I have a hunter who carries around his deinonychus animal companion while in towns using the Carry Companion spell (dinosaurs tend to draw attention). I've reread the spell recently and the wording has me curious about whether the spell could be used on the companion if it fell unconscious or died. I had hoped that if something were to go wrong and it were badly injured that I could turn it to stone and get it out of danger until it could be healed, also possibly allowing for simpler revival magic to be done because the body hadn't decayed at all (Level 5 Hunter at the moment, don't get companion revival until level 10).
The part of the wording that is of concern is "An intelligent animal or magical beast must be a willing subject in order for this spell to take effect". Jokes aside, I'm guessing a creature cannot be "willing" if its unconscious or dead?
On the contrary, in Pathfinder, unconscious = willing unless the particular spell says otherwise. It's in the spell targeting rules. Given a little search-fu, I'll find it shortly.
EDIT: It's under Aiming a Spell.
Some spells restrict you to willing targets only. Declaring yourself as a willing target is something that can be done at any time (even if you're flat-footed or it isn't your turn). Unconscious creatures are automatically considered willing, but a character who is conscious but immobile or helpless (such as one who is bound, cowering, grappling, paralyzed, pinned, or stunned) is not automatically willing.
Dead is another matter.
On the contrary, in Pathfinder, unconscious = willing unless the particular spell says otherwise. It's in the spell targeting rules. Given a little search-fu, I'll find it shortly.
EDIT: It's under Aiming a Spell.
Some spells restrict you to willing targets only. Declaring yourself as a willing target is something that can be done at any time (even if you're flat-footed or it isn't your turn). Unconscious creatures are automatically considered willing, but a character who is conscious but immobile or helpless (such as one who is bound, cowering, grappling, paralyzed, pinned, or stunned) is not automatically willing.Dead is another matter.
Awesome, thanks. Hopefully the ruling on unconscious will solve most of the issue, but if nothing else for the academic point, does anyone know what the status of "willing" is for dead creatures?
I believe a dead creature's corpse is an object, and thus only affected by spells that affect objects or specifically call out "corpse touched" (like Gentle Repose) or "creature that has died" (like Breath of Life).
I don't have any rules quotes to back it up, but to the contrary I believe that a dead creature is still a creature, and also still technically "unconscious" (which is the mechanical reason why they can't take actions).
Objects have HP and Hardness, and are destroyed when their HP is depleted; meanwhile a dead creature is at negative HP, doesn't gain hardness, and cannot be healed without first removing the "dead" condition.
If it were my campaign, I would allow the spell to function "normally" on your dead companion.
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I believe a dead creature's corpse is an object, and thus only affected by spells that affect objects or specifically call out "corpse touched" (like Gentle Repose) or "creature that has died" (like Breath of Life).
Death is kinda grey in the rules, and the line where a creature becomes and object is also kinda vague.
Basically, a dead creature is both an object (Corpse) and a creature with the dead condition. Use which ever works best for the rules whenever it comes up. Don't think too hard about it, as the rules become more vague the more you question it. Just ask the GM whenever you are unsure about an action, and they can just make things up if they aren't covered.