Ahran Draknir's page

I am playing a Druid with a Vermin animal companion (Giant Mantis), and the character is currently at level 6.

At level 7, the companion will become Large-sized. This makes getting around in confined spaces trickier (you have to squeeze). I know that for regular animal companions (i.e. 'animal' creature type), there is the spell Reduce Animal, which is useful for these situations: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/reduce-animal

My reading is that this spell only works on creatures of the type 'animal', not 'vermin'. Is there a similar spell appearing in a Paizo (not 3rd-party) product which will work on vermin? Or do people have any other creative suggestions for how best to deal with a Large-sized creature in confined spaces? (I know there's an option to take a stat boost inside of the size boost at level 7, but I prefer to take the size boost once reaching that level. I also know the Druid can dismiss the companion and choose another, but I don't want to do that right now. Both for story reasons.)

Before anyone asks, I know I can talk to the GM about it and hand-wave something, or the character can research his own spell. But I wanted to know whether there was anything 'official' already out there. I also looked over the 'share spells' class feature of the Druid, in case Reduce Person would work, but I don't think it will (doesn't have a target of 'you' and isn't on the Druid class spell list anyway).

I've just got the new Champions of Balance book and have a question about the Planar Companion feat (on page 13, see also http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/planar-hunter ):

Benefit(s): When you are on one of the planes you've selected as a favored terrain, you gain a +2 bonus on weapon attack rolls against outsiders native to that plane. You also ignore up to 5 points of damage reduction when making weapon attacks against outsiders native to that plane, except for damage reduction without a type (such as DR 10/—). In addition, you gain this bonus against extraplanar creatures you encounter and identify as being from one of your planar favored terrains, such as with a successful Knowledge (planes) check, regardless of what plane you or they are on.

So if you're on a 'favoured terrain' plane, you get bonuses against outsiders native to that plane.

But (third sentence), you also get those bonuses against outsiders native to that plane regardless of what plane you or they are on.

So, why does the first part of the feat need that wording at all (about being on the plane) when the last sentence says you/they don't need to be on the plane? Is is that being on the plane means no Knowledge (planes) check is needed, but being off the plane means you do still need to make a Knowledge (planes) check? Am I missing something?

I did a search for this but didn't see, so:

Suppose a Sorcerer wants to apply (both) the Silent Spell and Still Spell Metamagic feats to a spell which normally has a casting time of a standard action. Does this take a full-round action (as per normally applying a Metamagic feat to a spell), or longer (with the first feat taking it to a full-round action and the second taking it to one round)? And is there a page reference for the ruling?

The SRD doesn't explicitly cover it that I could see (saying effective levels add but not mentioning casting time):

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats
Multiple Metamagic Feats on a Spell: A spellcaster can apply multiple metamagic feats to a single spell. Changes to its level are cumulative. You can't apply the same metamagic feat more than once to a single spell.

I ask as I'm playing a Sorcerer who plans to use these feats in combination when necessary.

My character in a game wants to commission a few Iron Cobras to guard his place of residence and family against threats to them, and (ideally) intruders while they are away, without running a risk of himself and family being erroneously killed by the constructs.

The stats for the construct in question are here: http://paizo.com/PRD/monsters/ironCobra.html

Note they have no Intelligence score, speak no languages, and are not telepathic. So, how does one give a construct instructions (e.g. 'stay here and guard my family')? Is this covered by the rules, or do we have to make our own reasonable guess? Clearly because constructs are normally encountered as guards, and mythologically things like e.g. golems are controlled in part by writing, there is some mechanism (although I don't know if it is covered by the rules).

I'm building a character who will use a crossbow as primary weapon, to join in an existing adventure. We (both as players and characters) know that undead are the major foe so I am thinking of buying an 'undead bane' weapon.

The 'bane' property adds +1 to the enhancement-equivalent price, so making a masterwork crossbow into a '+1 undead bane' crossbow would cost 8,000 gp more.

Now, I thought about saving some cash and just getting some undead bane crossbow bolts. However, if I read this right, a set of 50 '+1 undead bane' bolts would also cost me 8,000 gp (it looks like a set of 50 count as one item for determining the price).

So, my question is, is that right? If so, and I expect to fire more than 50 shots over the course of the adventure, is there some reason I might buy the magic bolts rather than a magic crossbow (with mundane bolts), for the same price, which I can fire more than 50 times?

My copy of Dragon 359 arrived yesterday, and I enjoyed it immensely.

On reading the article on unsolved mysteries, Ed Greenwood's answer to "What is Abeir (of Abeir-Toril)?" struck me as slightly odd. But perhaps I am just over-analysing:

"Over the years," adds Ed, "most designers and gamers have shortened Abeir-Toril to just Toril, for reasons that will soon become apparent..."

Am I missing something here, or is something going to happen to the Realms and remove half its name?

I've got an order (to the UK) ready to place, but something seems to be up with the shipping. It's for a handful of magazines, including the final Dragon (which is on preorder status).

If I choose to despatch the currently-available magazines now and the final Dragon when it comes out (i.e. 2 separate deliveries), I can choose between the following options:

For the currently-available magazines:
-USPS Package Service ($6.86)
-USPS First Class Mail ($32.58)
-USPS Priority Mail ($35.10)

For the final dragon:
-USPS Package Service ($6.86)
-USPS First Class Mail ($12.42)
-USPS Priority Mail ($22.50)

This all seems reasonable, and means I could get a total postage of $13.72 for my separate deliveries.

If, however, I opt to wait and have all the items sent together then I only get the USPS Priority Mail option (quite pricey, at $39.30) even though the website suggests that waiting is cheaper. Only the one option comes up. Is there some reason I cannot just get the USPS Package Service for the combined delivery, as I am quite happy to save ~$30 and wait an extra week or two? Or is this a site problem? The pricings seem somewhat counterintuitive.

My FLGS doesn't get many copies of the magazines in, and being in the UK it is hard to find other stockists. What I'm wondering is whether it is possible to pre-order the final issues of Dragon and Dungeon from the Paizo store somewhere, as I don't want to miss out?

I was hoping to buy some Dragon issues--a few new ones like 357 I don't have, and a slightly older one (329). 329 has options for printed ones ($7) or PDFs, while the newer ones (costing $8) only have one option and I can't see which it is. Am I correct in thinking that the $8 recent issues are printed paper? I don't want to order them and find out that they're electronic versions, when I really want paper! It's hard to get them where I live.