So this weekend I had a GM rule that my precision ranger could get the 1d8 hunter's edge bonus for either the ranger OR her animal companion but not both. His argument is that I must choose one or the other to get the hunter's edge bonus per turn. I don't read the ability that way and have always in the past gotten the extra damage on the first hit against hunted prey from both the ranger and the companion. Was I robbed or have I just been playing wrong all this time?
RAW both get the extra damage, but if the GM rules otherwise that isn't them "robbing" you, it is either them making an honest mistake or making a deliberate ruling that is within the purview of being a GM.
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It's right there in the Animal Companion feat.
When you Hunt Prey, your animal companion gains the action's benefits and your hunter's edge benefit if you have one.
Seems unambiguous to me that both should get it.
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or making a deliberate ruling that is within the purview of being a GM.
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Gotta question the value of that sort of response, you are suggesting that a GM can't be unfair to a player because they technically have the ability to make a ruling on anything and homebrew whatever they want.
A GM ruling that a character can't use class features is robbing a player of their class feature's capabilities.
The same as if a player chose titan wrestler, and when a PC got legendary athletics the GM decided "you can only grapple humanoids" because they didn't like the idea of the PC grappling gargantuan dragons. It is in their rights to make choices like this, but they are 100% robbing the PC of capabilities and have made a poor decision not to make it clear at character creation.
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As pointed out the animal companion feat makes it pretty clear that your companion gets it in addition to you. Your GM is probably just being reactionary seeing it as "Oh my god, you're doing so much damage". not accounting for the fact that you had to spend an action to grant your animal companion an action in the first place and not accounting for the fact that animal companions don't scale particularly well and at higher levels will have trouble hitting and staying alive.
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So this weekend I had a GM rule that my precision ranger could get the 1d8 hunter's edge bonus for either the ranger OR her animal companion but not both. His argument is that I must choose one or the other to get the hunter's edge bonus per turn. I don't read the ability that way and have always in the past gotten the extra damage on the first hit against hunted prey from both the ranger and the companion. Was I robbed or have I just been playing wrong all this time?
I'm guessing your GM's issue is that the Precision edge specifically only applies to 'The first time you hit your hunted prey in a round' and that sharing the edge doesn't change the 'once per round' restriction.
Personally, I think the use of the word 'you' is the key here and that your character, your companion, and anyone you buff with Warden's Boon each should inflict the extra damage on your first successful strike of the round...
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I'm guessing your GM's issue is that the Precision edge specifically only applies to 'The first time you hit your hunted prey in a round' and that sharing the edge doesn't change the 'once per round' restriction...
Animal Companion: "Ranger: When you Hunt Prey, your animal companion gains... your hunter's edge benefit..."
It is not "sharing" the benefit of the Hunter's Edge, it is gaining it as if the AC is a Ranger and had hunted prey itself. Both the Ranger and the Animal Companion have an instance of, "the first time you hit your hunted prey..."
Personally, I think the use of the word 'you' is the key here and that your character, your companion, and anyone you buff with Warden's Boon each should inflict the extra damage on your first successful strike of the round...
The language of Hunter's Boon is very similar: "... you grant... your hunter’s edge benefit to an ally until the end of their next turn..."
The Ranger, Animal Companion, and Ally are not sharing a single instance of the Hunter's Edge. They each, in effect, get their own copy as if they were all Precision Rangers.
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Pretty clear cut that the GM is dead wrong and should probably reconsider their ruling because it's not even close to unbalanced.