Familiar Abuse

[FearlessGnome]

(D&D 3.5)

So I gots me a Quasit. How do I make my DM regret giving it to me?

Magic items are half price, so I imagine getting myself UMD is even higher on the list than usual. But what else can a flying, talking, intelligent, invisible at will pair of hands get up to?

[Thurbane]

As you say, UMD is the obvious choice...the Rod of Many Wands is a personal favorite of mine.

[DragonOfUndeath]

So I gots me a Quasit. How do I make my DM regret giving it to me?

Are you playing a DM Vs PC campaign? Why would you want to make your DM regret giving you nice stuff?

[HunterOfJello]

First of all, whenever the little rascal gets into a city, it needs to use its Cause Fear ability on groups of townsfolk.

A wand with Swift Invisibility will allow the Quasit to remain in Invisible form, use an attack, cast Swift Invisibility, move and then use its Inivisible SLA. Since it has Flying (perfect), it can do this while in the air hiding from enemies.

This familiar would be great to use with lists of cheaper wands and items. For that stuff, Bungo's Bargain basement and those threads would be of great use.

~

Another fun use would be to exploit the quasit's Commune ability to constantly ask complex questions to the demons that the quasit worships.

[Psyren]

Are you playing a DM Vs PC campaign? Why would you want to make your DM regret giving you nice stuff?

Shiggles is my guess. (I'm sure it's just exaggeration anyway...)

[FearlessGnome]

Are you playing a DM Vs PC campaign? Why would you want to make your DM regret giving you nice stuff?

I'm not actually trying to make the DM regret it. But it's a small party, so the more use I can get out of the little bugger the better.

Edit:

First of all, whenever the little rascal gets into a city, it needs to use its Cause Fear ability on groups of townsfolk.

It's an urban campaign. :smallbiggrin:

[HunterOfJello]

Another thought is that you can get into all sorts of mischief and then use Bluff to convince people that it was actually the Quasit who did it. Since they obviously see a Quasit in sight, they react at the same time that the Quasit becomes invisible and flys off into the distance while making lots of noise.

When asked who killed the Chief of Police, it's more likely people will pick out a demon assassin than the upstanding citizen who everyone trusts and loves!

~

If you want to get into doing silly stuff, you can have the Quasit use all sorts of 1st level spells from wands.

Wand of Mount can summon 50 mounts for 2 hours each. Filling up an area with horses could be useful and hilarious in certain situations.

Wand of Prestidigitation is only limited by your imagination. Turning someone's clothes into funny colors and making someone's food taste terrible as they bite into it would both be fun. Since it can soil items, you can go around making people's clothes, belongings and all sorts of things suddenly be covered in dirt.

Wand of Alarm could annoy people by casting it in a market area so that it sounds like someone is constantly ringing a hand bell. This also lasts for 2 hours.

Wand of Stick + Flying will allow the quasit to steal things and then hide them up high on the wall of a tower where people can't reach it, but will be able to see it clearly.

Wand of Sticky Fingers gives +10 to Slight of Hand, so you're definitely going to want that.

Wand of Create Water gets people wet and be spread of a wiiiiiiiiiiide area.

Wand of Scatterspray cast by an invisible ally flying in the air can be a great distraction

I'll try to think of some more.

~

If you want the Quasit to help you steal something that's 10 lbs or less a Wand of Launch Item will work well. The Quasit can invisibly steal the item, then cast the wand to shoot it to you 110 ft away

[Gabe the Bard]

Are you high enough level for Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability? If so, load him up with dispel magic and you'll have an extra dispeller/counterspeller.

[Boci]

Old list of potential assassination targets:

Something reasonable

New list of potential assassination targets:

A member of the Ruling Council
The leader of the City Guard
Any monster with a CR 6 or more above your character level


Are you high enough level for Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability?

6th level warmage.

[FearlessGnome]

Old list of potential assassination targets:

Something reasonable

New list of potential assassination targets:

A member of the Ruling Council
The leader of the City Guard
Any monster with a CR 6 or more above your character level


I believe the deal I made with the demon specified that it would have to be a target I could reasonably expect to defeat. :p

Also, what, not some bigshot in the Gothic Ravens/City Liberation Front?

[WinWin]

Buy ranks in alchemy. It can then use it's poison, or the poison of it's alternate forms as materials to craft with. Now the other members of the party can deliver it's venom (and it does not have to risk melee to poison people).

[Brendan]

Familiar Abuse is a crime in 48 of the 50 great wizard nations. It is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly. If you believe that you or someone you may know is abusing their familiar please confront them about it and take them to the nearest wizarding guild.
If they fail to complete the six weeks of therapy they may have themselves stripped of their familiar. Remember: They may be anmals, but they are also so much more.

paid for by the committee to end familiar abuse

[Togo]

Cast shrink item on a ballista, and carry it around
Turn him into a troll with a suitable spell, and have him dispel the shrink item
Cast master's touch
Have a troll carrying a ballista around.

