The Forest Knight (Dual-Wielding Hunter) Updated

 I created this Sphere character for my son a while ago, but I can't put him in a book as he is... too similar to a certain heroic drow of classic fantasy. I'll have to think something else. ^_^
This post already appeared for patrons only on my Patreon page. if you wish to see stuff in advance and have access to other rewards, please consider donating!

The Forest Knight (Dual-Wielding Hunter)

Half-elf hunter (Greenrunner) 1

NG Medium humanoid (elf, human)

Init +3; Senses low-light vision, Perception +9

Defense

AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +3 Dex)

hp 9 (1d8+1)

Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +3. +2 racial bonus vs. enchantment spells and effects.

Immune sleep

Offense

Speed 30 ft.

Melee shortsword +3 (1d6, 19-20), swordbreaker dagger +3 (1d4), or shortsword/swordbreaker dagger +2/+2

Ranged longbow +4 (1d8, x3)

Magic

Caster Level 1; MSB +1, MSD 12, Concentration +4
Tradition Hunter (Drawbacks: Focus Casting, Verbal Casting; Animal Shaman [Mind], Boon: +1 spell point, +1 per three levels in casting classes) CAM Wis

Spell Points 4

Fallen Fey Sphere - DC 13; Duration 1 minute/level; Range none; Talents none; Drawbacks none

- Fey-Link (nature-connection [forest])

Nature Sphere - DC 13; Duration 1 round, Concentration; Range Close (25 ft); Talents Master of Elements, Speak with Animals; Drawbacks Limited Nature x2

- Master of Elements (air, metal, plant)

- Speak with Animals

Martial
Tradition Weapon Master (Equipment: Duelist Training, Finesse Fighting; Dual Wielding sphere: Balanced Blows); PAM Wis

Beastmastery sphere - DC 13, Talents Animal Companion, Animal Empathy, Drawbacks none
- handle animal (tame: train an animal to readily obey your commands in and out of combat; animal empathy: improve the attitude of an animal)

- animal companion (gain the services of a loyal animal companion)

Dual-Wielding sphere - DC 13, Talents Balanced Blows, Drawbacks none

- dual attack (attack with 2 weapons at a -2 penalty)

- balanced blows (reduce the penalties for your dual attack ability by ½ [minimum -1])

Equipment sphere - DC 13, Talents Duelist Training, Dual Blade Savant, Drawbacks none

- duelist training (discipline) (proficiency with the bastard sword, butterfly knife, double chicken saber, dual blade, dueling sword, estoc, greatsword, longsword, pistol, rapier, shortsword and swordbreaker dagger)

- finesse fighting (use Dexterity modifier when calculating melee attack rolls with light weapons and weapons with the finesse weapon special feature)

Statistics

Str 10, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 12

Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 13

Traits Elven Serenity, Grove Neophyte

Feats Skill Focus* (Knowledge-nature), Weapon Focus (shortsword)

Skills Handle Animal +5/+7, Heal +7, Knowledge (nature) +7, Perception +9, Perform (strings) +6, Ride +7, Survival +7

Languages Common, Elven

SQ animal focus 1 min/day, fey thoughts (Diplomacy, Perform), nature training

Gear hunter’s kit (15 gp), leather armor (10 gp), longbow (75 gp) with 20 arrows (1 gp) and 5 thistle arrows (5 gp), shortsword (10 gp), swordbreaker dagger (10 gp), 14 gp

Special Abilities

Animal Focus (Su) At 1st level, a hunter can take on the aspect of an animal as a swift action. She must select one type of animal to emulate, gaining a bonus or special ability based on the type of animal emulated and her hunter level. The hunter can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. The hunter can emulate only one animal at a time.
The hunter can also apply one of these aspects to her animal companion. Unlike with the hunter herself, there is no duration on the animal aspect applied to her animal companion. An aspect applied in this way does not count against the hunter’s minutes of duration per day—it remains in effect until the hunter changes it. The companion’s aspect can be the same aspect the hunter has taken on or a different one. The hunter can select or change the animal foci on both herself and her animal companion as part of the same swift action.
If the hunter’s animal companion is dead, the hunter can apply her companion’s animal focus to herself instead of her animal companion. This is in addition to the normal one she can choose, and (as with a companion’s focus) remains in effect until the hunter changes it instead of counting against her minutes per day.

