No familiar, thanks.

[Hunter In Darkness]

love them myself and our games are more based on fun and flavor then "BALANCE ' im very opent to new types of familers we enjoy them greatly adds to the flavor of the game after all

 

[Greg K]

Personally, in 3.75/4e/whatever comes next, I'd rather the familiar be replaced with several options, one of which can be a familiar, and give alternatives)

I would want them to do it for most class special abilities.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Well, Sorcerer in PHBII gets "Metamagic specialist" at 1st level, they can apply metamagic feats to spells they know without increasing casting time.

And wizards get "immediate magic" which gives them a spell-like ability from their specialist class.

Frankly, i'd sooner take the staff over either of those... mind if i Yoink it?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yoink away.

Some d20 publisher needs to publish that sucker. Or maybe I should tart it up a bit more and submit it to Dragon.

 

[Remathilis]

If I recall correctly, Complete Mage and Dragon Magic both have alternate class features for wizards, I think One of them has to deal with familiars...

 

[WarlockLord]

My drow wizard has kind of a fun familar: Basil the Bat. He likes beer. In battle, he is sent soaring upwards for a bird's eye view of the battlefield, or left at the inn with his beer.



EDIT: He rarely drinks, but the concept of a beer-chugging bat is too fun to ignore.

 

[Greylock]

Dragon Magazine had Flaws for Sorcerers in one of the Class Acts articles. One Flaw was Loner: Cannot ever have a Familiar.

I use this Flaw in my Sorcerers. Although the drawbacks tend to equal the benefits, getting a chosen Feat for a disliked and unwanted Class Ability is not a bad thing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Whether familiars are an asset, a liability, or neutral depends upon your DM.

The last few PCs I've played who had familiars or (animal companions) have all seen them killed. Most of them were just flying around or somewhere away from the main body of the party, so the pain my PCs experienced was essentially an "early warning" system for one ambush...

So I don't use familiars with those DMs anymore- not worth it.

Faced with those DMs who have been so kill-happy, and who won't give me an alternative to a familar, I stopped playing classes that get that as a feature.

I'll still take a chance with other DMs, though.

 

[howandwhy99]

Olgar, send it in to Dragon. It's a kick-ass idea. One thing I just noticed as I read over it again:

In addition, the wizard may use the staff to "lose" a prepared spell slot and spontaneously cast a "signature spell" the level of that spell slot or below. This casting is a standard action which draws attacks of opportunity.

Making every signature spell a Standard Action casting time will probably lead to trouble. The summoning suite alone is enough to give me pause. And you know I like that 30 min Guards and Wards spell.

 

[Driddle]

Whether familiars are an asset, a liability, or neutral depends upon your DM.

AND the individual's playing style.

it's not as though a familiar is really all that hardy, after all. A player who keeps blatantly sending his critter into dangerous situations and is surprised when the DM tosses a few hit points of damage his way shouldn't be playing with a familiar.

On the other hand, you can't expect a written invitation from the DM for your familiar to "participate" in any particular scenario. The player has to proactively find a comfortable middle ground of activities for the familiar so that the DM starts to think of it as a member of the party (or at least a half-member).

I'll take the familiar any day. When you've got downtown and nothing better to do, you play with the familiar. When you've looked a room over and can't find anything, you have a familar to check out the nooks and crannies. If you're not sure about what's down the hall, you send the familiar ahead to scout around the corner. You can have your familiar pick a favorite party member to always poop in his backpack. Your familiar can have a crush on someone else. Your familiar can bring back odd little gifts from his personal explorations. The familiar's actions can even send the adventure in an unforeseen direction ... IF the DM is made to see the animal as an tiny asset for storytelling possibilities instead of merely a game mechanic.