My ferret familiar can nuke targets.
KvotheRM8
Member Posts: 54
Just south of the Friendly Arm Inn, I (ie. my elf f/m/t Lateralus) went hunting for a rogue ogre. Snuck up on it, casted Color Spray, and promptly angered it. Without a backup plan and nothing but a shield for defense, I tested my luck toe to toe. Immediately smacked for 15hp of damage! So me and my 1 good hp stumbled back to the north where I left my ferret with the ogre in pursuit. I accidently eft buttoned (xbox format) and there was a wand of heavens and a wand of magic missiles in my quick slots! I paused to figured it out. Those items were stolen by my familiar in Obes X-man cave, I never put him back in my pack, and the items must have defaulted to his quick slots! I clicked the WoH and sure.enough, that little clepto saved my bacon with 35hp ? damage! Oh...the possibilities!
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I'll run some more tests, I'm curious to learn if it will quickslot potions of thievery, taking its kleptocracy to new lows! Also scrolls, and usable items like cloaks.
Maybe it's high enough level for Use Any Item. Boo's got nothin' on that ferret!
I'm naming the ferret familiar "Glitch", for conversations sake.
New information:
1. It 100% doesn't matter if Glitch steals from NPCs that are in the party or out of the party. So if you want your Glitch to equip new items into it's quickslot, it's best if you have him "steal" it from a party member.
2. Any item that Glitch steals, and then returns to you, cannot be stolen again. I know that doesn't make sense, a lot of things don't make sense. But I have throughly tested this and it's a fact. So if it had a Wand of Heavans quick slotted, make sure you expend all of its charges before returning your Glitch to your pack, or asking for it to cough up stolen goods. Because you could remove all equipment from a party member except for that exact same wand in a general inventory square, and it will never be able to steal it back. It's a quirky little ferret.
3. Glitch will only quick slot the top 3 items in its inventory. So if it successfully stole 5 items in a row, in the following order: Wand of Heavans, 20 darts, potion of speed, wand of MM, scroll of color spray. Its quick slots would look like this: 1.WoH 2.Blank 3.potion of speed and thats it, it would never be able to use items 4 or 5 because of rule #2 above.
4. Visibility: Glitch doesn't automatically quickslot items, which is perhaps why this is a little know thing. I was able to have it show newly stolen items by (remember only usable items in its first 3 general inventory squares-which by the way you cannt see or manage-will appear in its quick slot) saving and reloading. There may be other ways it shows, but that is the only proven way I have discovered.
5. What items can Glitch use? So far I have successfully equipped wands (class restrictions dont matter to Glitch), potions (master thievery works), scrolls, and the Shield Amulet.
My experiments continue, in the meantime keep in mind that this is probably more of an annoyance to most players because its vert tricky to manage. And having your familiar constantly exposed to danger is EXTREMELY risky and quit frankly not a wise move. If your playing hard-core runs, I do not recommend this. If your doing a laid back solo run, this is with playing around with.
I'm interested in discovering how stackable items work with Glitch (a stack of potions of invisibility would be beneficial) and just how effective a Glitch can be at picking locks and finding and removing traps with the aid of potion stacks.
It it does, the draw back would be that it would take longer to "steal" (equip) items from party members which would be more annoying. And stealing from NPCs would rarely work unless you buff it with potions.
I'm thinking about solo runs without thieves (bards, sorcerers or wizards) that would benefit from Glitch's skills. If rabbits could pickpocket some potions of perception that would synergize nice with their high disable trap skill. Cats can't disarm traps except maybe with potions that boost that skill, but they have very nice stealth skill. I'm curious enough to play around with this myself now. Does it work on PC or is this a console only exploit?
I've been playing this game since its original release on every single format its made on, this is the first time I've ever noticed this and I am indeed on console. Good luck!
I do not know what the base PP skill is for rabbits, but Luck adds 5%, but only for a single round. Could work, but it requires testing.
On not being able to steal something twice - I suspect the "hand things over" action sets a flag on the item so it can't be pickpocketed. This is mainly so that items you give to NPCs for quests can't be pickpocketed back, but it's splashing to here.
(Added in edit)
I ran a couple of quick tests... an item I let a familiar steal and then take back picks up a "not stealable" flag. An item (Zhurlong's boots) that I handed over to an NPC and then took back by force also has that flag. The hypothesis looks good so far.
6: Stack "stealing" works. If the only item(s) in your party members invertory is a stack of 50 Elixers of Health and your Glitch snags it. They will all be snagged as one. This is important because I find that using one slot to heal, one slot to escape (invisibility), and one slot to nuke makes for a happy familier.
I'm getting a Mandolorian vibe from this solo run, a lot of attention is being paid to keep Glitch alive but when things are most dire thats an epic ace up your sleeve.
Edit: For you console folks I did confirm that you can get a rabbit to pick pockets. It takes a little while but you can definitely do it, which opens up a much better disarm traps familiar. I assume the cat can do it as well with better pickpocket and much better stealth but lower disarm traps...
For now, enjoy your run - and maybe tell the story for the enjoyment of others?
That sucks!
I'm not reporting it because I don't want it "fixed" it literally enhances the game without breaking it!
I just wish there was a way to equip a wand of fire in a pseudo dragons quickslot!
I'll keep sharing the story of Glitch, random encounters are somewhat terrifying now lol hes been murdered twice
The best way to manage this playing style on a hard core run, is to keep it in the pack until you have access to the heavy fire power and plenty of invisibility options. Then, do as above.
Edit: Windows 10 in case anybody was wondering.
I'll let you know if my familiar can equip wands using my method once I have a chance. I'm doing a solo and it can't pickpocket me because I'm a mage/thief. I'll need to add a low dexterity NPC like Kagain and see if it can pickpocket a wand from him. Might not get back to Beregost until tomorrow...
Yeah you have to remember that the ferret has the same inventory boxes as a character, and whichever quickslottable items are in its first 3 slots will be shown. Also, once you give items back they can't be restolen. A lot of micromanaging
It does work with wands too!
Now if only there were Wands of Lockpicking, and Wands of Disarm Trap my elven Fighter/Mage would be complete!
OK, that's a lot of potions of perception/mind focusing if you want to disarm the tougher traps. Even traps like the web traps in the Cloakwood are out of reach for a ferret with one buff potion.
A rabbit would work though. On the flip side, pickpocketing is harder with a bunny.
Like jmerry said potions, but potions of perception. Its not easy, but if it consumed 5 real quick you could navigate traps in durlags 100%.. pot of thievery and power would also help. Always use the 3rd slot for invisibility either the ring or a stack of potions or scrolls. A familiar could potion buff and then crawl through an entire dungeon level unseen and find and disarm every single trap. Now that's a useful pet. It does take micromanagement and also the trade off is that it always stays out of the pack (and is in danger).