Animal Companions and Polymorph

[Shin Ji]

Wizard BAB is still in the rules now. What is your point?

My point is that I am not asking for any changes to the *base* creature. I am happy to following the PAO rules (change in physical stats, Int, retain BAB, skills, etc.). However, the fact that you are saying PAO makes it *dangerous* to have pets and Familiars (especially Familiars, where you also lose a chunk of XP, and have a harder time resisting the Fort save (being as Wizards tend to have bad Fort saves to begin with) around is more than a little silly, don't you think?

Skip was fairly clear on what constitutes what in the game. It is *not* his fault that you can't understand what he is trying to convey. I found it pretty straight forward. Stop blaming him, please.

Wow. Did you read my post at all? I was not at all making the point that PAO makes it dangerous to have a familiar or animal companion. I was saying that 15th+ level wizards are dangerous. The thing about my player being unhappy with retaining the BAB was just one of the examples of his odd behavior.

Familiars are really hard to keep alive in any case. Any nasty area effect will tend to kill them- even with Improved Evasion, you can still roll a 1. And if any enemy decides to focus on your familiar? Fuddaghetaboutit. Unless you take an Order of the Stick attitude about them (they suddenly appear when called, and are forgotten otherwise), I don't know how to keep a familiar alive, barring some sort of gentleman's agreement with the DM.

 

[SadisticFishing]

Okay, I've read most of this post, and it's actually rather interesting...

But if an companion can be a magical beast, why couldn't it be a dragon?

On top of that, would a polymorphed familiar/animal companion really become a Behir and want to eat everything? Or just become stupid? Do they retain their own personality traits? I mean, Wisdom, Charisma, and Intellect help create your personality, but they aren't all there is to it.

Maybe I should get my PHB before posting this, but oh well, there's no time.

 

[Cameron]

Wow. Did you read my post at all? I was not at all making the point that PAO makes it dangerous to have a familiar or animal companion. I was saying that 15th+ level wizards are dangerous. The thing about my player being unhappy with retaining the BAB was just one of the examples of his odd behavior.

Familiars are really hard to keep alive in any case. Any nasty area effect will tend to kill them- even with Improved Evasion, you can still roll a 1. And if any enemy decides to focus on your familiar? Fuddaghetaboutit. Unless you take an Order of the Stick attitude about them (they suddenly appear when called, and are forgotten otherwise), I don't know how to keep a familiar alive, barring some sort of gentleman's agreement with the DM.

Read up on the Companion Familiar, please. It is not a normal Familiar...

 

[Cameron]

Okay, I've read most of this post, and it's actually rather interesting...

But if an companion can be a magical beast, why couldn't it be a dragon?

On top of that, would a polymorphed familiar/animal companion really become a Behir and want to eat everything? Or just become stupid? Do they retain their own personality traits? I mean, Wisdom, Charisma, and Intellect help create your personality, but they aren't all there is to it.

Maybe I should get my PHB before posting this, but oh well, there's no time.

It gets the Int of the form, which in this case is the same. It retains its own Wis and Cha. The worse thing is that if the companion and the familiar bond is broken, well... hello, meals on pins...

 

[SadisticFishing]

Nah I think you misunderstood - int is not your personality, just your intelligence. By your definition, a PC who takes int damage becomes someone else entirely - they do not, just become.. stupider.

 

[Shin Ji]

Read up on the Companion Familiar, please. It is not a normal Familiar...

Man, you're snarky. It really doesn't matter. Even a mega-nasty pet rhino will find something that kills it. Death is part of D&D. The fact that Wizards are punished for their familiars ever dying is truly unfair.

 

[Jhaelen]

Go. Find a new game. Both of you will be happier.

Sage advice, I'd say!

Dear Cameron, you consider yourself 'fairly conversant' with the rules of the game but it seems you have failed to understand the all important rule zero. Common sense, especially if it's the DM's common sense always beats any kind of 'RAW' argumentation.

Btw. the polymorph spells went the way of all mortal things in my game after the last official errata. Luckily this happened before it could ever become a problem in one of my games (though I suspect it would never have become a problem considering my players).

 

[Cameron]

Man, you're snarky. It really doesn't matter. Even a mega-nasty pet rhino will find something that kills it. Death is part of D&D. The fact that Wizards are punished for their familiars ever dying is truly unfair.

Once again, read up on Companion Familiars, please, before you start complaining about how *other* people are bad players.

If you are not conversant with a particular rule, and then start beating someone up with what happened to you, do you seriously expect someone to start treating you with respect? You don't even know what you are talking about! Seriously, man. Start reading up on the topic at hand before you go around making comments that is an oblique attack on someone else, especially when you have so far made 3 assumptions that are totally wrong!

 

[Bryntryst]

Go. Find a new game. Both of you will be happier.

Sage advice, I'd say!

The first answers are usually the best. Also, it always cracks me up to see people come here with a question, that they deep down don't want to know the answer to, then get offended and stubborn when someone gives it.

 

[Cameron]

The first answers are usually the best. Also, it always cracks me up to see people come here with a question, that they deep down don't want to know the answer to, then get offended and stubborn when someone gives it.

Funny. I could say the same of those whose holy grail is to make unfounded, unjustified conclusions and the most obscenely bad assumptions possible under any given circumstance. But it is just me.

At the moment, I don't give a hoot about what my DM says, Rule 0 or no.. I am here to get what the RAW says. I am not going to argue it over with my DM, we are past that, and I certainly would not be using your advice to do so. I just what to know for my own knowledge, so that I can adjudicate it better in my own game.

Given the hostile and aggro responses like that above, I am even more certain now that any future rules queries would be a total waste of time here. I should have listened to my friends and never have come here. They were right about the bee-stung wolverines.