Familiars, Companions, and quest spawns

[Monster Within]

I didn't notice until just the other day how wildly familiars and animal companions seem to alter the spawns in some quests when they are summoned. Notably in "Machine Core 34AB" and "The Webbed Pits" the spawns become extremely difficult even in a lower level group. If possible, could familiars and companions count for less of their current value when the scripts decide what spawns?  Our quest group had both a familiar and a companion out for these quests, and the spawns were showing up as if everyone in the party were level 8 or so. (Hardest spawns I have seen on that quest)  When the companion died halfway through, we noticed the spawns got significantly more manageable. When the familiar died, the quest instantly turned from a little too brutal to decently balanced for our group.


To be more specific: The familiar on its own was apparently enough to trigger the ettercap trapper/hunter and dire spider spawns, none of these appeared after it died. With the familiar and companion out, we faced spawns with multiple dire spiders, ettercap hunters, and so on. This was extremely punishing for a three man group, as these are the kind of spawns you'd normally see with a full party.

It makes me feel kind of bad about having my familiar out for quests, because it drastically alters the spawns for the groups I am in, making things significantly harder for the sake of flavor. It would be really awesome if this was not the case, and it only adjusted the spawns slightly instead of significantly.





 

[Howlando]

This is kind of just how it works and has always worked. I believe they count as much as if you had another PC of the same HD. Undead also work the same way - in general I suspect this is probably a good thing as buffed up permanent NPC companions (whether ACs, custom familiars as you have, permanent summons of one sort or another) can be very strong in a quest situation.

This is generally why they're not used much for scripted quests but rather reserved for outside of the quest areas.

[Monster Within]

I don't know. I think it somehow counts for more. Especially on volts, I have noticed that having my familiar out caused volt chargers to spawn in groups of 3-4, even if my whole party are relatively low levels, and when there is only 2-3 of us. I ran Volts today without having my familiar out, with a large group of 6's and 7's, and there was never more than a single charger. It seems like the familiar definitely counts for more than just an additional PC of the same HD. I haven't done other quests enough with similar groups with/without the familiar to compare.

Edit: I mean, especially in the case of certain companions or things like that which can be strong, considering them another full member is absolutely fair. Because like you said, permanent npc buddies can be super useful when buffed.  But at the moment, they seem to count for more, and it makes quests that much more punishing than having a real person  for no real reason.

[Howlando]

It's possible they count for more.

We use the standard Bioware Encounter system for quest monsters. It should be easy enough to test on a local module. If you want to figure out how it works in terms of familiars/summons, feel free and let me know the results.