So, i am going to play in this pathfinder group wherethe theme is a war between siblings of the right for the the throne. One player is a candidate to become a empress (hedge witch), another is a princesse (cleric of saeranrea) and their is also a samurai, so i decicde i wanted to try out the hunter, specific a melee hunter. Group is lvl 9
Inspiration is the white lion from Warhammer online, dps class with a pet.
My char is a distant cousin who is more then willing to help the others, sinds their eldest brother, is a douchbag.
From the list of the animals a hunter can get, a snake constrictor was the one who struck me the most and i have been trying to see how to build the animal companion.
question 1: based on the rules of a animal companion, it appears they only get enough skill points, to max one. If i somehow incressed it's inteligence (human, eye for talent), would it then incresse they skill point it gain? Compared to the stats from beastiry, a constrictor gets alot more skill points, so i am a little confuse about this.
My idea about this snake, is that it is a bodyguard of a sort but also assist my hunter in combat, manly by grabbing one, maintain the grapple and possible with AoO, depending on the situation.
question 2: Idea for feats so far is: Weapon focus (bite), improved unarmed attack, feral combat training and improved grapple at lvl 9.
Future feats, would be greater grapple, power attack, furious focus, improved natural attack. Would this be a good setup for the snake or have i missed something? Other feats i have seen, is the kraken style chain, which focus more on the grapple and possible final embrace but that would make it more of a one trick pony and final embrace doesnt seem to justify it's worth if compared to improved natural attack or the kraken style.
Going melee, i will stick to a good ol fashion two-handed weapon, im just nore sure which yet.
Stats that has been rolled are:
Str: 16
Dex: 14
Con: 15
Int: 14
Wis: 16
Cha: 11
Gonna stick with human, mostly for eye for talent racial, thus givin the snake the needed +2 to int.
Question 3: If we stick to the idea of a giant snake that choke things to death (thank you Animal growth!), what feats would fit into this idea? Combat expertise is kinda needed, for pack flanking, power attack would be great with a two-handed weapon but other those two, im a lost. I have considered some of the vital strike feats, combined with nature spells, would provivde some interesting debuffs. Also thinking about getting leadership, in order to get a twin sister, that is a skald (fated champion)
Question 4: When it comes to teamwork feats, outflank and pack flanking are very importent. I did consider paried oppetunity, in case of a AoO, could give a good bost. Anything else?
This is what i came up with, so far and looking for some advice and input.
"question 1: based on the rules of a animal companion, it appears they only get enough skill points, to max one. If i somehow incressed it's inteligence (human, eye for talent), would it then incresse they skill point it gain? Compared to the stats from beastiry, a constrictor gets alot more skill points, so i am a little confuse about this."
The CRB says that the animal only gets more skill points if the INT goes to 10 or more. If you want more skills the human alternative class bonus helps (+1 skillpoint per level).
"question 2: Idea for feats so far is: Weapon focus (bite), improved unarmed attack, feral combat training and improved grapple at lvl 9.
Future feats, would be greater grapple, power attack, furious focus, improved natural attack. Would this be a good setup for the snake or have i missed something? "
I am not a big fan of the feral combat training for the AC. Improved grapple gives it bonus to grapple cheacks not to the unarmed attacks, same goes to greater grapple. ande the grappling styles are not THAT much good than the constrict.
"Question 3: If we stick to the idea of a giant snake that choke things to death (thank you Animal growth!), what feats would fit into this idea? Combat expertise is kinda needed, for pack flanking, power attack would be great with a two-handed weapon but other those two, im a lost. I have considered some of the vital strike feats, combined with nature spells, would provivde some interesting debuffs. Also thinking about getting leadership, in order to get a twin sister, that is a skald (fated champion)"
The thing of grappling is that the other guy CAN full attack you with 1 handed weapons or something alike. I love getting Mounted combat and being able to ignore 1 of those full attacks. If the GM rise the eyebrows for mounting a snake you can get the "evolved companion" feat and take the "moun" evolution. Also, the "reach" evolution is nice.
"Question 4: When it comes to teamwork feats, outflank and pack flanking are very importent. I did consider paried oppetunity, in case of a AoO, could give a good bost. Anything else?"
remember that while in a grapple a creature connot make AoO (paried opportunist to the toilet). If you will be adyacent to it most of the time "shake it of" is a good one (the feat not the taylor swift awesome song). If you want to try and grapple the terrasque, "coordinated maneuvers might help.
Other thing i can tell you:
Grab only works on creatures of the same size. but Grapple has no restriction (correct me if im wrong) so the maneouvre trick might be usefull.
The primal companion hunter archetype gives you a 2point evolution, "trip" might be excelent for this. Your snake attacks, trips AND grapples, if you add Rattling Strike trick (skirmisher ranger) it also adds "shaken" for 1d4 so... if the enemy attacks your snake it has a hefty penalty to it and you have mounted combat for any lucky roll.
Another thing, at lvl 11 (after you get Animal growth) you can take the mammoth rider prestige class and ask your GM to add the snake as a posible "gigantic steed" then it would be a huge AC an grow to gargantuan for more awesomness.
m... thats all I can think of for now.
PS: excuse my poor english.
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I'm assuming Velkan answered most of your questions. To elaborate on question 1.. Animals get 2 skill points per hit die, modified by their intelligence. So for almost all animal companions, that will be 2-4 = 1 (well, -2, but you can't have fewer than one skill per hit die so it's effectively = 1). When they hit 10 int, their int mod hits 0, so then they no longer get the -1 per hit die and can retroactively assign all their skill points (much like if any other character raised their int and bumped up their mod).
For every fourth hit die your companion gets (again, like any character), you can assign a one point ability score increase. So with human eye for talent, an intelligent companion (there are a few different ways to get a companion that start with 6 int), and their fourth and ninth level ability score increase into int will give you a 10 int (and also the capacity for practically every trick available).
edit: I just read the last part Velkan's post. There's a couple problems with his mammoth rider suggestion. Snake isn't on the list of mammoth mounts. Animal Growth doesn't stack with the mammoth rider's ability that increases his mount size.
edit: I just read the last part Velkan's post. There's a couple problems with his mammoth rider suggestion. Snake isn't on the list of mammoth mounts. Animal Growth doesn't stack with the mammoth rider's ability that increases his mount size.
ups my bad, thanks for correcting me :)
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edit: I just read the last part Velkan's post. There's a couple problems with his mammoth rider suggestion. Snake isn't on the list of mammoth mounts. Animal Growth doesn't stack with the mammoth rider's ability that increases his mount size.ups my bad, thanks for correcting me :)
No worries, no one person can be expected to know all the rules, so it's understandable that it would be missed.