Trading in your familiar

[Three_Haligonians]

Unearthe Arcana has some rules for variant specialist wizards. Included in these is the option to not have a familiar and instead gain a different benefit (that themeatically fits with the specialst school). It also has some rules for "item familiars" as well.

My question is are there other alternate rules for trading in your familiar out there? I'm sure I remember seeing some.. somewhere.. but I have quite the library to go through and I was wondering if maybe you all had some favourites, or at least some opinions on which ones are worth taking and which ones should be avoided.

Thanks,

J from Three Halgonians

 

[FalcWP]

The PHB II has a Metamagic Specialist option for Sorcerers, and an Immediate Magic option for Wizards, both of which take the place of a familiar.

 

[hbarsquared]

My favorite is the staff familiar, from a while back, in Dragon magazine (#338). It includes several feats you can take to enhance your spellcasting ability that I really liked, to.

 

[frankthedm]

Sundering will be super painful with the staff familiars. The XP loss will likley cost you a level if it ever happens.

If you already have a familiar, the cost to send it away is the same as if it died, so be ready for some pain in the XP total.

 

[Mistwell]

Sundering will be super painful with the staff familiars. The XP loss will likley cost you a level if it ever happens.

If you already have a familiar, the cost to send it away is the same as if it died, so be ready for some pain in the XP total.

That's why the staff has a greater hardness, and additional abilities can be added to it to make it nigh unbreakable.

 

[FalcWP]

Plus, unless all wizards and sorcs in a world get bonuses from their staffs, an opponent would still need a reason to sunder the staff... rather than, say, the wizard or sorc.

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, sundering a wizard's staff should not be high on the list of your average non-metagaming opponent.

Bye
Thanee

 

[resscane]

substitute for familiar

My Dm allowed the wiz/sor in the group the option of subbing out the familiar at 1st level. He allowed us to choose an extra feat instead. I jumped at it. It just seemed that the familiar was always forgotten. Getting rid of it worked well IMHO.

 

[Seeten]

Hate familiars. Love mages. Metamagic specialist is great, and the UA variants are all worth the familiar, also. Familiar is fragile and too breakable. I have slaughtered NPC wizards of higher level by butchering their familiar, and then them...its just...ugly

 

[Michael Silverbane]

In a game that I'm recently playing in, I've given up my familiar for the ability to have a bag of candy. The other players think this ability is broken, as there is no other way to get a free bag of candy.

Later
silver