Author Topic: Do Familiars Talk? (Read 1357 times)

kenty191 · « **on:** February 14, 2007, 08:45:56 am »

Hi all, this is a question I have had for a while. My old wizard character had an imp who I rped as being able to speak, all be it in very unintelligent broken language. However my recent wizard has a Pseudodragon as his familiar and I am unsure whether all familiars are able to speak.
I would like both other players oppinions on this but also some clarification from a GM or another authority is possible.

Dorganath · « **Reply #1 on:** February 14, 2007, 08:54:39 am »

Pixies and imps can talk. Other familiars cannot.

kenty191 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 14, 2007, 08:59:26 am »

Thats great to know, I'll carry on RPing the Pseudodragon as roaring and grunting.

Glad to have clear clarification. Thanks Dorg

aragwen · « **Reply #3 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:03:37 am »

I have seen peopleroleplay talking familiars.
Now Jacchri as a sorcerer have a pixie as well.Probably not 100% correct but I roleplay his pixie as someone he saved from orcs and she just decided to stay with him, so I dont think it is in the true sense a familiar, but rather a friend. And I roleplay her speaking so that other people can hear her as well.
Now if you wanted tofollow the rules to the letter, then a familiar is limited to the following: *The master and his familiar has an empathic link for a certain distance and as such they can communicate general emotional content.
* Once the master is level 5, they can commmunicate verbally as if they use the same language, but no others can understand them, except with magical help
* Once the master is level 7, a familiar can communicate with things of the same type as itself. So bats with bats and so forth.
Hope that helps.

aragwen · « **Reply #4 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:11:09 am »

*looks to Dorganath*
Guess I was to slow. But you now raised another question in my mind.
If pixies and imps retain their talking ability I would assume something like the panther would retain it as well.
So would for example a ranger with the ear of animal be able to communicate with his familiar (if he multiclassed into a sorc/wiz) and others that understand animal understand the conversation?

Doc-Holiday · « **Reply #5 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:11:27 am »

Ah darn... so much for good 'ol Oddpetal.. the spastic fairydragon

Reventage · « **Reply #6 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:13:10 am »

Ravens can also speak a single extra language of their master's choosing. One would assume that this is limited to the languages the master knows.

So really folks forget about those terrible pixies and go with the raven that has at least some class.

Dorganath · « **Reply #7 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:17:13 am »

Creature familiars (panthers, rats, whatever) are still animals and can "communicate" to the same degree as animals can.
They cannot, however, speak in common or some other "language".
Keep in mind that the Ear for the Animal Language is not so much a language as it is a common means of communication with animals. People who have entire conversations in Animal kind of misses the point of the thing. Animals, with very few exceptions, lack the intelligence to form full thoughts and sentences with perfect grammar.

ShiffDrgnhrt · « **Reply #8 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:22:21 am »

Well, what about if someone is talking to your Animal Companion in the ANimal Language. Since I cant make him speak the animal tongue, couldnt i speak to the other person through him with common?

Dorganath · « **Reply #9 on:** February 14, 2007, 09:59:51 am »

No. If you must respond, then do so via Tell. No one else around should understand the animal's response. Best to *emote* the animal's reaction in the Talk channel and send an appropriate response via Tell.

ShiffDrgnhrt · « **Reply #10 on:** February 14, 2007, 10:28:06 am »

Oh, well that makes sense in a public situation, what if its just you and the other person + your animal buddy

Weeblie · « **Reply #11 on:** February 14, 2007, 10:31:14 am »

The same thing could be done for that situation too.

lonnarin · « **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2007, 10:43:08 am »

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ShiffDrgnhrt - 2/14/2007 9:22 AM

Well, what about if someone is talking to your Animal Companion in the Animal Language. Since I cant make him speak the animal tongue, couldnt i speak to the other person through him with common?

There's a /o command for that, and I did manage to use it to get Earl's Dog to speak in animal before, so that only druids and rangers knew what it was saying. I think it was "/o a [insert text here]" or "/dm a [text]" or something of that nature. I remember I had to put in what he had to say between the parenthesis for it to work... I'll try it a little after work and find the exact command I used.

For Familiars it should be "/o f [text]" and for summons "/o s [text]" Normally if you don't use the [parentheses] around the statements, it doesn't use the language tongue. I remember Oscar too having his summoned voraxian barbarian talking to dwarves he met in dwarven.

Dorganath · « **Reply #13 on:** February 14, 2007, 10:48:49 am »

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Weeblie - 2/14/2007 12:31 PM The same thing could be done for that situation too.

The same thing should be done for that situation too.
It's not magically OK to work around mechanics, rules and good RP just because no one else is watching.

Drizzlin · « **Reply #14 on:** February 14, 2007, 10:58:32 am »

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kenty191 - 2/14/2007 8:45 AM Hi all, this is a question I have had for a while. My old wizard character had an imp who I rped as being able to speak, all be it in very unintelligent broken language. However my recent wizard has a Pseudodragon as his familiar and I am unsure whether all familiars are able to speak.
I would like both other players oppinions on this but also some clarification from a GM or another authority is possible.

Keep in mind that the master and familiar can always communiate with each other. That doesn't mean they are talking Jive *smiles* or speaking to each other. It is a telepathic link between the two. Edit: I should have read the entire post first, just wanted to add that Pixies speak Sylvan and Common naturally, and can of course learn other languages! *goes and puts his app in for his pixie to speak drow!!! =P hehe

ShiffDrgnhrt · « **Reply #15 on:** February 14, 2007, 11:12:22 am »

So its ok to make ur Panther AC speak Animal tongue, to a Druid? Or is it not ok? I'm starting tah get confused

Rowana · « **Reply #16 on:** February 14, 2007, 11:22:41 am »

Clarification on intrapersonal communication. Familiars have an empathic link to their casters not telepathic, and there is no bond of any kind other then friendship between Ranger and Druid companions.

Yes Panther companions speak Animal. Just keep in mind that Animal tongue spoken with animal intellegance and is not "I saw the large party of orcs headed south about 3 hours ago," it is, "Two leggers, several. Smelled strong."

~row

Jearick Hgar · « **Reply #17 on:** February 14, 2007, 01:00:10 pm »

Er since when could Fairy Dragons not talk. As logn as i've known Dragons in general they've all been able to talk. The game eveng ives the Dragons Personallities int heir descirption at creation. Also in shadows of undrentide Your first task is to answer the riddles of a fairy dragon. Plus the dragons have Int and Char scores. The fairy dragon has 12 char adn 14 int.

Most orcs have alot lower than 14 int, yet they can talk, and the 12 char state that they have apersonallity. These are miniature dragons, The game describes the psuedo dragons a minaiture fire dragons, jsut they aren't evil. So if they are everythign a dragon is except they are smaller in size, why can't they talk?

Filatus · « **Reply #18 on:** February 14, 2007, 01:12:35 pm »

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Reventage - 2/14/2007 6:13 PM

Ravens can also speak a single extra language of their master's choosing. One would assume that this is limited to the languages the master knows.

So really folks forget about those terrible pixies and go with the raven that has at least some class.

Ravens do!

Though, that always left me wondering. I never explored this part of rp with Daeron's raven, because I didn't know for sure if it could. So I wouldn't mind a yes or no on whether it should be able to speak a language of his master's choosing.

ShiffDrgnhrt · « **Reply #19 on:** February 14, 2007, 01:14:07 pm »

That is true. My Jearick is right bout them Dragons know how tah speak proper