How to reduce the size of the Ancient Companion from the UA Mage of Lorehold subclass?

Question

The description of the Mage of Lorehold's Ancient Companion feature (from UA: Mages of Strixhaven) reads, in part:

Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you can call forth and bond with one such spirit, who comes to inhabit a Medium, freestanding statue within 10 feet of you to serve as your ancient companion.

What are the ways by which I can reduce the size of my Ancient Companion, either temporarily or (preferably) permanently?

Ideas I've come up with so far:

Cast Enlarge/Reduce on it
Use Wish (the risky way) to cast Enlarge/Reduce on it, making the size change permanent
Have it drink a Potion of Diminution
Have it drink a Potion of Diminution together with another potion which gives a 1% chance to make the effect permanent (source)

Ideally I would like my Ancient Companion to be able to attune to a magic item that just shrinks it by one or two size categories, but I haven't found anything suitable so far...

When you mention using wish, are you talking about a custom worded wish? — Thomas Markov, Dec 15 '23 at 13:27
@SeriousBri I can think of lots of reasons a familiar type companion would be more useful if it were smaller than me. — Thomas Markov, Dec 15 '23 at 14:15
@SeriousBri only the most noble reason of all reasons: its cuter I really like the idea of being able to carve myself a small wooden statue and animate it into a talking, walking, self thinking companion. If the statue grows a bit in size thats fine, but if it gets as tall as I am boy will it be hard to get all the details right — whme, Dec 15 '23 at 14:19
This feels like it could get hairy fast - especially since there's precedent (not official rulings) about whether spells and effects end/suppress when a target is no longer valid. This is clearly different, but I feel it can have similar rulings. — TheLittlePeace, Dec 15 '23 at 15:33

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '23 at 15:24

11

Do it the other way round

Shortly before the end of your long rest, cast enlarge on a Small freestanding statue. It will be a Medium freestanding statue for the duration (concentration, 1 minute). End the rest and have the spirit inhabit the statue. You now have a Medium Ancient Companion construct. End concentration on enlarge. The construct reverts to small size, and remains small thereafter.

(You may want to check with your DM if they are fine with this. The stat block after all says Medium construct; but in particular, if this is mainly because you think it is more cute, and not to capture some unfair advantage, it should be fine.)

answered Dec 15 '23 at 15:24

Nobody the Hobgoblin

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Such a creative way I really love this idea! – whme Dec 16 '23 at 08:11
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If you are casting while resting, you are not actually resting? This is getting into some questionable mechanical interpretation of the resting mechanics for a mostly cosmetic change. If it then still hinges on a DM decision, it doesn't seem to be worth it to come up with this contrived way of arriving at the result. – J.E Dec 18 '23 at 09:10
@J.E There is no need for a DM decision on that - you can cast while long resting just fine. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Dec 18 '23 at 10:06
@NobodytheHobgoblin Thanks, I forgot about that rule, (well, it's not that you can cast spells while resting, it's that you can get back to resting after interruption if it is less than 1 hour) but still, you are resting, then you suspend the rest, cast it, get back to rest for another 50 seconds, then end the rest. That's what I mean by questionably mechanical. – J.E Dec 18 '23 at 12:25
@J.E Thanks, I think I understand what you mean. There is even a question about how legitimate this is, if not from a rules perspetive (which allows it), from a in-universe perspective. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Dec 18 '23 at 12:50
@NobodytheHobgoblin I have actually read that Q/A (it's linked in a comment on that previous one), but IMO this is "exploiting" a different bit of the mechanic; not the save spell slots part but the strictly mechanical end of rest bit. For this to work, the you can call forth and bond with one such spirit procedure has to take less than a minute. If the spirit answers your call a minute late, enlarge is over. It hinges on the the timings of finishing a rest and doing this not being specified and considering resting a mechanical on/off state. – J.E Dec 20 '23 at 07:20

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 15 '23 at 15:28

Ask your DM nicely

Since you are already using UA content I am assuming this isn't a strict RAW table and the DM is at least partially open to homebrew and house rules. As such and combined with your comment that you want it mostly for flavour I would just ask if they would let you have a small companion instead of a medium one. There was a question about advantages of Small and Medium PCs and from what I remember it boiled down to very minor aspects, most of which won't be relevant in this case anyway. So I think it's a very reasonable request that most DMs would just grant without making you jump through needless hoops.

This is exactly why I asked the question about why they wanted it, exactly the right way to go about this kind of thing. — SeriousBri, Dec 15 '23 at 16:04

How to reduce the size of the Ancient Companion from the UA Mage of Lorehold subclass?

2 Answers2

Do it the other way round

Ask your DM nicely