How do you keep your familiar alive?

[Tiberius]

Horrid Wilting is a great anti-familiar spell. It can affect multiple targets, does a great deal of damage, and grants a Fort rather than a Reflex save, thus bypassing Improved Evasion. Disintegrate is also pretty good, and an area-effect PWK will probably kill one, given their low hit points. Granted, these are all high-level options. For lower levels, I suggest Sleep followed by a CdG.

-Tiberius

 

[Pax]

Once you have a familiar, what steps or precautions, if any, do you take to keep it alive?

Shared spells. It hides behind me. Etc.

Do you get any use out of having a familiar, beyond the Alertness feat, etc.?

Well, currently I tend to wait until 5th or higher level, and take the Improved Familiar feat. My current favorite familiar type is (from the MC/Monsters of Faerun) the Beholderkin: Eyeball ... a lil' grapefruit-size mini-Beholder, heh!

The advantage there is, it delivers touch-spells through it's innate thirty-foot rays ... keeping it AND me out of harm's way.

 

[Artoomis]

Re: Re: How do you keep your familiar alive?

Well, currently I tend to wait until 5th or higher level, and take the Improved Familiar feat. My current favorite familiar type is (from the MC/Monsters of Faerun) the Beholderkin: Eyeball ... a lil' grapefruit-size mini-Beholder, heh!

The advantage there is, it delivers touch-spells through it's innate thirty-foot rays ... keeping it AND me out of harm's way.

Wow. Can you say, "Target!" As in, "Look Ma, that little eyeball thing is shooting rays at us. Let's kill it!!"

 

[Artoomis]

If the familiar is inside the master's robes, or even on his shoulder or something, we treat it as part of his equipment. Since it's not participating in the battle, we simplify things by not tracking its hit points.

Thats only fair if you do the same thing for mounts and other animals. The familiar is participating in the battle by helping/improving its master in some way.

Otherwise you are just giving the mage-type character a freebie.

 

[Artoomis]

I am talking about the classic toad in the wizard's (normal) robe pocket. It has been argued her before that such a critter cannot take damage unless the robe takes damage. And the robe will only take damage if the wearer rolls a "1" on a reflex save and then has the robe somehow come up as the one item harmed.

I agree that it sounds silly, but the point was put forth by someone with a good reputation, and it was not refuted. Do you, instead, apply all area-of-effect damage to familiars even if they are completely covered by the wizard's equipment?

In general, they cannot be completely covered - they have to breathe.

Familiars, if the wizard is getting any current benefit form them, should always be at some reasonable risk, as far as I am concerned. That's the way it is meant to be - the wizard should be worrying about his familiar all the time.

 

[Nail]

If the familiar is "part of your equipment" when in a (mundane) pocket, would it take damage from such spells as Circle of Doom?

from the SRD
Circle of Doom
Necromancy
Level: Clr 5, Destruction 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 20 ft.
Area: All living enemies and undead creatures within
a 20-ft.- radius burst centered on the character
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude half
Spell Resistance: Yes

Negative energy bursts in all directions from the point of origin, dealing 1d8 points of damage +1 point per caster level (maximum +20) to nearby living enemies.

(EDIT): My thinking is, "Yup, yer familiar (and you) are screwed."

 

[Pax]

Re: Re: Re: How do you keep your familiar alive?

Wow. Can you say, "Target!" As in, "Look Ma, that little eyeball thing is shooting rays at us. Let's kill it!!"

Which is why the Eyeball alays hoves within a foot or so of the mage or sorceror ... staying in the same square as the master gives the familiar 1/2 cover, for +4AC. It also means the familiar is within 5 feet, and so can share the sorceror's or wizard's defensive spells.

And IIRC (don't have the book myself, sadly), the Eyeball (a diminutive creature) has a darned good AC to begin with. Not to mention that all-around vision trick, heh.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If the familiar is "part of your equipment" when in a (mundane) pocket, would it take damage from such spells as Circle of Doom?

That's the exact spell I picked as an Anti-Familiar Device

In my opinion, if he's in a pocket (as opposed to a Pocket), he's vulnerable to AoE spells that don't require line of sight (like, say, Hypnotic Pattern).

-Hyp.

 

[Artoomis]

Re: Re: Re: Re: How do you keep your familiar alive?

Which is why the Eyeball alays hoves within a foot or so of the mage or sorceror ... staying in the same square as the master gives the familiar 1/2 cover, for +4AC. It also means the familiar is within 5 feet, and so can share the sorceror's or wizard's defensive spells.

And IIRC (don't have the book myself, sadly), the Eyeball (a diminutive creature) has a darned good AC to begin with. Not to mention that all-around vision trick, heh.

All good defensive stuff, no doubt. If I were an opposing wizard (ot two) I'd be using a lot of magic missles on that thing - perhaps you use share spells w/shield! In which case I'd use dispel magic first. Hopefully by then I'd be dead, eh?

 

[demon_jr]

These are some of the scenarios that runs through my mind about getting a familiar:

1. Our party is in battle. My familiar is near me and then I get hit by an area affect spell, which affects my familiar as well.

2. Our party is in battle, my familiar is land-based and next to me. A melee attacker comes next to me, but attacks my familiar instead.

3. An enemy wizard targets my familiar with spells such as magic missile, cone of cold, horrid wilting, etc.

4. Our party is in a battle over our heads and we need to escape. Everyone else in the party has teleportation spells or abilities, except for myself. I'm not sure if we would be able to get the teleporters in time.

These are just some extreme examples of what I fear for my familiar.

Let me clarify that my character is mainly a melee-type/spell-caster character, with pretty decent saves and a high amount of hit points. I find myself usually in the thick of things, since I am the main meeler of my party.