Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6842 Posts
    
West Valley City, Utah
 | | 02/18/2006 3:48 AM |
| After the familiar of a player in my group got killed flying too low on a scouting mission, I read the consequences of a familiar dying in the PHB. It says 200 Experience Point loss by familiar's master per level the master currently has.
If the familiar gets resurrected, does the master regain those Exp Points, or are they gone permanently? | |
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Gristlemane
Sergeant
623 Posts
| | 02/18/2006 4:33 AM |
| | Gone permanently. That's why some people are very nervous about sending their familiars into combat, and others opt to just forget to take a familiar. | |
It's deja vu all over again. | |
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driordan
Sneak
52 Posts
| | 02/18/2006 5:19 AM |
| | I don't remember seeing anything about regaining lost XP, but I thought I read somewhere that a familiar cannot be resurected. I've been unable to find that rule though, and I may very well have immagined it. (I have a very creative memory sometimes.) | |
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zenthrus
Warlord
5132 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 02/18/2006 7:03 AM |
| | Familiars aren't outsiders/elementals so I can't think of any prohibition to resurrecting them. The XP loss is permanent, however. That's why I prefer toad familiars (just keep them in your pocket, nice and safe). [:)] | |
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griffrat
Commander
3507 Posts
| | 02/18/2006 7:23 AM |
| The rules for this have changed through the editions. I knew there was a drawback written in the rules. For one of the games (2nd ed I think might have been 1st) I was in it was an auto level loss. But the upside was that your familiar was pretty bad ass, kinda like an "awakend" creature is now.
As to now you can have those extra deminsional pockets for your pet to keep them safe....to a point. [}:)]
edit:
this is from the SRD:
If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the sorcerer, the sorcerer must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per sorcerer level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a sorcerer’s experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar’s demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs.
A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.
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Wayne
Underboss
1371 Posts
| | 02/18/2006 6:04 PM |
| An attended familiar -- i.e., one that the character is carrying as a possession, as opposed to as a "rider" -- is as immune to being destroyed as any possession. The moral of the story: keep your trouser snake tucked away, except for scouting missions.
As an aside, a couple of the most recent issues of Dragon had great ideas for familiars. One was imbuing a wizard's staff as a familiar; another was construct familiars. (My favorite was the mercurial spider.)
Familiars are a serious mixed bag. If you don't need scouting capability, you're probably better off not taking one. (And you might even be able to talk your DM into trading the ability for something else.) | |
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Wayne
Underboss
1371 Posts
| | 02/18/2006 6:06 PM |
| | Oh, and a question for Corim Danex: did the bad guys have good reason to shoot at the familiar? Most familiars are pretty innocuous, and unless they're behaving very strangely, I just don't see anybody taking particular note of them. | |
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Sir Bozak The Damned
Commander
2854 Posts
Québec
| | 02/22/2006 2:12 PM |
| | I killed my Sorceror PC's familiar with a cone a cold, since an area spell affects even non-targets. A Nezumi using a rat familiar was quite funny. I did not make him lose XP and when he met the God they were to serve, he asked for his familiar back and I accepted. I love how cruel Druids are, they lose nothing and only need to wait for a month to get another Wolf back [}:)] | |
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madda
Sergeant
714 Posts
| | 02/22/2006 2:38 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Sir Bozak The Damned
I killed my Sorceror PC's familiar with a cone a cold, since an area spell affects even non-targets. A Nezumi using a rat familiar was quite funny. I did not make him lose XP and when he met the God they were to serve, he asked for his familiar back and I accepted. I love how cruel Druids are, they lose nothing and only need to wait for a month to get another Wolf back [}:)]
As far as I remember there's no need for waiting a month before getting a new animal companion. Just a 24 hours ritual. And I do not think it's cruelty, simply accepting the cycle of life.
From the SRD:
If a druid releases her companion from service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer. This ceremony can also replace an animal companion that has perished.
