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What, if any, magic item slots are animal companions allowed to be equipped with?
I swear I've seen a rule for this somewhere but I cannot find anything for it now. Eidolons have their magic item rules spelled out pretty clearly. Are there rules anywhere for this or is it up to each individual Society judge?
It really depends on the animal's anatomy.
In general normal animals can have all the slots normally available to PCs. An obvious exception are rings, which require digits or tentacles (or similar apendages able to wear one), which not all animals have.
Head gear can likely pose a problem too depending on how its shape would fit an animal head.
But even animals can wear armor/barding.
Only animals without any digits couldnt wear rings, e.g. horses. But already for cats specifically made rings should fit.
Actually, a horse has a single digit on each leg, directly analogous to the human middle finger. Horses walk on tiptoe, the hoof being equivalent to a human fingernail.
It's possible for a creature with a humanoid-shaped body to wear as many as 15 magic items at the same time. However, each of those items must be worn on (or over) a particular part of the body, known as a “slot.”
Based on the text above it sounds like there might be a chance that creatures with differently shaped bodies might follow different rules for magic item slots. I'm not sure if Paizo has officially addressed this or not though. Looking back into D&D 3.5 I see an old "Rules of the Game" article which says every creature gets the same number of magic item slots.
It's worth noting that the item location rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide assume a humanoid body. Nonhumanoid bodies have the same set of 12 item locations noted in the Dungeon Master's Guide, though perhaps in slightly different forms. You can find examples in the Draconomicon and in Wild Life, Part Two.
Animal Item SlotsAlthough it's easy to imagine an animal benefiting from magic equipment beyond a simple saddle and a suit of barding, fitting a mount's physiology to the list of item slots available to characters is not an easy task. Try the following variant list of item slots for quadruped animals (and other monsters when appropriate).
* One skull cap or helm
* One pair of lenses or goggles
* One collar
* One saddle blanket or vest
* One saddle or jacket
* One belt or strap worn in front of or over the haunches
* One pectoral or harness worn over the chest or shoulders
* One pair foreleg bracers
* One pair of foreleg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts
* Two rings -- creatures with toes wear rings on the toes and creatures with hooves wear "rings" just above fore hooves
* One pair of hind leg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts
If you just want to be really conservative you could always pay twice the normal cost for an item to make it "slotless". I'd propose that most animals can clearly wear at least collars though.
If you just want to be really conservative you could always pay twice the normal cost for an item to make it "slotless". I'd propose that most animals can clearly wear at least collars though.
That is beyond conservative and would be ridiculously expensive to outfit a companion in that way. The reason there are rules for slotless items are to allow for items beyond the acounted/slotted norm. Basically there is a balance being kept by limiting how many items a creature can have "active" at any point. However sometimes there are things that make sense or are called for above/beyond that (Ioun stone for example) and by making the item twice as expensive as it's slotted counterpart the game still enforces that balance.
Really, every creature has the capability to wear that set number of items, heck if I remember correctly magic items even size to whatever is attempting to wear them. Generally speaking as much fun as it can be to outfit a companion it is typically more effective to outfit the character.
Skylancer4, I'd agree with you if it were 3.5. Heck, I even posted (in the spoiler) the 3.5 supporting evidence. I haven't seen any rules yet in Pathfinder which detail how magic item slots for animals work though. I'd imagine that they should be about the same as they were in 3.5.
Other DMs might disagree, and a player who doesn't want to risk a rules confrontation might find the "slotless" items useful. If nothing else they'd probably look a little less silly than having a tiger wear boots and a hat.
EDIT: I'm not arguing that I think a tiger should have to wear boots. If I were crafting foot and head slotted items for a tiger I'd probably describe them as legbands and earrings. I do stuff like this for my PCs too just for style purposes. Some DMs don't care for it and say that you must use items exactly like those in the book.
Only animals without any digits couldnt wear rings, e.g. horses. But already for cats specifically made rings should fit.Actually, a horse has a single digit on each leg, directly analogous to the human middle finger. Horses walk on tiptoe, the hoof being equivalent to a human fingernail.
Anyone that knows that much about horses is, well, just wrong... ;)
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Devil Killer's spoiler above is accurate. The only addition is that some of the equipment may need some slight alterations just to fit. Use your best judgment and just consider increasing cost to the next size slot to compensate for the alterations.
And for horses you could make the horseshoes ring slots and the leg armor would be the boots and gloves. And you may add a slot or exchange areas, say a cat's tail holding a ring.
