Familiars - Advantage or Disadvantage?

[Furry]

I have played two wizards and both have had familiars. The first was a straight Wiz who took Improved Familiar so that I could have an Air Mephit. It was extremely useful and fun, except for that time with the Aboleth...

The other caster was an Arcane Heirophant, Companion Familiar was just sick. It actually had lower HP than half of mine (IIRC), but the feats it could take because of the HD made that worthwhile. Eagle with Fly-By-Attack and ranks in Tumble. Toss in Shivering Touch and life was made good.

 

[Sejs]

AND the HP and BAB aren't based on your class level. So if you're a Sorcerer 1/Barbarian 19 with 18 Con, you have 1d4+4 + 19d12+76 hp, averaging 196, and your familiar has 98hp, and you both have +19 BAB. Share an Enlarge Person spell with it and even a Tiny familiar no longer provokes AoO from entering an enemy square (since it's now Small and has a reach of 5ft.).

I've seen some rather nasty results from an Eldritch Knight with Improved Familiar. Once your self buffs start pulling double duty things can really start to add up.

The other nice thing is that they share your skills. Arcane Trickster? Your fez-wearing monkey can pick pockets and crack locks just as well as you can.

"Er," said I, "you don't have one. You spent all your starting gold wisely but not on summoning a familiar."

You know, I was under the distinct impression that you didn't have to pay for your familiar at character creation.

Same way a wizard doesn't have to pay the several hundred gold in scribing costs for his initial spellbook.

And if you want to get RAW, it takes;

A knowledge Nature check DC 11 to recognize the familiar is not a normal 1HD animal.
A knowledge Arcana DC 10+ owner’s caster level [the familiar’s effective HD] to recognize a familiar as such.

Neither of which you can make unless you've actually invested ranks into the appropriate knowledge skill.

And maybe I am just a cruel person, but target practice on tiny animals I spot while on guard duty sounds like a fun time waster and a good idea if I am getting sick of iron rations and turnip stew.

And if you're a guard, likely to get you a stern reprimand from your superior officer for screwing off on duty. If you want to go out hunting squirrels, Private Gateguard, you can do it on your own time.

The best familiar I've ever had was Kiki the Wonder Ferret.

Did she also poing?

Where are the Transposition spells that you talk about from?

They're found in the Spell Compendium. Very useful spells, those two.

 

[Slife]

Where are the Transposition spells that you talk about from?

Olaf the Stout

Spell compedium

EDIT: Ah, beaten to it.

 

[Sledge]

Would everyone love familiars if they had access to shield other, either through an item or converting the spell to Sor/Wiz?

 

[Endur]

All of my casters automatically take the familiar.

Not taking the familiar would be like having the leadership feat, but not taking the followers or the cohort.

Sure, you can have the feat and not take the benefits. But I like benefits.

What benefits do you get from a familiar?

Two feats: Alertness plus something else.

Many other possible benefits people have mentioned.

And you can roleplay with your npc familiar.

 

[Endur]

Yeah, but the toads are pretty much dead meat when the area spells hit, regardless of the caster's intelligence level.

The rules should've treated familiars as they do objects: if you have'em on you, they're attended objects and don't get blown up when you get fireballed.

Not necessary. So long as the master (or another person) is inbetween the toad and the fireball, the toad has total cover.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Would everyone love familiars if they had access to shield other, either through an item or converting the spell to Sor/Wiz?

No.

And you can roleplay with your npc familiar.

How popular are intelligent weapons again? NPCs are nice as long as they're not with you 24 hours per day.

 

[JoeyD473]

It's disappointing that so many people see familiars through the prism of rules. Character flavour is always worth more than a pinch of optimisation. That said, I'd like to see the familiar rules cover the familiar's true purpose: a companion and assistant to the caster.

In the demi-scientific model of D&D magic, familiars are a type of personal computer; an extra bit of brain to deal with the complex equations magic requires. I'd like the rules to allow players to choose between 'adventuring' familiars, which confer skill bonuses, feats,and indirect spellcasting, and 'academic' familiars, which make casting times easier, negate some material components, make spell-copying cheaper etc.

I agree whole heartedly

 

[Sejs]

How popular are intelligent weapons again? NPCs are nice as long as they're not with you 24 hours per day.

Depends on the weapon?

How popular is the Leadership feat?