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This is the Discussion thread for A Familiar Adventure in which characters will be playing either familiars or animal companions of young master NPCs...and then find themselves thrown into the fire when their masters disappear...
The setting of this adventure will be in and around the small village of Orlane in the world of Greyhawk. While it’s an old D&D setting, we’ll be using Pathfinder 1e rules…but since the characters you play are non-standard, I can be flexible in interpreting said rules so just ask if there’s anything you’d like to adapt/try. As far as picking a familiar or animal companion to play, you can be imaginative and we can discuss it...
I'll be using an old D&D scenario from the 80's and adapting it as needed to fit this adventure...I think it'll be a good guideline to go by as it was a fun adventure back in the day. Reading thru this scenario, it seems like it'll probably play at least as long as one of the longer Pathfinder modules, perhaps a bit longer. When we near the conclusion, if everyone's having fun with it, we can discuss continuing...
I'm currently GM'ing a module and a scenario; I'm close to finishing with both, so we'll probably look at starting in couple of weeks or so. But with the 4th of July weekend fast approaching, some of you may be out of town or have company so we can delay starting till after that, if you wish...
Please dot and delete in the Gameplay thread, at your leisure, so you'll see updates in your profile. The slides I'll be using are at the link below; you'll also find the link at the top of each campaign thread; it'll also be in my header once we near the start date. Please fill in the blocks on the lead page with your Initiative and Perception mods, your icons, and your preferred marching order if you have one. You can also take a look at the second slide as that shows the layout of the village where a great deal of this adventure will take place; I included a key to the buildings to the side.
I'm presently toying with the idea of a very excitable and friendly ferret familiar as my character. :D Not quite sure what class he'll have... a Spheres of Power class might be fun, if you're willing to deal with it, or I might look at one of the Occult classes or archetypes, since I haven't done much with them.
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Either Spheres of Power or Occult is fine by me...I'll be pretty lenient on classes and characters and we can discuss anything here if there are any questions/concerns...
Quasit will be joining us as well...I figure we can hash out character selection/development before I put something out in the Recruiting thread for the other two players...
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Chaotic neutral would would work just fine…I won’t pigeonhole an alignment on anyone regardless of what they choose to play as there’s almost always an exception to the rule. As in the Bestiary, centaurs are said to be neutral but in RoW, we ran into good centaurs and then the rat bastard evil one we’re chasing. Could also be that a kind master could’ve had an influence on the familiar/animal companion that could’ve altered their more stereotypical alignment. As for your ‘masters’, all will be either neutral or good as it makes the most sense in this story…
Since you’ll be working together for a common goal, everyone will need to play nice with one another…at least for the most part… ;)
I'm thinking my character will straddle the Chaotic Neutral/Chaotic Good line--well-intentioned and friendly, but kind also kind of self-centered and not very good at being aware of the needs of others.
Speaking of, I think I'm pretty well settled on playing a ferret, probably an Incanter, Hedgewitch, or Shifter. So I guess we'll need to decide what base stats for a ferret former-familiar would be. :D
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Also thinking about the character personality, is the premise that we're familiars who've escaped our masters? Been abandoned or driven off by them? Our masters were killed somehow? Did we revolt against them? Perhaps any of the above? I'd like to get some ideas for motivation and state of mind as I generate backstory and goals going forward.
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You'll be separated from your masters very early on in this adventure/mystery...then you'll try to either find them, if possible...or find out what happened to them if not. For the most part, your masters took care of you and were not abusive (else you'd have no reason to look for them)...but you have the leeway to flesh that relationship out for your backstory as you wish...
Your young masters have been summoned to a place, but they do not fill you in on the details; you'll travel there together, so you'll be somewhat familiar with each other but it'll be the first time the familiars/animal companions have traveled/adventured together. As for your masters, if you wish, I'll let you decide what kind character (class, sex, personality) your masters are, if that'll help with motivation/goals...
As for base stats, if you have any ideas, we can discuss and agree to 'em here. I consider that the familiars/animal companions you'll play will be better versions of the stereotypical ferret or quasit, if those are what you decide to play...
I'll put some thought into it, when I'm not so busy. XD
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This might be a fairly dumb question, but is there any reason I couldn't just play the stats of the quasit in the Bestiary? And then if it gains levels, at that point I could start adding a class to it. A quasit is a 3 HD creature, and it has a lot of pretty neat abilities. It almost seems like overkill to add class abilities on top of it.
