Familiars, strangluation and suffocation... can someone point me at some rules?

[Swaoeaeieu]

The game is 3.5, and i have a player (lvl 1 sorcerer, soon to be lvl 2) and he has beef with one of the other characters. The other person is the only evil person in the party of good guys.
The sorcerer's player told me (the DM) he might want to order his familliar, an octopus, to strangle the evil guy in his sleep.

Questions:

1) can a sorcer command his familliar to do such a thing? they are not trained animals, but are intelligent (to a degree). Does this work?
2) are there any rules for an ocotpus latching on to someones face and keep them from breething untill they die?


Help me playground, you are my only hope.

[Venger]

1) can a sorcer command his familliar to do such a thing? they are not trained animals, but are intelligent (to a degree). Does this work?
2) are there any rules for an ocotpus latching on to someones face and keep them from breething untill they die?


Help me playground, you are my only hope.

1) familiars are intelligent and can be communicated with by the caster normally. you don't need to handle them like a druid's AC, so you can just tell them what to do and they'll follow your orders.

2) not really. suffocation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#suffocation) rules are here.

there aren't really any rules for strangling enemies to death though, so that part wouldn't work.

[fishyfishyfishy]

This is very clearly an out of character problem and should be handled like that. Sit the problem player down and explain to them that their disruptive behavior is running the fun for other people and they need to tone it down. The player attempting to murder someone in their sleep should be informed that countering disruptive behavior with even more disruptive behavior is not the answer.

[Swaoeaeieu]

1) familiars are intelligent and can be communicated with by the caster normally. you don't need to handle them like a druid's AC, so you can just tell them what to do and they'll follow your orders.

2) not really. suffocation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#suffocation) rules are here.

there aren't really any rules for strangling enemies to death though, so that part wouldn't work.

Ok thanks. I think i will just make the octopus do grapplechecks and then use the suffocation rules. seems like a logical use of the rules to me.

Thanks for the answers!

[Elkad]

This is very clearly an out of character problem and should be handled like that. Sit the problem player down and explain to them that their disruptive behavior is running the fun for other people and they need to tone it down. The player attempting to murder someone in their sleep should be informed that countering disruptive behavior with even more disruptive behavior is not the answer.

Again with the no-PvP obsession. If characters want to murder one another, let them. He didn't say anything about a player conflict, just a character one.

[Khedrac]

Don't forget that the octopus will need to be holding its breath the entire time it is out of water...

[sideswipe]

Don't forget that the octopus will need to be holding its breath the entire time it is out of water...

can an octopus use a bottle of water like a bottle of air? :smallbiggrin:

[Daishain]

1) familiars are intelligent and can be communicated with by the caster normally. you don't need to handle them like a druid's AC, so you can just tell them what to do and they'll follow your orders.

Hold up a moment, he said a level 1 sorcerer.

Prior to level five, the master and familiar only have an empathic link capable of passing along general emotional content.

The only inherent means for a familiar to be able to understand spoken language prior to L5 is if you choose a raven.

Now, it IS both intelligent and loyal, so if you can somehow communicate your desire, it is capable of understanding and carrying it out. You would just need to use pantomime, sign language, or something else along those lines for anything more complex than "go hit that bastard with the spell I just gave you".

You should also be able to teach it to understand a language, but I'm not sure what the rules would be for that. It would also make sense for it to be able to pick up understanding of common as it goes along, but for a newly made familiar, not yet.

Do bear in mind that while it will get smarter later on, a L1 familiar is dumber than your average barbarian, with an Intelligence of 6.

[Venger]

Hold up a moment, he said a level 1 sorcerer.

Prior to level five, the master and familiar only have an empathic link capable of passing along general emotional content.

The only inherent means for a familiar to be able to understand spoken language prior to L5 is if you choose a raven.

you mean people pick things other than ravens?

oh yeah. I don't really play low levels that much.


Now, it IS both intelligent and loyal, so if you can somehow communicate your desire, it is capable of understanding and carrying it out. You would just need to use pantomime, sign language, or something else along those lines for anything more complex than "go hit that bastard with the spell I just gave you".

You should also be able to teach it to understand a language, but I'm not sure what the rules would be for that. It would also make sense for it to be able to pick up understanding of common as it goes along, but for a newly made familiar, not yet.

Do bear in mind that while it will get smarter later on, a L1 familiar is dumber than your average barbarian, with an Intelligence of 6.
just buy a pearl of speech. they're very inexpensive.

[torrasque666]

600 GP is not cheap for level 1.