OOC Courtesy Reminder: Familiars

[Aethereal]

This is a case of prevention is greater than cure. Though I have certainly experienced the negative side of this in the past.

Your PC might be an uneducated, trash-for-brains bogan or they might just hate the creature type, but you as a player must show some courtesy to a mage's familiar, if you intend to attack it and it is neutral, in the place of being unable to readily set it hostile, you should make threatening emotes and confirm that the player controlling the familiar is aware of the potential for the familiar being attacked.

Also keep in mind that game mechanics can be a limitation, if a familiar is right next to someone, it might in fact be perched upon their shoulder or it could be flying out of melee ranged if it is airborne and other such things. Of course the PC controlling it can and should emote such limitations as well, but again this relies on someone not charging the thing to death immediately on sight.

Losing a familiar incurs XP loss, it represents a very significant agony inflicted upon the mage who it was bound and attacking it constitutes PvP to which standard rules apply.

Please keep this in mind when you interact with those fuzzy/feathered/furry/slimy little critters.

Thank you.

[HoHoHeeHee]

Also keep in mind that game mechanics can be a limitation, if a familiar is right next to someone, it might in fact be perched upon their shoulder or it could be flying out of melee ranged if it is airborne and other such things.

Pretty sure it requires a DM to overcome mechanics, and not your RP of a bird flying above. Just FYI! However, attacking a familiar does require a dm I think, in accordance with the other rules that require one at least

[Hound Dog]

I would assume you'd need a DM in an NPC area in order to attack a familiar; but I'd also assume things like Imps and Quasits/Mephits etc require a DM to be out and about in an NPC area as well.

[Aethereal]

Right, evil familiar types and the more exotic variants DO require a DM present in NPC populated areas, it is stipulated in the rules I'm fairly sure.

[Jasede]

Ah, the good old "It's a chicken! An ~evil~ chicken! KILL IT!" spiel finds another victim.

[The Old Hack]

Maybe it was Terry Goodkind's Chicken of Ultimate Evil.

Or maybe...

[SanTelmo]

Attacking a Familiar does not generally require following the normal PVP rules. The only exception to this is when someone is being followed by an animal type familiar inside village, near NPCs. Then it is considered an attack upon that persons property. Might be wise to send /c pvp otherwise too when the owner of the familiar is nearby in case it turns into a further battle.

When familiars are possessed and away from their masters, they are all fair game - anywhere and everywhere. Naturally it is expected that you play your character when dealing with them and not simply kill them for causing the harm of xp loss to the owner, however you should neither feel bad for swinging at them if they come too close to you.

Normally animals avoid humans and if some oddball rat/bat/snake/raven creeps about you, probably most feel uneasy even if not outright threathened by their presence. It is the responsibility of the owner to set others hostile when he goes spying with his familiar as others can't set them hostile so easily, for not knowing whose familiar it is. But setting others hostile is not required for familiars (unless you are specifically seeking to initiate PvP with it, in which case you -DO- require a DM present in populated areas to initiate attack) -- all it basically causes is that the familiar gains a slight advantage in the coming "fight" because of AoO and summons not reacting properly but unless you are Isidore Olmos' brother, I expect you to win a duel against a familiar.

Using the familiar is always a risk and it is intended so. If you have an airborne familiar, they are incapable of "flying out or melee range". It is perfectly fair for people to slash at them if they come too close and even chase them. Most wizards use their familiars for spying and in order to "spy" your familiar must be in the same vicinity as a normal PC.

[core]

Also keep in mind that game mechanics can be a limitation, if a familiar is right next to someone, it might in fact be perched upon their shoulder or it could be flying out of melee ranged if it is airborne and other such things. Of course the PC controlling it can and should emote such limitations as well, but again this relies on someone not charging the thing to death immediately on sight.

To clarify on this, 99% of EfU follows the rule of What You See Is What You Get. If a familiar is in melee range of you, it's in melee range of you regardless of emotes.

[Aethereal]

Good to have those clarifications then! Such is the benefit of raising the topic still, that we are all familiar with what is in line with rules and what is not.

[granny]

I would like to remember the wizards and sorceres possessing familiars that they cannot and they should not unpossess them in order to avoid xp loss. Last night the ooze was being chased by a group with crossbows near Mistlocke gates and when the player thought the ooze was out of sight he just unpossessed it when near death.

