Familiars Left Alone

[Nebrok]

[FONT=&quot]Ok, this came up during the game I am running... and it turned into a mild heated debate. So here it is...

What happens to a familiar AFTER the wizard's/sorcerer's death?

The player who brought up this question had just got his wizard killed, and he wanted to play his familiar until the others raised his character. That's when the question of weather a familiar retains its intelligence after it's master’s death. I was leaning toward no. I reasoned that the wizard is the source of the magic that makes the familiar different from other animals, and once the wizard is gone that bond and link is broken. But he argued that if a familiar who dies and then is raised at a later time still has its link, then why not the other way around. That make sense but I still reasoned that the wizard is the sustaining force in the link. Someone had suggested that the process of making a familiar is permanent, and that the familiar remains as it was at the point what the wizard died.

I like to be a fair DM, and usually if a player can reason something that sound plausible to me I allow it (generally). I ruled that the familiar retained its unique nature, intelligence and what not, until the wizard was brought back. But still, I was wondering what others would think. So I pose the question one more time.

What happens to a familiar AFTER the wizard's/sorcerer's death?[/FONT]

 

[malraux]

My gut instinct is that the familiar would slowly lose it's magical connection. That said, there are canonical examples of adventure modules where the players find a wizard's familiar in a dungeon long after the wizard's death.

In play, my familiar almost racked up a kill on an assassin when the DM forgot about it and moved in to attack someone in the cart. The familiar was guarding the corpse of my character at the time.

 

[weem]

From Arcane Power, page 137...

Death of a Familiar: Your familiar dies when you die, and it is restored to life when you are restored to life. After you are restored to life, your familiar
reappears in passive mode in your space.

My bad, I should clarify, I am referring to 4e rules (I assumed this was a 4e question, and forgot that this was posted in "general").

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, weem found the rule, but that just doesn't seem like as much fun to me.

I'm envisioning a place at the Wizards' Guild for "severed" familiars; dozens of old, intelligent animals getting together, some exceptionally bitter after trying to get their master raised and discover that he refused to come back. Others just want to re-live their glory days and tell stories that are increasingly outrageous each time.

 

[weem]

Well, weem found the rule, but that just doesn't seem like as much fun to me.

It sure doesn't

I'm envisioning a place at the Wizards' Guild for "severed" familiars; dozens of old, intelligent animals getting together, some exceptionally bitter after trying to get their master raised and discover that he refused to come back. Others just want to re-live their glory days and tell stories that are increasingly outrageous each time.

Yes! An excellent idea!

I am all about dropping rules in favor of awesome, and this is one of those areas where there is a lot of room for awesome, such as the idea you have mentioned.

 

[Garthanos]

Well, weem found the rule, but that just doesn't seem like as much fun to me.

I'm envisioning a place at the Wizards' Guild for "severed" familiars; dozens of old, intelligent animals getting together, some exceptionally bitter after trying to get their master raised and discover that he refused to come back. Others just want to re-live their glory days and tell stories that are increasingly outrageous each time.

Well whatever makes things fun for you is I think the real rule. The official ones makes it convenient and simultaneously continues the simulation of the familiar as a bound spirit not an animal friend enhanced with magic.

 

[ExploderWizard]

What happens?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOLGrx46hZg"]A sad and lonely thing..[/ame]

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

If the player wants to play the familiar for a couple sessions, then by golly let them. Just stat out the familiar as a companion character (DMG2), and give them some options to be useful in combat.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

At least once I ruled that the familiar suffered the same type of drain effect upon losing a wizard that a wizard suffers upon losing a familiar. In 3.5 that basically meant make a Fort save or lose XP (or just a lose a level, in the case of the familiar). From then on the player ran it for a brief while, until a new PC came into play. Not sure exactly happened to the familiar after that point, though...?

Aside: Thornir's post reminded me that I have a backburnered "Vermin d20" campaign adventure hook in which the PCs (all small animals) are tasked with redeeming a wayward familiar who's lost his wizard.

 

[Ambrus]

I'm envisioning a place at the Wizards' Guild for "severed" familiars; dozens of old, intelligent animals getting together, some exceptionally bitter after trying to get their master raised and discover that he refused to come back. Others just want to re-live their glory days and tell stories that are increasingly outrageous each time.

I've toyed with similar ideas before; that of having familiars congregating at a wizard's guildhall. In one instance, when the PCs were visiting the local magic users' guild, I went so far as to have them witness the cliquish social shenanigans of the various familiar breeds. The owls were the stuck up know-it-alls, ravens and crows the crass gossips, cats the effete hedonists and the various reptiles the creepy goth loners. I even had a few animate psycrystals floating around the place having silent and unfathomable conversations with each other. The guildmaster's raccoon familiar was the "big man on campus" and was actually the guild representative who dealt with the party while they were visiting; going so far as to accompany them on a few adventures.

As for the familiars of dead wizards, why limit them to only hanging around the guildhall reliving their glory days? Every familiar worth its salt knows that the key to its power lies in being bonded to an arcanist. If it can't conceivably get its old "master" raised (or possibly because it doesn't really want him back) then it's time to move on and to find itself a new wizard. Perhaps some rogue familiars petition the guild's leaders to be bonded with a promising young apprentice. Or perhaps they choose to go it alone; skulking around urban areas looking for a person in whom they recognize the potential for magic. Being experienced in such things, the familiar could approach their young would-be-master and help her to recognize her arcane potential. Is she's willing, the familiar could then help guide her through her first fledgling steps as a wizard; helping her to assemble her first spellbook and spell component pouch. Later, once the new "master" has mastered the rudiments of spellcraft, the familiar can guide her into pursuing its goals; just as it had been doing with its previous "master".

Don't underestimate the drive and wilfulness of any intelligent being or its ability to harbor its own desires and goals.