Bat: The creature gains darkvision to a range of 60 feet. At 8th level, the range increases by 30 feet. At 15th level, the creature also gains blindsense to a range of 10 feet.

Bear: The creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Constitution. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.

Bull: The creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.

Falcon: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus on Perception checks. This bonus increases to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.

Frog: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus on Swim checks and on Acrobatics checks to jump. These bonuses increase to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.

Monkey: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus on Climb checks. This bonus increases to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.

Mouse: The creature gains evasion, as the rogue class feature. At 12th level, this increases to improved evasion, as the rogue advanced talent.

Owl: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus on Stealth checks. This bonus increases to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.

Snake: The creature gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls when making attacks of opportunity and a +2 dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity. These bonuses increase to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.

Stag: The creature gains a 5-foot enhancement bonus to its base land speed. This bonus increases to 10 feet at 8th level and 20 feet at 15th level.

Tiger: The creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Dexterity. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.

Wolf: The creature gains the scent ability with a range of 10 feet. The range of this sense increases to 20 feet at 8th level and 30 feet at 15th level. The range doubles if the opponent is upwind, and is halved if the opponent is downwind.

Beastmastery Sphere The Beastmastery sphere focuses on all forms of animal handling.
Unlike most other spheres which rest squarely on the related core rules, talents and abilities granted by the Beastmastery sphere override certain skill functions (particularly Handle Animal and Ride). No additional checks are required outside of those listed in the associated ability. Some abilities call out joint actions. These actions require both the user and his animal ally to pay the requisite action cost.
Animal Allies: Some talents and abilities reference animal allies; your animal companions, familiars, tame creatures, and any creature actively serving as your mount with an Intelligence score of 2 or less are considered your animal allies. Animal allies always act on your initiative.
Special: Animal companions, Conjuration sphere companions, drake companions, eidolons, and familiars cannot gain this sphere or talents from this sphere.
When you first take the Beastmastery sphere, choose one of the following packages: Handle Animal or Ride. (chosen: Handle Animal)

Beastmastery: Handle Animal You gain 5 ranks in the Handle Animal skill, plus 5 ranks per talent spent in the Beastmastery sphere (maximum equal to your total Hit Dice). If you possess skill ranks in Handle Animal, you may choose to retrain them, but you do not gain ranks when only temporarily gaining this package, such as through the armiger’s customized weapons class feature.
You also gain the following ability:

Beastmastery: Tame (Handle Animal) You may attempt to train an animal to readily obey your commands in and out of combat. This requires 8 hours and a creature of the animal type that has an attitude toward you of indifferent or better. This time may be divided as per the magic item crafting rules. You may only train one creature at a time with this ability. At the end of this period, make a Handle Animal check with a DC of 10 + the creature’s Hit Dice. If successful, the creature is now considered tame.
You may not tame a creature with more Hit Dice than you have ranks in Handle Animal. You may have multiple tame creatures under your control, but their total Hit Dice cannot exceed your ranks in Handle Animal. If you attempt to tame a creature that would exceed your Hit Dice cap, you must choose which other creatures to release. Animal companions and familiars, such as from class features, the Animal Companion talent, or the Pet talent, never count against this Hit Dice cap.
You may not use this ability on a creature with the swarm subtype. A creature with a template adds the challenge rating adjustment of the template to its HD (minimum increase +0) for determining if you may tame it and for how many creatures you can have tame. Variant creatures with increased challenge ratings (such as a pyrohydra compared to a normal hydra, if using the Broad Skills talent), treats the challenge rating increase of the variant as if it were a template for this purpose. A creature whose permanent Intelligence score is raised above 2 is no longer a valid target for this ability and is automatically released. This effect ends if you go two full days without spending at least 1 hour training your tame creatures.
This is treated as an extraordinary mind-affecting compulsion effect for the purposes of opposed control checks, such as another compulsion effect affecting your tame creature. Use your ranks in Handle Animal in place of your caster level for the opposed check.

