"Kill it! awwwk! soiled yourself? Awwwwk! polly want to crack your head open! awwk!""

[Kol Korran]

so, soon we'll be starting a pirate campaign, and one of my players said he wanted a parrot, who'se sole purpose was to yell obscene things and curses at everyone. :smalltongue:

my initial thought is to just give it to him. it's mostly for roleplay, no? :smallsmile:

my secondary thought is that the thing will be very fragile, maybe it can benefit from some protection, similar to the familiar? :smallconfused:

my third thought is that if i know my players, (especially this player who is highly creative) they will find some notorious use for Polly... :smallamused:

so, any way to make it into a familiar? (without taking a class that has a familiar... complicated) or a bit more formidable (at least defense wise?) and should it cost a feat, money, or should he just have it?

future NPCs who will be abused by this profanity horror await your wise council!

(search word: piratewitch)

[The Succubus]

I don't really have much to add to the conversation but I'd like to say this is the most bizzare title I've ever seen in all my time on the Playground. oO

[Acanous]

So your player is some kind of witch? They get familiars already, no problem there. If he's a rogue who went pirate, you still get tricks and there's a 3-tier tree that ends in a familiar without multiclassing.

Bards, Wizards, Rangers, Druids, and Sorcerors all get familiars as well, and Cavaliers and Barbarians can get a mount (Roc!) so really, it's more "How does he WANT to have this feature?". If he wants it just as an exotic pet, pay some GP and have a 1HD Bird. They aren't exactly solid targets in combat, and only have to watch out for AoE spells.

[Kol Korran]

So your player is some kind of witch? They get familiars already, no problem there. If he's a rogue who went pirate, you still get tricks and there's a 3-tier tree that ends in a familiar without multiclassing.


... :smallconfused: are you referring to the search word? that is just to help me find all threads related to the campaign. no, he's playing a class that is a mix between a swashbuckler and a rogue.

what "3-tier tree tricks?"
i heard of tricks at the time, what book are they in? will they add more complex options? (we're complex enough as we are :smallsigh:)

perhaps a 1 HD parrot that was specially trained to have evasion? i'm trying to think of ways to keep the parrot viable. (as i don't intend to go easy on the group)

[Alefiend]

It's a fun piece of flavor; I say let him just have it for the GP cost of an exotic bird. Let it survive everything, even patently ridiculous deathtraps. You'll have a great time and a memorable piece of campaign lore, and because it's just a pet you don't have to allow it to have any concrete effect on the game if you don't want it to.

[Emperor Tippy]

Have the parrot be an Ice Assassin Aleax Parrot that was ordered by it's creator to follow the player around and curse constantly.

Even the gods can't kill it and it's possibly one of the most annoying curses around. Hmm, give it an at will Wish SLA as well that is solely used to pop it's self back to the player if he teleports away or the like.

[GreenSerpent]

In Stormwrack there's information on Parrot familiars. It basically says treat it as a Raven.

[Kol Korran]

It's a fun piece of flavor; I say let him just have it for the GP cost of an exotic bird. Let it survive everything, even patently ridiculous deathtraps. You'll have a great time and a memorable piece of campaign lore, and because it's just a pet you don't have to allow it to have any concrete effect on the game if you don't want it to.

Hmmm... i do think i'm going to do exactly that. questions is who plays the parrot? me? the player? both of us? or the group?

and how much does an exotic birdy such as this going to cost?


Have the parrot be an Ice Assassin Aleax Parrot

i don't know what that is, but since it's the player's idea, i think it shouldn't be CONSTANTLY annoying to him. (just at odd times) but the general idea hols much promise!


In Stormwrack there's information on Parrot familiars. It basically says treat it as a Raven.

Hey! thanks! i was wondering how to stat it.

[Darrin]

so, any way to make it into a familiar? (without taking a class that has a familiar... complicated) or a bit more formidable (at least defense wise?) and should it cost a feat, money, or should he just have it?


Well, there's the Obtain Familiar feat in Complete Arcane, but it requires arcane caster level 3. Actually, I'd recommend the Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) feat to make it a little more durable... although I'd probably ask the player first, to see if he wants to dedicate a feat slot to it.

You might want to take a look at the Corollax in MMII, which can be trained to accept another creature as part of it's "flock". Unfortunately, it's still very fragile (and as it's already a magical beast, it's difficult to take it as a familiar/animal companion/wild cohort without a houserule). I had a player acquire one in my last campaign, but it fell victim to an acid fog trap. Direct-damage effects aren't really a worry (you can have antagonists just ignore it), but area effects will kill it lickety-split. Giving it Improved Evasion might help.

If the player just wanted to buy it... considering a guard dog costs 25 GP, I'd probably charge 30-50 GP for a trained parrot/monkey. If the player was only going to use it as decoration/flavor (no mechanical effect on the game), I might drop that to 5-10 GP.

[Emperor Tippy]

i don't know what that is, but since it's the player's idea, i think it shouldn't be CONSTANTLY annoying to him. (just at odd times) but the general idea hols much promise!
Ice Assassin is a 9th level spell from Frostburn, it's like Simulacrum except without the HD limit (you could use Simulacrum instead if you wanted). Aleax is a template from the Epic Level Handbook, it's signature ability is called Signature Enemy (Ex) and what it does is only allow a single creature to cause any harm to the Aleax.

Use and of the various methods to ignore material components for the Ice Assassin and you can create an Aleax version of whatever you want (in this case of a Parrot with Wish as an at will SLA).

The caster then orders the Parrot to follow the PC around and randomly annoy/curse/help the player.

[rot42]

I would give the character primary control of the parrot. This is probably what they were thinking when they suggested it, and you already have enough complexity as DM. You just retain veto power, and can have it do entertaining things whenever it crosses your mind.

Now I have a mental image of the PCs desperately trying to use a patently indestructible parrot to wedge open a shrinking room trap.