If a spellcaster dies, what happens to their familiar?

[Callista]

So you're a wizard and you've got a familiar named Fluffy. Fluffy has a lot of benefits from being a familiar, including being able to talk to you, being better at dodging Fireballs, and being as smart as the average person.

So if you die, as squishy wizards tend to do, what happens to Fluffy? Is he now a normal animal? Does he just poof out of existence? Or does he retain his special abilities?

And what if your party resurrects you? If Fluffy has disappeared or become a normal animal, does he automatically reconnect with you when you return from beyond the grave, or do you have to re-summon him?

If you stay dead, what happens to Fluffy, presuming he stays intelligent? He's very much like an awakened animal; but which parts of his abilities come from the wizard, and which are associated with the familiar himself? Can he strike off on his own--take class levels, maybe even become a spellcaster himself?

It does actually matter--a familiar isn't just a class feature; many of us RP our familiars just as much as the character they serve. I've also encountered a situation where a character died, and the player went through the rest of the adventure as the raven familiar.

[odder]

I do not think the rules has a say on this...but if I was DM I would rule that Fluffy would be dismissed/"poof out of existence"

[Emy]

I seem to remember a short story in Dragon Magazine about a familiar whose master died. It retained its intelligence and whatnot, in that. I'll post the issue/story name if I can figure out where it was.

Also, Tome and Blood says to treat a familiar whose master has died as having a master of two levels lower for determining what bonuses it recieves. (It also doesn't get master's HP or skills.)

[dsmiles]

I seem to remember a short story in Dragon Magazine about a familiar whose master died. It retained its intelligence and whatnot, in that. I'll post the issue/story name if I can figure out where it was.

We had a guy who played his familiar, after the wizard died. Granted, it was a Pseudodragon, so a little more intelligent than your standard familiar, but it was the concept that was cool.

[gorfnab]

I played a Beguiler (Shining South) Beguiler (Player Handbook II) who was a former familiar. His master died so he decided to become an adventurer himself. It was very fun to play especially since Beguilers are highly intelligent fluffy magic beast rodents who resemble blackish/gray Pikachus.

[Souhiro]

In Pathfinder, the Witch Base-Class expains it very well: The Familiar is an "Magically Augmented" familiar. Kinda a Ghoul in Vampire the Masquerade. So, if the squishy witch kicks the bucket, the familiar would feel that it's intellect is waning, and can search another witch -or sweet talk an inocent girl and make her a brand new witch- and form a pact with her.

If the familiar can't get a new master, it's powers would finally fade, and remain as another animal, sure, with more BAB and HDs because all its adventures, but rather oblivious of his past.

Think about fish memory.

[Clovis]

Good question. What happened to mine is that the Lantern Archon celestial familiar followed the dead wizard's soul to the Fugue Plane, only to follow it back to the Prime upon resurrection. By DM fiat, of course.

[Sir Swindle89]

There was a 3rd party book i read that had a race in it that was a former familiar or it's descendant.

Apparently familars stay smart and wander off. In that universe some of them founded a commune and mated and what not. Also their magical nature made them humaniod.

was kinda nifty

[WarKitty]

I ran an NPC once that was the former familiar of a lich. Good times.

[FelixG]

I ran an NPC once that was the former familiar of a lich. Good times.

I must ask, was it a cat?

[Ravens_cry]

I played a raven familiar whose master had been Intelligence drained and turned into a large dog and who had been turned into a halfling. It was more a back story then anything, but it was fun to play.

[Zaydos]

It's 3.0 but Tome and Blood actually had rules for this. They lose the extra hp and Hit Dice they gained from being a familiar (so an ex-familiar cat would be 1/2d8 with 2 hp like a normal cat) but they retain familiar special abilities (Int, nat armor) as a familiar of a master 2 levels lower than their master had been when he was alive.

[WarKitty]

I must ask, was it a cat?

Yes. And the lich was name Schroedinger.

[FelixG]

Yes. And the lich was name Schroedinger.

Awesome. Pure epic!

[mucat]

It wouldn't poof out of existence, since familiars start life as ordinary animals before they become familiars. (At least, this is how the SRD describes it; in a given campaign world they might instead be spirits bound to the mage in animal form, and then perhaps they would go poof.)

As far as I know, the rules don't specify what happens to a familiar whose master dies. Depending on what's most interesting for the campaign world, you could rule either that the familiar lives on as an intelligent magical beast, that it reverts immediately to an ordinary animal, or that its intelligence and special abilities fade slowly. The third case sounds very unpleasant for the animal (depending, I suppose, on whether it liked being a familiar), so a given group of mages might have a tradition of new apprentices adopting "orphaned" familiars.

One other issue that isn't specified in the rules as far as I know is the longevity of familiars. If the DM rules that familiars have magically extended lifespans -- which they almost have to, for short-lived creatures like rats -- then it could be that any familiar who has already far outlived its natural lifespan will die immediately of old age when the master dies.


In a PbP campaign I'm running right now, I decided to use the "familiars gradually fade" option. The players' NPC mentor died early in the campaign. The mentor's familiar survived, but knew she was doomed to fade back into a normal cat, a prospect which she hated. I had figured Alice the cat would serve as a short-term information source before running off on a suicide mission of some kind. Instead, the party's warlock took the Obtain Familiar feat and bound Alice as her own familiar, so the cat lives on, though frustrated at her somewhat decreased intellect.

[dsmiles]

Personally, I kind of run the familiar link like the warder bond in WoT.
1. Wizard bites it.
2. Familiar gets all emo.
3. Suicide mission to avenge 'the master'.
4. ???
5. Profit.

[megabyter5]

Following the ToB rules, first they're treated as if they had a master two levels lower than the now-dead one, then the player decides to have some fun and play as the familiar. The familiar then takes levels in wizard (or sorceror if their master was low level and left the familiar stupid) and takes a familiar of their own. They may choose to eventually become a humanoid with shapechange. The cycle then repeats ad infinitum.

[Keld Denar]

Aren't Tibbits fluffed as being former familiars or something, which is how they are magical enough to transform between cat and human forms?

[Zaydos]

Following the ToB rules, first they're treated as if they had a master two levels lower than the now-dead one, then the player decides to have some fun and play as the familiar. The familiar then takes levels in wizard (or sorceror if their master was low level and left the familiar stupid) and takes a familiar of their own. They may choose to eventually become a humanoid with shapechange. The cycle then repeats ad infinitum.

Tome and Blood not ToB (or Tome of Battle) and you'd need to take an improved familiar or be high level for it to work effectively as normal animals have 6 Charisma and Int is 5 +1/2 master's level rounded up (or 14 if your master was a 20th level wizard). Then again excellent way to play a cat without the 2 HD from being awakened. I was a 20th 32nd level wizard's familiar.

[Callista]

Yeah, I think next time I'm playing a wizard who dies and leaves their familiar behind, I'll try playing the familiar for a while. Could be interesting.

Nice to know there are actual rules for it!

[Ormur]

All I can say is that my wizard character has died twice and the familiar is still there.

[Chrono22]

I'd say fluffy retains his powers. Unless your soul is being irrevocably destroyed, all dying really does is send you to a knew place. Familiars can go to other planes of existence, without losing their features. I assume the reverse is also true.

[TheThan]

The real question is,
if a wizard dies in a forest, does his familiar make a sound?

[true_shinken]

Aren't Tibbits fluffed as being former familiars or something, which is how they are magical enough to transform between cat and human forms?

They are descendants of former familiars, actually.