Zathyr's page

First off, if anyone thinks any of these are FAQ candidates, those questions should probably be split off into their own threads. I'm just wondering if there's already official word on any of this. For me personally, this isn't for PFS so for rules-grey areas I'll just ask my DM.

And I'll start with the easy question:
A.) Which publication has the rules, and this chart for Magic Item Slots for Animals? The "unusual" entry seems to be off there and I'd like to look at the original source but my google-fu is failing me.

And on to the weirder:
B.) Is the ability to grasp/carry an item necessary to activate a normally hand-held item, or just to wield and otherwise carry it around? Ie. could a familiar touch an item held in its master's hand, or even could a human spellcaster touch a gargantuan staff lying on the ground, and potentially activate it?

C.) Specifically with the popular Quarterstaff of Entwined Serpents, it states "At will, the wielder can use the staff to cast magic missile, creating two such missiles." so with that it reads that one must actually be wielding the quarterstaff to use that ability, but assuming a tiny familiar with a tiny-sized one, what kind of activation is that? Does the "can use" mean it's Use-Activated, or is it unspecified and thus default to Command Word?

D.) So I have a character with a Flowering Lattice familiar, and I'd just been using it as a collection of skill bonuses in a very socially-oriented game. (Also it's flowery and silly and fit the character.) Then i realized, as a creature that originally lacks an Int score, gaining one would usually mean it gains a feat. However, the rules for familiars states they retain the feats the base creature has (none, in the case of the flowering lattice). I know mindless creatures that become familiars lose the mindless trait, but I don't recall seeing anything specifically on whether or not they should gain a feat in the process as well. I know "specific trumps general" but this seems to be two sets of general rules intersecting. My GM would probably allow it the feat since the lattice is fairly sub-par as familiars go, but just curious if there's something official I'd missed.

Also curious if any of this has come up in other people's games and how it was run there. Thanks for any feedback!

So I have an idea I'm kind of kicking around. This would be for PFS. I'd be interested in some feedback, or some ideas I haven't thought of.

Shaman class, primary spirit being stone, probably dwarf. I've actually never played a dwarf in Pathfinder, but I like the race and the theme fits here. That human/half-human favored class option is super juicy, but I think I just prefer the character concept of a dwarven stone shaman. Extra wisdom either way. Going to play him mostly as a caster (with hexes). Buffs/debuffs, some control, some healing.

One question: if a hex doesn't mention a save, does that mean there is none? Metal Curse seems strictly worse than Evil Eye (at least until 16th level which I'll never see in PFS) unless it doesn't allow a save.

Another question on something I'm a little uncertain on: when you take the Magical Lineage trait, does the associated spell need to be one you can cast at the time? I was thinking of the Toppling Spell/Spiritual Weapon combo. Will I need to wait until 3rd level and pick up Additional Traits at that point? I may just do that regardless. The extra traits wouldn't be bad - there's a lot of good dwarf traits. But I don't know if that's something I'd need to do or not.

4th level Hex will likely be Stone Stability, to get Improved trip at 5th from that. If I really want to focus on this, I could take Fury's Fall as my normal feat at 5th (and Greater at 10th, for as long as that'll last). I'm not sure just how much I want to invest into the trip schtick though. I might prefer an Extra Hex. But shaman's a nicely flexible class without necessarily needing feats. I like the versatility, but I know being really good at one thing is often nice. If I'm up against something that can't be tripped, I still have other options.

So yeah it's just some rough ideas at this point. I usually keep my builds a little loose - some direction but not mapping everything out.

Quite simply:
Is the mythic path ability "Pack Wild Shape" intended to work only when the character takes the form of an animal?

See, the text mentions animal form, but it seems like that may be as an example or, honestly, like someone forgot that non-animal forms are possible with wild shape. I just can't shake the feeling that if it were only intended for animal forms, the text would make a stronger point of saying so.

