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

[Paragon]

I have a paladin/sorcerer that has a lantern archon as a familiar. they make a great team which is good since he does quite a bit of solo adventuring.

Paragon

 

[Ace]

Cats or hawks are my favorites on the rare occasions I bother with a target err familiar....

I would say the hawk is he most usefull, Flying scouts are just too handy...

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Re: Low Light Vision

Therefore, all familiars should at least have low-light, and since they are magical beasts, they should have darkvision (60ft) as well.

I've emailed the Sage about familiars a couple of times, and according to him the familiar's change to a magical beast has no effect on it except to determine what spells work against it. So Charm Animal can not effect it. It doesn't get feats, skills, darkvision, etc., that naturally-born magical beasts come equipped with.

However, your point about low-light vision makes sense, since in T&B it specifically mentions that all familiars are not conjurations or summons, but start out as regular animals.

Though I still don't think they intended the non-owl familiars to get low-light vision, since it makes specific mention of it in the owl's description. Why say the owl has it, if they all do?

 

[Nish]

Well, Hawks are also about 50% faster than ravens and crows. Owls probably are too, but I don't have their stats handy.

But frankly, D&D is about having fun, and a crow is just simply more fun than a hawk. Therefore the crow/raven wins the best familiar award hands down. Seriously, there have been times when I'll send Xilinx (my familiar) off to check something out and he'll come back with some totally random information that has been filtered through the eyes of a marginally intelligent bird, and the party will spend a good fifteen minutes RPing with the damn bird. How many other familiars are a dependable source of roleplaying encounters?

Oh, and about the Crow/Raven being associated with witchcraft by the common folk, that's one of the reasons why I chose it. My character is a halfling necromancer, and really looks more like an evil feral halfling shaman anyway. The mangy black bird following him around only completes the look.