20 Creative Uses for a Raven Familiar! - RAVENS OWN!

[BenShums]

A Raven Familiar talks, flies, and can carry items. This gives you unique roleplaying and battle tactics. Let's come up with some creative ways to use a raven!

#1. Increase its use Magic Device ranks and give it a wand. Now you have a raven caster!

#2. Have the raven search for birds carrying mail, then tell it to steal the mail after the birds drop it off

#3. Glibness (a level 3 spell) + Share Spells = +30 to your Raven's bluff (you could have him do so many things with this! But be careful, he might end up bluffing against you!)

(Keep 'em coming!)

[ArcturusV]

Use their ability to speak Common to torment people with ranks in Perform: Poetry.

[gurgleflep]

4.) With the raven (Raven!), you must now find a robin (Robin!), a shapeshifter (any/all animals) (Beast boy!), a partially mechanical animal (Cyborg!), and a Phoenix that's fire is as hot as a star (Starfire!). Bring them all together and form the Teen Animal Titans!!

[Nettlekid]

5. Once you have access to Polymorph and later, Shapechange, Share Spells with your (talking, that's important) Raven, and change into each other. No one will suspect "your familiar" as being the ferociously powerful spellcaster. (In fact, as a DM, if you mention "His raven bobs its head on the Wizard's shoulder" once, you'll find that the party seeking to kill the evil caster will likely forget about the little guy.)

[BenShums]

#6. Cast invisibility on the raven, and use him as a spy

[NeoPhoenix0]

#7. Give it flight instructions and switch places with it with benign transposition from level 1. (Most familiars can't understand you very well until level 5)

[BenShums]

With an intelligence level of 2, how smart is a raven?
Also, with an alignment of Always Neutral, how much can you trust a raven?

[ArcturusV]

Well, as a familiar it's Int is minimum 6. So kinda in Short bus territory as supposedly 1 Int = 10 IQ as I've heard people quote. But not exactly incapable of doing things or understanding the world, formulating plans or following directions.

[Nettlekid]

It's your familiar. It gains Intelligence (to like Int 8 by level 5 when you're probably PrCing out) and is an extension of your very self, and is your same alignment and is devoted to your cause.

[Worira]

With an intelligence level of 2, how smart is a raven?
Also, with an alignment of Always Neutral, how much can you trust a raven?

A) a raven familiar has a minimum Int of 6, so fairly.
B) It's more or less a chunk of your soul, so with your life.

EDIT: NINJAS EVERYWHERE IN THIS

[BenShums]

#8. Get the spell teleport, get within 5 feet of an enemy, have your raven grab him (maybe use spells to buff up the raven's ability to do this), have the raven teleport the enemy to another location! (e.g. 800 feet in the air, so that the enemy falls to its death).


(keep 'em coming guys)

[hymer]

BenShums: The wand is a (held) item. Your DM would be perfectly within his bounds saying that your raven familiar can't use one.
To increase your raven's UMD, you'd have to incease your own. Familiars use their own natural skills or those of its master's.
Teleport works on willing subjects only.

[BenShums]

hymer, I'm new! Lol, but thanks.

[BenShums]

#9: Bling! Deck your parrot out with some cool rings.

E.g. Ring of Spell Storing: put some spells inside it for your familiar to use.

[BenShums]

#10. Lighting - Have your raven carry around a torch

[BenShums]

Hymer, raven's have talons. Talons can hold things.

[gurgleflep]

Hymer, raven's have talons. Talons can hold things.

That's arguable. While they would be able to grip/hold on to certain things, they're so tiny that the item's size would be quite limited. Gems, jewelry, sticks, bugs, mice, all of that is reasonable. A book, torch (if it was one made specifically for a halfling or smaller, maybe), or small child... Not at all.

[BenShums]

That's arguable. While they would be able to grip/hold on to certain things, they're so tiny that the item's size would be quite limited. Gems, jewelry, sticks, bugs, mice, all of that is reasonable. A book, torch (if it was one made specifically for a halfling or smaller, maybe), or small child... Not at all.

A regular (non-familiar) raven has a strength of 1 (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Raven), which allows it to carry up to three pounds without being encumbered (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Carrying_Capacity), wands only weigh about an ounce. A torch weighs 1 pound (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Adventuring_Gear) so it can carry a torch too. As far as books are concerned, it depends on how much the book weighs (a magazine for example is less than a pound)... of course I don't know what a raven would do with a book...

