Hi,
i am confused: The class description of the hunter states:
"A hunter may teach her companion hunter’s tricks from the skirmisher ranger archetype instead of standard tricks. The animal companion can use skirmisher tricks when commanded, a number of times per day equal to half its Hit Dice plus its Wisdom modifier."
However, all the hunters tricks of the skirmisher archetype refer to something the Ranger does. Some, not all, tricks do include the animal companion as target, but the trick itself is still always performed by the Ranger.
Can anyone clarify, how this is supposed to work?
Obviously, some of them are things an animal companion couldn't physically do, like Defensive Bow Stance. Tricks like Bolster Companion don't work as the animal companion doesn't have its own animal companion. But for the other tricks, it's just the animal companion doing the trick. Like Surprise Shift. The animal companion simply moves 5 feet.
When a companion uses a trick in this fashion, it is the companion who has the trick, so the companion is the "ranger" for the purposes of adjudicating the trick. In fact, tricks like bolster companion would be the ones that don't work--because the companion does not itself have an animal companion.