Official ICE Forums
Gamer's Corner => General Discussion => Topic started by: enoch on December 15, 2016, 01:11:50 AM
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I'm looking at resurrecting an old campaign for a couple of friends and one of them has a pet parrot. The PC in question is level 7 (HARP) and has high bonuses in both Animal Handing and Beastmastery, but I never really included the parrot in the game. Part of the time I just forgot about the bird but I also didn't really know what to do with it. The player would occasionally bring it up..."can he do this?"...etc., but I feel like I short-changed him.
So, do any of you out there have any words of wisdom?
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I would try and balance advantages and drawbacks so have it swoop in and grab something the character needs in one session to save the day. In another session have is loudly squawk 'Polly wants a cracker' as the character is trying to hide or sneak past guards.
Pay attention to things that the characters say frequently and start to have the parrot repeat words it has heard repeatedly. Imagine the characters entering a church looking for healing and the parrot screeching 'I want a tart, I want a tart'!
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On a more serious note when you are prepping the session use a postit note to mark where the parrot may act or react. Would it become agitated when taken into a cave system? Will it cry out and take flight in the first round of combat? Will the rooks on the castle's towers see it as an intruder and mob it?
If you do this during prep you are less likely to forget the creature during sessions. By using post-it notes you can reuse some or all of them so it behaves consistently between sessions.
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You might want to decide that it requires additional spells cast on it when the party does something.
Silence spells radius should consider its location.
It might require its own invisibility when sneaking.
Temperature resistances spells might be required for a parrot in situations where other characters might not require them?
Try not to make it too much of an independent NPC, or you'll find yourself needing time to consider its actions on top of managing the world and its NPCs. The player should be in charge of deciding what it does, and if you determine its not what the parrot would normally do, ask for an Animal Mastery roll.
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Thanks for the ideas guys, especially the post-it notes.