Also, familiar ravens are stronger, so I'm sure it can carry more than 3 pounds.

[ArcturusV]

Note that Encumbrance is also modified by Size, thus Small creatures carry less than Large. A raven is what... tiny if I remember? Which means by page 162, PHB, it's encumbrance is actually 1/2 what's listed. So 1.5 lbs.

But this isn't even a question of weight, it's size. Just like a Halfling can't use a Greatsword meant for a human (Size problem), a Raven wouldn't be able to use a Torch meant for a medium person (One handed item, so it's two handed for small, and Tiny couldn't use it).

[BWR]

10. a. Cast Light on a pebble, have raven carry it.

[BenShums]

#11. Employ it. Send the raven out everyday to search for coins and sellable items, have it drop them off at your home at the end of the day. Increase ranks in search and appraise to increase the value of what it finds. Also, move silently and hide would be good if you allow it to steal items and it has to be stealthy. Or would it be better to put skill points in Profession (thief)?

[ArcturusV]

Remember that Familiars are still animals and "See the world in a different way", as is usually mentioned in the Empathic Link and thus why they're not perfect scouts. "I see many" "How many are many?" "Many." *goes to look* "It's three." "MANY!"

So it'd probably bring you a lot of stuff like Straw, partially wilted lettuce, etc. Magpies though steal valuables.

[BenShums]

Remember that Familiars are still animals and "See the world in a different way", as is usually mentioned in the Empathic Link and thus why they're not perfect scouts. "I see many" "How many are many?" "Many." *goes to look* "It's three." "MANY!"

So it'd probably bring you a lot of stuff like Straw, partially wilted lettuce, etc. Magpies though steal valuables.

Or put some of your skill points in knowledge of human valuables, which then transfers over to the raven?

I can see how the skill point investment might not be worth the rewards.

[Nettlekid]

Remember that Familiars are still animals and "See the world in a different way", as is usually mentioned in the Empathic Link and thus why they're not perfect scouts. "I see many" "How many are many?" "Many." *goes to look* "It's three." "MANY!"

So it'd probably bring you a lot of stuff like Straw, partially wilted lettuce, etc. Magpies though steal valuables.

Eh, I'm not too sure about that. Because technically Familiars are Magical Beasts, not Animals, and their Int puts them in the range of a dim but not dysfunctional human. They can think and more importantly they can reason, and they're more than capable of understanding ideas and concepts explained to them by their master.

[BenShums]

Arcturus, I just realized what you meant with that post about the raven and sizes. Smart.

[BenShums]

#12. Scout. This one's pretty obvious, but since it's flying, you can have it scout ahead and then come back and tell you what it saw. This might be especially useful if you need to search through a lot of territory (e.g. the nearest place to cross a river, the best pathway over a mountain, or the closest city) since the raven can see from so high up.

[BenShums]

#13. Have the raven send and receive mail from far-off places.

[Nettlekid]

#12. Scout. This one's pretty obvious, but since it's flying, you can have it scout ahead and then come back and tell you what it saw. This might be especially useful if you need to search through a lot of territory (e.g. the nearest place to cross a river, the best pathway over a mountain, or the closest city) since the raven can see from so high up.


You'd probably be better off with Arcane Eye. Or Chain of Eyes on a regular bird (or at least Chain of Eyes on your raven so you can actually see things, not just get "feelings")


#13. Have the raven send and receive mail from far-off places.

There's the Sending spell for that. Or Teleport. Or Animal Messenger.

[BenShums]

#14. Double-Deal! "Sell" the raven to an enemy, then have the raven report back to you what it's "master" is planning. Encourage the raven to engage with its master in long conversations about his/her plans and opinions. You could even have the raven back-stab its "master" at a crucial moment. I suppose the raven would have to regularly succeed on bluff checks though. Would it get any bluff bonuses for not having human features to read off of (e.g. a face)?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Just a little FYI, Ben. If you come up with something you forgot to say when you hit "submit" to post, you can click "edit" on that post to change it or add to it.

