need to get rid of famliar or make him friendly

[kpumphre]

So my dm is playing my familiar as kind of hostile and rude.

So I don't want to lose xp to getting rid of it, also then I'm out of the familiar.

Any way to force it to be more friendly? or ideas? With out something specific my dm will play any of them the same way.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Tell your DM to stop twisting an aspect of your character in a direction you don't like? Ask to control it yourself?

[kpumphre]

Wont work, just his personality its more upity. Rest of the group finds it funny, like I asked it to check out a village and it tried to take a dump on me. It's a Hawk.

He is not hostile so much as just rude. Not really fun for me to have him.

[Morcleon]

Doesn't matter that the rest of the group enjoys it. If you don't, ask your DM to stop.

Personally, I wouldn't even have gotten a familiar if I couldn't control it myself. :smalltongue:

[Honest Tiefling]

Tell the DM honestly he's being a jerk. What I would do is simply ignore what the DM says the familiar does and RP something else.

Or look into ways to replace him. Improved Familiar would, but you might end up with something ruder and more powerful. But perhaps RP that you are taking the feat so you can finally kill that twit and that you will not be satisfied until you get a familiar that isn't rude to you.

[Blackhawk748]

well if your in Ravenloft, dont know if your in an established setting, familiars are kinda like that. Honestly cast Charm Monster on it.

[kpumphre]

Personally, I wouldn't even have gotten a familiar if I couldn't control it myself. :smalltongue:

Yeah neither would I, I thought I would have control but we didn't specify. I'm just trying to make this work Yes If I say stop he will try but part of it is his personality and how his characters delt with my old character.

So any suggestions? any prestige class or something I can trade my familiar in. I'm level 6 just turned it so can take a class level in to something else.

[kpumphre]

Honestly cast Charm Monster on it.

That's a good idea But only level 6 wizard so I don't get it until level 7. Any ideas, or just hold out until next level

[Morcleon]

Yeah neither would I, I thought I would have control but we didn't specify. I'm just trying to make this work Yes If I say stop he will try but part of it is his personality and how his characters delt with my old character.

So any suggestions? any prestige class or something I can trade my familiar in. I'm level 6 just turned it so can take a class level in to something else.

If it's his personality, then tell him that the way he's playing your familiar isn't the way you envisioned, and take back control. And if "being hostile and rude" is his personality, why do you stay in the group? :smalleek:

As for mechanical solutions, you can always use the retraining rules in the PHB 2 to switch out your familiar for an ACF. Not sure if there are any PrCs that force familiar loss...

[kpumphre]

As for mechanical solutions, you can always use the retraining rules in the PHB 2 to switch out your familiar for an ACF. Not sure if there are any PrCs that force familiar loss...

I like the group more than the game master, But he took over for me so I got a chance to play. I like the game but I just find better to not play a talker against him. I had a d20+18 and it wasn't doing me any good with my last character. Now I have no talking skills cause they were a waste.

What is ACF?

[Blackhawk748]

well you get a spray bottle from a gnome, and every time its rude you spary it and hiss at it

Tries to crap on you

*spray spray spray*

*pssss* no thats a bad hawk!

[AstralFire]

Cast rope trick.

Put food or shiny bauble inside of rope trick.

Cast suggestion on yourself, and through yourself, the familiar: "I should stay in the next place my bonded, spellcasting master (to whom I am a familiar) tells me to get food and not come out for any reason, because that'll be funny."

Tell him to go inside the rope trick.

You are not a familiar, therefore, the suggestion does not apply to you. Familiar can't save against it, however, since you're extending the spell to him.

[hymer]

ACF: Alternative Class Feature.

I suggest next time it does something rude, you start crying right there at the table. Pretend you're trying to hide it, but just have it get worse. Then get up from the table and walk away, crying.
Or if you can't cry on demand, get on your knees and beg, and keep saying 'please don't do this to me' to the DM until he cuts out the crap. Get really into it, allow yourself to be upset and show how upset you are.

[Blackhawk748]

Cast rope trick.

Put food or shiny bauble inside of rope trick.

Cast suggestion on yourself, and through yourself, the familiar: "I should stay in the next place my bonded, spellcasting master (to whom I am a familiar) tells me to get food and not come out for any reason, because that'll be funny."

Tell him to go inside the rope trick.

You are not a familiar, therefore, the suggestion does not apply to you. Familiar can't save against it, however, since you're extending the spell to him.

this lol this is perfect, then just cast Charm Monster when you get it

[Rubik]

Suggestion: "I will be nicer to my bonded wizard."