Lot of it is up to DM discretion. If it's high magic less issues but low magic and it might be scaled back in favor of just armors.
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Something to remember is this question was originally asked in the Pathfinder Society Forums, meaning that all the use your best judgement, ask your GM, use the item creation rules to create slotless items are all non-helpful answers.
I'm curious about this as well. Let's try a slightly different question.
By RAW what magic item slots are available to an animal companion?
Does the type of animal matter?
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Something to remember is this question was originally asked in the Pathfinder Society Forums, meaning that all the use your best judgement, ask your GM, use the item creation rules to create slotless items are all non-helpful answers.
I'm curious about this as well. Let's try a slightly different question.
By RAW what magic item slots are available to an animal companion?
Does the type of animal matter?
AFAIK, here is no explicit PF nor 3.5 SRD RAW that says what slots are available. The magic slot system that is defined talks about humanoids only.
We have a system in which many items change size, but not form (a cloak doesn't become shoes). Not all items change; armor and weapons don't. Some other items may not at GM discretion. Given that there is a humanoid slot system and a lack of regular access to customized items in PFS, this runs smack into the issue of identifying the point between which an item doesn't merely change size, but changes form factor.
When Living Greyhawk dealt with this same issue, the decision was that an animal could wear a cloak, a color/necklace/etc., barding, and items specifically designed for use by animals. This was partially due to a need for a lowest common denominator to protect both players and judges from needless friction. LG also ran under 3e and 3.5, which had a system in which pricing changed if an item was made for a different slot than that for which the item had an affinity. I'm not seeing similar rules for PF, but it may just be my oversight.
Since the context of OP was PFS, the LG animal set should be a universal minimum. Going beyond that will result in table variance, dampened a bit by the "don't be a jerk" rule. Additionally, the prior approach of deferring to the core rules, and failing to address items that require GM adjudication (such as this), may be one of the things being changed under the new regime.
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Something to remember is this question was originally asked in the Pathfinder Society Forums, meaning that all the use your best judgement, ask your GM, use the item creation rules to create slotless items are all non-helpful answers.
I'm curious about this as well. Let's try a slightly different question.
By RAW what magic item slots are available to an animal companion?
Does the type of animal matter?AFAIK, here is no explicit PF nor 3.5 SRD RAW that says what slots are available. The magic slot system that is defined talks about humanoids only.
We have a system in which many items change size, but not form (a cloak doesn't become shoes). Not all items change; armor and weapons don't. Some other items may not at GM discretion. Given that there is a humanoid slot system and a lack of regular access to customized items in PFS, this runs smack into the issue of identifying the point between which an item doesn't merely change size, but changes form factor.
When Living Greyhawk dealt with this same issue, the decision was that an animal could wear a cloak, a color/necklace/etc., barding, and items specifically designed for use by animals. This was partially due to a need for a lowest common denominator to protect both players and judges from needless friction. LG also ran under 3e and 3.5, which had a system in which pricing changed if an item was made for a different slot than that for which the item had an affinity. I'm not seeing similar rules for PF, but it may just be my oversight.
Since the context of OP was PFS, the LG animal set should be a universal minimum. Going beyond that will result in table variance, dampened a bit by the "don't be a jerk" rule. Additionally, the prior approach of deferring to the core rules, and failing to address items that require GM adjudication (such as this), may be one of the things being changed under the new regime.
Howie pretty much nailed it.
I asked this in the PFS forums because I am interested in a ruling at that level. It seems there are no mechanics for this as of yet so it's up to individual DMs at this time.
Until I hear otherwise I'm going to go with the LG ruling.
*Barding
*Amulet
*Slotless items
*Animal-specific items
All mammals and lizards can wear collars.
While animals can wear mussles, most don't want to. A mask with metal teeth would be popular. Paw coverings with magic claws would also be desired. Dragons have a tail magic item slot, so all creatures with tails would. Monkeys have feet that work as hands, so can they use 4 rings? Riding dogs can wear a saddle so that would occupy the cape slot.
Check out Animal Archive by Paizo.
It's got the details for animal companion slots.
Very Respectfully,
--Bacon
Very Respectfully,
--Bacon
The Pathfinder Society Guide mentions that the rules in that book regarding magic items do not apply. In the absence of owning that book, how do the core rules treat animal companion magic items?
The core rules basically say what slots they can wear is up to the DM.
For what items animals can wear in regular play see the chart linked above.
For what they can wear in society see Here