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So, I'm looking into an Ioun Wyrd as a familiar for my magus, and have some questions:
An ioun wyrd may integrate a number of ioun stones into its body up to 1 + 1/2 its Hit Dice.
It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base att...
Hit Dice: For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the master's character level or the familiar's normal HD total, whichever is higher.
1. So, is the Ioun Affinity (Su) an 'effect related to number of hit dice'? The options here are either the Wyrd can only ever hold 1 stone, or it can hold 1 + 1/2 master's level. Pretty significant difference.
2. If the Ioun Wyrd is a construct, can it be modified and enhanced with the Craft Construct feat? If so, one might be able to increase hit dice in that way, though I believe that modification is limited to a 50% increase, which means no increase possible for the Tiny 1HD construct.
3. What stone would be acceptable for a starting character (in my case, starting at level 3 when my Magus picks up the Familiar arcana)? Cost wise, there are quite a few cracked stones that fit into a 3rd level character's WBL.
Bumping in hopes more people have been exposed to the glory that is the Ioun Wyrd now.
Actually playing a character with an ioun wyrd familiar right now.
1) In my opinion, yes, or at least it should be, but we've seen clarifications from Paizo before - Silvanshees' lay on hands ability is specifically stated to be tied to hit dice, but the team said that when taken as a familiar (improved familiar feat) it only is counted as the base ability and never improves. So, for home games, I absolutely believe that this is an ability tied to HD, and the creature's HD is treated as the higher of the master's or its own. For PFS, I'd be willing to bet that the "Silvanshee Precedent" would hold.
2) It remains a construct, as far as I can tell.
3) At first, the only stone that was feasible for my character was a dull gray. We've just hit 3rd level, and we haven't had much time in the campaign for shopping excursions yet. I simply haven't checked into prices for a while.
Those answers bring up some other issues.. for starters, Ioun Wyrd isn't even legal for PFS, mainly because it's a construct, and crafting is out, so how it is ruled in PFS is likely moot (which unfortunately, is also why there will probably be no ruling from the devs/faq on this). Also, the interesting thing with the Ioun Wyrd, is that, yes, it makes sense for the Dull Grey stone to be the typical starter (for cost/power etc) - yet the construction requirements for the Ioun Wyrd requires a 'functional ioun stone', which I think the dull-grey is not by definition - but I'd certainly ignore that one.
Unfortunately, this are issues in the write-up that COULD easily be fixed, but since it's a soft-cover, it will never be looked at again.
Wasn't sure from the original post if this was intended for PFS or a home game. I'm not involved in PFS, and I don't know all of the rule changes there. At my games, if it says in the familiar's entry that the ability is tied to HD, then it is affected by the master's HD.
The dull gray is functional since it has a faint universal aura - it just provides no benefits. I guess it provides a benefit as a decoy, or as a starter stone in constructing an Ioun Wyrd.
Fairly decent list of ioun stones and costs here. A cracked dusty rose prism (+1 competence bonus to initiative) for 500gp isn't the worst option out there. Also a cracked magenta prism for 800gp isn't bad (floating +2 bonus to a single skill that you can change on a daily basis).
The conclusion really is that the Ioun Wyrd just doens't typically make sense as a level 1 starting familiar - so perhaps only makes sense when adding the familiar capability later in life - level 3 magus arcana, multiclassing into a spellcaster with familiar, etc. All that, combined with the high feat cost to gain craft construct to build your own is why the only character I've ever rolled up to use an Ioun Wyrd was a magus that 'inherited' her former master's ioun wyrd familiar when she was 3rd level (picking up the familiar arcana at that time).
Another thing that came up - What 'type' is the Ioun Wyrd familiar? It's obviously originally a construct, but familiar general rules state that it is treated as a Magical Beast for all effects - so would Make Whole heal an Ioun Wyrd or does Cure Light Wounds? Does it have construct immunities? Another point where a single sentence in the Ioun Wyrd description stating that it remains a construct when it become a familiar would fix this.
Well, you're right, a single statement in the ioun wyrd's entry would have cleared it right up, but I think we can make some inferences.
1) Normal familiar rules say that animals become magical beasts.
2) Improved Familiar says non-animals keep their original types.
I understand that ioun wyrds are not gained through Improved Familiar, but it is listed as an Unusual Familiar. By strict interpretation of RAW and the sidebar on page 31 of Familiar Folio, there's nothing that contradicts Rule 1. I still would think that plant and construct familiars would keep their original type, because it simply doesn't make sense otherwise. They seem to occupy a middle ground between normal familiars and Improved Familiars - not powerful enough to warrant the feat expenditure, but odd enough to warrant the special consideration.
Hmm, you know, I'm glad you folks posted this because I have a case of this in my home game. Guy started as a rogue, found the minor and major magic talents, then he found a spellbook on an enemy wizard and has decided to start multiclassing. Yes, yes, we know this isn't exactly optimal, its all for storytelling, but he had found the familiar folio and the ioun wyrd and decided he wanted to eventually commission one to be made by the local wizard's academy. So these suggestions will really help me out.
I think I'm going to agree with Vanykrye and have it's abilities scale from the master's hit die, and keep it's type of construct.
If an Ioun Wyrd familiar is not a construct, what is its constitution score?
If an Ioun Wyrd familiar is not a construct, what is its constitution score?
Well, technically, the rules do not say the type changes to magical beast, it says for effects it counts as a magical beast - so it could still not have a con score, still be a construct, so it would still have construct traits, but things that affect constructs would not affect it, and things that affect magical beasts would - which would make for a horrible situation, so I do agree it needs to just ignore that general familiar rule.
More Wyrd considerations:
On the assumption that you ignore most of the usage of the term 'animal' in the familiar rules,
For each saving throw, use either the familiar's base save bonus (Fortitude +2, Reflex +2, Will +0) or the master's (as calculated from all his classes), whichever is better.
1) Do Ioun Wyrd familiars use the base saves of a construct ((Fortitude +0, Reflex +0, Will +0) or the ones listed in the familiar rules which happen to be the default for the animal type?
Constructs do not have any class skills, regardless of their Intelligence scores.
Familiars treat Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim as class skills.
2) Do Ioun Wyrd familiars have no class skills, as their type states, or do they have the class skills of a familiar.
Class Skills: A mauler treats Intimidate as a class skill.
2b) Does a Mauler Ioun Wyrd (definitely not optimal) get Intimidate as a class skill?
The familiar has half the master's total hit points (not including temporary hit points), rounded down, regardless of its actual Hit Dice.
A construct is hard to destroy, and gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the following table.
Fine —
Diminutive —
Tiny —
Small 10
Medium 20
3) Does that Mauler Ioun Wyrd get bonus hit points in battle form (size medium)?
More Wyrd considerations:
Relevant Questions
I can only tell you the way I've been treating it, which is as a construct, but modified where it makes sense to me.
1) I use the base saves of a construct, per the Ioun Wyrd's creature entry.
2) I give them no class skills other than Fly - since they can, you know, fly, and it's the only way that made the +10 bonus add up correctly.
2b) I would give a mauler archetyped IW familiar intimidate as a class skill, yes, since that's in addition to the familiar's normal class skills.
3) I would say yes.