Hi Shark, friends,
My campaign has a valley that was visited thousands of years before by a plane hopping god. He awakened several animals there. Animal druids have kept the valley full of awakened animals ever since.
A snail cleric from the valley travels on the shoulder of my 8 year old daughter's fighter character. With the Travel Domain, it can fly once a day, but otherwise needs to be carried or move at speed 3 inches.
My daughter was feeling left out, since other characters had familiars and animal companions. So when the parties cleric died, and the player opted for a fighter as the new character, leaving no cleric in the party, the snail cleric solved both those problems for me. The cleric is actually pretty decent despite the movement restrictions and inability to use weapons. I substituted other feats for a clerics weapons and armor proficiencies, and it's a very useful NPC.
In my wife's campaign, my nomad story teller character--Rogue 4/ Ranger 1/ Wizard 1/ Bard 2/ Shadowdancer eventually--has his Raven familiar chime in at appropriate times for emphasis, spookiness, humor, etc. The character is much like Hakiem from Thieves' World, except for the wanderlust and fighting skills, weaving tales to drunken power brokers around the courts late at night--tales designed to influence them in subtle ways. Having the Raven to help tell the story is a kick.
