Open season on animal friends

[BiblioRook]

In in my game right now I have a familiar. It's like 90% there for characterization especially since it's in 5th ed and familiars don't give bonuses anymore and I even had to ask special permission just to learn the spell. One use we have found for it though is for scouting... at least hypothetically. So far every attempt at scouting with my familiar has ended in it's death, as in immediate before-you-can-react death. Every. Single. Time. It's getting to the point where it's getting highly suspect considering the situations I've been using it in (like I don't abuse it and I typically only try when we are outdoors or more ideally in the woods) and in addition to that it's stats for stealth are not only better then my own (which already are pretty good) but gets advantage on top of that (I'm using an owl). I find it hard to believe that up to now without fail these generic guards not only notice my owl but would take notice, I really think the DM is just killing off my bird for the fun of it and I realize that I can't really do anything about it if he is but needless to say it is really aggravating.

[JNAProductions]

Have you talked to your DM about this? OOC discussion is usually the best way to resolve this.

It's possible he just really doesn't want you to have a familiar, in which case, it might be best to not have one. (Now, he's been a big jerk about it, to say the least.)

[BiblioRook]

It's possible he just really doesn't want you to have a familiar, in which case, it might be best to not have one. (Now, he's been a big jerk about it, to say the least.)

This would be really odd since he gave me special permission to get one in the first place.

On one hand (thankfully) getting a familiar back is rather trivial (though not trivial enough that I am willing to ignore it) but I think the real reason it annoys me so much is the meta-ness of it all. Sure yes, we as players know that people can use animals to spy on things, but for that to carry over to NPCs is a little absurd. I mean, unless said NPCs just generally kill every bird and creature that crosses their path... which is just ridiculous in itself for entirely other reasons.

[goto124]

This would be really odd since he gave me special permission to get one in the first place.

There's another recent thread where this happened:

But like I said, it seems pretty harsh to me to pull something like having your own personal guard turn on you in the very first chapter, especially since:

1. We actually had to spend some of our house resources before the game started to even get a personal guard at all, and

2. The GM was the one who recommended we get one in the first place, since the purpose of them in terms of gameplay is that they are supposed to help protect your heir while they are on the field commanding their armies, which the heir wanted to do.

[caden_varn]

As JNA said, it is time for an OOC conversation with the DM.