XP Loss - Familiar Death.

[hollowambitions]

So I was out hunting with Lorkumas companion, when it was suddenly overwhelmed and ended up being killed which resulted in Lorkuma having 490xp taken off him. There have been complaints before about this script being harsh, but losing 490xp at level 5 is sort've... crazy?

I'm just wondering if you're planning on keeping this script in, or perhaps thinking of chilling out on the XP loss?

[kalbaern]

Nov 7, 2009 19:07:50 GMT -5 hollowambitions said:

So I was out hunting with Lorkumas companion, when it was suddenly overwhelmed and ended up being killed which resulted in Lorkuma having 490xp taken off him. There have been complaints before about this script being harsh, but losing 490xp at level 5 is sort've... crazy?

I'm just wondering if you're planning on keeping this script in, or perhaps thinking of chilling out on the XP loss?

The whole point of the penalty is to enforce the fact that familiars and companions are not "just another summons". They are creatures that bond with their master, walk at their side, share their adventures and can usually share their thoughts or imagines with the one they are bonded too. Our penalty reflects the PnP version in that there you suffer a flat 100 XP per level and further have to wait a full year before you can try and get another one. (yes, there's various saves and exceptions, but that's the rule in a simple form)

We also knowing that we were in many cases removing the familiars/companions from the "summoned tank" role most use them for needed something to help balance this. So our regular summons are on average much more useful and tougher than normal. It does mean you can't traipse around with your familiar/companion, but it does mean that you'll have treat it with more respect and care for it's safety too. At least be ready to unsummon it and save the XP hit if things go bad fast.

XP penalties for your familiar/companion as well as the penalty for a PC respawning are indeed harsher than many are used too. This is to make folk "THINK". Death does mean something here.

Lastly, this script has been here since we started (though we started with a 250 per level penalty) and I'd warned many players the last few days of it and the fact it hadn't been working lately. We had some scripts from another module our host and others helped with in the past sneak in and screw up a few things was all.

[hollowambitions]

Hmm, 690xp wasn't from my character respawning. My character walked out alive... I think at lvl5, something around 125xp loss? 25xp per lvl. Yes, it does help with having the players treat the companions differently than just another summon, but 690xp loss, I may as well have stayed around an empty village doing nothing. Hunting would barely have it's rewards.

Just a thought.

[kalbaern]

I can assure you that my own 5th level druid can explore much on his own. Druids do start with some disadvatages, but travelling with or without one's companion rarely matters to a lone druid. Having a familiar or companion can often hurt a lone caster actually as the encounters spawn based on the party's level(s) and familiars/companions are party members.

My own druid's tactics might be of some use when soloing here. I always give my companion a "stay" command and then scout ahead. when enemies are found I try to lure back one or two only and then have my companion attack after I first have engaged them. Controlling companions is crucial to keeping them alive. I usually quickslot a "stop", "attack" and "unsummon" command on my first quick slot bar to make things easier.

XP losses won't be lowered below what they stand at though. If I could, I'd actually implement the PnP way and once dead there'd be a prolonged waiting period and likely a DM run quest before PCs could call another. (Technically I could do it, but it'd prove a nightmare to deal with then.)

[DM Arsescratcher]

Is there a way to implement the death at -10 hp deal with familiars?

At least we'd have a chance of saving our beloved companions then!

[hollowambitions]

Nov 7, 2009 21:49:50 GMT -5 kalbaern said:

I can assure you that my own 5th level druid can explore much on his own.

I must be doing something wrong then, lol.

I think having the familiars death at -10hp would be better.

[kalbaern]

Nov 8, 2009 3:02:16 GMT -5 DM Arsescratcher said:

Is there a way to implement the death at -10 hp deal with familiars?

At least we'd have a chance of saving our beloved companions then!

Letting familiars/companions/horses/henchmen bleed to -10 opens up several exploits and won't be considered I'm afraid.

[hollowambitions]

Fair enough! I'm going to be getting extremely paranoid from now on, though! D; =p

[dieulefera]

"XP losses won't be lowered below what they stand at though. If I could, I'd actually implement the PnP way and once dead there'd be a prolonged waiting period and likely a DM run quest before PCs could call another. (Technically I could do it, but it'd prove a nightmare to deal with then.) "

That would be great but I could so see something like that becoming an annoyance to DMs as they would have to take special time to make an event/quest for a single player... kudos for giving it the pNp feel though. Maybe have a scripted persistent quest in an arcane tower somewhere to do this so the DMs wouldn't be over burdened with low level wizards/sorcerers looking for a new familiar. That is if you ever decided to go all out with the loss of a familiar.

[kalbaern]

I've "sticky'd" a topic that addresses this in more detail.

frsavagefrontier.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=672

I could easilly have a PC gain a token when a Familiar/Companion dies that would prevent them from being able to call the creature again until a DM took the token from them. My only fear though is that the DMs would suddenly be running several small events daily just to RP the PC regaining favor and getting his/her creature returned or that players would simply stop using them or playing characters that relied on them. So the xp penalty for their deaths is still the "best" of all the undesirable options here.