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I'm unclear as to how to manage a level 1 Druid's horse animal companion.

Is it automatically trained for riding? Do you have to spend 3 in-game weeks teaching it to be ridden? Does it get the 3 tricks listed under riding in Handle Animal for free if it can automatically be ridden? What is the literal, non-extrapolated consequence of riding an animal that isn't trained to be ridden? Instead of making a DC 20 Ride check to control a non-combat trained mount in battle, can you make a DC 10 Handle Animal check to have it perform a trick instead?

Does a Shadowdancer's Shadow Companion ever heal on its own?

It is undead.

An undead creature "cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score." Shadows have an intelligence score of 6, so this shouldn't be a problem. But...

"Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep." As far as I can tell, the only 'natural' healing that occurs in the game stems from sleep. But since the Shadow doesn't sleep, does that mean he is incapable of recovering hitpoints on his own?

I'm asking because my pet needs health, and I don't have a way to feed him negative energy. I am strongly averse to taking cleric levels. I don't think I should have to dip into another class to use the features from the one I want to be.

It is my understanding that, according to D&D fiction, summoned creatures return to their original plane upon taking lethal amounts of damage (effectively making them immortal). I have to assume that the creature's indigenous plane provides some sort of sustenance, or the creature couldn't survive there. So, if you're a starving wizard, could you potentially summon a creature, cut off a chunk of its flesh, cook it and eat it? This process seems infinitely repeatable, and at worst mildly irritating to the creature, since it never dies.

Most summoned creatures should be able to withstand a few blows before returning to their home plane. In the case of a creature like an auroch, two blows could feed the summoner's entire party.

Are there any rules to support / contradict this logic? Would the severed chunks of flesh be transported back to the home plane when the creature was transported, thereby nullifying any nutritional value it might have had?

I know this seems bizarre, but I am asking this question in earnest.

The Shadow Demon, a level 6 summon, can cast Magic Jar 1/day. However, he is an incorporeal.

A large part of Magic Jar deals with the caster's body. But incorporeals have no body. So how, according to the rules, do incorporeals deal with mechanics related to the caster's body when they cast Magic Jar? Does it mean that no matter how far the jar / host is from where the incorporeal initially cast the spell, he doesn't die of failure to return to his own "body?" When the spell ends, would he materialize just outside the former host or the jar itself? Does it mean that when the spell ends, the incorporeal is automatically slain because he is closest to the clause, "or die if your body is... destroyed?"

A. Do the rules mean character level or class level when they say, "Her level?"

B. Do they mean character level or class level when they say, "The class's level?"

Example A: "A paladin uses her level as her effective cleric level when channeling positive energy." By RAW, I would assume this to mean that it used character level, because the 'paladin's level' literally refers to the total level of the paladin, but is that what's intended? It seems silly, because a 4 level dip in paladin could grant a more powerful channel energy ability than an 8 level dip in cleric...

Example B: "This ability functions as silent image, using the shadowdancer's level as the caster level." Does this mean it uses the character's shadowdancer level, or the shadowdancer's character level? Again I would assume the character level by RAW, because the literal 'shadowdancer's level' means the total level of the shadowdancer, but again it's counter intuitive that a 3 level dip in shadowdancer should yield a better silent image than a 6 level dip in wizard...

I wish that every reference to level in the class descriptions specifically stated "X's character level" or "X's class level".

Do area of effect spells go through walls or ceilings?

If Player A is on the 1st floor of a 2-story house, and he does not have line of sight of Player B who is on the 2nd floor, but Player B is technically within range of Player A's Prayer (assuming that spell radii are spherical and not circular), does the Prayer spell affect Player B?

This has come up two games in a row for our group. We decided to allow the spell to go through ceilings, especially since it was Prayer (lol?), but I want to know if there are any rules that address this before it happens again.

Uncanny Dodge states that: "[a creature] still loses her Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if immobilized."

The grappled condition states that: "A grappled creature is restrained... Grappled creatures *cannot move* and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity."

The issue of whether or not one could sneak attack a grappled creature that had Uncanny Dodge came up today. I just want to make sure I'm clear on the rules. "Cannot move" is *not* the same thing as "immobilized", correct? I can't find immobilized listed among any of the conditions. Does it no longer exist in Pathfinder? If that is true, then a creature with Uncanny Dodge never loses their Dex bonus to AC (aside from feinting) and can only be sneak attacked via feint or the Helpless condition? By RAW, it seems as if the Cowering condition would not negate the Dex bonus of an Uncanny Dodge character, either.

If a character uses Shadow Evocation to cast Darkness, do creatures receive a Will Save against the Darkness? A strict interpretation of the rules leads me to believe that the answer is yes, but common sense leads me to believe that the answer is no. Disbelieve a shadowy illusion of Darkness all you want, it's still dark because it's made out of shadow...

Also, does the effective spell level become 5, so that Daylight or Continual Flame can no longer dispel the Darkness spell, as per the spell level of Shadow Evocation? Or does the spell level of Darkness supercede the spell level of Shadow Evocation, keeping it at "light level" 2? I am confused because Shadow Evocation raises a spell's DC to that of Shadow Evocation (5), in essence making the mimiced spell's spell level 5, but Darkness is a bit of a unique case, as light spells have varying degrees of power with relation to each other based on their spell level. For that matter, would a Heightened level 6 Darkness spell dispel Daylight?