I am looking for advice to handle a potential issue in my STAP campaign. This is more a general-rule question than a STAP one.
One of my players is running a mage pretige-class (I forget the name) that allows him to uber-buff his familiar by using grafts. It is rapidly becoming the equivalent of a front-line fighter. If a familiar dies, a mage has to wait one year before summoning a new one.
My question: if his familiar dies, can it be ressurected or otherwise brought back to life? And will it still be his familiar, or is the link between them broken?
The familiar is currently a huge toad. Thanks in advance for any help.
I faced this in my game when the wizards Improved Familiar (Wyrmling Copper Dragon) go eaten by a bigger cousin. I said he could have the thing back earlier but at twice the XP cost. Note however that this is one heck of a price to pay. If I keep eating the wizards familiar eventually he'll go and get his feats psychically reformatted. Heck he is seriously considering that option now.
PH page 54. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs.
That's all it says. I would take that to mean that the link is still there, but it's open to interpretation.
Don't forget that the creature must be willing to be brought back. If the PC threatened it's life unnecisarily (like being a fore figure in battle) or did not treat it well, it may not want to come back.
Also, PH 171 says "Enemies can take steps to make it more difficult for a character to be returned from the dead. Keeping the body prevents others from using raise dead or resurrection to restore the slain character to life." Be sure to read both spells thoroughly if you're planning on taking it away.
While this is a cruel tactic, and depending on the PrC, it will mess with the character concept. So, be careful.
That being said, a grafted creature would be of interest to some baddie on his shelf or at his side...
Ravenloft had some pretty interesting ideas on bringing familiars back to life. There's always a chance something could go wrong you know...
>.>
<.<
Just sayin'. >:D
|
I wouldn't sweat killing off a familiar used in that way at all. You put the familiar as a front line fighter you better be prepared for the consequences. If not, too bad.
Since the rules are so vague I would hit the mage with all of the negative effects of a familiar being slane. If the player sought a ressurection for a familiar I would make him do some mighty dangerous quests first.
Think about it. You go to a cleric and ask him to bring back your pet. He's going to laugh.
"Why should such a valuable spell be wasted on a familiar? There are people who have died that could be brought back. What can you do for the church? What can your familiar do for the faith? Go forth and slay the evil god and prove your faith and value and we shall raise your familiar then."
Once the quests were completed I would give the famliar a % roll to return based upon how it was treated. Most likely a 50-50 roll. If successful the mage gets his XP back. If not, he must wait a year from now to get a new familiar.
One of my players used one of the three emergency raise dead scrolls given to them by the townsfolk to raise his arctic thrush familiar (it was in my ice age campaign). Let's just say that the other players weren't to happy about it!
Actually, if you're just looking at rules, there is nothing in the rules to indicate that a familiar looses its abilities upon death, or even that a familiar looses its abilities upon the death of it's master. Indeed, a lot of fiction (mostly FR, but go with what you got) actually corroborates that theory.
But by the rules, the conditions for a familiar loosing its powers is well defined: when the mage dismisses it. A mage could dismiss a dead familiar and wait a year, or raise it from the dead and keep going. He still suffers the penalties for having it die, but thats about it.
Making it harder than that is just punishing players for having a pet. Do you also require the druid to wander through the woods for a few days looking for the animal he wants to take as a companion? The rules indicate that it simply takes a 24 hour ritual whereupon the animal comes to the druid.
Sorry if this post seems inflamatory or snippy; I have a soft spot for familiars and a chip on my shoulder for DMs who make things hard just to spite players, so this thread got my anger up. Maybe I shouldn't post after being woken up by my cats fighting on top of me.
The rules don't say the familiar bond should be broken if either the PC or the familiar dies and is subsequently brought back to life. Therefore, the familiar bond stays intact through these events. The PC is not subjected to this additional punishment.
Semi-rantish:
If the player has invested in feats (or in the OP's case, a whole prestige class) in order to make his familiar cool, it's unreasonable to take that away. It's like stealing the wizard's spellbook; sure, you COULD do it, but that doesn't mean you SHOULD. (The OP didn't say anything about the PC abusing the familiar. It sounds like the palyer is using it exactly as that mysterious prestige class indicates it should be used.)
I prefer to borrow from the HERO system rules for the way to think about this. In that game, if you buy a familiar/pet/significant other with character points, as an advantage, then you've got it, and even if something happens that should logically steal it from you, thinkgs work out so you've still got it - just like anything else you bought with your points. If you buy it as a dependent (I get extra points for having this vulnerable squirrel that rides around on my shoulder) or a weakness (it gets in trouble each session on a roll of 8-) then of course it's vulnerable to storyline cruelty.
For something that someone has as a class benefit, and that they went and spent extra resources improving, why on earth would any DM want to treat that as a massive vulnerability? And if the DM wants to do so because they don't think the PC should be putting the familiar in harm's way, then why on earth didn't they make that clear - and DISAPPROVE the class/feats/etc. used to improve the familiar - in the first place?
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
I've toyed with the idea for several years, but have never had it come up and/or been able to use it.
What if your ___________ (enter familiar type here) dies, and you bring it back as undead? How does this impact the rules regarding familiars, if at all?
Might be kind of cool to have a skeletal or zombie familiar.
I've toyed with the idea for several years, but have never had it come up and/or been able to use it.
What if your ___________ (enter familiar type here) dies, and you bring it back as undead? How does this impact the rules regarding familiars, if at all?
Might be kind of cool to have a skeletal or zombie familiar.
You could probably follow the Skeletal Minion rules using the creature type (instead of a human).
|
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
You could probably follow the Skeletal Minion rules using the creature type (instead of a human).
Yes! That would cover it perfectly.
Ack...just when you think you have a neat idea, there are already rules written for it.
Kind of cheesy, but this idea was also portrayed in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies - with the undead monkey.