My air elemental Familiar and me

[Quemar]

Ok, first a little background:

I'm a 9th level character (1 level fighter, 8 levels of wizard) high elf. I'm about to hit my next level. At 9th level wizard I gain 5th level spells. I also have a small air elemental as my familiar (improved familiar feat). I'm also planing on taking the Permanency spell.

So...
I was thinking of casting Reduce Person on my self, and making it permanent. This will make me 5.5 inches tall and way ~20 pounds. My familiar is 4 feet tall, weights 1 pound, and has a str of 10 (0-33 pounds for light load).

Here is my questions:
1) Can I ride my familiar (with riding ranks)?
2) If I can, do I need riding gear? or does an air elemental "shape" it's self in what ever it likes.
3) Is there anything that I'm not thinking about when riding an air elemental?

also:
1) Reduce person says: "All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly reduced by the spell." It doesn't say "at the time of casting." Does this mean that if people hand me "full grown" items, they are reduced?
2) If the Reduce Person is permanent, is there a way to suppress it for a short time?
3) If not, can I use Alter Self to appear as myself?
4) Is there any other down sides to Reduce Person being permanent?

I think this is a great way to add a little "character" to my character. I mean, how many times have you seen a 5.5" tall elf, riding an air elemental?

Thanks!

 

[Bad Paper]

I was thinking of casting Reduce Person on my self, and making it permanent. This will make me 5.5 inches tall and way ~20 pounds. My familiar is 4 feet tall, weights 1 pound, and has a str of 10 (0-33 pounds for light load).

Here is my questions:
1) Can I ride my familiar (with riding ranks)?
2) If I can, do I need riding gear? or does an air elemental "shape" it's self in what ever it likes.
3) Is there anything that I'm not thinking about when riding an air elemental?

also:
1) Reduce person says: "All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly reduced by the spell." It doesn't say "at the time of casting." Does this mean that if people hand me "full grown" items, they are reduced?
2) If the Reduce Person is permanent, is there a way to suppress it for a short time?
3) If not, can I use Alter Self to appear as myself?
4) Is there any other down sides to Reduce Person being permanent?

I think this is a great way to add a little "character" to my character. I mean, how many times have you seen a 5.5" tall elf, riding an air elemental?

I have never seen a 5.5" tall elf riding an air elemental, mostly because I have never seen a 5.5" tall elf. How did you come up with that insanely small number? Reduce Person will only drop your size to Small and make you 2.5' tall. I am pretty sure that you have to be Tiny in order to have a Small mount.

So, to answer your questions, which unfortunately have an absurd numbering system:
1) If I am correct in believing that you must be Tiny or smaller to ride something Small, then no, you cannot ride your elemental. If I am incorrect, then yes you can, even without ranks in Ride (though those ranks will help in a great many ways).
2) An exotic saddle (since your elemental is not a horse) will grant comfort, ease, and stability. You will take a -5 on Ride checks without one.
3) The fact that your intelligent familiar will resent being used as a beast of burden? I'd say that's a pretty big thing; it's a Familiar, not a Mount, and certainly not a slave. If you wanted a fancy mount, you shoulda been a paladin.

Also:
1) No.
2) Enlarge Person, or Dispel Magic (which will eventually happen anyway).
3) Yes, but note that you will effectively be in a 1HD body.
4) The fact that your DM will cackle with glee every time he throws a Gust of Wind, Whirlwind, or any other wind effect at you. And your grapple check will be in the toilet. And I imagine your party will want to start pushing you to be the scout.

IMHO, permanent Reduce Person will kill you. If I were your DM, that would be a promise.

 

[ARandomGod]

Really, ignore the permanent reduce person and get an item with continuous reduce person. That way you indeed can suppress the magic and go back to your regular size.

And no, normal sized items will not shrink down when you pick them up. However if you have the cloak, you grow to normal size, then shrink down the items will shrink with you.

