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Mainly because it's funny, I've been long considering making a Druid with a Giant Slug companion, perhaps of the Swamp Druid archetype, either a Dwarf or, more likely, a Human with the Eye for Talent alternate racial ability so my slug starts with 2 Intelligence and can start gaining skills and feats right away. The main reason at the moment I'm not more eager to do so is simply because of the strong showing of Druids and Rangers already in my PFS group (among which Big Cats are the leading favored companion).
I'm making this thread, however, so I can get opinions and information on the potential of Giant Slug companions in practice and how they might stack up against other companions. I also might as well ask whether the protective benefits of mindless are really worth losing skills and feats for, AND, is there any reason on Gozreh's green Golarion, beyond the comedy gold that is a giant slug capable of speech, that I should perhaps raise its Intelligence to 3 when I get the opportunity?
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Raising an animals int to 3 doesn't let it talk. Even with linguistics, it can't talk, and they banned the CIRCLET OF SPEAKING from the animal archives.
Sorry, i don't see a way to do a talking slug :( .
You could always go for the comedy gold of getting fleet, a turquoise sphere ioun stone, and casting longstrider to make a racing snail...
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Okay, bang goes that idea, but does raising an animal's Intelligence to 3 do anything else for it? My more general questions as to how Giant Slug Companions fare overall remain open too.
By the way, since you mentioned it, COULD animal companions take Linguistics? Because even a mute, not-very-good-at-it giant slug poring over a manuscript to detect forgery or whatnot is even funnier.
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Okay, bang goes that idea, but does raising an animal's Intelligence to 3 do anything else for it? My more general questions as to how Giant Slug Companions fare overall remain open too.
Raising the int to 3
1) Enables it to take any feat it can physically do. (rather than the list in the core book)- Usually folks put a point in linguistics and that lets it understand the language. That doesn't negate the need for handle animal checks, but usually gets you a little more leeway in what you can tell the thing to do.
2) Enables it to take any skill it can physically do (rather than the list in the core book)
3)Grants it 3 extra tricks.
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Okay, bang goes that idea, but does raising an animal's Intelligence to 3 do anything else for it? My more general questions as to how Giant Slug Companions fare overall remain open too.Raising the int to 3
1) Enables it to take any feat it can physically do. (rather than the list in the core book)- Usually folks put a point in linguistics and that lets it understand the language. That doesn't negate the need for handle animal checks, but usually gets you a little more leeway in what you can tell the thing to do.
2) Enables it to take any skill it can physically do (rather than the list in the core book)
3)Grants it 3 extra tricks.
I don't think 3 happens.
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I don't think 3 happens.Okay, bang goes that idea, but does raising an animal's Intelligence to 3 do anything else for it? My more general questions as to how Giant Slug Companions fare overall remain open too.Raising the int to 3
1) Enables it to take any feat it can physically do. (rather than the list in the core book)- Usually folks put a point in linguistics and that lets it understand the language. That doesn't negate the need for handle animal checks, but usually gets you a little more leeway in what you can tell the thing to do.
2) Enables it to take any skill it can physically do (rather than the list in the core book)
3)Grants it 3 extra tricks.
Can I improve my companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher and give it weapon feats?
No. An Intelligence of 3 does not grant animals sentience, the ability to use weapons or tools, speak a language (though they may understand one with a rank in Linguistics; this does not grant literacy), or activate magic devices. Also note that raising an animal companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher does not eliminate the need to make Handle Animal checks to direct its actions; even semi-intelligent animals still act like animals unless trained not to. An animal with Intelligence of 3 or higher remains a creature of the animal type unless its type is specifically changed by another ability. An animal may learn 3 additional tricks per point of Intelligence above 2.
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What about the spell tongues - "This spell grants the creature touched the ability to speak and understand the language of any intelligent creature, whether it is a racial tongue or a regional dialect. "
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also (maybe) share language - though that one is maybe not, as the wording is different.
(Though, I am not sure I would feel comfortable about having a giant slug with "tongues"... that's just another of those things that make you say "Ewww!")
