What's giving up a familiar worth?

[Chupacabra]

I am starting a new campaign soon and one of my prospective players is wanting to play an arcane caster (sorc or wizard) but does not care for a familiar. He is wanting an extra feat as "compensation" for this lost ability. Is that a decent trade-off? The logic is that obtaining a familiar for a class other than sorc or wizard will cost you a feat, so maybe not having a familiar to begin with is worth one???

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I allow my casters the feat Alertness in place of a familiar. They typically get it anyway because of the familiar, but this way they get the feat for free without having to worry about the range of the familiar.

To give them anything else would tweak the game too much for my taste.

 

[Musrum]

I am starting a new campaign soon and one of my prospective players is wanting to play an arcane caster (sorc or wizard) but does not care for a familiar. He is wanting an extra feat as "compensation" for this lost ability. Is that a decent trade-off? The logic is that obtaining a familiar for a class other than sorc or wizard will cost you a feat, so maybe not having a familiar to begin with is worth one???

It is worth a Wizard Bonus Feat or Eschew material components.

 

[Chupacabra]

I was of thinking something off of the Wizard Bonus list, but not something like Dodge or Skill Focus.

 

[Legildur]

It is worth a ... or Eschew material components.

I like that one!

 

[Infiniti2000]

How about an animal companion?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#sorcererWizard

Resistance to Energy?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#resistanceToEnergy

Rapid Summoning?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#rapidSummoning

There are others.

 

[Chupacabra]

Ah, nice link. Thanks Infiniti2000.

 

[airwalkrr]

Reply to OP:

While Obtain Familiar is a feat, that does not mean it is appropriate to swap out the Summon Familiar ability for a feat. It simply means that it is appropriate to grant other classes the ability to have a familiar by spending a feat. I dislike when players try to argue points like this. Honestly, I would tell the player to shove it.

 

[Thanee]

For a sorcerer you can get Metamagic Specialist from PHB II, which is quite good.

Eschew Materials!? That's hardly worth a feat (much less losing the precious familiar), it's just nice for flavor, but the cost is excessive (sorcerers should get this one for free at 1st level, anyways ). Same with Alertness. But if someone wants to trade the familiar for that... their loss. *shrug*

Bye
Thanee

 

[Perun]

I am starting a new campaign soon and one of my prospective players is wanting to play an arcane caster (sorc or wizard) but does not care for a familiar. He is wanting an extra feat as "compensation" for this lost ability. Is that a decent trade-off? The logic is that obtaining a familiar for a class other than sorc or wizard will cost you a feat, so maybe not having a familiar to begin with is worth one???

IMO, it's a class ability, and un-tradeable; I'd like to avoid players trading class abilites for feats, if possible ("My cleric doesn't care about undead one way or another, AND has a low CHA, can I trade Turn/Rebuke Undead for a bonus feat?", "My fighter plans to specialise in morningstar, can I trade my proficiency with martial weapons dfor a (couple of) bonus feat)s)?", etc.).

However, that said, if you and your player both agree on dropping familiar for something else, I'd say a feat is an appropriate choice. Obtain Familiar (as someone mentioned; it's found in Complete Arcane) is actually slightly better than the wizard/sorcerer ability (it allows you to stack ALL of your arcane spellcasting levels in order to determine familiar's special abilities), but OTOH, it's not available till 3rd-level.

Regards.