What to do with a familar

[szilard]

There are a number of transmutation spells that give you significant combat power (or other abilities) at the expense of spellcasting ability (Tenser's Transformation, Body of War, Nightstalker Transformation, a bunch of Polymorph spells, etc).

Cast these on your familiar instead of yourself.

-Stuart

 

[Swedish Chef]

My wizard has memorized Benign Transposition and Baleful Transposition (both from Spell Compendium).

When a party member is in dire need of healing, and can't get out of battle, imagine the enemy orc's surprise when he swings where the human fighter was and misses because the fighter has now been replaced by a ferret that is currently running for the hills. Meanwhile, the human fighter is now next to the wizard who hands him a healing potion or directs him to the cleric.

It's even more fun when the enemy spell caster, who has been pelting the party with long range spells, suddenly appears directly in front of the party rogue (who has been holding his sneak attack for just such an appearance). And, of course, the ferret is now safely behind enemy lines and is slowly making it's way back to the wizard. Or is suddenly replaced by the party barbarian, who now charges the enemy from behind.

My DM really hates those two spells right now.

 

[Storm Raven]

The one player that has a familiar in my campaign can't even seem to remember that it's ther most of the time!

For your purposes though, a seabird could be useful for scouting. Send him out to see if there are any other ships in the area or to look for land.

One interersting little wrinkle about familiars that is often overlooked is that when they make skill checks, they can use their own skill ranks, or their master's whichever is higher. All the skills your wizard or sorcerer has, the familiar has them too. The familiar uses his own ability modifiers for the skill checks, but can use the master's ranks.

At the most basic level, I have had wizard characters use familiars to assist in spell research (providing an Aid Another using my ranks in Spellcraft or Knowledge: Arcana) or for a rogue/wizard I played, aiding me in Search checks, Open Lock checks, Disable Device Checks, and so on. I am getting ready to play a druid/wizard (aiming at arcane hierophant). I'm thinking some aid on Survival checks is just what I need.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think there's a single game session in my current campaign where the two sorcerers haven't found some creative way to use their familiars. Quoth, the raven, is sometimes used to deliver shocking grasp or other annoying touch attacks at a distance. Entwistle, the owl, is used for night scouting, spotting at night, and guard duty. Those are just some of their more common uses.

Great names for those familiars!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One interersting little wrinkle about familiars that is often overlooked is that when they make skill checks, they can use their own skill ranks, or their master's whichever is higher. All the skills your wizard or sorcerer has, the familiar has them too. The familiar uses his own ability modifiers for the skill checks, but can use the master's ranks.

At the most basic level, I have had wizard characters use familiars to assist in spell research (providing an Aid Another using my ranks in Spellcraft or Knowledge: Arcana)

You know, I'm not 100 percent sure that using a familiar in spell research is kosher by the RAW, but it's so flavorful, that sells me on it as a DM. The image of Merlin reading a big dusty tome with Archimedes on his shoulder is something that should really be mechanically rewarded, IMO.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

You know, I'm not 100 percent sure that using a familiar in spell research is kosher by the RAW, but it's so flavorful, that sells me on it as a DM. The image of Merlin reading a big dusty tome with Archimedes on his shoulder is something that should really be mechanically rewarded, IMO.

I'd never thought of familiars being used for aid another actions... that's a really useful one, as having a familiar could provide you with a +2 bonus on most of your skill checks as long as it makes sense that the familiar could help in such a context. Another one (of many!) to point out to members of the "familiars are useless!" crowd...

 

[Burke]

One interersting little wrinkle about familiars that is often overlooked is that when they make skill checks, they can use their own skill ranks, or their master's whichever is higher. All the skills your wizard or sorcerer has, the familiar has them too. The familiar uses his own ability modifiers for the skill checks, but can use the master's ranks.

I used this for one loremaster I played in a 3.0 game. He was a replacement character for a cleric that had died, so he started at 9th or 10th level, I forget which. I had him take Improved Familar and he ended up with an imp. Since the character was a loremaster he had UMD as a class skill, and a bunch of ranks in it. That gave the imp a pretty good chance to succeed on UMD checks on wands, scrolls, stuff like that. An Imp with a fistfull of haste scrolls (in 3.0) and a wand of magic missiles can end up doing a lot of damage. He was also able to fly around and use a wand of cure light wounds if someone got hurt and really needed some stopgap HPs.

 

[Storm Raven]

You know, I'm not 100 percent sure that using a familiar in spell research is kosher by the RAW, but it's so flavorful, that sells me on it as a DM. The image of Merlin reading a big dusty tome with Archimedes on his shoulder is something that should really be mechanically rewarded, IMO.

Why wouldn't it be? It is a skill check, and I don't see any restrictions on aiding another on Spellcraft or Knowledge: Arcana. I also like to use the familiar to assist when adding spells to a spellbook.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why wouldn't it be? It is a skill check, and I don't see any restrictions on aiding another on Spellcraft or Knowledge: Arcana. I also like to use the familiar to assist when adding spells to a spellbook.

Getting Aid Another off a skill the familiar is, essentially, leeching from its master feels unintended to me. But anyway, like I said, I think its coolness factor outweighs any such feelings.

 

[Saloric Windrunner]

Lots of good ideas here. I particularly like using the familar to aid others. Since our group is rather skill lite a +2 bonus would be very helpful. Holy water dive bombing is a good idea too, our GM loves undead.