I have a somewhat character build in mind, but have some questions regarding how everything works together.
Eyvalanta is a female halfling Ranger with the shapeshifter archetype, 3rd level, and Shifter, weretouched archetype, 1 level.
If she survives to 5th level, I am planning to pick up Hunter, Feral Hunter archetype.
Everything is based on her being a 'jungle cat' of some type, so everything will be feline based Ranger - form of the cat, Shifter - Lycanthropic aspect - Tiger, Hunter - Feral Focus, Tiger.
First question is can I use the following abilities at the same time, and if so, how can they cause issues?
Ranger - shifter's blessing; Shifter - shifter claws; Shifter - shifter(lycanthropic) aspect; hunter - feral focus.
I recognize that these all have different durations, which I would abide by.
What constitutes "natural form" for the shifter claws? Would I be able to activate that while under either Shifter's blessing or Feral Focus?
Thanks for any input.
Also, is the feat of Improved Unarmed Strike a redundant feat, or necessary if I want Improved Grapple in the future?
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First question is can I use the following abilities at the same time, and if so, how can they cause issues?
Ranger - shifter's blessing; Shifter - shifter claws; Shifter - shifter(lycanthropic) aspect; hunter - feral focus.
I recognize that these all have different durations, which I would abide by.What constitutes "natural form" for the shifter claws? Would I be able to activate that while under either Shifter's blessing or Feral Focus?
For Shifter levels 1-3 it appears that you can use all of them at once EXCEPT for Shifter Claws. Feral Focus has a polymorph component but the others explicitly are not polymorphs. "Natural form" would be your base form, without any of those applied (in other words when you are just a halfling).
Once you hit Shifter level 4, things change a bit. When you use Wild Shape to enter your major form you CAN use your Shifter's Claws abilities, however you cannot use Feral Focus (as both it and Wild Shape are polymorph abilities). Shifter's Blessing is not a polymorph, so you can continue to use it.
Also, is the feat of Improved Unarmed Strike a redundant feat, or necessary if I want Improved Grapple in the future?
It is a prerequisite for Improved Grapple. However depending on your major form you may not need/want it. Several major forms have the Grab ability.
For reference here is the text from Feral Focus.
“ Feral Focus (Su): At 1st level, a feral hunter gains a limited ability to change her shape into hybrid animal forms. This functions as the animal focus class feature, except that the hunter always applies the animal aspect to herself, and there is no limit to this ability’s duration. She can end this ability as a free action.
When a feral hunter uses this ability, her body takes on cosmetic aspects of an animal, such as furry skin, longer nails, elongated teeth, and oddly colored eyes; these changes do not grant her any abilities other than what is stated in the animal focus, and end when she takes on a different aspect or ends the ability. This physical change is a polymorph effect, though the effects of the animal focus are not.”
So I’m going to disagree a little with Belefon here. Feral Focus states that the polymorph effect portion of the ability is cosmetic only I don’t think it’s intent is to prevent you from using any racial or class features that would be lost due to the normal use of a polymorph ability so I believe that Shifter Claws should be useable while the cosmetic effect is active. It also states that the non-cosmetic effect of Feral Focus is not a polymorph effect so any bonus provided should work while polymorphed regardless. That said, you may still only have one polymorph effect active on you at a time (although you do get to choose which one remains in effect when you gain a second one) so you will have to choose between Wild Shape or the cosmetic polymorph effect. That choice should be a no-brainer:)
Also I would recommend that you check out the Wilding feat. In the descriptive text it states that you may bear some animalistic features such as animal ears or a tail so that may interest you. In addition it qualifies you to take the Aspect of the Beast feat that could grant you permanent claws or a bite or some other features. Could be interesting. Also for anyone thinking of taking levels in Hunter I always recommend the Planar Focus feat as it grants a lot of utility abilities to your Animal Focus although it will cost you five ranks in Knowledge(Planes).
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Rather than Improved Unarmed Strike you may want to look at the Dirty Fighting feat instead. It qualifies you for any of the Improved Grapple feat and is not as redundant for a natural weapon build as IUS.
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So I’m going to disagree a little with Belefon here. Feral Focus states that the polymorph effect portion of the ability is cosmetic only I don’t think it’s intent is to prevent you from using any racial or class features that would be lost due to the normal use of a polymorph ability so I believe that Shifter Claws should be useable while the cosmetic effect is active. It also states that the non-cosmetic effect of Feral Focus is not a polymorph effect so any bonus provided should work while polymorphed regardless. That said, you may still only have one polymorph effect active on you at a time (although you do get to choose which one remains in effect when you gain a second one) so you will have to choose between Wild Shape or the cosmetic polymorph effect. That choice should be a no-brainer:)
Yeah, I saw that too. The problem is that it's all one ability: Feral Focus (Su). I don't think there's any precedent for saying "I'll take part of the ability but not the other" unless the ability specifically says you can. Which means you would have to accept the polymorph effect to use Feral Focus.
Honestly I have no idea why the ability is worded that way. If they wanted to prevent players from using another polymorph effect while using Feral Focus they should have just made the whole ability polymorph instead of wording it in this halfway fashion. I'm perfectly fine with a GM saying "for my game, the entire ability is not a polymorph effect" since the mechanical benefits are explicitly not a polymorph effect.
I think (since Wild Shape is a core class feature of Feral Hunter anyway) that if you were to have Feral Focus active and then used another polymorph effect such as Wild Shape that you could choose to have the cosmetic effect end and the mechanical bonus provided would persist. That’s how I’ve always interpreted it anyway. I doubt that the intent was that a Feral Hunter would be unable to use Feral Focus while Wild Shape is active. It just doesn’t make sense that they would make the 2 main core abilities of the class negate each other.