Dragon Magazine Get Familiar

[Ktulu]

My bad. Poor, poor Francis.

[Storminator]

I'm picturing the animal as more a creature possessed by the familiar. So trading up isn't so jarring, the familiar is just taking over a more powerful form. And dying? well, that's just the body.

PS

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Originally Posted by Jhaelen

Wow, those quirks are really fun!

They remind me a bit of the 3E psicrystals which granted a bonus to their master based on their personality. Those were also a good source for a bit of roleplaying.

Psycristals and Familiars were pretty similar in 3E already.

If PHB 3 or 4 finally brings the psionic power source, and we will still have psicrystals, they will probably use the same framework. I suppose the "flavor" will be a little different - maybe instead of an animal or animated creature, a psicrystal will be based on a concept - maybe an emotion or a philosophy, a splinter of the psions mind...

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That was a fun article. I think I want a familiar, too, where do I sign?

[cdrcjsn]

Well I'm pretty excited to see the official rules

I'm just disappointed that the familiar rules didn't include options for inanimate objects with intelligence, like a talking sword or hat.

I suppose it's easy enough to houserule though.

[Bodhiwolff]

There are examples familiars which are skulls and animated hands, dogs constructed from spellbook covers, and the like.

I don't think that it is a far stretch to simply re-skin one of these as a sword or a hat.

[Ktulu]

Originally Posted by cdrcjsn

Well I'm pretty excited to see the official rules

I'm just disappointed that the familiar rules didn't include options for inanimate objects with intelligence, like a talking sword or hat.

I suppose it's easy enough to houserule though.

Well, it does mention something in the article about "familiars that look like objects", so maybe they'll have something like that.

[Shroomy]

Its my understanding that familiars are arcane spirits that take on a particular form, not actual creatures or objects. I'm definitely thinking about taking this feat for my artificer, but I'm undecided and will probably wait until AP is out so I have the full range of options, feats, and rules. BTW, more familiars please...

[GuJiaXian]

Sorry for the thread resurrection. Having read the aforementioned Dragon article and the relevant entry in Arcane Power, how exactly does one get a paragon or epic familiar. Is it just a matter of retraining the Familiar feat while being at or above the requisite level?

[chaotix42]

I think so. Once you get to a new tier you gain access to all of the related familiars, and just have to retrain your choice.

[GuJiaXian]

Cool, thanks.