Personally, I would advise against messing with a PC's familiar/companion.
Thematically it sounds great, but even if it's just fluff and has no mechanical consequences it's still a penalty that only effects certain characters with no corresponding penalty to others.
Besides, you don't mess with a man's dog.
My players didn't have companions/familiars when they started (paladin and bard); I'm curious how they would've reacted.
The only alternative I can think of (open to ideas) is finding the familiar/companion still asleep, slightly covered in cobwebs and dust, but with no other anomalies.
Personally, I would advise against messing with a PC's familiar/companion.
Thematically it sounds great, but even if it's just fluff and has no mechanical consequences it's still a penalty that only effects certain characters with no corresponding penalty to others.
Besides, you don't mess with a man's dog.
My players didn't have companions/familiars when they started (paladin and bard); I'm curious how they would've reacted.
The only alternative I can think of (open to ideas) is finding the familiar/companion still asleep, slightly covered in cobwebs and dust, but with no other anomalies.
So this is driven by the scenario? If you don't mind me asking, why?
And what would you do if you had a Summoner in the party?
Personally, I would advise against messing with a PC's familiar/companion.
Thematically it sounds great, but even if it's just fluff and has no mechanical consequences it's still a penalty that only effects certain characters with no corresponding penalty to others.
Besides, you don't mess with a man's dog.
My players didn't have companions/familiars when they started (paladin and bard); I'm curious how they would've reacted.
The only alternative I can think of (open to ideas) is finding the familiar/companion still asleep, slightly covered in cobwebs and dust, but with no other anomalies.
So this is driven by the scenario? If you don't mind me asking, why?
And what would you do if you had a Summoner in the party?
I'd like the PC and companion to be on the same page; neither knows what happened, every answer they uncover brings up several new questions. When the PC wakes up and checks his familiar/companion/etc and asks "WTF happened, Rufus?!", I don't want the creature to offer an easy "Well it appears as if we've been absorbed into a variant material plane..." answer. I want the players weirded out and looking over their shoulders, but still curious and definitely not annoyed or frustrated.
As for the summoner:
I've always held that eidolons aren't aspects of a planar demigod/etc, but rather an arcane creation that hovers asleep in extradimensional space until called. Joints might pop and the creature might even yawn, but otherwise unaffected.
Personally, I would advise against messing with a PC's familiar/companion.
Thematically it sounds great, but even if it's just fluff and has no mechanical consequences it's still a penalty that only effects certain characters with no corresponding penalty to others.
Besides, you don't mess with a man's dog.
My players didn't have companions/familiars when they started (paladin and bard); I'm curious how they would've reacted.
The only alternative I can think of (open to ideas) is finding the familiar/companion still asleep, slightly covered in cobwebs and dust, but with no other anomalies.
So this is driven by the scenario? If you don't mind me asking, why?
And what would you do if you had a Summoner in the party?
I'd like the PC and companion to be on the same page; neither knows what happened, every answer they uncover brings up several new questions. When the PC wakes up and checks his familiar/companion/etc and asks "WTF happened, Rufus?!", I don't want the creature to offer an easy "Well it appears as if we've been absorbed into a variant material plane..." answer. I want the players weirded out and looking over their shoulders, but still curious and definitely not annoyed or frustrated.
As for the summoner:
I've always held that eidolons aren't aspects of a planar demigod/etc, but rather an arcane creation that hovers asleep in extradimensional space until called. Joints might pop and the creature might even yawn, but otherwise unaffected.
But how would a familiar know? Unless your PC has taken an extraplaner creature as an Improved Familiar it's simply a magically enhanced beast, with exactly the same chances of sensing that they've been absorbed into a variant material plane as the PC.
An animal companion would have even less chance, since while they grow in power along with the PC, at heart they're basically very well-trained animals. A wolf companion would no more be able to tell it's master that they'd been transported to another realm than it would be able to stand on it's hind legs and say, "Hurry! Little Timmy's fallen down the Well of Souls!"
Point taken. I suppose it could be even creepier if the creature was acting as if nothing happened. In the case of Improved Familiars/misc. INT 3+ companions, the creatures would experience lost time and maybe nightmares.
After some recommended reading, homebrew one-shots, and useful feedback (here and player input), I've got a solid outline for my setting. There's still a mountain of work ahead, but now I have structure (for someone like me, that's half the battle).
Everybody, thanks for the suggestions and input; they've been more helpful than you might think.
Update - I'm going to drop the merfolk as a core race, restore tieflings' default abilities (while adding social penalties), and wait for Bestiary 2 to ship before I finalize anything (wishing for advancement-by-class critters under CR 1). I'll keep the merfolk flavor and use it eventually, but the race needs more fine-tuning. The other races are definite, but I need more and I'd like to use stats from core/AP/campaign-setting sources.
@SmiloDan - Let me know if you remember the title, sounds...different.
@Kevin - The book's in the mail and should be arriving sometime; the sneak peak makes me confident about the purchase.
@Bwang/Firest - The NPC with PC servants got the wheels spinning and the idea of casting a PC as the lead has me convinced; those suggestions will form the basis of the first campaign I run. This is why I love these boards, most of the time I only need a quick search and my questions are answered.
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Sleeper-Novel-Jeffrey-Barlough/dp/0441007309/ref =pd_sim_b_4
"Dark Sleeper" by Jeffrey Barlough. I guess it was the first of 5...I got some reading to do!
I've had it with Golarion. Maybe Carrion Crown will sooth the pain, but until then I'm developing an alternative.
First, let me try to get across what kind of setting I want:
I wanted a Ravenloft-inspired setting, without being Ravenloft; not so much for the vampires as much as the undead and gothic horror offered. I like the idea of late-Victorian and light-Lovecraftian thematics without copy-pasting historical settings. Also, I want to stay as far away from steampunk as I can (no hatred, just not what I'm looking for).
Since no products are available--using the Pathfinder system, not d20--I'll be developing my own setting starting with a single seaside town and spiralling outwards. This will not be a world trapped in darkness, lands teeming with hostile undead, fey, and lycanthropes. Instead I'd like to put forth the idea of an Edward-Gorey-like feel; human-dominated cities (with very few other races mixed in), safe over-land travel during the day, well-populated towns, and so forth while swiss-cheesing the drabness with weird events, hauntings, mysteries, etc.
Has anyone attempted anything like this? Advice would be appreciated.
Once I get some momentum in the development, I'll post the generics; I've been meaning to build a world like this for some time.
Sounds great. I love that you mentioned Edward Gorey.
May I suggest you check out the fiction of John Bellairs? His Gothics for young adults sound as if they'd fit well in your setting. You might get some ideas.