Nazhena and Zapada

[zimmerwald1915]

I know they only appear for one encounter as written, so fleshing this out in the text was probably not high on the list of priorities, but I'd like to try and see if I can keep Nazhena a presence in a hypothetical Reign of Winter campaign I may someday run, and this detail is important to me if I'm going to try and deepen her character. What is Nazhena's relationship with her familiar like? It mentions in her bio that she "loved [Radosek] as much as she was capable of loving anyone"; did she feel the same way about Zapada, or did she consider her owl a means toward achieving greater power? In the one encounter in which she appears, Zapada is given no tactics. Is this because Nazhena values his life and wants to keep him safe, or because she doesn't value his contributions?

I would greatly appreciate Mister Groves' take on the matter.

[Zhangar]

I am not Mr. Groves, but -

1) A familiar is primarily an extension of the caster. A caster that has a bad relationship with his or her familiar is probably both profoundly dysfunctional and self-destructive to boot. I'd assume a caster has a good relationship with her familiar unless it's specifically called out otherwise (like an quasit familiar that's hoping to get its master killed).

2) A witch's familiar is also her spellbook, which will make most witches incredibly leery of letting the familiar anywhere near a fight.

3) I've never seen tactics or even a stat block given for familiars in an AP.

4) If Zapada's being useful, it's probably by being a scout for Nazhena. Certain familiars can make for fantastic scouts.

[YuenglingDragon]

I agree with Zhanger. Occasionally, for higher level encounters, tactics might include casting Form of the Dragon or something like that on a familiar but that's typically a tactic better used by wizards. A witch would be betting a lot by taking a chance like that.

In my game, one of my players is a witch who also happens to have an owl familiar. I'm going to have them fight in the sky above the PC's and use that fight as a kind of metaphor for the battle on the ground.