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New updates in the latest faq batch
You can retrain animal tricks YAY.
You can have one combat critter, one beast of burden, and one pocket pet. The combat critter has no restrictions, the beast of burden only takes move actions, and the pocket pet only provides its static bonuses. This choice is made at the start of the adventure.
If you sent your pet in to grab the cursed monkey idol, that curse transfers to you at the end of the adventure. Serves you right.
An update to familiars using wands, and animal critter slots is coming soon.
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Yay, I get to bring a mini for my bison and wagon to clutter up the battlemap even more.
Let's see I'll be taking up:
3x3 squares for myself and my mount
2x2 squares for the bison
2x4 squares for the wagon
Anyway, jokes aside I'm not entirely sure that having an extra mini on the map that only takes move actions is a practical idea.
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Anyway, jokes aside I'm not entirely sure that having an extra mini on the map that only takes move actions is a practical idea.
I've had enough characters that had 'carried' gear and 'packmule' gear but couldn't afford a porter for one reason or another. It is nice to be rule supported and able to go full immersive in those few situations when the packmule and gear he carries is relevant.
But, admittedly corner case.
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Anyway, jokes aside I'm not entirely sure that having an extra mini on the map that only takes move actions is a practical idea.
Been running a Giant Tortise as a mount... It's pretty terrible, but, for some reason, the party really likes having it there. Totally worthless, and it even slows us down, but they like it.
Did a recent one where there was a trench in the path, 70ft deep and 50ft across. It took like 45minutes to work out the logistics of how to get the turtle across. And yet, the party really had fun with it.
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Anyway, jokes aside I'm not entirely sure that having an extra mini on the map that only takes move actions is a practical idea.Been running a Giant Tortise as a mount... It's pretty terrible, but, for some reason, the party really likes having it there. Totally worthless, and it even slows us down, but they like it.
Did a recent one where there was a trench in the path, 70ft deep and 50ft across. It took like 45minutes to work out the logistics of how to get the turtle across. And yet, the party really had fun with it.
Next time just jump it.
(of course, this is assuming it's a class granted pet and you can cast this spell and it still has the share spells ability--but I just love the thought of super turtle sprinting and jumping across the chasm.)
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Next time just jump it.
(of course, this is assuming it's class granted pet and you can cast this spell and it still has the share spells ability--but I just love the thought of super turtle sprinting and jumping across the chasm.)
Wow, I overlooked that spell in character creation. Character is actually a Sorcerer with Sylvan bloodline, so I can't take that one now without a complete rebuild.
I did run into an interesting obstacle regarding this mount and character creation. I have a medium rider and the Giant Tortise is also Medium (I have the undersized mount feat). Tortise is only Str 14, so even with 4 legs, most medium characters weigh too much. After tinkering with strength and carry weight increasing options, I noticed that the Females of each core race, actually weigh less than the Males.... I don't really like to metagame, but the advantages of being a lighter weight rider were too impressive to pass up.
Prior to this, I hadn't noticed any mechanical advantages to being a certain gender. For Riders of mounts, especially undersized mounts, being a female is a huge mechanical advantage.
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When that spell first came out I made a small hunter riding a wolf. We were doing a scenario (well module) that involved festival games. The game was "who can jump over the fire the farthest and I ended up in the middle of the neighboring field. The NPCs wouldn't let me join in any of the other games after that :(.
Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha
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When that spell first came out I made a small hunter riding a wolf. We were doing a scenario (well module) that involved festival games. The game was "who can jump over the fire the farthest and I ended up in the middle of the neighboring field. The NPCs wouldn't let me join in any of the other games after that :(.
That is what you get for riding a reindeer in wolf's clothing :)
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Next time just jump it.
(of course, this is assuming it's class granted pet and you can cast this spell and it still has the share spells ability--but I just love the thought of super turtle sprinting and jumping across the chasm.)
Wow, I overlooked that spell in character creation. Character is actually a Sorcerer with Sylvan bloodline, so I can't take that one now without a complete rebuild.
