Familiars much cooler than I ever realized!

[Sejs]

Familiars can be used as some sort of lame contingency with touch spells (i.e. Invisibility). Pluck your weasel into the pockets of the rogue and cast Invisibility on it (don't deliver the spell yet). The familiar can hold the charge indefinitely, as long as you do not cast another spell.

Or, at the higher levels - teleport. Have your familiar tag along with the scout and act as their emergency escape route.


Arcane Trickster with a monkey familiar is also great. The little guy can pick locks just as well as a human, after all. Familiars that can talk are fun. Familiars with hands are fun also

Yup, a very good combination. Imps (superior to quasits, IMO) are also great familiars for Arcane Tricksters.

Imps, definitly. Take 'human' as one of their two Alternate Forms and you're set.

 

[Shin Okada]

Raven Familiar can speak and thus can activate command word type items. It can use Ioun Stone for sure. You can store spells in Vibrant Purple Ioun Stone.

 

[Brekki]

There are two great spells for improving familiars here:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20030504x
- Planar Familiar (you have to get it through a ring of spellstoring, or be a mystic theurge or something because it's cleric 3) gives your familiar the celestial/fiendish or the Anarchic/whatsitsname templates for free, and it's instant, so no dispelling.
- Elemental familiar transforms your familiar into an elemental, especially the airtype is nice with flight 100 perfect, also a spell with instant duration.

Tome and Blood has:
- Enhance Familiar (+2 competence attack/saves/damage, +2 dodge AC), can be permanency'd
- Fortify Familiar (+2 enhancement to NA, 25% fortification, 2d8 temp HP), can be permanency'd
- Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability

And ofcourse the skills ... I always just assume the familiar is "aiding another", so +2 on attack or skills or stuff like that. Use Magic Device is the uberskill to use ... my loremaster loves it ... the familiar uses all the wands that are a little to weak a choice for the real casters ... but still do decent damage in combat.

 

[Treebore]

You all aught to take a look at Book of Familiars by Troll Lords Games. Everything you can think of and then some is in their, plus how to have familiars for every class. A very idea packed book for familiars.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Some problems -
attacking familiars are tiny - so they must enter opponents square to use aid another or attack-
wands are spell trigger items and since the familiar cant cast spells it only works if you have UMD skill ranks - like Bill.

I still savor the tale of my Battle Raven, my PC was KO'd in the first round vs a bbeg
so my raven spent most of the fight, aiding another (so what if the enemy mage gets a AoO) and creating flanking for the rogue.
When one enemy fled BR followed, making sure they didn't circle back,
compleatly avoiding a vicious trap the villian was counting on.

 

[dogboy]

New d20 Familiar book

I was at my local games store today and there was a book all about familiars that has just been released. Rules for using familiars with fighters as well. Also, there was a bard familiar called the Muse that gives inspiration to it's
master to allow him or her to create truly great songs. Only problem I saw with it was that there needed to be a bit more detail. But there was a Prestige Class called the Familiar Master that looked interesting.

 

[Thanee]

so my raven spent most of the fight, aiding another (so what if the enemy mage gets a AoO) and creating flanking for the rogue.

I don't think that would work (flanking), since with 0' reach, the raven has no threatened area.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Hypersmurf]

I don't think that would work (flanking), since with 0' reach, the raven has no threatened area.

Right. You need to Share an Enlarge Person with it.

Or cast Alter Self on it.

-Hyp.

 

[Kershek]

If you share Enlarge Person and the familiar moves more than 5' away from you, the Enlarge Person goes away for the familiar, right?

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

The CBoEM has enhance familiar, invisible familiar, and I think one or two more familiar-only spells.