Pseudodragon question

[ShadowFighter15]

The MM mentions that players can get these guys as familiars, but not the benefit they provide (like how a bat boosts the master's Listen skill). Anyone got ideas?

[RTGoodman]

Usually, with more powerful familiars (like those you get through the Improved Familiar feat[s]), you don't get a skill/save/whatever bonus; you just get the familiar and all of its (better) abilities. A Pseudodragon, for instance, has poison, spell resistance, blindsense, and telepathy right out of the box, and a bonus to Hide checks. Oh, and it already speaks and has Int 10, so no need to worry about a stupid familiar.

[arguskos]

They're Improved Familiars. Imp. Familiars don't give a benefit. See the Improved Familiar feat in the DMG for more information.

EDIT: Bloody ninja with an axe and one red eye...

[ShadowFighter15]

Thanks for that; I forgot about the Improved Familiar feat (probably because you can get a pseudodragon familiar right off the bat in NWN1, which I've been playing recently).

EDIT: I assume the requirement of only being able to choose an improved familiar to mean replacing one that died, for example?

[RTGoodman]

EDIT: I assume the requirement of only being able to choose an improved familiar to mean replacing one that died, for example?

Well, as far as I can tell by RAW, you'd either have to never summon a familiar in the first place until you acquired the feat (7th level for a Pseudodragon), or you'd have to eat the (rather severe) penalties for losing/dismissing a familiar first.

Familiar
[...]
If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the sorcerer, the sorcerer must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per sorcerer level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a sorcerer’s experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar’s demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs.

As a DM, though, I usually don't even worry about enforcing such penalties, especially if I had a player who wanted to just trade one out for another by spending a valuable feat on it. It'd be something to talk to your DM about personally, but I don't think it's an unbalancing houserule.

[Starscream]

As a DM, though, I usually don't even worry about enforcing such penalties, especially if I had a player who wanted to just trade one out for another by spending a valuable feat on it. It'd be something to talk to your DM about personally, but I don't think it's an unbalancing houserule.

Same here. It'd seem kind of mean of me to go out of my way to target someone's familiar when I know the consequences to the player.

And I tend to treat familiars sort of like Vaarsuvius does, by just pretending they aren't there when they are not doing anything. If the party gets hit by a fireball I'm not going to say "Make a reflex save to avoid damage, and another to avoid losing hundreds of xp for that class feature you probably forgot you have and which isn't involved in this fight at all."

[arguskos]

As a DM, though, I usually don't even worry about enforcing such penalties, especially if I had a player who wanted to just trade one out for another by spending a valuable feat on it. It'd be something to talk to your DM about personally, but I don't think it's an unbalancing houserule.

I personally offer flavor feats like Improved Familiar, Daylight Adaptation, and Spell Thematics for free to anyone who qualifies for them and wants them. ANYTHING to get some RP out of my damn group!

Oh, and it doesn't break the universe (or really, do much of anything at all).

[ShadowFighter15]

Does anyone have any experience with pseudodragon familiars or interesting stories involving them? I'm just wondering if it would be worth it for a caster to get himself a pseudodragon over the other familiar options.

I've only had one in Shadows of Undrentide; but the pseudodragon familiar my character in that has can technically claim credit for killing an ancient (or older, I can't remember) white dragon. Granted, I'd used an item to turn myself into a frost giant and had been wailing on the scaley bastard for a while with the greatsword it gave me, but little Gorinathrax got the final hit in with his breath weapon. Lucky bastard.

[arguskos]

Yeah, I had a pesudodragon familiar named... Fluffy. He typically was my spy when I was in town. I'd just cast Invisibility on him, and trust his climbing/hiding/sneaking skills to gather info on people/places/loosely-tied-down-objects for me. 'Twas great til that game ended.

[newbDM]

Wait, wasn't there a list telling what ability/skill boosts were given by improved familiars somewhere in the DMG?

Does anyone have any experience with pseudodragon familiars or interesting stories involving them? I'm just wondering if it would be worth it for a caster to get himself a pseudodragon over the other familiar options.

I've only had one in Shadows of Undrentide; but the pseudodragon familiar my character in that has can technically claim credit for killing an ancient (or older, I can't remember) white dragon. Granted, I'd used an item to turn myself into a frost giant and had been wailing on the scaley bastard for a while with the greatsword it gave me, but little Gorinathrax got the final hit in with his breath weapon. Lucky bastard.