I was invisible near it and noticed the occurance. You must remember that just because you don't see anyone, there isn't anyone.

[SanTelmo]

Perfectly okey to unpossess familiars and then unsummon them when you are running away from a scene of spying. Just don't abuse this system: for instance unsummoning your familiar after it got into trouble, immediately resting inside the safe inn room where you were hiding and sending it again to the scene.

It is always probably a lot more fun and ballsier play of you to first run away with your familiar for some time if someone is chasing you and then unsummon it after a slight getaway, like this ooze familiar dude seemed to have done. Thumbs up. But it would be a bit silly to set somekind of distance limit on how far you have to run but you are not required to make it all the way back to its master.

[granny]

if you unposses your familiar, it's like to teleport it to safety... they should not have this power... should they??

[SanTelmo]

It is called "Summon Familiar". They are summoned from some odd familiar  world into this world, similar to summons except more permanent in nature and can be kept as long as needed in this world. (No, I am not going to explain this familiar world to you and how it actually works. I am sure some eccentric wizard might write a pondering essay on familiar nature to the Libraries and Tomes forum section to amuse us all).

Yes, in DnDs some rules I guess they are all the  time present but that is not the case in here as you most have likely realized by now. They are summoned to the  aid when needed. Yes, you can still have your familiar RPed as some wild animal captured to which you performed the familiar ritual but as you did so, it gained supernatural abilities, one of them being the access to this rainbow-like familiar world where sun always shines.

As a clarification, the feat "Animal Companion" does indeed use the summon effect but in efu they have been played as actual animals (although usually unique and of course loyal to their master) from this world. They are not summons and cannot be called from any area. For instance, if you enter another plane, unless the Companion was with you when you entered the plane, you cannot summon it there. A familiar though can be summoned there. Also most animal companions live on Ymphs main island somewhere so you should neither call them on other islands but its perfectly fine to whistle them for some Ymphian forest quest to aid you or crush some undead blocking the path in the jungle.

Animal companions much like familiars should not be unsummoned in the middle of a battle though - that being if it is attacked or surrounded by enemies. Deal with the enemies that are harassing it first, then send it off if you want to.

[Cerberus]

Sorry, Imma bit confused now... Are we saying that players should go OOC to be polite to wizard that is more stupid than the slime they brought into the middle of a populated town? But that the said wizard that has brought a slime into the square is perfectly acceptable and won't be punished by DM's ~and~ DM's need to be sought out to kill said slime?

Sorry, that's unacceptable to me. It's the player of the wizard that needs to courteous OOCly and not do something so blatantly stupid IG. Simple logic; You dont want your ooze killed, don't flaunt it in the middle of a town endangering the populous with a creature that is a KoS type creature to most.

Don't we even have a quest to kill the slimy little bugger just inside the market??? "Hey! an ooze! kill it!" should be commonly accepted and if the player doesn't want it to be killed or be arrested for endangerment then don't let it be seen.

I'm sorry but this is back assward. Players shouldn't have to go out of charter and not kill a slime. It's the player controlling the slime that needs to. And if that player insists on bringing a KoS slime into town they shouldn't be allowed to do so by the DM's, and should have to get a DM's permission first and have a DM present if/when they do such a thing.

For the record: I once got 200xp for walking up to a slime (in the town square) and killing it with Barkor Hammerhand. I didn't call a DM to do it and wasn't expecting xp. It's just that to 99% of the dwarf population slime and ooze are KoS, (end of story).

But hey, what do I know. Guess I'll just start ignoring slime ond ooze now.

[Aethereal]

Cerberus:

Right, evil familiar types and the more exotic variants DO require a DM present in NPC populated areas, it is stipulated in the rules I'm fairly sure.

I'm sorry but this is back assward. Players shouldn't have to go out of charter and not kill a slime. It's the player controlling the slime that needs to. And if that player insists on bringing a KoS slime into town they shouldn't be allowed to do so by the DM's, and should have to get a DM's permission first and have a DM present if/when they do such a thing.

We acknowledge this with the point above. Exotic familiars can't even be brought into NPC populated zones without DM presence.