Familiar uses and tricks

[Newoblivion]

So it's my first time ever playing a caster, and I have a bat familiar (with dark creature template).

What uses do I have for it? (apart from touch attacks?)

I would really like to bring something new to the table. Our last wizard had a familiar but he never used him, and I would really like to change the common thinking in my group that familiars are useless.

Thank you for the ideas!!! :smallsmile:

[ArcturusV]

Well, the traditional use would be scouting as well. If you're in goblin caves, a bat might draw less attention than a guy in a pointy hat, robes, and staff. Of course there is the combat advantage where, if you want to risk it, you can use it to piss off a combatant and make things slightly easier for whatever guy is trying to bash his head in at the moment.

Beyond that, it's about getting creative or just weird. Not a familiar, but something I used to do for ****s and giggles... I had a Half-Ogre Druid, Junkan Iron Fang. When I got my animal companion the DM was all, "What do you want? A wolf? A horse? Etc?" and I told him, "I want a cat." "Tiger? You don't have the levels for that.". "No... I want a cat." "... like a Bobcat? I don't know if I have stats for it, but you probably couldn't get it at level one." "Nope... a cat. Like that. *points to the housecat in the room* That. A cat. That." ".... oh... why would you want that?" "Fun. It'll be good for laughs. And you've never seen a Druid using one I bet." "... oookaaaaaay."

So, I'd get a Cat. And use the Druid Ambush. I bought a ball of yarn. I'd open a door just a crack. Enemies/guards in the room look at the door. A ball of yarn comes in, with a housecat chasing it. Get an "Awwww, how cute!" moment from the enemies. Then while they are watching the cat, trying to pet it or something, WHAM! Junkan bursts open through the door and uses his freakin' greatclub to splatter someone's brains.

... it was going an extra mile. It didn't give me that much more advantage than I might have had if I just tried to burst in and surprise them. But it was a lot more satisfying. And having a familiar (Or a "useless" Animal Companion) like that is all about doing things just for the fun of it.

[Flickerdart]

A familiar turns Benign Transposition into a poor man's Dimension Door, especially if it's flying. You can also share spells, meaning that Alter Self gets you two combatants instead of one, Cloud of Knvies gets double the shots, etc. The feat Enspell Familiar makes this even better, because it extends the range of shared spells to 1 mile.

[Malroth]

a familliar affected by alter self retains its magic beast type and can turn into fun things like rust monsters, manticores, and hydras. Also they can use skills with your modifier so if you have ranks in UMD you can give a couple of wands to it and have it abuse the action economy from as soon as wands become afordable.

[Newoblivion]

How changing my familiar to Hydea helps? while under the effect of Alter Self he retains his own ability scores. So he will be a Hydra with str of 1. :smallfrown:

[Newoblivion]

Also, the bat is dimunitive. So I can only alter him one size category, which is small. No?

[ArcturusV]

Well... the way an Alter Self on your Familiar could help? Off the top of my head I seem to recall there's a lot of spells that use materials from rare beasts for components to try and limit your ability to spam them.

Familiar might not LIKE such treatment. But infinitely cheaper and easier than actually hunting a wild one down or buying them from some sleazy merchant.

[GenericMook]

There's a lot of hilariously good spells that can be shared via Share Spells. There's stuff like Alter Self/Polymorph/Drac. Polymorph, but there's also more simple stuff like the Bite of the Were(something) spells for straight up bonuses.

Familiars are also really good for checks, especially since you can get Aid Another on those.

Grabbing Improved Familiar or one of the other Familiar feats is generally considered worthwhile, too. There's some really awesome familiars out there. I know Imp is used for its ranks in UMD, but there are others like the Beguiler, which has permanent true seeing.

[avr]

It's also occasionally handy to have someone on hand to fail their saves to have a spell centered on them. Like darkness, or Otiluke's resilient sphere.

[Newoblivion]

It's also occasionally handy to have someone on hand to fail their saves to have a spell centered on them. Like darkness, or Otiluke's resilient sphere.

Yeah I thought about using darkness on my bat because he have blindsense. Also my DM was nice and told me that I can see through my own darkness spells :smallbiggrin:

[Chilingsworth]

My favorite familiar trick:

step 1: be an TN, LN, NE, or LE wizard/sorcerer.

step 2: Take Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) at level 9.

step 3: Get an imp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm#imp) familiar

step 4: Enjoy you fully sapient (and capable of conversation) familiar that also has a 50ft (perfect maneuverability) fly speed, invisibility on itself at will, commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) once a week, hands that are actually capable of manipulating magic items for UMD abuse, and other nice goodies.

[Newoblivion]

My favorite familiar trick:

step 1: be an TN, LN, NE, or LE wizard/sorcerer.

step 2: Take Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) at level 9.

step 3: Get an imp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm#imp) familiar

step 4: Enjoy you fully sapient (and capable of conversation) familiar that also has a 50ft (perfect maneuverability) fly speed, invisibility on itself at will, commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) once a week, hands that are actually capable of manipulating magic items for UMD abuse, and other nice goodies.