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I don't think 3 happens.Okay, bang goes that idea, but does raising an animal's Intelligence to 3 do anything else for it? My more general questions as to how Giant Slug Companions fare overall remain open too.Raising the int to 3
1) Enables it to take any feat it can physically do. (rather than the list in the core book)- Usually folks put a point in linguistics and that lets it understand the language. That doesn't negate the need for handle animal checks, but usually gets you a little more leeway in what you can tell the thing to do.
2) Enables it to take any skill it can physically do (rather than the list in the core book)
3)Grants it 3 extra tricks.
Can I improve my companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher and give it weapon feats?
No. An Intelligence of 3 does not grant animals sentience, the ability to use weapons or tools, speak a language (though they may understand one with a rank in Linguistics; this does not grant literacy), or activate magic devices. Also note that raising an animal companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher does not eliminate the need to make Handle Animal checks to direct its actions; even semi-intelligent animals still act like animals unless trained not to. An animal with Intelligence of 3 or higher remains a creature of the animal type unless its type is specifically changed by another ability. An animal may learn 3 additional tricks per point of Intelligence above 2.
Neat! I was looking for that rule a little while ago, but I couldn't find it. I guess it's a Society house rule?
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Neat! I was looking for that rule a little while ago, but I couldn't find it. I guess it's a Society house rule?I don't think 3 happens.Okay, bang goes that idea, but does raising an animal's Intelligence to 3 do anything else for it? My more general questions as to how Giant Slug Companions fare overall remain open too.Raising the int to 3
1) Enables it to take any feat it can physically do. (rather than the list in the core book)- Usually folks put a point in linguistics and that lets it understand the language. That doesn't negate the need for handle animal checks, but usually gets you a little more leeway in what you can tell the thing to do.
2) Enables it to take any skill it can physically do (rather than the list in the core book)
3)Grants it 3 extra tricks.
Can I improve my companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher and give it weapon feats?
No. An Intelligence of 3 does not grant animals sentience, the ability to use weapons or tools, speak a language (though they may understand one with a rank in Linguistics; this does not grant literacy), or activate magic devices. Also note that raising an animal companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher does not eliminate the need to make Handle Animal checks to direct its actions; even semi-intelligent animals still act like animals unless trained not to. An animal with Intelligence of 3 or higher remains a creature of the animal type unless its type is specifically changed by another ability. An animal may learn 3 additional tricks per point of Intelligence above 2.
Less of a house rule, more of a clarification. According to the text in Handle Animal, "[a]n animal with an Intelligence score of 1 can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of 2 can learn a maximum of six tricks." It follows that each additional point of Int would add 3 tricks, assuming that the creature doesn't become a magical beast.
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What about the spell tongues - "This spell grants the creature touched the ability to speak and understand the language of any intelligent creature, whether it is a racial tongue or a regional dialect. "
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also (maybe) share language - though that one is maybe not, as the wording is different.(Though, I am not sure I would feel comfortable about having a giant slug with "tongues"... that's just another of those things that make you say "Ewww!")
I'm pretty sure that implicit in the tongues spell is the understanding that the target is physically capable of speaking in the first place, and this spell just gives them the ability to speak all languages, not just the ones it already knows.
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Less of a house rule, more of a clarification. According to the text in Handle Animal, "[a]n animal with an Intelligence score of 1 can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of 2 can learn a maximum of six tricks." It follows that each additional...
Neat! I was looking for that rule a little while ago, but I couldn't find it. I guess it's a Society house rule?
While it's an extrapolation, the reason I was unsure about it is because it's not part of the core rules.
Don't get my wrong, I think it's a good house rule, especially with all the new tricks in the Animal Archive. I'm just not sure why this was changed for Society play but not other things.
EDIT: Found JB's post. That's fine, but it would be nice if they put that into the rulebook.
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Among other benefits, the belt of dwarvenkind allows the wearer to beoth understand and speak Dwarf.So first you would have to buy the waste slot for a magic item....Can slugs buy that slot?I see what you did there! (waste/waist) with a slug... a "waste slot"!
