Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
I need help with Familiars, Animal companions, and Urban companions...
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Magesmiley" data-source="post: 4892811" data-attributes="member: 26292"><p>Having just read the Urban Companion class option from the WOTC website (<a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a" target="_blank">Urban Class Features -- A Web Enhancement for Cityscape</a> for anyone who is looking), I think there are a few misunderstandings. </p><p></p><p>The most important is that the raven, when using this option, isn't treated as an animal companion - it is effectively a familiar.</p><p></p><p>You should follow the familiar rules as presented in the sorcerer section (as modified by class option). Use one-half of your ranger level to determine the abilities that the raven gains.</p><p></p><p>Your character would use a master level of 2 for anything else which is based on class level (such as the master level chart). You'd use 4 for anything which is based on character level (such as the HD of the familiar).</p><p></p><p>As I see it, your raven gets the following:</p><p>treated as having 4 HD</p><p>Uses your base attack bonus of +4 instead of the raven's +0</p><p>Uses your base save bonuses of +4/+4/+1 instead of the raven's +2/+2/0</p><p>Uses either your skill ranks or its (whichever is higher) for skills</p><p>+1 additional natural armor adjustment</p><p>an int of 6</p><p>improved evasion</p><p>3/4 of your hit point total (per the Urban Companion feature)</p><p>can speak with other birds (gained at 1st-level per the Urban Compaion rules)</p><p>Speaks one language for being a raven familiar</p><p></p><p>In addition, you get a +3 bonus on Appraise checks if the raven is within 1 mile of you, and Alertness as a bonus feat if the raven is within arm's reach. Finally you share an empathic link with the raven, and when you cast a spell on yourself, you can also have it affect your raven if it is within 5 feet.</p><p></p><p>A side effect of the raven being effectively a familiar is that it is much more intelligent than normal animals and you don't need to use Handle Animal to teach it tricks (which only works for creatures with an Int of 1 or 2). Your raven will (initially) have an Int of 6 (which puts it at the low-end of human intelligence). You don't need to teach it tricks - it is effectively smart enough to figure things out.</p><p></p><p>One other consideation is that familiars are treated as magical beasts, not animals, so some of your animal-type spells won't affect it.</p><p></p><p>Now that we've got some of the rules cleared up... advice.</p><p></p><p>Fill out a notecard or page for your raven to track its stats and abilities if you haven't already. This will save you a bunch of grief in trying to keep track of everything. Start with the stats for the raven from the monster manual (or the SRD). Walk through the familiar section and apply each adjustement. Then go back through the Urban Companion and adjust for the stuff there. If you're using the SRD, I like to copy the initial creature, then edit it in Word, adding additional abilities and modifiers to the sheet as I apply them.</p><p></p><p>In-game: at your current level, the raven is probably best used as a scout or messenger, checking things out from overhead. As it can speak one of your languages it can spy things from afar and make reports. Even untrained it has a pretty good Hide bonus due to its size (and if you have ranks in Hide it is really going to be good at it). You can also use it to investigate stuff that is elevated or which you can't reach for some reason.</p><p></p><p>At your current level, you want to keep the raven out of combat. It simply isn't effective (and durable) enough to do much currently. When you hit 6th level that changes as the raven can be used to deliver touch spells to the far end of the battlefield.</p><p></p><p>Some final observations: Animal companions and familiars aren't the easiest thing when you're learning the game for the first time. They require you to keep track of more stuff when everything can already seem overwhelming. Selecting variant options also makes things more complicated as well. I usually advise newer players to stick to the core classes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Magesmiley, post: 4892811, member: 26292"] Having just read the Urban Companion class option from the WOTC website ([url=http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a]Urban Class Features -- A Web Enhancement for Cityscape[/url] for anyone who is looking), I think there are a few misunderstandings. The most important is that the raven, when using this option, isn't treated as an animal companion - it is effectively a familiar. You should follow the familiar rules as presented in the sorcerer section (as modified by class option). Use one-half of your ranger level to determine the abilities that the raven gains. Your character would use a master level of 2 for anything else which is based on class level (such as the master level chart). You'd use 4 for anything which is based on character level (such as the HD of the familiar). As I see it, your raven gets the following: treated as having 4 HD Uses your base attack bonus of +4 instead of the raven's +0 Uses your base save bonuses of +4/+4/+1 instead of the raven's +2/+2/0 Uses either your skill ranks or its (whichever is higher) for skills +1 additional natural armor adjustment an int of 6 improved evasion 3/4 of your hit point total (per the Urban Companion feature) can speak with other birds (gained at 1st-level per the Urban Compaion rules) Speaks one language for being a raven familiar In addition, you get a +3 bonus on Appraise checks if the raven is within 1 mile of you, and Alertness as a bonus feat if the raven is within arm's reach. Finally you share an empathic link with the raven, and when you cast a spell on yourself, you can also have it affect your raven if it is within 5 feet. A side effect of the raven being effectively a familiar is that it is much more intelligent than normal animals and you don't need to use Handle Animal to teach it tricks (which only works for creatures with an Int of 1 or 2). Your raven will (initially) have an Int of 6 (which puts it at the low-end of human intelligence). You don't need to teach it tricks - it is effectively smart enough to figure things out. One other consideation is that familiars are treated as magical beasts, not animals, so some of your animal-type spells won't affect it. Now that we've got some of the rules cleared up... advice. Fill out a notecard or page for your raven to track its stats and abilities if you haven't already. This will save you a bunch of grief in trying to keep track of everything. Start with the stats for the raven from the monster manual (or the SRD). Walk through the familiar section and apply each adjustement. Then go back through the Urban Companion and adjust for the stuff there. If you're using the SRD, I like to copy the initial creature, then edit it in Word, adding additional abilities and modifiers to the sheet as I apply them. In-game: at your current level, the raven is probably best used as a scout or messenger, checking things out from overhead. As it can speak one of your languages it can spy things from afar and make reports. Even untrained it has a pretty good Hide bonus due to its size (and if you have ranks in Hide it is really going to be good at it). You can also use it to investigate stuff that is elevated or which you can't reach for some reason. At your current level, you want to keep the raven out of combat. It simply isn't effective (and durable) enough to do much currently. When you hit 6th level that changes as the raven can be used to deliver touch spells to the far end of the battlefield. Some final observations: Animal companions and familiars aren't the easiest thing when you're learning the game for the first time. They require you to keep track of more stuff when everything can already seem overwhelming. Selecting variant options also makes things more complicated as well. I usually advise newer players to stick to the core classes. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
I need help with Familiars, Animal companions, and Urban companions...
Top