Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at a primal hunter iconic design.

You know, out of all the Advanced Class Guide classes, the hunter was the class that I was the least sold on. To me, it didn’t sound like it had anything special compared to the druid or ranger. So this week I decided to set out and try to build the most ridiculous hunter I could. What I got was … strange. To say the least.

Build Concept

Since the hunter’s niche is being really good with animal companions, I decided to try and play up that niche with this build. I grabbed all of the most powerful animal companion options that I could find. Here are the big players:

• Aasimar: What! Another racial build that ISN’T a kitsune?! I need to speak with the Know Direction higher-ups about this travesty! In all seriousness, aasimar have a ridiculously potent feat called Celestial Servant that we’re going to be using for this build. If you’re a GM and you and want to murderface people with non-good intentions, I recommend changing the rider to a vampire (so you can pick up Vampiric Companion) or a ghoul (so you can pick up Corpse Companion) instead.
• Hunter (Primal Companion): Wait, you mean the archetype that grants its animal companion summoner evolutions, the archetype that was banned from PFS before the book was released is good?! No way!
• Spirit’s Gift: This rather unassuming feat from the Advanced Class Guide is actually RIDICULOUSLY powerful for a dedicated animal companion build. It’s a must-have.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: Hunter (Primal Hunter) 7
• Feats: Spirit’s Gift (1st), Outflank (Bonus), Improved Spell Sharing (Bonus), Evolve Companion: tail slap (3rd), Combat Expertise (5th), Pack Flanking (Bonus), Power Attack (7th)
• Abilities: animal companion (tyrannosaurus), hunter tactics, improved empathic link, nature training, precise companion (Outflank), primal transformation, track, wild empathy, woodland stride
• Evolutions (7 pts.): ability increase (Strength 1), improved damage (bite), improved damage (tail slap), magical attacks, natural armor 1, reach (tail slap)
• Tricks (10): attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel, stay; 3 more
• 3rd-Level Hunter Spells: greater animal aspect, greater magic fang
• 2nd-Level Hunter Spells: all food, bull’s strength, carry companion, ironskin
• 1st-Level Hunter Spells: cure light wounds, faerie fie, feather step, lead blades, remove sickness
• Hunter Orisons: create water, detect poison, know direction, mending, resistance, spark

So let’s cut right to the point of this build: to have the biggest, baddest, meanest animal companion ever. So naturally we start with a tyrannosaurus and add the Spirit’s Gift feat. Spirit’s Gift allows you to pick one spirit animal ability from any spirit and grant it to your animal companion. Did I mention that you can change your benefit each day? Let’s look at your choices (as of this writing):

• Battle: +2 natural armor bonus.
• Bones: Constant blur effect.
• Flame: Immune to fire, vulnerable to cold.
• Heavens: Fly 5 ft. or increases current fly speed by 10 ft.
• Life: Fast Healing 1.
• Lore: +2 on initiative checks, +4 on Stealth checks.
• Mammoth: +2 inherent bonus to Strength.
• Nature: woodland stride, or ignores windstorm or lower winds of it has a fly speed.
• Stone: DR 5/adamantine.
• Waves: Mobility as a bonus feat.
• Wind: Electricity resistance 10.

Overall, not bad. Nine times out of ten, I’m picking the Mammoth spirit, though. Another important selection is the Improved Spell Sharing bonus teamwork feat, which is shared with the dino thanks to Hunter Tactics. This feat is basically Improved Spell Share for you and your animal companion, but six levels early. Very, very good option, especially because the druid spell list is littered with great buffing spells, some of which you can’t normally cast on your animal. I opted to have my Hunter go melee-friendly, as the combination of Outflank and Power Attack is all you’ll really needed to fight effectively with your dinosaur. An additional benefit that you’ll have is the Pack Flanking feat, while allows you to easily flank stuff with your dinosaur.

