Check out the Barding Stitches, near the bottom of the page. That's about the closest thing I can find for a way to give a snake barding. Other than that, no faqs or anything else I'm aware of.
any thoughts on if that's a must have for a snake animal companion for a druid?
Well, if you don't lose it you lose out on a good amount of army for the pet unless you can get someone to cast mage armor on it. PFS unfortunately follows the rule to the DOT. Before Archives they were the only one that couldn't wear armor if I remember right.
In other news, its absolutely horrifying that they can't wear armor and your supposed to stitch something into their flesh!
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Barding stitches are banned from PFS.
PFS also uses the more restrictive of either
The chart or
Only Armor and Neck slot items + what you get with the extra slot feat.
On the chart the snake has the slots
Belt, eyes, headband
So in PFS your snake starts off with NO slots. And you can get a feat to wear a belt, another feat to wear goggles, and another feat to wear a headband if you want. But both snake armor and barding stitches are banned, sorry. (Druids local 704 considers them a pointy stick offense against nature anyway)
I would teach the snake the grapple command, so he forgoes the bite and just grapples in case the thing he';s fighting has a DR you can't overcome.
on a side note, light armor proficiency is a trap for animal companions. You can get an armor that has no armor check penalty , and thus requires no proficiency to avoid penalties on an animal fairly easily with
Leather armor
masterwork studded leather
Mithril chain
Mithral Kikko
Darkcloth hide armor (Note: for some strange reason dark cloth armor still slows you down and doesn't change the armor type for purposes other than proficiency)
Mithral Breastplate with the comfort enchant
The best thing you can buy a snake are pearls of power for extra spell buffs. Bark skin and magic fang aren't quite as good as armor and the amulet of mighty fists but they're good enough for PFS.
but he would still need light armor proficiency for it?
You need proficiency to wear armor without penalty. You can hit 0 ACP easy though. If you have 0 ACP you can wear the armor without any penalty.
Mind you the snake doesn't get to wear anything because no slots. Which is just weird... but apparently you can stitch it to its flesh, which is horrifying enough that I have to mention it twice.
Edit: Blargh, ninja'd!
where is this chart?
Animal Archives(if I remember correctly). Here's a copy of the chart for those who don't have a copy of animal archives.
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thanks. where is this chart? i've been looking into all this druid stuff over the last week, few days and haven't come across that. and i guess i'd need the books for the feats to let them use those slots too :-(
also, there's a grapple command? is that a grapple "trick?" i haven't seen that, and i'd need to buy the book to use it in pfs.
also, also, do you mean that i should teach that in case the ac is too high for him to hit very often? or did you mean what you wrote? in my reading of the grab ability, i thought it seemed that you just had to hit with the attack, not necessarily over come dr to do damage, but i'm not up on all the FAQs and erratas and whatnot.
If a creature's DR blocks an attack it blocks any riders on it. So if Cuddles the snake goes up to a kobold and bites he instantly grapples and then constricts for even more damage.
If cuddles goes up to a demon or a golem , bites, and doesn't get through the demon's damage resistance, then Cuddles can't grapple or constrict. What you CAN do is tell Cuddles to just grab the thing... so even if he can't hurt it he can hold it down.
If you have a critter definitely make the book your next purchase.
Another item for a snake to consider is the wand or potions of mage armor. Usually someone in your party can activate it on the snake for you, and if you have a little charisma or intelligence you can be dangerously curious and activate it yourself)
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Under damage reduction
Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury poison, a monk's stunning, and injury-based disease. Damage Reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.
Eyup. The feat is there its called Extra slot
The magic items in the book itself are kinda meh, but there's a good section on equipment guide items. In particular the Stone of Alliance is good for snakes, since all it needs is a digestive tract. You can also up the snakes intelligence to 3 or higher and give it Ioun stones. (though a wayfinder is probably out)
thanks.
you can give it ioun stones? how does that work? and is it worth using two ability point advances (and waiting until level 8) to get the int up to 3? it starts at 1, yes?
Hmmm Forgot they started at 1. That makes it a bit less viable at lower levels. If you're human consider the "eye for talent" alternate ability to add 2 to its intelligence. They're definitely worth it because you're going to need the tricks anyway.
If you're an aasimar take the celestial servant feat to turn it into a celestial snake. (What? Me in the gardensssSs? I belong here!) that gives it more abilities than a reasonable expenditure of ioun stones.
This finally got me to put together a guide for PFS critters and those that love them here
My advice is to buy the arcane caster in your party a level 1 Pearl of Power for 1,000 gold, and in return ask them to cast Mage Armor on your companion every time you venture forth. You'll save a feat and get a +4 armor bonus with no ACP or other drawbacks, which combined with the snake's natural armor and maybe a Barkskin from the druid will give it a decent armor class until much later in the game.