The description for the Share Pain talent on F&D 151 states "...animal bonded to the character by the Animal Empathy talent..." Animal Empathy doesn't "bond" a creature, but the Animal Bond and Mental Bond talents do.

So I am wondering which talent you need to have to use Share Pain. It is my assumption that you need to have Mental Bond activated first to use Share Pain.

Thoughts? (Thanks in advance)

As a fan of the Seeker career, I hope to do right by your question. Welcome to the community, too!

Look at the Pathfinder talent tree. No Pathfinder can get Mental Bond nor Share Pain without also getting Animal Empathy. If Mental Bond is useless without a bonded animal, so may (and does) Share Pain fail without a bonded animal from the Animal Bond talent, too.

While we may form a bond to our pets in real life, we cannot confuse a feeling for an intended game rule. Sometimes, I wish FFG would use capitalization for game terms, like proper nouns. For example, does my character strain their self while lifting the rock... or...do they Strain their self while lifting the rock?

I think this question is more about trying to make the handling or taming of animal seem like a 'bond' between the animal and Pathfinder. For the relatively small investment, just grab Animal Bond (unless you also have it as a former Hermit). It's not just the Share Pain talent at risk, it's also Mental Bond. 45 wasted XP is worse cost than 15 XP from Animal Bond.

To clarify a bit, the clear meaning here is that it's a type, and they meant to say an animal companion bonded to you with the Animal Bond talent, not Animal Empathy.

And since it's not mentioned, you shouldn't need to have Mental Bond active to use Share Pain, the only mentioned requirement is Animal Bond.

@cimmerianthief: Thank you for the welcome

Based on your comments, I've relooked a the evidence, and I think it makes sense that you only need to have the Animal Bond talent bond with the animal. Otherwise it would be the only talent in which you need to meet 2 talent prerequisites for it to work. And Mental Bond doesn't specifically state it gives you a "bond."

Occam's Razor - Replace "Empathy" with "Bond" in the paragraph.

Since Animal Empathy doesn't bond an animal, Animal Bond does I would wholeheartedly agree with

Occam's Razor - Replace "Empathy" with "Bond" in the paragraph.