The Golarion Gazette

Last week, kitsune witch Valentina Kelsey was in a harrowing battle to the death where she was fighting alongside her longtime friend, half-orc Krug Grek, against the undead. In the chaos of combat, the two got separated and Grek was surrounded by skeletons and knocked unconscious. Seeing her friend lying on the ground across the battlefield, and all out of healing spells, Kelsey did the only thing she could think of – command her flying snake familiar to fly over to Grek and pour a healing potion in his mouth. But when the familiar got there, it refused to obey the order, and Kelsey had no choice but to flee, condemning Grek to an untimely death. When she complained to her patron, the curse-themed ancient elder demon Balthoriax, he refused to help, citing their terms of service agreement which he said “explicitly disclaims any coverage” of healing potion use by familiars.

Kelsey isn’t the only witch stuck in a similar situation. While so-called “empty hand clauses” that disallow familiars from using most magical items are common in the industry, they have recently been the focus of much more scrutiny, as tougher monsters and tighter battles have meant that the ability to use a familiar’s action to feed a potion at the same time as its master does something else often means the difference between life and death. Previously, however, this was just accepted as the cost of signing a pact with a patron for magic powers, but witches have now organized to make another attempt at overturning these clauses.

The latest attempt is a class-action lawsuit against Balthoriax, the largest provider of witch patronship services with approximately a 15 percent market share among all registered witches in Golarion. The plaintiffs argue that Balthoriax’s marketing materials promised “a familiar that would be a valuable asset in both scouting and combat” to witches that chose him as their patron. “Despite numerous attempts, nobody has ever been able to come up with useful things for familiars to do in combat except use items,” said hobgoblin lawyer Mazraga Barkan, one of the lead plaintiff’s attorneys on the suit. “Thus, the claim that the familiar would be an asset in combat constitutes an implied promise to provide a familiar that can fulfill that role, which means one that can use magic items.” Barkan hopes that if the suit is successful, other patrons will follow suit.

Balthoriax himself denied any wrongdoing, saying that while it is possible that “some of [his] customer service representatives may have been misinformed”, the terms of the contract were always clear and that witches need to read the contract. “A previous court case specifically upheld the validity of the clauses at issue and confirmed our contention that we have the legal right to prohibit magical item use by familiars.” said Balthoriax. Balthoriax also claimed that familiars can be a valuable asset in combat even without the ability to use items, citing upgrade choices that enable familiars to help users intimidate their enemies or give them extra spellcasting power. “And if that doesn’t satisfy you,” he said, “we have plenty more options coming up soon!”