Alternatively, warn the familiar to knock it off or bad things will happen to it. Give it a second warning ("I mean it!"). After the third, stuff it into an empty enveloping pit and toss the pit into a handy haversack with a pre-written note. The familiar doesn't die; instead it's trapped Elsewhere for eternity. The message written on the note? "I told you. Good riddance. You won't be missed." Or you could just stuff it in a haversack and jam a sword into it to send the familiar into the ether with no way to return.

You could also acquire a thought bottle and tell the little bastard that you don't care if you lose a level if it dies.

[kpumphre]

I suggest next time it does something rude, you start crying right there at the table. Pretend you're trying to hide it, but just have it get worse. Then get up from the table and walk away, crying.
Or if you can't cry on demand, get on your knees and beg, and keep saying 'please don't do this to me' to the DM until he cuts out the crap. Get really into it, allow yourself to be upset and show how upset you are.

Yeah no. Like I said it's more of an annoyance than anything else. I guess I'll look for some class features then. or I'll just take a few negative xp and dismiss it

[Blackhawk748]

do you actually lose xp if you dismiss it? i dont recall reading that

Yup just looked through it, i saw nothing about losing XP for voluntarily severing the link, and that makes sense as there is no shock as you know what your doing.

[prufock]

Familiar Pocket spell. Put it in there, never hear from it again. Tell it you'll only let it out if it behaves itself.

[MonochromeTiger]

Yeah no. Like I said it's more of an annoyance than anything else. I guess I'll look for some class features then. or I'll just take a few negative xp and dismiss it

if it's an annoyance and he's constantly doing it why accept "I have to handicap my character from something that should be simple" as the only solution? talk to the DM, tell him it's annoying you and that it's bad enough you actually asked us for a solution instead of just sitting through it. there's accepting a bit of ribbing from someone who took a spot you didn't want for you then there's sitting at a table being the quietly accepting target of jokes and insults that you clearly don't want.

and consider, simply getting rid of the familiar without getting him to agree to stop doesn't mean he will stop, it just means he has to find something else to do it with. replacing the familiar with a different one without getting him to agree to stop may just mean he does the same thing with a different familiar. the only way to be sure he will stop is to actively convince him to stop.

[kpumphre]

I'm doing it for the good of the group. Hell I'm playing a wizard for the group. I like playing with this group so I'm not going to quit. I"m just asking if their was a way to get a benefit for replacing the familiar or a way to force change the personality. The charm monster Idea will work, and I'm going through variants now.

I don't really feel like getting in to all the bull **** of dealing with the personality crap because I do have fun and it makes it more of a challenge to rp which I'm ok with because it makes me more creative.

If it gets to the point where I don't enjoy playing then I will deal with it. But for now I just want to handle stuff.

[Rubik]

I'm doing it for the good of the group. Hell I'm playing a wizard for the group. I like playing with this group so I'm not going to quit. I"m just asking if their was a way to get a benefit for replacing the familiar or a way to force change the personality. The charm monster Idea will work, and I'm going through variants now.

I don't really feel like getting in to all the bull **** of dealing with the personality crap because I do have fun and it makes it more of a challenge to rp which I'm ok with because it makes me more creative.

If it gets to the point where I don't enjoy playing then I will deal with it. But for now I just want to handle stuff.You could pay a psion with the Mind Seed and Soul Crystal powers to make you a Soul Crystal of Mind Seed, then wait until your familiar is asleep and Mind Seed it. Then it'll have your personality, and you'll be able to control it yourself.

[hymer]

@ OP: In that case, you can assemble some dog poop and keep it handy while you play, in a small plastic bag I usually prefer. Next time the DM does something like this, fling the poop at him while jeering.

That, as my former post, was mostly intended as comedy. :smallsmile: Sorry I wasn't clear. But seriously: Don't you think that responding will only make the DM more persistent? Find something else to bother you with? Well, i guess you can only find out by trying.

[Coidzor]

If the DM is being an immature little child about it and is incapable of discussing the issue like a reasonable facsimile of a mature adult, why are you playing with them?

[Crake]

Swap it out for the abrupt jaunt conjurer immediate magic ACF, best choice I ever made on my wizard.

[kpumphre]

Swap it out for the abrupt jaunt conjurer immediate magic ACF, best choice I ever made on my wizard.

I'm a generalist wizard Elf so I get the bonus spell

[Saidoro]

Cast charm person on yourself and use share spells to mirror it to your familiar. Or you could just strangle the thing. "This is sufficiently annoying that I am willing to lose 1000 exp and throw away the tactical benefit of having it just to have it gone" is a pretty hard message for your GM to ignore.

