets two handed swords (falchion, my favorite!) and shape changing. lots of powerful options there.

[alexd1976]

Would your GM allow for you to be a lycanthrope? Doesn't give a lot of options for shapechange, but works from low level... plus damage reduction 10/silver is w i c k e d...

[Crimlock NL]

Is a druid ok in melee? I thought to take some levels in ranger ro compensate... or is this a weird idea?

Lycanthrope is no go...

What is better than , feral hunter or straight druid for my build?

[Chess Pwn]

druid ranger is pretty cool in that there are some feats to keep your wildshape progressing when you take ranger levels, and to keep your favored enemy progressing when you take druid levels.

[Gregory Connolly]

Druid is a fine choice as is Druid/Ranger Druid/Barbarian or pretty much any multiclass of Druid/Martial.

If you don't want that flavor the classic Eldritch Knight build (Fighter 1/Wizard 5/EK X) can do much the same thing with Beast Shape spells and has arcane magic instead of divine.

[Ciaran Barnes]

Just so you know, ranger and Druid levels don't stack for spellcasting.

[Thanael]

Might want to check out the Green Faith Marshal/Feral Huntsmaster Inquisitor as an alternative to the ranger/hunter dip.

Though Druid/hunter/ranger looks like it could work. Look into the shifter archetype for ranger or feral hunter or feral shifter druid. A nature fang Druid gets some slayer abilities. Panther domain is nice.

Rage can be gotten from beast totem barbarian or wild stalker ranger.

Oh an Legendary Games' Dark Druids supplement (more a DM resource for villains though) has a Black Wolf archetype for Druids gaining lycanthrope like powers.

Nature Warden is a Druid/ranger prestige class that let's you stack some abilities like animal companion.

Green Faith Initiate is a prestige class whose fluff is fighting aberrations I think.

[Arachnofiend]

The Druid isn't an effective melee combatant when not wildshaped; the exception is the Nature Fang who, surprise surprise, swaps out Wildshape for the ability to use manufactured weapons.

I'd probably go Beastmorph/Vivisectionist Alchemist for this, but that might not be enough of a change for you.

[Dave Justus]

The skinwalker race gives an 'animal features' transformation. One subrace- batkin, can take a feat to become a bat (and another to become a direbat.) Kitsune can also take a feat to become a fox.

Another options would be to plan on using magic items, things like the eagle cape or the Lions Cloak, they are a bit pricey but might work for what you want.

The main issue, is that being able to change into animals is fairly expensive in one way or another for a martial character. You are either buying magic or spending quite a few levels in classes that aren't optimal for your combat style. Natural weapons can be a huge advantage that greatly mitigates this cost, but if you want to be a two-hand weapon fighter, that doesn't do anything for you.

[Drogos]

Multiclassing a full caster is bad, a druid doubly so because there are so many abilities that scale by class level. That being said, your concept could stand a dip into ranger. It is by no means the best way to build, but a two level dip nets you a favored enemy, martial weapons, and a combat feat. If you're paying with traits, you can grab magical knack to cancel that in terms of caster level for duration and effect. I will strongly caution against this however because there are so many reasons not to delay your druid growth and the druid can be just fine as a melee combatant.

[Crimlock NL]

Thanks for the advice!

Funny to hear that nobody says... Go feral hunter! That sounded to me like the best match but i guess my doubt was correct :-)

Are there must have feats for a druid? Or can I spend my feats on combat feats?

[kyrt-ryder]

Natural Spell is the only must-have.

Other than that, the world [and the party Fighter's woman or himself if you're into that] is your oyster.

[Torbyne]

You could go goliath druid and take the rage subdomain, shape change into an animal to stalk (something with scent and a high speed/fly speed would work) and then shape shift into a giant war form and rage to boost your strength by +8-12 points. Add in some buff spells when scouting as an animal and you can start out the combat very scary. a lot of races can add weapon proficiency but the druid already has scimitar on the list if you just want a blade of some kind. This is looking at the character at level 8 though.