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Not a dumb question at all, Q...and playing with creatures that are not standard characters per se, I was wondering about how we should go about this myself. This is one reason I kinda wanted to iron these things out here before I recruited a couple more players. What you say makes sense for a quasit so I have no problem running with the stats from the Bestiary and see about adding a class when leveling up. And since you're supposed to be a bit better than an average quasit, you could pick any one ability and add +2...
And it'd be different case for Almonihah playing a ferret as he wouldn't be starting out with such abilities...so he'd need to delve into a class from the get go...as he said, we'll need to address a ferret's base abilities...I'm guessing we'd base it off what's listed for a weasel but we'd definitely need to adjust those up for this scenario...
Since a Quasit is an advanced familiar, they definitely have stats that are decent for playing. A ferret... not so much. And yes, we'd base it off of a weasel--as far as I understand it ferrets are basically domesticated weasels. Any idea what level we'd be starting at? Primarily what I'd be looking at is increasing mental stats, I think.
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Yeah, your weasel's basic stats are too low for playing. So I looked up the stats for a giant weasel and figured we'd base it off of that, with some adjustments, as that'd make it better for playing:
Giant Weasel: Str 14, Dex 19, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 11
Since you're tiny, your strength couldn't be a 14 and since you're a familiar, we'll say your much smarter than an average ferret (a 2), so we could play with those two attributes...say, keep strength as it is for normal ferret (a 3 or so) and put the other points to INT if you wish (making it up to a 13) or you could put the majority into INT and perhaps a couple of points to WIS if you wish. And if you have any different ideas, please let me know...I'm just throwing stuff out here to see if it might be workable...
As for starting level, since a quasit starts with 3 HD, we'll start at 3rd. That should allow the less advanced familiars catch up a bit in abilities to what a quasit starts with..
Again, these are just ideas, and y'all might have ideas that are better; this is my first GM attempt at a non-standard campaign, so please pipe in if you have a thought...
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If I'm building my ferret as a spellcaster I'll probably want an intelligence of at least 16, if I make that my casting stat. Probably don't need quite so much dexterity. So maybe something like...
Str 6 Dex 15 Con 10 Int 16 Wis 11 Cha 13
The trick with doing non-standard stuff is mostly being willing to say "Wait, this isn't working, let's tweak some things". We probably won't get it perfect on the first try, but we can tweak as we go.
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This is Mheenah's mistress, Elly. Complete with description and backstory.
Very cool backstory, Q...um...I mean Mheenah...
And those are the base stats for a quasit on Mheenah, right? Since she's better than your average quasit, take 3 more ability points and apply 'em among your stats as you see fit...
If I'm building my ferret as a spellcaster I'll probably want an intelligence of at least 16, if I make that my casting stat. Probably don't need quite so much dexterity. So maybe something like...
Str 6 Dex 15 Con 10 Int 16 Wis 11 Cha 13
That sounds good to me...
The trick with doing non-standard stuff is mostly being willing to say "Wait, this isn't working, let's tweak some things". We probably won't get it perfect on the first try, but we can tweak as we go.
Yeah, that makes sense and we can adjust if we need too...
Let's talk about recruiting for a moment...when I post for the two other players, should we look for ones looking to play certain classes (i.e., a fighter type, divine type, etc) or just keep it wide open?
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From my experience, low level adventures are pretty forgiving when it comes to class balance. As long as we have some method of healing ourselves, I'd say people could play whatever they want. This adventure seems more like a flight of fancy than a standard pathfinder mission anyway. The only caveat I'd impose is that you would best be able to judge what the scenario requires in terms of a party. If at some point we absolutely HAVE to have some particular ability in the party (e.g. a lock picked, a detect poison spell, etc) then you could keep an eye out to make sure that's covered.
I'd say keep it wide open. It's more interesting to me if we're a weird party that doesn't really fill the typical roles and has to find ways to make up for it. :D
I'm still kicking around ideas in my head for my character, just still helping my dad with his roofing project so not having a lot of free time.
Hmmm... I need a good ferret name... I'm debating between a normal-ish name and something like "Mittens" that's more of a pet name.
I have a name now! :D
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Cool, that's a good name...especially considering he's a caster...
Have you ever played the Baldur's Gate computer RPG? I was gonna come back and suggest 'Boo' as a name after Minsc's pet hamster in that game...that used to crack me up...
I have went over the scenario again looking at specific abilities your party might need. You'll definitely need someone with the ability to pick locks and disable traps...if no one is looking to be a rogue, then perhaps Mheenah or one of the folk we recruit can pick a trait that will grant Disable Device as a class skill...
