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SangoProduction
2015-06-12, 09:55 AM
Dark Companion (full description at bottom of post) is an alternate class feature that Hexblade can take to replace their familiar. It makes it so instead of a living, breathing creature, you have an illusion, basically you have an imaginary friend rather than a pet.

A thing that struck me as not so obvious in the description was the line "It's merely an extension of your will." Does this mean that you can see through it? Hear from it? What?

Well, it's not unreasonable for the Dark Companion to give Alertness (similar to a familiar) is it? And I had the idea that you could see through the DC's eyes, since it's an "Extension of your will", would that be appropriate, considering if you even break line of effect, it instantly reappears beside you.

Here's the description:
Benefit: At 4th level, you can create an illusory companion resembling a panther, spun from the darkness of the night.
Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magic materials that cost 100 gp. Once created, your dark companion stands with you in battle, hindering your enemies’ defenses. Any enemy adjacent to your dark companion takes a –2 penalty on its saves and to its AC. Your companion’s speed is equal to yours (including all modes of movement you possess) and it acts during your turn each round. It follows your mental commands perfectly—in effect, it is merely an extension of your will.

Your dark companion has no real substance, and thus can’t attack or otherwise affect creatures or objects. It occupies a 5-foot space. Even though any creature can enter a dark companion’s 5-foot space without restriction, it must occupy its own space in order to have any effect on enemies. It is immune to any damage or other effects that might harm creatures, though it can be dispelled or suppressed just like a spell effect. Your dark companion is treated as a spell whose level is equal to 1/4 your hexblade level. If it is dispelled, it automatically reforms at your side 24 hours later. A dark companion can’t create flanking situations, nor does it provoke attacks of opportunity from movement, because enemies automatically recognize it as an illusion.

If it is more than 120 feet from you at the start of your turn, or if you ever lose line of effect to it, it instantly reappears adjacent to you.

Crake
2015-06-12, 11:40 AM
It says extension of your will, not extension of your senses. I would take extension of your will to mean you can control it like you could a normal illusion, by merely willing it so, and that it cannot be forced to act against your will, due to not actually being a creature, but rather an extension of your desires as it's master.

Zaq
2015-06-12, 12:16 PM
It says extension of your will, not extension of your senses. I would take extension of your will to mean you can control it like you could a normal illusion, by merely willing it so, and that it cannot be forced to act against your will, due to not actually being a creature, but rather an extension of your desires as it's master.

Pretty much this. It does what it says it does—nothing more, nothing less. The "extension of your will" clause basically just means that you have perfect control over it and that controlling it doesn't take non-free actions. It doesn't say that you can see or hear through it, so you can't. It doesn't say that it can talk, so it can't. It just moves as you direct it to and provides that automatic –2 to adjacent enemies' defenses.

Segev
2015-06-12, 04:00 PM
Indeed, even the direct context of the clause is following a clause about how easy it is to control and get it to behave how you want. It clearly is referring to nothing more than the ability to control it. It never balks, it never defies you, it never screws up; it does as you direct. (If it "screws up," it's no different than your sword-arm "screwing up:" you made the mistake, yourself.)