Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tyoka 11-28-05, 11:35 PM	I have a question. I've read about familiars up and down left and right. I haven't read TOO much about animal comapions, except the description of them in the PHB under Druids. I have read that Familiars must be normal animals, and thusly can't be animal companions. But here's the thing. The story goes, as bluntly as I can make it, when my character, who is a sorcerer, was younger(kind of like a lvl 0 sorcerer, he knew some cantrips but no 1st level spells), he had a friend. This friend was something like a ranger. He didn't call himself one, but he behaved like one. The friend had a pet falcon for an animal companion. One day, on one of their many adventures, they encounter a demon(a succubus in particular, which has some background with my character). The demon ends up killing the falcon, then charming the friend and sending him after my character, who takes the dead animal and runs away. My character then has the animal resurrected. When he's finally old enough to take his first level as a sorcerer, he claims the falcon as his familiar, so that it could help him save his friend. Since the animal died and the ranger was no longer behaving normally, would it not turn the animal companion into a normal animal, and thusly allow my sorcerer to summon it as a familiar? If I'm wrong about this, someone tell me and I'll just have to rethink it all. I don't like having a familiar "just because", I like there to be a reason behind stuff like that. I would like to use this because it's kind of like my character is using his friend's companion as a weapon to save him. I'm not sure how it would work out if he did save him, I mean would the falcon remain a familiar to my sorcerer or become a companion again? But that's not what I'm worried about right now.
Fithero 11-29-05, 01:36 AM	Basically the way i work it is like this, your characters friend is dead, so the animal is released from his/her service, making it a normal animal. Now that you have summoned it as a familiar, its yours. If/when you save your friend the familiar is still yours unless you choose to release it and allow your friend to take it back again. Thats just how id do it anyway. Later
Tyoka 11-29-05, 07:20 PM	Well actually the friend isn't dead. The friend is just under a charm spell(later the demon equips him with a tiara that constantly acts as the charm spell). But even so, if the friend was charmed that doesn't mean the animal was charmed. And if the friend suddenly started acting strange wouldn't that mean something to the companion? The game rules say nothing about that though.
nihility 11-29-05, 11:25 PM	Well actually the friend isn't dead. The friend is just under a charm spell(later the demon equips him with a tiara that constantly acts as the charm spell). But even so, if the friend was charmed that doesn't mean the animal was charmed. And if the friend suddenly started acting strange wouldn't that mean something to the companion? The game rules say nothing about that though. Like Fithero, I think the fact that the poor critter died releases it from whatever duties it had. Here's something else to consider: given the time it takes to track down a priest capable of casting the Raise Dead and such, plus the time needed to scrap up 5000gp of diamond dust, I assume that it took well over a day to get the bird raised. It only takes 24 hours to call a new animal companion, so it's likely that the bird had been replaced before it returned from the big nest in the sky. In that case, there's no doubt that the bird would be completely normal.
Tyoka 11-30-05, 11:26 PM	Ah, you raise a good point, thanks. ^^