Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Urbannen" data-source="post: 4067790" data-attributes="member: 7643">I don't think anyone in my group is foolish enough to have a normal familiar attack in combat.  Obviously the bat familiar will be hovering about while the spellsword is in combat, but the only attacks that it would be affected by would be AoE attacks.  The familiar has improved evasion and enough hit points to survive two AoEs even with failed saves.  (When you're being targeted with AoEs is normally when you have your familiar run away.)  The enemy would have to know this character very well indeed before targeting his bat familiar.  If you want your familiar to attack in combat you take the Improved Familiar feat, which is a whole other question.  The only time the familiar has been used in combat is when the party knew that there was an invisible wizard present.  The familiar can move 80 fts in one round and alert the spellsword through the empathic link when he senses an invisible creature with his 20 ft radius blindsense.  He quickly located the wizard.  There are two problems with this.  1.  I don't know what LoM is.  I only take NPC options from the core D&D books and a certain number of FR books, which I own.    2.  I don't want to nerf the abilities of the NPCs just to teach them a lesson.  I believe in limited in-game options so the players can accurately judge the value of their choices.  The bat is on the approved list of familiars, so he can take the bat, which is a very excellent choice.  However, Obtain Familiar is not on the pre-approved list of options, so I can veto it.  3.  Right now the Familiar has an Int of 8 and the same knowledge as the spellsword.  He's not going to make any major misjudgments of threats ,and the spellsword will likely wait to get a full report via speak with familiar once the familiar returns from scouting.     It doesn't go along with the other examples of familiar advancement in the game.  And I prefer single-classing, which is now the exception rather than the rule.  Familiar advancement is one of the few rewards for single-classing as a wizard or sorcerer.  And familiars of pure arcane spellcasters need to be tougher because their masters are feeble.  With the spellswords hit points, that is not the case here.  And if you want an example of how this scenario doesn't fit with familiar advancement in other classes, look at the hexblade.  The hexblade's familiar's advancement is specifically tied to spellcasting ability (or potential spellcasting ability).  It is not even tied to caster level.  In theory a singe-class 6th level hexblade could take the Obtain Familiar feat and add 3 to his familiar's level.  ?!?  Now why would a character who already can already summon a familiar take a feat called Obtain Familiar?  He tells his friends: "I've learned how to Obtain a Familiar".  Friends: "But you already have Slinky."  Hexblade: "Yeah, but I only summoned him before.  Now I've Obtained him."  Friends: "And what third party sourcebook did you find that feat in ?"</blockquote>

Verification