Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

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Durvayas
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Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Durvayas » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:40 am

So I run a wizard, and my 'hellhound' familiar is bugged. I select it at level up, but it gives me what I assume is meant to be a frog. its a tiny slaad, only... it doesnt do anything. It is trapped in the T pose, and its selectable tabable shadow is much larger than it is..

Also, it does not seem to attack or cast, or anything else for that matter. It is, for all intents and purposes, completely broken.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by UUD-40 » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:42 am

Pretty sure this isn't a bug. This is part of the familiar update. The toad heals and blasts paralysis bolts but does little in the way of combat. I've had plenty of success getting it to cast using the 'heal me' voice command.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Silent Handshake » Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:29 am

yeah they didnt like people having hellhounds so they got replaced SADLY!

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Sazu » Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:50 am

Great thing about the new summons is they can be unsummoned and resummoned repeatedly, refreshing their powers.

You have infinite paralysis bolts as well as infinite healing

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Maestro3P » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:17 pm

So, I tried to get a Hellhound, got that frog, searched the forums and found this thread.

Where can I find more information about the changes made to the familiars? Or has only the Hellhound been changed?

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Nitro » Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:00 am

Sazu wrote:Great thing about the new summons is they can be unsummoned and resummoned repeatedly, refreshing their powers.

You have infinite paralysis bolts as well as infinite healing
Hold on, wait. Healing? The frog familars can heal?

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Lorkas » Thu Nov 19, 2015 4:30 am


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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Dinosaur Space Program » Thu Nov 19, 2015 5:43 am

The frog familiar is responsible for some of the strangest familiar related RP I have seen to date.

You thought I didn't see you behind the Restful Mind.. You thought you were free to talk about your weird frog related habits.... But I was there. I was there when you passed that sucker around and you got a poor gnoll addicted to licking frogs.

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Maestro3P » Thu Nov 19, 2015 7:00 am

Thanks Lorkas

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Irongron » Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:05 am

Sazu wrote:Great thing about the new summons is they can be unsummoned and resummoned repeatedly, refreshing their powers.

You have infinite paralysis bolts as well as infinite healing
This is very bad, and has made consider reverting the familiar change. I don't generally like it that there is a difference between what one chooses at level-up, and what one actually gets.

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by triaddraykin » Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:58 am

Irongron wrote:
Sazu wrote:Great thing about the new summons is they can be unsummoned and resummoned repeatedly, refreshing their powers.

You have infinite paralysis bolts as well as infinite healing
This is very bad, and has made consider reverting the familiar change. I don't generally like it that there is a difference between what one chooses at level-up, and what one actually gets.
It went from one extreme to another, with no real in-between ground. Incredibly powerful in battle to scarce-viable RP tokens.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Durvayas » Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:24 am

I'll note that the infinite paralysis bolts have a pretty low DC, and only really work on low level mobs. As well, you have to unsummon and resummon your familiar, making its ability only really useful at the start of any given engagement, as during the levels this is useful(lowbie levels) You're more concerned with not dying with your 8-30HP.

I'm of the opinion the infinite healing thing should go away. That's very abusable.

But I do like how the familiars look now. Housecat familiar is great for evil character's that want one to pet on their lap while monologuing, we didn't have that cookie before.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Irongron » Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:27 am

Sure, ideally I'd like to have PCs given the choice between the 'original' familars, or the customised appearance, but that's so not so easy to achieve.

I expect in time the ones we have will be toned down, but this change is unlikely to ever be fully reversed.

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Green2Bee » Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:52 am

I'm not really sure what's considered abusable. The healing is only useful outside of combat as a low level. The familiar is really stupid and will get stuck on almost anything under the sun to get to you and you literally have to spam Heal Me! to use it in combat or it might just get distracted and start attacking something again. As someone who primarily fights using summons, the AI really requires a lot of micromanagement that I really don't think works all that well in how fast combat at higher levels go once a single enemy is capable of attacking you once every 1.5 seconds.

I suppose you can summon and resummon it outside of combat, but it's cure moderate wound with not even 10 CL, from what I understand. 2d8+x with no healing domain 3 times and then summon and resummon is so much slower than just using a heal kit, heal potion, or having an actual class that can heal, even as a low level. It's free, I suppose!

I think the golem's spell breach is a lot stronger in combat since there's no save and no SR. I think infinite casting of invis/see invis/ultravision of pixie/imp is also nothing to scoff at either in comparison to CMW.

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by P Three » Thu Nov 19, 2015 5:03 pm

Irongron wrote:Sure, ideally I'd like to have PCs given the choice between the 'original' familars, or the customised appearance, but that's so not so easy to achieve.

I expect in time the ones we have will be toned down, but this change is unlikely to ever be fully reversed.
Honestly, given that we CAN'T see what the familiars are, or their skills, I really think somewhere we can look that has the actual familiars, and their concrete abilities, would be really useful. I know we're big on FOIG, but when you're going blind it kind of sucks.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Maestro3P » Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:25 pm

*agrees with P Three*

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Rwby » Thu Nov 19, 2015 7:26 pm

Please. I'm amazed this and the undead change arn't documented somewhere, even if there's just a sign in the enterance area letting new players know about them. Without the forums, you'd just stumble into it blind and get very confused very fast.

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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Durvayas » Thu Nov 19, 2015 8:46 pm

Yea... this information should really be at least on the site, with a footnote among the yellow text that spams you when you login pointing out where it is at least.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by Aelryn Bloodmoon » Thu Nov 19, 2015 8:49 pm

Irongron wrote:This is very bad, and has made consider reverting the familiar change.
Image
Irongron wrote:... but this change is unlikely to ever be fully reversed.
Image


From a design perspective, would someone be willing to elaborate on why a class with larger hit die and a better base attack bonus was found in need of a buff to their class-summon for melee ability, but the class with the smaller hit die and the weakest attack progression in the game needed to have their class-summon be permanently fixed at one hit die?

I'm just wondering why it went from "familiars should be buffed from vanilla," which was done (perhaps a little too powerfully), and then because they needed to be dialed back it seems like they literally went as far in the opposite direction as possible- permanently level 1 and no progression at all.

Familiars are now only useful in combat if you are indescribably lucky (I have benefited from said luck) or you waste all your time possessing them to make them do moderately intelligent things, thereby wasting your mage's ability to cast spells.

The salt becomes even more unpalatable now that I've seen the hides animal companions are getting- familiars may not have been intended for front line combat without some fancy footwork, but I kind of feel like both of the end updates were very opposite extremes that aren't beneficial to the 'fun' of the game.
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Re: Wizard Hellhound Familiar Bugged

Post by ArcanaFTW » Fri Nov 20, 2015 2:10 pm

Familiars would be so much better currently if instead of the abilities they get, they provide buffs to the casters stats/skills when summoned.

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