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Sir Bozak The Damned
Commander
2854 Posts
Québec
| | 02/22/2006 2:45 PM |
| Do not get me wrong, I love cruelty ( I am playing a CG character and that is a big stretch for me as a player, lol ) and I had said I was unsure, I just checked and you are right. This makes me want to try a Ranger/Druid/Forest Master even more, mwhahahaha
[)] | |
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Knight of Argenis
Corim Danex
Warlord
6842 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 02/24/2006 1:52 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Wayne
Oh, and a question for Corim Danex: did the bad guys have good reason to shoot at the familiar? Most familiars are pretty innocuous, and unless they're behaving very strangely, I just don't see anybody taking particular note of them.
Sorry, I forgot about this thread for a few days. To answer your question, the characters were invading the keep of the bad guys. There were two orcs hiding up in a tower (one of the five towers of the keep). The raven familiar went scouting and flew pretty much low and right up there. The orcs had been watching the party from the tower, and saw the raven take off from the shoulder of the player and come flying in their direction to look for them. In regular life, it's not that big of a deal for a raven to fly by. However, in a fantasy world, people are aware that spellcasters have familiars. The orcs had +1 to hit. I figured two javelins thrown at the raven wouldn't be that big of a deal. I thought that it would just wake the player up into being more careful on scouting with the familiar.
I wasn't expecting to roll so high. Both rolls easily hit. The raven had about 11-13 hp. Each javelin did 1d6+3 damage. The resulting damage knocked the raven to -4 because the damage rolls were so high. I hadn't thought about falling damage before the javelins were thrown. I really wasn't expecting both javelins to hit. The raven was 30 feet up, so took 2d6 falling damage. That knocked it below -10. | |
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Knight of the
Round Table
Thenameless
Warlord
12481 Posts
The Fortress of Solitude
| | 02/25/2006 4:49 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Corim Danex
quote:
Originally posted by Wayne
Oh, and a question for Corim Danex: did the bad guys have good reason to shoot at the familiar? Most familiars are pretty innocuous, and unless they're behaving very strangely, I just don't see anybody taking particular note of them.
Sorry, I forgot about this thread for a few days. To answer your question, the characters were invading the keep of the bad guys. There were two orcs hiding up in a tower (one of the five towers of the keep). The raven familiar went scouting and flew pretty much low and right up there. The orcs had been watching the party from the tower, and saw the raven take off from the shoulder of the player and come flying in their direction to look for them. In regular life, it's not that big of a deal for a raven to fly by. However, in a fantasy world, people are aware that spellcasters have familiars. The orcs had +1 to hit. I figured two javelins thrown at the raven wouldn't be that big of a deal. I thought that it would just wake the player up into being more careful on scouting with the familiar.
I wasn't expecting to roll so high. Both rolls easily hit. The raven had about 11-13 hp. Each javelin did 1d6+3 damage. The resulting damage knocked the raven to -4 because the damage rolls were so high. I hadn't thought about falling damage before the javelins were thrown. I really wasn't expecting both javelins to hit. The raven was 30 feet up, so took 2d6 falling damage. That knocked it below -10.
I was playing in an Oriental Adventures campaign, and the same thing almost happened to my Sorcerer's crane familiar. I never sent the crane on a low-flying mission again. | |
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smilinIrish
Sergeant
913 Posts
| | 03/02/2006 12:58 AM |
| | I find it annoying that they penalize you if your familiar dies. They don't give you that much of an edge. I can't see why you would want one other than for flavor, and that is a potentially devastating loss for flavor. | |
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Gristlemane
Sergeant
623 Posts
| | 03/02/2006 2:03 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by smilinIrish
I find it annoying that they penalize you if your familiar dies. They don't give you that much of an edge. I can't see why you would want one other than for flavor, and that is a potentially devastating loss for flavor.
I think it is a small design flaw that should be patched up in 4E. (Is there someone at WotC we can send these to?) This is because it is only worth it if you don't use the familiar and just stuff it in your back pocket for the rest of your adventuring career. | |
It's deja vu all over again. | |
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