Trading in Familiars

[Slayer Lord]

The idea of a mandatory familiar for most arcane casters has never really appealed to me that much, and I am rarely able to find a good use for them. So generally I wind up trading them for extra feats/spells/whatnot, though since I'm still relatively new to the game it is sometimes difficult to judge what the approximate value of a familiar is in terms of spells and feats.

What sort of things do you usually trade familiars for? Or if you find the idea of giving up a familiar ludicrous, what am I missing out on?

[Veyr]

Familiars can be quite good (Imbue Familiar with Spell-Like Ability is an excellent spell for allowing you to "cast" more spells per round by having your familiar cast some), but the Specialist Wizard variants (SRD, Unearthed Arcana) and Immediate Magic variants (Player's Handbook II?) are usual go-tos.

[danzibr]

Abrupt jaunt!

[Diarmuid]

There are a bunch of ACF's (Alternate Class Features) in some of the newer books that replace the Familiar special ability of Sorc's and Wiz's.

I always prefer something "official" rather than something done of the cuff.

[Undercroft]

The only time i keep the familiar (rather than take Abrupt Jaunt) is when i played a changeling wizard.

the changeling racial substitution levels are actually kinda interesting. At 5th level i think instead of the bonus feat you can have your familiar transform itself into another familair type you could summon (eg from raven into toad) as much as you want. Swapping between imp and lizard was a favourite of mine

[Diarmuid]

So every wizard you ever play is a Conjuration Specialist?

[Veyr]

In all honesty... just about any sort of Wizard, no matter what type of spell he prefers, is probably better as a Conjuration specialist.

[Lateral]

As long as you're planning on preparing one spell per level of the given school each day (which you almost definitely will for Conjuration, since it's one of the best schools), it doesn't really matter which school you specialize in, so the two best schools for specializing in are Divination (for only having one prohibited school) and Conjuration (ABRUPT JAUNT).

[Greenish]

So every wizard you ever play is a Conjuration Specialist?The archetypes of magician not filled with Conjuration specialist wizard are for the most part domain of other, much better* classes.

That is, if I wanted to specialize in enchantment or illusion, I'd make a beguiler, and if Necromantic might was my thing, I'd make a Dread Necromancer.


*"Better" here meaning more balanced and interesting classes with actual class features.

[Kylarra]

Eidetic spellcaster is a nice one, although you lose scribe scroll too.

[Lateral]

The archetypes of magician not filled with Conjuration specialist wizard are for the most part domain of other, much better* classes.

That is, if I wanted to specialize in enchantment or illusion, I'd make a beguiler, and if Necromantic might was my thing, I'd make a Dread Necromancer.


I agree with you on beguiler, but DN have to be Evil. :smallyuk:

[Greenish]

I agree with you on beguiler, but DN have to be Evil. :smallyuk:They don't, only non-Good.

And that's only because creating undead and the like are inherently evil by the default assumptions. If you follow those assumptions, it makes sense for all DN to be evil, or at least non-Good. If your campaign operates under different dictates, then there's no need for DN's alignment limitations.

[FMArthur]

I generally only bother with these three:

Abrupt Jaunt (Immediate Magic, PHII): lets you teleport 10ft as an immediate action your Int mod times per day. Immediate actions can interrupt another action, at any stage of its completion. Yeah.

Rapid Summoning (specialist Wizard variants, Unearthed Arcana): All the Summon Monster spells only take a Standard Action to cast instead of 1 round (1 round casting time spells are different from full-round: it means it only takes effect at the start of your next turn).

Eidetic Spellcaster (Dragon 357): you store spells in your mind, not in a book. DM jerk insurance.

The first two have alternatives for each school, but you won't find anything as good for others... and this is in addition to Conjuration being the best school for spells that can be used for nearly everything.

[Thurbane]

I think there's a flaw in an issue of Dragon, Forlorn (?) that lets you trade a familiar for any feat you qualify for.

The fun thing, if you plan to PrC out of your base class, or dip, is that you can later re-obtain a familiar with the Obtain Familar feat, which counts ALL of your arcane caster levels to advancing the familiar's abilities (PrCs normally don't count).

[Aron Times]

Metamagic Specialist (Sorcerer ACF from PHB2) lets you cast metamagicked spells without the increased casting time 3 + int mod/day, at the cost of your familiar. What's even better is that it's based solely on int and not your sorcerer level, so you lose absolutely nothing for taking a prestige class or multiclassing.

[Thurbane]

Metamagic Specialist (Sorcerer ACF from PHB2) lets you cast metamagicked spells without the increased casting time 3 + int mod/day, at the cost of your familiar. What's even better is that it's based solely on int and not your sorcerer level, so you lose absolutely nothing for taking a prestige class or multiclassing.
Just a shame it wasn't based on CHA, though. Still, it can save you a feat (Rapid Metamagic) later on.