Familiars and Alter Self

[HeapThaumaturgist]

So I was reading over the little run on Familiars over at the Rules of the Game section at WotC and got to the sharing spells section.

Which sent me to the older polymorph section for special rules on sharing them with your familiar.

And I re-read the Alter Self rules they laid out there.

Apparently, I've been doing it incorrectly for a long time now. And my question is WHY.

Over at the WotC site it says that when your familiar is the target of an Alter Self spell it must change form into a normal animal. Even though the familiar's type has been changed to Magical Beast and the rules of the spell specifically lay out that you have to change form into something that shares your Type ...

I don't really get it. Seems like that's liable to cause more confusion than not.

--fje

 

[lukelightning]

Maybe it's due to the fact that the familiar is magical beast (augmented animal)? I can't find a specific ruling on this, but it makes sense that an "augmented animal" is treated as an animal for spell effects (animal growth, speak with animals, etc.)

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

But that's the thing ... their rulings on familiars specifically state that they're NOT affected as "Animals" for other spells. Animal Growth, etc, don't work on Familiars because they're "Magical Beasts" and no longer "Animals".

--fje

 

[Deset Gled]

I think your best bet is to just ignore the RotG article and play it the way you normally do. There was a thread here a little bit ago in which various people expressed their distaste/hatred/sadness for how the Familiars article turned out.

*cough* Primary Source rule *cough*

 

[Hypersmurf]

And I re-read the Alter Self rules they laid out there.

If you use the rules of the game, rather than the Rules of the Game, the problem goes away

And who knows, RotG would probably rule that since caster and familiar both have their own separate bodies, this is one case where you can't Share Spells... :\

-Hyp.

 

[Krelios]

My PHB says that my familiar is a magical beast and thus, I will treat it as a magical beast despite what someone puts on their website. In other words, unless it's in my book or an errata, it's just opinion.

 

[lukelightning]

What they need is a "Familiar Tempate." A familiar is an obvious template situation: take a regular creature, and transform it into a new kind of creature.

Something like "This template can be applied to any corporeal creature....it gives these benefits...yadda yadda yadda" And would specify what the creature is considered (animal or magical beast, etc.). Many types of creatures can become familars with the improved familiar feat; I've seen every type except humanoid, monstrous humanoid, ooze, giant, and plant (and perhaps undead, I think the stitched flesh familiar from the Necronomicon is undead...).

 

[Henrix]

And who knows, RotG would probably rule that since caster and familiar both have their own separate bodies, this is one case where you can't Share Spells... :\

No, no, this is clearly a case where they should split the effect. So if you cast Polymorph to become a dragon, both you and your familiar will end up as half-dragons.