Another rule question! :(

[Cacophonik]

Having alot of these lately, since I started DMing. Go figure - I dunno if the rules are vague, simply open for interpretation, or I am just missing things.... anyways, my question this time is:

Shaman's Spirit Companions: I gather from various powers and rule inferences that they are at least partially substantial, but how does one go about targetting and actually hitting them? The rules state that they dissipate if they take a certain amount of damage, (hurting the Shaman in the process) but I do not see an AC, or Fort/Reflex/Will stat for them.

Thanks again for your wisdom!

[Blazej]

I believe the answer is that the spirits use the shaman's AC/Fortitude/Reflex/Will unless the power says otherwise, I will look up the page number and post it if I find it.

Edit: Page 220 of Player's Handbook 2 has information on conjurations like the spirit. The bullet point that applies here is the "Your Defenses"

[mouthymerc]

Cacophonik wrote:

Shaman's Spirit Companions: I gather from various powers and rule inferences that they are at least partially substantial, but how does one go about targetting and actually hitting them? The rules state that they dissipate if they take a certain amount of damage, (hurting the Shaman in the process) but I do not see an AC, or Fort/Reflex/Will stat for them.

Thanks again for your wisdom!

On page 219-220 are the rules for conjurations, which is one of the keywords of Call Spirit Companion. Specifically, they use your Defenses for themselves.

[Matthew Koelbl]

Cacophonik wrote:

Shaman's Spirit Companions: I gather from various powers and rule inferences that they are at least partially substantial, but how does one go about targetting and actually hitting them? The rules state that they dissipate if they take a certain amount of damage, (hurting the Shaman in the process) but I do not see an AC, or Fort/Reflex/Will stat for them.

To give a full run-down of how it works:

1) Note that the "Call Spirit Companion" power is a conjuration. That is the important part, and means we need to check on the conjuration keyword to see the details.

2) As others have mentioned, pages 219-220 contain all the details for that. Note that conjurations normally cannot be attacked or damaged - however, the "Call Spirit Companion" power specifies that it can be targeted by ranged or melee attacks. The conjuration rules state that if it can be attacked, then it uses the caster's Defenses (AC/Fort/Ref/Will) as its own.

3) Note that while Ranged and Melee attacks can hurt it, it does not say that area or close attacks can do so - thus, they cannot! So you can freely have allies include it in their area spells, and enemies have to target it to hurt it.

4) If they can do so, that is. The spirit only goes away if an attack does enough damage to get past its threshold (10 + 1/2 your level). If an attack doesn't deal that much damage, it ignores it entirely.

5) And finally, note that it going away damages the shaman... but that is the only downside. On their next turn, they can bring it right back with a minor action!

And finally, a few more minor Spirit Companion quirks that are easy to overlook:
-Note that conjurations don't provide flanking. The shaman has a few powers that let the Spirit Companion provide flanking temporarily, but when not using those, it cannot offer flanking.
-Note that conjurations don't provoke from enemies while moving. So you can have the Spirit Companion flit about the field without any problem. Admittedly, you could also just unsummon and resummon it where you want it without any worries at all, but this also reduces the hassle of getting it across the battle.
-Note that the two 'Opportunity Attacks" you can use through the Spirit Companion only trigger on movement. So if you drop your Spirit Companion next to an enemy archer, they can sit next to it and shoot you all day long without provoking from your Spirit Companion.

[Blazej]

One more note, unless I misread something somewhere only damage has any chance of affecting your spirit (unless the power specifically states it has effects on conjurations). So no affecting the spirit with push, slide, pull, ongoing damage, prone, daze, stun, immobilized, and so on.

Also, the spirit disappears if you end your turn out of range of the power or without having line of effect to the spirit. But this does not cause you to lose hit points like when someone else destroys it with damage.