Now, before we move on to the mid levels, there are two things we need to talk about. First, the rules text that the hunter can teach her animal companion hunter’s tricks from the skirmisher ranger archetype is vague and I have no idea how its supposed to work. Instead of solving that problem, I just list that you have “free tricks” available to your animal companion. Eagerly awaiting an FAQ, PDT! Second, let’s talk about evolution surge. This extremely powerful class feature basically gives you the ability to add evolutions to your animal companion, like an eidolon, except you’re limited to minutes per day. To me, this actually says, “encounters per day,” because I’m decking my tyrannosaurus to be the best little killing machine that he can be. Now, I grabbed the Evolved Companion feat to give him a tail slap attack right out of the door (tyrannosauruses are infamous for their lack of multiple natural attacks) and I also picked up improved damage for both his bite and his tail slap. Having a tail attach with additional reach seemed awesome to me and I personally consider the magical attacks evolution to be mandatory for eidolons, so why not pick it up here, too? At 7th level, the dinosaur can become “primal” for seven minutes per day, which is pretty sweet. Don’t worry, though. It gets sweeter.

PS: I picked all food to feed your tyrannasaurus. 😉

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: Hunter (Primal Hunter) 14
• Feats: Spirit’s Gift (1st), Outflank (Bonus), Improved Spell Sharing (Bonus), Evolve Companion: tail slap (3rd), Combat Expertise (5th), Pack Flanking (Bonus), Power Attack (7th), Precise Strike (Bonus), Celestial Servant (9th), Improved Feint (11th), Feint Partner (Bonus), Combat Reflexes (13th)
• Abilities: animal companion (tyrannosaurus), hunter tactics, improved empathic link, greater empathic link, nature training, precise companion (Outflank), primal surge, primal transformation, raise animal companion, speak with master, swift tracker, track, wild empathy, woodland stride
• Evolutions (19 pts.): bite, head, huge, improved damage (bite), improved damage (tail slap), improved natural armor 1, magical attacks, reach (tail slap), swallow whole
• Tricks (13): attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel, stay; 6 more
• 5th-Level Hunter Spells: aspect of the wolf, cure critical wounds, tree stride
• 4th-Level Hunter Spells: animal growth, atavism, freedom of movement, strong jaw
• 3rd-Level Hunter Spells: darkvision, greater animal aspect, greater chameleon stride, greater magic fang
• 2nd-Level Hunter Spells: all food, blood hound, carry companion, companion life link, ironskin, reduce animal
• 1st-Level Hunter Spells: ant haul, cure light wounds, faerie fie, feather step, lead blades, remove sickness
• Hunter Orisons: create water, detect poison, know direction, mending, resistance, spark

Note: I used the innate spell trade mechanic to trade Bull’s Strength for Reduce Animal. Sometimes you want a T-Rex that’s more your size. For those moments, there’s reduce animal.

So at 9th level, Celestial Servant transforms your T-Rex into a celestial creature. Hello, 1/day smite evil and celestial resistances! Feat-wise, the rider (you) begin to specialize in methods to help your T-rex hit with its massive attacks more reliably, namely through the use of the Feint Partner feat. Plus the imagery of a rider distracting an enemy so his dinosaur mount can land a critical bite is very cool and flavorful. Although you might have trouble imaging that fluff after your t-rex gains its second head.

Yes! That’s right! We’re grabbing a SECOND head with a SECOND bite attack baby! This bite attack gains all of the benefits of the T-Rex’s powerful bite ability as well as the benefits of the improved damage evolution. And if that wasn’t enough, you also gain the huge evolution, which allows the tyrannosaurus to become a Huge. Furthermore, you have the animal growth spell, which bumps it up to Gargantuan. Finally, after 14 levels, 10 evolution points, and a 4th-level ranger spell (thank you, Hunter spell list mechanics!), you can ride a fully-sized dinosaur. Of course, thanks to that improved damage evolution, you deal damage like a Colossal dinosaur. Oh, and did I mention that we took the swallow whole evolution so you can be just like a “real” T-Rex? No? Well, we did. Neat, right?

