Have you ever killed a familiar?

[adwyn]

Once I started putting figs for the familiars on the table I found that familiar deaths rose dramatically.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Killed a few but mainly by AE spells. They really aren't worth targeting in most combats.

A dead familiar is the favored way of one particular lich to inform mages they shouldn't meddle in affairs of their betters.

 

[Mithril Dragon]

I should explain that the campaigns that I have run in the past did have a "react realistically" rule in play meaning that I wasn't going to allow a player to send an NPC human being into mortal danger just to preserve their empathically-linked rodent familiar. of course, captured goblinoids are another story. But they have tendency to squeal when put to torture so they don't make the best spies.
Anyway, they probaby didn't die as often as I remember. Its just that funny memories stand out.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Normally my players are very careful to protect their pets, so there havn't been many familiar deaths in my campaigns. There was that one glorious moment though, when I killed off two familiars and a ranger's dog companion with one Cone of Cold from an ogre mage. The group was in shock!

 

[sniffles]

I should explain that the campaigns that I have run in the past did have a "react realistically" rule in play meaning that I wasn't going to allow a player to send an NPC human being into mortal danger just to preserve their empathically-linked rodent familiar. of course, captured goblinoids are another story. But they have tendency to squeal when put to torture so they don't make the best spies.
Anyway, they probaby didn't die as often as I remember. Its just that funny memories stand out.

Why would a NPC be more valuable than the empathically-linked familiar? Not that they wouldn't be, but there are many people out in the real world who think animals are just as important or more so than people. Depending on the PC, he might think it was worth it to lose the NPC instead of the familiar.

I once lost a ranger's animal companion and found it quite traumatic. The GM allowed me to have a dire wolf from 1st level (it was AD&D). At a major moment in the plot the party was facing off with the FR deity Myrkul, who sent a blast of evil energy at my PC. Her dire wolf (which was mostly run by the GM) leaped courageously in front of her and vanished in a puff of nastiness. She was horrified. I was surprised how much it affected me. I guess I was really attached to that wolf. It was a great plot moment, though; the wolf had always been unusually intelligent, and it turned out to be because it contained the spirit of my PC's deceased mother. So it was a double whammy to lose the animal companion and make that shocking discovery.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Guy had a cat familiar, kept saying how he let it out at night to 'see how many kittens it can make tonight'. Eventually, cat got caught be a sorceress who wasn't to happy about her mittens being defiled. Kept his cat hostage, threatened to kill it.

Cat sends out empathic link: "HELP ME!". Party comes running. As they get close, the 'empathic link' experiences sensation overload as the wizard collapses in empathic pain. Rest of party finally find cat (minus a few pieces) in an alleyway.

No more kitty-mongering for THAT familiar.

Consider the idea snatched! I have a player in my group who always plays a wizard, and I can just see the look on his face as I describe the empathic link- sensory input he's getting!

 

[Driddle]

The one-year replacement delay makes the loss of a familiar more serious than that of an animal companion.

 

[Joshua Randall]

The one-year replacement delay means that in most campaigns, if you lose a familiar, you are not getting another one -- because most PCs will hit 20th level in less than one year of game time.

Aren't there some spells in Tome & Blood (and maybe ported over to Complete Arcane) that let you raise/resurrect your familiar?

 

[Brain]

Yeah, they die very often in the games I've played in. To the point where some of my friends won't even bother with them because they will just die.

 

[Zappo]

Yeah, I killed my aunt.

...what do you mean, "not that sort of familiar"?