Since Spirit's Gift got nerfed for th benefit to be once per day and 1 min / level of the familiar's master, my Eldritch Guardian needs to up his mauler fox familiar's defenses significantly (level 4 and its AC is 13) as I can't bank on DR 5/adamantine keeping the fox alive anymore. Granted it was a short term benefit once more magic comes into play, but it was nice while it lasted. So for now while I'm still low-ish level and in beginning of book 2 of Rise of the Runelords, I plan on getting the fox a masterwork studded leather armor to up it's AC.
I'm gonna be sticking with Mark Seifter's [urlk=http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rwp5?Familiar-Folio-fun-What-else-can-you-do-with#33]explanation that the mauler's battle form is a supernatural polymoprh effect[/url]. Anyone that tries telling me otherwise, it won't help because there's no way my GM, my party, or myself for that matter, are gonna be cool with the monster-creation-table Str bonuses.
Because it's a polymorph effect I'm trying to determine if the armor changes size with the mauler in or out of battle form.
When you cast a polymorph spell that changes you into a creature of the animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin type, all of your gear melds into your body. Items that provide constant bonuses and do not need to be activated continue to function while melded in this way (with the exception of armor and shield bonuses, which cease to function)...If your new form does not cause your equipment to meld into your form, the equipment resizes to match your new size.
QUESTION: Since the mauler doesn't actually polymorph from magical beast to anything else, does the armor get melded into his new size and be ineffectual? Or would the armor change size with the mauler and can still be used in mauler's original size or medium-sized battle form?
And a better question- is this actually an issue?
Not being derisive, I am actually wondering- will you ever have to have your familiar change size in combat?
The reason I am asking this is because the ability does not list time limits. At all. To time limit, no listed action needed for shifting, nothing but the size change and str boost. That appears to imply that there is no limit (unless that was mentioned in some thread post somewhere).
So, barring social problems from having a 5 foot tall talking crow following you arround or scouting missions....is there a reason to ever have your familiar in its original size?
If you can have your familiar running around full sized all the time...then just buy armor appropriate for that size and wear that. So, whether that is a viable option or not is important for your build, no?
As a matter of fact the resizing in combat thing has come up before. 3/4 of the party surrounding a medium sized target in tight quarters/tunnels and the only way for the fox to get in was go back to tiny size so that he can share the space with the target (provoking an AoO of course). From there he helped by biting. At higher levels, such a tactic would be more useful as its strength would get higher and Eldritch Guardian providing more teamwork/combat feats.
Plus I at times need it to back off and changing it to tiny can be a bump up on AC thanks to Dex and size bonus. But familiars are bloody expensive to replace, especially in an AP with limited gold/loot drops, and I need to protect my investment and hoping the AC from armor applies in both sizes.
Yea ok, I'll go with armor changes size with the familiar til I get told otherwise.