A wizard’s familiar, questions and speculation about teaching a toad to sing and danc

[AWM]

I’m playing an Elven wizard (level 3) who has chosen a Toad for his familiar. Recently while in a tavern my wizard used a spell (pres) to place a crown and fake mustache on his toad. Which reminded the players at the table of the old Warner Brothers cartoon with the singing and dancing frog. I believe it is now my life quest to bring singing and dancing frogs (or toads) into the D&D universe.

My quandary, how do I go about this?


What I’m thinking so far.

I could easily use pres to levitate my toad, and ghost sound to make him sing.

BUT

Is there any chance to train my toad though a handle animal check?
Handle animal covers some information concerning training with a druid or ranger animal companion, but nothing with familiars. Do I assume that my toads Int (6 or 7, which is almost a match for the party’s fighter) means he is smart enough to learn tricks without the need for a handle animal check?
*Note to self compare fighter's Int to toads in game*

My goal is a Toad able to make a performance (song & dance) check, and perhaps become a celebrity success story.

Suggestions on how to go about this?



-awm

[Eldaran]

Well, Handle Animal doesn't work if they have an intelligence over 2. The problem with getting the toad to perform is that he doesn't have any ranks in it, and it's trained only. And since he's a familiar he won't be gaining any hit die to get skill points to train it. You're probably better off hitting a bard with baleful polymorph and charm monster or something.

[Keld Denar]

Well, technically, your familiar has all of the same ranks in the skills you have as well. Thus, if you invest in Perform: Song&DanceRoutine, your familiar would ALSO have the ranks in it. He would make it with his own CHA bonus.

Note, he can't speak, so he would make croaking noises that resemble song?

[Burley]

Well, Good news and Bad news.
Good news: By RAW, for any skill the familiar or master has ranks in, you may use the higher, and use the base animal's modifier.
Bad news: By RAW, some skills may remain beyond the familiar’s ability to use.
I grew up catching toads and frogs, and then can kick, but not in the... uh... Dancy manner.

However! Familiars dancing is a great idea, and I intend to have a dancing-chirping weasel next time I have one.

[LibraryOgre]

Well, if you take Perform skills, your toad also has them. You can't train it via Handle Animal (IMO), because being your familiar makes it too smart.

Now, singing is going to be a bit difficult... it can't technically sing. However, if you make a magic item which does Ghost Sound, it could manipulate that to seem to be singing; one with Mage Hand or Prestidigitation could make it seem to dance (by levitating it enough to stand upright). Alternatively, you could cast Alter Self for it, and it could turn into a humanoid (shaped) toad of tiny size.

[Seffbasilisk]

Permanencied 'Ghost Sound' set to trigger when he makes a specific croak? Perhaps when he starts dancing, he sings the same song...over and over and over again....

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Awaken. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/awaken.htm) Won't work on a Familiar, but on a wild toad is perfectly reasonable, and will make him into an excellent Bard. One of the things it gets through Int is a language or 2.

[AWM]

Well, technically, your familiar has all of the same ranks in the skills you have as well. Thus, if you invest in Perform: Song&DanceRoutine, your familiar would ALSO have the ranks in it.

Note, he can't speak, so he would make croaking noises that resemble song?


Both very good points, I'll be sure to dump some skills into perform next level (prob just 2). What do you think about homebrewing a spell that allows the toad to speak, as if it were a raven. What level spell would that be?

"Alternatively, you could cast Alter Self for it, and it could turn into a humanoid (shaped) toad of tiny size."
Great idea!




-awm
-awm

[only1doug]

Permanencied 'Ghost Sound' set to trigger when he makes a specific croak? Perhaps when he starts dancing, he sings the same song...over and over and over again....

Permanency Tongues; now it can speak (and understand) any one language (chosen when tongues is cast)

requires L11 wizard to cast permanence (5th level spell), xp cost 1500

[Randel]

Speak with Master.

at 5th level a familiar gets the ability to communicate with its master verbally but other creatures can't understand it.

So I suppose you could take ranks in perform(song and dance) and have your familiar use your ranks in that skill to dance. It would sing to you, but I guess only in a sort of frog croaking which you could understand as a song.

You could hear its awsome singing voice (or as awsome as you yourself would be since it using your skill modifiers) but if you try to show it to other people they would just hear it croaking or something. But considering that the dancing frog short had the frog only able to perform for its owner, I guess it fits just fine. You try showing your friends and they just think you're loony. Set up a concert and people throw rotten vegetables at you.

Of course, you might be better off getting a spell or item that lets it speak common. Or invest in a perform(insturment) spell so it could play the piano.

Heh, have a bard and take the obtain familiar feat, then give your familiar a Lyre of Building. Give it some picks to pluck the strings and set it loose on the world.

[tokonaut]

Have a bard throw his voice while the frog/toad dances all you need then is a hat and cane and a little purple bow tie.

[Roderick_BR]

After you get it done, teach it to sing and dance only when there's a single person looking. When anyone else looks, he stops.