So I've considered retraining my ranger to be a hunter w/ rhino ani comp. The only thing that makes me hesitant is that you lose favored enemey. Is it worth losing the favored enemy, or should I just play one more scenario and keep 1 lvl of ranger, and then multiclass up the hunter tree?
Well compare the value of favored enemy to one level of hunter casting, companion advancement and access to animal fo us and teamwork feats sooner.
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Favored Enemy is only a +2 to hit and damage against one enemy type if you don't stay pure ranger. It's not that relevant if you only dip ranger.
The combination of Pack Flanking plus outflank means you'll have a constant +4 to hit and you have Animal Focus to give you a STR Bonus on demand if you want it.
Add to that the slower spell, AC, and animal focus progression, and you'll see that a ranger dip only hurts a hunter.
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I will never recommend hunter as a multiclass. The class rewards you to much for staying single class.
As for what class is better. It all depends on what your trying to do with it. If you don't want to focus on the animal companion. Play a ranger. If you want to play as a team character and animal companion. Hunter is the best option.
Pretty much every class rewards you for staying single classes.
I would recommend pure ranger or pure hunter, I wouldn't mix the two.
Ranger is better at being a martial character, and once the ranger hits level 10 and can cast Instant Enemy his bonuses to attack and damage will be awesome.
A Hunter is better at low levels (because animal companions are better are better at low levels) and have a wider range of spells. However, your Hunter will probably not be as good as the ranger at martial things and is very reliant on working together with your pet.
Do you want a beast tamer who lets his animal do the majority of the work or do you want a woodsman that has an animal friend?
For what its worth there are options that open up the animal companion list for rangers, specifically Beastmaster. It will cost you your 6th level combat style feat, which is harsh, but you sort of get it back at 12th level because the archetype gives you a full progression animal companion at that point which would enable you to retrain Boon Companion, which you probably took before then.
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Multiclassing is indeed a bad idea. I'd go with either Hunter or Ranger, full stop.
But I've gotta disagree with Claxon a bit inasmuch as Hunter is very solid indeed in combat, so I wouldn't worry all too much about doing worse in that regard.
I mean, you can grab Outflank + Pack Flanking + Paired Opportunists + Broken Wing Gambit. All are able to be acquired by 6th along with Combat Reflexes and Power Attack. This results in some real viciousness if you arrange it properly.
Thanks for all the answers, guys!