Wizard/Sorcerer Sans Familiar

[kjones]

I am starting up a new campaign, in a party with both a wizard and a sorcerer. It's a large group, so I'm trying to minimize stuff like henchmen, hirelings, summoned creatures, etc., to keep stuff like combat flowing. For these and other reasons, I want to find a Wizard/Sorcerer variant that doesn't have a familiar.

UA has a variant where they swap out a familiar with an animal companion, but that's just as bad. Are there any rules anywhere that have a Familiar-less variant? If not, what would be a fair trade for taking away a familiar?

[martyboy74]

The PHBII has rules for this, and most of the trade-offs are quite nice. But it's not OGL, so I can't tell you what they are.

[TheLogman]

I believe that Sorcerers can switch out their familiar for Eschew materials, and 1 metamagic feat. And I think that same goes for Wizards.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Obtain Familiar is a feat, so I'd say that giving them an extra Wizard bonus feat at level 1 would be a quick fix.

[Kaelaroth]

Hi.
Just a suggestion. Let them have a familiar, but don't bother with it fighting. Just have the caster have it tucked away in his robe? So you don't need to bother with stats?
This may seem far too nice, but people in my game group trust it.

[Techonce]

There was a nice article in Dragon about a wizard staff that replaces a familiar. It actually worked out pretty nice. Otherwise I give the player the option of taking another feat, preferebly magic related, but not necessairily metamagic.

The staff picks up some nifty abilities as the player levels too.

[Ikkitosen]

There are a bunch of options for the specialist wizard here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm). There are other options in CM or PHBII that are not very good, except for the conjurer variant which is too powerful :smallannoyed:

A sorc can give theirs up for the ability to do metamagic at normal speed as per the PHBII.

A free feat seems fair.

[Dhavaer]

The 'Forlorn' flaw removes the familiar. Dragon #357 has several familiarless variants.

[CASTLEMIKE]

UA and the D20 SRD have the generic Spellcaster which gets some nice bonus feats at 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 if not PRCing and you can use Char or Int for primary vice just Char for a sorcerer.

[AKA_Bait]

Item Familiar! (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) These things are so cool... I have a wizard who did this with his Boccob's Blessed Book.

[Harold]

I think + 1 to all there saving throws is a fair deal. also a meta magic feat seems fair.

[JellyPooga]

The Dragonblood Sorcerer racial substitution level in Races of the Dragon replaces the Summon Familiar ability with the Draconic Heritage feat...but then if you're not playing a Dragonblooded race, the easiest way to get the subtype (and therefore qualify for the sub-level) is to take the Draconic Heritage feat...

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Sorcerers get to have fun. They can either ditch their familiar to get spontanious metamagic casting without extra time a certain number of times per day, or they can sacrifice it to gain access to a cleric domain spell list. You still have to purchase them with spells known.

Wizards... kinda get screwed on what they can get in exchange for a familiar (except aforementioned Conjuration specialist, which can get teleport effects).

[Overlard]

Seeing as familiars are generally liabilities rather than boons (until polymorph et al sneak in later), a single feat should more than make up for their absence.

[leperkhaun]

hmmm, Id say at a minimum one feat, but maybe more.

Id hate to loss my familiar on my wizard. +2 to fort saves and alertness are really nice.

[martyboy74]

hmmm, Id say at a minimum one feat, but maybe more.

Id hate to loss my familiar on my wizard. +2 to fort saves and alertness are really nice.

Those are two sub-par feats for a wizards (Alertness (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#alertness) and Great Fortitude (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#greatFortitude)). A decent wizard will almost certainly trade them in for something more useful (Hey, look! There's that useless feat for superpowerful PrC XYZ!). Spellcasters are powerful enough as is. I say one feat.

[Dragonmuncher]

Sorcerers get to have fun. They can either ditch their familiar to get spontanious metamagic casting without extra time a certain number of times per day, or they can sacrifice it to gain access to a cleric domain spell list. You still have to purchase them with spells known.


The "no extra metamagic time" thing is constant, not a certain number of times per day. It's a variant in PHB2.

I second the Item Familiar suggestion- I've always thought that was kind of a neat thing.

[Yakk]

For sorcerers, familiars are about the only core class feature that isn't upgraded when taking (+1 caster level) PrCs.

Wizards give up bonus feats and the familiar.

So any benefit gained by giving up the familiar should be back-ended.

[Chronos]

For sorcerers, familiars are about the only core class feature that isn't upgraded when taking (+1 caster level) PrCs.Eh, most of the familiar's advancement (including hit points, saves, skills, and BAB) is based on character level, not class level. And of those special abilities that do depend on class level, you've probably gained most of them by the time you qualify for a prestige class. It's not that big a deal.

[Solo]

The "no extra metamagic time" thing is constant, not a certain number of times per day. It's a variant in PHB2.

I second the Item Familiar suggestion- I've always thought that was kind of a neat thing.

in the PHBII, it says that a sorcerer can use the ability 3+int mod times perday.

[Renegade Paladin]

There are all kinds of class options that involve trading the familiar for a class feature; they appear in PHBII, Complete Mage, Dungeonscape, and several other supplements if memory serves. The Dungeonscape ones are fairly nice as far as survivability goes.

[Shisumo]

The "no extra metamagic time" thing is constant, not a certain number of times per day. It's a variant in PHB2.
The "Metamagic Specialist" variant from the PHBII can only use metamagic without changing the casting speed of the spell a number of times per day equal to 3 + Int modifier.


I second the Item Familiar suggestion- I've always thought that was kind of a neat thing.

The problem with Item Familiars is that they're much too powerful - unless you're willing (as a DM) to actually take them away from the PC, in which case you've flattened them extremely nastily. "Overpowered" or "punitive weakness" should not be the only two settings a game option has...

The XP gain is the only part that's really a problem, though, so if you stripped that out, it wouldn't be a big deal. Skill point and spell slot investment are both not likely to cause serious issues.

[Tiki Snakes]

...Or you could just suck it up and not attempt to find any familiar. Doesn't say anywhere you have to have one, after all.

If nothing else, it would leave you the option to go about finding one later, should you change your mind. :)

[Kurald Galain]

Meh.

Give him a cool but mostly fluff spell-like ability at will and whim.

Like glowing or light spells at will or starting fires with his hands or permanent prestig or something.

[Fizban]

Hey, that's a good idea. Give them continuous prestidigitation as a supernatural ability.

Following that, I could see the Arcane Attunement of the Duskblade being a good substitute as well.

[Feralgeist]

In one of the latest dragon magazines, there's an option for wizards to swap out their familiar and scribe scroll to not have to use a spellbook. Whenever they need to prepare spells, the runes of the spells they know are inside their minds. it's called Eidetic spell memory or something

[Yakk]

Ya, those item familiar rules suck.

I mean, +10% XP? Was the designer smoking something?

[Sulecrist]

I'll throw my (insubstantial) weight behind the PHBII variants. The specialist wizard powers are pretty cool, if a bit useless (except for Conjuration. gawd) and Metamagic Specialist neutralizes one of my biggest Sorceror-related frets. I don't really like keeping track of familiars anyway.