[BenShums]

I now realize that since I'm so new to D&D, my "creative uses" aren't exactly brilliant... lol

[BenShums]

What do you guys think is the best choice for a level 1 familiar? Does the raven's ability to speak/fly/grasp and it's +3 to appraise outweigh familiars that can give you better skills (e.g. the bat's listen checks, or the snake's bluff checks)?

[ArcturusV]

It entirely depends. Ravens are popular as their ability to speak means that if you do have ranks in UMD they could use things like Scrolls and other Spell Items.

There are other familiars that seem popular. Imps are, which you can get through Improved Familiar, or by taking a level if Diabolist, etc. They're mostly popular for the same reason. They speak, they already come with Use Magic Device, and some useful SLAs.

I like some more stealthy animals myself. Snakes are decent for that, I prefer the Sea Snake familiar (From Stormwrack), swims, it's poison is a bit better, same bonuses to Bluff, same stealthy little bugger.

Snow Owl (From Frostburn) is also one I like. Stealthy, great Spot, flight, if you're in any sort of Frostfell terrain it will not only avoid raising Red Flags on scouting duty ("Oh, another Snow Owl, we see like 10 a night. No biggie."), it should have good survival instincts that can help warn you about dangers in that terrain.

If I'm burning a feat? Well, you can take Celestial Familiar and get a Lantern Archon as a familiar, which is better than a stick in the eye in my book. Plus, makes people think you're Superman. "Look, he MUST be on the side of the Angels, he's got a damned Archon sitting on his shoulder! Lets do whatever he tells us to!" :smallbiggrin:

[Kelb_Panthera]

Just a little FYI, Ben. If you come up with something you forgot to say when you hit "submit" to post, you can click "edit" on that post to change it or add to it.

I'm betting you missed this in your flurry of posts.

As for the other familiars; Raven is probably the best in the PHB. A hummingbird familiar (some issue of dragon) gives you a +4 to initiative though. That's a pretty nifty bonus, given how important the initiative game can be. There's also the octopus (stormwrack) which gives you a +4 to grapples if you plan on gishing as a grappler.

The piddly little skill bonuses are a waste of time though. You might consider one of the save-boosting familiars if you're particularly concerned with failing saves but otherwise, yeah, raven all the way.

[BenShums]

Anymore ideas?

[The Viscount]

#15. Send the raven to the houses of sad, lonely men (http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html).

[ahenobarbi]

Cast Menmonic Enchancer. Have it affect your familiar (not you). Now your familiar can casts spells (just without somatic components - find some or use Still Spell).

EDIT: I forgot to give credit. Idea from awesome handbook that almost made me keep my familiar (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html) by Dictum Mortuum.

[Ruethgar]

I had a flying skull character once with a raven familiar. He taught it Abyssal and used the Spells and Spellcraft rules to make it small so he could ride it. His entrance into any town was to land in the square and float around his raven as it said a poem about fluffy bunnies and sunshine in the demonic tongue. That was hilarious.

[Hamste]

16. Give your raven familiar some oil and have it drop it on your enemies. Then use a fire arrow to burn those enemies to a crisp.

17. Make bluff checks with it to convince dumber enemies that your raven is actually a god and that they should pray to it.

[Venger]

18. Use your raven (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/That's_So_RavenSoundtrack.jpg/220px-That's_So_RavenSoundtrack.jpg) to predict the future

[BenShums]

Two more left!

[Maginomicon]

But this isn't even a question of weight, it's size. Just like a Halfling can't use a Greatsword meant for a human (Size problem), a Raven wouldn't be able to use a Torch meant for a medium person (One handed item, so it's two handed for small, and Tiny couldn't use it).Too easy.

It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.

[tiercel]

Too easy.

It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.

Unless it's an African raven maybe. Sure, they're NORMALLY non-migratory, but this is a PC's familiar we are talking about :P :P

(To be fair, ravens are getting to the high end of "Tiny" size -- the Common Raven averages just over 2 feet in length and 2.5lbs in weight. They're pretty big birds, especially for non-raptors.)
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#20. Refluff the raven as a "parrot." Wear an eyepatch (magical, if you like). Teach your familiar to swear like a sailor (or, for more PG games, teach it to swear creatively without actual profanity, or just spout nautical gibberish, you know, whatever).