I did run into an interesting obstacle regarding this mount and character creation. I have a medium rider and the Giant Tortise is also Medium (I have the undersized mount feat). Tortise is only Str 14, so even with 4 legs, most medium characters weigh too much. After tinkering with strength and carry weight increasing options, I noticed that the Females of each core race, actually weigh less than the Males.... I don't really like to metagame, but the advantages of being a lighter weight rider were too impressive to pass up.
Prior to this, I hadn't noticed any mechanical advantages to being a certain gender. For Riders of mounts, especially undersized mounts, being a female is a huge mechanical advantage.
As it is an animal companion that is granted by your class, then you can use its share spells to cast Overland Flight on it eventually. That'll really zip your steed up.
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You can have one combat critter, one beast of burden, and one pocket pet. The combat critter has no restrictions, the beast of burden only takes move actions, and the pocket pet only provides its static bonuses. This choice is made at the start of the adventure.
Excellent. My Mother's Fang/Hunter just became clearly legal and practical
(Its unclear if I have one snake or two, but I can just bring both versions to the table and see which the GM wants me to play).
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The immediate dilemma I see is that your snake does not yet have the BAB for Improved Natural Attack (+4).
The maneuver trick is not needed to make your snake grab, but your snake only grabs on a successful bite. If you're finding it hard for your snake to hit an opponent's AC, having the maneuver trick is useful because your CMB is always going to be higher than your Attack bonus.
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You want to pick up "down" asap, either as your next bonus trick or working on Sesha's problem solving skills to help them up their intelligence at 4 hd.would you rate down as more important than either maneuver or heel?
Probably the manuever. Being able to grapple a tin can you can't hit is a really nice option to have available, but you need heel or come to get the critter to follow along with you.
At 4 HD I was planning to give Sesha an extra point in constitution as that would result directly in 4 more HP, and with the limited possibilities for extra AC extra HP is quite nice.
Druids local definitely appreciates your attention to your cohorts survivability :)
The divine hunter herself will use a bow (also dedicated to Erastil so Savior's Arrow will be in her feat list and deadeye bowman in her list of traits ;))
Oh that's a nice one.
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Let them take the "extra slot" feat and buy them muelback cords.
based on current rules for extra item slot that pfs put into play, your companion must have the slot on their list of available slots on the front cover of the guide.
Additionally, animal companions have access to magical item slots, in addition to barding and neck, as listed on the inside front cover of Pathfinder Player Companion: Animal Archive so long as they select the Extra Item Slot feat. The Animal Magic Item Slots table found in Animal Archive is not a legal except under the following conditions. First, an animal companion, familiar, or bonded mount, may choose one slot listed under its body type when taking the Extra Item Slot feat (this feat may be taken multiple times, each time selecting a different available magic item slot based on the creature's anatomy). Second, access to specific magic item slots may be granted at a later date by another legal source. If you do not own a copy of the Animal Archive, your animal companion may only use barding and neck-slot items.
notice that this faq removes the ability for you to get a slot not available to your companion such as a magical belt slot for most of them due to the fact the belt slot is limited to saddles only(clarified in animal archives below
Available slots followed by either “(saddle)” or
“(horseshoes)” denote that creatures of that body type can only wear magic items in the appropriate slots as long as they are either saddles or
horseshoes, respectively (for instance, a hoofed quadruped can wear a saddle of the sky-river, but not a belt of dwarvenkind).
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Wow, I overlooked that spell in character creation. Character is actually a Sorcerer with Sylvan bloodline, so I can't take that one now without a complete rebuild.Next time just jump it.
(of course, this is assuming it's class granted pet and you can cast this spell and it still has the share spells ability--but I just love the thought of super turtle sprinting and jumping across the chasm.)
If it's something you want bad enough, it's on the witch list, which means it's legal to put it into a Ring of Spell Knowledge II. So for 6,000 gold and 25 gold for a scroll, you could have access to it when you need it (EDIT: as a 2nd level spell).
