Wizard Familiar?

[James Tapley 957]

Hey i got a 4th level wizard using his monkey familiar to get scrolls and stuff from his backpack, since the monkey can not read and he said he has not trained the monkey he would need a handle animal check to get the monkey to get a scroll and since all the scrolls look the same would the monkey just grab one at random and hope that it is right?

that is how I feel it should work, am i just being a detail jerk or what?

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Be more creative.

You may want to put little tabs with specific shapes on the scrolls and teach him which is which. He's smart enough to at least be able to tell the difference between a circle and square.

[Ximen Bao]

The monkey is a familiar so it doesn't need to be trained.

The wizard should really have his scrolls marked already so he doesn't have to unroll them to figure out which is which.

An ordinary monkey wouldn't be able to do this, because the fetch trick requires pointing out an object.

A familiar? No problem.

[James Tapley 957]

yea but since the wizard has not done any of those things he needs to figure out to do them for him self with out me needing to tell him to do it.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

James Tapley 957 wrote:

yea but since the wizard has not done any of those things he needs to figure out to do them for him self with out me needing to tell him to do it.

If the wizard hasn't marked his scrolls as Ximen suggested he wouldn't know which one it was any more than the monkey. The monkey isn't the issue.

[Ximen Bao]

James Tapley 957 wrote:

yea but since the wizard has not done any of those things he needs to figure out to do them for him self with out me needing to tell him to do it.

Unless you've been forcing him to randomly choose scrolls when he tries to take one himself, he's been doing something like that.

Remember, your goal as the GM is to help the players tell an awesome story. Arbitrary houserules restricting actions generally won't go over well. If the wizard can tell which scroll is which without having to randomly roll, then his monkey with an intelligence of 7 (below average buy human-grade), should be able to do the same. Especially since said monkey shares the wizards skill in knowledge arcana, spellcraft, and linguistics.

I predict disbelieving push-back if you try to restrict your player on this one for that reason. Also, remember that manipulating an item is a move action, so if the monkey is retrieving the scroll and handing it to the wizard, the monkey is done for the turn. And both actions provoke.

[Ascalaphus]

Keep in mind that while familiars have the body of an animal, they're much more than animals. They've got intelligence on the level of developing children or adults, and vastly more skill points than most people, because they share all the master's skill points.

By level 10, it's not strange if the familiar is smarter than the fighter.

As for finding the scrolls: I wouldn't GM at this level of detail. I'd assume that the wizard has found some clever way to label his scrolls that he and his familiar understand. He's had time enough, he's smart enough, and I just don't want to obsess about this kind of detail, I want to play an exciting adventure instead of fussing about how someone's backpack is organized.

[The black raven]

The familiar gets all the skills of its master. If the wizard knows how to read, so does the familiar.

[master_marshmallow]

Handy haversack.

[Artanthos]

Familiars are intelligent and have all the wizard's skills. Familiars can read and write(if possessing suitable appendages).

In every language their master knows.

[strayshift]

Colour code.

[The black raven]

master_marshmallow wrote:

Handy haversack.

Good one here. And since it is slotless, you put it on the familiar :-))

[sunbeam]

Yeah, I don't think familiars are like animals. Even if they start out not too smart, they are definitely intelligent, unlike normal animals.

[Ascalaphus]

They're not Animals but Magical Beasts, actually. That's a side effect of becoming a familiar.

[Reecy]

You have to have an Int of 3 to be sentient or ABOVE animal

Familiars Start With 6 INT

here is the INT Animal info

Intelligent Animals

Increasing an animal's Intelligence to 3 or higher means it is smart enough to understand a language. However, unless an awaken spell is used, the animal doesn't automatically and instantly learn a language, any more than a human child does. The animal must be taught a language, usually over the course of months, giving it the understanding of the meaning of words and sentences beyond its trained responses to commands like "attack" and "heel."

Even if the animal is taught to understand a language, it probably lacks the anatomy to actually speak (unless awaken is used). For example, dogs, elephants, and even gorillas lack the proper physiology to speak humanoid languages, though they can use their limited "vocabulary" of sounds to articulate concepts, especially if working with a person who learns what the sounds mean.

An intelligent animal is smart enough to use tools, but might lack the ability to manipulate them. a crow could be able to use simple lockpicks, but a dog can't. Even if the animal is physically capable of using a tool, it might still prefer its own natural body to manufactured items, especially when it comes to weapons. An intelligent gorilla could hold or wield a sword, but its inclination is to make slam attacks. No amount of training (including weapon proficiency feats) is going to make it fully comfortable attacking in any other way.

So technically yes your monkey can Read the scrolls because you taught it how to read Magic

And technically you can use the Share Link have it use the read Magic Ability if you wanted to take it even further.

Love the Concept by the way!