Possible error in Animal Archive?


Pathfinder Player Companion

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

In the Valet familiar archetype, it lists one of the abilities as allowing the familiar to cast prestidigitation once per hour (assumedly as a spell-like ability, though it's not specified). However, this spell LASTS 1 hour, so essentially your familiar can use prestidigitation at will. Is this supposed to be once per day?


Essentially...yes...and it is specified as a spell-like ability (in the place I found it anyways)

Liberty's Edge

(Sp) means Spell-like ability.

It is indeed once per hour which is definitely not the same as "at will" (ie, once per round). Because at will means all your party (and many more) can benefit from it indefinitely.

Once per hour means one creature (and only one) will benefit from it indefinitely.

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Ok. Prestidigitation has a duration of 1 hour. The familiar gains the ability to utilize the spell as a spell-like ability once per hour.

Essentially the familiar can use the spell 24 times per day with one hour in between each casting.

This is different from being "at will" as that means that it can be cast once per round as The black raven said.

Hope this helps.

Grand Lodge

It makes a functional difference if the spell is disrupted in some way or another, and you have to wait up to an hour to put it back up.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Kieviel wrote:

Ok. Prestidigitation has a duration of 1 hour. The familiar gains the ability to utilize the spell as a spell-like ability once per hour.

Essentially the familiar can use the spell 24 times per day with one hour in between each casting.

This is different from being "at will" as that means that it can be cast once per round as The black raven said.

Hope this helps.

I agree that it's different from "at will", but the spell lasts an hour, and the way the spell is written it doesn't sound like you're limited to a single effect within that hour: "Once cast, a prestidigitation spell enables you to perform simple magical effects for 1 hour. The effects are minor and have severe limitations."

I don't think this is overpowered or anything, but it does seem a little strange that a spell that LASTS an hour would be able to be cast once PER hour by a familiar, especially since there isn't actually any tradeoff in abilities to get it. It seems to be like the Valet archetype is just straight up better than a standard familiar, overall.

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