[D&D 4e] Making some new familiars.

[Townopolis]

While the current list of familiars is nice, I've had some ideas for familiars that I would like to see and aren't covered. Simply changing the fluff on other familiars hasn't worked too well, so I came up with these additional familiars. PEACH and feel free to present your own familiar-related homebrew.

Dog Familiar
Small dogs, such as terriers, are tenacious and loyal watchdogs and trackers.
Speed 6
Constant Benefits
--You gain a +2 bonus to perception checks and insight checks.
Active Benefits
--Tracker: A dog familiar gets a +5 bonus to perception checks made to find and follow tracks.

Rabbit Familiar
Some cultures consider rabbits lucky, others consider them tricky. Most animals consider them food.
Speed 7
Constant Benefits
--You gain a +4 bonus to perception checks to detect stealthed creatures.
Active Benefits
--Trickster's Gambit: Once per encounter, as a move action, you can either make all enemies adjacent to your familiar suffer -1 to all defenses, attack rolls, and saves, or grant all allies adjacent to your familiar +1 to all defenses, attack rolls, and saves. This benefit lasts until the end of your next turn and only affects targets while they remain adjacent to your familiar.

Toad Familiar
Toads aren't much to look at, which is why they often go overlooked.
Speed 4, Swim 4
Constant Benefits
--You gain a +2 bonus to athletics checks made to jump or swim.
Active Benefits
--Toad's Tongue: As a move action, a toad can pull an unattended object weighing no more than 1 pound within 3 squares of it 3 squares and pick it up. A toad can carry a maximum of 2 such items at a time. If the toad is destroyed while carrying any items, the items are dropped in its square.
--Overlooked: A toad familiar gets +5 to its stealth checks.

[Sir_Mopalot]

I like these, especially the Dog familiar, but the wording on the Toads active ability could be made more specific, for example maybe a weight limit on what the toad can move and carry.

[Dracomortis]

I like these, especially the Dog familiar, but the wording on the Toads active ability could be made more specific, for example maybe a weight limit on what the toad can move and carry.
Agreed. Since this is very similar the spider's ability (with a shorter range but longer pulling distance), you should probably impose the same limits - the object has to be unattended and can weigh no more than 5 pounds. Overall, I'd word it like this:

"As a move action, a toad can pull an object within 3 squares of it into its square and pick it up. The object must be unattended, and it can weigh no more than 5 pounds. A toad can carry two such objects at any given time."

[Townopolis]

Ahh, that's a typo. It was supposed to mention that it can only pull 1 lb. objects. Fixed it.

I was basing it a bit off the spider and a bit off the rat. Mostly, it's supposed to work for picking up small but useful or important items, such as a key, signet ring, scroll, or similar. While a spider can pull more, the toad also gets a bonus to stealth, making it one of the better thief familiars, really only comparable to the rat.

On another toad-related note, I was noticing that stealth familiars really favor the Dex arcanists, certain sorcerers and wizards. Toads, to me, have always been something I'd associate more with a Con arcanist, although that may just be because they used to give HP in 3e. Whatever the case, I was thinking of changing them to favor Con arcanists more.

Toad Familiar
Toads aren't much to look at, which is why they often go overlooked.
Speed 4, Swim 4
Constant Benefits
--You may use your Con bonus instead of your Dex bonus when making stealth checks.
Active Benefits
--Toad's Tongue: As a move action, a toad can pull an unattended object weighing no more than 1 pound within 3 squares of it 3 squares and pick it up. A toad can carry a maximum of 2 such items at a time. If the toad is destroyed while carrying any items, the items are dropped in its square.
--Overlooked: A toad familiar gets +5 to its stealth checks when standing still.

This makes it a stealthy familiar for Con arcanists, with the fairly significant benefit of letting their master be stealthy too. The active stealth bonus the toad gets is nerfed because the constant benefit itself is powerful, and also because I didn't want it to be a better thief than the rat per se.

[Dracomortis]

Here's a few aquatic familiars. They could potentially be used in non-aquatic environments by describing the familiar as "swimming" through the air (essentially giving it a fly speed, with hover, equal to its swim speed). After all, they're not actual creatures.


Crab Familiar
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Crab familiars are common amongst those who spend a great deal of time
on or near the water, as well as those who prefer a solid defense.
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Speed 4, swim 5
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Athletics checks.
♦ Opponents do not gain a +2 bonus on attacks when flanking you
(you still grant combat advantage to creatures flanking you).
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Active Benefits
♦ Defensive Shell: As an immediate interrupt, you gain a +2 bonus
to all defenses until the beginning of your next turn, and your
familiar is destroyed.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Body is made of some kind of rock or metal.
♦ Pinches at people's toes as a game.


Eel Familiar
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Eels are able to escape from almost any restraints, and they are favored
by those who prefer not to be held down.
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Senses low-light vision
Speed swim 6
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +4 bonus to Acrobatics checks or Athletics checks to
escape from restraints (including a grab).
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Active Benefits
♦ Eel's Escape: Once per encounter as a minor action, you may
immediately make a saving throw with a +2 bonus against any one
effect that a save can end.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Appears to be made of water or some other fluid.
♦ Is covered in vestigial tentacles that flow behind it.
♦ Intentionally seeks tight places to see if it can get out.


Fish Familiar
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The seas are populated by a wide variety of fish, from bright tropical
species to dull brown bottom-dwellers. Fish familiars help their masters
avoid watery hazards.
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Senses low-light vision
Speed swim 6
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Athletics checks to swim.
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Endurance checks to avoid suffocation.
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Active Benefits
♦ Fish's Dart: As a minor action, you gain a swim speed equal to
your base land speed until the end of your current turn. If you
already possess a swim speed, your swim speed instead increases by
2 until the end of your current turn.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Has scales of many different colors, or changes color occasionally.
♦ Regularly blows bubbles out of its mouth.


