how to keep an low level animal companion in an amf alive at high levels?

[newguydude1]

so in my quest to utilize antimagic field, i have failed to find a way to turn personal spells into touch spells. i read this thread top to bottom a hundred times
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?318440-3-5-Ways-to-Get-Personal-Spells-on-Others
and none of those methods are available to my wizard.

so... this means i need to use animal companions' share spell ability as its the only option left that doesnt require me to put my wizard at risk in order to utilize antimagic field.

now the problem here is that my animal companion is obtained by an acf in unearthed arcana which treats my druid level as half of my wizard. so my level 20 wizard is gonna be treated like a level 10 druid for the purposes of animal companion selection. animal companion has terrible, terrible ac, and their hp is like 50. so how do i keep them on top of my enemies without them getting ganked?

i thought about using cages. one with the same dimensions as forcecage and another as arrow slits. but both just merely provide cover against melee/ranged attacks. none stop them. so this 15ac animal companion has to survive attacks from +25 to hit monsters. even using total defence thats like 27ac at most.

so... anyone have any better idea on how to keep this animal companion alive in the middle of a fight next to a monster? or do i have to give up on using amfs?

[Segev]

To put it on others, you could use Craft Contingent Spell. Of course, your ally still has to be ready and willing to go into the fight without any magic, then.

You could also craft it onto an animal, though, if you’re willing to risk the creature. AMF is an emanation, so coverings can control it: a canary in a cage which has a contingent AMF trigger on the phrase “pretzel pancakes” or just on having a particular spell cast nearby or the like would work. You could even cover it in a cloth to block the emanation, or use a bullseye lantern-like setup to make a short-range, directed thing.

Nothing in spell activation suggests AMF ends early if the caster (or otherwise, it’s source) dies, so having a hat with a mouse on top of it that is radiating an AMF won’t stop radiating it just because the mouse gets killed, if that’s your pleasure.

It’s not cheap, but that’s how I’d get it places not-including-my-wizard if I had to.

You might be able to use magic jar to possess somebody, cast AMF, and get shoved back into your body or the jar by the AMF while leaving it on the person you were possessing when casting it, too.

[newguydude1]

To put it on others, you could use Craft Contingent Spell. Of course, your ally still has to be ready and willing to go into the fight without any magic, then.

You could also craft it onto an animal, though, if you’re willing to risk the creature. AMF is an emanation, so coverings can control it: a canary in a cage which has a contingent AMF trigger on the phrase “pretzel pancakes” or just on having a particular spell cast nearby or the like would work. You could even cover it in a cloth to block the emanation, or use a bullseye lantern-like setup to make a short-range, directed thing.

one of my self imposed restrictions is no wealth. 0gp start 0gp end. otherwise id grab spell storing item.


Nothing in spell activation suggests AMF ends early if the caster (or otherwise, it’s source) dies, so having a hat with a mouse on top of it that is radiating an AMF won’t stop radiating it just because the mouse gets killed, if that’s your pleasure.

nice!!!!!!!!!
you just made my day!!!!
ok so i dont mind lugging around a dead animal companion with a persisted amf. so the issue becomes the 24 hour ritual to get a new animal companion.
extended persisted amf would work, but order of operations matter. i cant prepare a persisted amf, only an extended amf, and applying persistent spell via naenhoon would arguably make its duration 24 hrs instead of 48.

still this is fantastic!!!!!!

i still want ideas for keeping my animal companion alive so i have more than a 50% amf uptime.


You might be able to use magic jar to possess somebody, cast AMF, and get shoved back into your body or the jar by the AMF while leaving it on the person you were possessing when casting it, too.

i need a source confirming that spells are anchored to the body instead of the soul. if you do then thats end of discussion.

edit: even if it does work, amf suppresses magic jar upon activation. how does this work? suppress so your not forced back, or are you?

[Anthrowhale]

Have you considered just finding/creating an ally from a dead magic plane and casting Planar Bubble?

[newguydude1]

Have you considered just finding/creating an ally from a dead magic plane and casting Planar Bubble?

no. i wanna be independent as possible. is why im relying on simulacrum instead of planar binding. finding allies arent expendable. pretty sure roleplay and such is required too. dominate monster is so unreliable.

anyways amf isnt central to my build. i just happened to think its a good strategy mainly because my dm using spellcasters is really slow and annoying especially when we have to do math all the time for all the stuff related to spellcasters and unlike us pcs his npcs dont have it all calculated and on paper beforehand.

so if the amf just shutsdown all his spellcasters, combat will go faster.

