Familiars: are they worth it?

[nikolai]

One of the distinctive features of the Wizard and Sorcerer classes are familiars. Do you think they're worth taking or not? Are they a much needed extra party member or a 200xp/level time-bomb waiting to go off?

Familiars are one of the features of wizards from history and fiction that have made it into the 3.5 rules, I'm interested in hearing whether you feel they've been done right. Reading through the SRD, I get a feeling the way they've been bolted on to the Wizard and Sorcerer classes is clunky. Would it have been better to just have them as an option in return for a feat? Or is there any other way in which how they're embodied in the rules could be improved?

 

[diaglo]

nothing ventured...nothing gained.

 

[Vanye]

One of the distinctive features of the Wizard and Sorcerer classes are familiars. Do you think they're worth taking or not? Are they a much needed extra party member or a 200xp/level time-bomb waiting to go off?

My players (and co-dms) have always felt that, while they add flavor to a characte, they're worthless. They're really too frail to add anything in combat (even the barbarian/sorcerer/fighters raven, with it's "as many hp as the party cleric" hp), they don't attack very well, and while sometimes they can be decent scouts, they have too many limitations to make it worth having them...

 

[MerakSpielman]

The odd thing is that most of the time, familiars vanish after they're acquired. They provide bonuses, and then their constant presence in the party is largely ignored. Like this comic.

 

[Sejs]

Improved Familiars particularly can be a good investment.

Imp with one of their alternate forms being Human.

Small Earth Elemental.

oh yes.

 

[Arnwyn]

The odd thing is that most of the time, familiars vanish after they're acquired. They provide bonuses, and then their constant presence in the party is largely ignored.

Sadly, that's been my experience as well.

 

[der_kluge]

I have a houserule where you can take a feat instead of a familiar. One spellcaster did that, the other did not. The one that did not has a hawk, and most of the time he forgets that he has it.

 

[Driddle]

re "FAMILIARS HAVE NO COMBAT VALUE," or "THEY CAN'T ATTACK VERY WELL," and other comments to the same effect:

If this is a prime consideration in determining a character benefit, then you've obviously lost track of the "RP" part of RPG. ... The game is (or should be) about more than attacking stuff!

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

Familiars are best used for color only, I think. Get one if you can see a reason why your spellcaster would want to have a personal assistant to run simple errands for him or a reason why he'd want a companion/pet/confidante.

That's what my wizard character in our ongoing game uses his raven for, anyway. His familiar delivers messages for him and gives visitors the once-over (and occasionally tells them that the boss is busy and they should get lost). I've never even come close to letting it enter combat on its own...it's much safer sticking right next to the wizard.

His familiar doesn't even talk all that much; we have five PCs in the party, and it would be horribly rude of me to usurp even more attention by having the familiar be a total chatterbox. The most I'll do is wait until there's a lull of some kind and let the GM know that Milo's deep in conversation with his familiar again.

So anyway, yeah, it's worth it for me. I'm getting exactly what I want out of my wizard taking a familiar, because it does such a good job of it. If I'd wanted another combat option, I guess I'd be disappointed.

--
it's a 3.0 game, so i'm not even getting a skill bonus from it
ryan

 

[Epametheus]

Familiars are little more than an extra pair of eyes, unless you got Improved Familiar, in which case your familiar might actually do somethingelse useful.

The way I've seen familiars done is one of three ways:

1) Just don't bother with them (which I did with my own high level wizard)
2) The "get a bonus and forget about them" method (done by the dragon knight with a couple levels of wizard; his chipmunk gave him +2 to reflex saves, had 100+ Hp, and just rode around in his armor)
3) Wait until your high enough level to get something cool, but never ever bring it into a dangerous situation (ex. the high level aasimar wizard with a lantern archon familiar).

Familiars always seem to just be housepets that can talk back to you in my group's games.