Does a Phantom qualify for Monster feats like Ability Focus and Sow Terror? (This is assuming an incorporeal creature can make sounds despite the lack of a physical throat.)
What kind of action is it to switch your Phantom from Ectoplasmic to Incorporeal or vice versa? A one minute manifestation ritual?
What happens to your Phantom if you happen to be adventuring on the Ethereal plane? Do Dismissal and Banish not work?
It's listed as a standard action for the Spiritualist to put a Phantom back inside her mind. If the Spiritualist simply orders or wills the Phantom to go beyond the 50' range, doesn't this happen as a free action?
What's to stop a Spiritualist from having her Phantom move outside range before taking any action? Say, a five foot step (at the edge of the Phantom's range) after taking a full attack action?
"Back in the consciousness" effectively became a free-round action. Does the Spiritualist immediately benefit from the Skill bonuses at that point?
So... bump?
Does a Phantom qualify for Monster feats like Ability Focus and Sow Terror? (This is assuming an incorporeal creature can make sounds despite the lack of a physical throat.)
Only if your GM allows it.
What kind of action is it to switch your Phantom from Ectoplasmic to Incorporeal or vice versa? A one minute manifestation ritual?
A one-minute manifestation ritual.
What happens to your Phantom if you happen to be adventuring on the Ethereal plane? Do Dismissal and Banish not work?
They do work in a way. While a phantom is a creature of the Ethereal Plane, it is one desperate to escape. Both of these spells, if successful, basically sever the link between the spiritualist and the phantom for a period of time (24 hours). There are other considerations with each spell, but that is the basics.
It's listed as a standard action for the Spiritualist to put a Phantom back inside her mind. If the Spiritualist simply orders or wills the Phantom to go beyond the 50' range, doesn't this happen as a free action?
It happens as no action, at the start of the Spiritualist's turn, when she decides not to make the concentration check.
What's to stop a Spiritualist from having her Phantom move outside range before taking any action? Say, a five foot step (at the edge of the Phantom's range) after taking a full attack action?
I don't think I understand what you are asking, but I'll see if I can suss it out by going through the two possibilities that it could be. If, the phantom is more than 50 feet away but less than 100 feet away, it does not snap back until the start of the spiritualist's turn if and only if she does not make the check to keep it active. If the phantom ever moves more than 100 feet way from the tether is automatically broken (no matter whose turn it is) and the Phantom returns to the Ethereal Plane. In both cases neither are actions they are just reactions to events.
"Back in the consciousness" effectively became a free-round action. Does the Spiritualist immediately benefit from the Skill bonuses at that point?
Yes.
Just as an addendum, even if the Phantom moving outside of range after an attack in order to be dismissed without expending a Standard Action worked, considering you can't bring it back without the one-minute ritual, you'd be leaving yourself pretty open just for the sake of a single action.
Just as an addendum, even if the Phantom moving outside of range after an attack in order to be dismissed without expending a Standard Action worked, considering you can't bring it back without the one-minute ritual, you'd be leaving yourself pretty open just for the sake of a single action.
Right, but putting the monster back in your consciousness requires a standard action normally. I can think of cases where you might want the Phantom back in your unconscious. Off the top of my head, the Phantom might be hanging on by a thread HP wise or suffering from some condition that makes it useless in the current combat. I might decide that an Intimidate from the Spiritualist is more useful (and want to do it sooner rather than later).
If, the phantom is more than 50 feet away but less than 100 feet away, it does not snap back until the start of the spiritualist's turn if and only if she does not make the check to keep it active. If the phantom ever moves more than 100 feet way from the tether is automatically broken (no matter whose turn it is) and the Phantom returns to the Ethereal Plane. In both cases neither are actions they are just reactions to events.
This clears up a lot. Thanks.
One more: does a character hit by multiple slams from a Fear Phantom have to make multiple saves against the fear effect?
If you multiclass a Spiritualist, will the Phantom benefit from Boon Companion?
If you multiclass a Spiritualist, will the Phantom benefit from Boon Companion?
No, because it is not an animal companion or a familiar. The same goes for the eidolon of a summoner.
Okay, but this should be reconsidered if the Phantom stays as is. The chart and class feature seems more like an Animal Companion to me and less like an Eidolon. Eidolons are an extremely customizable feature; this provides the player with what, four options? A Druid gets more than that in the CRB.
One more: does a character hit by multiple slams from a Fear Phantom have to make multiple saves against the fear effect?
Yes.
Okay, but this should be reconsidered if the Phantom stays as is. The chart and class feature seems more like an Animal Companion to me and less like an Eidolon. Eidolons are an extremely customizable feature; this provides the player with what, four options? A Druid gets more than that in the CRB.
The Phantom does have very limited options, yes. On the other hand, it has the BAB of an outsider (as an eidolon does) and has a scaling charisma to power various supernatural abilities. Still, given that the designers seem to have decided to err on the side of making the classes underpowered rather than overpowered, maybe you could make the suggestion of having a phantom count as an animal companion for feat purposes.
In PFS, what feats are allowed for a phantom? Anything on the AR page as long as it qualifies?
They have restrictions to feats similar to eidolons in PFS.
In PFS, what feats are allowed for a phantom? Anything on the AR page as long as it qualifies?They have restrictions to feats similar to eidolons in PFS.
This came up yesterday just before we were playtesting. I was tinkering with a build that gave my Phantom Sow Terror at first level. Sow Terror is not legal (for PC characters) in PFS. I might recycle that one for a home game.