Beastmastery: Animal Empathy (handle animal) You can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person, using your Handle Animal skill in place of Diplomacy. If you possess the wild empathy class feature, you may add your Handle Animal ranks to your levels in the class that grants the class feature (with a maximum equal to your Hit Dice) to determine the result.
The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use this ability, you and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that you must be within 30 ft. of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

Beastmastery: Animal Companion You gain the services of a loyal animal companion. Your effective druid level for this companion is equal to your base attack bonus -3 (minimum 1). If you already possess an animal companion or if you take this talent a second time, your effective druid level increases by 4, to a maximum of your character level. Your effective druid level stacks with those from other sources to a maximum of your character level. If you possess the Broad Skills talent, you may instead choose a vermin companion. Your companion always counts as an animal ally.
If the companion is suitable to serve as a mount, you do not take an armor check penalty on Ride checks while riding it. The mount is always considered combat trained and begins play with Light Armor Proficiency as a bonus feat but does not gain the share spells special ability. If you already have an animal companion from another source, it gains Light Armor Proficiency as a bonus feat.
Should your companion die, you may find another after 1 week of mourning. This new companion does not gain the link, evasion, devotion, or improved evasion special abilities until the next time you gain a level or after 1 week serving as your animal companion, whichever comes first. This talent counts as possessing the mount class feature. Abilities that grant talents temporarily, such as taking the Extra Combat Talent feat with martial flexibility or gaining it from an armiger’s customized weapon can not be used to gain this talent.

Fallen Fey Sphere

Fallen Fey: Fey-Link As a swift action, you change your creature type to fey for 1 minute per caster level. You are treated as a fey and no longer count as your previous creature type for all purposes including spells, magic items, etc., but you do not gain any of the benefits of the fey type or lose the benefits of your previous creature type, and still possess any subtypes you previously possessed (thus, an elf using this ability would be treated as a fey with the elf subtype).

Whenever fey-link is active, you may spend 1 spell point as a free action to gain the benefits of a fey-blessing until the end of the fey-link. There is no limit to the number of fey-blessings you may have active at a time, but each one must be activated separately, and all only endure until the end of the fey-link. Renewing a fey-link does not increase the duration of a fey-blessing, and ends all fey-blessings you currently possess.

When you gain the Fallen Fey sphere, you gain the following fey-blessing:

Fallen Fey: Nature-Connection (fey-blessing) You gain a +1 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (geography), Survival, Stealth, and Perception checks made within one terrain of your choice (chosen when this fey-blessing is cast). This bonus increases by +1 for every 5 caster levels you possess. Consult the ranger list of favored terrains to see potential terrain types.

Focus Casting Your magic requires you to use an item such as a wand, holy symbol, ring, or staff to create magic. The focus must be wielded or equipped to be used (for example, a wand must be held, a ring must be equipped in a ring slot, etc.) Using magic without your focus requires you to attempt a concentration check (DC 20 + 1/2 the caster level) to produce the desired effect. Failure means time (and any spell points) are spent, but no effect happens. If a focus is lost, stolen, or broken, the caster must create a new focus by securing the necessary item and spending 8 hours bonding with it. At the GM’s discretion, however, another caster’s focus may be used instead.

If you are carrying your focus when subject to a polymorph effect that would normally meld your equipment into your new form, your focus melds into your body as well, causing this drawback to function as the center of power drawback for the duration of the effect.

You may not select this drawback if you possess the Center Of Power or Galvanized drawbacks.

Nature Sphere You can command the very terrain to do your bidding.

Limited Nature You gain only a single geomancing ability of your starting Nature package. For example, if you have the (plant) package, you gain only Entangle, Harvest, or Pummel. You must take a (geomancing) talent with the bonus talent gained from this drawback.

You may take this drawback twice. If taken twice, you cannot use geomancing powers at all, only (spirit) talents. Instead of a (geomancing) talent, you gain the Master Of Elements talent and one (spirit) talent of your choice as the bonus talents gained from this drawback.

Nature: Master Of Elements (spirit) You count as possessing three additional Nature packages of your choice when determining what (spirit) talents you can gain and use. You may take this talent twice, which allows you to count as possessing every package. If you later gain all Nature packages except one per time you’ve gained this talent, you immediately retrain this talent into Expanded Geomancing.

