The hunter archetype Pack Master allows a character to have multiple animal companions. I'm trying to understand the interaction between having multiple animal companions and feats like Totem Beast and Corpse Companion
If say I had 3 animal companions would all 3 benefit from the feats or do I have to choose one?
Corpse companion automatically re-applies its self when your existing companion has been destroyed and you get a new one. But what if the old one hasn't been destroyed?
The way pack master functions you don't gain all of your animal companions at once. You can get a new one instead of advancing an existing animal companion. This means that the feat Evolved Companion would automatically remove its self from your existing companion and apply to the new one. Totem Beast and Corpse companion lack any wording saying that your old companions lose the benefits of the feat when you gain a new one. Which leads me to think that they end up applying to all companions.
IMO corpse companion "should" apply to all of your animal companions and Totem Beast "shouldn't". But a strict reading of the rules seems to indicate the exact opposite is the case.
I think strictly RAW, since both feats use the singular form "your animal companion" or its possessive form, it applies to only one animal companion in both cases.
The text of the Pack master seems to support this also as RAI, as you have to apply the aspect separately for each animal companion.
That being said, it would make more sense to me to have corpse companion apply to all animal companions.
I follow the reasoning, but it seems strange that evolved companion goes out of its way to specify that when you gain a new animal companion your old one loses the benefits of the feat.
My thought was to use the totem beast feat so that both of my animal companions benefit from the animal focus ability, since I won't see the 8th level hunter ability until character level 13. I was then wondering if I could take it multiple times and when I saw that I couldn't it made me wonder if it might already apply to all of my animal companions.
Especially when you consider how things would normally work. Say I have Totem Beast (and not the pack hunter archetype) and my animal companion dies. Instead of spending the money to bring it back I do the 24 hour ritual (as described in the animal companion class ability) to acquire a new one. Would the new companion benefit from the feat or is the feat simply wasted?
I have to assume that the new one would gain the benefits of the feat since it seems harsh to force a player to retrain a feat into the exact same feat. Pack Lord lets me gain a new animal companion without my old one needing to be dead/dismissed. The feat doesn't say that I get to pick So:
Would it transfer to the new one?
or stay attached to the old one until I dismiss it?