Familiars: Does EVERYONE take the toad?

[idum]

Actually my Rog3/Src1 have a toad as a familiar. But the choice isn't for to +2CON (or at least not only).
My ToràK is an Halfling, in a Elves-dominated-world. He is a noble halfling, good behaviour and so on, and he want to demostrate that even a minor race as Halfling is full of good people. Now, a raven, or a cat... well, there are elven-wizards choices. Toad is ok, 'cause even a minor familiar as a Toad can be a good familiar.

It is very funny to play. Wrak, my toad, is an interesting familiar. When a group is in a stale situation, a "wrak wrak" fill the room

Ok ok.. sorry for my english. I hope you understand what i mean..

 

[diaglo]

You forgot our pet muchkin's wolverine (squish).

Yeah, I've only seen 1/4 toads recently (that's one of four, not one quarter ).

oops i forgot he took a level of sorc. i kept thinking it was an animal companion for his druid levels.

 

[BVB]

re raven: my friend's familiar's name was Inkwell.

re Dragon magazine: I forget which issue it was, but Dragon listed several optional familiars and a few related feats and spells. I particularly liked the dog familiar (+2 Sense Motive), and the feat that allowed the wizard to transform his familiar into a small token at will. Handy protection, eh? The multiple familiars feat also rocked.

re toads: isn't a toad familiar almost a liability? The animal gives +1 HP per level; so if he dies, not only does the wizard suffer the usual stuff, but he also loses X hitpoints, too. It's almost a double attack.

re bonuses: And I forget right now, but don't the bonuses only apply if the familiar is within a certain range of the mage?

re toads again: As a boy growing up in semi-rural Oklahoma, I had plenty of experience with toads. I can confirm that in my part of the world, toads are mostly dry and dusty. Sure, they need water -- I used to collect tadpoles in bowls during the spring as though they were goldfish -- and adult toads spend most of their day sleeping in slightly moist soil or under the edges of rocks out of the sun. But they're hardy little creatures otherwise; it's not as though you have to keep them wrapped in wet gauze all day. (My second hobby as a kid was collecting junebugs; the toads would gather under lightposts at night and snack on any bug that flew too close; we'd toss the beetles right in front of their noses and be delighted to watch their lightning-quick tongues in action.)

Toads are on the familiar list, I think, because of the old images of witches with their familiars -- black cats, ravens and toads were somehow related to black magic. Superstition.

 

[Gez]

I have two characters that may end up with familiars. The first would go for a fox, the second for a raven. Toad ? It's out of question!

IMC, fox (a Tiny red fox, not the big published in a Dragon issue) is the usual familiar of gnomes -- since gnomes may speak with burrowing mammals, most had a fox pet since their childhood that naturally becomes their familiar if they become wizard or sorcerer. For both rock and forest gnomes. Deep gnomes favor lizards or other underground animal, obviously, and the elusive night gnomes prefer owls or cats.

Elves are usually attracted to eagles. Wood elves favor owls, more at home in forests, while grey elves (IMC, sea-goers) go for albatros.

Dwarves of all subraces like dogs.

Halflings have varied tastes in familiars, but dogs, cats, ravens and these tiny dexterous monkeys are popular.

 

[BVB]

re 'horny toads': They're lizards, not toads.

About 25 years or so ago, the outskirts of the Oklahoma City metro area had a decent horned lizard population. I also caught my share of them; we called 'em "horny toads" because they're covered with little spikes. They're actually quite adorable creatures and I miss seeing them around. They ran very fast and were excellent entertainment for a kid. Horny toads eat ants; as housing additions spread, their environment and food source shrunk at a drastic rate. I don't think we have very many left in this area anymore -- if you go to an official wildlife website and look at a map, I think their range is limited now to part of Texas(?) or some other arid state (I forget).

 

[am181d]

I've run a game at Origins where all the PCs are 1st-level spell casters. It's all for laughs. The characters were all reverse-twinked. (Twonked?)

All of the pre-gen characters had a toad as their familiar, except for the one, who "unfortunately" also had a Con of 5 and 1 hit point.

His familiar was a raven who spoke orcish. (The wizard did not speak orcish.)

 

[Nephet]

I like rats. Nobody suspects the rat because regular rats are everywhere.

 

[Gez]

By the way, another familiar that I would find interesting is the flying snake from Races of Faerûn (not the winged viper from the FRCS). I would call it "Quetzal".

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Mis-post, sorry.

I meant to say, I made a 7th-level wizard recently, and forgot his familiar entirely.

 

[Carnifex]

One of my PC's is a planar beholderkin wizard (long story) who has as his familiar a rather mouthy raven from Sigil