[poll] So you have a familiar, which one?

[Frostmarrow]

By answering you have a familiar as per the wizard and sorcerer rules. If you are a wizard or sorcerer but chose not to have a familiar, don't bother answering. Ok?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

My fighter/mage currently has a hawk familiar. I was a bit put-off that the hawk doesn't offer a bonus of any kind, while being just as vulnerable in combat as an owl or raven, but of all the familiars, the raptor fit my character concept the best.

 

[Zhure]

Hawks have combat potential.

My sorcerer had a Toad. He needed the hit points desperately.

The Barbarian/Fighter/Wizard has a Bat.

That's all we've seen in our campaign so far.
Greg

 

[Shadowdancer]

My sorcerer/bard has a ferret.

 

[Kichwas]

My last sorceress had a hairy spider as per FRCS.

 

[Nish]

I voted Raven even though my halfling necromancer's familiar is actually a crow. Same stats, but its a flavor thing.

IMHO, crows/ravens/parrots make the best familiars because of the ability to speak. Not only can they act as a scout like other birds, but a convenient messenger as well. And when I have to split up from the party I can just leave him behind and still communicate with everyone else. Its a poor man's Rary's Telepathic Bond I tells ya.

[Edit My DM is also surprisingly good at roleplaying supernaturally intelligent scavenger birds...

 

[Kesh]

Next time I play a Sorcerer, I'm probably going for a bat. I just have this wonderful image in my head of casting shocking grasp on my bat familiar and letting him fly around, biting enemies on the neck and shocking them to death.

After that is either a fox or a raven.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Hawks have combat potential.

Hmmm....last I checked, a hawk had exactly as much combat potential as an owl or raven, both of which have other advantages as well. We aren't talking an eagle here, after all.

Still, I'm happy with the bird. My PC just recently cast a version of Planar Familiar from the WoTC site, and gave the hawk the Axiomatic template. So while he's still not a combat machine, once a day he can really surprise one critter with a +10 to damage Smite Chaos.

 

[Plane Sailing]

My Paladin/Sorcerer has a toad familiar - he really, really needed the hitpoints (how badly can a guy *roll* eh?). It shone for creeping through rubble after an earthquake looking for victims though!

Another player has always taken Owls - bit of a minmax dream with the flight, the move silently bonus, the low light vision and a hearing check that is out-of-sight.

 

[Madfox]

The hawk has an incredible good spot check, which makes it a lot more useful as a scout then a raven. Sure, the raven might inform others beside his master, but his spot check is not even half that of a hawk. An other benefit of a hawk is more roleplaying wise and it is rather campaign dependend (so I doubt it has been taken into account when determining benefits). Hawks are accepted as a pet and less associated with witches and the like. If you play in a world where arcane magic is frowned upon or feared/distrusted by the common populace you tend to draw less attention with a hawk then with a raven.