As for how I get several attacks with the hair, it's though Unchained Monk's Flurry of Blows and Feral Combat Training. Normally it's too expensive but I'm doing a gestalt build.
The white-haired witch can grapple several enemies in one round, but still needs standard actions to main each grapple the next round.
However, there is any preventing me from simply ending my grapples with a free action, and then doing a full round attack action to attack and then re-grapple my previous targets again? Obviously I might fail to grapple them this way, but if my rolls are good, can I keep several targets constantly grappled?
2. Can the witch move away while she has somebody grappled?
The rules state that the Witch herself doesn't actually gain the "grappled" condition like she normally would while grappling. Does that mean she can move about freely while maintaining the grapple?
What happens if she moves away from the grappled victims, are they freed automatically, or freed when the witch moves further away than her hair's reach, or not freed at all?
If they are still grappled even if she moves away, would she be able to maintain the grapple at range? And if so, does succeeding in maintaining the grapple move the victim up to an adjacent space next to the witch (like starting a grapple does)?
3. What happens if a victim tries to gain control of the grapple?
Rules wrote:
If you are grappled, you can attempt to break the grapple as a standard action by making a combat maneuver check (DC equal to your opponent's CMD; this does not provoke an attack of opportunity) or Escape Artist check (with a DC equal to your opponent's CMD). If you succeed, you break the grapple and can act normally. Alternatively, if you succeed, you can become the grappler, grappling the other creature (meaning that the other creature cannot freely release the grapple without making a combat maneuver check, while you can).
Does the fact that the Witch is not grappled make her immune to this, or does she instantly become grappled if her opponent beats her CMD?
I seriously doubt it. There are classes that start out with additional benefits on level 1, so you might actually be a lot stronger by multiclassing your level 1 self 20 times in a row rather than actually going to level 20.
That makes sense, the action would be like some sort of possession, not soul swapping.
But that still leaves me with questions like, if the new body you are temporarily possessing dies, do you die with it or do you get flung back to your familiar's body like before?
And likewise, if the familiar dies, can your temporary body house it's soul as long as you are in control of it, or does the Twin Soul power not function when your original body is not functional?
An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, it takes only half damage from a corporeal source (except for channel energy). Although it is not a magical attack, holy water can affect incorporeal undead. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature. Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally.
An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature’s Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).
An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see beyond the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.
An incorporeal creature’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creatures cannot make trip or grapple attacks, nor can they be tripped or grappled. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate an opponent or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.
An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Perception checks if it doesn’t wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to its melee attacks, ranged attacks, and CMB. Nonvisual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.
From what I can read of this description:
Incorporeals are immune to non-magical damage, and have 50% reduction from magic damage/effects, but there are some things that do full damage.
Incorporeals does not get natural armor bonus, but gets a deflection bonus based on Charisma instead.
Incorporeals can enter through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, so it cannot keep going deeper into a wall for instance
Incorporeals' attack ignore armor from physical sources such as shields, but not magical things like deflection. Also immune to falling damage, and cannot grapple or be grappled. Cannot physically manipulate enemy or enemy equipment
Incorporeals cannot be heard, has no strength score, difficult to see, and can move at full speed even when blind.
So, here are my questions:
Can incorporeals use items and magical items? Nothing in this description suggests that they cannot (for while enemies struggle hurting them, incorporeals have no difficulty striking back at the physical realm in full force). However, the Ghost Touch special quality for magic weapons specifies that incorporeals **can** use them, which implies that they cannot use them without the Ghost Touch special ability. What's the deal? What about non-weapon magic items?
What happens to incorporeals when they die? If something which is normally physical becomes incorporeal, and then dies in this state, does it leave an incorporeals body, or does it just dim out of existence, or does it return to it's physical state as a dead body?
