Buffing the cuddly familiar idea.

[Harlequin_opal]

Hi folks, I've seen something like this on another server and I personally thought it was a great idea and I am hoping it can be added in here. It is pretty straight forward, as a caster I cast mage armour on myself, this also applies to the familiar. Cats grace is cast and that applies to the familiar to, so in short some spells which the caster casts is applied to the familiar without needing to memorise multiple spells.

Obviously certain spells won't be applied, such as anything above 4th level. But that's my idea in a nutshell

I have no idea how easy or hard this would be, but it would add some survivability to the familiar at the lower levels.

[Micteu]

Sounds nice to me, especially since familiar death not only hurts you physically (hitting your XP and your HP), but the death of a beloved friend is quite harmful to your mental state.

Familiars are almost never used because of the penalty here; all I ever see is a pixie pulled out of someone's butt hole to work the locks and traps before disappearing again. This could actually help have them seen more.

[kalbaern]

Dec 22, 2011 8:45:37 GMT -5 Harlequin_opal said:

Hi folks, I've seen something like this on another server and I personally thought it was a great idea and I am hoping it can be added in here. It is pretty straight forward, as a caster I cast mage armour on myself, this also applies to the familiar. Cats grace is cast and that applies to the familiar to, so in short some spells which the caster casts is applied to the familiar without needing to memorise multiple spells.

Obviously certain spells won't be applied, such as anything above 4th level. But that's my idea in a nutshell

I have no idea how easy or hard this would be, but it would add some survivability to the familiar at the lower levels.

In short, the answer to this is no. I'll explain in detail though.

In PnP, "shared buffs" only work so long as a familiar or companion stays within arms reach. PWs that use their own "sharing" methods always overlook this. As soon as your creature steps away, all shared buffs should then be lost. There's just no easy or reliable way to script it that way in NWN. One should also consider that in PnP, familiars and even companions rarely accompany their masters on adventures. They are generally less powerful than represented in NWN too.

Dec 22, 2011 17:52:38 GMT -5 Micteu said:

Sounds nice to me, especially since familiar death not only hurts you physically (hitting your XP and your HP), but the death of a beloved friend is quite harmful to your mental state.

Familiars are almost never used because of the penalty here; all I ever see is a pixie pulled out of someone's butt hole to work the locks and traps before disappearing again. This could actually help have them seen more.

There's actually a few folk that use familiars and companions successfully here. I've a few "alts" that use a bat and a eyeball with great success. I do not use them as fodder is all. I've had them only die a few times too. I just make sure my summon/unsommon slot is on my first row of quickslots. I also keep them back and let them only engage after I and/or my other summons or party members have first. It just takes some practice is all.

We know the limits of familiars and companions here. They can still be used whether buffed or shared buffed or not. They however are not meant to be mere fodder. We've beefed up normal summons for that. Caster here (both arcane and divine) also further benefit from spells that gain level bonuses beyond the normal defaults. So dependance on a familiar or even companion is further lessened by raw power available.

[masseste]

So a quick question - is there or is there not currently an XP penalty when an animal companion dies? Believe it or not, my 8th level druid has never had her animal companion die. I make keeping her bear alive at all costs a "game within a game" so to speak. It can be done if you are careful

[z1gg3h]

Jan 24, 2012 12:52:53 GMT -5 kalbaern said:

We've beefed up normal summons for that.

....Apart from those who happen to like undeath >.>

[kalbaern]

Jan 24, 2012 16:32:12 GMT -5 masseste said:

So a quick question - is there or is there not currently an XP penalty when an animal companion dies? Believe it or not, my 8th level druid has never had her animal companion die. I make keeping her bear alive at all costs a "game within a game" so to speak. It can be done if you are careful

Yup, there is a penalty (25xp per the PC's level). You're just one of a few that understands the risks and uses tactics that see their "friend" stays well.

Jan 24, 2012 17:20:37 GMT -5 z1gg3h said:

Jan 24, 2012 12:52:53 GMT -5 kalbaern said:

We've beefed up normal summons for that.

....Apart from those who happen to like undeath >.>

There's a lack of "harmful" cure variants due to most such spell effects not working on an item or potion. I should be able to fix this soon with a new (server side only) hak. Then we can make available some better options for fixing summoned undead.

On a side note, more options for familiars/companions are in the works. They however require a hak as well and will await completion of a special "SF-Hak"* that is still being made.

*The SF-Hak when ready will enable us to have RDDs by alignment as well as more familiar/companion choices along with some changes to Shifters and SDs.