Abilities from (spirit) talents that scale off of geomancing abilities (such as an ability that deals damage or determines size by referencing a particular ability ability) function normally according to the statistics that ability would have if you possessed it. For retraining purposes, possessing any Nature package counts as having Master Of Elements.

Nature: Speak With Wildlife (spirit) Choose either animals or vermin. You may spend a spell point to gain the ability to speak with your chosen creature type for 1 minute per caster level. You can ask questions of and receive answers from them, but this does not make them any more friendly than normal. Mindless vermin cannot understand or answer with more than basic information, wary and cunning animals are likely to be terse and evasive, and stupid creatures make inane comments. If a creature is friendly toward you, it may do some favor or service for you. You may take this talent twice, gaining both options.

Nature Training (Ex) A hunter counts her total hunter level as both druid levels and ranger levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats, traits, and options that modify or improve an animal companion.

Verbal Casting You must speak in a loud, clear voice to cast spells. Using magic alerts all nearby hearing creatures to your presence and location, effectively breaking stealth. You cannot cast in an area of magical silence, or in any other situation where you are unable to speak clearly.

Panther Animal Companion (Elemental Companion)

Equivalent Druid Level 1

N Small animal (air)

Init +5; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +5 (with falcon AF)

Defense

AC 17, touch 16, flat-footed 12  (+5 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)

hp 11 (2d8+2)

Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +1

Offense

Speed 51 ft.

Melee bite +7 (1d4+1 plus trip), 2 claws +7 (1d2+1)

Statistics

Str 12, Dex 21, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6

Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 16 (20 vs. trip)

Feats Weapon Finesse

Skills Acrobatics +9, Stealth +9

SQ link

Tricks combat training (attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel), stay

Build
The Forest Knight is built with a 20-point buy and 140 gp starting wealth. Favored Class Bonus is +1 ft. to the animal companion’s speed. If using a lower point buy, you can lower Strength and Intelligence. If using a higher point buy (or rolling really well), your most important attributes are Wisdom and Dexterity. Wisdom is your casting statistic and affects the save DCs of all your magic and martial talents and your spell pool, in addition to boosting your Will saves and Perception and Survival checks; Dexterity makes you a great finesse warrior and archer, increases your initiative and bolsters AC and Ride checks. Constitution is important too, since it increases your hit points, and Charisma fuels your Handle Animal ability and helps in dealing both with people and wilderness creatures.

Playing a Forest Knight

You are a protector and a destructor, whose justice is like lightning. You are an expert in two different combat styles, fighting with two weapons in melee and shooting a great number of arrows from a distance, and also hit your foes with multi-shaped bolts of electricity. Your familiar is a hawk and your animal companion is a panther; together they can assume the form of a powerful black griffon to take you to combat in the sky. You give most often the falcon animal focus to your animal companion.

Future Abilities

Magic Talents Alteration Sphere (Flesh Warper), Beastward, Chain Blast, Destruction Sphere (Energy Focus), Electric Blast*, Energy Aura, Energy Bomb, Energy Leap, Energy Strike, Energy Sphere, Explosive Orb, Fusion, Grace of the Sidhe, Mass Alteration*, Natural Blessing, Nature Sight, Size Change

Martial Talents Barrage Sphere, Blitz Focus, Dancing Display, Cyclone Cut, Defensive Whirl, Dual Wielding Sphere, Expert Reloading, Extra Beastmastery Package, Following Strike, Impossible Reload, Paired Proficiency, Pet x2, Pinning Punishment, Scout Sphere, Track the Scene

Feats Dual Wielding Mystic Fusion, Dual Wielding Mystic Strike, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Planar Focus, Speak With Animal Allies, Two-Weapon Defense, Weapon Focus (longbow), Weapon Focus (swordbreaker dagger)

Skills: Handle Animal and Ride are your most needed skills. Fly is also very useful for airborne combat.

Give the Aerial template to your familiar for extra flying prowess and lightning attacks. Choose Tiger as your second animal focus.

Companion Future Abilities

Feats Agile Maneuvers, Devotion against the Unnatural, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Focus (bite), Weapon Focus (claws)

Bonus Tricks bombard, break out, catfall, defend, deliver, detect, guard, sic’em, sneak