Familiar satchel

[666bender]

The satchel gives total cover to the familiar.
The fact it cant ve attacked is ok ...
How can a half cm thick metal box stops a fire ball?
Lighting ball?
Etc

[Penthau]

Total cover wouldn't protect against a fireball, because it is a spread and goes around corners and through air holes. The satchel would have to block line of effect to do that. I would give him a +4 to reflex though personally and they usually have some form of evasion.

Also, like any gear carried by the target, it normally wouldn't have to make saves unless he failed his by rolling a 1. I would probably put it about 6th on the list of possible check, about the same as a stowed weapon.

[Firebug]

Penthau wrote:

Total cover wouldn't protect against a fireball, because it is a spread and goes around corners and through air holes. The satchel would have to block line of effect to do that. I would give him a +4 to reflex though personally and they usually have some form of evasion.

Also, like any gear carried by the target, it normally wouldn't have to make saves unless he failed his by rolling a 1. I would probably put it about 6th on the list of possible check, about the same as a stowed weapon.

So you just put in the corks, now there are no air holes so the familiar is immune to fireball by the 'corners' clause of total cover. Every couple of minutes pop the corks to refresh the air.

Wear 2-4 familiar satchels only one of which contains the familiar. This makes it much less likely that the real familiar will be affected when you roll a 1 on a save since they have the same priority, and makes it harder for enemies to directly target and sunder the correct satchel.

666bender wrote:

The satchel gives total cover to the familiar.

The fact it cant ve attacked is ok ...
How can a half cm thick metal box stops a fire ball?
Lighting ball?
Etc

You can wear a silk scarf over your head and unless you roll a 1, its immune to fireball.

[blahpers]

Don't look too closely at any particular rule. Pathfinder isn't a very accurate simulation. It oversimplifies things in order to keep the game moving. If the familiar satchel is what sends you over the edge, well, I assume you skipped the Combat chapter entirely. ; ) If you'd like it to be more accurate, that's nothing a house rule can't fix.

Edit: By the by, a fireball encompassing an occupied but unattended familiar satchel has a good chance of roasting the familiar inside. The spell specifically expands past any barrier it can successfully damage its way through, and armored or not a 6 pound familiar satchel isn't going to have a lot of hit points, especially if it really is only half a centimeter thick (though I'm not sure where this thickness came from).