Not all animals are created equal.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Search Posts
Hm, addendum question: Let's say instead of a monkey, I have a squirrel. According to the Magic Item Slots for Animals table, squirrels are a "No" in the Grasp/Carry category.(*) However, I have been wondering if my hypothetical squirrel could use Prestidigitation in order to do this. He could lift the wand slowly, as per the spell description. Many people encourage the use of Prestidigitation to do things like move small rocks around; the key example of this is to cast it that pebble, marble, or copper piece that you just cast Light on. Could my squirrel then:
This presumes two things. First, that we've established that your familiar can, in theory, use Use Magic Device to activate a wand. I personally think so, especially after reading the discussions above, but I think it's still a general issue. (Links to cannon answers appreciated.) I would understand an answer that said, "I do not think familiars can/should be able to use wannds under any circumstances," and then saying, "But if you were to allow such a thing in your game, then this method should (or shouldn't) work for this reason..." Second, this also assumes your familiar has a way to cast Prestidigitation in the first pace. Personally I have just discovered the Familiar Archetypes section of the PFSRD. The Valet Familiar Archetype caught my eye especially. (The ultimate answer about wand activation not withstanding, I find the archetype appealing.) --
**: Even if the final step wouldn't work, this would be very cute to watch.
Thank you for the information. Honestly, this is the simplest and sanest solution given their policies for not crafting stuff. You don't by chance have a place I could look it up? I would love to have a reference I can show a GM in the further. If not, I'll just link to your response. :)
I realize that this is quite an old post, but it is one that still bubbled to the top of the list. It seems like, as of this particular post's no longer getting responses, that an official answer did not come down. (Well, at the very least it didn't happen in this thread.) There is one response that I don't see someone make against our OP's monkey from being able to use the wand. It's been mentioned that while the monkey could swing everything else -- UMD once to imitate a caster, UMD twice or actually be able to utter the command word -- he wouldn't have the magical juju to pull it off. I disagree with this. Use Magic device is a skill that rogues get still. I'm pretty sure the skill exists solely because of rogues from early edition D&D, in fact. Rogues do not, by default, have anything that would considered magical juju any more than a Wizard's monkey familiar. In fact, there is no restriction on anyone of any class from taking this skill. They could even get it in class with a bonus through a trait. I really don't see how you can then say that the monkey somehow lacks the ability or know how to use UMD any more or less than any other non-casting classed person in the party. I find this part of the argument completely invalid. If our subjuctular monkey has the skill, that is enough. He's human intelligent, can easily e taught any finer details by his master, and that should be enough. At least as far as "magical knowledge or know how" goes. -- My own opinion on this before reading the thread was that an animal familiar could. This is why people like Mephit familiars: hands, wings, high charisma, unquestionable language capacity. It seems like the familiar merely needs to be able to aim the thing in order to be able to do so. Bats are out (unless it's a REALLY small wand, and probably curved for his feet to work it.) So... sure, operating it is an issue. Monkey, though, has no trouble. The speech seems to be the issue. I myself had originally thought that to use a wand you needed to be able to speak in some kind of language. I see now that I was incorrect in that it's not mentioned at all in the description, and if that's the case our Monkey should be just fine at using the wand. Well... This is assuming we define "just fine" as needing to make the UMD role for imitating a class that has the spell on his list. Even at DC 20, which is low for this skill, it's far from certain. If master keeps the skill maxed, he'll have his level in ranks in it. The monkey won't, as far as I read this, get bonuses from it being a class skill, bonuses from feats and talents, or the master's charisma bonus. You could give him things like a cracked Pink and Green Sphere Ioun Stone that adds 1 to Use Magic Device, a headband of added Charisma (expensive option, granted), or a holy symbol of the god whose cleric(s) made those wands of cure light wounds you are hording -- monkey-sized, of course. (I myself was thinking of a headband made up like antlers, with a little center part at the middle of the forehead with Erastil's holy symbol, all made of bone or wood, in order to