I'll admit, that's a little pricey just to solve that issue. However, you can switch the spell in the ring as a standard action to any other 1st or 2nd level spell on the Sorcerer list, or 1st level Arcane spell not on the Sorcerer list. Provided you have access to a scroll or spellbook that contains it, or see it being cast. It's actually well worth the 6,000 gold.
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lol levitate spell works wonders also
Leviate only carries 100lbs/caster level. The Giant Tortise weighs 500lbs as a medium creature according to B3. So levitate requires 5 caster levels before it can help in this situation. Not useless, but super helpful regarding this issue. Anyway, I'm just going to redesign the character (fresh start, same model). Probably slow advancement, this time around, just to maximize the 1st level sessions so I can really get all the kinks out.
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Would the mantis lunge ability count as reach for paired opportunists?
Lunge (Ex) A giant mantis's limbs are capable of reaching much farther than normal for a creature of its size. As a full-attack action, it can make a single attack with its claws at double its normal reach. When a giant mantis attacks with a claw in this manner, it gains a +4 bonus on its attack roll. A giant mantis cannot make attacks of opportunity with its lunge.
Apparently not.
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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As it is an animal companion that is granted by your class, then you can use its share spells to cast Overland Flight on it eventually. That'll really zip your steed up.
Actually that doesn't work. While you can teach your companion tricks for Air Walk, there is no trick for fly / overland flight. So you have to Push it every turn to get your mount to carry you into the air.
Such was the ruling when I played at Tonya's table.
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That seems overly antagonistic frankly. In the same way an animal companion knows how to use it feats it should also be able to use its applicable skills and if you can cast overland fly on it then it can take ranks in fly.
Tastes differ.
I find it implausible that a land bound animal would have any reaction other than stark terror to finding itself suddenly inexplicably floating through the air. Hence, I'd never allow one to just casually pick up flying as if it were like learning to play fetch.
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That seems overly antagonistic frankly. In the same way an animal companion knows how to use it feats it should also be able to use its applicable skills and if you can cast overland fly on it then it can take ranks in fly.Tastes differ.
I find it implausible that a land bound animal would have any reaction other than stark terror to finding itself suddenly inexplicably floating through the air. Hence, I'd never allow one to just casually pick up flying as if it were like learning to play fetch.
I might let it fly (hah!) once the animal reaches 3 Intelligence. Maybe a rank in linguistics to have it explained to them. At that point, they should have enough of an understanding, especially if they can have it cast on them repeatedly and thus gain ranks in fly.
Of course, having Air Walk as a trick sort of puts this idea in the furnace. Flight would work well as a trick but there's no rule for it so we've got one of those situations where a perfectly reasonable solution is impossible because the rules have a few hiccups in them.
This is one of the reasons why my PFS roster has 4 Summoners and no Druid or Hunters.
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I find it implausible that a land bound animal would have any reaction other than stark terror to finding itself suddenly inexplicably floating through the air. Hence, I'd never allow one to just casually pick up flying as if it were like learning to play fetch.
skill ranks happen 1/3rd or 1/6th as often as the opportunity to retrain tricks, some of which are fairly compicated or counter intuiative (like attack the zombie)
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you can use share spells to cast Overland Flight on it.Actually that doesn't work. While you can teach your companion tricks for Air Walk, there is no trick for fly / overland flight. So you have to Push it every turn to get your mount to carry you into the air.
Such was the ruling when I played at Tonya's table.
Although I can confirm her ruling, I have since looked at it differently:
- Int 3+ animals can put ranks into any skill.
- Fly is a class skill for Companions and Familiars.
- You can put ranks into Fly only if you have a reliable (assumed daily) means of flight.
- So if you can reliably cast Fly or Overland Flight, then you could theoretically train your Companion (AKA put ranks into) to fly.
Plus, we must remember that there is technically no trick to make an animal use a skill that it has ranks in. I feel that a good default is to treat having skill ranks the same as having feats when considering what a Companion can and can't do.
