Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

Marginally off topic here, exactly how smart are familiars supposed to be? It's always irked me to see someone talking to their familiar as if they were another "highly" educated individual, rather than some creature with a basic intelligence or small power of reasoning.

I've never been able to picture a toad familiar performing tasks like, what is 2+3? Or, which tunic is better color co-ordinated to the rest of my outfit? As these are things that a toad usually doesn't have a use for. But he might know what I'm talking about when I ask him to look behind under a tree stump and point at it, and he'll likely understand what I mean by "dinner time", because these things aren't as abstract as other human ideas. Although, about here, the lines of my logic start to get fuzzy...

How does everyone else feel about this?

Echet

Glim wrote: While a pet could know your emotions, they couldnt tell you directions or speak to you (big no no with pets). I always thought that familiars had a telepathic link with the mage so that they could speak in a sense. It can communicate like that, and can follow basic orders and directions, more than a pet could. Just remember, familiars are intelligent, pets arent. Pets cant talk, nod to you, follow complex directions, ect.

As for pets not telling you directions, your slightly wrong there Glim, I once had a horse that I used for deer hunting and I'd get in the woods and slightly lost, turned around more like it, but I could tell this horse at the end of the day to go home, and it'd go back to the barn every time. I didn't even have to hold onto the reigns. I've also got a dog who knows when I'm sick before I do, and knows when my mom is sick before I do. She talks to me, and comforts me when I'm down. Pets are highly intelligent animals, just not everyone plays them that way on the game.

Ainea wrote: Pets are highly intelligent animals, just not everyone plays them that way on the game.

Exactly!

Actually, how smart your pets is depends on the pet. A horse has the mental capacity of a two year old child. Dog vary by breed and pedigree. Cats do as well. Birds can be surprisingly smart, like the parrot, which studies show is about as bright as a dolphin.

I think part of the problem here is people seem to be mixing game roleplay with real life. Obviously there are bound to be some cases in real life of animals who seem to be highly intuitive. But I think the underlying point here is that for all intents and purposes in FK, pets (using the word as a technical game term, as in, something you would tame in the wild or buy in the pet store and have it appear on your score sheet as a pet) should not be interacted with as if they had a great deal of intelligence. That doesn't mean that they have to be lifeless or inactive, and it's still possible to form a bond with your pet. An emotional bond with a pet is not necessarily dependent on its intelligence.

To sum this up, what seems to be the bottom line to me is: While playing FK, you can form an emotional bond with your pets, but they should not display signs of great intelligence. If I'm misunderstanding this, though, please correct me.