My DM is considering allowing me to use some third party content, where one of the options is to have your Familiar be incorporeal, so I need to figure out how this would change things (it would be annoying if I couldn't resurrect it because it leaves no body, etc)
At 10th-level, if the witch or her familiar is gravely injured or about to die, the soul of the dying one immediately transfers to the other’s body. The two souls share the surviving body peaceably, can communicate freely, and both retain their ability to think and reason. The host may allow the guest soul to take over the body temporarily or reclaim it as a move action. They can persist in this state indefinitely, or the guest can return to its own body (if available) by touch, transfer into a suitable vessel (such as a clone), or take over another body as if using magic jar (with no receptacle).
This replaces the witch’s major hex at 10th-level.
There is no lack of threads discussing Beast-bonded Witch's Twin Soul on the internet. Especially the lack of a Magic Jar receptacle and what it means.
The general opinion seems to be that because there is no receptacle, the victim's soul just dies, being forced out and having nowhere to go (as specified in Magic Jar: "Any life force with nowhere to go is treated as slain.").
That's cool and all, but I don't think my DM would let that logic fly, he would definitely want something more substantial than that, especially when such an interpretation goes so much to my character's advantage.
Or alternatively, if there is no official word on this, are there any spells or magic items I could use to "remove" the enemy's soul so that I could inhabit his body freely without any soul arguments?
(and last bonus question, if I am in a new body, and my familiar dies, can his soul jump over to me in this new body that isn't strictly speaking mine, or does he just die?)
I've also found that the magic items Shawl of Life-Keeping (1,000 gp) and Robe of Needles (1,000 gp) are great for a familiar who has the body parts to use them.
Especially Imp, since his fast healing 2 gives him back the 10 health he puts in the Shawl, and his flying makes him easy to position for throwing needles while being safe.
Would an Imp still get his Poison (Ex) applied when attacking with weapons instead of his natural attack?
Edit: And are there any guidelines for weapon cost of a tiny weapon? There is a handy chart for unusually sized weapon damage, but no info on how much these weapons would actually cost. Would it just be the regular price?
Looking at a feat like Spell Sponge, we find this:
Spell Sponge wrote:
Special: Feats that are meant for familiars can be switched out for a familiar's default feats (as listed in the familiar's statistics) if the familiar meets the prerequisites. Such feat replacements must be made when the PC first acquires a new familiar, and-like all new feats from supplemental sources-the new feats should be approved by the GM before being integrated into play.
But this seems to say that you can swap only the feats that the Familiar possess normally (2 for Imp), and that you can only do it with these special "Familiar Feats" (which there are only a tiny handful of, and they aren't that good).
Note that your familiar doesn't have to take the two feats noted in the Bestiary entry for imps; it has three Outsider HD worth of feats, and can have any it meets the prerequisites for; for instance, Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency.
That's awesome! Where does this come from? I haven't seen such a thing anywhere when reading up on familiars.
Another quick question, does the Imp's poison only apply to it's natural attacks? Or is it assumed that if the Imp has a tiny pitchfork he applies his own naturally occurring poison on the weapon?
Edit: Reading about Outsiders (which Imps are), it seem that they are already "Proficient with all simple and martial weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.", which would enable an Imp to use a miniature crossbow without even needing to spend a feat on it.
From what I understand, the Imp, being a tiny humanoid creature, can use wands and such.
But can an Imp use armor, or carry a shield? Or use weapons?
According to the chart for this chart over armor for unusual creatures, even a Tiny creature can use armor (at 1/10 of the weight but also the armor bonus divided by half)..
Provided that the equipment doesn't weight too much for the Imp, and the Imp takes the penalties for wearing armor without Armor Proficiency, could you tool up your familiar with something like an Imp-sized Leaf Armor? Or an Imp-sized buckler?
And likewise, what about weapons? Do weapons even function for "tiny" creatures? (mostly I see references to the reduced damage small creatures do). Could a wizard/witch cast Bestow Weapon Proficiency on their Imp and have him shoot with a cute tiny crossbow?
