A Quick Familiar Question

[full_moon_draw]

A Very Quick question (I hope),

When someone has an advanced familiar (say for instance a quasit) what abilities does it confer on it's master?

I read somewhere (for the life of me I can't remember where) that an adanced (or is the correct term improved?) familiar granted its master its special qualities - is that correct?

Does the master of a quasit familiar gain - Alternate form, damage reduction 5/cold iron or good, darkvision 60 ft., fast healing 2, immunity to poison & resistance to fire 10

I can't seem to find a definitive answer to this in the books - can someone point me at it?

Regards - a confused - FMD

 

[Sammael]

A Very Quick question (I hope),

When someone has an advanced familiar (say for instance a quasit) what abilities does it confer on it's master?

Alertness. That's about it. I believe they also have a telepathic link and can share spells, but the other stuff doe not apply.

 

[full_moon_draw]

Cheers Sammael,

But can you point me at the rules on this?

Regards - FMD

 

[Thanee]

Nothing, other than the standard familiar benefit, as pointed out above.

You cannot find rules about this, because there are none.

There is no rule, that states, that you do not gain any benefits. That's the default.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Infiniti2000]

When someone has an advanced familiar (say for instance a quasit) what abilities does it confer on it's master?

Didn't 2E do this? 3.x doesn't, that's for sure.

 

[full_moon_draw]

Hi Infini2000,

You sure can in 3.x! It's part of the improved familar feat (or some such) from the tomb of blood & (I think) the complete arcane.

Hi Thanee & Sammael

I see you both mean about - it doesn't say you get anything other than the normal familiar abilities, therefore that's all you get!

Sounds fine to me! Just I've got this niggling little feeling in the back of my memory that I've read something else in one of the books about special qualities - I'll have a good old dig through the books tonight & see if I can find the text that's bothering me!

Cheers - FMD

PS - Personally, I think having a more powerful familiar is enough of a benefit to the caster with the improved familiar feat!!!

 

[IcyCool]

If you take a familiar from the list in the PHB, it tells you what you get as an added bonus (i.e. a toad grants you +3 hitpoints).

If you take the Improved Familiar feat from the 3.5 DMG, you get a neat, possibly more survivable creature for your familiar, but that's it (The benefit being that you get the cool familiar).

All familiars grant their master the Alertness feat.

 

[full_moon_draw]

Got it - this is the bit that's been sitting in my memory & bugging me!

Granted Abilities: In addition to their own special qualities, all familiars grant their master the alertness feat, improved evasion, empathic link and shared spells at 1st level.

Forgive my rules lawyering, but you could (if you were a player looking for an advantage) read that as the master gets the improved familiar's special qualities as granted abilities! I don't know if the there is text in the Complete Arcane that clears this up - but I hope there is. Does anyone know?

NOW - Personally, if I was the DM - there's no way you'd get that one past me! But, you can see why I was asking the question - I hope???

Cheers - FMD

EDIT - I've just checked the 3.5 DMG & the text is the same as in Tome & Blood <groan>

 

[IcyCool]

Forgive my rules lawyering, but you could (if you were a player looking for an advantage) read that as the master gets the improved familiar's special qualities as granted abilities! I don't know if the there is text in the Complete Arcane that clears this up - but I hope there is. Does anyone know?

1. That's a tortured reading at best.

2. The 3.5 Improved Familiar feat is in the 3.5 DMG, not in Complete Arcane. All the rules for it are in there.

The passage you quoted is repeated in the DMG nearly identically, but it does state that you reference the rules found in the PHB for familiars. In those rules, you'll note that nowhere does it state that masters gain the special qualities of their familiars.

 

[IcyCool]

EDIT - I've just checked the 3.5 DMG & the text is the same as in Tome & Blood <groan>

Why is this a problem? Either you slap your idiotic rules-lawyering player, slap yourself for considering it as a player, or, if your DM actually buys that arguement, then be sure to also get infinite money via the Bead of Karma schtick.

And remember, nowhere in the rules does it say you can't hit your fellow players with a brick.