Hands up if you use a familiar!

[Scratched_back]

I'm currently running a 9th Level Sun Elf Fighter/Wizard/Eldritch Knight. If you've read the gamebreaker thread then you're already familiar (ho ho ho, what a pun) with him. What I'd very much like to know is this; Out of all the classes allowed a familiar, how many of you take advantage of it?

I can only read the books and theorise on a familiar's effectiveness, therefore I need a second opinion, what better place to ask than EN World!

If I've read the rules correctly, their increases in power are gauged by WIZARD levels, not caster levels, so my familiar would pretty much cap out as a 5th level wizard's familiar, but is it worth the risk for the potential XP loss?

For those of you using a familiar:

1) How often do you use it to good effect?
2) Could this effect be replicated by other means?
3) Do you find yourself going out of your way to protect your familiar?
4) To the point, could you get along just fine without it?

Cheers all.

 

[Diirk]

Their increases in power (int, special abilities etc) are determined by wizard/sorceror levels, however their BAB, base saves, hp etc are determined by your combined character totals, not solely your caster levels. This makes them alot handier.

Personally, an improved familiar air mephit appeals to me.. give it mithril chain, maybe a buckler, a bow and cast flame dagger (FR spell.. similar to flame blade) on it. It can blur itself, feel free to buff it with false life, mirror image etc tho. But be careful with it, if it dies you can't raise it; its an outsider.

Of course none of that applies if you only have 5 wizard levels

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Everyone,

For me - or should I say Lucifus Cray - his familiar is more for flavour than anything else. Winter, his raven is a neat choice though for several reasons. As a merchant and dealer of books, arcane devices and various diabolerie, Lucifus gets a nice lift from bonuses to appraise - a key skill in the field. The fact that she can talk to him in both their private language as well as another more common language is good too. She does not get involved too much in the hurly burly of adventuring. Lucifus would hate to lose her. The fact that she becomes a psuedonatural creature when he next goes up a level - he is quite the alienist - will add to the overall mystique of the character as well.

[pimp]
Why don't you pop over to my thread (see sig) for a read of how he uses his familiar - particularly the first post. It's a little bit of fun (most people think his familiar is a toad carried around by Tunthi). The toad is another story altogether.
[/pimp]

For those of you using a familiar:

1) How often do you use it to good effect?
2) Could this effect be replicated by other means?
3) Do you find yourself going out of your way to protect your familiar?
4) To the point, could you get along just fine without it?

1) It? She who is the cat's mother? Only joking - not too many familiars would normally be referred to by their partners as "it".
Anyway: most likely never in terms of game mechanics, combat etc. However, in terms of role-playing Winter's fun.
2) No. In terms of combat though, fa amiliar's just not tough enough normally to cut the mustard unless you don't mind risking a good chance of losing them.
3) Yes. Extradimensional pockets etc. are par for the course. So is leaving a familiar to guard your tower.
4) As a player - of course. In terms of my character, he would kill himself if she died and he could not bring her back. They are more tightly entwined in terms of a relationship than perhaps any other in the game - normally.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

PS: I hope you read my story - I think you'll like it.

 

[Thanee]

I like familiars, especially raven familiars. Yes, of course, their effectiveness can be replicated, but that would cost resources, which otherwise you can use for different tasks. The familiar is basically free, and there are quite a few nice ways to make good use of one, mainly as a scout or messanger. Why waste an Invisibility spell, if the familiar can scout ahead for free?

I do not go out of my way to protect the familiar, tho I do not send it into tight situations and only rarely if ever make use of its powers in combat. On the flip side, the DM also does not go out of his way to kill it, which would be a pointless metagaming exercise in most cases (unless, of course, the familiar is actively used to harrass opponents, then it's fair to target them, but wasting attacks on a familiar just to annoy the caster would be idiocy - area effects are a different matter, but that's what Improved Evasion is for and a flying familiar can usually stay out of harms way pretty easily).

Of course, one can live without a familiar, but doing so reduces your options. It's like never using a spell slot, just because you don't *really* need it. You can do it that way, but there is very little reason to do so.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Oh, one more thing. Wizard level, while you read that correctly, is almost irrelevant for the familiar. The really important abilities are gained from your totals, especially hit points (for example, the familiar of our Dragon Disciple, while he has only a single Sorcerer level, has about as many hit points as my Sorceress (and those are pretty high, 81 hp at 12th level); tough little critter ), base saves and skill ranks (highly useful!).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Mekabar]

Being a Fighter/Mage actually improves the familiars value quite a bit. Although it lacks in the Familiar special abilities compared to a pure caster (unless you take the obatain Familiar feat), your sidekick gets way better HP and BAB from you. This also makes the improved Familiar feat more attractive, because such a Familiar can actually contribute to combat (although this remains dangerous). The result of this is that the class that can have the most effective Familiars is the Hexblade.

 

[Scratched_back]

Being a Fighter/Mage actually improves the familiars value quite a bit. Although it lacks in the Familiar special abilities compared to a pure caster (unless you take the obatain Familiar feat), your sidekick gets way better HP and BAB from you.

So even without taking a feat to compliment it, you think a familiar would be a worthwhile commodity? In an ideal world, something like "Improved Familiar" would be a good choice for me, but I simply don't have the feats to spare.

I do like the idea of having some kind of flying companion though, so I think I shall look into it further...

 

[Seeten]

My Necromancer 5/Pale master 8 has an imp as a familiar. I also have the turn familiar undead when it dies spell, so I dont fear level loss/etc. The imp is amazingly useful.

 

[jodyjohnson]

I have one if only for the nightwatchman with Scent, Low-light vision and Darkvision. Doing the "wake me up before I die" action.

He also does the Assist action on various skill checks like Search or Disable device (rogue/wizard with rat).

2 Spot checks, 2 listen checks.

Minor scouting.

 

[Sledge]

My epic character has a snake that fight alongside him (lotsa buffing), and my semi-retired Lord Celiss has a "familiar mount" from In The Saddle. Another character has a talking sword that fills the role of familiar even if no special abilities are granted.

With regards to usage, the Epic character uses his familiar half of the time only. The rest of the time the familiar tends to important matters that would other wise require the character to be in two places at once. A lot of the mundane familiar abilities are now filled by spells. However some of his class abilities are dependent on Alertness so the familiar makes them available.

Lord Celiss with his mount prefers to have it always available. In combat the pair are disgustingly dangerous. The whole character concept has evolved around this match, so I don't think they would function well apart.

The third character doesn't really gain anything since it isn't a real familiar.