Heck, it's a pity about the size penalty to Intimidate (and ravens' low Cha) because it would be awesome to make folks cower before your smack-talking parrot/raven. (Plus, you know, tag-teaming fear-stacking. Ah well, more properly the province of Improved Familiar.)

Alternatively, give your parrot an outrageous accent ("Polly wanna cracker? --I say, old chap, a spot of biscuit would tickle the palate winsomely." or "Off COS ah ham a Franch parrot, why do you zeenk I haf zis OUTRAGEOUS accent, seely keeng?") Forget about your familiar making any Diplomacy rolls ;)

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As for UMD, I don't see why you couldn't just have a wand custom-made in Tiny size. Having your raven flitting around healing party members (especially if negative hp), spamming obscuring mist, low level buff spells, etc can be really useful. (Many attack spells don't lend themselves well to wands and you probably don't want bad guys deciding to just shoot the dang bird out of the sky anyhow because it has elevated its threat profile.)

Note that a wand of open/close might be really freaking useful for a bird nosing around on its own, given it would likely otherwise have problems opening windows and doors. Similarly, mage hand might help with grabbing objects. Dancing lights could be used to "send up a flare" / mark a target area / illuminate foes, all of which are useful but maybe not really worth your own standard action.

Scrolls seem a little more problematic for an avian form to manipulate if they haven't been refluffed as something other than literal rolled-up parchments.

[BenShums]

#20. Play natural, then surprise swoop

If you're in the forest, have the raven stay close to you by around 30 feet, and have it act as if it's a regular raven. When enemies attack, they may see the raven as just a regular indiginous bird, and think nothing about attacking it. Have the raven delay its turn until you say: "Attack Now!", at which point the raven will come in at a clinching moment (e.g. right before an enemy is down to 1 hitpoint and about to take a turn).


We made it to 20!

[BenShums]

So to recap!

Funny / amusing
1. Teach it to say funny things, or speak amusingly, e.g. make it swear often, or smack-talk, or have an outragious accent.
2. Use their ability to speak Common to torment people with ranks in Perform: Poetry.
3. Send the raven to an area to Haunt someone, like the raven did in "The Raven" http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html
4. Everyday you're not using the raven, send it out to search for valuable items... see what it brings back! (since they see the world differently, they'll probably bring back oddball things like yarn, lettuce, etcetera. If your DM thinks the raven is smart enough, he may bring back a coin or too! :P)
5. With the raven (Raven!), you must now find a robin (Robin!), a shapeshifter (any/all animals) (Beast boy!), a partially mechanical animal (Cyborg!), and a Phoenix that's fire is as hot as a star (Starfire!). Bring them all together and form the Teen Animal Titans!!


Roleplaying benefits
6. Send/receive mail to other characters
7. Have the raven search for birds carrying mail, and then tell it to steal the mail after the birds drop it off, or (dangerous) engage the bird in combat mid-flight.
8. Cast invisibility on the raven, and use him to spy on enemies
9. Pretend to "Sell" the raven to an enemy, then have the raven report back what it's "master" is planning to do, and who he's communicating with. You can even alter the "master's" letters that the raven is supposed to send to other enemies.
10. Glibness (a level 3 spell) + Share Spells = +30 to your Raven's bluff (perhaps have it convince enemies that it's a God)

Battle benefits
11. Give it ranks in use magic device, and then a tiny size wand (Having your raven flitting around healing party members (especially if negative hp), spamming obscuring mist, low level buff spells, etc)
12. Use magic device rankes + a tiny size torch
13. Give it "ring of storing", store some of your magics in that ring, have the raven activate it during battle as you see fit
14. Give your raven familiar some oil and have it drop it on your enemies. Then use a fire arrow to burn those enemies to a crisp.

Both ropeplaying and battle advantages
15. Give it flight instructions and switch places with it with benign transposition from level 1 (good if you need to escape a battle position (e.g. low health so no you need to run from the bad guys) or a role-playing situation quickly)
16. Use Polymorph + Shapechange + Share Spells with the raven and change into each other. No one will suspect "your familiar" as being the ferociously powerful spellcaster.
17. Scout ahead looking for enemies, terrain, etc.



I know it's only 17 uses, but I removed the ones which are unfeasable. Anyway, you can come up with 3 more if you want to, otherwise I'd call this thread a SUCCESS!

