The Feral Shifter druid archetype gives us the Animal Focus ability from the Hunter. But is also replaces the druid animal companion.
Considering that Animal Focus on the hunter is used in large part to buff you Animal Companion, this is a pretty weird design choice. Without an AC, those druids are only left with a lack luster ability.
What if this character actually has an animal companion either from feats or other class levels ? Will this Druid get the permanent Animal Focus buff to his AC the same way a Hunter would ? It sounds like it would not work but I would like to hear what others have to say.
The wording on feral shifter seems to state that you get a modified version of the animal focus ability. The big thing that jumps out at me is how the animal focus ability works for a feral shifter, compared to how it works for a hunter who doesn't have an animal companion. The feral shifter ability is limited to minutes per day per level. Where as the hunter ability is permanent for a hunter without an animal companion.
If the hunter’s animal companion is dead, the hunter can apply her companion’s animal focus to herself instead of her animal companion. This is in addition to the normal one she can choose, and (as with a companion’s focus) remains in effect until the hunter changes it instead of counting against her minutes per day.
in light of this, if the feral shifter is able to acquire an animal companion (either via multi-classing or feats) their animal companion wouldn't benefit from the feral shifter's animal focus ability.
A very good observation, I had actually not considered this part. It adds even more weight to what I already strongly suspected. Well, this archetype is... honestly quite bad, unless you have absolutely no use for Nature bond and just want to switch it for something else.