Hunter vs Druid & Ranger

[Flip]

I am trying to work out the hunter. From what I can gather the main draw to the Hunter is it's free Teamwork Feats for pet and spontaneous casting. However, from what I can tell, there are very few, if any teamwork feats that apply to a ranged character? So an archer hunter with a melee pet doesn't benefit from the teamwork feats? Without these I am just wondering if it is a worse Druid and Ranger?

Does a hunter need to be melee to make it a viable alternative to either Druid or Ranger? Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

[wise]

Afaik Hunter gets more casting and full Animal companion progression over Ranger, but less attack, idunno how it compares to druid

[Conquista]

you can also get domain powers with one of the hunter subclasses

hunter is just more magical than ranger and more martial than druid

[Flip]

That was my thoughts but without the teamwork feat (unless going melee) was wondering on the viability. I am a big fan of spontaneous casting vs memorized spells so that is a big plus for me. I know there is one that gets Judgements that's supposed to be really good, but still wonder if you are gimping yourself by playing a hunter archer

[zend0g]

If you go with a pet ranger, you almost always take the boon companion feat anyways. I find it hard giving up the full BAB progression of the ranger especially with so many bosses having such high AC.

[Venator]

Hunters are probably the best out of the three.

Rangers get their pets at level 4, and are not pet focused. The best ranger subclass(freebooter) doesn't even get a pet. They're martial focused and you probably don't want to pick ones with pets. I don't think they're great for MC.

Druids don't work that well with pets either since melee druids suck, and the best spellcaster druid (feyspeaker) doesn't get a pet. The only reason I'd use druids is hiring a druid merc to cheese some bosses with creeping doom.

Hunters are great if you want pets, and you should either pick divine hound or urban hunter. Keep in mind that you probably want to mount your pet for the best effect, except mounting pet is extremely broken atm. Skald is also broken right now, so you can't get beast totem.

Melee is pretty much the only viable way to go with pets, because of teamwork feats and also mounted combat.

[Flip]

That's a shame, was hoping for a good ranged / pet combo but because there are no ranged TW feats doesn't look likely.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Originally posted by Venator:

Hunters are probably the best out of the three.

Rangers get their pets at level 4, and are not pet focused. The best ranger subclass(freebooter) doesn't even get a pet. They're martial focused and you probably don't want to pick ones with pets. I don't think they're great for MC.

Druids don't work that well with pets either since melee druids suck, and the best spellcaster druid (feyspeaker) doesn't get a pet. The only reason I'd use druids is hiring a druid merc to cheese some bosses with creeping doom.

Hunters are great if you want pets, and you should either pick divine hound or urban hunter. Keep in mind that you probably want to mount your pet for the best effect, except mounting pet is extremely broken atm. Skald is also broken right now, so you can't get beast totem.

Melee is pretty much the only viable way to go with pets, because of teamwork feats and also mounted combat.

would you know off hand if I wanna rp a guy who has 2-3 pets, maybe 1 is a mount and i would be melee fighter who can cast buffs/spells (ideally I'm looking for a build that works around the bracers that drop in blackwater that have all the lightning abilities. What I would get to be the most effective?

[Flip]

Hunter should technically work with the bracers as they are spontaneous caster and get pet. However the issue you will face with this is

A - Spell Resistance. Most enemies have significant spell resistance which means if you want to use spells (like from the bracers) then you need to invest in 3 spell pen feats + gear

B - Elemental Resistance - Most enemies have Lightining resistance so you will need to invest in Mythic Perk - Ascendant Element Lightning

C - Spell DC - most lightning spells require a Reflex save - without having spell focus Evocation & greater spell focus + gear many enemies will save for half damage (or full negation if they have evasion.

So you probably want a spell caster that can be buffed into melee that is also sponteneous cast that gets a pet? Sylvanc sorc gets pet but their BAB is terrible. Also all the feats you take to make the spells hit will be feats your are not taking to empower your melee.

If you can live without the bracers, then Paladin and Mad Dog get pets as melee and so does an inquisitor I think?

[Ethinil]

Huuu... maybe i'm wrong, but i think you can go monster tactician and be as ranged as u want, aaaand all the invocations and your pet will benefits from (melee) teamwork feats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37inhZqCsOc
Seems funny till lvl 12 because at 13, invocations become ranged so no tripping anymore... but maybe it's a matter of alignment... idk... voilà, sorry, nothing about hunter and co.
But.. seems useful knowledge ^^"

[jsaving]

It is very possible to be a tolerable melee combatant who casts lightning spells from bracers and has a pet. But it isn't possible for your hunter to simultaneously dish out top-tier DPS and high/reliable lightning damage from spells, because the build space required to achieve one locks you out of the necessary feats to achieve the other.

It is also not true that free teamwork feats and spontaneous casting are the main distinctive features of the hunter class, because some inquisitor archetypes get those things as well. And if those actually were the main class features you were seeking, sacred huntsmaster is probably a better choice for you than any of the hunter archetypes.

The main reason to choose hunter is its versatile ranger/druid spell list, which provides some nice buffs for you and especially your animal companion as well as some party utility if you aren't planning to carry a druid. Doesn't hurt to have summon spells on their class list either, though if summoning is a key priority then you'd probably want to go monster tactician rather than hunter anyway.

[Conquista]

if you wanna melee while having a animal companion, using support and lightning magic, a battle/nature oracle is probably the best class

[Edstyles]

Originally posted by Flip:

I am trying to work out the hunter. From what I can gather the main draw to the Hunter is it's free Teamwork Feats for pet and spontaneous casting. However, from what I can tell, there are very few, if any teamwork feats that apply to a ranged character? So an archer hunter with a melee pet doesn't benefit from the teamwork feats? Without these I am just wondering if it is a worse Druid and Ranger?

Does a hunter need to be melee to make it a viable alternative to either Druid or Ranger? Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Yes alot of hunter subclass is ment for meele . Hunters lack the skils for ranged combat ,
Hunters are tripping machines , thats their niche .

I pref inquisitors myself as they get higher attack with spells , while hunter only gets aspect of the wolf which doesnt stack

[w.f.schepel]

Originally posted by Flip:

That's a shame, was hoping for a good ranged / pet combo but because there are no ranged TW feats doesn't look likely.

There is a pretty useful combo, though. Crit = attack of opportunity. Otherwise, pets can basically be turned into awesome tanks. Mythic animal companions is great.

IMHO, companions allow you to go ranged.

[GunStarX]

The wondering marksman gets a bonus to attack and animal ac instead of teamwork feats, though it isn't very high. The main draw of hunter for me is that it can really buff up the animal into a pretty potent companion, while being a serviceable archer and support caster. You can get a +6 enhancement to 2 animal stats with aspects and throw animal growth on, along with some other buffs.

[Stink Bug]

If you don't want the Teamwork Feats the Divine Hunter is the archetype for you; your pet gets the Celestial or Fiendish Templates (Fiendish for DR/Good that works against demons for more durability) AND you get a domain, which can potentially add non Ranger/Druid spells to your total spontaneous list plus you qualify for that swift domain power mythic ability. Even if you do like Teamwork Feats I'd say DH's changes are still more compelling.