As a GM I could work around the familiar exploring. What’s the range of control? What’s it’s passive perception, or stealth? What’s the CR of perception checks for traps, or stealth rolls for enemies? Does the familiar have dark vision? Is it heavy or tall enough to trigger a trap?
As long as i know the abilities of the PCs, including familiars, I can balance the encounter. That’s part of the job, really. Make sure the encounter is balanced and fun* for the players.
Even if the familiar’s perception is high enough to find traps, that’s not an issue if you use the PC’s greatest enemy: doors. "As Mister Snugglebutt turns the corner they see a closed door barring their path. (On a successful perception check) A few feet up the path there is a small fissure. It leads to a narrow passage that winds down further into the caverns. A light appears at the end of the passage, and the sound of movement can be heard in the distance. As Mr Snugglebutt approaches…what was the range on control again? (Meanwhile behind the door is a trap laden corridor that the familiar bypassed entirely, but the party must use)
tl;dr: give me a familiar and I’ll give you The Adventure of the Alerted Guards: How My Cat Just Turned This Into a Prison Break Story.
My player has an invisible flying familiar that lasts indefinitely without concentration.
It always passes stealth checks, never triggers pressure plates, and is small so it can fit in small spaces.
It’s possible, but it significantly reduces the variety of traps, so it becomes increasingly obvious that I’m just countering the PC, which is kind of unfun.
Every encounter suddenly starts to have boarded up windows, monsters with truesight, and stealthy NPCs ready to pounce. Etc.
This is the problem I have as well. With a group new to D&D, it’s not so bad - they’re likely to take creatures which are cool, but not necessarily stealthiest or most situationally-fitting. It’s okay to have the bandit ask “…wait, why is a raven this far into a giant underground mine?”
Then you have the veteran players who have invisible, indefinite, sometimes incorporeal familiars… the most egregious was one who would cast through his nigh-undetectable familiar, making many encounters moot as the familiar could just ping down stuff without ever being spotted in return.
As a GM I could work around the familiar exploring. What’s the range of control? What’s it’s passive perception, or stealth? What’s the CR of perception checks for traps, or stealth rolls for enemies? Does the familiar have dark vision? Is it heavy or tall enough to trigger a trap?
As long as i know the abilities of the PCs, including familiars, I can balance the encounter. That’s part of the job, really. Make sure the encounter is balanced and fun* for the players.
Even if the familiar’s perception is high enough to find traps, that’s not an issue if you use the PC’s greatest enemy: doors. "As Mister Snugglebutt turns the corner they see a closed door barring their path. (On a successful perception check) A few feet up the path there is a small fissure. It leads to a narrow passage that winds down further into the caverns. A light appears at the end of the passage, and the sound of movement can be heard in the distance. As Mr Snugglebutt approaches…what was the range on control again? (Meanwhile behind the door is a trap laden corridor that the familiar bypassed entirely, but the party must use)
tl;dr: give me a familiar and I’ll give you The Adventure of the Alerted Guards: How My Cat Just Turned This Into a Prison Break Story.
*for a given value of fun
My player has an invisible flying familiar that lasts indefinitely without concentration. It always passes stealth checks, never triggers pressure plates, and is small so it can fit in small spaces.
It’s possible, but it significantly reduces the variety of traps, so it becomes increasingly obvious that I’m just countering the PC, which is kind of unfun.
Every encounter suddenly starts to have boarded up windows, monsters with truesight, and stealthy NPCs ready to pounce. Etc.
This is the problem I have as well. With a group new to D&D, it’s not so bad - they’re likely to take creatures which are cool, but not necessarily stealthiest or most situationally-fitting. It’s okay to have the bandit ask “…wait, why is a raven this far into a giant underground mine?”
Then you have the veteran players who have invisible, indefinite, sometimes incorporeal familiars… the most egregious was one who would cast through his nigh-undetectable familiar, making many encounters moot as the familiar could just ping down stuff without ever being spotted in return.
This why i normally leave my familiar on my head in bat form. The echolocation is a nice bonus and i keep him save.