For Melee Hunters, one might get more possible use out of outflank with animal companions with an increased crit range. I'm looking at the Thylacine and Dimetrodon.
Also, Feral Hunter-> Racial Heritage: Kobold, Scaled Disciple, Shaping Focus is a great start to the Dragon Disciple Prestige class. The Stat bonuses all stack, your spells augment your natural attacks, and by level 9 you have reach the highest static bonus to strength out of any combination, especially since you can spend all day wild-shaped into a huge animal (I like Allosaurus for dragony flavor).
If you stick with human/small cat melee builds, consider this:
Eye for Talent for extra +2 stat (I went with STR)
Huntmaster-Human feat, bumps AC level up by one!
Later on (level 3) take Spirit's Gift to grant fast heal 1.
Pretty decent AC by level three. Grows to medium size (Character level 3+1 from huntmaster=Animal Companion level 4).
Powers up pretty quick, and because of the one level boost, stays relevant longer.
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Yeah, animal archive is one of those books I discard most of as "not fun". I've got enough problems as a GM dealing with full casters trying to summon forth the legions of hell without nitpicking over whether or not Fido will attempt to dismantle the skeleton or bury it.Yeah, that's a PFS ruling. Not a problem for the rest of us.Further, if you want a companion to use anything beyond barding/neck slot, you need the Animal Archive book, which offers a feat that unlocks a single magic item slot.According to the SRD no special feat is needed to outfit your companion with magic items
All fair. However, when building a guide, since PFS is kind of a big part of the playerbase (regional variation aside) it's usually a really useful idea to include notes regarding rule variations. Most guides I've read start from PFS rules and then add notes if something is note-worthy and not PFS legal (fewest notes necessary), hence my desire to add the asterisk to the earlier argument.
@Josh-o-Lantern - amusingly that is directly from the same resource I was referencing, just in SRD form. As avr wrote though, it's a PFS ruling to keep animal companions from getting out of hand, though an admittedly cumbersome one.
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Yeah, animal archive is one of those books I discard most of as "not fun". I've got enough problems as a GM dealing with full casters trying to summon forth the legions of hell without nitpicking over whether or not Fido will attempt to dismantle the skeleton or bury it.Yeah, that's a PFS ruling. Not a problem for the rest of us.Further, if you want a companion to use anything beyond barding/neck slot, you need the Animal Archive book, which offers a feat that unlocks a single magic item slot.According to the SRD no special feat is needed to outfit your companion with magic items
Animal archive is one of my favorite books for all the interesting tricks that you can build for animal companions!
I agree that killing off your AnC as a full blown hunter is the worst possible option that you can make! The only time that is ever feasible, as others have already pointed out, is for a dip into hunter.
it's all about saving money for hookers and blow.
I made a human with a spinosaurus and eye for talent, 3 attacks and str 20 at level 1. Took spirit gift at level 1 to get DR 5/ adamantine. Combat expertise and pack flanking at level 3. A reach weapon and combat reflexes at 5, improved spell sharing at 6, power attack 7. Animal soul and pehaps precise strike at 9 i dont know:)
It Will be a geeky guy with glasses and a love for dinosaurs(and High strength flavored to be his Bond with his Pet dino)
As an alternative to some of the later tricks built into Claude's build, one could go half-orc, dip Barbarian, and pick up the Ferocious Mount rage power and Amplified Rage feat. Hunter Tactics feeds Amplified Rage to your animal companion, so you now both have +8/+8 to STR and CON, in addition to all of the flanking and AoO shenanigans.
Sooooooo... looking over that Errata.
Animal Soul just got a whole lot better: "You can choose not to allow spells and effects to effect you if they would not be capable of affecting both your original creature type and the animal creature type.” Being able to ignore bane and favored enemy is an interesting addition to a hunter.
Verminous Hunter took a hit by losing Fast Healing completely... why? I haven't a clue...
Couple other hunter updates to Feral, Primal and Divine than I didn't really read.
I was going to make a hunter (primal archtype) with an ankylosaurus that is inhabited by a dragon spirit.
Mostly pad it out with some dragon like abilities. Breath, bite and wing buffets.
Nothing maxed out more just flavor and a fun RP. Focus on teamwork feats too, and make it a dwarf with a long hammer to match my pet in look.
I had pretty much the same idea XD. But i will go mammoth rider at lv 9. My gm lets me play it with an ankylosaurus
My idea of using primal companion hutner as a watered down synthesist pretty much died with the errata, since you got a fixed number of evo points that were much lower. C'est la vie.
It still works well in its original context- picking out a few select evos to boost your animal companion's abilities.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/resources
It's not a FAQ it's the errata. Look for the Advanced Class Guide in the store and look at the bottom for a link to the errata.
The Primal Companion Hunter errata basically says: You can ignore this archetype now.
Starting out with 2 Evolution points instead of 3 is fine as it was kinda crazy but moving to 4 at lvl 8 and then capping out at 6 at lvl 15 basically means you are trading in Animal Focus for a very crappy alternative.
Even if just looking at just ability score increases, you trade a constant +2/4/6 for a temporary +2/4/6. You gain options but trade in quite a bit of potency.
Nature training class feature is unclear.
AC's feats, traits, and options?
Or all feats, all traits, and AC's options?
If the latter,
Feral hunter X / Ranger1 with Shapeshifting hunter feat is fun.
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Here are my two hunters:
Albert Franstein - May he guide you to better adventures.
Dag - A 12th-level coldborn hunter with a mean reptile companion.
Thanks to his Animal Soul and Improved Spell Sharing feats, he can cast atavism and animal growth on himself and his companion simultaneously. That's a net +12 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +8 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma! His buff potential is damn scary. Imagine his beast with 42 strength, huge size, with strong jaw and barkskin cast on it. A real thunder lizard indeed! And it fits in houses and can be carried through town as easily and innocuously as a figurine of wondrous power.
EDIT: Damned errata. Well, he's still pretty formidable and is now immune to a variety of effects.
I retract my earlier endorsement of Spirits Gift. Take Dodge or Skill focus instead, probably more useful.
:(
Animal Soul, however, looks super awesome.
Hey guys, just a quick update.
First, thank you for all the great ideas, they're a very big help!
Secondly, I've been a little set back by the errata, as several of these options were important parts of the guide, were mentioned multiple times, etcetera.
So keep it coming, and stay tuned for the first version of the guide, coming soon!
Goddamn errata! This one is going to piss my son off.
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Ticked off alot of people.
Hunter archetypes took a major hit.
Worm focus only getting fortification...how freaking useless and to make matters worst most the other verminous focuses offer the same thing...bonus to grapple....the Archetype overlays so much now it went from green to orange at best.
I'm rather steamed because I was about to bring my mantis hunter to a table only to get needed into the dirt before I could have fun with it.
Sadly Vengenace Strike doesn't work with paired opportunist.
HOWEVER you can use vengeance strike to trigger Broken wing gambit in the midle of full attacks lessening the pain from broken wing gambit.