Spirit Guide + Hex Strike


Rules Questions


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A quick question does the Oracle Spirit Guide qualify for the Hex Strike feat?


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This is actually rather a thorny question.

As far as I can tell class feature isn't defined but each class has a sentence like-

"Class Features
The following are class features of the fighter."

or "Class Features
The following are the class features of the shaman."

And the class features are the headings and descriptions that follow. One of those for the shaman is "Hex" and another is "Wandering Spirit".
Witches also get a Hex class feature expressed the same way. Spirit guides are given shaman’s wandering spirit class feature. Which results in them having a hex, but they don't get the Hex class feature as such.

So I think the answer by the RAW is no. I could be wrong. Many GMs might disagree or house rule it otherwise.


This is a fight that has been fought many times and has never really been resolved. There are several classes that give you hexes, but don't specifically give you the "hex class feature" (hexcrafter magus, Sylvan trickster rogue, VMC Witch, etc.) There are also may other examples of where writers give class features where they don't specifically call it out as "this class feature"

For example, cantrips, orisons, knacks etc are all their own class feature separate from spell casting technically, but no one ever gets mad when an archetype has wording like "casts spells as blah" but doesn't specifically call out the appropriate 0-level spell feature.

Anyways, expect table variation. If it's a home game talk to your GM and you'll probably be fine. For PFS do some searching for other classes that get hexes and feats like split hex for guidance.


I have given it some more thought.

This particular example is intriguing because the spirit guide gets the wandering spirit class feature

D20 wrote:
At 3rd level, a spirit guide can form a temporary bond with a spirit, as the shaman’s wandering spirit class feature. She must make this selection each day when she refreshes her spells. A spirit guide cannot bond with a spirit that is incompatible with her alignment, ethos, or mystery (GM’s discretion).

Which states that they do not get the hex class feature

D20 wrote:
At 4th level, a shaman can form a temporary bond with a spirit other than the one selected using her spirit class feature. She must make this selection each day when preparing her spells. While this feature is active, she gains the spirit ability granted by the spirit. She also adds the spells granted by that spirit to her list of spells that she can cast using spirit magic. She does not add the hexes from her wandering spirit to her list of hexes that she can choose from with the hex class feature. At 12th level, she gains the abilities listed in the greater version of her wandering spirit. At 20th level, she gains the ability listed in the true version of her wandering spirit.

But then the spirit guide specifically supersedes that ruling

D20 wrote:


A spirit guide gains one hex of her choice from the list of hexes available from that spirit. She uses her oracle level as her shaman level, and she switches Wisdom for Charisma and vice versa for the purpose of determining the hex’s effects.

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