Cockroach familiar

[Malin Genie]

Still familiar brainstorming - what granted ability would be most appropriate for a cockroach (survive anything up to and including a nuclear winter...) familiar?


+1 natural armour

+1 to Fort and Reflex saves

DR 1/-

+4 to save vs poison and disease

Other?

 

[Skade]

I'd say the bonus to fort and reflex.

Maybe you should make a poll?

 

[Xeriar]

I think +2 to fortitude saves.

As I understand it the most deadly weapon a cockroach can face is the sole of a human shoe.

 

[Draugin]

+1 natural armour
+1 to Fort and Reflex saves
DR 1/-
+4 to save vs poison and disease

I'd exclude Reflex saves, and DR 1/- seems to me a bit too strong.
So it remains:

+2 to Fort saves
+1 natural armour
+4 to save vs poison and disease

The fact that they can survive most cataclisms and disasters points me towards +2 to Fort saves, but this is a fact of personal tastes.

 

[starwolf]

feign death 1/day!

I mean after all, how many times have you stepped on a cockroach, swore you heard it *crunch*, only to have it get up and walk away a few seconds later (or fly at your face if you live in Texas )

 

[woodelf]

If beheaded, master can continue to function unimpaired (except for the loss of hearing, sight, smell, taste, and the ability to talk) for a number of rounds equal to Constitution score. Now someone just needs to come up with a Somatic-only (fumbling for materials by touch alone would be a pain) "Regrow Head" spell.

[sorry, i'll see if i can be helpful later. ]

 

[yennico]

I think +2 to fortitude saves.

I agree with Xeriar.

As I understand it the most deadly weapon a cockroach can face is the sole of a human shoe.

Several questions:
Is a cockroach not too small for being a familiar ? (compared to other animals as familiars)
Isn´t a cockroach an insect ? So can the wizard later talk through his familiar to all insects ? (a really big advantage )
Does a cockcroach has the vermin template ?

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[Ferret]

There is not vermin template just a type.

There is no size restriction on the familiar, just a small animal, how many of them are small?

Yes you are right. A Cockroach is an insect, but that is not it's specease, it's something like it's genus of kingdom. This means you get to speak to other cockroaches, or that kind.

Plus what sort of cockroach? The Hissing one would give a +2 to intimidate.

 

[Skade]

Plus what sort of cockroach? The Hissing one would give a +2 to intimidate.

See, that would be a Fear spell effect on me!

 

[Malin Genie]

I was thinking Size D (the jungle cockroaches rather than the Size F house cockroaches and there is a precedent for Vermin familiars (the Hairy Spider in FRCS - in becoming a familiar its type still changes to Magical Beast, and it thus loses its immunity to mind-affecting spells.)