What do you think of the new Imbued Staff Article in Dragon?

[Scion]

Heap, people often not talking them is WHY familiars are balanced, there is enough bad with the good that not everyone takes them. They are an option, not an expectation of the classes that have them.

I am still confused by this 'bad' part that people are making out.. They seem to be something that grants basically 2 feats (although limited in selection) and some other potential benefits (although they dont have to be used).. If they die you lose exp, but they are not exactly easy to kill and if the enemy is focusing on it then they are doing less to the rest of the party, which sounds like a benefit in disguise.

Where is this overly huge badness? Why wouldnt the imbued staff suffer from an equal amount of badness?

 

[Rystil Arden]

Did they have this option? If not, the choices your players made do not have a lot to do with whether this option is balanced against a familiar.

Do note, I LOVE this article. A wizard's staff is a foundation of fantasy fiction & it just being a disposable spell battery never sat well with me. Nearly perfect implemetation, just not balanced vs. what you trade for it.

Of course they had the option--they had to pay gold if they wanted that Familiar, but they all found it to be worth it. There have been Familiar deaths, but since players use them conservatively, those typically only come when the Wizard or Sorcerer also dies. The only player in recent memory to lose a Familiar when the character himself was fine was the guy who sent his Familiar alone to scout in the dungeon

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Not only do I intend to allow it, I intend to allow wizards to choose the staff-related feats presented in that article as bonus feats at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, as if they were metamagic or item creation feats.

They are Item Creation feats, and therefore already available as Wizard bonus feats.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

So unless you as DM ignore attacking familiars, or the staff is a lot more fragile than normal magical objects then, no it is not a fair trade off.

I as a DM ignore attacking familiars 95% of the time. The only time the bad guys ever attack a familiar is if it's grossly and obviously out of place in its surroundings. For instance, an owl scouting during the day, or a cat scouting in a dungeon. But if the animal is expected in the enviroment (cat in a city, hawk during the day, rat in the dungeon) then even intelligent foes won't usually pay it much mind. And my baddies always have something better to do than attack the familiar during combat, unless the familiar is delivering touch spells, or some other aggressive combat activity.

So on that score, I'd be inclined to allow the staff, if it is balanced. I haven't seen the article myself, so I couldn't say. I'd like to get it now, though. Another call for the volume/issue number!

 

[Mouseferatu]

They are Item Creation feats, and therefore already available as Wizard bonus feats.

I thought only some of them qualified as Item Creation. I must have misread.

 

[frankthedm]

338 - December 05- Wizard in blue with gold shoulderpads stands on a hilltop in front of a hellish sunset.

Very good article. It is just the gold costs don't feel like a good balancing factor at any level other than first. The XP costs for the staff's destruction are so brutal that, as i have said, the breaking of a staff, which I feel is a valid tactic in a world where this is an option*, could lead to a player walking off from the table or retiring the character.

*Now needed to be done before going into grapple to shut down the wizard.

 

[hbarsquared]

I subscribe to Dragon, but as of yet I have not recieved issue #338 - and I am really looking forward to this article. It's been something I've been trying to tweak for my own games, and I would love to see a similar mechanic.

I completely understand not posting the contents of the magazine, but could someone briefly describe what kind of abilities that an imbued staff would grant? I assume it would not be the same as for an ordinary familiar, and I would like to know how a "staff familiar" is different from the core "animal familiar."

Thanks.

 

[Patlin]

In my experience most familiars end up looking like this

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=3

Or, as others have suggested in this very thread, like this.

In your backpack, your familiar is as safe as any of your non-slot using magic items... and hopefully your DM would be more responsive to Haley's complaint than Mr. Burlew.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

In my experience most familiars end up looking like this

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=3

Or, as others have suggested in this very thread, like this.

In your backpack, your familiar is as safe as any of your non-slot using magic items... and hopefully your DM would be more responsive to Haley's complaint than Mr. Burlew.

You know, one of these days we're going to be able to communicate in nothing but Order of the Stick references.

Instead of "Darmock and Jalad on the ocean" it'll be "Roy and Elan at the inn."

 

[Mouseferatu]

You know, one of these days we're going to be able to communicate in nothing but Order of the Stick references.

Instead of "Darmock and Jalad on the ocean" it'll be "Roy and Elan at the inn."

I thought it was "Darmock and Jalad at Tenagra"?




....


It makes me weep that I remember that.