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<blockquote data-quote="BVB" data-source="post: 924150" data-attributes="member: 12155">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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BVB, post: 924150, member: 12155"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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