Wild Empathy or Familiar?

[Sejs]

Familiar, hands down. I'd even put a familiar above Bardic Knowledge from the other thread.

Not even to mention the wonders the can be Improved Familiar. Mm mm good.

 

[Gold Roger]

This is comparing apples and whatever the other thing in the saying is.

They fill completely different roles in completely different ways.

The only thing they have in common is that they help define the flavor of the classes (in case of familiar a flavor part many could do without as inherent to the classes).

 

[Driddle]

Some people prefer apples; others like oranges.

 

[Felix]

Familar; it's something you have control over.

The question as posed, however, doesn't require knowledge of personal intent for an honest response from readers here. In fact, any additional commentary I might provide could inadvertantly serve to skew the results. Not all details are pertinent all the time.

Quaint.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

A Familar in the safety of a pocket grants Alertness plus the equivalent of another Feat.

That is 2 whole Feats. Nothing to sneeze at, even if they are not top shelf feats for the Wizard/Sorceror in question.

If you are willing to risk the Familiar's skin, there is heck of a lot of neato things to do with it.

The problem I have with Wild Empathy is that you have to have a lot of class levels before it is notably better than Calm Animals. At that point in the campaign, animal-like things do not tend to be a big factor in adventures. That is a 25 gp scroll. If you want to better results, you surely will need to cast Speak with Animals anyway.

A Druid who really wants the benefits of Wild Empathy is probably better off getting ranks in Diplomacy and casting Speak with Animals. Wild Empathy is a half-measure, but I guess it is "free" and therefore better than nothing.

2 Feats vs. a 25 gp scroll.

I do not think this one is difficult to decide.

 

[Jdvn1]

Shouldn't there be a "Roughly Even" option?

 

[InVinoVeritas]

I suppose ultimately, it doesn't matter.

 

[dekrass]

I've only seen 1 familiar in my games that wasn't totally forgotten, out of dozens of wizards played by several players. Even the benefits like alertness were forgotten in most cases.

I've at least seen wild empathy used a bit in groups lighter on magic.

 

[Blue]

Familiars can be very useful. At the most basic and without exposing them to risk, they have all your ranks in skills. Use them to aid another whenever you're doing anything. Scouting. Imbue with spell ability. Give them magic items. A bird dropping a bead from a necklace of fireballs is nasty. Familiars are very useful out-of-combat.

Wild empathy works like diplomacy, but lags behind it because it's class level instead of skill ranks. If you try to do it in a hurry (which has a penalty), unless you are a high level straight class with a high charisma (not otherwise a primary class ability), you'll have little chance to affect hostile animals. And really, how often do you meet animals that are friendly that you need to upgrade to helpful?

Cheers,
=Blue(23)

 

[Cor Azer]

Familiar. Wild Empathy is dependent on what the DM sends your way, while you can come up with your own uses for a familiar.

Pretty much my reasoning...