The first part of the adventure is more investigation with a few encounters that could possible turn violent...but I think you'll be able manage it. The last part is more physical-encounter driven, so you might need a little muscle in there...but I have an idea that should help with that...
I have played Baldur's Gate, yes. :D
I did think of a couple questions:
*Are we doing Background Skills?
*For Spirit, do we want to go with him being an oddball familiar even before being separated from his master and already having had the levels he has, or do we want him to get his character levels in whatever event is separating us from those we're familiars to?
*Have we said how we're doing hit points?
All right, sounds good! So Spirit has always been a wierdo familiar. :D I'm thinking he was an Egoist familiar, on top of everything.
Let's see, rolls...
How about a wizard's raven familiar named Mr. Pitch?
ive speculated about this myself. im interested. as white wolf looking for her adopted orphan child
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That was quick! Both sound good…so I’ll close the recruiting. You two can read thru this thread and see some of the discussions we’ve had thus far. I’ll be sparse until I get back from the wedding on Sunday…but please ask any questions you might have and I’ll try to check in via phone or perhaps Mheenah or Spirit can give you some feedback…
Welcome aboard!
So... what's everyone considering being class wise? Also how are stats being done, i noticed talk that we're better than the base?
Im making a couple of assumptions and potential suggestions,
The animals base is our base.
We can probably all communicate and animal intelligences being what they are, maybe use Awakening based stats ?
I actually just finished Baldurs gate ee yesterday. great game.
Welcome welcome!
Thus far we have myself, a ferret Incanter, and Mheenah, who is a quasit. We are boosting intelligence of animals to humanoid standards and allowing everyone to speak Common, I believe. We're pretty loose right now with the rules. I think you can see we as players have pretty much just suggested what we think would work for building our characters.
I'm currently applying the advanced template to my raven so I can then apply the savant template. This will have Mr. Pitch at a CR 2.
The raven, Mr. Pitch, is a familiar to a very young universalist wizard. While performing the ritual, the green spellcaster didn't account for a powerful astrological conjunction, imbuing his raven familiar with a otherworldly intelligence.
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I’m back…got back early this morning…good trip…but a long trip…
Yes, you will all be able to communicate via Common…as for stats, while you can use the base stats for your familiar/companion as a basis but you’ll need to alter them to fit what class you’ll be…if you look at Spirit’s ferret stat above and compare them to the base ferret, that’ll give you an idea of how you can alter them to fit yours…
As for classes, Spirit has already mentioned being an Incanter…and Mheenah, as a quasit being a more advanced familiar, is currently planning on being a rogue as she gains classes…
If you have any ideas or other questions, just mention ’em here and we can hash it out…
Here's my first draft on Mr. Pitch, raven familiar.
it looks to me like... we adjust the stats to somewhat normal levels the slap a class and stuff on it. i'm seeing were about... Level 2 or three?
alright so here's what i'm thinking stat wise?
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12 Cha 8
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Here's my first draft on Mr. Pitch, raven familiar.
Cool, I’ll take a look at it…
it looks to me like... we adjust the stats to somewhat normal levels the slap a class and stuff on it. i'm seeing were about... Level 2 or three?
alright so here's what i'm thinking stat wise?
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12 Cha 8
Level 3 is what we’re thinking…as for stats, I’ll take a look at the everyone’s proposed stats and we’ll see how they compare and then hash it out…
I think Spirit is mostly ready now. I want to write a bit about his master (an energetic female wizard who views his antics with fond amusement) and specify his appearance (I'm still debating about how his witchmark will look), but otherwise he's ready.
I'm not the GM, but my concern with that build for Mr. Pitch is that he can't... *do* anything in combat unless I'm missing something?
building what i can now. going with the ranger class. Going melee, seems like a front line type would work best.
I'm not the GM, but my concern with that build for Mr. Pitch is that he can't... *do* anything in combat unless I'm missing something?
This is an interesting point. How often will combat be an issue in this campaign, or is this just a exploration/RP campaign?
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The first part of the campaign will be more heavy on investigating but will have some combat encounters…the second part will be more combat driven but some, perhaps several, encounters can be evaded by stealth/wits/spells…and I will be modding encounters down as it was originally written for a large party…
With Lorelei playing a wolf that’ll give y’all a capable melee fighter, which will be good for combat encounters you can’t avoid…I’m looking over Mr. Pitch now and, while I think he’ll be fine, perhaps we can think of something that’ll make him a bit more combat ready…
odd question, Armor to start? can we get it