Your companion's/familiar's skill points

[racestark]

Particularly, I'm asking about the hide and move silently skills. If your character goes into stealth mode and you have your animal companion/familiar summoned and said "summon" has points in both skills, does said "summon" go into stealth mode, too?
I still see my companion clear as day on my screen when I go into stealth mode, but I'm wondering if it's just my character that can see it that clearly due to the bond both share or can any other PC see it clearly, even though I'm trying to have both of us be hidden?

[♥Zach♥]

Wow thats a tricky one, you know I am not really sure at all...

[racestark]

Another thing I thought of, is it possible that I see it clearly because my spot and listen rolls beat its rolls? Or is it just plain old crappy Bioware game mechanics?

[♥Zach♥]

I think it's along the line of bioware

[DM Richard (Retired)]

Well I'm not sure on that one.

I do know that anything going into stealth mode while within your sight is not going to look like it is hidden until your line of sight is broken.

[Talus]

Well in the single player game...they ghosted just like you...But I don't know exactly how that all works. But Richard makes a fine point...had that demonstrated to me alot to night....blasted Orcs and Orogs.

[marklar]

i've never had my bear stealth, it runs after me and get's killed but maybe with other animals

[Munroe]

Animal companions and familiars do not go into stealth with their masters in NWN.

If you are a wizard/sorceror, you can possess your familiar and go into stealth, but otherwise they do not.

In the single-player HotU, the NPCs in your party will go into stealth mode with you if you tell them to. Not sure how the animal companions and familiars behave in single player.

You know what also isn't cool? As a shadowdancer with a shadow companion (which Bioware implimented horribly as a common Summoned Shadow), your shadow companion (which should behave more like an animal companion than a Summoned Shadow) doesn't enter stealth when you hide either.

[Munroe]

I used to play a rogue/cleric of Sharess with Trickery domain (which grants the Invisibility spells as domain spells). She could summon a dire tiger which she named Baby and treated as a companion. She'd cast invisibility on both herself and her tiger, and tell it to "Guard her". If a summon/pet is set to Guard, it won't run into battle unless its master is attacked, so since they were both invisible and my rogue/cleric wasn't getting attacked, she could walk with it through hostile areas.

[kenny26]

If a druid's animal companion could enter stealth, I'd have figured that out by now seeing how much I've played Kruhl, but the option isn't available in the radial menu when I right-click him like it is in the single player game with the NPCs...

The best thing you can do to have your familiar/companion help you in a stealth attack maneuver if you ask me is one of two things:

1) You command the companion to "Stand your ground" and it'll stay in place just outside the danger zone of a particular area. Then you stealth and sneak up on the enemies, and at the most oportune time you comman the companion/familiar to "Follow" and it'll come rushing out from it's safe area as you attack the enemy.

2) Simply just don't summon/call it until you're withing striking range, using it's ability to appear out of nowhere to get a good surprise attack.

However, both tactics can be questioned about their integrity. #1 could be seen as metagaming depending on how accurately you pick the "safe zone" for your companion/familiar outside the spawn points, and #2 is just tricky to play out IC, explaining to someone afterwards where it came from.

The truth is, I never tried either 'cause I generally don't stealth, even with Kruhl.

[racestark]

I do #1, Kenny. Hold my hand out for it to stay, scout ahead a bit, take a look around and then motion it forward. My concern wasn't really monsters, but more along the stray PC I might run into on the road. I don't want my companion giving my presence in the area away because they notice a wolf with a name hovering above its head (which could be fixed the next time I level, I know, and which I intend on doing) but I especially don't want them to walk along and just kill my companion, mistaking it for a stray, nasty wolf. I at least wanted it to have a chance to hide before that happens. Oh well. Good to know at least.