Make tiny longspears. Enchant them to have spell storing. Have the familiar throw them at people.

Cast shrink item on a mantlet, rowboat, burning bonfire, or other item that provides cover. In combat, have the familiar ready an action to thow the shrunk item down on the ground in front of you, whenever anyone tries to charge, gets, too close, etc.

Send him to seek out and destroy other wizard's familiars.

[zimmerwald1915]

Familiar Abuse is a crime in 48 of the 50 great wizard nations. It is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly. If you believe that you or someone you may know is abusing their familiar please confront them about it and take them to the nearest wizarding guild.
If they fail to complete the six weeks of therapy they may have themselves stripped of their familiar. Remember: They may be anmals, but they are also so much more.

paid for by the committee to end familiar abuse
If this wasn't so long I'd sig it...

[Ryuk01]

Familiar Abuse is a crime in 48 of the 50 great wizard nations. It is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly. If you believe that you or someone you may know is abusing their familiar please confront them about it and take them to the nearest wizarding guild.
If they fail to complete the six weeks of therapy they may have themselves stripped of their familiar. Remember: They may be anmals, but they are also so much more.

paid for by the committee to end familiar abuse
Can I please sig this? :smallsmile:

[Brendan]

Can I please sig this? :smallsmile:

totally! go for it.

[Flickerdart]

Make sure to give it a weapon and armour. A reach weapon means that it can whack people without getting whacked back. Keep it within 5 feet of you so you can share spells like produce flame or shivering touch that grant you more than one use over time. Doubles your firepower!

[Kelb_Panthera]

Familiar Abuse is a crime in 48 of the 50 great wizard nations. It is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly. If you believe that you or someone you may know is abusing their familiar please confront them about it and take them to the nearest wizarding guild.
If they fail to complete the six weeks of therapy they may have themselves stripped of their familiar. Remember: They may be anmals, but they are also so much more.

paid for by the committee to end familiar abuse

I got a horrible image of the guy from the cover of CAr beating his little bearded cat from this. Thanks.:smallmad::smallfrown:

[Coidzor]

Hmm, well, the poison-crafting and being a mobile UMD weapons platform routes are the best ones I can think of immediately offhand.

Could give it a ranged weapon with poisoned ammunition of various types, especially if the quasit can select/retrain its feats, a little bit of hidden talent + psionic minor creation gives it some very nice poison options. Even better if the weapon can have a wand chamber or two. But this is probably nowhere near as effective as it just wand spamming. Could make a nice backup tactic though.

[Boci]

Hmm, well, the poison-crafting and being a mobile UMD weapons platform routes are the best ones I can think of immediately offhand.

Could give it a ranged weapon with poisoned ammunition of various types, especially if the quasit can select/retrain its feats, a little bit of hidden talent + psionic minor creation gives it some very nice poison options. Even better if the weapon can have a wand chamber or two. But this is probably nowhere near as effective as it just wand spamming. Could make a nice backup tactic though.

I'm fine with the quasit retraining its feats, but it would need some help to learn hidden talent.

[AnswersQuestion]

You could always finish your build with Pervirtuoso levels...you DM is sure to regret that.

[FearlessGnome]

You could always finish your build with Pervirtuoso levels...you DM is sure to regret that.

This is my ignorance talking, I'm sure, but how come?

[TheThan]

One of the coolest characters I ever though up is Shaz’ahra the mermaid. She’s a merfolk wizard/bonded summoner that adventures on land. How does she do this with a movement of only 5 ft? Easy, she rides around in her huge water elemental familiar.

This allows for some pretty awesome shinanigans. She can deliver shocking grasps through the elemental (reach is a killer huh), she can drown someone by telling her elemental to grab them and pull them inside it with her. She can also summon aquatic swarms and use her opal dolphin to defend herself when this happens. She can use the elemental’s natural slam attacks to boll into the enemy and flatten them.

Her elemental acts as a hit point shield. In order to get to her, they have to first beat on the elemental. Water elementals are fairly tough, so its going to take a few rounds to go down. and then if it can, she can summon another one 24 hours later as opposed to an entire year, and she doesn’t take the same penalties that a normal wizard would for loosing his familiar (IIRC that is).

[Callista]

Invisibility at will... wow. You've got yourself the perfect spy. This is almost as bad as the time my DM gave me (unasked-for) a corollax as a familiar. (If you don't know what they are, they are basically pretty little birds that can do a Color Spray at will. And we started at level 2. Yeaah.)

[Mushroom Ninja]

Just ran across a cool abuse here: (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=331.0) Give it a wand of Dimension door. In combat have it ready an action to cast dimdoor on the two of you if [insert bad thing] is about to happen.

[FearlessGnome]

Just ran across a cool abuse here: (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=331.0) Give it a wand of Dimension door. In combat have it ready an action to cast dimdoor on the two of you if [insert bad thing] is about to happen.

This.


