So, I thought of a cool opponent for my players the other day; a Vegepygmy Witch, serving as the tribal fungi folks' witch doctor or shaman. Kind of makes sense, considering what passes for their culture. Then I ran into a problem; Vegepygmies have no spoken language. They can't talk outside of rhythmic beats and some clicks. I was intending a low level caster, so I'm thinking Silent Spell might not have enough oomph. Anyone have any thoughts on how I can approach it. Grant you, I can just change how Vegepygmies work, because this tribe is the only one my players are likely to meet, but this post is about brainstorming in the framework.
Grant you, again, I think the Witch uses intelligence and Vegepygmies aren't too intellectual, so Druid or Sorcerer might be better, but the muteness is still a potential issue; and Vegepygmy Witch just sounds cool!
Greetings, fellow traveller.
I do not see a problem with the vegepygmy not being able to "talk" as we understand it.
Who or what says, the can/do not communicate with their rhythmic beats and clicks as we do with our spoken language? If they can convey content by these means (sorry, away from books, so some speculation and uncertainty is at work here), it should be enough using it as their vocal components for magic.
Together with them being attuned to flora and the flavor of the witch - sounds cool and fitting.
Or you could go more in the direction of a bard and working on the performance theme of spells being cast - let the witch dance her spell, emphasised by clicks (like a flamenco dancer using castanets).
Also, there was the kobolds-see-writing-as-being-really-evil-issue when We be goblins was published.
The alchemist (?) - one of the pregens I think, had a formula book, where instead of the spells written down you would find stains and smears (and smells and ...) resembling the spell behind it.
This, for me, serves as a parallel to what you want to accomplish.
Ruyan.
Vegepygmy Witch! You can't deny that sounds cool, can you?
Personally, if my group ran into a vegepygmy witch, we'd have to spend a few rounds rolling on the floor laughing, then inventing pun names and afterwards reminesce on how silly that encounter was (in a bad way).
But, YMMV.
|
A Vegepygmy Witch with a Thorny as her Improved Familiar would be so awesome.
(For the thorny, I'd just use Wolf stats, with plant type bonuses, and add the equivalent of leather armor with armor spikes, and allow it to make a slam attack in addition to it's bite attack, to do armor spike damage. Quick n' easy 'template.')
Your idea of balance is to replace a usually small, non-combat familiar, with a medium one, who's also pretty decent in combat and has trip, give it a subtype that gives him some seriously good immunities, on top of that armor bonus and an additional attack?
|
|
Your idea of balance is to replace a usually small, non-combat familiar, with a medium one, who's also pretty decent in combat and has trip, give it a subtype that gives him some seriously good immunities, on top of that armor bonus and an additional attack?
A) Nothing in that post had anything to do with 'balance.' The descriptor I used was 'awesome.'
B) This was specifically described as an Improved Familiar, much like the Celestial Wolf (*also* a medium sized wolf with trip, with a template, smite, some resistances, etc.) or a Lantern Archon (even better resistances, DR 10, etc.).
C) There is no C.
Keep in mind that familiars have half the caster's hit points and do not gain feats as the caster advances. Even an improved familiar is not necessarily a good combat option.
(Also, since when are wolves on the familiar list at all, even Improved?)
EDIT: Neither wolves nor Lantern Archons are on the familiar list.
Here's my personally researched compilation of all currently legal familiars (I apologize for the borked formatting):
Familiar Special Ability Source
Bat Master gains a +3 bonus on Fly checks Bestiary
Blue-ringed octopus Master gains a +3 bonus on Swim checks UM
Brushtail fennec Master gains a +3 bonus on Search checks UM
Bustard Master gains a +3 bonus on Listen checks LoFPG
Cat Master gains a +3 bonus on Stealth checks Bestiary
Compsognathus Master gains a +4 bonus on initiative rolls Bestiary 2
Donkey rat Master gains a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves UM
Fox Master gains a +2 bonus on Reflex saves UM
Goat Master gains a +3 bonus on Survival checks UM
Greensting scorpion Master gains a +2 bonus on initiative rolls UM
Hawk Master gains a +3 bonus on sight-based and opposed Perception checks in bright light
Hedgehog Master gains a +2 bonus on Will saves UM
House centipede Master gains a +3 bonus on Stealth checks UM
Jerboa Master gains a +3 bonus on Jump checks LoFPG
King Crab Master gains a +2 bonus on grapple checks UM
Lashtail scorpion Master gains a +3 bonus on Survival checks UM, as greensting
Lizard Master gains a +3 bonus on Climb checks Bestiary
Monkey Master gains a +3 bonus on Acrobatics checks Bestiary
Owl Master gains a +3 bonus on sight-based and opposed Perception checks in shadows or
Darkness Bestiary
Pig Master gains a +3 bonus on Diplomacy checks UM
Rat Master gains a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves Bestiary
Raven* Master gains a +3 bonus on Appraise checks Bestiary
Rhamphorynchus Master gains a +2 bonus on initiative rolls Serpent’s Skull 1
Scarlet spider Master gains a +3 bonus on Climb checks UM
Snapping turtle Master gains a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves Bestiary 2
Solifugid Master gains a +3 bonus on Bluff checks LoFPG
Thrush* Master gains a +3 bonus on Diplomacy checks UM
Toad Master gains +3 hit points Bestiary
Torble Master gains a +2 bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks CoT1
Turtle Master gains a +1 natural armor bonus to AC UM
Viper Master gains a +3 bonus on Bluff checks Bestiary
Weasel Master gains a +2 bonus on Reflex saves Bestiary
*A raven or thrush familiar can speak one language of its master’s choice as a supernatural ability.
Small and Vermin Familiars
Some of these familiars break some of the rules and assumptions of the familiars presented in the Core Rulebook.
