[3.5] Hiding/Moving Silently while having a pet/familiar/psicrystal

[Kryx]

We've had a question come up recently in a session. If a player is sneaking(Hiding+Moving Silently) and has any kind of creature on him must that creature also make Hide/Move Silent checks?

Possible circumstances to consider:

A player with his own familiar/psicrystal
A player with an allies familiar/psicrystal
A player with a pet (For instance mouse, bird, slug, etc - some make noises, some don't)


If the creature must also make Hide/Move Silent checks then the first circumstance isn't too bad as the creature receives your hide/move silently ranks, but in the other cases it's pretty illogical imo.

Any RAW/RAI opinions are welcomed.

[RogueDM]

From my perspective as a DM I would generally -not- require separate rolls for familiars or psicrystals. Basically tiny critters aren't worth the extra number crunching. Anything small or larger definitely stands a significant chance of drawing attention and requires its own roll.

However, if the familiar (etc) is more than 5' from its associated character, or otherwise functioning under potentially different circumstances I'd want a roll regardless of size.

Another factor to take into consideration is the critter's obedience. A familiar or animal companion is unusually intelligent or well trained, but a standard pet... say your pet toad, Croaky. Croaky is a hopping liability since you never took any time to train him to shut up when you're trying to strangle halflings. That I would take as a special circumstance that someone has opted to take on the extra danger of an uncooperative companion.

No Rules-As-Anything to back this up, just my judgement call as a DM.

[Jeff the Green]

I'd say it depends. I have a character right now with a cat familiar he keeps in his pocket most of the time. When he's there, he doesn't need his own H/MS rolls. If he's sneaking on his own, he does.

[A.A.King]

I would say it depends on two things

1) The Intelligence/Training of the Creature
2) Is the creature using his own movement speed?

If the creature is smart enough / trained enough to shut up and is using you as "mount" (e.g. on your shoulder) or if you put him in a bad/pocket then nothing should happen
If he isn't capable of shutting but is in your bag/pocket or on your shoulder then maybe a -2 penalty to both hide and move silently (he's effectively aiding the other people with finding you)
If he is flying/walking by himself, then he should get his own role/

(Pure speculation though)

[Kryx]

If the creature is walking on it's own it's pretty clear it needs to make its own checks.

The specific situation that came up for us is the creature (in this case a psicrystal) being on a shoulder. It's not in a pocket for purposes of Sighted. The same situation could come up with a bird for instance.

[Segev]

As long as the tiny creature is not taking any actions of its own, I'd let it use the checks of the person upon whose shoulder it rides. If it is doing anything, it probably needs a hide check or a move silently check to avoid calling attention to itself. Do recall size bonuses to these things.

[Leviting]

Well, as far as I know, psicrystals don't even breath. I'm not sure how they could make any sufficiently notable amount of sound.