A "Familiar" problem...


Rules Questions


I need some advice on this, or even an official ruling if possible. A player of mine in our recent campaign is playing a Witch and has selected a scorpion as his familiar. I used the entry in the Bestiary, which said use the Giant Scorpion stats but make it Tiny instead. So to revert the critter from Large to Tiny, I reversed the Monster Advancement tables (lacking Monster Nerfing or Monster Shrinkage tables) to reduce size, and of course applied the general modifiers for Tiny size creatures, but am still looking at a darn peculiar figure.

According to RAW, the Greensting scorpion used for familiar's stats would have a movement speed of 50 ft, 60 ft darkvision and 60 ft tremorsense, a starting AC of 20 (better than a man in full plate!) and a poison attack with an DC of approximately 14!!?? That's a helluva familiar... by 7th level, when wizards might get Improved Familiars of mephits and pseudo-dragons, that scorpion will have an additional +4 AC (total 24) and 9 Int. I must be missing something, there's no way a 1st-level familiar can cruise around at 50 ft move rate with poison, tremorsense, and an AC better than the party's best armored warrior.


But with hit points at half the casters......

so about 4 to 6 hit points at first level....

Plus a witch loses "spellbook" when a familiar dies so the familiar is not "running around"...

Mine is in the backpack all the time so as not to get "squished"


Your stats seem off, but even if they are not no way in hell a player should gain such a beast without improved familer.

The stats for the scorpion were not made for familers, so ya need to get creative is all. Just take the viper stats and call it a scorpion


No, the APG says "use the stats for Greensting Scorpion in the Bestiary", and even gives a page number if I remember correctly. This is under the Witch's class write-up. I just don't feel that much thought was put into what that meant... that monster seems much to tough for a familiar or even a tiny monster of any kind.


Maveric28 wrote:

No, the APG says "use the stats for Greensting Scorpion in the Bestiary", and even gives a page number if I remember correctly. This is under the Witch's class write-up. I just don't feel that much thought was put into what that meant... that monster seems much to tough for a familiar or even a tiny monster of any kind.

It looks like you only changed its size. You need to use the HD table as well, which would drop it's AC by another 4.

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Calypsopoxta wrote:
Maveric28 wrote:

No, the APG says "use the stats for Greensting Scorpion in the Bestiary", and even gives a page number if I remember correctly. This is under the Witch's class write-up. I just don't feel that much thought was put into what that meant... that monster seems much to tough for a familiar or even a tiny monster of any kind.

It looks like you only changed its size. You need to use the HD table as well, which would drop it's AC by another 4.

You need to be using Table: 2:1 on page 295 in the Bestiary. That shows you how to do it.


Just use this (link)

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Abraham spalding wrote:
Just use this (link)

Awesome!


Yeah, a tiny CR 1/4 critter with +5 natural armor. Just use BOTH 2-1 and 2-2 on it (backwords of course), and you've got a +1 natural armor, which is about right...it even says to do so in the giant scorpion read up.


And the movement? How do we calculate that? Currently we have tiny scorpions moving as fast as a horse! Are there any adjustments for movement?


Oh I get it, they are really hard to hit because they are so small, and they are really fast because they are small and weightless and have so many legs :) just like some agressive house spiders in Kansas and some other bugs... :) They may be as fast as a horse but they wouldnt go anywhere near as far. But think Army Ants like on the Indiana Jones movie The Crystal Skull :)

It is not an armored tank, it is just a small fast hard to hit target ;) with a venamous sting :) Easy to kill if you get the shot in....


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I think the climb skill bonus is not correct on that conversion. Under the familiar entry in the Bestiary it states that small creatures such as these use Dexterity as the ability governing climb.

Also, don't forget that the creature will gain 1 natural AC and an Intelligence of 6 when chosen as the familiar - so your little scorpion friend will be AC 21.`

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