Familiar Stats - Spoilers (sort of) and longish.

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 2:04 am

Familiar stats (esp thieving),

In PnP the DM does not let the players have copies of the Monster Manual (etc.) part of the mystery and magic of the game is finding out -The hard way-.

That being said because the familiar is so poorly documented, you are constrained by alignment to have a particular type, and it often comes up here's the skinny:

Lawful Good and Neutral Good - Pseudo Dragon
AC -2 HP 24 MR 50% Casts Blur and has 2 attacks for 1-3 per round with a THACO of 13 (Not sure just how special this is).

Chaotic Good - Fairy Dragon
AC 4 HP 24 MR 32% Casts Mirror Image & Invis 10' rad. (Has no weapons shown but seems to hit O.K. for reasonable (1-3) damage).

ONLY the NEUTRAL familiars have thieving skills available. From the below it is fair to say that none of the familiars make as good a theif as Nalia, and that ain't saying much.

Lawful Neutral - Ferret
AC 0 HP 24 MR 50% Pickpocket 75%, 'Stealth' 40%, Detect Traps 20% (In Irenicus dungeon did not detect or (once detected) disarm the first trap. Could not unlock it once disarmed either. The pickpocket works -sometimes- but unless your a reload junkie I'd get a theif).

True Neutral - Rabbit
AC -4 HP Actually 24 NOT 16 as listed on familiar description (Please don't tell the RSPCA how I found out). Resistance of 75% to fire, cold and electricity. 'stealth' 30%, detect traps 50% (In the Irenicus dungeon detected the first trap, but as the 'mask' button is greyed out could not disarm it or pick the lock. The 'give me what you have pick pocketed' dialogue option is therefore spurious).

Chaotic Neutral - Cat
AC 0 HP 24 MR 50% move silently and hide in shadows 99%, pick pocket ? (poss. 25%) find traps ? (As none of the thief abilities are greyed out you can try all of the abilities, the Irenicus dungeon first trap/lock caused a dead kitty on every experimental occassion tried and even with the trap disarmed kitty could not unlock the lock {or open a can of cat food}, The cat did however successfully pick pocket about one in four attempts - for the compulsive reload junkie ONLY).

Lawful Evil - Imp
AC 2 HP 18 MR 25% casts Poly Self (I was surprised at how nasty this made the familiar).

Neutral Evil - Dust Mephit
AC 6 HP 24 MR 10% casts Glass dust x2 Glitter Dust x1

Chaotic Evil - Quasit
AC 2 HP 24 MR ? (Not listed but higher than zero) casts Horror and despite having a button that says so NOT blur.

If anybody (even shadow keeper/Infinity explorer users) has more or better info let us know! - Curdis !

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 3:08 am

Thanx for the info, Curdis. I now see that my pc (neutral good jester) has one of the worst familiars around...
He's just sitting there, being in the way. Is there anybody who actually found use for a pseudodragon?

Mirakai Starnight · Post by **Mirakai Starnight** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 7:51 am

Stick it in your backpack and enjoy the extra hitpoints, that's the only use i've ever found for the pseudodragon.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 8:16 am

Why do people use familiars anyway? i never found any use for them!

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 8:23 am

@Stilgar

The (usually) 12 bonus HP's are the main reason but I've used a cat as a scout/spotter (when soloing) and the Imp shape changed might save a solo mages life at a pinch (possiblly without tragic consequences)

- Curdis !

Invincible121 · Post by **Invincible121** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 9:20 am

Can NPC's have familiars
I tried to get one for Nalia and Aerie after i got one for my character but it did'nt work.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 9:45 am

No, familiars are just for pc's. The only thing you can do with those scrolls is sell 'em.

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Sun Jan 27, 2002 6:18 am

I could pretend that this was a well thought out reply to a previous post, but

Bump

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Sun Jan 27, 2002 6:42 am

Curdis, I take it you won't mind if I put some of your excellent findings in the Spells Reference?

Kovi · Post by **Kovi** » Sun Jan 27, 2002 8:34 am

The cat is slow and the rabbit is fast.

I have never really used (choose) other familiar.
In ToB familiars have 48hp and all (most) of them have advance with its abilities. Pure rabbit looses its elemental resistances

(

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sun Jan 27, 2002 2:06 pm

of course, there is the familiar underdark exploit....

after familiar pickpockets for you, and before you ask it nicely for your stuff, you can leave underdark with drow items and it will bypass the checks.

however after experiments I found out you can only pickpocket 2 items before it fills up the creatuers buffer. ferret seems best, and I keep thininking of arnold swarzennegger in "kindergarten cop" and his pet ferrets, or "ferret" in the boards...

"I have ferrets in my shorts!!!"

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Sun Jan 27, 2002 5:57 pm

@Xyx

To merely have my name mentioned in the same sentence as your exquisite spell reference is an honour beyond human measure.

So yeah I guess that would be OK

- Curdis !

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Tue Jan 29, 2002 8:23 pm

I give all my solo PCs familiars with the potion switch trick (fighter/thief, for example). Gotta love the extra hp!