Marphod's page

The chart on d20pfsrd.com (which I assume is from the recent Animal Archive) lists magic item slots for most traditional Animal Companions and Familiars (and some untraditional -- Who on earth takes a DODO as a familiar?).

It is, however, lacking for most of the unusually shaped improved familiars.

Arbiter's have hands and an eye, so a monocle, one or two rings (can its knife be dropped, or is it locked in place?), and maybe a gloves. Probably wrists, possibly a weapon or shield. Can it wear a single lens from a paired set without dizziness? Can you drape a cloak over it effectively?

Augurs MIGHT be able to wear a monocle. Seems like it, though.

Doru's and Severed heads get head, headband, and eye slots. Can you use shoulder slots as well? How about necklaces?

Elementals? No idea.

Nosoi wear a mask; does that mean the headband or eyes slot is taken or not?

Nuglub have 3 eyes. How does that impact lens pairs?

Paracletus are a constellation of lights and crystals. So, uh, rings on long crystals? throw a cloak on top?

Spirit Oni? Uh, I've no idea, either attached or not.

Dragons? I'd probably mix the Quadrupeds (claws) and bipeds, maybe limiting belts to saddles. Although having a headband slot and not a head slot seems weird.

Zoog? It is an amalgam of parts. For all I know, it can wear a ring on each tendril, but no belt/body/neck/head slot.

Harbinger? Got me.

A Familiar from Improved Familiar gets the same powers same as normal familiar (modulo giving the spell caster a skill/save/hit point bonus) except they never get the 'ability to speak to animals of its own kind.'

Each of the Familiar Archetypes (Valet, Pilferer, Infiltrater) all replace that ability.

Does this mean you cannot use an Archetype with an Improved Familiar?

If so, that makes the archetypes significantly less useful. Once you have a familiar that could survive on its own, the archetypes that take advantage of that are out of reach.

These items may be intended to show that there are several ways of doing the same thing, but I find them kind of odd.

tl;dr: Is the Heavyload Belt overpriced (2kgp), the Muleback Chords underpriced (1kgp), or is this just a quirk of the system?

(I guess their effects might stack; neither is a named bonus. OTOH, I can't imagine most DMs would allow it.)

- - -

Muleback Chords allows someone to consider their carrying capacity as if their strength were +8.

Heavyload Belt has a permanent Ant Haul effect; which allows someone to triple their carrying capacity.

The difference between these are insignificant at strength 4 or higher.
(strength 4 w/ muleback: 43lbs light, 86 medium, 130 heavy; w/ heavyload: 39 light, 78 medium, 120 heavy. Strength 10 w/ muleback: 100/200/300; w/ heavyload 99/198/300. strength 18: 306/613/920 v 300/600/900. Str 29: 384/2772/4160 v 1398/2799/4200)

The thing is, these items have vastly different costs (1kgp for the Chords, v 2kgp for the Belt). Sorcerers and Oracles who don't know Bull's Strength (the requirement for the Chords) and your Wondrous Item crafting Rangers (?!?!?) are the only ones who might ever make the belt; For everyone else, the chords are cheaper.

What is the current official text for Negative Energy Affinity? The PRD has it in at least 2 distinct forms, and there is a FAQ response from Sean K Reynolds that is distinct from both of those.

From Universal Monster Rules:

Negative Energy Affinity (Ex): The creature is alive but is healed by negative energy and harmed by positive energy, as if it were an undead creature.

From the Dhampir description (ARG)

Negative Energy Affinity: Though a living creature, a dhampir reacts to positive and negative energy as if it were undead—positive energy harms it, while negative energy heals it.

From SKR's FAQ response: ( http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fo#v5748eaic9oyk )

Negative Energy Affinity (Ex): The creature is alive, but is treated as undead for all effects that affect undead differently than living creatures, such as cure spells and channeled energy.

Unfortunately, none of these are particularly unambiguous.

1) Which of these is the 'current' definition? I'm assuming either the first or last one, but I'm not sure which supersedes the other.
2) Is there any possibility of getting a less ambiguous definition? Or add Positive Energy and Negative Energy Descriptor to spells and effects to make which ones apply.

Something like this would be less ambiguous (but really long):
Negative Energy Affinity (Ex): The character is alive but is affected differently than other living creatures by Positive and Negative energy. Any negative energy effect that would heal an undead creature's hit point damage would heal this character's hit points and any positive energy effect that would do hit point damage to an undead creature would do hit point damage to this creature. Positive and Negative energy effects on Ability Drain or Damage, Status effects, Negative Levels, or other statistics treat this character as if they were a living creature.

Life-Dominant Soul makes this even more confusing. (From Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Night)

Benefit: You are healed by channeled positive energy used to heal living creatures and channeled negative energy used to heal undead, but both only heal half the normal amount. You still take damage from positive energy used to harm undead, such as that from channeled energy and lay on hands.

(this is on d20pfsrd.com, so I'm assuming it is OGL. If it isn't I'll edit to paraphrase rather than quote.)

If a Cleric channels positive energy to heal living, or a Cleric channels negative energy to heal undead, the Dhampir is effected. If a Cleric channels positive energy to harm undead, the Dhampir is harmed, and if the Cleric channels negative energy to harm the living, the Dhampir is unaffected. If subject to an Inflict Wounds spell, the Dhampir is healed. Essentially, it is easy to understand what happens with Negative Energy (at least, the same powers would effect the Dhampir as without the feat). Positive Energy Effects that heal the living without harming the undead and vice versa are also clear.

The problem is Positive Energy powers that can do both at the same time -- Lay on Hands and Cure Wounds spells are now entirely ambiguous. The same ability/spell is used to both harm undead and heal living, without any change. The Mass variants of Cure spells can do both at once.

So is this now up to the intent of the caster/user? Lay on Hands heals or harms based on what the Paladin wants at the time? What if the caster is unaware of how positive energy affects a Dhampir? Roll a die and take a 50/50 shot? Something else?

The Valet Archetype's "Teamwork" Ability (Ex) is: A valet is considered to have all the teamwork feats its master has.

I have a few questions about this one:

How do Teamwork feats work when sharing a square. If a character with a Rat Familiar has the Rat riding in a pouch, is the Familiar adjacent? Does the Familiar have to be an obvious target for Teamwork feats to fire?

The 2 most obvious teamwork feats for a spell caster with a familiar are "Allied Spellcaster" and "Shielded Caster".

With Allied Spellcaster, the Master will get a +2 competence bonus on level checks to overcome spell resistance, which increased to +4 and a +1 bonus to caster level if the other spellcaster has the same spell prepared (memorizing) or knows the spell and has a slot to cast it with (spontaneous).

How does this work with a Witch's Familiar? Does a witch always get the +4/+1? If not, how about if the witch has the spell memorized twice? Or if the witch is using Familiar Melding? (Are you considered adjacent when sharing a single body?)

Am I missing something or is Shielded Caster a no-brainer? (Although I'd probably not allow Anthropomorphic Animal and giving the familiar an appropriately sized shield unless it was no smaller than one size category smaller than the caster.)