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Hi wise forum
I have already introduced a somewhat cursed parrot in my Skulls and Shackles campaign.
And now I want it to choose one of the players as its master and thereby give him an unwanted familiar sidekick.
A bit about the somewhat cursed Red Ara parrot "Foodie": They bought him very cheap in "Queen Bes" in the Shackles and in much better shape than the other parrots at display.
The seller was very keen on keeping his ring-shackle, but they didn't take much notice of it at the time.
After the ring (of Sustenance) was off, "Foodie" got increasingly active and hungry. It has accelerated metabolism and eats roughly the same as 3 big teenager boys each day. It is omnivore and alkohol gives it the hasted condition for a minute. It never gets a hangover.
And it will not accept a ring of sustenance again, "It is like living in a grey world without any taste or wonder - a world without meaning - NEVER!!!"
The players manged to dump it some month back (play time) and now I want to re-introduce this wonderful irritating constantly eating, talking and rumdrinking pirate parrot to the story. But this time as an unwanted familiar to one of the players.
Think cursed item - but a familiar.
So I need to exchange some of these abilities with new Cursed and fun abilities:
Level 1-2: Alertness, improved evasion, share spells, empathic link
Level 3-4: Deliver touch spells
Level 5-6: Speak with master
Level 7-8: Speak with animals of its kind
Level 11-12: Spell resistance
Level 13-14: Scry on familiar
I have considered "Egoist" archtype and "Prankster" Archtype, but didn't find them fitting.
Here are some abilities I am working on:
"Alertness" is a keeper, as the player is much more observant because of the havoc the parrot is causing from time to time.
"Empatic link" is also a keeper - the "master" is constantly feeling hungry due to the link.
"Go bug someone else" 3/day extraordinary ability. The parrot will fly off to the nearest foodsource and start to hastle/hustle to get some food.
"Scent for food": The parrot has very good scent and can smell poison or rotten food easily, but is horrible as a tracker. It will more likely sniff out a banana-palm or a distant cooking fire than follow a track.
"Loyal to the feeding hand": It will tell everbody everything, if bribed with delicious food.
Hit me with ideas!!!
It'll depend partly on which player. Share / Deliver Touch Spells aren't much use on a fighter, for example, so they might have to go.
Keep Improved Evasion, as it'll end up dead otherwise. Alternatively, have it disappear when killed (a miraculous escape!), but come back the following day very hangry.
Keep the Speaking abilities (and the Linguistics bonus), because parrot, obviously. It might not deign to talk to mundane parrots because it's a snob.
If it eats that much, presumably it's quite the guano factory. Ranged touch attack to sicken and potentially blind?
Spell resistance and scry can go, but as they don't matter until 11th level you may have a while to see what fits.
Consider making it a 'Figment' familiar, so no matter WHAT the players do (until the 'curse' is broken), it always comes back after their next rest.
Hi wise forum
I have already introduced a somewhat cursed parrot in my Skulls and Shackles campaign. . .The players manged to dump it some month back (play time) and now I want to re-introduce this wonderful irritating constantly eating, talking and rumdrinking pirate parrot to the story. But this time as an unwanted familiar to one of the players.
Think cursed item - but a familiar. . . .
Ok. With pirate, there are a lot of thematic things you can do. If you don't mind swapping or substituting even more things, then you can even have more fun with it.
You could take part of the Pilferer Archetype. Consider the added skills (Disable Device, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand), the Improved and Greater Steal, and the Sneak ability. I'd recommend dropping Nondetection. I'd allow the 'Object' of the curse to keep Alertness (as you have to figure as a bit of a counter to the trouble he causes...) and maybe key the Sneak feature to an opposite skill like Perception, as the familiar is practicing hiding from the character. In game, the rational is that he's skulking about looking for more food to take and he doesn't care how he gets it.
Not very piratical, but I've always loved the idea of combining the Figment and Sage Archetypes to create a Know-it-All that keeps coming back... preferably on a dumb-as-a-sack-of-hammers sorcerer, but that's that's just my sense of humor I suppose.
I think Decoy could fit, because they add Bluff and Deceitful would make the familiar a better liar... and what pirate can't spin a fanciful story?
You could give the familiar the magical ability to turn itself into a tattoo, akin to the Familiar Tattoo feature of the Tattooed Sorcerer. It could replace the Shared Spells or Deliver Touch Spells ability.
That's just off the top of my head. If it sounds weird, ignore me. :)
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Keep the Speaking abilities (and the Linguistics bonus), because parrot, obviously. It might not deign to talk to mundane parrots because it's a snob.
I love the idea that it can't stand normal parrots and refers to them as stupid birds, when it deigns to acknowledge their existence at all. It's genuinely annoyed to even be related to them, and doesn't like to think about what kind of fate awaits it if it lost it's ability to speak and was ever forced to live like one of those 'dumb animals' again.
I'd want to give it some schmoozing ability, skill at Diplomacy for persuading people to give it food, in return for whatever advice or secrets or nonsense it can provide (pretending to be an avatar of the gods who needs constant adulation and propitiation with feasts and offerings to bring good fortune or wise counsel or spiritual guidance or psychopomp services to the villagers, or a former pirates familiar who knows the location to a fabulous buried treasure, which happens to require bringing a shipload of food to a dangerous place that will get the crew killed and leave the bird with tons of food on a deserted island!). It would have just enough ability to make good on these lies, perhaps a low level divination spell, or minor image spell-like ability, to fake these things (and might even prime the pump a bit by faking some miracles or insights, leading gullible rubes to a treasure map that it faked earlier, or starting a rumor about itself to build up it's own legend).