Interesting Familiar?

[LazarusLong42]

So, our party's sorcerer, who has never had a familiar, did some really cool role-playing in return for a few minutes of etherealness which affected the game only in a role-playing sense. (Sudden burst of magical energy, young sorcerer, blah blah, it was cool.)

He's now looking into getting a familiar. Are there any familiar-sized ethereal creatures (i.e. something that would fit with the Improved Familiar feat), or am I going to have to make something up? Suggestions?

 

[der_kluge]

Nothing's coming to mind, but you could just take any normal familiar and apply the incorporeal template to it (Assuming such a thing exists). Just give it the capability to go ethereal a couple of times per day. At will would be totally game breaking, as the sorcerer would be using it to spy *everywhere*.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It has not been thought about (that I have seen) but the whole Living Spells thing could produce some interesting familiars.

 

[Plane Sailing]

You could take an existing creature of the ethereal plane (ethereal filcher, phase spider?) and use the monster advancement rules to shrink it down to Diminutive size.

Alternatively a Blink Dog might be good - but it ought to be a Blink Puppy (and if/when the sorcerer takes the leadership feat it can mature into a fully grown blink dog)

 

[Voadam]

So, our party's sorcerer, who has never had a familiar, did some really cool role-playing in return for a few minutes of etherealness which affected the game only in a role-playing sense. (Sudden burst of magical energy, young sorcerer, blah blah, it was cool.)

He's now looking into getting a familiar. Are there any familiar-sized ethereal creatures (i.e. something that would fit with the Improved Familiar feat), or am I going to have to make something up? Suggestions?

Apply the ghost template to a familiar animal.

Ghost raven seems pretty atmospheric.

By the rules the ghost base creatures must have a Cha of at least 6 but there are ways around this (elite stat array is one option).

 

[BastionPress_Creech]

Take a look at Dark Quest's Dwoemercraft: Familiars. You'll find some good options there.