Question abou the DISMISSAL of a familiar

[caroak]

I read that if you dismiss your familiar you get som XP penallty and cannot summon another for a year and a day, so my question is what does it mean by "dismiss"?
I mean do I have to go around with my familiar all day long or can I just say "would you excuse me, see you later, bye-bye"? does that counts as a dismissal?
I'm having trouble understanding that

 

[Thanee]

To dismiss the familiar means to make it no longer be your familiar. Terminate the relationship, the special link. The former familiar will then just be a normal animal and you don't have a familiar anymore (but can get a new one, which is the point of dismissing your familiar, before you ask).

Bye
Thanee

 

[caroak]

OK, so when I have a familiar I summon it in order to "serve"my commands, and when I finish using it I just wait till the "summon familiar" expires?
And how do you dismiss a familiar?
Just asking cause it's confusing, at least for me

 

[Thanee]

No, you summon a familiar to be your servant *forever*. The bond can only be removed by dismissing the familiar, or when it dies (well, or you, though it's unclear what exactly happens then).

Summoning a familiar is the process of turning an animal into a magical beast, forming a bond, a special link between you and the animal. From that moment on, that animal is your familiar.

It's something you usually do only once.

Bye
Thanee

 

[caroak]

I summon my familiar once in my life and the creatur follows me around every day for my entire life, my real question is he's going to me near me or next to me every second?I mean if I want a moment of privacy it would just be there o can he go to other places?

 

[Erywin]

To Shed some Light on the subject!

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=154

 

[caroak]

jajajaja OMG that was sooo funny!
So, my familiar has to be by my side every time, even when I want some privacy.
And being a magical creature does it eat or sleep?

 

[Delemental]

No, the familiar does not have to be at your side every moment of your life. It's true that you lose some benefits of the familiar if it's not close (such as the Alertness feat, or sharing spells), but on the other hand, other abilities sort of require that the familiar be able to be away from you (such as scrying on your familiar - kind of a useless ability if the familiar can't be in a different place than you). But regardless of how near or far away the creature is, it's still your familiar, unless you formally dismiss it, or it dies.

And yes, you do have to feed the familiar. Being a magical beast doesn't stop it's biology. The only reason the type changes is that by definition in the rules, an 'animal' can't have an Intelligence over 2. In order for the familiar to have a higher Intelligence (as well as its other abilities), it has to become a magical beast. MOst DM's I know of don't make a big deal about the care and feeding of a familiar - they don't eat a lot, and many of them can forage for their own food.