Playing as a familiar

[DamnedIrishman]

Hello, hello.

Mighty and mysterious Homebrew forum, I supplicate myself before thee and ask a boon: how may I go about playing as another player's familiar?

Currently, I'm mainly playing 3.5 edition. I'm rather puzzled as to how to go about this whole business, but the idea sounds very amusing. Help, ideas and suggestions are therefore appreciated.

The forum is welcome to demand a burnt offering in return.

[Draken]

Well.

That could be troubling since a familiar must obey it's master. I would recomend roleplaying your own familiar (and delegating the "actual" character to the NPC-esque status familiars usually have).

Other than that... Well. Can't think of anything really. Familiars can't do much themselves.

[Suzuro]

But what if the familiars master commanded it to have free will? eh?


-Suzuro

[InaVegt]

Closest I've come was playing an intelligent rapier.

Some quotes:

"What do you mean I can't insult you during combat? If you were any decent at combat you'd not be bothered at all."

(me) "So, remember that time you got caught doing this cleric's wife?"
(wielder) "Which one exactly?"
(me) "The one who put the contingent contagion on his wife"
(wielder) "Oh, right, that one..."
(party member) "What happened next?"
(wielder) "I went to a temple to get it cured, of course"
(me) "Of course, Remove Disease is a touch spell, and the temple had no priestesses who could cast it, only priests."
(wielder) "No. I did not enjoy that."
(me) "The priest, on the other hand..."

[DamnedIrishman]

I suppose part of the reason it's been in my head is because I've started playing Planescape: Torment again.
Morte is brilliant. Perhaps a build for a levitating skull with possibility for class levels?

[Corestimah]

Hey,

the only thing I've seen is in 3.0 in Tome and Blood, where it talks about what happens to a familiar if its master dies; namely, it retains everything that benefits it & not its master (empathic link & spell sharing gone, AC bonus & SR remain, etc...) but as though it were a familiar of a master two levels lower. So, if you had a familiar whose 19th level master died, the familiar would have +9 natural armor, a 14 int, improved evasion, speak with animals of its kind, and spell resistance 22, but would lose everything else (since everything else is useless without a master).

Now, I would think that you might be able to turn all of that into a template to put on creatures, but it'd probably have at least a +2 LA what with the stupidly good AC bonus and granting SR (though it would likely be mitigated on Improved Familiars who already have SR). Still, I think it's quite doable with a variable template (say +2 for a former master of 12th level or less, +3 for one who was 13th level or higher).

I for one say go for it, with one caution: most familiars can't speak languages, Ravens and some Improved Familiars aside. Bear that in mind when creating your character.

[Tempest Fennac]

I agree that the fact that familiars can't do much is a problem. You could ask the DM if you could give the familiar Favoured Soul or Sorcerer levels with the fluff being that the familiar's magic was the result of an experiment which its owner conducted.

[DrakebloodIV]

Howzabout allowing a familiar to gain class levels on its own but still gaining benifits from its master.

Cool familiar idea- A tiny monkey familiar with rogue levels that hides in its masters hat. Sneak attacking and than hiding under the feet of its opponent.

[sigurd]

I think it might be more fun to play a previously ensorcelled henchman or even a servitor.


After years of letting 'master' determine every question you have free will. But where is master?


Sigurd

[Shalizar]

I don't think it would be possible to play as another person's familiar, but I have an idea. Try and talk to your DM and see if they will make a custom monster like an imp, but have it be so weak that it wouldn't give a level adjustment. Then create a back story for the "Familiar" of it being a human who got on the bad side of a psion and with Microcosm, lost all use of his body and became a vegetable. Then have your "Character" use this human's body, and just sits upon it's shoulder and have it "seem" like the human is in control, or any other race works as well. That is the best I can think of to help with that.

Also on a side note, High level Spells are Fun! :smallbiggrin:

[Juggernaut1981]

[/smoking of crack pipe]

[Public Announcement= For the Further Sanity of D&D, what little there is left]
Please shoot your GM. That is all.
[/Public Announcement]

[shikyo096]

I've thought of this before:

My sorcerer is baleful polymorphed into an animal. (Failing fort sav, but making will.) Then the party wizard chooses me as a familiar, performing the ritual. Now I'm a level 12 squirrel familiar. (and 'share spells' works both ways)

It all matters if your DM will think it will be amusing. :smallbiggrin:

[Devils_Advocate]

Raven familiars can talk. The Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) feat also allows for more exotic possibilities than ordinary animals. A pseudodragon could be interesting to play, I think.