Druids and rangers have some EXCELLENT self and one target buffs at this stage of the game, such as aspect of the wolf. And all of them are candidates for sharing with your animal companion via the Improved Spell Sharing feat. Overall, with two 4d8 bite attacks that gain double the dinosaur’s Strength modifier, this build is looking pretty scary. Let’s see if we can keep it up.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: Hunter (Primal Hunter) 20
• Feats: Spirit’s Gift (1st), Outflank (Bonus), Improved Spell Sharing (Bonus), Evolve Companion: tail slap (3rd), Combat Expertise (5th), Pack Flanking (Bonus), Power Attack (7th), Precise Strike (Bonus), Celestial Servant (9th), Improved Feint (11th), Feint Partner (Bonus), Combat Reflexes (13th), Improved Feint Partner (Bonus), Mounted Combat (15th), Trick Riding (17th), Mounted Skirmisher (19th)
• Abilities: animal companion (tyrannosaurus), hunter tactics, improved empathic link, greater empathic link, nature training, one with the wild, precise companion (Outflank), primal master, primal surge, primal transformation, raise animal companion, speak with master, swift tracker, track, wild empathy, woodland stride
• Evolutions (26 pts.): bite 2, flight, head 2, huge, improved damage (bite), improved damage (tail slap), improved natural armor 1, magical attacks, reach (tail slap), swallow whole
• Tricks (16): attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel, stay; 9 more
• 6th-Level Hunter Spells: dust form, mass cure light wounds, tar pool, transport via plants
• 5th-Level Hunter Spells: aspect of the wolf, awaken, commune with nature, cure critical wounds, tree stride
• 4th-Level Hunter Spells: animal growth, atavism, echolocation, freedom of movement, rusting grasp, strong jaw
• 3rd-Level Hunter Spells: darkvision, life bubble, greater animal aspect, greater chameleon stride, greater magic fang
• 2nd-Level Hunter Spells: all food, blood hound, carry companion, companion life link, ironskin, reduce animal
• 1st-Level Hunter Spells: ant haul, cure light wounds, faerie fie, feather step, lead blades, remove sickness
• Hunter Orisons: create water, detect poison, know direction, mending, resistance, spark

Why, yes! I did add a THIRD head with a THIRD bite attack! Bites for everyone! Plus, your dinosaur now has wings. Every other Iconic Design that I will ever do is now invalid forever.

Now, the last few feats on making the aasimar rider a better rider. Because that’s basically what you are after all of this, a mount rider. You just sit back on the dinosaur and watch it eat everything (literally). You get some cool new spells as you level up, such as tar pit for field control and dust form (you and your dinosaur are now incorporeal; nothing escapes you). But honestly, there’s not a lot else I can say about this build. You’re riding a dinosaur with a minimum Strength of 36 (base 14, +8 for advancement, +6 for animal companion, +8 for Huge) with likely an additional +2 from your Spirit’s Gift feat and another +4 from aspect of the wolf for a total Strength of 42. That’s a modifier of +16, which is doubled to +32 with the tyrannosaurus’s bite attack. And that’s assuming you didn’t put any of the companion’s ability score increases into Strength!

Three bite attacks that deal 4d8+32 damage. Ouch.

The Companion

Please take Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite), and possibly Furious Focus. You get Multiattack and a bunch of teamwork feats for free. Also, Improved Natural Attack (the monster feat) apparently stacks with improved damage (the evolution), so if you really wanted you could take this feat and choose another spell instead of strong jaw.

Final Thoughts: I’ll be honest, folks, I didn’t optimize this build. I could have easily dropped swallow whole and flight for another head (with another bite) or two. There’s only so far I’m willing to take the insanity, and with only a little bit of effort you can make a creature like … this. If you want to know why this archetype is banned in PFS, its because I could have done a LOT worse with this build.

A LOT worse ….

So yeah. Questions below. Comments below. I need to sit back and reexamine whether or not I’m using my designer powers for good when I write builds like these. Take care and see you next Friday.

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex’s favorite color is blue, his favorite Pathfinder Race/Class combination is kitsune philosopher, and he’s concluded that this build is the ultimate eight year old boy fantasy build. Ladies, I’ll try to do something for you in the future. How does Sailor Moon sound?