[Samalpetey]

#15. Send the raven to the houses of sad, lonely men (http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html).

"Quoth the raven "How yah doin'?""

[The Viscount]

"Quoth the raven "How yah doin'?""

"No, no, no! It's 'How you doin'?'"http://www.livesinabox.com/friends/joey/1FRNag98.jpg

As for refluffing as a parrot, stormwrack had the same idea, oddly enough.

#18. Cast mirror image on your raven, reenact The Birds.

#19. As seen in this very thread, attempt to pick up items, make Monty Python references.

#20. Cast animal growth and paint it, pretend it is that rainbow raven. I forget this monster's real name. Anyone have an idea?

[NeoPhoenix0]

#20. Cast animal growth and paint it, pretend it is that rainbow raven. I forget this monster's real name. Anyone have an idea?


A familiar is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a sorcerer or wizard. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was, but it is treated as a magical beast instead of an animal for the purpose of any effect that depends on its type. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An animal companion cannot also function as a familiar.


Level: Drd 5, Rgr 4, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets: Up to one animal (Gargantuan or smaller) per two levels, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: YesSorry this is not a legitimate way to get a big familiar.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Sorry this is not a legitimate way to get a big familiar.

Familiars have the "augmented" subtype, which allows it to continue to be affected by spells and effects targetting its orignal type. Animal growth still works.

[Chronos]

The familiar rules specifically say that they aren't treated as animals for purposes of anything that cares about type.

You can, however, cast Enlarge Person on your own familiar (provided that you're a humanoid), due to the way that Share Spells circumvents creature type requirements.

[BenShums]

Can Raven's read, or at least can you teach a raven to read scrolls?

[ArcturusV]

Well, familiars have all skill ranks that a Master has. And Languages are a skill that allows one to speak and read it. So there's probably a patchwork basis for that there.

Edit: At the very least you could Share Spell Read Magic to do it.

[TuggyNE]

Use their ability to speak Common to torment people with ranks in Perform: Poetry.

+1 literatures to you. (Although wouldn't it be … hmm. That doesn't seem right, somehow, since you're not performing it when you're just writing it down.)

Also, make sure you scribe all your familiar-use scrolls with the appropriate command word.


#15. Send the raven to the houses of sad, lonely men (http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html).

Totally ninja'd by the second post in the thread.

[BenShums]

Raven Halter:
- Buy half-a-dozen of the scroll "Command" (costs 50gp)
- Take a few ranks in language to learn the word "halt" in 20 different languages (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/SRD:Speak_Language_Skills), and take a few ranks in UMD (for your raven)
- At the start of battle, drop a few scrolls on the ground, have the raven wait and look harmless during battle so that enemies won't target him, have him delay his turn until you yell "halt!" in the language of your choosing, while pointing at an enemy, then the raven will read a scroll and yell the halt command in the enemy's language.
- You can keep having the raven halt enemies during its turn, however given its low hp, it might be better to have your raven "run" away from battle now that the enemies know it's hostile.

One of the best things about "command" is that it requires no saving throw.

It's a nice cheap trick for denying an enemy(s) it's turn, especially in a clinch moment.

You can do this with other halt commands to, e.g. Flee or Fall.

It's also useful if you need to run from the enemy.

[BenShums]

At early levels, especially by comparison to other familiars, ravens OWN! :smallredface:

[killem2]

As far as the raven holding things, a wand is just a stick that is magical.

Ravens need nests too. Nests can be made out of sticks.

Now, get this logical crap out of my D&D and bring back RAW :P


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Un_nid_de_corbeau.JPG/800px-Un_nid_de_corbeau.JPG

[Deophaun]

BenShums: The wand is a (held) item. Your DM would be perfectly within his bounds saying that your raven familiar can't use one.

True. However, if you are crafting the wands, and you also have Craft Wondrous Item, then your wand doesn't have to be a wand...

[Razanir]

25) Send it into internet forums and make posts that skip numbers or include 10a, so people don't realize they already had 24 ideas :smallamused:

[Rubik]

Can Raven's read, or at least can you teach a raven to read scrolls?Can a raven's what read?

