A druid without wildshape or a hunter without animal focus

[Sparone]

Hello Pathfinders,

I am currently thinking how I can fit my character concept to the existing classes or better how I can fit the existing classes to my character concept.
I want to play a celtic themed dwarf who rides his moose into the battle, but also can caste with nature focused magic. The problem: I find the ability to transform into animals (may it be through wild shape or animal focus) unsuitable.
To add insult to injury the existing archetypes who trade wildshape away are only a few and not suitable either. So I thought about changing the Wild Rider Archetype to giving up wild shape completly, but also allowing to choose teamwork feats. Moreover, on level 4 it should give the ability of the Hunter "Hunter Tactics". This lets your AC have all your teamwork feats.
Would this be balanced? Is the Wild Rider archetype in the first place balanced? Or maybe underpowered or overpowered?

Since I plan to give the druid so many hunter class abilities, why not change the hunter? Because I have no clue, what to give in exchange for the animal focus, which seems to be a very important ability.

For completeness I want to add that I plan to take a level in cavalier for proficiencies (dwarf in stone armor with all the modifications is just so cool) and the ride without ACP. (I hope my GM lets me add my cavalier level to my AC, otherwise I will always have a level 1 horse with the name "Kenny" which dies every fight.)

What do you think of my changes to the Wild Rider and the Wild Rider in general? Would it be better to work with the hunter? What should I give then instead of Animal Focus? Any (third party/homebrew) class which would be better for this concept?

Thanks in advance.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Thing is... the vanilla Hunter who takes a horse as an animal companion can be an effective riding and bow-shooting character, without any archetype tricks.

Or in the case of my hunter... a Tiger.

[Deadmanwalking]

You could easily go Primal Companion Hunter. That replaces Animal Focus with your mount becoming a mythical creature and gaining Evolutions temporarily in battle. These are all on the creature, you don't get them.

Which is a solid call mechanically and seems thematically reasonable given the description.

Or you could keep Animal Focus, which I'm not actually super clear on why you want to get rid of. It doesn't physically transform you at all.

[The Sideromancer]

Seconding Primal. Otherwise, your companion won't match the sheer terror of the dire caribou.

Seriously, you hit a moose with a car and it's more likely to walk away from the situation than the car's occupants.

[Sparone]

Deadmanwalking wrote:

You could easily go Primal Companion Hunter. That replaces Animal Focus with your mount becoming a mythical creature and gaining Evolutions temporarily in battle. These are all on the creature, you don't get them.

Which is a solid call mechanically and seems thematically reasonable given the description.

Or you could keep Animal Focus, which I'm not actually super clear on why you want to get rid of. It doesn't physically transform you at all.

My problem with Primal Companion Hunter is that I temporary transform my mount. I guess I dislike the temporary nature of animal focus in general. You are right that it does not say anything about physically transformation, but it seems like you tranform for a short time to be a bit more animal like or atleast "strange". Maybe I should give this a new flavour aspect, but I can't think about a way to reskin this in a way I like it.

Edit: On a second thought, Primal Companion Hunters theme does not sound to bad.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

The Sideromancer wrote:

Seconding Primal. Otherwise, your companion won't match the sheer terror of the dire caribou.

Seriously, you hit a moose with a car and it's more likely to walk away from the situation than the car's occupants.

One saturday we introduced a friend of ours to the Tick cartoon. He wound up traveling down to South Jersey on the Turnpike. The opening refrain from the cartoon had stuck to his brain like an infectious meme, so he was still singing it when his car collided with a dear and was totaled.

He swears he'll never watch The Tick again.