Need to settle this once and for all; regarding Familiars.

[tadkins]

Done a lot of reading on various Wizard-related pages, sites, guides and the like. Talked to a few people, each with their own conflicting opinions. Despite that, I'm still not sure where I should be going on the issue. I'm in the middle of creating my "definitive" Wizard character's build and so I'd like to get this solved once and for all.

Taking the Familiar; yes or no?

Assuming that I likely won't be investing into an improved familiar (current concept is already feat starved as it is), is it worth going into the high levels with a simple raven, cat, or similar familiar? It can certainly hurt when you lose it, and walking around with the little animal can feel like a ticking time bomb at times. I also hear about how immensely useful they supposedly are, and I have one friend who insists completely that having a familiar is far better than trading it away.

Speaking of trading it away, what kind of options are there, and are they worth it?

The current character I have in mind does plan on making use of ranged touch attacks, but also plans on taking a couple of Archmage levels, taking Arcane Reach for one of them. This I think might render one of the big familiar draws (delivering touch attacks) relatively obsolete.

Of course, all things considered, I'm still largely a noob, so I could use a bit of enlightenment. Feel free to correct any of my perceptions if they're wrong. Thanks in advance. :)

[TuggyNE]

If you can trade it away for e.g. Abrupt Jaunt, it's probably best to do so. (There are, I think, a couple other useful trades at least.)

Contrariwise, if you can adequately protect it and specialize in using it for some specific build idea, go ahead and do so, but Improved Familiar is certainly something to look hard at, since making a familiar useful usually requires at least moderate build investment.

Otherwise, err on the side of no familiar, but it's a bit trickier to be sure.

[Sith_Happens]

If you can't take Improved Familiar for whatever reason, there's always this handy spell (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011109a) to Instantaneously turn your regular familiar into a tiny elemental.

[Sir Chuckles]

If you're that worried, stick it in a portable hole or haversack and let it cry itself to sleep at night.
You're getting that +whatever to some skill.

[Kraken]

Share spells can make familiars pretty awesome when combined with things such as polymorph, spells that grant you attacks, and so forth. Remember, your familiar is intelligent, so if, for instance, you cast lightning ring on yourself, and share it with your familiar, you can both shoot lightning.

[Chronos]

Never use your familiar to deliver touch attack spells-- That's just suicidal. If you don't want to be in melee range of something, then your familiar with half your hit points wants it even less. Outside of some rare corner cases, deliver touch spell is useful only for delivering buffs to your allies, not to your enemies.

Others have mentioned Share Spells, which can, with the right spells, double your damage output. Polymorph and similar, Light of Lunia, Flame Whips, etc., are all worthy of mention.

Another good use I've seen is carrying an Anti-Magic Sphere. That spell normally presents a bit of a conundrum, since it's personal-only, and any caster who can cast an Anti-Magic Sphere is the last person who wants to actually be in one. But put it on your familiar, and have it use its actions to follow around the big enemy threats, and your mundane friends can wreak havoc on it, while you're still able to use your own magic.

[Vedhin]

If you can't take Improved Familiar for whatever reason, there's always this handy spell (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011109a) to Instantaneously turn your regular familiar into a tiny elemental.

And if you can get the UMD check, a scroll of this spell (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011020a) lets you make it Anarchic, Axiomatic, Celestial, or Fiendish. Anarchic will give it fast healing, helping with the time bomb problem, while Axiomatic gives you something like Uncanny Dodge.

[Psyren]

In 3.5 you should almost always trade it away, because Obtain Familiar not only gives it back to you, it keys it off your caster level, meaning you can PrC to your heart's content without harming its progression too much (or at all.)

In Pathfinder, take a Dodo and don't look back.

[Dr. Cliché]

And if you can get the UMD check, a scroll of this spell (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011020a) lets you make it Anarchic, Axiomatic, Celestial, or Fiendish. Anarchic will give it fast healing, helping with the time bomb problem, while Axiomatic gives you something like Uncanny Dodge.

I could be wrong on this, but aren't the bonuses from Anarchic and Axiomatic based on the creature's HD (which, for a familiar, won't be much)?

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, the clause in the familiar SRD section states

"Hit Dice
For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the master’s character level or the familiar’s normal HD total, whichever is higher."

I think the template would use the caster's HD to determine it's effects.

[Vedhin]

I could be wrong on this, but aren't the bonuses from Anarchic and Axiomatic based on the creature's HD (which, for a familiar, won't be much)?

The spell description specifies to use the master's HD instead of the familiar's for the template.

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, turning your familiar in to a tiny anarchic celestial air elemental seems like a good deal for the GP cost. Axiomatic is also tempting, due to it making you effectively very hard to flank if your familiar stays out of combat.

[BWR]

Familiars can make awesome additions to party roleplaying.
In a DragonStar campaign I ran the familiar of the party's sorcerer got at least half as much screen time as any PC because of all the fun stuff we could do with him and how the party was split along the lines of those who doted on him and those who disliked him.
Don't think of a familiar or animal companion as a bunch of mechanics, think of Mr. Scruffy.

[tadkins]

Thanks everyone. :)

The character in question is a Lord of the Uttercold-based necromancer wizard. So far I've decided on going with Wizard/Master Specialist/Archmage for two levels, leaving me a few more levels to pick something else. My feats are already eaten up by Spell Focus: Necromancy, the Lord of the Uttercold line, Split Ray for enervation fun, and probably a couple others I will need. Definitely doesn't allow room for familiar investment.

I think with all things considered, it might be a better to drop the familiar. Interested greatly in the Abrupt Jaunt trade; where can I find that? And are there any other good options to consider?

[Pluto!]

Nobody's mentioned the Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability spell - the one reason I would never trade a familiar away in a game that I expect to pass 15th level. Casting an extra spell or two per round is just so huge at high levels that even Abrupt Jaunt starts to look faded. And familiars are always great for skillmonkey gishes or PrCs like Loremaster that offer UMD as a class skill.

But if you're trading the familiar away, Conjurers get the best deals - Rapid Summoning and Abrupt Jaunt are just two of the most useful abilities you can get for that thing.

Illusionists and Transmuters get playable Immediate Magic replacements at low levels, but they're both bad later on (the Transmutation ability shows its age by level 5 or 6; the illusionist one by level 10 or 11, when Mirror Image's duration and Greater Mirror Image's daily uses just render it obsolete).

The Unearthed Arcana's familiar-replacing cohort for enchanters is super broken in the way that leadership always is, but beside the previously-mentioned conjurer substitution, the others in that book all suck, with the possible exception of the simple variant for an Animal Companion, which is scary at very low levels, but doesn't scale well - especially when PrCs are thrown into the mix.

If you're digging even deeper than the conjurer variants or enchanter cohort and aren't looking at low levels specifically, you do have some options scattered about the PHB2, unearthed arcana and dungeonscape, but they're all really bad, and the base familiar is almost definitely better - even without Improved Familiar, skill-heavy prestige classes or Imbue with Spell Ability.

[tadkins]

Hrngh...damn, Pluto. You just made it much tougher for me, hah. Mostly because I did have a Loremaster-based necromancer concept in mind too, that could make good use of a familiar going by what you said.