Glad to see a little wordplay doesn't go amiss in the morning.
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Celestial Servant
Benefit: Your animal companion, familiar, or mount gains the celestial template and becomes a magical beast, though you may still treat it as an animal when using Handle Animal, wild empathy, or any other spells or class abilities that specifically affect animals.
Turn it into magical beast, then it can speak?
Edit: Answer no. Still, the blessed slug sounds awesome.
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wow... I get an image of a dwarven giant slug... a bearded giant slug, or maybe a picture of Jaba the Hut, but with a beard... wow.
Zorba has a beard. As a giant slug it might even be in scale to Leia's pic. :)
There's no feat or archetype required. It's just a companion in Ultimate Magic.
The Ranger archetype Dungeon Rover allows you to take it as your Hunter's Bond companion as well. Although the giant slug has its disadvantages, pretty brutal companion for the level (compared with most of the other offerings). Via Pathfinder Player Companion Dungeoneer's Handbook. AFAIK still legal unless they nerfed it and have not updated the AR page.
Jaba the Hut,I wonder how many people have taken a giant slug as an animal companion and named it Jabba...
<sheepishly raises his hand and hangs his head in shame...>
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Doesn't look like 3 Int gives a familiar or animal companion extra tricks. How do I know this? The wordcasting sorcerer I'm tinkering with for a non-PFS game has a monkey for a familiar Familiar has an Int score of 8, still only six tricks.
Course, hero lab could be wrong. But I'm thinking in this case it's something that's been out for a while. So probably not.
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Doesn't look like 3 Int gives a familiar or animal companion extra tricks. How do I know this? The wordcasting sorcerer I'm tinkering with for a non-PFS game has a monkey for a familiar Familiar has an Int score of 8, still only six tricks.
Course, hero lab could be wrong. But I'm thinking in this case it's something that's been out for a while. So probably not.
Familiars are magical beasts with human to above human levels of intelligence. They don't use the tricks system. Hero labs is well past wrong.
Nefrete, another example to the pile :)
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Well, a familiar has a life before it became a familiar, and it has a life after it's mage releases it (assuming it lives that long.)
The monkey may have learned one or more tricks before being a familiar, and it would still have those tricks after being released. So a monkey familiar could have up to 6 tricks, it just wouldn't use them during the period where they actually are a familiar.
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You could also try the sage familiar archtype. It gains the ability to speak a language per charisma ability. So at least a charisma of 12, your familiar can speak and understand one language. And that is any familiar.
Edit: Sorry, I got that wrong. It is the Ancestor's spirit of the shaman that gives the ability to speak to its familiar. My apologizes.
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Look at the share language spell.
You can share your facility for one particular language with another creature. For 24 hours the target can read, understand, and communicate to the best of its ability in any one language which you already know. For every 5 levels you possess, you can grant the use of another language you know, to a maximum of 5 languages at 20th level. The target must have the physical capacity to articulate sounds, make gestures, or engage in whatever other method speakers of the language use to communicate with each other in order to actually converse. If the target lacks the mental capacity to grasp an actual language it still gains enough knowledge to respond to and carry out even extremely complex commands or suggestions coached in the language (whether written or spoken). However, since this spell does not endow the target with greater reasoning capacity, merely a temporarily enhanced vocabulary, the person offering up instructions to non-sentient creatures must take care to remove any ambiguity or guesswork.
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Edit: Also, Hero Lab is not a rules source. They do occasionally get things wrong.
Yeah, hence why I added the cravet of "hero lab is saying this but it could be wrong".
And... heh... Would LOVE to see what sort of life Monkey Joe, the familiar of my wordcasting sorcerer has after the sorcerer dies. The familiar is a figment.
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communicate "to the best of its ability in any one language which you already know"
Is the table variation point. The best a dog can do could be read as one bark yes two barks for no, or it could be granting the ability to speak as long as it can physically make sound.
That ignore this line afterward. "The target must have the physical capacity to articulate sounds, make gestures, or engage in whatever other method speakers of the language use to communicate with each other in order to actually converse."
