Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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It's kind of an advice question, kind of a rules question. I'm opting for rules because this is for Pathfinder Society, so I have to have a pretty strict interpretation that avoids the "Check with your GM" concept.
So, what kind of stuff can I put on my druid's snake?
I ask, by the way, because floating around out there is a thread where Sean Reynolds (I think) says "not in my game" to armor on a snake. I kind of agree with him, but obviously have a dilemma: if I can't do things like armor or neck slot items, I'm making poor Mussafir a likely candidate for replacement.
Thus, I am hoping you good forumites will be able to help answer my question.
What say you?
Unfortunately, no armour or neck slots for snakes in PFS. There's a post from Mike Brock on the subject in the PFS forums.
Yarr, snakes got a bum deal out of that. Armor and Neck are probably 2 of the more important slots.
In a homegame its really whatever your GM says you can. In PFS... its armor and necklace only if I remember right, though there are some more specifics I'm not keen on. Such as the snake.
there is actually a book published by Paizo called Animal Archive that has a table with slots for every type of animal right on page 2, and Mergy is correct, serpentine only gets belt headband and eyes. :(
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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D'oh! Really? I had no idea that it was called out specifically in PFS.
Well, on to the advice, then: how do I get around this? The Extra Item Slot is one option. Ioun stones, maybe?
As for being suboptimal, I'm not too worried. I've never been an attention hog, and am certainly not going to be worried if he's not the ultimate front-line combatant. He can play flanking/grappling buddy to the rogues and fighters of the group, and I'm fine with that. The bite -> grab -> constrict lineup is pretty strong, and will get around a lot of the worry I have of him getting smashed in combat. He just needs to survive a round to pin his opponent, I think, and he's already +20 to do that at 4th level.
there is actually a book published by Paizo called Animal Archive that has a table with slots for every type of animal right on page 2, and Mergy is correct, serpentine only gets belt headband and eyes. :(
Wait, how does it wear glasses and headbands? But they can't wear a jacket?
hmmmm well a few things I can think of:
scroll of polymorph any object and pick a humanoid Naga or something (should be able to get a permanent duration (same kingdom +5, same size +2, related to +2))
or
cast anthromorphic animal
have an 11th level caster permanency it for 7.5kgp
or play a sylvan bloodline sorceror and eventually get all the spells you need, or use share spells to cast temporary polymorphs into him until 11th.
unfortunately nothing I can think of at level 4 though :(
there is actually a book published by Paizo called Animal Archive that has a table with slots for every type of animal right on page 2, and Mergy is correct, serpentine only gets belt headband and eyes. :(Wait, how does it wear glasses and headbands? But they can't wear a jacket?
I know right? Hehe I've seen facebook photos of people knitting sweaters for their pet constrictors!
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Are you a druid or a sylvan sorcerer? I need to know what buffs we're working with.
Druid. Leyline savant, to be specific.
This is my first go at the class, and he's a GM credit-baby (got his first 8 xp off credit). I've played him twice since, and have thoroughly enjoyed the experiment, though I'm even more dumbfounded than I was before that this class is the hands-down choice of the under 13 crowd. He's easily the most complicated character I've ever run, in terms of the number of choices that have to be made on a regular basis.
Also note that I'm not beholden to the snake for the character concept. He's a world traveler, so the snake fits only in the sense that "Here there be serpents" is something he always enjoyed seeing on maps, for he wanted to find the serpents. But "monsters" can always be subbed into that part of his story, which is pretty generic (if only it could be "dragons").
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Okay.
So with 10 xp you're just past level 4, meaning large snake. Awesome. However, keep some scrolls of reduce animal on hand, because even if you're having him spend a feat on Narrow Frame, it still sucks to squeeze.
Greater magic fang won't be useful for you until level 7, when you can use your awesome menhir savant abilities to increase your caster level to 8 for a +2 enhancement bonus to the snake's bite. Bull's strength, on the other hand, is useful now and will likely be useful for your snake's entire career.
Have you advanced his intellect to 2 yet, or are you relying mostly on pushing to get him to do important things? One aspect where Extra Item Slot might be helpful is in a headband of vast intelligence to bring up his trick threshold, as PFS uses the house rule of 3 tricks per intelligence point.
Rather than permanent items, a lot of good will come out of pearls of power. A first level one will allow you to use longstrider on yourself and your snake, increasing that awful 20 ft. movement speed. A second level will give you two bull's strength spells to play with, and if you buy two of those you will be able to barkskin yourself and your snake (taking advantage of your caster level bump at level 5 to grab a +3 to natural armour).
Oil of mage armour, or a wand combined with UMD or a friendly arcane caster, will be a key point in keeping snake alive. 50 gp is next to nothing at mid levels for +4 to your serpent's AC.
I've played him twice since, and have thoroughly enjoyed the experiment, though I'm even more dumbfounded than I was before that this class is the hands-down choice of the under 13 crowd. He's easily the most complicated character I've ever run, in terms of the number of choices that have to be made on a regular basis.
Druids are extremely powerful in that they have all those options. They are a 9 level prepared caster, of buffs and battlefield control hidden in those choices, and they can shapeshift(which an make up for their 3/4 BAB), and they have an animal companion to bring with them.
Choice things to do are magic greater magic fang and barkskin and turn into a beast of choice(pouncechargers are in this edition!)
Also note that I'm not beholden to the snake for the character concept. He's a world traveler, so the snake fits only in the sense that "Here there be serpents" is something he always enjoyed seeing on maps, for he wanted to find the serpents. But "monsters" can always be subbed into that part of his story, which is pretty generic (if only it could be "dragons").
While there aren't dragons, you can always consider dinosaurs or lizards. T-Rex with Strongjaw is pretty terrifying.
I always liked exotic mounts myself. Megaloceros and Big cats in particular. Those might make good choices for a traveler if you were looking for something different. Mind you not everyone wants a moose, eh.
3 tricks per int is RAW for the first 2 points... then 2 tricks per int after that. But the druid also gets a bunch of bonus tricks so its not that big of a deal.
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3 tricks per int is RAW for the first 2 points... then 2 tricks per int after that. But the druid also gets a bunch of bonus tricks so its not that big of a deal.
Rules as written there is no increase in the number of tricks an animal can learn past an intelligence of 2. PFS makes use of the house rule that allows for an extra three tricks for every point above 2.
A saddle.
Ride the snake!
A Greater Hat of Disguise can turn the wearer into any Small or Medium Humanoid.
A Greater Hat of DisguiseHead slot, which the snake doesn't have. It only has the headband slot.
But... what about sir Hiss?
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The Antropomorphic Animal spell should make all humanoid equipment available to an AC.