QUESTIOn

can i use share spells on my dead animal companion corpse??????????

please say yes.

[farothel]

Enemies first have to figure out that the AMF originates from the animal companion before they would think about attacking it. If you take a crow or similar bird that is quite common in the area you campaign in, and train it to perch somewhere close by so that the enemies are in the AMF, they will have to figure out (while others are trying to kill them) which of the birds sitting there is the one they need.

[newguydude1]

Enemies first have to figure out that the AMF originates from the animal companion before they would think about attacking it. If you take a crow or similar bird that is quite common in the area you campaign in, and train it to perch somewhere close by so that the enemies are in the AMF, they will have to figure out (while others are trying to kill them) which of the birds sitting there is the one they need.

amf range isnt that big. 10ft emanation means the bird is gotta be within 10ft of the enemy, who will most likely 5ft step out of it. widened to 20ft emanation and its still not that big. 20ft is 4 squares.

[Bronk]

You could also use selective spell metamagic to just exclude yourself and your animal companion from the antimagic field...

[newguydude1]

You could also use selective spell metamagic to just exclude yourself and your animal companion from the antimagic field...

amf doesnt block magic. it suppresses it. so if you selective yourself out, then your still fully vulnerable to spells no? a fireball will explode, be suppressed in the field, and when it reaches you it will be unsuppressed.

[Anthrowhale]

amf doesnt block magic. it suppresses it. so if you selective yourself out, then your still fully vulnerable to spells no? a fireball will explode, be suppressed in the field, and when it reaches you it will be unsuppressed.

No. AMF effects spells, magic items, and creatures separately so selective[you] amf implies that you will not wink out if you are an incorporeal undead. All spells and magic items within the area will continue to be suppressed.

[newguydude1]

No. AMF effects spells, magic items, and creatures separately so selective[you] amf implies that you will not wink out if you are an incorporeal undead. All spells and magic items within the area will continue to be suppressed.

ok i understand what your saying.

so if i get selective spell i can get all the defensive buffs on my animal companion. combined with segev said that should be enough. maybe. amf is a 6th level spell. in order to stack widen and selective spell on it i gotta grab a metamagic reducer. so many feats....

still looking for mundane ways to keep my animal companion alive cause its cheaper.

[Segev]

Make the animal a flock or herd critter and use animal handling to train a flock of extra ones to follow it around. AMF prevents most AoEs, so a large number of potential targets makes it harder to pick the right one to attack.

[Anthrowhale]

so if i get selective spell i can get all the defensive buffs on my animal companion.

No---a Selective Spell[Animal Companion] AMF will suppress all buffs on the AC because AMF targets spells separately from creatures.

Selective Spell[Animal Companion] AMF does have an effect---if you animal companion is somehow incorporeal (as per RC) or incorporeal undead (as per PHB), then it will not wink out. This is an esoteric but powerful effect since AMF knocks out virtually all attacks from a magical origin while incorporeal knocks out virtually all attacks from an mundane origin.

[newguydude1]

No---a Selective Spell[Animal Companion] AMF will suppress all buffs on the AC because AMF targets spells separately from creatures.

Selective Spell[Animal Companion] AMF does have an effect---if you animal companion is somehow incorporeal (as per RC) or incorporeal undead (as per PHB), then it will not wink out. This is an esoteric but powerful effect since AMF knocks out virtually all attacks from a magical origin while incorporeal knocks out virtually all attacks from an mundane origin.

how to make animal companion incorporeal?

[Bronk]

how to make animal companion incorporeal?

What if you took the exalted animal companion feat, got a blink dog as your new AC, and kept him on the Ethereal Plane? As a wizard that would be easy for you to do, and then it could follow you around from there, and use it's blink ability in reverse to blink into the material plane to fight for you...

[Anthrowhale]

how to make animal companion incorporeal?

The only approach I'm aware of is via the Durthan's Telthor companion.

[Segev]

how to make animal companion incorporeal?

Instead of using an animal companion, can you use a familiar? I know dread necromancers get visages as familiars; you might be able to wrangle something from Improved Familiar.

[newguydude1]

Instead of using an animal companion, can you use a familiar? I know dread necromancers get visages as familiars; you might be able to wrangle something from Improved Familiar.

i wrangled mirror mephit with improved familiar. cant wrangle anything better than that. literal top of the optimization tree for improved familiar is mirror mephit.

its fine. i was just trying to optimize every nook and cranny of my build. if ur a spellcaster amf is a death sentence, but looking at what other people said and monster stats, amf is nothing if ur a monster.

if this is a dead end then its a dead end. no biggie.