Also, take a cylinder, box, or cone made of some hardy material such as wood or metal, which is large enough for you to stand in comfortably, and cast Shrink Item on it. Wear it as a hat. Not only will it protect you from AMFs by unshrinking when exposed to them and blocking the emanation, your familiar can ready an action to call out the command word any time something bad would happen to you. (Yay tinfoil hats and full cover!)

[BenShums]

With the Raven-wand trick, the question is: is it worth investing that many skill points into UMD?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/RavenRavens have a charisma of 6, giving them a -2 modifer. The highest of any skill you can get is your current level +3. Importantly, your raven has to beat a 20 in order to succeed in the spell. Hence, you have to get to level 9 (gaining a +10 UMD advantage (9+3-2= 10)) before the raven has a 50% chance of using the wand correctly each round. By that point, you could have picked up a feat in Improved Familiar, chosen one with a much higher charisma, and had that equip the wand instead. Your improved familiar would probably be able to hold its own in battle as well.

Are there any workarounds to this for low level characters, or is the raven-wand trick nothing more than a fun little quirk?

*sigh* I'm such a noob

[BenShums]

What's the umd required for a ring of spell storing?

[TuggyNE]

What's the umd required for a ring of spell storing?

None is required; anyone can use such a ring with no check at all.

[BenShums]

I guess that's my strategy then... thanks for talking this through with me guys.

[BenShums]

Nevermind, cost is too high >.<


Maybe I'll have a raven just for the fun of it...

[Rubik]

Nevermind, cost is too high >.<


Maybe I'll have a raven just for the fun of it...How about +1 arrows of spell storing? They're 1/50 the cost of a weapon of spell storing. They can also be used as melee weapons, if you want.

And feel free to use the "edit" button instead of posting multiple times.

I believe this has been mentioned at least twice...

[BenShums]

So suppose you're traveling along a road, and you want your raven to scout. Scouting ahead is dangerous because it doesn't have very much hitpoints. If the raven flies high into the air (say, 180 feet), would this increase it's vision? It'd be cool to use a raven to spot oncoming enemies before they come near, but how do the rules cover this?

[Hamste]

If I remember correctly it would usually allow a better line of sight but you get a penalty on the spot check for certain distances away.

[ArcturusV]

Though depending on who you ask, the Spot only applies if the people you're trying to see are Hiding. Generally speaking that is probably not going to be the case. People don't hide when they don't expect anything to spot them. Part of the problem is how you're going to Scout. If you use the raven on short range Recon, it can use it's ability to speak Common to relay information to you that might be fairly accurate. But the problem is almost anything it spots and scouts out is also in range to see you, and react to the Warning Cry. Or the raven flies closer to whisper to you and gives away your position that way.

Or you can use longer range (Almost a mile) scouting with the Empathic Link. The only problem you might have with that is that your scout is still a bird, sending mere 'sensations" at you through the link. And the differences in species and perception generally means you won't have an accurate report.

In most instances I'd support the longer range scouting. It can be used for wayfinding in general, as you can give it an order to say... find water. It can find water for you. And with it's eye in the sky vantage might find springs/brooks that you'd otherwise miss. It can give you rough tabs, "People!" but you're probably not going to have an easy time with your bird telling you numbers, weapons, spellcasting, species, etc, etc, etc. Least over an Empathic Link.

But having that wide range eye in the sky spotting everything in 3.14 square miles is pretty handy in general.

I'd never send a raven in a "recon in force" mission without a better plan on the table. So none of that "Go fly into that room that is probably filled with armed and hungry gnolls" that you sometimes see. That's just begging for a dead familiar.

[Maginomicon]

But the problem is almost anything it spots and scouts out is also in range to see you, and react to the Warning Cry. Or the raven flies closer to whisper to you and gives away your position that way....except that from so far away, there's no way anyone that sees it that doesn't already know that you're using a raven to scout has reason to suspect that it's a magical beast, much less a scout. So far as a warning cry, you seeing it fly back to you is a silent (albeit slightly less effective) way to handle warning you. There's a reason the expression "as the crow flies" is so useful.


I'd never send a raven in a "recon in force" mission without a better plan on the table. So none of that "Go fly into that room that is probably filled with armed and hungry gnolls" that you sometimes see. That's just begging for a dead familiar.Admittedly, a raven scouting in a dungeon doesn't do too well there. However, you could use a swarm familiar to get under the door or even just a rat familiar and those wouldn't draw anywhere near as much suspicion as a raven (although they won't be able to speak).

