Huntmaster vs. Beastmaster

[lowericon]

I want to create a character that works as a bounty hunter and has a pack of hunting dogs. At least 1 dog should be an Animal Companion, but 2 or more would be nice. I'll supplement the pack with regular trained dogs, not bonded in any special way.

To accomplish this, there seem to be 2 obvious paths:
1. Cavalier with the Hunter Archetype
2. Ranger with the Beastmaster Archetype

Both allow you to split your animal companion levels between multiple beasts. By using Boon Companion and a few other tricks, this means you can eventually get 2-3 solid Animal Companions.

But which is better?

The cavalier gets an animal at 1st level, so will have more total levels to divide among his animals, but the ranger has bonus feats and favored terrains and all that other good ranger stuff, which might be worth the trade-off. The campaign begins at 5th level and will probably go all the way to 20th.

[LordKailas]

imo take the cavalier option, level up to 4th level so you qualify for the feat Horse Master. Then switch to hunter. In this way both animal companions will progress with you. you can even grab boon companion to make both of them equal to your level.

[Cavall]

Well. That's for ride 6 to qualify. So 4th level wont cut it. But yeah you could go to 4th level then wait a couple in another class. I dont know how that affects this archtepte though and I would caution GM fiat.

To the OP have you considered the hunter archetype packmaster?

Or maybe summoners archryoe that does the same but have some crazy looking dogs.

[lowericon]

Cavall wrote:

have you considered the hunter archetype packmaster?

I had not! Now I have a third option that's also extremely similar.

I can see how a hunter would be awesome from an optimization perspective, but it doesn't really fit the flavor I had imagined for this character. Animal Focus is very primal and I imagined this character coming from a civilized society and upbringing. A Lord's kennelmaster, or a Sheriff, or something like that.

[lemeres]

It can be hard to tell. Part of it comes down to what you share with your animal companions.

By default, your animal companion gets to share your favored enemy bonus for bonuses to attack/damage. However, the huntmaster cavalier shares your challenge with your pets, which is a major boost to damage.

Cavalier also had the tactician ability. That can be a major boost as well- coordinated charge would allow you to get ALL of your pack to do a charge as an immediate action when one of them does a charge (this works as a pseudo pounce- you will move into attack range of a target outside of your turn).

But rangers have better saves, skills, and some spells.

[Cavall]

Well if courtly lord is your theme yeah I would go cavalier all the way. The order you pick could go a long way to help that. Granted hunter could be explained as the pack instinctively following your natural leadership, but on a purely clean slate base, cavalier fits really well.

As for better saves on the plus side one teamwork feat is to boost saves. You could do worse than taking that and sharing it with the pack (the group would be wise to grab it too for their front lines as they would also massively benefit.)