Additionally, if you use normal sized ranged weapons that have been reduced, when they leave your person they grow back to normal sized, and do damage appropriate for normal sized weapons.

 

[Seeten]

Thank you for the chuckle.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Your mount must be one size larger than you.

If you do not have appropriate riding gear, you take a -5 modifier to your Riding check.

 

[Quemar]

So, to answer your questions, which unfortunately have an absurd numbering system:

Saw the "halving its height, length, and width and dividing its weight by 8" and read it as divide all of them by 8. doh.

1) If I am correct in believing that you must be Tiny or smaller to ride something Small, then no, you cannot ride your elemental. If I am incorrect, then yes you can, even without ranks in Ride (though those ranks will help in a great many ways).
2) An exotic saddle (since your elemental is not a horse) will grant comfort, ease, and stability. You will take a -5 on Ride checks without one.

Well, I could research, say a 4th level spell, that is "greater reduce person" to go down by two size categories.

3) The fact that your intelligent familiar will resent being used as a beast of burden? I'd say that's a pretty big thing; it's a Familiar, not a Mount, and certainly not a slave. If you wanted a fancy mount, you shoulda been a paladin.

I would prefer to think of it as a partnership in surviving. And being intelectual base, that would be the most logical.

Also:
1) No.
2) Enlarge Person, or Dispel Magic (which will eventually happen anyway).
3) Yes, but note that you will effectively be in a 1HD body.
4) The fact that your DM will cackle with glee every time he throws a Gust of Wind, Whirlwind, or any other wind effect at you. And your grapple check will be in the toilet. And I imagine your party will want to start pushing you to be the scout.

On my familiar it might not be so bad, and besides, if we get blown down or a ways away, the 100ft speed can make up for it. I don't plan on getting close enough to be grappled. I can deal with my party members, I have a mind of my own.

IMHO, permanent Reduce Person will kill you. If I were your DM, that would be a promise.

I think you need to lighten up a bit. The game is about having fun, not a battle with the DM.

 

[Quemar]

Really, ignore the permanent reduce person and get an item with continuous reduce person. That way you indeed can suppress the magic and go back to your regular size.

And no, normal sized items will not shrink down when you pick them up. However if you have the cloak, you grow to normal size, then shrink down the items will shrink with you.

Additionally, if you use normal sized ranged weapons that have been reduced, when they leave your person they grow back to normal sized, and do damage appropriate for normal sized weapons.

Wow, why didn't I think of that. I have create wonderous items, so this would be a snap (costly snap tho to do.

I think research of a 4th level GREATER reduce person might do the trick.

 

[Liquidsabre]

I think research of a 4th level GREATER reduce person might do the trick.

You mean polymorph right? No need to go through all that trouble to research a brand new spell. Just polymorph yourself into a tiny size humanoid.

 

[Diirk]

You mean polymorph right? No need to go through all that trouble to research a brand new spell. Just polymorph yourself into a tiny size humanoid.

Alter self says: "The new form must be within one size category of your normal size.". Polymorph is as per alter self with noted changes... the noted changes don't override the referenced text from alter self, they just add an additional qualification for not polymorphing the target smaller than fine. So no polymorphing to tiny size from medium.

Additionally air elementals are roughly humanoid in stance (ie walk upright, not on all fours/sixes/eights/whatevers) so to serve as a mount it would need to be two size categories larger than you (see recent threads about goblins mounted on ogres, among others). So you'd need to be tiny, and then you'd need to enlarge your familiar to medium. Or you small, and it large. Either way, you'd need an alter self/polymorph followed by a reduce/enlarge on one party, and a enlarge/reduce on the other.

Or your 'greater reduce' + enlarge / 'greater enlarge' + reduce.

 

[Quemar]

You mean polymorph right? No need to go through all that trouble to research a brand new spell. Just polymorph yourself into a tiny size humanoid.

Except that my equipment would be unusable. Reduce has this on it's side:

"All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly reduced by the spell."

Nothing like shooting a tiny bow for a normal size impact, even if I have to get closer.