[TuggyNE]

...except that from so far away, there's no way anyone that sees it that doesn't already know that you're using a raven to scout has reason to suspect that it's a magical beast, much less a scout. So far as a warning cry, you seeing it fly back to you is a silent (albeit slightly less effective) way to handle warning you. There's a reason the expression "as the crow flies" is so useful.

Even better is probably to use some sort of telepathy. I think there's a feat or ACF somewhere that enables it for specifically familiars, or just permanency a Rary's telepathic bond or whatever.

[Flickerdart]

Hit your raven with invisibility or something if you're worried about him being seen. The earliest you can do it is at level 3, for a 3-minute duration. The raven flies at 40 feet per round, assuming that we don't want to have him make too much noise he'll be flying at half speed but taking double moves, so that cancels out. In 3 minutes he can cover 1200 feet, halve that because he needs to get back.
The raven has a spot modifier of +7, meaning that it has no problem seeing things at least 170 feet away (let's assume that if your spot against something is negative, you can't see them even if they're not hiding, because it's difficult to make out separate shapes at a large distance). Thus, we get a rectangle of 600x170 feet, which is 1 hectare or 2.34 acres. Not bad scouting for a single spell.

[Elderand]

Hey, here's one. Raven make for good emergency rations if needed.

[Maginomicon]

In 3 minutes he can cover 1200 feet, halve that because he needs to get back.You don't even need to half it if he just doesn't need to be seen while he's scouting forward. Once he's well on his way back to you the invisibility won't matter a whole lot.

[Flickerdart]

Hey, here's one. Raven make for good emergency rations if needed.
You're better off using the raven to take 10 on Survival checks. Due to its high Wisdom it can feed itself and one other person while moving at half speed (which is 20 feet, or full speed for the party's armoured folks).


You don't even need to half it if he just doesn't need to be seen flying away from you. Once he's well on his way back to you the invisibility won't matter a whole lot.
Yeah but what if you're scouting over the land of paranoid raven-eating SAM battery tribes?

[TuggyNE]

You're better off using the raven to take 10 on Survival checks. Due to its high Wisdom it can feed itself and one other person while moving at half speed (which is 20 feet, or full speed for the party's armoured folks).

More to the point, who sacrifices a large chunk of XP for a single meal? Talk about Wisdom as a dump stat!


Yeah but what if you're scouting over the land of paranoid raven-eating SAM battery tribes?

I LOL'd.

[glissle]

Regarding holding wands, I've seen a real-life raven break a wand-sized branch off a tree. (It then attempted to drop it on another raven, just for the lulz, apparently.)

[TuggyNE]

Regarding holding wands, I've seen a real-life raven break a wand-sized branch off a tree. (It then attempted to drop it on another raven, just for the lulz, apparently.)

The other raven had cut it off in traffic.

[Venger]

The other raven had cut it off in traffic.

is...

...is that an "Oedipus Rex" joke?

awesome.



Yeah but what if you're scouting over the land of paranoid raven-eating SAM battery tribes?

can someone explain this one? I feel like I'm missing something

[Maginomicon]

can someone explain this one? I feel like I'm missing something"SAM" battery = Surface to Air Missile battery

[Brapps86]

I have come up with an idea that my DM has reluctantly approved as he cannot find an argument against it. My raven is now a stealth bomber when I cast invisibility that is :).

I am using Shrink item spell to shrink things like a boulder, tree, blazing tree log etc. I prepare these items by using my spell slots for the day when we are back at the town or resting up, I then use my raven familiar to drop these items on the enemies below. He is working out damage by looking at weapons (tree = club, boulder = hammer) and size categories and applies splash damage to certain objects. My dm ignores the distance it falls when working out damage but they remain on the battlefield and create additional obstacles/ rough terrain etc. My dm said that if I am to used shrunken items then I cannot use wands which i personally think make the familiar OP so I am happy with that

I used this for the first time last night to great effect. I have 4 shrunken items in my handy haversack and use a tree for the first time. it did 2 d8 damage with an area effect of 10ft radius and with half splash damage

Anyone think of a reason why this may not be allowed?