Well, as much as I prefer psionics over magic familiars have always been the sole thing I envy from my sworn enemies them. You get all these incredibly cool creatures, which offer a wide range of role-playing potential, while we psions are essentially the kid with the pet rock.

Anyway, the point of that was that I have been wanting to have a pseudodragon familiar since I first the saw the creature in my MM since I first started D&D. From how I understand it, it is not going to be as much your pet as you are it's. I forgot where I read it, but no dragon would willing except the title of "pet", for they are to prideful and powerful to be diminished to such a level. No dragon except the pseudodragon that is.

They are as much a status symbol to the "owner"/caster who cares for it as a powerful ally, and it knows it. Magic users stand out from the common folk in an extremely big way, but having a dragon gladly let you stroke it's head as it lays in a comfy silk cushion on a pedestal in front of your wizardly throne/desk whiling acknowledging you when you call it "pet" makes a magic user stand out among other magic users.

This is why they are so fussy and demanding that they be so well cared for and babied. Because if this dumb wizard isn't willing to do it, she knows she can easily find a king or noble who would be willing to.

Plus, why work so hard gathering and protecting your own hoard, when these foolish mortals are happy to give you everything you want (or everything they can afford), and most likely have the means to protect your hoard along with their wealth quite well?

And along with all this, who doesn't love to be pampered and ogled over like you are the most amazing and adorable thing in an entire kingdom?


p.s. And I believe that your DM role-played little Gorinathrax quite well. Although they might grow attached to, or even care for their "master", their world (and by their lagic everyone else's0 focuses around them. For such a creature getting an even bigger ego is though, but being able to brag that it killed an ancient white dragon would do the trick. And as the owner, you better agree with it's story...

[ShadowFighter15]

Well, that certainly summed up their cat-like personality. I don't think pseudos would like to be called pets though; not directly at least. I think the saying about cats having servants instead of owners would also apply to pseudos.

[ShadowFighter15]

p.s. And I believe that your DM role-played little Gorinathrax quite well. Although they might grow attached to, or even care for their "master", their world (and by their lagic everyone else's0 focuses around them. For such a creature getting an even bigger ego is though, but being able to brag that it killed an ancient white dragon would do the trick. And as the owner, you better agree with it's story...

That was in the first Neverwinter Nights 1 expansion pack, Shadows of Undrentide. It was an AI controlled pseudodragon; he won't be bragging and there is no DM. Still, I may bring lil' Gor into a game over on Myth Weavers sometime in the future.

[newbDM]

Well, that certainly summed up their cat-like personality. I don't think pseudos would like to be called pets though; not directly at least. I think the saying about cats having servants instead of owners would also apply to pseudos.

Oooooh yes. Very, very true.

Then again, that only makes me wish I could have one IRL more. (I also have the same attraction to women it seems...)


Anyway, I think I now remember where that quote was from. It was in the Amrs & Equipment Guide's section on pets.

[BlueWizard]

2nd ed Imps were ridiculous for evil PCs.
Psuedodragons were a close second.

[RTGoodman]

Does anyone have any experience with pseudodragon familiars or interesting stories involving them? I'm just wondering if it would be worth it for a caster to get himself a pseudodragon over the other familiar options.

I've never seen one as a familiar for a PC, but I have seen one as an enemy/NPC in a game we played. We played an all-kobold campaign where we were trying to take over a hill/castle for a new warren, and two of the inhabitants happened to be a Gnome fire-based Sorcerer and an Advanced Pseudodragon.

The Gnome was several levels higher than us and was accompanied by several large bats (which will DESTROY a small-sized party in a high-EL encounter), but we didn't have that much difficulty with them (probably since, as a half-red dragon I was immune to fire ).

The problem was the encounter before that - the Pseudodragon had several extra HD added on, and this had a bunch of skill points and feats. Yeah, the DM happened to spend them all boosting Hide. Combined with their size (since that adds to Hide) and their racial +4 bonus, we had almost NO hope of seeing the thing. (I mean, as a standard out-of-the-book CR 1 creature, it has a whopping +20 to Hide - the best spot check you're gonna get is maybe +10 to +12, and that's with devoting EVERYTHING to Spot.) I was sure it had sorcerer levels to be invisible or something, but apparently not.