Possession

[Scott Wilhelm]

Let's say I am a Wizard.

I cast Possession of some big, strong Fighter.

I get into melee.

Do I get to use his Feats?

Let's say I'm not just a Wizard, but an Eldritch Knight, and I have some good Feats.

Do I get to use my own Feats?

[MrCharisma]

I dunno, but since I'm considering this spell for my Occultist I'm gonna say "DOT".

[Ryan Freire]

I'm going to go with this

Quote:

You can’t activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities, nor can you cast any of its spells or spell-like abilities.

Means you cant use anything like power attack or vital strike or two weapon fighting unless you already know it. But you must gain SOME benefit from them because it keeps its hitpoints and theres more than one monster that has toughness as a feat.

I read this

Quote:

The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities.

as indicating that any feat that just passively boosts its stats sticks around but anything you have to actively use you dont get.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Ryan Freire wrote:

I'm going to go with this

Quote:

You can’t activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities, nor can you cast any of its spells or spell-like abilities.

Means you cant use anything like power attack or vital strike or two weapon fighting unless you already know it. But you must gain SOME benefit from them because it keeps its hitpoints and theres more than one monster that has toughness as a feat.

I read this

Quote:

The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities.

as indicating that any feat that just passively boosts its stats sticks around but anything you have to actively use you dont get.

Okay, so what if my Eldritch Knight has Power Attack? Can he use Power Attack while possessing another creature?

[avr]

Sure, you can use your power attack providing the body controlled has Str 13+.

[RAWmonger]

“ You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities.“

While this doesn’t say that you maintain YOUR feats known, I believe you do, since it’s still your mind/soul within their body and most of the feats we’re talking about are things that you taught/trained yourself to do. The host body still has to meet prerequisites for those feats however (other than in the areas where you are controlling the host). So if his strength is below 10 (like if you possessed an assassin or something) you can’t power attack with him, he’s not strong enough for you to utilize it

EDIT: ninja’d by avr.

[Scott Wilhelm]

By the way, I appreciate all your comments.

[Scott Wilhelm]

RAWmonger and avr,

Okay,

What if I'm not possessing a creature at all, but rather an Object? Object Possession says it works like Possession, and with Possession, you get to use your Feats with the caveats you mentioned.

If the object you possess is a statue of a humanoid with hands and feet and stuff, can it wield weapons? If the Posessor is Proficient with those weapons--such as an Eldritch Knight--can't the Possessed statue so use those weapons proficiently?

And can this Eldritch Knight use his other Feats, assuming the statue, which now uses stats of and Animated Object?

I'm thinking that if you can do that with Possession, you can do it with Object Possession, but

Object Possession wrote:

You can’t use any spells or other abilities while possessing an object.

But is a Feat an Ability? Bardic Performance is an Ability, so no to that. You get to use your host's Strength, and your own Intelligence, so they clearly don't mean Ability in that sense, or do they? Are you unable to add your Ability Score Modifier to your Knowledge Local Checks while using Object Possession? That sounds silly.

AoN, General Feats wrote:

Some abilities are not tied to your race, class, or skill—things like particularly quick reflexes that allow you to react to danger more swiftly, the ability to craft magic items, the training to deliver powerful strikes with melee weapons, or the knack for deflecting arrows fired at you. These abilities are represented as feats.

I guess that means that Feats are abilities. But what are other people's opinions? Am I missing something?

[avr]

Most statues don't have independently carved fingers or at least have very odd proportions for them and would struggle to wield weapons IMO. If it was made specifically for the purpose of being possessed and did then yes, you could wield weapons.

Anything which is listed as Su or Sp is out, but Ex abilities which don't depend on form I'd allow. Ability scores are just fine.