shadow projection + familiar melding

[Highglander]

I thought of this spell combo but I have things that trouble me.
Situation :
- I have an inevitable arbiter as a familiar.
- I have the Improved Share Spells feat
- I cast Shadow projection on him with share spells
- I cast familiar melding

I can't find something making this illegal, if there is please point it out :)

So now I have this situation (I think):
- my body is inanimate
- I occupy my familiar's body*
- The body I occupy has no shadow*
- my familiar is a shadow

*Do I share the shadow with the familiar ? The spell says I take over his body

Assuming I am in my familiar's body:
1 - what happens if I cast a touch spell and make my familiar deliver it
2 - what happens if I cast a personal spell via share spells
3 - what happens if I cast something with improved share spells
4 - what happens if my familiar's shadow is slain
5 - what are my familiar's shadow hit point ?
6 - If I cast familiar melding first, can I cast shadow projection through share spells ?

I was wondering if I could possess the familiar's inanimate body with magic jar, but since it is a soulless body similar to an undead like a zombi or skeleton, I think I can't.

[VRMH]

1. You occupy a comatose body. You cannot cast anything, unless it's a spell that needs no material, somatic or verbal component, no focus and no line of sight. If you have such a spell, the shadow can probably deliver it. But it's ultimately a GM call, and you didn't need to be in its body for that anyway.
2. You can't. Your body is comatose, and incapable of delivering touch spells.
3. Provided the shadow is within 5', the GM is willing and the requirements of point 1 are met, it should work.
4. Either your familiar can't return to its own body and dies (with its body being dead the moment you leave it), or you get shunted into your own body, the familiar jumps back into its own body, and starts dying. It's -again- a GM call, but I'd say the first option applies. It's similar to what happens whem Magic Jar-ing.
5. 19, as a regular Shadow.
6. You mean cast it on your own body? No, you're not your own familiar and can't share spells with yourself.

[Derwalt]

I'm not gonna go into the other points, as I don't know enough about Familiar Melding and/or Magic Jar.

But to #5 I think you're wrong VRMH - I think the familiar has it's own hit points (or the casters - quote from Shadow Projection: "Your shadow has Hit Dice and hit points equal to your own.").

[VRMH]

Derwalt wrote:

But to #5 I think you're wrong VRMH

You're right - I stand corrected.

[Mathwei ap Niall]

Bigger issue however is that when you cast shadow projection on your Familiar it loses all spell-like and supernatural abilities. Being a familiar is a supernatural ability so it stops being your familiar and just becomes a regular member of it's species.

Since it's no longer your Familiar most of your questions stop being valid but it does lead to the question of what happens when your former familiar decides to get back at you for all that you've done to it over the years since it is no longer magically compelled to obey you?

[Highglander]

Quote:

Bigger issue however is that when you cast shadow projection on your Familiar it loses all spell-like and supernatural abilities

Is it stated somewhere that he loses them, or just the fact that it is not stated that he keeps them ?

Anyway, isn't arcane bond a supernatural ability of the master, not the familiar ?

About the points, I think "comatose" is just a description of the lifeless body, it is not a condition like say paralysed or unconscious. So if I hop into said body I should be able to put it in motion as my own.
The issue would be the same if I make the familiar cast magic jar, and take his body casting familiar melding myself. Magic jar does not say "comatose", but "dead as near as anyone can tell", and these are not defined in the game (the latter is not defined at all).

For the 6th point, familiar melding says I take over the body but leave the familiar's consciousness intact, so I was thinking about sending his consciousness into the shadow. The point was more to define the familiar "entity". As it does not cease to exist when I take over the body, so does the link between us.

[Mathwei ap Niall]

Highglander wrote:

Quote:

Bigger issue however is that when you cast shadow projection on your Familiar it loses all spell-like and supernatural abilities

Is it stated somewhere that he loses them, or just the fact that it is not stated that he keeps them ?

Anyway, isn't arcane bond a supernatural ability of the master, not the familiar ?

About the points, I think "comatose" is just a description of the lifeless body, it is not a condition like say paralysed or unconscious. So if I hop into said body I should be able to put it in motion as my own.
The issue would be the same if I make the familiar cast magic jar, and take his body casting familiar melding myself. Magic jar does not say "comatose", but "dead as near as anyone can tell", and these are not defined in the game (the latter is not defined at all).

For the 6th point, familiar melding says I take over the body but leave the familiar's consciousness intact, so I was thinking about sending his consciousness into the shadow. The point was more to define the familiar "entity". As it does not cease to exist when I take over the body, so does the link between us.

Yes, here

Quote:

1. Can you perform verbal and somatic components whilst a shadow?

2. Can you access your feats and use spell-like or supernatural abilities whilst you are a shadow?
3. Can you even speak whilst you are a shadow?
4.Do you use your own stats, only your mental stats or none of your own stats when you are a shadow?

The answer to all these questions is more or less no. When you cast this spell, you basically "turn off" your character and "turn on" a shadow, as detailed in the Bestiary. You'd still use your own skills (not modified by the shadow's stats) and your own hit points, but the rest is pretty much "just use the shadow stat block." It's meant to mostly be a scouting out an area spell first and a fighting spell second.

All spell-like and supernatural abilities are turned off while shadow projecting. Now since Familiar is a supernatural ability possessed by the master AND the familiar it's also turned off while projecting. Use this spell on your familiar and it stops being your familiar and goes back to being what it was before for the duration of the spell.

For an improved familiar it's not that bad but a regular familiar would drop back to animal intelligence... in the form of an undead shadow... with it's undead appetites and an animals impulse control. Hope you treated your familiar well.