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WAYFINDER ENHANCEMENTS
For members of the Pathfinder Society, a wayfinder is more than a compass or receptacle for an ioun stone. These ubiquitous minor magic items are status symbols and badges of honor among Pathfinders, and elaborate or exotic versions are growing in popularity among those who wish to stand out from their peers. To obtain the following wayfinder enhancements,
a Pathfinder must already own a wayfinder.
Discerning (5 PP): This wayfinder functions as normal, except the user can cast detect magic at will in place of light.
Inherited (3 PP): A mentor or older relative who was a Pathfinder passed this wayfinder down to you, and it keeps a minor enchantment from its previous owner. When purchasing a wayfinder enhancement that would normally replace the wayfinder’s ability to cast light with the ability to cast a different spell, the wayfinder retains the ability to cast light, allowing it to cast two different 0-level spells.
Jade (2 PP): Crafted in distant Tian Xia, the jade casing of this wayfinder is decorated with serpentine dragons wound around the Glyph of the Open Road. Instead of light, a jade wayfinder can be used to cast guidance.
I would like to have a wayfinder that combines the Discerning wayfinder with the Jade wayfinder. It looks like Inherited just adds light back to an existing wayfinder, and specifically limits it to "two different 0-level spells."
If I were to spend the 10 PA for all three enhancements (gulp!) would I get a wayfinder that casts all three, or a wayfinder that just casts guidance and detect magic, or would I be limited to either guidance+light or detect magic+light?
Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane
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The discerning enhancement stated that the wayfinder does function as normal allowing the user the option of light or detect magic and does not actually replace light. The only replacing would be from the Jade enhancement (light for guidance) which Inherited would cover keeping along with guidance. If I am correct in my approach, you would have a wayfinder with the ability to cast both light and guidance with the option of detect magic at will instead of light.
So you would not lose the option to cast light with all three enhancements but have an option to use detect magic instead of light and keep guidance with the application of all three enhancements.
I hope this makes sense and the is logic correct. Thanks.
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It's moreso the fact that if Light is replaced by one, the other can't replace Light. This isn't pure RAW, but seems like the RAI for it.The Inherited vanity allows you to add a Wayfinder vanity without replacing light, thus it's still there to be replaced.
I would say that so long as the wayfinder in question hasn't actually replaced the at-will light, any vanity that would replace it is fair game; in other words, I'd say what the OP is asking is legal. In fact, I'd say the "allowing it to cast two different 0-level spells" bit would indicate that they may have actually intended for this to be done.
Oh, ha. That's what I get for reading just the first and second parts. Curse you, 4th-grade instruction reading methods!
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Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane
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SCPRedMage, while I agree with your logic, the "at will in place of light " portion of the discerning description could lead one to believe that it is not a replacement but an option. The Jade enhancement seems to imply the replacement of light with "instead of". I do think you are correct that only the author would know for sure.
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Preston, I believe SCPRedMage to be correct and here is my reason why:
If the Discerning vanity were intended to allow the wielder to cast either detect magic or light, it would be unnecessary to write "in place of light" in the description. The sentence would simply read something like
I agree that the language isn't as clear as it could be, however.
For the original question, my take would be that the wayfinder would allow the character to cast detect magic and guidance, but not light.
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I will point out that we can (maybe) look at the PP cost as a guideline.
2 PP == replace the light with another spell
5 PP == adds another spell to the ability to cast light but both cannot be active at the same time.
Of course, this assumes that the PP costs were actually considered relative to effectiveness, that all 0-level spells cast at caster level 1 are equal in value, and that the authors/developers looked at what other pricing was before pulling a number out of their hat. :)
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Notice the smiley? :)
Honestly, at this point - the ability to get guidance and detect magic in one gizmo would make me happy. light is useful, but paying to have continual light cast makes it less useful.
Minor note: guidance lasts 1 minute or until discharged. This makes it significantly more useful. Plus, it doesn't specify the guidance is only on the bearer of the wayfinder, so it lets me do buffs on the party skill monkey or rogue.
All three of the spells are likely to be covered by teammates (guidance is the one that's rarest), and PFS really doesn't encourage "one player tries to get their way out of a tight situation via cleverness and guile..." which is where a fighter being able to cast Detect Magic is actually useful.
I'd be happier still if it let me have all 3, more from a roleplaying perspective.
I'm not at all sure that this is worth spending 5/8ths of a Raise Dead on for optimization - it's probably absolutely not, based on the players in my group who went 'you want to spend what, for what?!?'
If you go by the general rule that an at will gizmo casting a 0 level spell is 900 GP, and adding 0 level spells to the gizmo each costs 1350 GP, all three spells would be about 3600 GP worth of gear, which is pretty close to 10 PA worth of "magic item." (3750 at 2 PA per 750 GP purchase).
It's also suboptimal enough that I won't have my thunder/fashion/backstory trumped by everyone having them. (Gloves of Reconnaisance, I'm looking at you!) :)
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Venture-Captain, Washington—Spokane
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Please understand that I was not stating that anyone was wrong but I was pointing out (and The Fox verified) that the language of the Discerning description was not as clear as it could be stated. I agree with the logic that both discerning and jade enhancements would replace light and would rule as such at the table unless I saw something to the contrary. The "at will" combined with the "in place of" just created a bit of confusion.
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Notice the smiley? :)
Honestly, at this point - the ability to get guidance and detect magic in one gizmo would make me happy. light is useful, but paying to have continual light cast makes it less useful.
Minor note: guidance lasts 1 minute or until discharged. This makes it significantly more useful. Plus, it doesn't specify the guidance is only on the bearer of the wayfinder, so it lets me do buffs on the party skill monkey or rogue.
All three of the spells are likely to be covered by teammates (guidance is the one that's rarest), and PFS really doesn't encourage "one player tries to get their way out of a tight situation via cleverness and guile..." which is where a fighter being able to cast Detect Magic is actually useful.
I'd be happier still if it let me have all 3, more from a roleplaying perspective.
I'm not at all sure that this is worth spending 5/8ths of a Raise Dead on for optimization - it's probably absolutely not, based on the players in my group who went 'you want to spend what, for what?!?'
If you go by the general rule that an at will gizmo casting a 0 level spell is 900 GP, and adding 0 level spells to the gizmo each costs 1350 GP, all three spells would be about 3600 GP worth of gear, which is pretty close to 10 PA worth of "magic item." (3750 at 2 PA per 750 GP purchase).
It's also suboptimal enough that I won't have my thunder/fashion/backstory trumped by everyone having them. (Gloves of Reconnaisance, I'm looking at you!) :)
If you're wanting this item, you can have it at my table. It just will cost the sum of all the wayfinders you would have to buy to get the abilities you want. Oh, and it would also 'weigh' the equivalent of what those combined wayfinders would 'weigh'. But you can roleplay it as being one item all day and night. :-)
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Incorrect. If you have more than one ioun stone slotted into more than one wayfinder, and more than one would provide a resonance power, they interfere with each other, and you receive neither resonance power, until you unslot one of the stones, or put down one of the wayfinders.
Note that this only applies to ioun stones that have a resonance power; a cracked or flawed ioun stone (which in PFS, doesn't provide a resonance power) will not interfere with an ioun stone that DOES provide a resonance power.
should have clarified that, yes :P Usually I only ever have one true Ioun Stone and all my others are cracked...
