Hands up if you use a familiar!

[Rystil Arden]

Would an Assassin count as an arcane class?

For that feat, yes it would.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

My hexblade had a familiar. It died the first night we played. One of the PC's two spells was Augment Familiar. Them's the breaks!

My FR wizard had a familiar, but that game got cancelled after one session. He had taken a bunch of familiar-oriented spells (Familliar Pocket, Enhance Familiar, and Fortify Familiar), but I don't know how much the PC would have used the familiar since the game died.

My Eberron wizard has a familiar. It's got the best or second best Spot in the party, but that's pretty much all the wizard ever asks it to do.

 

[Diirk]

I'll second, third and fourth this observation. Improved Familiar can be a killer. The wizard I'm running now has the Air Mephit Diirk mentioned, and he's awesome. A familiar that can use equipment is a huge asset...a familair that can use MAGICAL equipment is a fiend. My DM felt the need to nerf the UMD skill, only giving my familar half my ranks, otherwise the familiar was in danger of outshining some of the actual PCs.

I was strongly considering UMD with my character for exactly those reasons... however as a gnome sorceror with 10 int, I don't really have enough skill points ;/

 

[Yig]

My rogue/sorcerer has a viper familiar.

For the +3 to Bluff

 

[Demoquin]

WEll i might take the Raven or the bat with my Rogue Assassin Invisible Blade. The spot checks would be great and can be used as a scout. Maybe to even help in a few assassination attempts

 

[Brekki]

How do you move into and out of your Familiar Pocket in the same round? I thought you could only move before OR after your action?

According to the spell, it's a free action for me to "whisk it inside the pocket" ... also "the familiar can leave the space as a free action, or you can call it forth as a free action" (from Tome & Blood) ... so there's no move-action involved.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I was thinking of a dragon I am building taking a familiar.
whee! 93 hp BAB +18.
option 1 taking a sorcerer level, stacks with odd numbered age based Clvl
option 2 taking obtain familiar feat - grants +8 NAC and +6 int, spell reistance(24), scrying etc
After considering - she picked up a bat. With the feat. It was the SR and Scrying that tipped me over, along with the fact she normally hunts at night. She also picked up touch of idiocy.
This will really PO enemy spell casters.
perhaps later using a second feat to upgrade it to an Imp might be more useful..or earth elemental just for the power attack alone- it slides up out of the ground and bashes someone at +10(1d6+11) or least flame snake (FF) cr 1, scent, posion, less obvious than an elemental.

 

[moritheil]

I was strongly considering UMD with my character for exactly those reasons... however as a gnome sorceror with 10 int, I don't really have enough skill points ;/

The Artificer in our group is about as good as having a wizard and cleric at 2 levels below the regular party members, PLUS a decent archer, all rolled into one. To say nothing of his ability to fix and make things for the party (a nontrivial task for 10 characters).

You can't afford to burn scrolls all the time, but a scroll sure can help when it's needed.

I highly recommend familiars, as long as you don't plan to do stupid things like sending them into combat with superior enemies and then not backing them up.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Despite possessing only three wizard levels, my necrotheurge has a rat familiar that I wouldn't give up. He doesn't use the familiar for anything, but it's thematically appropriate, and the +2 to Fortitude saves has saved his bacon on at least three occasions.

Generally speaking, for classes in which the familiar's powers don't improve, the only really worthwhile familiars (roleplaying aside) are those that improve saves. Otherwise, do without; they're fragile. (Or even better, convince your DM to give you another ability in place of the familiar, a la Unearthed Arcana.)

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm trying out a dire bat Companion Familiar with an Arcane Hierophant (Races of the Wild) at the moment.

Let you know how it goes

-Hyp.