Speaking of Quasits, they have a listed intelligence of 10. But how do their intelligence scores change when they become familiars/character levels up?

[Boci]

This.

A fully charged wand of DD costs 21k.


Speaking of Quasits, they have a listed intelligence of 10. But how do their intelligence scores change when they become familiars/character levels up?

Mental link to their master opens their mind?

[FearlessGnome]

A fully charged wand of DD costs 21k.
Player knows, master. Player is patient.


Mental link to their master opens their mind?
Well... yes. But what I meant was, by RAW, is the Quasit at Intelligence 10 until its master's level would put the intelligence of any other familiar at 11, or does the Quasit benefit even at higher levels from having started out cleverer than other familiars?

[Boci]

Player knows, master. Player is patient.

What's the limit for the cost of magical items?


Well... yes. But what I meant was, by RAW, is the Quasit at Intelligence 10 until its master's level would put the intelligence of any other familiar at 11, or does the Quasit benefit even at higher levels from having started out cleverer than other familiars?

Oh right, the former.

[Coidzor]

Speaking of Quasits, they have a listed intelligence of 10. But how do their intelligence scores change when they become familiars/character levels up?

When the familiar progression table describing the benefits a familiar receives would give such a familiar a better intelligence score, their intelligence goes up. Otherwise it doesn't change, just as Paladin mounts that are smarter than the intelligence score listed for their paladin's level are not made less intelligent just because they're bonded as a mount.

[Crasical]

This is my ignorance talking, I'm sure, but how come?

Pervirtuoso is a trick using the Book of Erotic Fantasy, using the houserule that all classes have Perform(Sexual) as a class skill (so that bards, rogues, and monks aren't the best lovers by default because they have perfrom as a class skill).

Essentially, it means taking Sorcerer 7 or Sorcerer 5/something 2, then multiclassing into Virtuoso, which is normally a Bard PRC. Thankfully, it only needs levels of Perform, not bardic music, so someone can multiclass into it, and it's a 9/10 caster progressing class, good enough for most sorcerers.

What this has to do with familiars is that during the large discussion about this when it was first thought up, the 'sample' Pervirtuoso ended up taking the 'draconic familiar' feat, and 'performing' with his familiar to use his bardlike performance abilities.


TLDR:

Normal casters = Familiar Abuse
Pervirtuoso = Sexual Abuse

[Coidzor]

Pervirtuoso's Debut Thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167278&page=3) (I believe it starts on page 2, maybe bottom of page 1, but the builds start to get posted on page 3) To prepare you for what sorts of things go on in there, here's the tamest innuendo used (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9315785&postcount=116).

Though I thought it hinged on an adaptation rather than a houserule.

[Flickerdart]

Considering that the BoEF is third party, very few DMs will actually accept it, less so if you intend to use it to sneak your way into PrCs that you shouldn't be able to get.

[Crasical]

Considering that the BoEF is third party, very few DMs will actually accept it, less so if you intend to use it to sneak your way into PrCs that you shouldn't be able to get.

Draconic Heritage(Battle Dragon) from Races of the Dragon gets you perform as a class skill for a feat.

I don't really consider it 'sneaking your way into a PRC' since you can get into it legitimately fairly easily.

[Flickerdart]

Yeah, but this way you're spending a very limited resource in addition to the skill points. With the BoED, you're getting it for free.

[Coidzor]

Yeah, but this way you're spending a very limited resource in addition to the skill points. With the BoED, you're getting it for free.

I would say that it's more the bit where one is having sex in order to spurt the party on to better performance in battle which is the more likely reason for disallowing it rather than it allowing entry into Virtuoso anyway. A Sorcerer who is busy having sex and inspiring courage isn't blasting or casting battlefield control spells or whatever else it is that sorcerers normally do in combat, after all. And the feat that allows bards to use bardic music and cast spells at the same time is, I believe, not available to the Pervirtuoso, or if it is, not useful due to the Pervirtuoso's means of inspiring.

Edit: my bad, sorry guys.

[Psyren]

I would say that it's more the bit where one is having sex in order to spurt the party on to better performance in battle which is the more likely reason for disallowing it rather than it allowing entry into Virtuoso anyway. A Sorcerer who is busy having sex and inspiring courage isn't blasting or casting battlefield control spells or whatever else it is that sorcerers normally do in combat, after all. And the feat that allows bards to use bardic music and cast spells at the same time is, I believe, not available to the Pervirtuoso, or if it is, not useful due to the Pervirtuoso's means of inspiring.

I respectfully disagree - there's no reason my sorcerer shouldn't be able to yell out verbal components in the throes of passion, or work in somatics; and with sufficient creativity we can introduce the material components as well :smallwink:

[Crasical]

I respectfully disagree - there's no reason my sorcerer shouldn't be able to yell out verbal components in the throes of passion, or work in somatics; and with sufficient creativity we can introduce the material components as well :smallwink:

Virtuoso performances specifically do not interfere with casting.