Have you ever killed a familiar?

[Pinotage]

One of the kuo-toa priests in my PbP game has just flame striked the shadowdancer's shadow, most likely destroying the critter in the process. One rarely hears about familiars dying or animal companions, so I'd like to hear your stories about familiars dying, ot those that you've killed in your games.

Pinotage

 

[Mithril Dragon]

Good lord, man. I have had players who use the poor things like "mine-sniffers". It has been my experience that familiars are almost always "sent in" first to do a little scouting and will inevitably spring a trap or ambush and suffer an untimely demise. Being a familiar is not a healthy line of work.

 

[The_Gneech]

Hmm ... in all my games, the characters have been paranoid about their familiars. The rule at my table has always been "dead familiar = lose a level on the spot," although looking in the SRD I see that's changed in the RAW somewhere along the line. The PCs have used that rule to great effect when taking on enemy spellcasters, and are loathe to have the same thing happen to them!

-The Gneech

 

[Mithril Dragon]

I guess it all depends on which rules you are using and what level the characters are. It has been my experience that higher level characters care less about losing a level than losing a character. So if a dangerous situation arises and someone has to go in first to get the "lay of the land" its almost always some poor familiar.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

One of the kuo-toa priests in my PbP game has just flame striked the shadowdancer's shadow, most likely destroying the critter in the process. One rarely hears about familiars dying or animal companions, so I'd like to hear your stories about familiars dying, ot those that you've killed in your games.

Pinotage

Kuo-toa ... you too?

I had a beastmaster in the last DnD campaign I ran, and he had a dire lion as his companion. It got killed by a trio of drow swashbucklers, however. Animal companions tend to have a really low AC score.

He made a deal with the Temple of Mielikki - he got three magical acorns, but he had to do them a favor in return. One acorn allowed him to bring the dire lion back, and the second made it intelligent. He used a third on a dire bat to make it another companion. (The dire lion revenged itself on a drow, too. The PCs killed some drow and the last one tried to run away. His clothes got tagged by a daylight spell and so he was blinded. His high speed enabled him to get away until he ran into a cave wall. The dire lion promptly jumped on him and began to feed.)

The dire bat got killed by a kuo-toa monk. (I'm going to wait for you to figure out how he did that for a second.) He had no acorns left, so he couldn't bring it back.

[sblock]The players used reverse gravity on the kuo-toa, annoying their priestess and hardly affecting the monk. He faced the dire bat (a CR 6 creature, vs the CR ~15 or so monk) at the ceiling and killed it in one round. However, he died quickly (and indeed, never hurt any of the PCs) as monks are kind of weak, and NPC monks are even weaker.[/sblock]

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Yes I have. And it was tasty. In a 1e game back in the day, my anti-paladin killed the wizard's familiar, stuck it on a spit, and roasted right in front of him (he was bound and gagged as part of the "interrogation process").

 

[diaglo]

read the story hour in my sig.

Poor Harp (my animal companion Dire Rat)

Poor Redd (the gnome sorc's Fox familiar)

Poor Bernedette.... she lost her familiar early in the campaign
edit: Thane also lost his familiar to a Hill Giant.

and Arendel lost animal companions too.

 

[Zander]

I sacrificed a familiar once...

My magic user (this was in 1E back in the '80s) was far from the party. He was fine but the rest of the party was almost dead with everyone at single digit or negative HPs. The monster, a dragon IIRC, wasn't doing too well either but I physically couldn't make it to where the action was in time to help. The only thing I could do was send my pseudo-dragon familiar. The familiar distracted the monster but got killed doing so. It gave the last PC standing against the monster just enough time to take it out.

Even though the penalties were severe, I got a lot of XP to compensate. Also, the rest of the party chipped in their share of the monster's treasure to get my familiar raised. It's probably against the 1E RAW but the DM allowed it.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Good lord, man. I have had players who use the poor things like "mine-sniffers". It has been my experience that familiars are almost always "sent in" first to do a little scouting and will inevitably spring a trap or ambush and suffer an untimely demise. Being a familiar is not a healthy line of work.

Good thing my players are all from the System Shcok or Die rolls of 2nd ed. If somebody would start using familiars as trap detectors, I'd have to put that rule back in.

Wait a minute. What are Hirelings For? Why risk a level when there are so many torch bearers, summon animals, etc... Having a XP loss critter as your trap detector is foolish. Esp as you can get cheaper, non-XP draining trap detectors.

While I haven't killed a Familiar (I've come close once or twice). I did castrate one.

Guy had a cat familiar, kept saying how he let it out at night to 'see how many kittens it can make tonight'. Eventually, cat got caught be a sorceress who wasn't to happy about her mittens being defiled. Kept his cat hostage, threatened to kill it.

Cat sends out empathic link: "HELP ME!". Party comes running. As they get close, the 'empathic link' experiences sensation overload as the wizard collapses in empathic pain. Rest of party finally find cat (minus a few pieces) in an alleyway.

No more kitty-mongering for THAT familiar.

 

[Arkhandus]

Sadly, a week or two ago, the gnome transmuter's familiar died, as I had the green dragon bite it amidst clawing at the elf fighter/ranger. It was either that, or have the dragon full-attack the elf only, which would've killed the elf PC at that point, since the dragon had already wounded Valdir. Fleck lost his familiar Bristletail, as he had polymorphed the critter into a 10-headed hydra IIRC, and had it try to help the elf ranger when Oruzanthanax charged at Valdir, savaging the elf. The hydra didn't get the chance to do much before Oruzanthanax bit the hydra and then slew it the next round with acid breath. Fleck's player rolled pathetically for his familiar's Reflex save. Fleck didn't think beforehand, that the dragon might find a big ol' many-headed hydra more dangerous-looking than the wood elf, who had been pelting it with arrows. Bristletail had slain many kobolds two days earlier, the first time that Fleck had polymorphed him into a hydra, but even then a kobold lancer had been able to knock Bristletail unconscious with a mounted charge. I had thought Fleck would learn to better protect his familiar after that........ Just not something you're supposed to send wading into melee at a speed of 20 feet, ya know? Wizards ought be more intelligent in buffing up their familiars before combat.......

At this point Fleck is working out some way to try and get a cleric to Raise his familiar.....