Jellyfish Familiar
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These translucent creatures possess often-poisonous tendrils that can
grow several feet in length.
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Speed swim 5
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Endurance checks.
♦ You gain resist poison 5. If you already have resist poison,
increase your resistance by 2.
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Active Benefits
♦ Sting of the Jellyfish: Once per encounter you can make an attack
roll with an arcane power that includes the poison keyword at a +2
bonus.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Has floating patterns or runes inside its body.
♦ Refuses to swim any direction but horizontally.


Octopus Familiar
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Surprisingly intelligent, octopuses possess eight tentacles that can use
to hold prey or pull themselves along the ground. Their bodies are
boneless and thus highly flexible.
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Speed 2, swim 5
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Stealth checks.
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Active Benefits
♦ Reactive Camouflage: As a minor action, you can cause your
familiar to match its skin color and texture with the surrounding
area, granting it total concealment until the end of your next
turn or until it moves more than 2 squares.
♦ Wrestling Arms: You gain a +2 bonus to Acrobatics checks and
Athletics checks to escape a grab when you are adjacent to your familiar.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Actually changes into whatever it is mimicking.
♦ Has an unusual number of tentacles.


Starfish Familiar
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These odd star-shaped creatures are best known for their ability to grow
back severed body parts. They make extremely resilient companions.
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Speed 2, swim 4
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Endurance checks.
♦ You can use your second wind as a move action, instead of a
standard action.
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Active Benefits
♦ Starfish Regeneration: Once per encounter as a minor action, you
can immediately regain 2 hit points. If you use your second wind,
you may use this ability as a free action, and you regain a number
of hit points equal to 2 or your Constitution modifier, whichever is
higher.
Level 11: 3 hit points.
Level 21: 4 hit points.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Occasionally sheds pieces of itself, which become mundane starfish.
♦ Is shaped like something other than a star.

[Dracomortis]

Here's something to fill the distinct lake of elemental familiars. Also added the octopus and starfish to my previous post.


Elemental Servant Familiar
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These minor elementals appeal to a wide range of spellcasters,
especially those who frequently travel to other planes. Its exact
origin is unclear; it likely contains traits of all the elements.
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Speed 5, fly 6 (hover)
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Arcana checks.
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to skill checks related to rituals of the
travel category.
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Active Benefits
♦ Elemental Chaos: Once per encounter as a minor action, you can
gain resist 5 to either acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder
until the end of your next turn.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Shifts through each variety of element, or combines them all.
♦ Tries to convince strangers that it is actually a deity or other
powerful entity.

[Dracomortis]

I originally planned to do a squid, but I figured cuttlefish were better suited, given their smaller size.


Cuttlefish Familiar
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Cuttlefish are small, resilient creatures related to both squid and
octopuses and come in a wide variety of colors and patterns. They
make great familiars for those who value surprise attacks.
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Speed swim 5
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Stealth checks.
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Active Benefits
♦ Ink Burst: Once per encounter as a minor action, you cause your
cuttlefish familiar to release a cloud of black ink that fills its
square, causing the square to become totally obscured. If you are
adjacent to your familiar, you may choose to have the cloud fill
your square as well. The cloud lasts until the end of your next
turn.
♦ Jet: When you spend two or more consecutive move actions to
move your familiar, it can move up to 2 additional squares.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Has pure black eyes that move around its body.
♦ Releases small bursts of ink when startled.

[Dracomortis]

Fox Familiar
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These canine creatures have lithe bodies covered in plush fur, often
orange or brown in color. They grant their masters profound cunning
and insight.
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Speed 6
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Constant Benefits
♦ You gain a +2 bonus to Insight checks and Nature checks.
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Active Benefits
♦ Fox's Cunning: Once per encounter as a minor action, you can
reroll a failed Insight check that you made any time since the
beginning of your last turn.
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Possible Quirks
♦ Has golden and silver fur.
♦ Hops on the back of people it likes.

[kamimage]

Lantern archon familiar
Speed fly 5 (hover)
Constant benefits:
You gain resist necrotic 5. If you already have resist necrotic, increase your resistance by 2.

Active Benefits:
Aura of menace: once per day as a standard action, all enemies adjacent to the archon take a -1 to all defenses, this effect can be sustained as a minor action as long as the archon dose not move(it can still be pulled, pushed and slid)

would love some feedback and i am working on some more.

[Mando Knight]

I'd make it Resist Radiant, and become a light source in active mode. It is, after all, a lantern archon...

[Thajocoth]

Toad is one of the 31 familiars in Dragon 374's article "Get Familiar". (Page 23 if you have it.) It adds to endurance and surge val and has an encounter power that augments a heal, but it's really slow.

[kamimage]

I'd make it Resist Radiant, and become a light source in active mode. It is, after all, a lantern archon...

i like the light suggestion, i think am going to use it : ) and radiant would make sense but in 3rd ed it had resist necrotic so that's what i think am going with. thx for your help!

and i have more!!

Phoenix
Speed 2, fly 6 (hover)
Constant benefits
- You gain a +2 to death saving throws additionally you may fail 4 death saving throws before you die.
Active benefits:
Molt of life: one per encounter you may spend a healing surge and gain no hit points, if you do all allies next to your familiar, including you, gain 5 hp, after this you familiar returns to a passive state