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The Cartomancer has an ability "Spell Deck" which it says replaces Witch's Familiar ability. The first paragraph seems to indicate that the only thing the Spell Deck does is store the spells like a witch's familiar. However, the next section says "The following familiar ability works differently for a cartomancer" and it speaks about Deliver Touch Spells.
Being that it calls out that the Spell Deck gets at least one of the familiar abilities but doesn't say something like "In addition, the Spell Deck gets this one Familiar Ability and this is how it functions", does that mean that the Spell Deck gets other Familiar Abilities that make sense (Alertness, Evasion, etc)? Or is it just a poor wording for that particular ability and it meant "Your Spell Deck also gets this ability"?
John
That they state "the following familiar ability works differently for a cartomancer" does almost seem to imply you'd get the other abilities (this familiar ability works differently ergo the other familiar abilities work the same).I think though it's just ambiguous writing and you'd only get the listed abilities.
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The Spell Deck class feature is a little more complicated than it looks.
There have been some good discussions on this topic from earlier this year, so I recommend doing a search on the Rules forum for 'Cartomancer' and reading through them.
Specifically, this thread might be useful to you.
The original author/contributor, David Schwartz, shared his thoughts regarding how a Spell Deck should work. It's not official (he's not a developer), but it definitely helped clarify some things.
When trying to nail down just exactly what Spell Deck does, just focus on the line that says it 'replaces the Witch's Familiar feature.' That means that what you see is what you get in the Archetype description. It's a total replacement, so you don't get the usual extras.
In any case, discussing the Cartomancer's abilities with your GM before you play is probably a good idea.
The spell deck is not a familiar. It's an object that works like a witch familiar for the purpose of storing, learning, and preparing spells. I chalk up the line "the following familiar ability works differently" as poor wording. It makes no sense why the deck would gain evasion and the ability to speak with the master when it's obviously not an intelligent item. Even Alertness doesn't make sense. The flavor behind Alertness is that possessing a mentally bonded creature grants you an extra set of ears and eyes to sense for trouble. The designer likely wrote that line in the context that "deliver touch spells" is the only familiar ability that has to do with spellcasting and likely the only one that might apply.
So no, a cartomancer does not receive any of the abilities listed under the witch familiars section unless it has to do with preparing and storing spells. RAW, the deck is not a familiar. Your GM might allow you to scry on it, however. I once wrote a homebrew witch archetype with an item instead of a familiar that replaced the "speak with animals" ability with an at-will ventrilliquism.