Making a natural attack hunter and her animal companion

[tresson]

I'm currently kicking around a character idea for my next pathfinder game. The basic idea is a character that uses natural attacks and shares the buffs it or it's animal companion gets between each other. So far I'm currently looking at looking using a Catfolk Hunter class due to the ability to get 2 decent claw attacks with just an alternate racial trait and a feat.

But I do have some questions.

1. Are Catfolk and hunter the best frame work use for this?
2. What feats should I be looking at?
3. What spells should I be looking at?

[Sian]

given that you're talking about alternate racial trait ... Pathfinder?

quite an important thing to note if you want help, as there are different ways of doing different things in 3.5 vs Pathfinder

[tresson]

given that you're talking about alternate racial trait ... Pathfinder?

quite an important thing to note if you want help, as there are different ways of doing different things in 3.5 vs Pathfinder

I did add the pathfinder symbol to the thread's title. Why would you come into a thread marked as pathfinder and ask if it's for pathfinder?

Wait are you on the mobile version of the forum? Does it not show the that marking?

Any rate I'll go back on edit my first post to be clearer.

[Psyren]

The *best* choice would probably be a Druid, specifically the Nature Fang archetype that gives up wildshape for sneak attack; 9th-level casting, plus you can buff your companion, flank with it, go to town. But Hunter is certainly doable. Hunter's biggest benefits are (a) Animal Focus, which saves you significant WBL on boosting your animal companion's stats, and (b) early access to Ranger spells. Some spells on the ranger list are quite useful at the level a hunter gets them - such as Acid Maw, which gives your animal companion's attack an extra 2d4 bonus damage at level 1 (usually enough to drop most threats in one bite), and Cheetah's Sprint for a football-field-length charge. You also get other spells even earlier than both classes do - e.g. Hunters get Animal Messenger, Resist Energy and Versatile Weapon before anyone else does (save bards for the latter.)

[stack]

Ragebred (wereboar) skin walkers can get three natural attacks from race alone. Worth considering, though the pounce for catfolk offers interesting options.

[Hrugner]

I think the main benefit of hunter over other options is the huge amount of aoo's you can get from sharing teamwork feats with your animal and the automatic flanking; the inability to get dex to damage on natural weapons would seem to be a bit of a problem with the core character concept since you can't really leverage the AoO's as well as if you'd gone with some other weapon. Sticking to the claws concept, I agree that druid would be best there. The catfolk charge really puts it over other options as well.

[Psyren]

I think the main benefit of hunter over other options is the huge amount of aoo's you can get from sharing teamwork feats with your animal and the automatic flanking; the inability to get dex to damage on natural weapons would seem to be a bit of a problem with the core character concept since you can't really leverage the AoO's as well as if you'd gone with some other weapon. Sticking to the claws concept, I agree that druid would be best there. The catfolk charge really puts it over other options as well.

You can get dex to damage on natural weapons, e.g. Agile AoMF

[Extra Anchovies]

You can get dex to damage on natural weapons, e.g. Agile AoMF

Or (more optimally, if it's allowed) the Deadly Agility (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats#TOC-Deadly-Agility-Combat-) feat from Dreamscarred Press.

[Psyren]

Indeed but I tend to only mention the third-party options when the OP says/implies they are in-scope. (Plus I wanted Deadly Agility to have one more prerequisite personally.)

[Azoth]

If you want to throw the animal companion a massive power boost take a look at Primal Companion Hunter Archetype. You give up animal focus to gain the summoner's evolution pool for your animal companion. This would let you give it better all around buffs than animal focus offers.

[squiggit]

Seconding ragebred (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races/standard-races-1-10-rp/skinwalkers-10-rp#TOC-Wereboar-Kin-Ragebred-). For starters you're netting +4 to your casting stat by picking that over catfolk and for natural attackers you get two hoof attacks (pretty rare) right off the bat. For a feat (Extra Feature (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/extra-feature)) you get to add a gore attack which is also pretty uncommon to the list. Three for a feat and a race that still has decent synergy is nice.

Then if you really want to push it Pelt of the Beast(tiger) (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/pelt-of-the-beast) is going to give you a bite attack and two claw attacks on top of that. 15k and your shoulder slot is annoying though.

But hey, if you take all of that that's six attacks. Pretty cool.

[Molosse]

Going ahead and, again, supporting the Ragebred Hunter Chassis.

Pelt of the Beast is an option that didn't occur to me but there you go. Beyond that utilize the Hunters Teamwork Feats and really go to town with the likes of Pack Flanking, Outflank, Precise Strike, Coordinated Charge and the Paired Opportunist/Broken Wing Gambit/Combat Reflexes combination to dominate single targets.

With the above feats and equipment you'll be able to charge as an immediate action when your AC does, thus allowing you to Full-Attack on your turn, every attack will be at +4 to hit and +D6 to damage and finally, you can trigger ungodly amounts of increasingly accurate AoO's from the pair of you.