I also need to point out that mechanically, if you unpossess a familiar who has moved into another map, the familiar instantly transports back to the summoning mage and manifests via a summon. I previously integrated this effect into my RP, but if this isn't the way it works, will instead now have to start using OOC comments to people, saying "you didn't see my familiar just appear - she's really miles away".
But this raises another question: if you die, is your familiar yanked back with your body, as part of being Dragoncalled? If not, should you wait some particular amount of time before summoning your familiar, to simulate that you just died on a different continent? And how exactly should I explain how my panther was able to book a ticket on a ship? (I will say it's an amusing vision of a mage/panther pair departing the docks, with only a somewhat singed panther, wearing a "my master is an idiot" expression on her face, return to the ship.)
I'm happy about this, but do feel compelled to point out that it is perilously close to telepathy. Mechanically, I can have a familiar "speak" through the Party talk, RPing it as my mage using her own voice to say what she sees with her familiar's eyes to inform the rest of the party. But if you explicitly say this isn't legal, I won't do it.
Familiars have in-game GM fiat to never really die, no matter what kind of trouble they get into.
Even if you altered the game engine so that familiars were unsummoned while you rested, you would still be able to summon them back at full health every time you rested, regardless of any HP loss or status affliction they had.
However, since you have decided that familiars fully "real" (in my own campaign, they're not), you need to come up with an actual in-game explanation for why your Imp, who is fully intelligent and speaks Common and Infernal, can't teach it to their master. Same thing, potentially, for Pixies and their languages. I need your in-game explanation so I don't screw up the RP of it.
what's the command you use to have your familiar emote in party talk?
Well the newer generation of adventurers are no longer dragon called, and I would sumised that they would find a way back to you, like that dog that hitched on board of ships to go half way around the world to find his master.
Whether, if your familiar is not a "true" example of its species, a mage could create their own "species" of familiar is undetermined.
So if they are not called "dragon called", what are people who are bound to bindstones called? Understand, this is no small element of the game world. Someone who is bound to a bindstone has about 100 lives (depending on their level). Someone who is not has 1.You just can't ignore that. If being bound to a bindstone is something that just anyone could do, it would affect entire societies. So I've been assuming that the binding is some mysterious process that no one really understands, and is rare. Tell me if it is otherwise.
OK, back on the topic of familiars, to finally flesh all the answers out.If a mage has a familiar that has a special ability, such as a pixie being able to Disarm Traps, is it officially acceptable for them to "possess" the Pixie to accomplish that? Under one interpretation, that would not be acceptable, because it is the Mage, not the Pixie, who is controlling - and the mage doesn't have the Disarm skill. Under another interpretation, you can assume that the Mage is "asking" the pixie to disarm the trap, and then playing the pixie doing it. (This came up with another Mage in Storans using their pixie to disarm a trap.)Which interpretation is correct?
Similarly, even though a Mage could not speak Infernal, and the Imp refuses to teach it for some devilish/alien reason to their master, is it acceptable for the mage to ask their Imp to translate? Or is that forbidden too?(And the same thing could be conceivably done will Animal emote-language.)
I possess the familiar, move as the familiar to the location being scouted, set the "Party Mode" for speech, and then speak as the familiar. This shows up on the party screen as the familiar speaking. I use "*the words come out of my PCs mouth*" as part of the emote. Because of Ed's ruling, I won't be doing this any more though. Instead, I'll explicitly unpossess the familiar before telling people what I saw. I will also not send my familiar to different maps when in a party, if those maps are supposed to be distant. ( I can still scout within a building or cave system though. )
Don't you mean "done for now," Steve? Because we both know you'll have more questions (and please, don't stop. I'm getting a lot more info to put on LORE thanks to you.).
Personally, I find the pixie "pocket rogue" a rather cheap thing, but we're also not saying you can't. Unfortunately, there are things that would be possible in a GM-adjudicated, table-top adventure that don't otherwise translate into an online game. So in the pixie lock-picker case, the RP of it is that it's the pixie doing it, not the mage. But the only way for the pixie to do it on-command is to mechanically possess and use the familiar's special ability.
If it helps you rationalize it, I've always imagined those tiny hands and fingers to be particularly good for delicate work requiring a high dexterity. Maybe they can reach right inside the lock and poke at the tumblers? Maybe those tiny fingers can find just the right way to unhook the trap, since they can get so close to it?
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Topic: What is the official in-game description for familiars? (Read 573 times)
