Kitsune and Decoy Familiar Archetype

[Oneris]

I'm playing a Kitsune with a familiar with the Decoy Archetype, which has the ability

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Master's Guise (Sp)

At 11th level, a decoy can transform into a perfect likeness of its master, as the alter self spell. It can hold this form for up to 1 minute per caster level; upon changing back, the decoy must remain in its natural form for an equal amount of time before transforming again.
This ability replaces spell resistance.

As a kitsune, I have my anthropomorphic fox form, my static appearance Human form, and I've taken Fox Shape for a static fox form and Realistic Likeness that allows me to 'steal' the face of any specific individual when I use my racial change shape ability.

How do these various forms apply to my familiar's Master's Guise ability?

Can I choose which of my forms it takes, or is it just whatever I look like at the time.
Or is it real-time synced to whatever my kitsune currently looks like, so fox when I go fox, etc.
What about someone I'm currently mimicking with Realistic Likeness?
Can it switch through my various forms at will, since they are all equally valid as 'perfect likeness of its master'?

And lastly, Alter Self doesn't say anything about creating clothes as part of the package. My familiar's not going to end up flashing everyone whenever she transforms, is she?

[Johnny_Devo]

My take is that it'll turn into whatever form you're currently in at the time, and not change with your forms. This is because it says "perfect likeness" without any qualifiers of it being your original form etc etc. This is similar to how when you use alter self to make yourself look like that guy down the street, you won't suddenly turn into the dragon he truly is. as per being synced, it doesn't say anything about changing with you when you yourself polymorph.

However, this is pretty weird territory, and I'd say expect table variation. I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that it's meant to only be your original form.

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And lastly, Alter Self doesn't say anything about creating clothes as part of the package. My familiar's not going to end up flashing everyone whenever she transforms, is she?

No, no, she'll be fully clothed. Yep.

Unrelated, where do you guys hang out, usually?

[CampinCarl9127]

I agree with Johnny_Devo on all points.

[Byakko]

I disagree.

The ability says it functions as the Alter Self Spell:

"When you cast this spell, you can assume the form of any Small or Medium creature of the humanoid type."

In this case, the function is further restricted to only being of your likeness. Thus, the familiar will take the form of a medium kitsune which looks just like your unaltered form.

This isn't just about kitsune. Many casters can use polymorph effects to alter their form, but these won't alter what what the familiar will look like upon using this ability.

Clothes? Probably reasonable to assume mundane clothes. But could opt for otherwise in the interest of roleplay fun.

[blackbloodtroll]

This is quite troubling for races that are not of the Humanoid type.

[Johnny_Devo]

Ah, good catch, Byakko.

Humanoid limitation means that trying to use the ability would only work sometimes if you're polymorphing all over the place, which suggests that it only works on your original form.

However, this becomes even murkier territory when you consider, as blackbloodtroll pointed out, that you might be a non-humanoid type, such as a tiefling.

Perhaps, then, the "perfect likeness of its master" is supposed to supercede the "humanoid subtype" restriction, in which case we're back to the assumption that the ability keys off your current appearance.

This is an interesting interaction.

[Byakko]

Even if we go with that, I also feel that the "perfect likeness of its master" is referring specifically to the likeness of... the master. And not of whatever monster suit he or she is wearing.

[Johnny_Devo]

Byakko wrote:

Even if we go with that, I also feel that the "perfect likeness of its master" is referring specifically to the likeness of... the master. And not of whatever monster suit he or she is wearing.

That's a very good point.

I'll have to agree with that assessment, I think. Can anyone else weigh in on the subject?

[Oneris]

So I was looking around and found the feat

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Decoy's Misdirection (Familiar)

Prerequisite(s): Must have a familiar with the decoy archetype.

Benefit(s): As long as your familiar is within 30 feet of you, anytime you succeed at a Will save to negate a scrying effect (including scrying and greater scrying), you become aware of the scrying attempt as though you succeeded at the Spellcraft check to identify it, and you can choose to let the spell function as normal instead of causing it to fail. If you do, you can choose to redirect the scrying effect toward your familiar, causing the familiar to immediately change shape (as its secret sharer spell-like ability, except the duration is as long as the scrying effect lasts). The creator of the scrying effect observes the familiar as though it were you, though spells such as detect magic detect the alter self effect as normal.

I'm not sure what the 'secret sharer' SLA is (maybe a typo?) but the purpose of this feat seems to imply that the familiar using its change shape ability is for all intents and purposes visually indistinguishable from the master in the eyes of a scryer.