Mourning the loss of my familiar

[was]

If you have a 'home base' or a house that you regularly go back to between adventures, chances are there is at least one cast off feather laying around.

 

[beaver1024]

The familiar is a game feature to penalise sorc/wizs. Don't worry like most people, you got sucked into believing that a familiar is actually anything other than a couple of crappy feats. You're better off without one anyway.

 

[moritheil]

Stop adventuring. Find a nice town and tell the DM you are taking it easy until you get a familar again.

Aside from wanting to tell you to correct "mourning," "feinting," and "spotting," I want to tell you to listen to Crothian's advice, because his is by far the least annoying way to get your point across to the DM.

 

[moritheil]

You'd think the familiar would have left bits of feather or whatnot in your character's bag or something. Or your PC would've been smart enough to keep a feather, even if your character sheet didn't explicitly say so...

Uh, that's not really a good thing to argue after the fact. That gets into the famous Dead Alewives' "Mordekainen's Faithful Watchdog" skit.

 

[Quemar]

Aside from wanting to tell you to correct "mourning," "feinting," and "spotting,"

oops

I want to tell you to listen to Crothian's advice, because his is by far the least annoying way to get your point across to the DM.

I think you're right. Not sure how he, or the group would take it. However, if he says that the character can't go back and also finish the adventure, well then, I'll just whip out my pre-rolled alternate character that I have been itching to try out...

 

[Antaris Necilothalus]

So how about this for an addition to the rule?



When a sorcerer/wizard wants to obtain a new familiar before the year and a day wait expires, he/she needs to entice a new familiar to overcome the negative karma of a previous familiar dying or being dismissed.



For every month that remains on the year & a day (Y&D) timeframe for the character, he/she needs to expend XP and more GP to attract the new familiar into service.



100 XP AND 100gp per month remaining on Y&D. (Note that this is in addition to the price paid for losing the familiar & the price paid to summon a new familiar.)



The cost shouldn’t grow with the character gaining levels because a familiar would be enticed more by becoming a familiar of a higher level mage. Also this doesn’t limit a mage’s ability to have a familiar, especially in campaigns that are time consequent like the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. He/she just has to pay the price for obtaining it early.



As an example…a 10th level wizard dismissed his familiar, paying the normal XP penalties for doing so. After two months have passed he realizes that he wants a new familiar but attempts to summon one by normal means hasn’t worked. He pays 1000XP & 1100gp to summon a new familiar and low and behold a new familiar appears, ready to be slaughtered.



Sorry…that last bit was more for a DM chuckle.

 

[Quemar]

So how about this for an addition to the rule?



When a sorcerer/wizard wants to obtain a new familiar before the year and a day wait expires, he/she needs to entice a new familiar to overcome the negative karma of a previous familiar dying or being dismissed.



For every month that remains on the year & a day (Y&D) timeframe for the character, he/she needs to expend XP and more GP to attract the new familiar into service.



100 XP AND 100gp per month remaining on Y&D. (Note that this is in addition to the price paid for losing the familiar & the price paid to summon a new familiar.)



The cost shouldn’t grow with the character gaining levels because a familiar would be enticed more by becoming a familiar of a higher level mage. Also this doesn’t limit a mage’s ability to have a familiar, especially in campaigns that are time consequent like the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. He/she just has to pay the price for obtaining it early.



As an example…a 10th level wizard dismissed his familiar, paying the normal XP penalties for doing so. After two months have passed he realizes that he wants a new familiar but attempts to summon one by normal means hasn’t worked. He pays 1000XP & 1100gp to summon a new familiar and low and behold a new familiar appears, ready to be slaughtered.



Sorry…that last bit was more for a DM chuckle.

For those watching this thread, Antaris Necilothalus and I have dug through are notes and talked with other players about what they remember (it's been a while). It turns out that I am more at fault then I first thought.

When we decended into the moat house, I had decided to leave my raven out to keep it safe. After that, and not actively paying any attention to the raven, I forgot that I had it. I admit that it is my fault for forgetting, but I do have ADD and a really bad memory. And Aoric (the character in question), certainly wouldn't forget him. However, it's not the DM's duty to keep track of my familiar for me.

That said, I could either keep my raven (i.e. that last time we went to town he caught up to me), or follow the above formula to get a new one. I thank Antaris Necilothalus for being gracious enough to compromise, but I think the cost is too high.

When you look at it, there are only a few things you gain from a familiar. In my case, you gain Alertness (when's the last time you used it?), +3 to bluff, Touch Spells, and he would have Scent. I think just getting the spell Darkvision, and some magic item that gave you pluses to bluff would cost the same, and you wouldn't loose any XP.

So, that said, I think I'll pass, and head off to town to get me a Darkvision scroll.

Thanks again everyone!