Small-sized familiars threaten the areas around them like Small creatures, and can be used to flank enemies, though both familiars and their masters are often loath to use such tactics, as the result is often a dead familiar. Small-sized familiars are also harder to keep on a master’s person than Tiny or smaller familiars. Often they require some form of magic item, like a bag of holding, for such a feat to work.
The process of making a vermin into a familiar grants it an Intelligence score and removes the mindless trait. Vermin familiars communicate with their masters and other vermin of their kind (greensting scorpions with other scorpions, house centipedes with other centipedes, and scarlet spiders with other spiders) by way of a strange combination of behaviors, slight changes in coloration, and even the excretion of scents, subtle and otherwise. As with other types of familiars, other creatures cannot understand this communication without magical aid.
Brushtail fennec: dog, str 6. Bustard: raven. Jerboa: same statistics as a rat, but with a +8 racial bonus to Jump checks, no swim speed, and the ability to use its Dexterity instead of its Strength modifier for Jump checks (total Jump +10; see page 278 of the MM). Solifugid: Tiny spider with no poison.
IMPROVED FAMILIARS
Familiar Alignment Level Source
Beheaded Neutral evil 3rd Carrion Crown 1
Celestial hawk1 Neutral good 3rd Bestiary
Dire rat Neutral 3rd Bestiary
Entropic monkey1 Chaotic neutral 3rd Bestiary 2
Fiendish viper1 Neutral evil 3rd Bestiary
Resolute owl1 Lawfulx neutral 3rd Bestiary 2
Brownie Neutral 5th Bestiary 2
Carbuncle Neutral 5th Kingmaker 1
Elemental, Small (any type) Neutral 5th Bestiary
Stirge Neutral 5th Bestiary
Arbiter inevitable Lawful neutral 7th Bestiary 2
Cacodaemon Neutral evil 7th Bestiary 2
Cassisian angel Neutral good 7th Bestiary 2
Cythnigot qlippoth Chaotic evil 7th Bestiary 2
Doru div Neutral evil 7th Legacy of Fire 1
Dweomercat cub Chaotic neutral 7th Kingmaker 6
Faerie dragon Chaotic good 7th Bonus Bestiary
Homunculus2 Any 7th Bestiary
Imp devil Lawful evil 7th Bestiary
Impundulu3 Neutral evil 7th Serpent’s Skull 4
Lyrakien azata Chaotic good 7th Bestiary 2
Mephit (any type) Neutral 7th Bestiary
Nosoi psychopomp Neutral 7th Carrion Crown 5
Nuglub gremlin Chaotic evil 7th Bestiary 2
Paracletus aeon Neutral 7th Bestiary 2
Pseudodragon Neutral good 7th Bestiary
Quasit demon Chaotic evil 7th Bestiary
Ratling Chaotic evil 7th Jade Regent 1
Silvanshee agathion Neutral good 7th Bestiary 2
Voidworm protean Chaotic neutral 7th Bestiary 2
Imp consular Lawful evil 8th Bestiary
Mandragora Chaotic evil 9th Second Darkness 5
1 Or other celestial, entropic, fiendish, or resolute animal from the standard familiar list.
2 The master must first create the homunculus.
3 An impundulu serving as a witch’s familiar gives its master additional spells known, just like a witch’s patron. The master must choose from one of the following patron themes when binding the impundulu, and this choice cannot be changed without dismissing and re-summoning the impundulu: Agility, Elements, or Transformation. These patron spells known are in addition to any granted by the witch’s actual patron.
In conclusion: You can only take celestial/fiendish/etc. creatures from the standard familiar list, NOT from the summoned monster list, hence no celestial wolf; and archons are currently the only outsider race that does NOT have a familiar creature, as lantern archons have been removed from the list. (Mandragoras may no longer be legal either, I'm not sure.)
|
|
Keep in mind that familiars have half the caster's hit points and do not gain feats as the caster advances. Even an improved familiar is not necessarily a good combat option.
(Also, since when are wolves on the familiar list at all, even Improved?)
EDIT: Neither wolves nor Lantern Archons are on the familiar list.
Huh, look at that. I thought Lantern Archons were an option, and I remember 3.5 allowing stuff up to the size of formians and stuff in the DMG, so didn't really think that wolves would be considered tougher than stuff like imps and pseudodragons.
Eh, my bad. Imps away then. Wolves are too uber.
Keep in mind that familiars have half the caster's hit points and do not gain feats as the caster advances. Even an improved familiar is not necessarily a good combat option.
(Also, since when are wolves on the familiar list at all, even Improved?)
EDIT: Neither wolves nor Lantern Archons are on the familiar list.
Huh, look at that. I thought Lantern Archons were an option, and I remember 3.5 allowing stuff up to the size of formians and stuff in the DMG, so didn't really think that wolves would be considered tougher than stuff like imps and pseudodragons.
Eh, my bad. Imps away then. Wolves are too uber.
Late 3.5 had some more badass improved familiar options that required the caster to have a high base attack bonus. (You could get a hippogriff, I think, for crying out loud.)
Personally, I was thinking about something like a Cythnigot Qlippoth, which is basically an abyssal fungus-like parasite that takes over the corpse of a tiny animal; inhabiting the body of a monkey.
Except that the witch would be too low level to be eligible for a qlippoth, so it'd just be flavor-texted as a cythnigot-like creature, using the stats of a monkey familiar with plant traits.
Personally, I was thinking about something like a Cythnigot Qlippoth, which is basically an abyssal fungus-like parasite that takes over the corpse of a tiny animal; inhabiting the body of a monkey.
Except that the witch would be too low level to be eligible for a qlippoth, so it'd just be flavor-texted as a cythnigot-like creature, using the stats of a monkey familiar with plant traits.
Russet monkey! Nifty and disturbing.