Any way for a familiar to case a self-only spell on their caster?

[EJDean]

I have a Witch character with a Brownie improved familiar. Brownies have Dimension Door as an SLA, but it is listed as "self only". Is there any way, through the Share Spells ability or otherwise, for the Brownie familiar to cast Dimension Door and include the Witch character?

[Perfect Tommy]

no.

Except that in some rare circumstances you can put your witches spirit *in* the brownie, sharing bodies.

[Belafon]

“Any way?” - Yes

“A reasonable way?” - No

What you’re after is giving your familiar the Share Spells feat from Distant Shores. Unfortunately that actually requires a LOT of prerequisites.

First, you need to be a beast-bonded witch so you can give your feats to your familiar. Then you need to give your familiar its OWN familiar or animal companion. Improved Familiar Bond has 2 prerequisite Feats. Then you need Bonded Mind and Share Spells. Plus the witch needs Bonded Mind.

So... 6 feats.

[Avoron]

Belafon wrote:

So... 6 feats.

Well, since Share Spells is a teamwork feat, couldn't you just stick it in a ring of tactical precision to bypass the prerequisite issue entirely?

[fearcypher]

Avoron wrote:

Belafon wrote:

So... 6 feats.

Well, since Share Spells is a teamwork feat, couldn't you just stick it in a ring of tactical precision to bypass the prerequisite issue entirely?

And if the witch uses a +1 training gauntlet they don't even need the feat themselves

[toastedamphibian]

Training only works on combat feats, which "Share Spells" isn't.

[Belafon]

Avoron wrote:

Belafon wrote:

So... 6 feats.

Well, since Share Spells is a teamwork feat, couldn't you just stick it in a ring of tactical precision to bypass the prerequisite issue entirely?

Yeah, looks like then you would “only” need 2 feats (Bonded Mind and Share Spells). Give the ring to the Brownie.

I mainly play PFS, and PFS has a specific rule that Bonded Mind and its descendants only work if you possess the feat permanently.

[Melkiador]

There’s also the argument as to whether spell-like abilities qualify for benefitting from the share spells ability. The rules are fairly inconsistent as to when SLAs count as spells or not.

[Avoron]

Melkiador wrote:

There’s also the argument as to whether spell-like abilities qualify for benefitting from the share spells ability. The rules are fairly inconsistent as to when SLAs count as spells or not.

It definitely wouldn't work with the animal companion version of share spells, which states that "this ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells." But the feat specifies that it works as the share spells familiar ability, which conspicuously lacks that text, along with the text requiring that the spells come from a class that grants an animal companion.

[EJDean]

OK, so two feats and 11,000gp to allow the Brownie to cast Dimension Door on the Witch once a day. Considering this is a PFS character, I doubt I'll even get two more feats without retraining.

Thanks for the in-depth answers, everyone! Even if it's cumbersome in practise, it's nice to know it can be done!