Familiars: are they worth it?

[thundershot]

One of the players in my group ignored his familiar. The running joke was that the poor cat was all skin and bones from starvation. Eventually, I told him to either start remembering the cat, or it would become a target. We compromised, and now *I* (the DM) control the personality and dialogue of the cat, and I gave him the voice personality of Randall from Clerks. It's great... except when there's someone around that can understand what he's saying...


Chris

 

[thundershot]

Oh, and my wife's Aasimar Paladin took FOREVER to get her mount, and by using the CR method of a suitable mount, we came up with Alexander, the Half-Celestial Riding Hare of Legend. (Riding Hare from the mount pdf book, and Creature of Legend template from... one of the WOTC books) The SOB kicks ass, but my wife wanted me to play him like I do the cat... so I took a voice I was good at and suddenly he became Tracks from Transformers. He's VERY stuck up. "I'm not going into the dungeon. It'll ruin my perfect fur patterns.." I love this game.

 

[jerichothebard]

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.

I had a tinker wizard with a construct raccoon. Very cool color bit for the character, and figuring that a raccoon is quite agile with its hands, and that he was smarter than our party's barbarian, he could "Aid Another" on craft checks for my wizard. He rode in the side pocket of my Handy Haversack.

jtb

 

[blargney the second]

For the DMs out there: think Dragon with a level of sorceror and Improved Familiar.

-blarg

 

[Mac Callum]

If any of the standard familiars in the PHB had anything close to hands (such as the raccoon or a monkey) they'd be a lot more useful. Since they can't speak to anyone (unless it's a raven) you can't use them for communication, they obviously don't fight, etc.

Plus, it just seems to me that they'd be such a target for any enemy. Even rats with 100 HP still drown.

 

[MacMathan]

Well the Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability from T&B makes the familiar pretty useful but you have to wait until 6th level spells are available. The Wizard in our campaign lets the familiar use up its stored spell capacity then tucks it away in a permanent familar pocket also from T&B.

 

[Pseudonym]

In 3.0/3.5 I have either not taken one or gone for an exotic improved version. I'm partial to pseudodragons in that regard.

It has been my experience that some DMs go to rediculous metagame extreems to kill of PC animal companions, special mounts and familiars. It largely depends upon the DM's attitude on that score as to wether I'll take one or not.

 

[Thanee]

Absolutely worth it!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Sir Whiskers]

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.

True, but this is for a couple reasons:

1. A player in my first 3.0 campaign sent her hawk to scout out a warehouse. The hawk took an arrow, almost died, and the wizard character never again used her familiar in that way. Why would she? Familiars at any level are terribly vulnerable to the challenges the party faces. They shouldn't be seen as a combat asset, as they're not built for it.

2. With the right player, familiars can really add to the RP element. One player gave his gnome sorcerer a toad familiar named Milton. Milton was sarcastic, cynical, a lot of fun. On one occasion, the sorcerer character was dying. The player asked if his familiar could pull out a cure potion and pour it down his throat. Realistically, it couldn't. But it was so minor, and just the sort of thing a familiar would think to do, that I allowed it.

Another character took a mink (think weasel) familiar. When the entire party were captured and chained up, he convinced his familiar to go find the rogue's thieves tools. But later, when he wanted it to scout out the guardroom (all by its lonesome), the mink told his "boss" what he could do with that idea!

Familiars really can add a bit to a character, but it depends on the player and GM. As a GM, I never target a familiar unless the player is really asking for it. OTOH, if the player uses the familiar in minor ways to make his/her character interesting, I support it all the way.

 

[Jarval]

I've always been a big fan of familiars, but even more so when playing an Alienist (the Wizard PrC from Tome & Blood). They have the ability to do a True Strike once a day. Combined with the Deliver Touch Spells ability familiars gain at 3rd level, you get a guaranteed to hit dimensional anchor, disintergrate or any other touch spell

Of course, I also like the social aspect a familiar brings with it, especially for PbP gaming. It lets you carry on an internal monolog with good reason