While I absolutely respect Tonya's ruling for that game, I didn't get the feeling that it was meant as a "Campaign wide" decision.
At least currently, it's still subject to table variation.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Animal Skills
Animal companions can have ranks in any of the following skills: Acrobatics* (Dex), Climb* (Str), Escape Artist (Dex), Fly* (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Perception* (Wis), Stealth* (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim* (Str). All of the skills marked with an (*) are class skills for animal companions. Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can put ranks into any skill.
Fly is not "too complex" for animals. Provided the animal meets the other criterion of taking ranks in Fly (i.e. daily practice opportunity), it can take ranks in it.
Since there doesn't exist any "flying mount" trick, it's also not required. People have been using rocs, bats, wasps and pterodactyls as mounts for a while now.
I could imagine a GM ruling that a mount without ranks in Fly isn't a good flying mount. But if the mount has ranks in Fly I don't see a good basis for objecting.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I could imagine a GM ruling that a mount without ranks in Fly isn't a good flying mount.^ this was the case with thistledown's Companion at Tonya's table.
Well, what constitutes a proper mount is a vague subject to begin with. But a "fish out of water" would probably count.
Side note, if you're a druid and wondering how to get your companion a daily fly speed so he can practice, consider the Vermin Shape spell cast through Share Spells.
So a Shissah (from Qadira) is a horse, and PFS legal for play even on limited companion/mount lists, so while not explicit in the text itself, should hopefully make it a fairly clearcut option for most tables (awesome). A genie-touched companion is a horse companion that has basically a template added to it. This is also PFS legal.
Anyone know if you can have a genie-touched Shissah? Or more blanketly, does a Shissah count as a horse in all contexts (since it's basically a breed of horse)?
I even feel silly for asking, but I'm almost sure it will come up.
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So a Shissah (from Qadira) is a horse, and PFS legal for play even on limited companion/mount lists, so while not explicit in the text itself, should hopefully make it a fairly clearcut option for most tables (awesome). A genie-touched companion is a horse companion that has basically a template added to it. This is also PFS legal.
Anyone know if you can have a genie-touched Shissah? Or more blanketly, does a Shissah count as a horse in all contexts (since it's basically a breed of horse)?
I even feel silly for asking, but I'm almost sure it will come up.
. Misc.: The animal companions, barbarian rage powers, cavalier order, and sorcerer bloodline and legal for play. A PC who must select an animal companion from a limited list (e.g. cavalier, paladin, or ranger) may select a shissah in place of a horse, but unless it is that PC's first animal companion selected, the PC must spend 4 Prestige Points to gain such a mount
So it's good.
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I hope that Totem Spiritualist is made legal whenever Psychic Anthology unlocks. I look forward to seeing how phantom animal companions work out.
With animal companions being skill starved, do you think Owl Style is worth it for BAB to skills for stealth, acrobatics and fly? It taxes skill focus (stealth) and 1 rank in each skill, but the alternative (the HD to skills feat Cunning from Villian Codex) can only be taken once.
Or if you're go Eye for Talent with an Int 6 Mount and focus on Int ability score increases you could eventually rock 12+ Int and multiple skill points per HD, but that would take real commitment.
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not unless you get a regular stealth group together.
In order to sneak up on an enemy, you usually need the entire group to be stealthy and there's usually at least one party member that.. well. Ahh...
*distant screams of TIIIIMBER! and a crash in the background*
Has a more straightforward means of entry.
Party's sneaking through dungeons always seem to have to open doors, which makes stealth impossible.
Stealthing for PC's tends to be very hard, while NPC's have all the conditions they need to stealth laid out before them. On top of that the skill check is.. pretty rough, and very few bosses are high dex opponents where that really matters.
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Quick sanity check before I deliver the bad news to my players: The Huntsmaster feat when referring to a 'bird' only includes 'Bird (Eagle/Hawk/Owl)' and does not include the 'Roc'. Is this correct?