Some druid archetypes, like the Treesinger, have the wild shape ability but cannot take animal forms. Could they and their friends turn into a little wandering grove, or no? The Plantbringer path ability could be giving them all fast healing, which is kind of powerful, but too powerful for two path abilities, a use of wild shape, and a use of mythic power?

It's hard to say what balance issues there may be. I mean we're talking mythic characters here already. A whole party taking elemental forms - too powerful? Considering some of the possibilities within Beast Shape, it doesn't strike me as unbalancing. I think it just opens up some other tactical options. I'm curious what other people's opinions are on the matter.

So, the familiar's Speak With Master ability:

"Speak with Master (Ex): If the master is 5th level or higher, a familiar and the master can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help."

It's not actual speech, but it's verbal. It's an exceptional ability, which would mean non-magical, but the text implies it is magical somehow. What kind of magical help do other creatures need to understand it, exactly? Have master/familiar just worked out some new unique language that no one else could possibly know (without magical help)? Or ...

As a special ability of a magical beast specially attuned to a character, I was trying to decide if it should work with an Oracle with the Deaf curse. (multiclassed or eldritch heritage or whatever) Initially I figured that'd be a simple question I could figure out just by reading the description, but the description is confusing the heck out of me the more I read it/think about it. Currently I'm leaning towards "yeah it'll work" since verbal doesn't have to mean spoken, even though "Speak" is in the name of the ability. Maybe they have some special sign language? However you want to flavor it. It seems reasonable enough to me. At the moment I'm not seeing any particularly compelling reason why the deaf curse would negate this ability.

But I know this forum is filled with folks who seem to love over-analyzing this stuff as much as I do. ;) So I figured I'd toss the question out to the wolves. Heck, there may even be an official clarification somewhere.

So I have a character with a non-magical adamantine longsword. For reasons many can probably guess, I would prefer it to be a scimitar. What suggestions are there for doing this? It doesn't seem to me like it should be too difficult or expensive or an unreasonable thing to do. Adamantine could be hard to work with. Yes, I know, talk to my GM, but I was just curious about what feedback I could get here first. There could be something RAW and simple I've overlooked.

I suppose I could use the crafting rules to make an adamantine scimitar and use the longsword to cover the cost of materials, but that's going to take a lot of time. Would it be reasonable to say that since the masterwork component is generally crafted separately, and an adamantine weapon includes the cost of being masterwork, that the masterwork/adamantine "component" of the weapon is already made and just use the DC 15 for a martial weapon and ignore the cost?

For 1,125gp I could grab a scroll of Fabricate to possibly speed up the process. Longsword and scimitar both weigh 4 pounds. I'm not sure if/how the associated craft check comes into play here. Still more than I'd like to pay.

I could make it magical (which I'd like to do anyway) and add the transformative property, but that's really cost-prohibitive and not terribly useful beyond making it the scimitar I'd like. If it could turn into light weapons I might consider it as an option down the line, but as it is, meh.

Other options?

A situation arose at a game last night and I would like a little feedback or clarification.

Characters A and B are on either side of a tiny creature, t. We are all happily in our own squares.
A t B
Am I correct in thinking t is flanked? One of the people at the table said that since a tiny creature doesn't occupy a square it can't be flanked, which he probably saw at the start of this thread but the bulk of the thread seems to say there is no actual rule to that effect. I certainly couldn't find one.

Well then t moves into my square, provoking an attack of opportunity. My question at the game table that started all this was, for that aoo, is t flanked? If we can, let's just set aside the question of whether it could be flanked once it's in my square. In this case it couldn't be because the other player doesn't threaten my square. I seem to recall something in 3.5 saying the action that provokes an aoo isn't completed until after the aoo is resolved. If Pathfinder has a similar rule of thumb then, at the point of the aoo, t is still in the square between A and B and is thus still flanked, correct?

Hopefully this isn't a complicated question, but thanks in advance for any responses.