What would you do with a bat? (or, Help! My familiar is proving relatively useless)

[Djeta Thernadier]

At the moment my character Djeta Thernadier has 2 levels of bard and 5 levels of sorcerer. As a familiar, she's got a bat, called Rasputin.

Rasputin is with her all the time , except at night, when presumably he's flying around eating the insect critters that bats eat. He occasionally does spot checks for the party, although, the OTHER party sorcerer's owl does that too, and is better at it.

Now, my PC is very protective of the bat; as she is with her horses and all animal companions, but I'm getting, frankly, a little irked at the fact that he seems to be rather useless thus far at helping the party. He's mostly just there for "show". I want to start having her utilize him more.

If you had a bat as a familiar, what would you use it for?

 

[babomb]

Hmm...I was going to say have him hunt for insects around the party's camp so he can keep watch at the same time, but I saw the sorceror's owl has better spot checks. Your bat has at least two definite advantages over the owl: better manueverability, allowing it to scout in more cramped places, and blindsense. Remember that last one any time you're under the effects of magical darkness or concealment.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I think your bat needs to be flying into the hair of every female NPC it can, and NOW!

I'd try to give the bat some personality traits, if you haven't already. Figure out little ways he can express that personality, by whatever means he think of.

Use him to keep an eye on things when you can't - if your in a tavern, let him fly up in the rafters and scope the place out. As babomb noted, he's got the big advantage of blindsense, letting him notice things others can't.

 

[Caliber]

Bat familiars = cheap-o invisibility detectors.

Otherwise ... uh ... never been a fan of familiars myself

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Bat familiars = cheap-o invisibility detectors.

Exactly! Rasputin might be worthless for 90 % of the game but he will probably saved the day versus the Invisible stalker. Other then that I always thought the wizards familiar was to cause trouble and be rather useless. I’m not sure how predominate that feeling is but you don’t want Rasputin to end up over shadowing other characters by being more useful then them.

If it really annoys you keep it in till you can upgrade it to a fairy dragon or something like that.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The place where he should come alive is caves and dungons. There he is able to provide information and layout, this could help in preventing surprise attacks. This can also be done in a city, finding the popular night spots and following someone from a distance.

Create swarm, just by warning of danger he could cause other bats to fly. No control but useful to the party.

 

[dave_o]

It's a stretch, but Rasputin would be incredibly useful in convincing NPCs that your PC is a vampire. But, unless you're aiming to get burned into ashes and possibly peed on, that doesn't serve much use.

 

[Verdigris]

You can grab a bat familiar by the body and stretch its wings around your head. If you hook its claws together it will remain snugly on your forehead. You can use it as a miner's light when you go spelunking in a dark cavern.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm going to make it a point to have him do something at least, in every game from now on, even if it's just for flavor, to remind the GM and the other players he's there.

I think he tends to be forgotten during the game and i think that may be part of the problem. I like the idea of using him to get into small places, and I think he probably does look less suspicious than the owl.

As for personality traits, he's supposed to be curious, slightly moody and afraid of water. I'm going to try and do something with that, again, even if only to remind people he's there.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It's a stretch, but Rasputin would be incredibly useful in convincing NPCs that your PC is a vampire. But, unless you're aiming to get burned into ashes and possibly peed on, that doesn't serve much use.

I don't know, puff of smoke or flash, ring of invisbility, and the bat flying away, bluff check...