[kpumphre]

That will cause me to dip below the xp for 6th level. I think I should just dismiss it to save the xp.

[hymer]

In my PHB, you take the same dip if you dismiss it as you do if it dies.

[Rubik]

That will cause me to dip below the xp for 6th level. I think I should just dismiss it to save the xp.Make sure you smack it enough times with a paper-wrapped club to knock its hp down a bit. Beat it unconscious with subdual to show it just how much you really care. Then dismiss and roast it for dinner so there's no coming back.

It's not animal cruelty when it's a magical beast.

[Coidzor]

That will cause me to dip below the xp for 6th level. I think I should just dismiss it to save the xp.

Even better, you'll earn more XP for the next few encounters! :smallbiggrin:

Unless the DM decides to screw you more. :smallsigh:

Are you sure you haven't done anything outside of the game to create a vendetta? :smallconfused:

[hymer]

Make sure you smack it enough times with a paper-wrapped club to knock its hp down a bit.

What, stun it? It's not a Norwegian Blue, you know. They have beautiful plumage, and they stun easily.

[Kid Jake]

Personally if the thing kept giving me lip and there's no other way to reign it in I'd just kill the damned thing. Just look at it like crafting a single use wand of '**** You Hawk'.

[kpumphre]

Personally if the thing kept giving me lip and there's no other way to reign it in I'd just kill the damned thing. Just look at it like crafting a single use wand of '**** You Hawk'.

I'm Neutral good otherwise I would but I don't think that would quite work. Ah well i'll look in to familiar pocket

[Coidzor]

I'm Neutral good otherwise I would but I don't think that would quite work. Ah well i'll look in to familiar pocket

Good is not Doormat.

[kpumphre]

No but fireballing it, then eating it and taking a dump on it's corpse is

[Rubik]

No but fireballing it, then eating it and taking a dump on it's corpse isYou don't dump ON the corpse. You eat the meat and use the bones for wand-making materials.

At least then it'll be useful in the end.

[Kid Jake]

You could always beat it to 0 hp and leave it behind. After a good night's rest it'll be up and about but it should take a while to find you and might watch its beak.

[TuggyNE]

Stick it in a fridge, and tell it the frozen chicken was your last familiar. (Also tell it to ignore the parrot.)

[Gnome Alone]

I thought a familiar was supposed to be kind of partly the same creature as you? Like, animal friend soul-mates?

If it was an animal companion, sure, but I thought one was supposed to be ever so sort of in control of one's familiar.

[The Insanity]

It's a class feature. The player controls it. I would just ignore whatever the DM says the familiar does and run it myself. If that wouldn't work for some reason, I would just say to the DM "I don't want such a familiar, I take an ACF", then I would just change my character sheet.

[Totema]

Personally, I would favor the good old "Bag of Holding + Portable Hole" trick. It doesn't even die, so you don't take an xp penalty for casting it into oblivion.

[Helcack]

As everyone else is saying, you are supposed to control the familiar... A good way to stop it from being a **** to you is to tell it you will dismiss it, taking back that part of your personality or soul or whatever it's supposed to be. Personally, if someone threatened me with non-sentience I would do what they say.

[Morphie]

I think the main problem is not the familiar, it is the DM. You probably don't want to disrupt anything by telling him to stop, but you probably should, and if you do it in a respectful manner, maybe he'll understand and change his way. Drawing the line is a way to stop DMs from being bullies, and you shouldn't sit to play a game with your friends if you're not having fun.

Speaking of which, do your friends understand that you're not enjoying the DM's antics with your familiar?

[Segev]

kpumphre, you said that your DM has all his NPCs act this way towards your character? Does he have them do the same to the other players?

I know it's something you said only once in this thread, but it looks important.

Does he treat you this way in general? Does he single you out for it?

If he treats others differently, it's not "just his personality," but something he either feels like doing TO you, or thinks you're okay with and it's just this dynamic you have. In the latter case, correct him. Politely, but let him know it's bugging you. In the former case...you need to talk this out with him, and find out why he feels like bullying you.

If it is something he just does to everybody...talk to the other players. See what they think about it. It might be time for an intervention, because that kind of behavior will limit his social circle greatly.


If talking to him about it will result in him "trying" to play it differently, but he'd "relapse" or what-have-you, why would any mechanic that forced the animal to behave more respectfully not also result in a relapse?

If the DM is uncomfortable with you controlling your familiar for reasons beyond the DM wanting an excuse to pick on you(r character), ask if another player can control it. If this is impeding your fun, it needs to stop.