I am working on a hunter for a game that will start in a few weeks. At 4th level, a hunter gains Improved Emapthic Link with its animal companion, which functions the Empathic Link between a familiar and its master plus an additional visual component. When reading Empthic Link, I noticed the last sentence and realized that it was one I had glossed over before and never thought about. It's the one regarding an item or place. What does it mean exactly?
Improved Empathic Link: At 4th level, the hunter gains an empathic link with her animal companion. This functions like an empathic link with a familiar, except the hunter can also see through a companion's eyes as a swift action, maintaining this connection as long as she likes (as long as the companion is within 1 mile) and ending it as a free action. The hunter is blinded while maintaining this connection.
Empathic Link (Su): The master has an empathic link with his familiar to a 1 mile distance. The master can communicate empathically with the familiar, but cannot see through its eyes. Because of the link's limited nature, only general emotions can be shared. The master has the same connection to an item or place that his familiar does.
The connection is for magical effects that rely on familiarity, such as scrying or teleportation. If you've never been in the castle tower, but you had your bird familiar fly up and scout it out, it counts as a place you've been before for the sake of teleportation.
Hmm I guess that makes sense. It could have been explained a little better.