Familiar is not a race or a character template, though. It's not something to play and gain your own XP and class levels. A familiar isn't its own character, it's an extension of its master. You'd be roleplaying a part of someone else's personality, essentially.

Or you could house-rule something entirely different, I guess. Might be easiest to disregard the normal rules entirely and just come up with an empathically linked tiny cohort. Yeesh, now I'm thinking of Sigil Prep (http://www.sigilprep.com/)...

I'm not a familiar, I'm a psicrystal!

Sort of.

Shine on, you crazy pyromaniac awakened miniature giant space hamster.

[Hawriel]

Dont know the level of characters you have here so this might not fit.

Play an imp, miphat, or other available critter of equal kind depending on masters alinment. Imps can be familiers and they are sentiant. Add in class levels.

This is actualy a good idea you have.

If the master is a NPC then your adventures intale you to do tasks for the master. You can totaly use the party members to this end. If the master is a player then your a solid team. You have to obay the master but Im sure there is alot of wiggle room for interpreting how best to obay the master.

If your play an animal try using one of the generic NPC classes. The bonuses you get from being a familier would make up for any lack from an NPC class.

[Herobizkit]

If your DM is being a stickler to the RAW, forget about it unless you want to be grossly ineffective as a PC but still enjoy the social aspect of the game.

The feat Improved Familiar allows for a small variety of possibilities that could be converted to something that could be suited for PCs: Imp, Pseudodragon and Quasit would be the most likely candidates, then perhaps the Formian Worker. The Stirge and Shocker Lizard are not so likely candidates but still possible, depending on the flexibility of your DM's interpretation of "rules".

Note that, by RAW, your master would have to be 7th level and have the Imp. Familiar feat to even consider this as a possibility.

If I were your DM, I would be all for it. And even if you chose Shocker Lizard or Stirge, I'd allow you to communicate with others for ease of play.

As an aside, I recall reading rules in the Blue Rose gaming supplement that had intelligent animals as PCs, and provided a feat that gave you a "psychic bond" to another "person" of your choice. It would be similar to what you're looking for, but would allow for more interesting Awakened Magical Beasts rather that strictly a master-servant familiar arrangement.

[Lord Loss]

Seems like a good idea. You could play as a familliar of a wizard or sorcerer as long as his level is high enough for shared spells.

New Feat:

Speech

Prerequesites: Magical Creature or Outsider with intelligence 6 or higher.

Effect: You gain the ability to learn languages. Each language costs 2 skills points. You begin with no Languages.


Also, you could say that, through a series of magical events (Be imaginative, put this in your backstory) you gained free will and your own personality. You could, from there:

A) Start taking levels of sorcerer, wizard, shadowcaster, Manifester,bard (If you are some sort of birt, you could create your bardic music with birdsong) , Binder, truenamer, Warlock, Shenuja, Cleric, paladin, Druid (This is a really good one, you could complement your master by showing off your natural self), Favored soul, Spirit Shaman, Dragon Shaman, Beguiler (This one seems like a cool twist), etc.

B) You can play as a 'copy' of your master seeeing as you have shared spells. However if you get levels in sorcerer, this makes both of you into a gigantic killing machine with the words overpowered writtren all over you.

[Set]

the only thing I've seen is in 3.0 in Tome and Blood, where it talks about what happens to a familiar if its master dies; namely, it retains everything that benefits it & not its master (empathic link & spell sharing gone, AC bonus & SR remain, etc...) but as though it were a familiar of a master two levels lower. So, if you had a familiar whose 19th level master died, the familiar would have +9 natural armor, a 14 int, improved evasion, speak with animals of its kind, and spell resistance 22, but would lose everything else (since everything else is useless without a master).

That's awesome! I didn't know that and threw together a familiar who functions as a spymaster of sorts in my Freeport game (his master isn't dead, just in temporal stasis, or perhaps imprisoned. He's not sure, but he's got the abilities of a 15th level wizard's familiar, a ring of invisibility, and has picked up a class level in wizard so that he can activate a wand, and Eschew Materials so that he didn't have to carry spell components...). His agents know him only as 'Mr. Black,' and he addresses them from shadowy points high above them, while invisible, using a great hide check and his wands to punish any of his street rats that give him lip. (He's a raven.) He's already hired the party once, and they have no idea that they are taking missions from a talking bird...