Alternatives to familiars

[Terraism]

An NPC with half a wizard's hit points is sturdy?

I mean, I love my bard/illusionist's thrush, but "sturdy" is not a word that springs to mine when thinking about him.

Completely irrelevant, I'm playing a druid who took the Familiar feat (in whatever it's in, Complete Mage? Anyway,) and with half of a d8 for a high-con character, the familiar actually is quite sturdy. It can't, say, hurt anything, since it currently does 1d2-2 damage, but still.

Actually, I suppose there's some relevance - a familiar can be purchased with a feat. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a perfect substitution for a generic wizard, but I suppose it makes a good baseline idea. Personally, I'd go with the suggestion of an item familiar (Dragon, or the SRD) or a Reserve Feat - both seem fitting, thematically.

 

[Jack99]

I give my players the option of a feat as well, instead of the familiar.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Completely irrelevant, I'm playing a druid who took the Familiar feat (in whatever it's in, Complete Mage? Anyway,) and with half of a d8 for a high-con character, the familiar actually is quite sturdy. It can't, say, hurt anything, since it currently does 1d2-2 damage, but still.

I'm not sure how this helps someone with a d4 hit dice -- the people who get familiars for free.

At any level, a stray fart from a monster can kill a familiar. Familiars are great for many things, but combat ain't one of them.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Somehow, our wizard-types almost always end up with more hit points than the frontline-types.

Caster stat, CON, dump the rest, seems to be how it goes.
We had a dwarf wizard that was the main frontline fighter, and had the most hit points, best AC, best attack and damage rolls (when buffed), and still had half of his prepped spells just for escape.
He took a feat instead of a familiar, even though it probably would've been able to hold its own, considering how many spells he could've shared with it.

The Psion was even worse, and his rock had as many hit points as the average of our frontliners. I think he absorbed around 480+ damage in one round and survived, though his rock croaked. The NPC was specifically designed to one-shot the healer in the surprise round, win initiative, and then kill one character each round. :\

 

[Derro]

I know this is no help to those wanting an alternate to familiars but I'll toss my 2 cp anyway.

Familiars have all of their master's skill ranks unless their own are higher. This means that by 5th level (when in can communicate w/ master) yr familiar can aid you on almost any skill. Maybe not Concentration but definitely Knowledges, Spellcraft, what have you. I didn't realize how useful this was until my gnome illusionist became the major Knowledge holder of the party. It's really quite useful.

In the Unearthed Arcana the suggested class feature swap is Familiar for Animal Companion as per a druid of equal level. This seems like a great deal at low levels. As the familiar would have gained more useful abilities at higher levels I think the returns diminish with animal companion but it's an option.

Also in UA are variant specialist wizards. Most of these options involve dumping the familiar and bonus feats available to wizards. Might be fuel for some ideas.

 

[Wycen]

How about one of the homunculi from Eberron? They are kinda like familiars, just better(?).

 

[carborundum]

He's going for sneak attack with a 3 level progression instead of every other level. Going to be nasty with ranged touch attacks!

Cheers folks!

 

[Derulbaskul]

I allow specialist wizards reduce their prohibited schools of magic by one if they forgo a familiar. (That means a diviner has no prohibited schools.) It seems to work well enough.

Personally, I would prefer to implement some mechanics that would give the wizard an "item familiar" like a staff but I can't be bothered working it out or digging up the Dragon article.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

Personally, I would prefer to implement some mechanics that would give the wizard an "item familiar" like a staff but I can't be bothered working it out or digging up the Dragon article.

The SRD contains rules for item familiars, although I can't say that I've used them: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm

 

[Squire James]

Sneak Attack is a "keystone" ability of the rogue class, even more so than their 8 skill points in my mind. I'd consider a 1/3 Sneak Attack progression as a replacement for the familiar ability, the Scribe Scroll ability, AND the bonus item/metamagic feat! Sorcerers would need to give something else up, like 1-2 slots per spell level. It is that powerful. Keep in mind that the "thug" variants of Fighter and Rogue interchanged Sneak Attack and Fighter Bonus Feats (though I think the Rogue gets a better deal here).