Familiars and role-playing

[~Johnny~]

I've never had much fun with familiars. The UA variant where you can replace the automatic summon familiar feat with neat wizardy abilities is the first one I'll use when I next DM.

That said, I like the idea of the stuffed animals, and you folks seem to have fun with them. I *do* like animal companions, because they seem more useful for things other than "scouting ahead" and conferring a +2 bonus to some stat.

 

[Altalazar]

Players have generally been left to control their familiars in all the games I've been in. Mostly, they've stayed in the background.

Ok, one exception - I actually played in 1E Tomb of Horrors eons ago. I came in a bit late and brought in a high level druid (I can't remember the exact level) - but the kicker was, I spent the whole time shapechanged into a Cat - and I pretended to be the familiar of this wizard who was part of the group - the rest of the group didn't know it (the players did, the characters didn't). Mostly I just stuck close to the wizard and observed, but a few times I'd do some spells and such (of rather high power) to help out and I remember each time Daniel (the wizard) saying - "I have a VERY nice familiar." (Maybe it was the Heal spell that really was impressive from the cat).

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

It's a shame... I've never seen a familiar being used when I GM - none of the party casters have liked the idea of them... Will have to have a look at the UA replacement.

Someone tried out a 3.0 druid with swarm 'o pets - but they bogged down combat so badly that they had to have a little meeting with Mr Fireball He was going to get a leveling companion, but died very soon afterwards.


In games I play in a couple of people have used them, but they tend to die long before we get to know them, generally in the process of scouting ahead... I still weep for an unnamed Hawk familiar that flew into a giant spider web on his first trip out with out party.

It was a good result. We worked out which corridoor not to go down. Spider got a tasty feathery snack. Don't think the poor sorceror saw it that way.

 

[Beholder Bob]

I love my familiars!

Balphagor has a tree frog named Smaug. He is my conscience - has a higher wisdom then me, and is shy but brave. I introduce him to others. I craft magic items for him, as well as a construct for his convenience. He gets a share of my treasure and has, currently, a solid jade bowl with precious stones (well polished) resting in it. He has tried a sip of wine and cooked food, so only fair, I have eaten a worm and a fly. My little buddy - such a nice guy!

Victor has a cat named Sphinx - he treats the cat as a soldier - expects bravery, efficiency, and has a strictly master/servant relationship. I have tattooed my cat (arcane tattoos) to further his use to me. I am a real bastard.

Not an actual familiar - I have a barbarianesqe arcane monk who has a bat-like ally I treat as a familiar. I brag about his prowess, he is my yes man. He, of course, gushes about my abilities. A real love-fest.

The next arcane caster I get will be abusive to his familiar - the familiar constantly on the edge of rebellion or holy terror. I want this relationship to bother the other players.

BB

 

[Driddle]

Balphagor has a tree frog named Smaug. He is my conscious ...

You probably meant "conscience." They sound a lot alike in casual conversation.

 

[Beholder Bob]

...and he beheld the beast - with 3 horns and 3 tongues - and its 3 arms laden with the three-fold bane of civilization – the unholy trinity of despair - the TV, pop-culture, and the spell checker. Of these, the spell checker is the beast's hook into the hearts of men, for their conscious shall supplant their conscience - and man shall be awake but without guilt or awareness of sin. The TV is the ......

BB

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

...and he beheld the beast - with 3 horns and 3 tongues - and its 3 arms laden with the three-fold bane of civilization – the unholy trinity of despair - the TV, pop-culture, and the spell checker. Of these, the spell checker is the beast's hook into the hearts of men, for their conscious shall supplant their conscience - and man shall be awake but without guilt or awareness of sin. The TV is the ......

BB

Whoa there...

It was just a typo...

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

In our ongoing Scarred Lands game, I'm playing a halfling wizard named Milo, with a raven familiar named Otto. On long trips, Milo chats with Otto in their personal language. Otto runs messages back and forth for him, tells people to go away when the boss is busy, and hangs out near the rogue and the monk when they're scouting ahead of the party so Milo can know immediately when the trouble starts. Basically, Otto's treated as a somewhat snarky but unfailingly loyal personal assistant; he runs small errands and reports only to his master.

I don't have him talk that much, and he doesn't contribute his own opinions to any discussion; we have five players, and I think it would be rude to usurp more "screen time" than I already do; beyond having him very occasionally say funny things that I don't think Milo would say, mostly he only speaks when spoken to. Besides, Milo's much smarter and more charismatic than Otto, so whatever Otto thinks is already taken into account when Milo's saying something.


In contrast to this was our pick-up hack-and-slash Forgotten Realms game, where we had two wizards. One had a cat familiar who we never saw or heard from, ever. The other had an owl whose main job was to deliver touch spells like shocking grasp for its master. I'm guessing the cat was only there for a skill bonus, and the owl was there for a skill bonus and as a surrogate spectral hand.

--
i think otto's much better off than either of those two
ryan

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

In most games I've been involved with, the familiars were pretty much background. So when I made up my most recent PC, an elven wizard named Angrimir, I decided the make the familiar memorable. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to come up with the type of animal, etc, because I did not want to have him be just the toad in my pocket. I wanted him to be fun to characterize, too, since Angrimir is fairly serious.

So now my (fairly serious) wizard has a Chuihuahua familiar named Pepe. He's just the right amount of silly to take a bit of the edge of of the elf's self-importance. And his skills have actually come in useful! We were attacked by bandits in one our first games, and the PC's were at a loss as to how to find the bandit lair - until I realized Pepe could track by scent...

Pepe is still the only member of the party with any ranks in Survival...

Then there was the time that Angrimir used Pepe to cast Power Craft (from the Complete Book of Eldritch Might; it's a touch spell) on a wheeled cannon during a portion of the Witchfire Trilogy... leading to the sight of Pepe, perched atop the cannon as Angrimir directed it to wheel around and fire on it's previous commander...

 

[Henry]

One interesting trick I picked up is to have one of the other players play the part of the familiar. However, it needs to be assigned to a good roleplayer, and not someone who plays the familiar contrarily just to spite the player. This way, the familiar might be slightly more "real" than as just an extension of the wizard PC's personality...