Stashing a familiar in a backpack

[Heneski]

I've been wondering: can a familiar be kept in the wizard's (or witch's) backpack and thus be rendered unaffected by any area-of-effect spells that might be affecting its master?

Is this how rules are intended, or is there anything actually stating this?

I would imaging that being in a backpack would provide the familiar a cover bonus to reflex saves, coupled with the Improved Evasion that they get at level 1, but I'm not seeing anything that says that they can be entirely immune.

Is this correct?

[Dark servitude]

Or get a minus to reflex cause it's trapped in a backpack.

[Rogar Stonebow]

um the items you wear are also affected by aoe spells, most DM's usually don't include the things you have in your possession. However, they are certainly within their rights to do so.

[Jeraa]

Rogar Stonebow wrote:

um the items you wear are also affected by aoe spells, most DM's usually don't include the things you have in your possession. However, they are certainly within their rights to do so.

The items you wear or hold are only affected if you roll a natural 1 on the save.

Quote:

Items Surviving after a Saving Throw: Unless the descriptive text for the spell specifies otherwise, all items carried or worn by a creature are assumed to survive a magical attack. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw against the effect, however, an exposed item is harmed (if the attack can harm objects). Refer to Table: Items Affected by Magical Attacks: Items Affected by Magical Attacks. Determine which four objects carried or worn by the creature are most likely to be affected and roll randomly among them. The randomly determined item must make a saving throw against the attack form and take whatever damage the attack dealt.

If the selected item is not carried or worn and is not magical, it does not get a saving throw. It simply is dealt the appropriate damage.

[Morgen]

No, it can share your square (so long as it's tiny enough) but you can't actually hide it in your cloak or backpack. A lot of GM's do a lot of hand-waving so familiars aren't dying all the time due to fireballs.

Ultimate Equipment (and some other book potentially) has an item to cover this actually.

Ultimate Equipment PRD wrote:

Familiar Satchel

Price 25 gp; Weight 6 lbs.

This armored case provides total cover to any Tiny or smaller creature contained within it. It includes air holes (which can be plugged with cork stoppers if you need to go underwater) and two receptacles for food and water.

So your backpack certainly isn't up to the task.

[Mekkis]

So would Total Cover eschew the reflex save from a fireball? What about a will save from Mind Fog, or a Fortitude save from Cloudkill?

[Dark servitude]

I always assumed you needed to see and or hear the target to cast the spell, and if it's in range.

[Mekkis]

I didn't think area-of-effect spells discriminated as to whether you could see the source.

[IejirIsk]

the source of an aoe is the point of impact. like in a fps someone shooting a rocket behind you and hitting you with splash. all effects are from that point, not the caster. edit(But the caster need LOE to the centerpoint)

a targetted spell would not work on a familiar in a closed unclear bag as in charm monster, etc.