Ongoing Misery is considered niche
Is it actually 'considered niche' though? It seems more like a few specific people are trying to underplay how amazing it is more than this being a global consensus.
Because even in the 'worst case scenarios' some people are describing it still lets you cheaply extend a number of powerful debuffs.
Plus it's still clearly vastly more powerful than stuff like 'your familiar can flank' regardless. So the attempts to downplay it so much feel a bit silly.
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I think the wording on it is pretty air-tight, it extends the duration of EVERY "negative condition" that is applied to ANY creature within 15 feet of it by one round every time you Cast or Sustain any Hex.Nope. It's one target at a time, though obviously you can switch targets each time you cast a hex. From the description:
When you Cast or Sustain a hex, your familiar can curse a creature within 15 feet of it, prolonging the duration of any negative conditions affecting it by 1 round...
"a creature." "it". One target. Still powerful, but not as powerful as you described.
Yeah, I see how you read my post how you did, I wasn't trying to convey it impacted more than one creature per casting, but I agree, it's one target per for sure.
The [familiar hissing] = [the extend effect] has never been a thing. Those bits are independent of each other. Every familiar type gets a sentence of flavor, then it's mechanic.
Familiar of Ongoing Misery
Your familiar seems hostile to all creatures other than you, hissing at them if they get too near. When you Cast or Sustain a hex, your familiar can curse a creature within 15 feet of it, prolonging the duration of any negative conditions affecting it by 1 round. This is a curse effect. This prolongs only conditions with a timed duration (such as “1 round" or “until the end of your next turn") and doesn't prevent conditions from being removed by other means.
The familiar casts a curse, the hissing thing is prior flavor to describe their general behavior.
I do not know why this is considered niche when a party of four is going to be throwing out plenty of negative conditions to extend.
I've not seen it specifically debated, but even poison stages are measured in rounds, and RAW seem eligible.
There's a huge possibility space there, it's a rather generic trigger.
More importantly, the Ongoing Misery curse is one of the few "it just works" type effects, there's no save chance, flat check, ect.
Ongoing Misery is considered nicheIs it actually 'considered niche' though? It seems more like a few specific people are trying to underplay how amazing it is more than this being a global consensus.
Because even in the 'worst case scenarios' some people are describing it still lets you cheaply extend a number of powerful debuffs.
Plus it's still clearly vastly more powerful than stuff like 'your familiar can flank' regardless. So the attempts to downplay it so much feel a bit silly.
I spend an hour writing a post just so you can focus on less than half a sentence?
My life is now complete. Thank you.
Clearly, the solution to getting your familiar safely in range depends on how a GM interprets the granted familiar ability to work in general. Specifically, whether it's still functional if the familiar is merged with you. ...or, more interestingly, merged with a party member via Familiar Mascot. (Because the merge ability is a master ability, it seems you should be able to designate a party member to bear the tattoo for the day)
Alternatively, just use the Star Orb ancestry feat, since an inanimate object can be carried by an ally and won't draw attacks as much.
Ha ha, I was looking at Familiar Master the other day. A few sleepers in there, for sure.
Don't forget the potential combo of that ally-merged familiar with Familiar Conduit to use them as your spell origin point.
If you MC'd into Cleric or had an ally who was a Cleric and they had Dazzling Flash could you extend the failure condition thus making the enemy blinded for an extended period?
Yes. It's a condition with a duration.