How do you keep your familiar alive?

[0-hr]

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.

But a piece of equipment can only be damaged if the bearer rolls a natural "1" on a reflex save, and then the item comes up as one of the top 4 on that chart. Since there is no "familiar" entry on that chart, you are saying that familiars are immune to all damage when inside the master's robes.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

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.

Your familiar has improved evasion so it saves for half or none on reflex saves which are most area effect spells. (except as noted circle of doom and horid wilting) Your familiar will in all likelyhood come out of this better than you.

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.

Unless your oppenent has something to fear from the familiar or some personal grudge with you, the familiar is much less likely to be attacked than you. If you are good at melee your opponent will not want to waste a round or two focusing on the non-threat while you pound on him. If you look like a caster you will be the target so you won't drop some fireball or something worse next round.

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

Magic missle, Acid Arrow or other direct attack spell can be targeted at the familiar (if he sticks around instead of hides) but once again wouldn't it be better to target the more direct threats. Cone of cold is an area reflex spell covered in 1. while if Horrid Wilting is cast you have bigger problems than just your familiar.

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.

Why are you the being left behind? if your party abandons you to your fate once again you have a bigger problem than your familiar. Teleports also carry 50lbs a level so hopefully you can hitch a ride with someone.

With Improved evasion and your high HPs, plus the fact that it can hide behind/on you for greater cover, unless your DM is vindictive against familiars I would not be too worried about it. The little buggers are tougher than you might think. They can be raised as well if they die, just like you.

Now compare the risks to the benefits that they provide like scouting, spying, messenger service, and all kinds of other non-combat uses, and I will always opt to take a familiar whenever allowed.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I don't have any wizards with familiars in my game, but I do have characters with animal companions (druid, cleric w/animal domain) and are high enough level to have speak with animal items and/or awakened animals. They keep their smaller creatures alive with tactics.

small creatures do scouting but not combat. The dogs make excellent scouts and can also detect invisible or well hidden foes (scent). They will fight animals and beasts but can tell that abherrations, outsiders et. al smell way too much like freaky predators to attack without great reason. The birds are primarily scouts but will also make flank attacks against unexpecting foes. They've been trained/directed to work opposite the rogues first. So what if the d3-2 doesn't hurt the target; the 6d6 sneak attacks will make short work of many foes.

The awakened badger won't attack something bigger than Large, despite being a psychotic little barbarian. He will often use stealth (tunneling) to hide or sneak up on opponents. Northing like 30lbs of angry teeth and claws exploding out of the ground behind you in a flanking position.

From my own experience as a wizard with familiars, away from their master they should use cover and concealment. Trees can provide 9/10th cover, while uncut grass and underbrush gives 9/10th concealment. I've also been known to cast spells directly on the familiar and provide them with magic items (armor, resistance, darkvision, dex boosts, invisibility, etc).

And, while the whole "pocket providing protection" thing bothers me as a GM (why doesn't the gnome ride in the ogre's backpack and get full cover too?) instead I rule that wizardsautomatically interpose themselves between the familiar and the spell, providing full cover as long as the familiar was in the same 5' square. The familiar also automatically leaps/flys/whatever in the direction most helpful (due to the empathic link).

 

[AuraSeer]

[...]you are saying that familiars are immune to all damage when inside the master's robes.

Pretty much, yeah.
Nobody is going to go out of its way to attack my pocket, so the familiar is safe from all but area spells. Rather than roll an extra Reflex save (with a large cover bonus) every time, and deal with its SR, and keep track of an extra set of hit points, and remember to count the familiar for spells limited by HD, and so on, we simplify bookkeeping by ignoring the familiar when it's "put away".

While the familiar is sleeping or hiding, it grants the master no benefits at all, so there's no free lunch here. I suppose that this rule could be abused to protect a familiar with ranged special abilities, or a combat-effective one that has been wounded, but we've never had any of those IMC so the issue hasn't come up.

[Edited to add
I should point out that my party contains 7 PCs, two familiars, a paladin's mount, and the bard's unicorn cohort. Plus there are the occasional summoned monsters, and a figurine of wondrous power or two. Combat takes long enough as it is, so anything that extends it is to be avoided.

 

[Hypersmurf]

While the familiar is sleeping or hiding, it grants the master no benefits at all, so there's no free lunch here.

If someone in your group chose a Toad as a familiar, would you include the Con bonus in that? Would the wizard lose 10 hit points and a point of Fort save because his toad was asleep?

-Hyp.

 

[Pax]

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

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?

Of course, shared Shield, precisely because of Magic Missile (the cover bonusses, ofc, wouldn't stack).

As for being dead by then ... largely a familiar like that is good for delivering repeated-use touch spells ... like the ever-loving Chill Touch (hey, how many wizards can make Fortitude saves regularly, and have enough Strength to handle a half-dozen or more points of drain over time?

Pop a haste on me, use the partial action to ready an anti-Dispel counterspell action, pump a chill touch through the familiar, etc, etc.

Oh, and "Touch" is a "fixed range" -- so a Persistent Chill touch each morning, via the Familiar, is a very real possibility (heh!). Not to mention shared See Invisible, shared Blur / Displacement, shared Cat's Grace, and on, and on, and on ... 8D

Not to mention a few of the T&B Familiar-enhancement spells, like ... Enhance Familiar (+2 to all saves, combat rolls, and AC), Fortify Familiar (+2 natural armor, 25% resistance to criticals), and Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability (who says that *I* cast that chill touch, heh!).

All that without even looking at Permanent magics, magic items, and so on. I can see slipping a ring or two on some of the eyestalks; maybe strapping a lens to one or two of them, and so on.

 

[Pax]

While the familiar is sleeping or hiding, it grants the master no benefits at all, so there's no free lunch here. I suppose that this rule could be abused to protect a familiar with ranged special abilities, or a combat-effective one that has been wounded, but we've never had any of those IMC so the issue hasn't come up.

Um.

You DO realise, cats spend some 80% or more of their lives asleep, right?

I wouldn't like if my DM nerfed familiar benefits just because the familiar went to sleep. MAYBE the Alertness, but even then -- animals tend to be very alert even when asleep (try to sneak up on a sleeping stray cat someday ....).

 

[Hypersmurf]

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

Oh, and "Touch" is a "fixed range" -- so a Persistent Chill touch each morning, via the Familiar, is a very real possibility (heh!). Not to mention shared See Invisible, shared Blur / Displacement, shared Cat's Grace, and on, and on, and on ... 8D

The errata on the persistent spell feat(from the FRCS errata) specifically states: "Spells of instantaneous duration, spells with a range of touch, and spells whose effects are discharged cannot be affected by this feat."

-Hyp.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

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

too slow.

 

[AuraSeer]

I wouldn't like if my DM nerfed familiar benefits just because the familiar went to sleep. MAYBE the Alertness, but even then -- animals tend to be very alert even when asleep (try to sneak up on a sleeping stray cat someday ....).

The DM isn't nerfing familiars. The whole thing is just to simplify bookkeeping and make combat go faster.

If the familiar is not participating in combat, he's "sleeping" (in a backpack or a pocket or whatever). The caster loses all benefits except a stat increase, and in exchange, we assume the familiar survives without injury.

This doesn't mean the familiar has to be sleeping. If you want to use him to deliver touch attacks, or whatever, wake him up and send him out. But be aware that a monster might stomp him if he makes himself an obvious or dangerous target.