How much damage does a familiar do?

[JohnF]

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but I can't figure out how much damage a familiar does.

If I look up a cat familiar, say, the PRD says it gets a Claw/Claw/Bite attack. But the damage for each attack is shown as 1d2-4 for the claw attacks, and 1d3-4 for the bite, because of a -4 STR modifier.

So does this mean that the familiar will never do any damage?

[hogarth]

From the Combat section of the PRD:

Quote:

Damage

If your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used determines the amount of damage you deal.

Damage reduces a target's current hit points.

Minimum Damage: If penalties reduce the damage result to less than 1, a hit still deals 1 point of nonlethal damage.

[Detect Magic]

Damage can never be reduced to 0, except by damage reduction or energy resistance.

So, a cat would always deal 1 point of damage with its natural attacks.

[Cheapy]

Well, it depends on the size of the critter. If you swing the cat, it does about 1d2 points of damage, assuming you hit. Otherwi--

Oh, or what hogarth said.

[hogarth]

Detect Magic wrote:

So, a cat would always deal 1 point of damage with its natural attacks.

Actually, the minimum is 1 point of nonlethal damage. See above.

[JohnF]

Cheapy wrote:

Well, it depends on the size of the critter. If you swing the cat, it does about 1d2 points of damage, assuming you hit. Otherwi--

Oh, or what hogarth said.

Thanks, guys - I knew I was missing something really obvious.

I don't believe I'm proficient with swinging a cat, though, so I don't think I'll try that (especially in a restricted space).

[spalding]

JohnF wrote:

Cheapy wrote:

Well, it depends on the size of the critter. If you swing the cat, it does about 1d2 points of damage, assuming you hit. Otherwi--

Oh, or what hogarth said.

Thanks, guys - I knew I was missing something really obvious.

I don't believe I'm proficient with swinging a cat, though, so I don't think I'll try that (especially in a restricted space).

Just take the Catch off guard feat and you will be. Then you can take weapon proficiency(familiar).

[Cheapy]

And then take Improvised Weapon Mastery!

Reminds me of a character concept that was a Ninja that used Ki Charge and a bag of dead squirrels.

[JohnF]

Cheapy wrote:

And then take Improvised Weapon Mastery!

Reminds me of a character concept that was a Ninja that used Ki Charge and a bag of dead squirrels.

Back in the AD&D days one of my players had a cat familiar that would occasionally cough up a (very small) fireball ...

[cattoy]

so how long would it take for an average housecat to kill an average mouse? (on the average)

[Interzone]

cattoy wrote:

so how long would it take for an average housecat to kill an average mouse? (on the average)

Well a rat has 4hp, and a mouse is generally smaller and easier to kill, so a couple swats should knock it unconscious.

[LovesTha]

But non lethal damage never actually kills right? So the cat has to eat the mouse while it is technically alive.

[Cheapy]

LovesTha wrote:

But non lethal damage never actually kills right? So the cat has to eat the mouse while it is technically alive.

Once non-lethal = max HP, then non-lethal damage does lethal damage.