Hands up if you use a familiar!

[Angel Tarragon]

<raises hand>

 

[TheEvil]

For those of you using a familiar:

1) How often do you use it to good effect?
2) Could this effect be replicated by other means?
3) Do you find yourself going out of your way to protect your familiar?
4) To the point, could you get along just fine without it?

Cheers all.

*raises hand*
Sorcerer with Ispnosp, a tiny viper familiar (yeah, I am not the most serious of gamers) in Living Greyhawk.

1) Maybe once every few mods, usually for early warning. Most recently, an assassin who used strong rose perfume to cover his scent was giving us problems. Upon entering a walled compound, Ispnosp smelled a strong rose scent (odd for a fishmongers compound), and warned my character, who promptly raised the alarm and took cover.

2) I might be able to replicate the scent, but it would be very difficult, due to the restictions of the Living campaign.

3) He almost never leaves the collar and hood of my robes, but other then that, not really.

4) Given the tendency of mods to spring ambushes and invisible opponents, I would say no. Having the early warning saved my character's life in the assassin incident (I tell you, you blind someone ONCE...).

 

[kigmatzomat]

I love familiars. I rarely play the mage anymore (I generally choose my class last for party balance) but I always use familiars when I do. Most make excellent scouts, provide a margin of security for sleeping mages, and that extra skill attempt at higher levels is well worth it. I tend to make copies of the "Familiar Feats" article from Dragon for the GM to see if they'll allow any of them. I once ran a sorceror/summoner who had three familiars and the "expanded share spell" feat. That was a lot of fun.

I recommend getting a bag of tricks that corresponds to your familiar type for decoys. Baddies w/o AE spells will have a harder time justifying attacking your familiar when you've got a half-dozen fuzzy animals at your feet. Oh yeah, and dress like a druid. That throws 'em off.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I always pick up a familar, though never for combat, in which they are weak and fragile and quickly killed. Scouting, aiding on skill checks, and companionship are where they work out well.

 

[Bad Paper]

-raises hand-

My (only) PC is currently Rog2/Wiz7. Rat familiar. The biggest help is the +2 to Fortitude saves. Wow. I cannot tell you how much this has helped.

A few levels ago, rat came in handy when I charged it with Ghoul Touch, sent it up a ladder onto a platform where there was a Bad Archer Guy. I followed. Successful Ghoul Touch on the part of the rat, successful bull rush on my part, and archer goes falling 30'. I could have done this all myself, but the rat helped me shave off a round in a very tight combat, and even if the GT had failed, the archer had used his AoO for the round on the rat, which meant a free bull rush for me.

That was probably the only time I have really gone out of my way to use it in combat. I have lots of touch spells, and I think at some point I'll grab all the familiar spells (Imbue Familiar with Spells, Fortify Familiar, Augment Familiar, whatever) and have the familiar help me out more (staying close to benefit from force armor, of course).

Ironic liability: he keeps getting slammed by poison gasses. Just because wizard gets the +2 to Fortitude doesn't mean the rat does. Party cleric rolls his eyes at having to drop lesser restorations on a friggin rat. The rat needs more care than I do.

 

[Lord Ben]

Off topic a bit but my Half-Ogre Barbarian character was kind of dumb (obviously) and he idolized the wizard in the party. So I bought a pig for like 2gp and insisted everyone treat it like my familiar.

 

[Seeten]

I dont care if my imp dies, so I send him in to fight constantly. He can invis himself, he has a poison stinger, he's a little beast, he's malicious and smart, and if he dies, he'll come back even more powerful. He knows it, and is pretty fearless as a result.

 

[Brekki]

I have an lvl 30 mage with only 5 true wizardlvls and no prc's that add to the familiar's effectiveness, but still I use it a lot. Because I'm a full loremaster I've got UMD maxed out, so my familiar uses all kinds of wands/staffs/scroll. It's very nice to keep some boosting spells on him, so I don't have to cast them myself (with imbue familiar with spell ability (T&B) / contingency / improved contingency (T&B) / symbul's spell matrix/sequencer (MaF/PgtF)).

1) How often do you use it to good effect?
2) Could this effect be replicated by other means?
3) Do you find yourself going out of your way to protect your familiar?
4) To the point, could you get along just fine without it?

1. every game
2. maybe a 3.0 type double stacking haste effect
3. yep, he's in a familiar pocket (spell from T&B), during my initative I get him out (free action), he does his stuff, and gets back in (free action)
4. probably not ... always nice to have a small creature with a few heal / true ressurrection scrolls

 

[Rystil Arden]

Familiars and Psicrystals are really great. Because of their high versatility, they are by-and-away the best use of a 1st-level feat of which I know (well the Familiar isn't really a feat so much as a feat equivalent). They grant Alertness, another Feat, and some extra actions, and the risk is not so high if you take good care of them.

 

[Dragon Mage]

I have an lvl 30 mage with only 5 true wizardlvls and no prc's that add to the familiar's effectiveness, but still I use it a lot. Because I'm a full loremaster I've got UMD maxed out, so my familiar uses all kinds of wands/staffs/scroll. It's very nice to keep some boosting spells on him, so I don't have to cast them myself (with imbue familiar with spell ability (T&B) / contingency / improved contingency (T&B) / symbul's spell matrix/sequencer (MaF/PgtF)).

1) How often do you use it to good effect?
2) Could this effect be replicated by other means?
3) Do you find yourself going out of your way to protect your familiar?
4) To the point, could you get along just fine without it?

1. every game
2. maybe a 3.0 type double stacking haste effect
3. yep, he's in a familiar pocket (spell from T&B), during my initative I get him out (free action), he does his stuff, and gets back in (free action)
4. probably not ... always nice to have a small creature with a few heal / true ressurrection scrolls

What does your ranks in UMD have to do with your Familiar? AFAIK your familiar does not benefit from your skills.

How do you move into and out of your Familiar Pocket in the same round? I thought you could only move before OR after your action?