Replacing Wizard's familiar

[darkbard]

The PHB II option for Sorcerers to swap out their familiar for the ability to obviate increased time for metamagic casting got me thinking. Many players consider familiars to be as much a liability as an asset; assuming this to be true, how would you replace the Wizard's familiar? Swapping it out for a bonus feat is an easy fix, but this seems a bit bland in comparison with the Sorcerer alternative. Any ideas?

 

[Paraxis]

How about letting specialist wizards exchange their familiar with the ability to reduce the total of all meta magics added to a spell they memorize from their specialty school by one level. A multiclass envoker/fighter could still all his envokation spells so he could wear armor, as one good example.

As far as generalist wizards give them the ability to have a wizards staff. Basicly a staff they use to enhance thier spells let it grow with them as they advance in level, nothing to powerful just along the lines of the familiar abilities, if they want to enchant it with other benifits it would follow normal crafting rules.

 

[Land Outcast]

hum... you should all see Dog Moon's thread on alternate familiars... http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=165155
gives some interesting options.

But, returning to the task at hand: Praxis' suggestion on Specialists is a good one...

On generalists, well, that should give them some incentive to specialize (j/k... maybe not)