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Zace66
2009-05-12, 03:43 PM
Im looking to have/create a familiar. Ive LOADS of crafting skill points, level 14 wizard. Money no object (well almost).

So WHY should I have a familiar?

What familiar should I go for and why?

Cheers.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-05-12, 03:48 PM
Don't you get it as a class feature?

Familiars are actually pretty useless other than specific circumstances. If you have UMD a Raven can cast from a Wand, and the Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability spell is pretty good. However, utelizing your familiar makes it a target, meaning now your DM is within his rights to attack it, at which point you lose 14-28K XP.

JeenLeen
2009-05-12, 04:00 PM
I would avoid trying for one that would be involved in combat, instead opting for one that gives some relevant skill bonuses, as outlined in the PHB. Spot or Listen never hurt, and something that can fly or crawl into small spaces as a scout can be handy (if risky).

You also get the Alertness feat for free, which is (if not particularly helpful) nice.

Gorbash
2009-05-12, 04:18 PM
Don't you get it as a class feature?

Familiars are actually pretty useless other than specific circumstances. If you have UMD a Raven can cast from a Wand, and the Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability spell is pretty good. However, utelizing your familiar makes it a target, meaning now your DM is within his rights to attack it, at which point you lose 14-28K XP.

It's 1400-2800 XP (CL x 200).

Thing is, if Familiars are used for aiding you in a skill check for example, or casting spells from Familiar Pocket via Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability, they're pretty safe. They do get all the buffs you have, which along with Improved Evasion, Spell Resistance makes them quite unreachable, assuming you're playing smartly.

Eldariel
2009-05-12, 04:32 PM
Delivering Touch Spells, being used in conjuction with spells cast on creature such as Benign Transposition, being a second character with your skill ranks and sharing your buffs are all big things.

And yeah, UMD is awesome for a familiar as is Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability - the latter basically doubles the amount of spells you can cast each turn (familiar and you both cast normal and quickened spell) allowing you to end encounters in a hurry, and UMD means your familiar will be able to buff you, shoot at things, buff itself, etc.


I'm personally really fond of Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar)s (the feat is in DMG), especially Pseudodragon, Imp and Quasit.

Pseudodragon has Telepathy so you can get a Psychic Reformation for it to give it Mindsight, saving yourself feat and class level (normally you'd need to dip Mindbender for the feat). It can also be surprisingly good in combat thanks to the sleep poison and using your BAB and HD (thus increasing the poison DC).


Not its primary use, but if pressed tight, it can bail you out. It's also fully able to UMD stuff and it's a fine scout with Blindsense (to sense Mindless creatures), high Hide and fast flight. Oh, and huge spell resistance (17+HD). Best Good option easily.

Imp & Quasit are really good for the Commune they have (normally the spell costs you) along with some handy spell-likes. Imp in particular has nice Charisma for UMD and his spell-likes, along with the racial Suggestion which can come in very handy. Alternate Form can be useful too, although mostly just to avoid weird gazes an Imp might bring. And of course, they're perfect UMDers. The only drawback is the Evil alignment.


Other than that, the standard familiars have the handy small buffs they give you along with a bunch of benefits. Go with your heart, or the benefit you want the most.

grautry
2009-05-12, 04:36 PM
One of the often mentioned tricks is the Hummingbird Familiar that grants you +4 Initiative.

Combined with elven wizard substitution level(3rd) you get +8 to initiative, at the loss of some familiar abilities.

It's a quite nifty bonus.

Jack_Simth
2009-05-12, 05:37 PM
Im looking to have/create a familiar. Ive LOADS of crafting skill points, level 14 wizard. Money no object (well almost).

So WHY should I have a familiar?

What familiar should I go for and why?

Cheers.
Well, it depends.

A familiar has your ranks in all skills - so it's a cheap reroll on every knoweledge check, or a free +2 Aid Another on most.

A familiar has the same skills as the base animal - which means a Bat or Hawk has a very nice spot/listen check. The Bat also has Blindsense, which makes you somewhat difficult to sneak up on. Many of the familiars have very nice stealth skills - just due to their size, if nothing else - although at your level that's mostly meaningless if you've got a proper party skillmonkey.

Sinfire Titan
2009-05-13, 03:51 AM
It should be noted that a Familiar can share spells with you. Effectively, every time you cast a spell with a range of personal, so does it.

This can turn the both of you into melee masters with spells such as Body of War (Spell Compendium), Shapechange, etc. Hell, you don't even have to be under the effect yourself, just share it with your familiar and let him do the work.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-05-13, 09:30 AM
Wait, if you can cast personal-range spells through your familiar, what happens if you go AMF?