So... in my game our group recently killed an Assassin who relies on venomous snakes. After killing him, we managed to snag his bag of trained snakes... and through my expertise in animal handling, combined with Speak With Animals and a Nat 20 on Persuasion I've now got 4 trained assassin snakes on my side.
The problem is, my DM hadn't really planned on this actually working, since the bag of snakes was intended to just be a little trap for us to deal with when looting his body. So we don't really have stats for how it works to have them in my possession... it makes sense that they're not just feral, since clearly they were domesticated enough to work for the assassin. So now I just need to figure out how to logically use these things going forward.
Whenever you walk into town, use that bag of snakes as a decoy for thieves to steal. They're also trained, you can speak with animals, and they presumably will follow your commands. You can use them similar to familiars, minus the spellcasting aspects probably. Send them ahead to spy, use them to set up ambushes, harvest their venom to use on your weapons, start up a small snake circus....ssssoooo many possibilitiessssss.
Oh that makes sense to sort of treat them under the rules of a familiar, more or less. Lol someone in my party already suggested harvesting venom from them... luckily we've got an assassin of our own with a poisoner's kit, so that's probably enough to make some nice poisons for our weapons.
You basically have four Poisonous Snake creatures in a bag that sort of do what you tell them as long as it is what they are trained to do. That's about all the work you need to put into it.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I respect your desire to use them logically. I humbly submit that the best way to use your new found bag of trained snakes is in the most ridiculous ways possible.
Fetch water for the bath? Bag of snakes! Need help haggling for better potion prices? Bag of snakes! Can't get the last bit of mayo out of the Alchemy Jug? Bag of snakes! Music needed to entertain some kids? Bag of snakes!
It's time for your assassin snakes to branch out, learn new skills besides just killing, and go be the hero bag of snakes they were always ment to be!
I would treat it similar to a bag of tricks in terms of how you can interact with the snakes
The creature is friendly to you and your companions, and it acts on your turn. You can use a bonus action to command how the creature moves and what action it takes on its next turn, or to give it general orders, such as to attack your enemies. In the absence of such orders, the creature acts in a fashion appropriate to its nature.
I was actually planning to try and find a Bag of Tricks in the game (there's a traveling merchant we occasionally run into who carries pretty much any uncommon magical item we could think to ask for), but I feel like the bag of snakes does roughly fulfill that need.
I also feel like, based on some of the suggestions... I should mention that my character is a Goblin bard, so using the snakes in weird and goofy ways fits into his character pretty well. If nothing else using them to perform and entertain others is completely in line with his character.
So... in my game our group recently killed an Assassin who relies on venomous snakes. After killing him, we managed to snag his bag of trained snakes... and through my expertise in animal handling, combined with Speak With Animals and a Nat 20 on Persuasion I've now got 4 trained assassin snakes on my side.
The problem is, my DM hadn't really planned on this actually working, since the bag of snakes was intended to just be a little trap for us to deal with when looting his body. So we don't really have stats for how it works to have them in my possession... it makes sense that they're not just feral, since clearly they were domesticated enough to work for the assassin. So now I just need to figure out how to logically use these things going forward.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Whenever you walk into town, use that bag of snakes as a decoy for thieves to steal. They're also trained, you can speak with animals, and they presumably will follow your commands. You can use them similar to familiars, minus the spellcasting aspects probably. Send them ahead to spy, use them to set up ambushes, harvest their venom to use on your weapons, start up a small snake circus....ssssoooo many possibilitiessssss.
Oh that makes sense to sort of treat them under the rules of a familiar, more or less. Lol someone in my party already suggested harvesting venom from them... luckily we've got an assassin of our own with a poisoner's kit, so that's probably enough to make some nice poisons for our weapons.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
You basically have four Poisonous Snake creatures in a bag that sort of do what you tell them as long as it is what they are trained to do. That's about all the work you need to put into it.
I respect your desire to use them logically. I humbly submit that the best way to use your new found bag of trained snakes is in the most ridiculous ways possible.
Fetch water for the bath? Bag of snakes!
Need help haggling for better potion prices? Bag of snakes!
Can't get the last bit of mayo out of the Alchemy Jug? Bag of snakes!
Music needed to entertain some kids? Bag of snakes!
It's time for your assassin snakes to branch out, learn new skills besides just killing, and go be the hero bag of snakes they were always ment to be!
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
I would treat it similar to a bag of tricks in terms of how you can interact with the snakes
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You just described my childhood
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?
I was actually planning to try and find a Bag of Tricks in the game (there's a traveling merchant we occasionally run into who carries pretty much any uncommon magical item we could think to ask for), but I feel like the bag of snakes does roughly fulfill that need.
I also feel like, based on some of the suggestions... I should mention that my character is a Goblin bard, so using the snakes in weird and goofy ways fits into his character pretty well. If nothing else using them to perform and entertain others is completely in line with his character.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Two words:
Medusa cosplay
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Train the snakes to escape. Sell them to other assassins. Have them escape and return to you. Sell them again. Profit!