Yeah my character is TN :)

I thoght about Imp at level 9. Though I am not sure how the priest of Tyr in my group will take it.

Also I am 1 domain wizard / 3 shadowcaster / 1 nocumancer. So no UMD :smallfrown:

[Togo]

Some standard tricks:

Cast silence on a familiar, get the familiar to ready an action to rush up to a spellcaster when he starts casting.

Get an improved familiar - pseduodragon for the sensory capabilities and stealthy scouting and good social skills, blink dog for the free dimension door, various mephits for the ability to use a really tiny magical thrown weapon of spell storing, or magical bow.

Another approach is the tank familiar - load it up with improved familiar, augment familiar, improved mage armour, and every other possible booster you can think of, and then have it ready an action to move in front of the wizard when someone come in to attack. The sudden appearance of a pseduodragon with an AC of 45 is great for breaking the charge of monsters, particularly in arial combat.

Spell mention should be given to the various specific polyorph spells, that turn you into particular creatures. The ability to turn your familiar into a troll, a chimera, etc. as a swift action can be a lifesaver. The point is to to put them into combat, but to gain someone with a addtional set of actions each round who is intelligent and familiar with the party's tactics.

Giving your familiar a wand is also a tried and tested technique, as well as having it use potions, activate items, etc. UMD is not the obvious skill for a wizard to get, but it can be amazing when twinned with a familiar with actual hands.

What's almost never worth it is putting the familiar into combat. You have have party members to spend on that.

[Norin]

Improved familiar and duskblade makes a Combat familiar more worth it. ;)

Also flanking partner as caster/sneak attacker builds can be a useful Combat utility too.

[Norin]

Oh and a Hanbook (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.fi/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html) you can read too! Whee!

[Newoblivion]

Oh and a Hanbook (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.fi/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html) you can read too! Whee!

This handbook is great! thank you! :smallsmile:

Though I am not sure I understand how can the familiar adds +2 to skills.

Also is there any way in the world for me to get UMD? I can try and ask my DM if I can switch it with another class skill. But I am not sure he will agree to this.

[Norin]

The familiar can use Aid Another to help you with your skill checks.


Aid Another

You can help another character achieve success on his or her skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you are helping gets a +2 bonus to his or her check, as per the rule for favorable conditions. (You can’t take 10 on a skill check to aid another.) In many cases, a character’s help won’t be beneficial, or only a limited number of characters can help at once.

In cases where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results you can’t aid another to grant a bonus to a task that your character couldn’t achieve alone.

Of course depending on your Familiar's skills he can make this 10 check alot of times and thus adding +2 to your checks alot of times too.




Skills

For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master’s skill ranks, whichever are better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar’s total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar’s ability to use.


That's more or less how it works.

[Santra]

My favorite familiar trick:

step 1: be an TN, LN, NE, or LE wizard/sorcerer.

step 2: Take Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) at level 9.

step 3: Get an imp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm#imp) familiar

step 4: Enjoy you fully sapient (and capable of conversation) familiar that also has a 50ft (perfect maneuverability) fly speed, invisibility on itself at will, commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) once a week, hands that are actually capable of manipulating magic items for UMD abuse, and other nice goodies.

Or if you are CN, NE, or TN you can get a Quasit which is identical to the imp but a demon instead.

[Newoblivion]

The familiar can use Aid Another to help you with your skill checks.



Of course depending on your Familiar's skills he can make this 10 check alot of times and thus adding +2 to your checks alot of times too.



That's more or less how it works.

Yeah. The thing I found most annoying is to break the skills of my familiar to see where have ranks and where its only his racial mods and size.

[nedz]

My favorite familiar trick:

step 1: be an TN, LN, NE, or LE wizard/sorcerer.

step 2: Take Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) at level 9.

step 3: Get an imp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm#imp) familiar

step 4: Enjoy you fully sapient (and capable of conversation) familiar that also has a 50ft (perfect maneuverability) fly speed, invisibility on itself at will, commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) once a week, hands that are actually capable of manipulating magic items for UMD abuse, and other nice goodies.

Psuedodragons can use wands too. They also get Flight (60' good), Darkvision 60', Telepathy 60', Blindsense 60'.

[Pyromancer999]

Pseudodragon is always nice, as is the Imp. I know the Coure Eladrin is a good familiar if you take the Celestial Familiar Feat.




Also I am 1 domain wizard / 3 shadowcaster / 1 nocumancer. So no UMD :smallfrown:

What level is your character? Pretty sure you can't enter Noctumancer without both 2nd level spell casting and 2nd level shadowcasting, the former of which a Domain Wizard 1/Shadowcaster 3/Noctumancer 1 does not have, unless you're abusing Precocious Apprentice.

[Newoblivion]

unless you're abusing Precocious Apprentice.

I am :smalltongue:

EDIT: My DM aloud it because he thinks that shadowcasters are weak and because we are advancing quite slow, my character will only be great at like 2-3 more levels and it's like a year from now :smallyuk: