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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:42 AM #1
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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ø Friend+The Pet Store: A Familiar Keeper's Handbook (by Krika)
Originally posted by Krika:
The Pet Store: A Familiar Keeper's Handbook
So, you've started your career as an arcane magic user, but don't want to do it alone? I'm not talking about your other party members, I speak of something mcuh closer to your soul. Something that can grant you access to powers far beyond whatever you thought was possible. So come my apprentice, and learn of the power of the familiar...
References:
None so far.
Ratings system:
Red: This is bad. Period.
Purple: Really? Almost anything is better, but OK...
Black: The baseline for everything.
Blue: This is getting good.
Sky Blue: Get. This. Now.
This Handbook covers the following sources:
AP - Arcane Power
D XXX - Dragon Magazine, issue XXX
HotF - Heroes of the Feywild
HotEC - Heroes of the Elemental Chaos
Thanks to:
Everyone who posts things that help me improve the guide.
Lordduskblade: For the ubiquitous format of the guide.
Nox_Noctis: For the Sight of the Familiar table.
Ekko's Exotic Elementals Emporium(x): This was the original guide to familiars, and what made me say "We need to have a better guide". For those familiars that it lists, it is a nice second opinion, but it only lists familiars, and just the ones from AP, and the first two Dragon articles.
Garthanos gave XP for this post
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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:43 AM #2
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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ø Friend+Originally posted by Krika:
Care and Feeding: The Basics
So, what's a familiar anyway? It's a feat for any arcane class introduced in Arcane Power. Pick the feat, pick your familiar, and of you go. Mostly its that simple. But for the specifics, see below. People who already know how they work can feel free to skip this part.
A familiar has two modes, Passive and Active. On and Off, if you will. You can switch between them as a minor action. The familiar has diferent characteristics depending on what mode it is in.
Passive Mode
- Familiar cannot be targeted or damaged.
- Shares your space, essentialy is in your pocket, or on you shoulder or something like that.
- Provides you with its passive benefits.
- Note though, that it still can talk and look around, so this isn't really passive per se.
Active Mode
- Has 1 hit point, basically a minion. If it dies, you lose all benefits from it until the next rest you take, when it comes back.
- Uses your skill modifiers and defenses but can't attack under most circumastances. It also gain +1 to defenses for each familar feat you take after Arcane Familiar.
- Is Tiny, and can move using the speeds listed in specific entries.
- Can't flank for you.
- Can't manipulate objects for you.
- Provides you with its active benefits, as well as passive benefits.
- You spend actions to make your familiar do something.
- Can get no more than 20 squares away from you.
In both modes, the familiar can use its senses, which may or may not have special additions (Low-light vision, darkvision, etc.). The familiar can speak to you and you to it, but no one else can understand what you are saying.Mateus Leite laughed with this post
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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:44 AM #3
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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ø Friend+Originally posted by Krika:
Picking and Choosing: The Managerie
Heroic Familiars
Spoiler:
Paragon Tier Familiars
Spoiler:
Epic Tier Familiars
Spoiler:
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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:45 AM #4
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ø Friend+Originally posted by Krika:
Tricks and Bonding: Feats, Powers, and Paragon Paths
Heroic Feats
Spoiler:
Paragon Feats
Spoiler:
Sight of the Familiar Table
Spoiler:
Powers
Spoiler:
Paragon Paths
Spoiler:
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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:45 AM #5
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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ø Block Nibelung
ø Friend+Originally posted by Krika:
Outfitting: Items and Ritual
Items
Spoiler:
Ritual
Spoiler:
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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:47 AM #6
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ø Friend+Originally posted by Krika:
Ultimate Aspirations: Build Index
Threads
Spoiler:
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Thursday, 24th September, 2015, 03:47 AM #7
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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ø Block Nibelung
ø Friend+Originally posted by Krika:
Final Training: Tactics and Closing Thoughts
Familiars - Why you get them
Lets get serious here. You don't get a familiar in order to gain a powerful creature that you can use to break the game. If someone can show me a way that they can break the game, please let me know. Adding it to the Build Index would please me.
The reason you get a familiar, is so you can supplement your character by improving an existing capability, or adding a new one. Mostly that is what a familiar does already, although you can line up the supplement to greater effect if you do things right. Following is a list of the arcane classes, and what familiars can offer them.
Artificer: One of the two classes who get the most out of a familiar. They have feats that are artificer only, and one of the paragon paths is artificer only. Four familiars are specifically designed to work with the features from the artificer. These all make the artificer the excellent familiar keeper.
Bard: Almost nothing special here. There is nothing out there that is specifically built for the bard. They can be fine with one, but nothing calls out to be used by one. A familiar does improve their ability to be a skill monkey, and can do some of the skills at a range.
Sorcerer: Well, thank (diety) that there are many familiars that improve your Soul resistance, and therefore your piercing. You can get resistance to pretty much any damage type. The powers have some real gems to, so you can do some pretty neat things with some with your familiar with the better things.
Swordmage: Not much here. Some familiars offer you some tricks that can come in handy for a melee person. These tricks are helpful, but nothing special.
Warlock: Pretty much like the bard. Nothing here that improves the warlocks stick, and nothing gives you handy tricks to overly improve what specific tricks you have.
Wizard: The other of the two classes that get the most out of a familiar. This comes in the form of the powers you get that can be improved by your familiar. Most of them aren't great, but they do let you get cool tricks with your familiar.
Familars generally have one of several purposes. The common ones are listed below.
*Scouting: Give you intel into things ahead. Range and stealth capabilites are key here.
*Combat Utility: Plenty of familiars give you additional abilities that let you do things, or dare things in combat that give you tricks to add utility.
*Character Concept: Well, not much I can advise here. If a familiar fits your concept, by all means, get it. This is a roleplaying game, after all.
Expanded Purposes
*Scouting: Cat and Scouting Homunculus stand out here. The range for both is more than you will every need. Cat is a base standard here, but I prefer the Homunculus, as it gives more consistently high stealth checks, and brings flying into the equation. Either way, any familiar with good stealth can do this effectively.
*Combat Utility: Many different things in here make it harder to define this properly. One highlight is the Floating Sword, with the tricks that result from adding Familiar Mount.
*Bombing Familiars: This is a more clearly defined subset of Combat Utility, in that they all have effects that lock up either 1 square, or have an effect in burst 1 around them. Ice Mephit is the premier example of this, although there are many others that have similar effects.
*Character Concept: Well, if you want your character to have something flying (or crawling, or walking) around with you, go right ahead and get one. It's called Flavor Optimization.
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