Spirit Companion Question

[renau1g]

Can a Spirit companion be conjured in say the square above an enemy? The text is below. I'm curious about others thoughts on this. Can it float in the air?

Call Spirit Companion Shaman Feature
Your soul reaches out to your spirit friend, which faithfully
appears at your side.
At-Will ✦ Conjuration, Primal
Minor Action Close burst 20
Effect: You conjure your spirit companion in an unoccupied square in the burst. The spirit lasts until you fall unconscious or until you dismiss it as a minor action. The spirit occupies 1 square. Enemies cannot move through its space, but allies can. When you take a move action, you can also move the spirit a number of squares equal to your speed.

 

[KarinsDad]

It can be conjured anywhere.

It cannot float in the air without Hover or some other effect. If it is conjured above a foe, it will fall.

It cannot stay in an foe's square. So, I would rule (based on other PHB rules) that if it falls into an foe's square, it ends up in a random adjacent square. If it cannot end up in an adjacent square, it is prone in the foe's square. To stand up, it must use the stand up rules (which include standing up if within a foe's square).

I dislike making rulings that force the game to be two dimensional instead of three dimensional.

 

[CapnZapp]

It cannot float in the air without Hover or some other effect. If it is conjured above a foe, it will fall.

I would like to be able to agree with you, but the rules do state the SC does not need a surface to stand on.

I've interpreted this to mean the SC can be conjured anywhere (and will stay there) but can't move through the air (because that is what we call a Fly speed).

The SC rules really are full of headache if you want to follow the RAW.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Of course the rules aren't even clear on any of this unfortunately. Conjurations are described as not needing anything to support them, but they are also according to WotC not able to fly. The rules are totally silent on whether or not they can be conjured into a square (cube) above ground level. The rules also state that conjurations can't move vertically.

The long and short of it is its really up to the DM. The rules seem to be telling us that a conjuration can't fly up into the air and move around like a flying thing. On the other hand they are definitely not affected by gravity and supposedly CAN cross things like pits without falling. I think again the concept is they basically operate at ground level but don't fall into things like pits. Logically it sounds like they can be conjured anywhere but can't gain or lose altitude. Presumably this means they can move around horizontally in the air, but we don't really know.

Overall the best choice is to let the DM decide based on what seems to be cool and interesting. Personally I don't see any real reason to disallow conjurations from moving around in the air, especially the Spirit Companion since it can be popped in and out of existence anywhere anyhow.

Note that exactly the same issues exist with other conjurations like Flaming Sphere and Bigby's Icy Grasp. Again I don't have an objection to them flying simply because if they can't then it opens up all sorts of hard to answer questions and arbitrarily restricts conjurations from being useful against flying enemies, which I can see no logic for whatsoever.

 

[CapnZapp]

I can completely understand the designer was some klutz who came up with SCs, and then made the minimal adjustment to make them useless as "minesweepers", to trigger traps for you.

This same klutz only plays in dungeons, so the 3D questions probably didn't even occur to him...

That doesn't excuse rules that sloppy, it just explains them.

 

[CapnZapp]

Personally I don't see any real reason to disallow conjurations from moving around in the air, especially the Spirit Companion since it can be popped in and out of existence anywhere anyhow.

I do.

During the Heroic Tier, giving the SC flight feels much too powerful. Popping it in and out at least expends two actions.

Allowing it flight as movement is more appropriate to Paragon tier, where not coincidentally the Shaman gets a feat to do the popping as free actions.

Besides, if the designers intended the SC to have flight from the get-go, they would probably have specified that.

That's my view.

 

[KarinsDad]

Nevermind.

It's a conjuration. It stays where it is supposed to stay.

And it moves when you move it.

 

[Akaiku]

It cannot float in the air without Hover or some other effect. If it is conjured above a foe, it will fall.

Where exactly is that rule?

 

[KarinsDad]

Where exactly is that rule?

It doesn't exist.

I was thinking of Summoned Creatures, not Spirit Companions.

 

[sirshandlar2]

What about the Eagle Shaman build in Primal Power? The eagle just hovers around a couple inches above the ground? Seems weird that it can't fly at all...

~Ryan