Effect: The witch transforms a creature within 30 feet into an aberration. This hex acts as baleful polymorph, except the target is transmuted into a Small, Medium, or Large aberration.
Baleful Polymorph wrote:
As beast shape III, except that you change the subject into a Small or smaller animal of no more than 1 HD.
One could argue that in Baleful Polymorph you can "change the subject into a small or smaller animal of no more than 1HD", while in Abominate you can "change the target into a small, medium or large aberration".
But I think you are correct, the RAW reading says that it can be no more than 1HD, which is pretty boring. I liked the idea of my witch turning people into monsters.
Why do you "lose yourself" if you fail the save? Reading Baleful Polymorph I can't really see anything that says you will stop being yourself, just that:
Baleful Polymorph wrote:
If this second save fails, the creature loses its extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities, loses its ability to cast spells (if it had the ability), and gains the alignment, special abilities, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores of its new form in place of its own.
I mean, sure, you gain a new alignment, but your character might already be evil, and it's still the same player soul inside the body. Does getting a new Intelligence score count as becoming a new person?
From what I understand, you can always elect to not take a save, such as the Will save to avoid the mental transformation of baleful polymorph.
But if you were to cast this on yourself with the intent to keep your own mental abilities, you would have to take that Will save, potentially failing it (and losing your means to dispel the effect, ouch!). Is there any way to reduce your own DC?
So, it's actually not the physical transformation that's the big deal, it's the mental transformation (provided that you fail the Will save), since it would mean you get all the mental ability scores and supernatural abilities.
Obviously for an enemy you would want to transform him into some armless, legless, and voiceless slug with a weak bite attack, but for an ally you would want to find some monster that has great abilities and mental ability scores.
So if I'm understanding this correctly, you neither get any of the ability scores, nor abilities of the aberration you transform into? (Unless they are specifically listed in Monstrous Physique IV)
But still, is there no difference what size the victim started as? If you turn a "colossal" creature into a "large" creature it still gets a +4 strength bonus?
For instance, somebody transformed into an Evil Eye wouldn't be able to do a gaze attack, and somebody transformed into a Vampiric Mist wouldn't be able to actually Blood Siphon?
I guess abominate would still be pretty useful since turning enemies into monsters that cannot actually use their monster abilities would make them rather impotent in combat (especially the vampiric mist, it cannot harm anybody!), but it's not exactly what I imagined.
Second edit: Now I see, it's if you fail the Will save test that you acquire the creature's special abilities. That makes more sense.
Polymorphing in pathfinder has confused me profoundly, and even moreso the Abominate hex which seems to mix together a bunch of different rules, so I need help to understand exactly what rules apply and how.
The Abominate hex says it works like baleful polymorph, except the target is transmuted into a small, medium, or large aberration. The target's abilities are modified as monstrous physique IV.
But I'm unsure, does this refer to abilities like darkvision, constrict and poison, or does it refer to ability scores like strength and dexterity, or does it refer to both?
Looking at monstrous physique IV, a "large monstrous humanoid" gains +4 size bonus to strength, -2 penalty to dexterity, and +4 natural armor bonus. Does these bonuses apply no matter what ability scores the aberration has, and does it apply no matter what original starting size the victim has? So if you start out large, and you get transformed to large, you get a plus +4 strength and minus -2 penalty to dexterity for that transformation? Furthermore, doesn't the target get any more constitution or hit points at all? These changes seem rather minor for somebody being transformed into a large monster.
Secondly, under Baleful Polymorph, I read that it works like Beast Shape III, but is this in addition to the effects listed under Monstrous Physique IV, or is this ignored in favor of Monstrous Physique IV?
I was hoping to use this in cool ways, enhancing my allies or my familiar to become large monsters, or using it against enemies to make them into small monsters, but based on what I can see the effect seems mainly visual rather than physical (but with the potential strong side-effect of stopping enemy wizards from casting spells due to not having limbs or a voice in monster form).
