Is there a way for an Awakened Cat PC to use Wands, Rods, and Scrolls?

[JacT]

I'm playing as an Awakened Warcat Feral Hunter (3 levels of Noble Tiger from Noble Wild, and 3 levels of Feral Hunter).

I know that Noble Wild has rules to replace Wands, Rods, and Scrolls, but my group rotates GMs and I'm the only PC that is playing as an animal, so to prevent complicating the GMs job I'm not using most of the new rules/features that NW introduces (especially in regards to magic)... I'm casting magic using the same rules as the human players.

As such, I'm running into a couple of problems
1) I can hold a wand/rod in my mouth, but I can't speak at the same time to use them properly, nor can I hold the wand/rod in my paws.
2) I don't have an easy equipping myself with items, nor pulling items out of a bag during battle.

Whatever we come up with, I'll need to convince the group that it'll work, so I can't use my Tail to hold the items, because Cats don't have prehensile tails.

I know alchemists can grow an arm, but a two level dip is a bit steep. If there's a reasonable feat or spell I could turn into a wondrous item, that would be great. If there's another feasible method, that would be great too.

Btw, I'm primarily a melee fighter, but I'm also the party's only real magic user.

[avr]

Anthropomorphic Animal is on the hunter list, albeit as a 3rd level spell. You'd need to convince the GM that you're close enough to being an animal for it to work (or make a variant), technically you're a magical beast now that you're awakened.

Monstrous Extremities could make one of your legs a tentacle, which should be able to grasp things. 3rd level but not on your list though.

Phantom Limb does everything you could want but it is 5th-6th level & only available to users of occult magic.

[CBDunkerson]

See if your GM(s) allow the Mage Hand cantrip, possibly with you also putting a paw on the 'hand held' item, to qualify as you 'holding' the item. There is a 5 lb weight limit on that, but that's enough for the vast majority of items you might want to use.

[Valandil Ancalime]

You should be able to use scrolls, just roll it out on a surface. Assuming you can read.
Could you hold a rod/wand using 2 hands?
What size is a Warcat? I originally thought house cat. But the Noble Tiger levels probably means medium to large size.

I played a awakened cat in a pbp game several years ago, but in that game everyone was playing cats. It's a different group dynamic when you are the only animal.

[Scott Wilhelm]

JacT wrote:

I know alchemists can grow an arm, but a two level dip is a bit steep.

How about a 1 level dip? Take a level in Witch. There is a Hex called Prehensile Hair, and there is the Archetype called White Haired Witch. Both of you give you a Hair Natural Attack that should let you will work like hands well enough to use a wand. Meanwhile, they are Natural Weapons will add to your Full Attack.

So, there is also the Tentacle Cloak.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Valandil Ancalime wrote:

You should be able to use scrolls, just roll it out on a surface. Assuming you can read.

And how is he going to take it out of his pack? Life is hard for characters without opposable thumbs.

[JacT]

avr wrote:

Anthropomorphic Animal is on the hunter list, albeit as a 3rd level spell. You'd need to convince the GM that you're close enough to being an animal for it to work (or make a variant), technically you're a magical beast now that you're awakened.

This sounds workable, and the GMs accept variants on spells to let me switch expecting being cast as a human to being cast from an animal, or if it fits into my backstory/personality. My Warcat has deep respect for Humans and Elvs since they saved him from being enslaved by Orcs.

I'll lose my claw attacks to use this, but it might be acceptable, since last battle I had no way to attack a flying enemy, and there have been a few other times where I've been useless.

avr wrote:

Monstrous Extremities could make one of your legs a tentacle, which should be able to grasp things. 3rd level but not on your list though.

This sounded good until I got to this in the description

"The subject cannot hold a weapon or use any item that would ordinarily fit into the slot of the changed extremity."

avr wrote:

Phantom Limb does everything you could want but it is 5th-6th level & only available to users of occult magic.

This is exactly what I'm looking for! It should be fine to make a wondrous item out of this, I just need to find a way to make it affordable.

CBDunkerson wrote:

See if your GM(s) allow the Mage Hand cantrip, possibly with you also putting a paw on the 'hand held' item, to qualify as you 'holding' the item.

I was thinking of this earlier, but you have to concentrate for mage hand to work, meaning you can't cast another spell.

Valandil Ancalime wrote:

You should be able to use scrolls, just roll it out on a surface. Assuming you can read.

Could you hold a rod/wand using 2 hands?
What size is a Warcat? I originally thought house cat. But the Noble Tiger levels probably means medium to large size.

I can read a scroll just fine, but I'll need someone else to get it out of the scroll case and roll it in front of me. That might be fine in some situations, but usually not in battle :(

For the wand/rod, I don't think I could point it at something properly for ranged spells. I do think this will work for some spells, but I still need to get someone to take it out of the bag for me...

I'm following the Nobel Tiger class/race rules (since it was already somewhat balanced for play with humanoids), so I'm fully grown at large.

Scott Wilhelm wrote:

How about a 1 level dip? Take a level in Witch. There is a Hex called Prehensile Hair, and there is the Archetype called White Haired Witch.

This is very interesting, I think a 1 level dip is also a bit steeper than I was hoping for, but my character is built around flavor not Min/Maxing for damage, so I could probably convince myself to go for this.

Scott Wilhelm wrote:

There is also the Tentacle Cloak.

This is also pretty interesting. It'll be affordable in a couple of levels, and I can probably live with the 1 minute per day limit.

Thanks Everyone!

[Ciaran Barnes]

I wouldn't give scrolls to a cat - not even a sentient one. Kitty's compulsion to claw things without realizing consequences is too great.

[Dr Styx]

Come up with a variant of This Spell that works on wands.

Or an item with This Spell permanently enchanted on it.

Or if your DM is willing, you could come up with something like the Kobold Tail Attachments, that attaches a wand. And come up with a Feat to let you use it.