Who/What can use magic items?

[Greenfield]

Our party has a druid, and that Druid has an animal companion.

I'm thinking of having my character make a Spell Storing item for the animal companion (It's a Siberian Snow Tiger, for the record) to give it some as-needed defensive spells.

The question is, can the animal companion use such an item?

Animals, as a rule, have only "animal intelligence", which usually means a 2. And while an animal companion grows more powerful as the Druid advances, there's nothing in that advancement schedule that increases Intelligence.

Spell Storing items convey to the wearer/user what spells they have available for use, so the tiger will have that much information. Whether it will mean anything to the tiger is another question.

What would your feelings be?

 

[Umbran]

Rings are generally activated by a command word. Unless the command word is, "ROAARRR!" the tiger is probably out of luck.

Presumably, one could create a ring with a different activation method, but most of the others available are not much better for a tiger with a 2 Int. Any activation method for such a ring is going to have to include some choice on the part of the user. Maybe you could train the tiger to certain actions on command that would activate the ring, but then it is really the Druid, not the tiger, doing the choosing. But, that's to be expected. With a 2 Int, rational choices of what effect to use when is not going to be Stripeycat's long suit.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#usingItems

 

[Grogg of the North]

I think the crux of the issue is "As-needed". If you wanted to get a bunch of passive items, like bracers of armor then those are typically use activated. Just wearing them is enough.

Here is what I would do. Get a use activated Headband of Int and a Pearl of Speech. You may need to wrap the pearl up in cheese or something for your kitty. If your DM doesn't think your cat can wear a headband, then see if you can make it into something else that will stay on a rampaging tiger.

Now that your kitty has a pearl of speech it can understand and speak one language. Start roleplaying how you're training with your kitty in your off time so that he knows how and when to use his new magic items.

If your DM calls you out on this, simply ask him "If I was playing a half orc barbarian with an int of 5, would we be having this conversation?"

 

[Nezkrul]

headband of intellect +2 is enough to push any animal to the 3 intelligence range of "intelligent" beings

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

A headband of intellect won't teach the animal to speak, however.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

In my experience, 1 magic item to boost INT above 2, 1 magic item to grant language, is sufficient to trigger command word magic items. I second @Grogg of the North's suggestion.

I'm playing a Pathfinder game as a Halfling Druid with a Tiger animal companion.
Having downtime in a large city, with plenty of gold lining my pockets, the DM said any item at 6000gp and below we could purchase, no questions asked.

For my Tiger, I bought (Among other things):
-Headband of Ponderous Recollection. INT is now a 4, and the extra benefit of studying humanoids for understanding.
-Feychild Necklace. Ability to understand, speak and read Gnomish, which my Druid speaks. Had fun RPing in a library to practice reading.

From here, my character crafted a Decanter Of Endless Water himself, assigning the command words in Gnomish. Using Wood Shape, a cannon tube was fashioned and mounted to the back of the Tiger's armor (Think Blastoise) and the decanter was slid in place.

My DM was ticked by the idea of my tiger being a self-commanding fire truck. She could turn on the water cannon, pounce at enemies and possibly knock them prone as she approached, than do her full natural attacks. It was pretty.

 

[Grogg of the North]

My DM was ticked by the idea of my tiger being a self-commanding fire truck. She could turn on the water cannon, pounce at enemies and possibly knock them prone as she approached, than do her full natural attacks. It was pretty.

When I first read that I had this image of your tiger in a firefighter's helmet running around putting fires out in the city. That would be made of win!

A headband of intellect won't teach the animal to speak, however.

That's what a Pearl of Speech is for.

 

[Jacob]

I like that you are finding a means to allow your Animal Companion to be more viable for combat and valuable in general. Problem being, your Animal Companion is an animal. Giving it intelligence breaks whatever connection it has to you as an Animal Companion, so while Headband of Intellect and Pearl of Speech will certainly allow your Companion to use non-passive magic items, it effectively becomes an NPC. You now have to be Diplomatic with the animal like every other character in the campaign, and you have no say in what it will do...lest you have the Leadership feat, that is, but that's another can of worms.

Otherwise stick with passive magic items, of which there are plenty to use and even make. Armor and Greater Magic Fang with Permanency are staples, but bracers and even cloaks could be used (though fashioned to accommodate the shape of the creature). Boots aren't just for humanoids either, because Kenku's would as a Player Race option would cheated if that were the case.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Hmm ... I know that if you Awaken an animal it becomes a magical beast and it cannot be an animal companion. Though [MENTION=98644]Jacob[/MENTION] does raise an interesting point. At what point does the bond break? I just skimmed the PHB and I didn't see anything under animal companion about it's int. Though this may be something they never intended....

 

[the Jester]

I like that you are finding a means to allow your Animal Companion to be more viable for combat and valuable in general. Problem being, your Animal Companion is an animal. Giving it intelligence breaks whatever connection it has to you as an Animal Companion, so while Headband of Intellect and Pearl of Speech will certainly allow your Companion to use non-passive magic items, it effectively becomes an NPC. You now have to be Diplomatic with the animal like every other character in the campaign, and you have no say in what it will do...lest you have the Leadership feat, that is, but that's another can of worms.

While this is a possible interpretation of the effects, I would check with your dm and see what his or her take on it is.

Besides, in many games, the animal companion already gets treated as an npc. After all, it is one.