Haunt-Shifting Your Familiar

[Maat Mons]

There are a couple ways to get an undead familiar. So let's say you have one. And you cast Haunt Shift on it. A haunting presence is limited by the CR of the original undead for what they can animate, at least for the second function of the Poltergeist ability. So what's a familiar's CR?

Does that limitation apply to the first function of the Poltergeist ability? And does a flexible object count as having moving parts?

[Segev]

There are a couple ways to get an undead familiar. So let's say you have one. And you cast Haunt Shift on it. A haunting presence is limited by the CR of the original undead for what they can animate, at least for the second function of the Poltergeist ability.Cool question! :smallcool:


So what's a familiar's CR?It's based on their HD, not their CR. I believe familiars count as having their master's HD for effects that calculate something based on them, which this would qualify as.


Does that limitation apply to the first function of the Poltergeist ability?Definitely not; the whole point of the 10 HD requirement is to expand the ability to affect things with non-moving parts, making them have cartoonish (or perhaps spooky, if the DM is clever in his descriptions) movements of stiff, rigid components. If it has moving parts, the haunting presence can move them regardless of the presence's HD total.

And does a flexible object count as having moving parts?That would be entirely up to the DM, but I would rule "yes," because what is a "moving part" other than something flexible? Or what is "flexibility" other than a lot of moving parts linked together?

[Maat Mons]

Thanks for the response! I have a bit of a nitpick though. When I asked about CR-based limits, I meant the part that says "No undead, no matter how many Hit Dice it has or what its Charisma score is, can animate an object that has a higher Challenge Rating than its own."

[Segev]

Thanks for the response! I have a bit of a nitpick though. When I asked about CR-based limits, I meant the part that says "No undead, no matter how many Hit Dice it has or what its Charisma score is, can animate an object that has a higher Challenge Rating than its own."

Ah, I missed that part in my re-read of it. I would use the master's CR, which is his level, but that will be a DM call.