Tell me about your familiars

[Krug]

Common, bizarre, weird.. lets hear it!

 

[Krug]

meep

 

[Gez]

I've just started playing my first character with a familiar...

You see, when I'm not the DM, then it's most usually my brother (who used to go here, under the name Aloisius), and after having seen how gleefully he slaughters our characters' mounts at the first opportunity, well, I thought it was a bad idea to adopt a fluffy, four-legged XP loss.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Last time I played a wizard was in the SL campaign. I wanted something different. Enter Liber Bestiarus. This book had the Mowz, a large rodent that hunted down cats. He was a nifty little sneak and managed to help me kill the cohort of a druid/ranger, a scythe falcon. After that, he wore that bird's feathers like a warhat. The GM played him like that stupid cat from Sabrina, but considering his intelligence and all, it made sense.

 

[Desdichado]

Ancient Red Dragon

Orcus

A toad named Trevor

Actually, I practically never play spellcasters, so familiars aren't something I'm "familiar" with, har-dee-har-har. I usually am on the lookout for something a bit unusual for the most part, though. Improved Familiar is a must-have feat for me if I ever do, just because I like the concept of having a unusual and different familiar. The mowz is a pretty good one. I kinda like the little fiends and such too; the mandragora from Bood of Fiends, or imps or quasits. There's something iconic about having a little punk like that as a familiar if you're going for that inscrutable, corrupted, typical Sword & Sorcery type wizard/sorcerer.

 

[Thanee]

I usually choose a raven as familiar, as I like the ability of it to speak in a language, and flying never hurts. Being able to speak a language allows a lot of nice interaction (some DMs pick up on that and let the familiar make some fun comments every now and then) and makes the familiar doubly useful, too.

In one game (here) I have taken the Improved Familiar feat (which I consider pretty much a waste normally ) to get a not so unusual Pseudodragon familiar, just for a change mostly.

Bye
Thanee

 

[The_Gneech]

My eldritch knight has a leopard named "Kitty."

One of the other players has a blink puppy in the game that I DM. On retrospect, she's a lot more overpowered than my leopard is, I think -- but everyone loves her, so it works out.

-The Gneech

 

[eris404]

I'm playing a gun mage named George right now whose familiar is his magelock pistol. It's not very communicative, but it is bright and shiny. In the same game, another player plays a necromancer with a disembodied hand (a la Thing) named Freddie as his familiar. Once we had a plan that involved Freddie holding George's pistol on a captive to keep him from escaping, but unfortunately we were unable to use that particularly genius idea.

I've also played an alienist who had a pseudonatural familiar that was at one time an owl. She kept it out of sight most of the time, because it was a little too disturbing for most folks to interact with.

My dream familiar, though, is a kobold. I love those guys.

 

[Stockdale]

I had a necromancer who had a bookworm (from spells & spellcraft). Since it was parisite (requiring a negative con adjusment), I always envisioned it burrowing in and out the character as the character went about his daily life.

BTW, I really dislike the Improved Familar feat. It seems natural that a more powerful wizard would have a more powerful familar. Thus, I prefer the familar rules from Mongoose's Hidden Toad Crouching Monkey book.

 

[Gez]

I house-ruled Improved Familiar to go the way of the dodo. Instead, I use the same rule as for druidic animal companions and paladin mounts -- you lose on your master level.

I've house-ruled other things about familiars, too (you end up being able to scry on them more frequently, if you die you may "magic jar" your soul inside the familiar to prevent level loss from resurrection, etc.).