Add companion through feat?

TCArknight · March 8th, 2012, 04:12 AM

I have no idea how to do this, so hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

1) I have a feat (Psicrystal Affinity) that allows access to Psicrystal as a 'companion. I know I can set the cAnimStart field to 1 for a valid class, but how do I determine what class to add that too? It has to be one with a Custom.Manifester tag. Also, how do I make it that the Crystal is the only choice for a companion due to this feat?

2) How do I have a Racial ability (Personality) on the companion crystal add a bonus to the master? This bonus always applies, not just when it's within a certain distance.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TC

chiefweasel · March 8th, 2012, 04:23 AM

Not 100% what you mean by companion. But can you add the crystal as a magic item and approch it from that angle? That way you could have it impart an ability when it is equiped.

I would look at one of the magic items that can change into a creature. That would give an example of a companion magic item.

Mathias · March 8th, 2012, 06:54 AM

I'd say create an archetype that adds the companion - there are companion mechanisms built into archetypes.

Then, have the archetype require the feat and the feat require the archetype through exprreqs, so that the user has to take both (or rather, have the feat require any of the archetypes, since it sounds like you may end up with multiple archetypes, one for each class who's eligible for this feat).

Mathias · March 8th, 2012, 06:55 AM

For the Ability, look at one of the races that's a familiar - how do they add their bonuses?

TCArknight · March 8th, 2012, 07:26 AM

I never thought of having it reflect through an archetype. However, can an archetype be taken after 1st level? The feat can be taken at any point as long as the hero has a Manifester level of 1 or better and the abilities of the associated crystal are based on Manifester level.

Or can an archetype be applied by the class at first level and not visible or active on the character unless they take the feat?

Mathias · March 8th, 2012, 08:05 AM

There's a "Variant Class Level" option for archetypes (since they were originally created as the variant classes of d20, and in some cases, replaced only a specific level). So, set that to 20 - that way, you have to take the variant at or before level 20.

Then, you build the archetype as usual, and ignore the level 20 part for everything else.

Or, you can just tell the user that they should ignore the fact that the archetype is greyed out and take it anyway - archetypes become valid once you select them, no matter when you actually selected them.

TCArknight · March 9th, 2012, 08:01 PM

Ok, everything works fine as an Animal companion, but I realized that the Psicrystal is more of a familiar. When I change the entries to familiar, I can add the archetype, but when I go to add a race to the familiar, there's a 'Nothing to select' dialog. I tried making a straight copy of the homonoculous since it is a construct like the crystal, but same results. I only added a new Minion entry for Minion restrictions to match the way the animal companion was set up. However, no luck.

Suggestions?

Mathias Senior Member Lone Wolf Staff Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 13,214 March 8th, 2012, 06:55 AM	For the Ability, look at one of the races that's a familiar - how do they add their bonuses?
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