aid with activating those wands of Cure Light Wounds you keep buying from Clerics of Erastil. It could probably also work as an spare holy symbol for the cleric of Erastil in the party... but it is unwise to mess with Monkey's beloved antlers.) If you require speech to activate a wand, and say that a command word is required (despite the text not indicating so, also thus requiring you not stand in that Silence aura and expect to fire your wands off)... Well, from all I have read here and thought myself, it sounds like the speech gained at 5th level would more than easily fit that requirement. (Personally, I would say that you and your familiar need to be able to communicate in order to coordinate using a wand in combat in the first place. Monkey is way smart and all, but not being able to speak with him might put a damper on instructing him to do so.) It seems like you have two options to deal with that. As mentioned, the first is when the item is made, make sure the command work is something you can both say. If you haven't done this, though, and it is not reasonable for Monkey to imitate human speech adequately, then he'd need to make a second UMD roll for blindly activating it. Personally, I think that given you can activate a wand even while you are swallowed whole, intelligent/intelligible command words and graceful, precise movement seem like they are, by default, no required. Edit: note that on this last point, I personally always think of wands requiring a command word. I could be incorrect... but it is how I always thought of them. I would have to contemplate this if I actually ran a game, hopefully finding some clarification before I needed to make a ruling... preferably a FAQ or dev reply that I previously missed.
I had the same question regarding using a Valet Archetyped Familiar in a PFS game (hence finding your post.) Personally, I would think the answer to the first one (1) has to be yes. Your Valet *is* a permanent bonus. He would be there assisting with your day job no matter how long it takes or how spread out the project is. Additionally, if the answer to your question were "no", there is simply no benefit from the archetype in return for sacrificing Alertness otherwise. If this were the case, then the rules on this Feat should be changed for the archetype to something actually beneficial, such as sticking with Alertness(*). Another option that would be replacing it with Mobility (with the Dodge prerequisite not required); this would compliment all the "run, aid, and run" maneuvers that Valets get later on, especially given how many of the have reach 0. (I like this option best.) A third would be to allow the Valet to aid characters on any skill even if the Valet doesn't have the skill in question(***). This last one seems a little dubious mechanically to me, even though it's my suggestion. There is precedent for replacing unallowed feats, which this becomes if you can't actually benefit from it. Classes who automatically get item creation feats as class features, such as Scribe Scroll, have them replaced with something else. Your second question (2) I think should be "yes" or should at least help you in some way. I personally do not think that earning twice as much because you can knit twice the number of afghans in an afternoon as others is overpowered in the least. Those other, non-Valet having people have bonuses to skills while actually on the adventure, instead the downtime between them. Though, I could see a negative ruling on this, one which states something about "the intent of less game down time to craft magic items in-between dungeons." If this is considered a little overpowered and unfair to the other players (uhm...) then it should at least bump you up a DC level on the Day Job Check Rewards table. (So if you rolled an 11, you would earn 10 gold instead of 5; while if you rolled a 27, you would earn 75 gold instead of 50.) * Granted, the Alertness gained would be the master, and only then while with in arms reach, as per usual. (Picture of a squirrel sitting on your shoulder with a bow tie and a little vest(**) taps you, then points to the highly unclean (ew!) monster trying to sneak up on you. ** You did take Extra Item Slot (Chest) so that he could wear a little vest, didn't you? *** (Picture of the same squirrel, tapping on the silver tea set to get your attention. "The hireling finished brewing your tea. I helped!")
Why +2 to Will saves for a hedgehog? ... There is The Hedgehog and the Fox. Quoth Wikipedia, "...hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea..." This focus takes the form of a high Will save to their magically bonded companions, who are better able to ignore those distractions. The fox, of course, is the familiar of our example witch character, so someone to pair with the fox in even an esoteric way was brilliant. And face it, hedgehogs are cool. So cool that now more people want to have familiars just so they can have a hedgehog familiar. *cuddle* Ow. |