Pathfinder Hunter’s Build Guide (Quick Tips)

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Introduction

The purpose of this Pathfinder Hunter’s Build Guide is to provide a “quick tips checklist” of things to do to when making a Hunter’s build.  It will start by reviewing the Structure & the Strengths / Weaknesses of the class.  It will follow by giving quick tips on how to take advantage of the structure / strengths of the class and make up for the weaknesses of the class.

The new Hunter Build PDF Part I is ready for us Optibuilders.  These builds give GMs headaches.  We will be sure to tone it down for them – or not.

Structure of the Class 

1. As with all classes, you can customize through the selection of leveling feats, skills, traits, race, and multiclassing.
2. It allows for further customization through the selection of an Animal Companion (“AC”) (including the tricks/ bonus tricks/feats you teach them – note, you can teach them tricks from the ranger skirmisher class), druid/ranger spells, teamwork feats, and your Precise Companion selection.
3. The class allows for adaptability with the Animal Focus class ability, which essentially allows for the boosting of selected stats (ability, movement, perception, and attack stats) for the Hunter and the AC.
4. The fact that the class gives you i) an AC and ii) the Hunter teamwork feats that are automatically shared by his AC mean that the Hunter was meant to take every viable teamwork feat.  You can’t beat two for one.
5. Given that the AC can i) get ranger skirmisher tricks, ii) bonus tricks from the Hunter class ability, and iii) the normal bonus tricks that all AC’s get means that you should raise your AC’s Intelligence and just have it learn every trick possible starting with Combat related tricks.
6. Given that the Hunter’s AC is i) a full druid companion level; ii) automatically gets the hunter’s teamwork feats; iii) can get never-ending stat bonuses from the Hunter’s Animal Focus Ability; and iv) can be resurrected by the Hunter (at 10^th level) means you have a super companion that can be a frontliner.  At the very least, if you are optimizing, it should be a secondary frontliner assuming you choose your AC wisely.
7. Both the AC and the Hunter get Woodland Stride.  Accordingly, the major hurdle for most melee fighter (hampered mobility) is address for both member of the team.
8. The skill selection, skill points, track / swift track class abilities and the access to scout related spells (i.e. bloodhound) suggests that the class was meant to be a scout.
9. The Archetypes are absolutely horrible compared to the main class, at least from a first glance, so anyone playing a Hunter was meant to play a standard Hunter.

Strengths & Weaknesses

1. The Hunter’s is at 3/4^th BAB.
2. AC’s starts off at full BAB and then fade off to approximately 3/4^th BAB by 13^th level.  It gets worse after 13^th level, but who cares since you won’t be playing past that level anyway. If you are that one in a million that is playing past 13^th level, leave a question below and I will help.
3. It has strong Reflex &Fort Saves and a poor Will Save.
4. The Hunter has to be of neutral alignment
5. The class has the middle of the road hitpoint progression D8
6. The class is proficient with light armor, medium armor and shield (except for Tower Shields)
7. The class maxes at 6 level spells.
8. The Hunter can be built with one primary physical stat (Strength or Dexterity) and one primary mental stat (Wisdom).

Purple means not good and not bad (red and blue make purple right?)

Build Advice 

Sure up your weaknesses or middle of the road class issues.  Luckily the Hunter can partially address his and the AC’s poor Will Save with a two for one teamwork feat (Shake it Off). Another thing that will help is that you must have a high Wisdom score for casting spells anyway. In addition, the poor Will Saves can be addressed with Iron Will, Improved Iron Will, the proper selection of race/AC, traits, racial traits, and Cloaks of Resistance.

The Hunter should be a Scout.  I am not saying that you have to be a scout. I am just saying that you should be.  Maximize Perception, Survival, Stealth, and Acrobatics.  If you do not dump your Intelligence below 10, this should leave you with 1-2 skill points per level extra.  If your favorite class selection is a skill point, if you make a Human with the skilled racial ability, or if you make a build with Int 12 or higher, then you will have additional skill points at your disposal.

Choose a Fighting Style.  Well the choice is simpler than you may think.  Yes, the sky is the limit, but from an optimization standpoint you are either i) team working / flanking (or pseudo flanking because eventually you won’t need to flank to flank); ii) depending on your AC to use combat maneuvers to produce attack of opportunity for you; or iii) a combination of the two.  Ranger (for AC combat maneuver advice) and Inquisitor (for Teamwork Feat advice) Guides that already exists should help you with these concepts.  See below:

• Ginsu Master: A Ranger’s Guide to Two Weapon Fighting (Core, APG, UM, UC) [Discussion]
• Treantmonk’s Guide to Rangers in Pathfinder (Core only) [Discussion]
• Bodhi’s Guide to the Optimal Inquisitor (Core, APG, ARG, UM, UC, Other+) [Discussion]
• Nobody Expects a Guide to the Inquisitor (Core, APG, UM) [Discussion]

Choose Animal Companion and His Feats: The AC will automatically get the teamwork feats of the Hunter so don’t pick up any teamwork feats.  Other than the Iron Will, which we have already spoke about; you can find other feats and fighting styles for your AC in class guides that have animal companions.  So, the Druid, Ranger, Cavalier, Mad Dog Barbarian are good guides to look at.  I will not lest the Ranger Guides again.  Otherwise, links to the other guides are below for your convenience.

• Peterrco’s guide to Druids (Core, APG, UM, UC) [Discussion]
• Treantmonk’s Guide to Druids Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (Core only) [Discussion]
•  I’ll Be Back.  The Guide to the Reincarnated Druid [Discussion
• Druid’s Log: Animal Companions [Discussion]

Choose Your Spells: The spells you want to select are covered by the druid and ranger guides already listed.  Note that you can select from both the druid and ranger list.  If a spell is on both lists, then you can get the spell at the lowest level it appears on one of the two spell list.

Choose Your Gear: See the guides above.

 Conclusion 

Okay, I think the class is that simple.  You will have a tag team duo that is too much to reckon with.  I serious think that the Hunter Class (especially from levels 1-13) is one of the strongest classes in the game if you stick to its strengths and sure up its weaknesses.

Other Pathfinder Hybrid Guides

Arcanist Build Guide
Brawler Build Guide
Bloodrager Build Guide
Hunter Build Guide
Slayer Build Guide
Investigator Build Guide