Familiars: are they worth it?

Are familiars worth taking?

  • Yes; they are a valuable part of being a wizard/sorcerer.

    Votes: 120 64.2%
  • No; they are not much use and a constant danger to your xp total.

    Votes: 67 35.8%

For me it all depends on my DM. If I have a DM who gets off on killing any familiars, animal companions etc. then I don't bother, but if I have a DM who lets them be unless I use them as some kind of combatant (in which case they are fair game), I like having them for the added dimension they can add to the roleplaying.
 

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Familiars are okay, but I think the specialist wizard options you gain for giving up a familiar in Unearthed Arcana are more interesting and useful.
 

Hello,

Beyond the role playing aspect and the benefits listed above, there is one often overlooked ability of a familiar that is excellent. From the SRD:

Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master's skill ranks, whichever are better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar's total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar's ability to use.

While certain activities would be precluded, there is nothing stopping your familiar from assisting you with Knowledge, Spellcraft, etc. checks. In my current campaign, we have a wizard and a sorceress, both with familiars. There is rarely anything, particularly with the wizard who has many different knowledge skills, the four of them cannot puzzle out with Knowledge checks.

Taking this a step further, one idea I had was for a wizard PC was to take ranks in Use Magic Device and eventually take the Improved Familiar Feat. Select anything with hands and when the ranks transfer over, you could really have a very useful critter on your hands.

Hope this helps,
Ghostmoon
 

You need two more options:

*Yes, but....
*No, but....


They can add a lot to the game, but you end up spending so much time worrying about and protecting the familiar, that it can detract from the game.

Last session, I had my first character with a familiar. We started at 5th level. My PC has now lost 1000 x.p. and lost some cool abilities. And since it's a Hexblade who knows only two spells, 50% of his known spells are useless--Augment Familiar can not be used for a year and a day (until he gets another familiar).

C'est la vie.
Que sera sera.
S--- happens.
Life's a b----.

Now, I have some emotional reactions to work into the character as I play him. So, I agree with diaglo's comment: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," but I feel that I did gain something (some emotional depth for my PC) even as I lost something (some game mechanical advantage(s)).

So, I guess I'll go back and vote "yes" in the poll. But I can't stand players who never user their familiar (it's just a stat boost that never does anything)--they're just trying to keep their stat boost 100% safe. I don't think an intelligent animal is going to enjoy *doing nothing* for its entire life.
 

Jarval said:
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 :)
The true strike makes a real difference for the Alienist familier, but on my reading of the rules the familiar doesn't benefit from any of your alienist levels so say you're a Wiz 5 Alienist 10, you have the familiar of a 5th level wizard with the pseudo-natural template. While it will get off one touch attack which should succeed, it is not going to last very long if it flies into the sort of combat of 15th level characters have.
 

I love adding a familiar for roleplaying reasons, and the bump it gives you isn't bad. They are also great scouts, and good for party tricks. But mechanistically speaking they aren't much good in combat, and as you climb in level, they are so much excess baggage at times.

I think the problem is that familiars don't really gain in powers enough to keep up with the arcane casters spells. In addition, if you multiclass, they become even weaker, since they don't level. Yes, there are tricks you can use them for - delivering touch spells etc, but you usually have something more useful to do than that tactic.

I wish that the type of familiar a wizard possessed changed and grew in power as they level without spending a feat(s). The 20th level archmage with the extremely unmenacing toad just doesn't sit right with me.
 



My character is Ftr6/Abj 2 with a black cat familiar named Eilistraee. I have a miniature for her kindly provided by another player. The familiar was once (unfairly IMO) targeted by a water troll and should have died, but was just squeezed unconscious.

Otherwise, she helps with the constant Spot checks we have to make, and because of my fighter levels is decent in combat. +11/+11/+6 to hit at 1 pt. of damage each is a resource I keep in mind, esp. since we have decided that Tiny creatures do not provoke an AoO when entering a space if they only take a 5 ft. step. Eilistraee has about 22 hp, meaning that she's not usually in danger of insta-kills.

The familiar can also use my character's ranks in Tumble and Jump. Even though our communication is still limited to "empathy", little Eilistraee makes a decent scout ("Does Eilistraee feel threatened or scared?" "Yes?" "Everyone, some threat awaits.")

So yeah, I like my familiar.
 

I gotta go with the concensus here. If the DM makes a point of targeting dependants, avoid familiars at all costs... but on that note, play a monk and avoid getting too attached to your gear, because such DM's are fond of whittling down your characters, so prepare for a poor, lonely game.

For anything else, though, familiars are easily worth the cost. If your DM doesn't cheese and allow enemies to automatically know that that specific animal is really a familiar, you get a free Skill Focus and a talented scout. Or else it can be a fragile bit of "gear" that adds two feats. Depending on your playstyle.

Also, for people who seem down on familiars and multiclassing; the only things a familiar stops gaining when you multi out of wiz/sorc is its intelligence, natural armor, and special abilities. Its saves, BAB, hit points, and skill ranks are all still based on yours, and since it's hard to get worse than those values than a W/S, multiclassing is a little more even, at least as far as the familiar is concerned.
 

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