Familiars and role-playing

[wally]

I am just wondering how DMs handle familiars that their players take. Do you require some role-playing sometime during the campaign regarding the familiar, by possibly having it participate in an adventure or just have the player do something with it? Do you mind if a player picks a familiar and you never notice, as they have been carrying a frog in their pocket for two years and never fed it or nobody knew it?

I just wanted to hear different opinions.

-wally

 

[Morpheus]

I am just wondering how DMs handle familiars that their players take. Do you require some role-playing sometime during the campaign regarding the familiar, by possibly having it participate in an adventure or just have the player do something with it? Do you mind if a player picks a familiar and you never notice, as they have been carrying a frog in their pocket for two years and never fed it or nobody knew it?

I just wanted to hear different opinions.

-wally

A little bit of both. For the most part, we don't do anything with the creature. As the PCs go up in level and the familiar gets more abilities, then it starts to play more of a role in the game (i.e. scout, spy, etc). Animal companions make for good combatants depending on the creature.

 

[WayneLigon]

In my game, the familiar is pretty much a full npc with the party. It interacts with them, with the adventure, etc.

 

[ThaDium]

My sorcerer has had a cat familiar for about a year and a half now. It doesn't come into play much. There'sa dog and a hawk in the party and they get much more play. Neither are familiars and are therefore less cool in terms of what they can do. Though the hawk is an animal companion.

I'm planning to have an evil druid kill the cat next game. But the player will run the combat in the form of a dream he's having. Only to wake up and find his cat dead.

I'llbe letting him get a new familiar nice and quick, though. To make up for the plot based loss of his old one. Don't know what it'll be, but hopefully he'll utelize it more.

THaDium

 

[Kyramus]

why kill when you can keep him within 1 mile of the player and force him to play hide and seek with the druid who is intent on tormenting him by torturing the cat and healing it over and over again. lol

 

[Umbra]

My group will bring a figure or small stuffed animal representing the familiar to the game. When the figure sits on the table, the party is always aware of them.

Our wizards cat is very particular and will react negatively to anyone who says anything bad about itself or its master. "hiss!"

The DM should also roleplay (brief) conversations (or even feelings at lower levels) to keep the familiars in a player's mind. "Meow...smelly in backpack...want out!" 1 minute later "Meow...cold out here...want in"

My own toad will be placed staring at a party member who has 'crossed the line' in someway to remind them of my displeasure.

 

[Elf Witch]

My group will bring a figure or small stuffed animal representing the familiar to the game. When the figure sits on the table, the party is always aware of them.

Our wizards cat is very particular and will react negatively to anyone who says anything bad about itself or its master. "hiss!"

The DM should also roleplay (brief) conversations (or even feelings at lower levels) to keep the familiars in a player's mind. "Meow...smelly in backpack...want out!" 1 minute later "Meow...cold out here...want in"

My own toad will be placed staring at a party member who has 'crossed the line' in someway to remind them of my displeasure.

It's good to know that the people I play wirh are the only weird ones The person playing the wizard in our group as a badger for his familiar he has a stuffed animal and brings it to the game. The badger;s name is Buttercup and he talks in the same accent that the dog on Conan O'Brian uses.

He is a full fledge member of the party as a matter of fact I think we like him better than the wizard.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I am just wondering how DMs handle familiars that their players take. Do you require some role-playing sometime during the campaign regarding the familiar, by possibly having it participate in an adventure or just have the player do something with it? Do you mind if a player picks a familiar and you never notice, as they have been carrying a frog in their pocket for two years and never fed it or nobody knew it?

I just wanted to hear different opinions.

-wally

Well, I'm not a DM but I'll tell you how my familiars work in my campaign.

I have two familiars / and one companion animal between my three PCs (two sorcerers and a druid).

They are, in order of apperance...
Rasputin, a fruit bat
Pollo, a weasel ferret critter
and
Malachi, a wolf

Rasputin has a personality, and I *try* to incorporate this into the game. He tends to scout ahead, or keep watch for us. Sometimes, I send him into tight places to check things out (ie. the time I sent him into a dark cave to see what we were up against, and he saw a dragon and came flying out at the speed of light telepathically communication the following phrase to me : "BIG BEASTIE!!! RUN!!!!!!!!!!!" Then he went to hide.)
Normally Rasputin lives in an extradimensional pocket in my cloak. I joke that it's like a total swingin' 60's bachelor pad in there. Rasputin does not like water, and isn't very fond of a few of my party members.
I do not send him into combat and in fact, often send him out of the line of fire to watch the horses.

This PC has a few levels of bard and sometimes in towns, will perform for people , telling stories and singing and Rasputin takes part in the telling of stories. But it's not really role-played out.

Rasputin is my favorite of the three.

Pollo, is my gnome illusionists familiar. He is mostly good at scouting low places and he has a +27 to his hide checks, so pretty much nothings going to spot him in a dark dungeon. He doesn't really have a real personality, and he usually rides on my shoulder , on the ground by my feet or in my backpack.

Malachi, who is not a familiar per se, but a druidic companion animal. I do send him into combat , and my druid basically views him as a friend. One thing he's great at , is blocking enemies who have range weapons, so they can't fire on anyone in my party without provoking an attack of oppurtunity from some sharp wolf teeth.

The only other familiar in my games, is in the one with Rasputin. Our other sorcerer has an owl. The owl "scouts ahead". That's pretty much all he does. We do tend to forget about him.

 

[Rel]

I don't force anybody's familiar into the limelight but they are free to play them up a bit if they like. When the familiar does come into play, I let the player dictate its actions unless it seems like a judgement call is in order (like when the party wizard wanted his weasel to scout ahead into a known lair of hostile spider-folk). When that happens, I use a rule I got from here on the boards (from Piratecat maybe?) where the person to the left of that player plays the role of the familiar. My players are usually pretty good at it.

When I'm a player, I always try and breathe life into my familiars and use them effectively. I would never take a toad just for the Con bonus. There are much more effective ways to employ that class feature IMHO.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

he heh, I run a one shot at any cons or game day's I go to where the whole party has been kidnapped and the PCs are the familiars (and animal companion, paladin's mount, a mindswtiched cat and a reincarnated barbarian badger) going off to rescue them... Its a lot of fun, and people generally enjoy playing those roles.

In games I've played in, so far familiars have been underused... animal companions are a little more active, especially at low levels where they outclass their druid in combat, but I'm hoping for a group that plays them up more... I would definitly make room for them in games I'm running.

Kahuna Burger