Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="kevtar" data-source="post: 5864341" data-attributes="member: 27098">I was rolling up a 1st edition drow magic user tonight. The PC was 4th level and as I was choosing spells, I decided to choose &quot;Find Familiar.&quot; First, I spent the $ for components, etc... then I rolled a D20 and got a 15! - that's a special familiar. We look at my options and decide to choose Pseudodragon. We roll for magic resistance and all that stuff and the familiar answered.All of this got me thinking about how familiars should be handled in 5e. I've had a love/hate relationship with familiars over the years, but I definitely think they should be included in 5e, the question is &quot;how?&quot; I don't think familiars should be a baseline class feature. They should be optional. However, if players choose to have a familiar, how should they gain access to a familiar, what are the benefits, and what are the drawbacks?Personally, I think how players get access to familiars depends on how a familiar affects the PC - the pros &amp; cons so to speak. For instance, if a familiar has very little impact on a PC (both bonuses and consequences for familiar death - if any), then I think the familiar should be granted via a &quot;Find Familiar&quot; spell. It's not a big investment (like a feat) and it can be recast if the familiar dies.If the familiar has a larger impact on the PC, then perhaps a feat is the best method of acquisition. Investing in a feat should provide a fairly robust trade-off for the player.Another option would be a choice from amongst other class features, but if this is the case, I believe the benefits should be slight with little or no negative consequences for familiar death. Class features that bite you in the rear are not very fun.What do you think?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kevtar, post: 5864341, member: 27098"] I was rolling up a 1st edition drow magic user tonight. The PC was 4th level and as I was choosing spells, I decided to choose "Find Familiar." First, I spent the $ for components, etc... then I rolled a D20 and got a 15! - that's a [I]special[/I] familiar. We look at my options and decide to choose Pseudodragon. We roll for magic resistance and all that stuff and the familiar answered. All of this got me thinking about how familiars should be handled in 5e. I've had a love/hate relationship with familiars over the years, but I definitely think they should be included in 5e, the question is "how?" I don't think familiars should be a baseline class feature. They should be optional. However, if players choose to have a familiar, how should they gain access to a familiar, what are the benefits, and what are the drawbacks? Personally, I think how players get access to familiars depends on how a familiar affects the PC - the pros & cons so to speak. For instance, if a familiar has very little impact on a PC (both bonuses and consequences for familiar death - if any), then I think the familiar should be granted via a "Find Familiar" spell. It's not a big investment (like a feat) and it can be recast if the familiar dies. If the familiar has a larger impact on the PC, then perhaps a feat is the best method of acquisition. Investing in a feat should provide a fairly robust trade-off for the player. Another option would be a choice from amongst other class features, but if this is the case, I believe the benefits should be slight with little or no negative consequences for familiar death. Class features that bite you in the rear are not very fun. What do you think? [/QUOTE]

Verification