Ever kill a familiar? I did.

[Driddle]

The term "metagaming" in an RPG online argument means about as much as "conservative" in a political campaign. Overused, underdefined. Just one of those terms that gets bandied about when you run out of ways to describe rotten roleplaying.

In this case it's simple: If you try to kill an in-game character just because it bugs you as a player/DM, you've diminished the experience for everyone.

 

[Cor Azer]

I tried, and the look on the wizard players' faces was enough satisfaction for me even though I didn't succeed. Earlier in the campaign, the party's archery focused ranger left the group (the player left the game), and in the background, the BBEG brainwashed him, and led him to believe the party was the root of his problems (he was Chaotic Neutral, so there wasn't a lot in the way of loyalty there in the first place). The ranger, knowing full well the abilities of the party, and with the resources of a theives guild to aid him, bought two greater arrows of magical beast slaying (3.0 game) and started hunting the party. Alas, my player rolled well on the Fort saves, and they were able to subdue their former companion before he could regroup.

 

[Staffan]

I killed the familiar of one of the PCs a while ago, when we were just starting out with Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Some spoilers follow:

Spoiler

Most of the party had just gotten beaten up by the dragon in the Moathouse, with only one of the party wizards and one other guy escaping. After they recruit some more PCs, they return and the wizard sends his hawk familiar in to scout out the place. The dragon notices a hawk that looks a lot like the one the wizard who ran away had, and lets loose with a lightning breath. Oops.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I killed animal companions twice. One was a dire lion and had such poor AC that... it wasn't pretty. That same lion could have been killed on at least two other occasions, but I didn't want to keep killing it. (Eventually the player slathered it in magic items so it wouldn't keep dying.)

The second was a dire bat who got slaughtered by a monk. (And no, the monk didn't have any flying capability.) The party dined on it afterwards, over the druid's strenuous objections.

Somewhat ironically, the wizard died (not during combat) and his familiar ended up being more powerful (it could cast magic missile once per day). It was mainly a joke ability for when the wizard was brought back to life, since penetrating the SR of a CR 14-20 monster was basically impossible.