Help with my Dwarf Hunter' stats

[Alesander]

Very unsure of my stats - they are with stat changers at lvl 4.

Altern 1: Altern 2: Alter 3: Alter 4:

Str 16 Str 18 18 18
Dex 10 Dex 10 10 10
Con 18 Con 14 14 14
Int 9 Int 7 7 9
Wiz 14 Wiz 16 14 14
Cha 10 Cha 5 7 5

I haven't played with animal companion before do I need more then 5 in handle animal which i get with so low charisma?
I dont plan on using spells for attack, just buffs and utility the few i get so why have more wiz?

Build is: Attack of opportunity guy with Feats:
Heavy Armor, Improved spell sharing, outflank, paired opportunist.

For weapon I dont know yet, figures a nodachi but Im very much for flavor, so a dwarf wielding a black scythe with his wolf animal would be cewl!

I will be playing 2 characters, the other one an Aasimar oracle of life as posted before her with life link, channel and Pei Zin Practitioner for swift heal my self, group shared spells

[Cavall]

Entirely depends on your pet. You're going wolf? Maybe look into tandem trip and trip focused builds.

Your con doesnt need to be 18.

[JiaYou]

You need to beat a Handle Animal check of 10 to get your animal companion to do tricks that it knows, and if it's taken damage that's a 12. You get a +4 bonus to Handle Animal checks on your own animal companion, so you need at least a +11 final bonus to ensure that you never fail a roll. 3 for it being a class skill, 4 for it being your animal companion...so you need at least a final modifier of +4 to avoid problems...with a Charisma of 5 that's not going to be good at low levels.

May I suggest a different feat approach?

If you put a 13 in Intelligence, you qualify for Combat Expertise. Normally I don't like that feat but it qualifies you for Pack Flanking, which means you flank any enemy as long as you're adjacent to your animal companion and you both threaten the same enemy. That's VERY strong.

[Alesander]

That 13 Int, yeah thought about it a lot!
Is it worth it?
Thinking i can often position my self good enough.

With clever wordplay trait i can get one charisma based skill to wiz :)

I like to be either rly tanky or get that str up high, like strong in one thing. But I donno, might only be awesome in my head while making it and not while playing it.

However one feat to that thing means i lose another.
what would my 2 feats be? Drop heavy armor or improved spellshare ?
I suppose my cleric can buff my companion.
Changed stats to:
str 16
dex 10
con 16
int 13
wiz 14
cha 8

this gives me a handle animal of 10

[Alesander]

I dont know, this changes very much my character. Mhmhm.

..

If i go with combat expertise and and Pack Flanking I dont get heavy armor either. And my dex is at 10 atm.
So i have to change that aswell.
THen the point of being dwarf kinda dissipates as the reason was not to loose walk speed with full plate.

I can get +1 to str and con modifier if i dont go with pack Flanking do this, a lot higher ac with heavy armor and improved spell share for an additional +2 str on me and my hunter using bull str and still often flank.

So it seems really heavy to loose all that for +1 extra to attack, considering the buff of bulls and the extra from 2 higher str.

[Heather 540]

You might not need to do many Animal Handling rolls depending on how your GM plays Animal Companions. Some make you roll for everything, some only make you roll if the companion is freaking out or something like that. Find out before you decide on your stats.

If you really want an AoO build, I would suggest Pack Flanking. It makes positioning easier, but I suppose it isn't entirely essential.

[Firebug]

I recommend saving 5 skill points for Knowledge(Planes) and your level 5 feat for Planar Focus. It single-handedly solves a number of mobility issues for both you and your companion.

[Cavall]

That or just get monkey fish spell at level 1 and save a feat.

[Alesander]

Iv decided that the difference is to small to be worth it.

Higher stats, making it +2 more to all attacks, much higher ac and everything that follows, I don't plan on trip by using trip, but trip on attacks mostly :)

[Cavall]

Having trip feats give your pet a bonus to trip meaning your attacks results will be better. That's why I suggested it.

Tandem trip is a teamwork feat which you get for free. It allows your pet to roll twice. That's why I suggested it.

Greater trip allows you to get free attacks once someone is tripped. Combine with paired opportunists and both you and your pet attack for free. That's why I suggested it because you wanted and AoO build.

I would suggest rethinking not focusing on trips since your wolf will do it anyways.

[Firebug]

Cavall wrote:

That or just get monkey fish spell at level 1 and save a feat.

Monkey fish is only 10' swim (compared to 30') and doesn't let you breathe water as well as air. And the OP said they wanted heavy armor, which turns off monkey fish completely (same with medium for that matter). The burrow speed also gives an AC bonus, granted enhancement to natural armor so doesn't stack with barkskin. There is also the option of retributive damage from Cold, the additional damage on all melee and natural attacks from Fire, or bonus to stealth when you don't need movement.

And all of these also apply to the companion. Its nice to have your companion not care about fitting into the cave entrance because they just burrow anyway. Or when its attacked (not hit) it retaliates for 1/2 level d4 cold damage on every attempt.

Back to the OP, Animal Companions get a +4 to be handled by their master, so it isn't as bad as you think. DC 27 is likely the highest DC you need to worry about (push an animal to do a trick it doesn't know that is wounded) for Handle Animal outside rearing a wild animal. Class Skill + Master Bonus + ranks gets you quite a bit there. Tack on a trait, masterwork tool, Training Harness, etc and you shouldn't have too much trouble.