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Ok, here is the situation… Back before Pathfinder was a gleam in Paizos eye and 4e was just a nasty rumor I ran a game for some friend. One of my players wanted to play a sorcerer with a genie familiar. His plan was to take the raven familiar and skin it to be a genie. All the stats and special abilities would run just like if it was a raven. I said no.
A standard familiar would be a magical creature where a genie even as a familiar would be an outsider/elemental. If I wanted to affect the familiar I would have to make NPCs and spell affects that target magical animals effect this particular non magical animal. If I was going to do anything with elementals the only elemental in the world unaffected would be his familiar. Plus most of the time when you want to figure out what a familiar can do you think what can a bird be reasonably expected to do. Genies have opposable thumbs birds don’t. Having it be a genie-bird messes with a lot of stuff. I just felt raven was too far from genie to mesh the two together. I was willing to let him take improved familiar and take an air elemental and skin that as a genie, or have a (free) permanent illusion on his raven.
He felt that if it is really just a raven in all way except one (that it’s a genie) I should have allowed it. He accepted my ruling and for the game we played it wasn’t a big deal, but now years later he is still passionate about how that raven should have been allowed to be a genie.
So what is your opinion on the subject? Would you have allowed it? Would you have done things differently?
If it was me I would have had it that it was a Raven, and everyone in the world EXCEPT the sorcerer perceived it as a raven. The sorcerer himself being under a spell/curse/mental disturbance that caused him to for some reason think it was a genie...
That would be fun!
I would think if he wanted to, for example, reskin a Fire mephit as a genie, then sure. Close enough. Raven? No. That's like saying "I want a pet dragon, but I want the stats of a Wild Boar. Can I just take a Wild Boar but skin it as a dragon?"
I'm all for re-fluffing things, but there are limits :P
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What if the Raven was a genie that was cursed into its current, bird-like form? Part of the sorcerer's motivation could have been trying to free said genie's true powers, having been promised a wish if he manages to do so.
At any rate, I would have let him reskin the bird either way. Let him get invested in his character, and all that. Certainly doesn't sound like he wanted any mechanical advantage there.
It's a question of whether he was wanting flavor or power. If all he was going for was a genie that had the same powers as a raven, I'd go with the idea of it being a genie that got stuck in the form of a raven and was trying to get unstuck. Once he was willing and able to pay for Improved Familiar, the genie could become some sort of mephit and claim it was a minor djinn.
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I'd go with this option. I'm generally in favour of reskinning, but it has to make some sort of sense and while it's relatively easy to reskin similar animals (a raven and a blue-jay) the more different the two are the harder it is to justify using the same stats.
I don't think a type change would be a big deal in terms of balance, and while the reskin without the type change would certainly be a bit odd it probably wouldn't come into play that often. The hands are a major point. Hands are valuable in a familiar, particularly for magical item use (can my familiar UMD a wand/administer a potion?). So either he's got a "raven" with hands - thus stronger than the typical raven - or he has a horribly arthritic genie familiar whose hands only function as talons. The latter could be interesting (as could the stuck/cursed familiar or the crazy master) but might not fit exactly with his concept.
There is a small genie that you can take as a familiar in Pathfinder.
Well, it's a question of whether you want to include genies so weak they are effectively talking ravens or not. At a certain point, the reskinning can get ridiculous. If he can get his shoulder djinn for the same price as a raven, can another character get a shoulder dragon and give it the stats of a reskinned hawk, rather than taking Improved Familiar and getting a pseudodragon?
While mechanically Improved Familiar isn't as great a shakes as some other Feats, if you play the social game, there is a lot more status and prestige for wizards who have imps and shoulder dragons than those who have hawks and toads. Having a djinn to serve you has the same social prestige that you don't get from just walking into the bar with you pet cat.