Questions about Familiars

[Acit Cratna]

Alright so maybe I'm just misunderstanding the text involved with familiars or maybe I just can't find the answers I'm looking for, but-
My understanding is that Familiars are regular animals that, when a Wizard/Sorcerer performs a summoning ritual or something, is pulled away from it's home, becomes a Magical Beast, and is linked to it's master from then on?
Is this correct?
Do familiars eat, drink, sleep, etc...?

What exactly are they?

[Acit Cratna]

Also, do they have a lifespan?
If an Elf Wizard takes a Cat as a familiar
A cat's lifespan can be about 20 years-ish
Whereas an Elf will live hundreds more. Do Familiars age and die before their masters?

[Kazudo]

Use the basic statistics for a creature of the familiar’s kind, but make the following changes:


A common thing people seem worth noting, the game rules fail to list age categories for animals. Typically you'd default to their actual, real-world counterparts, but that could be all the argument in the world for familiars not aging. It's also possible that once every 5-50 years (depending on the familiar), the wizard simply has to get a new one.

[jiriku]

Many of these questions live in a grey area where the DM has to make a call. But yes, in a nutshell you're correct.

As a magical beast, a familiar, eats, drinks, and sleeps.
A familiar can be thought of as a normal creature awakened through magic and given intelligence with a fragment of the wizard's own personality, but if the player and DM can agree on a different "origin story" for the familiar, I really don't see a reason why you couldn't roll that way. A familiar could be flavored as a demon or a nature spirit inhabiting an animal, the reincarnation of an ancestor, friend, family member or fellow mage, or perhaps a magical tutor who teaches the character her magic for its own enigmatic purposes. That kind of thing can make a great story, and it's not going to hurt anything to do it that way.

Familiar lifespan is not addressed in the rules. It's reasonable to assume that they either age and die at normal rates, at extended rates well beyond that of a normal animal, or at the same rate as their master. Take your pick. I certainly would waive the usual penalties for loss of a familar if the familiar is ruled to have died of old age.

[Acit Cratna]

Alright. Thanks to both of you for your answers.
I'm very used to campaigns where a Caster tells you what their familiar is... And that's it. That's the last time you hear about them.
I wanted to make familiars a bigger part of a Casters life, and feel like more a part of the character, so I was just curious what other sorts of interactions I can put in my games to bring familiars to the forefront a bit more.

[Chester]

Alright. Thanks to both of you for your answers.
I'm very used to campaigns where a Caster tells you what their familiar is... And that's it. That's the last time you hear about them.
I wanted to make familiars a bigger part of a Casters life, and feel like more a part of the character, so I was just curious what other sorts of interactions I can put in my games to bring familiars to the forefront a bit more.

Familiars make excellent scouts, depending on what you choose (better than animal companions, IMO). A flying familiar can let you see miles ahead if need be; something else can peer around corners in dungeons. In this sense, a familiar adds a new dimension to the party, even becoming essential members.

[Serafina]

Familiars can be a huge asset to a caster and their party.

First, on scouting:
Aside from having movement abilities, you share at the very least an emotional link to your familiar (later that extends to actually talking). Thats enough for at least a "danger ahead" warning, but if you fine-tune it you can communicate more specific feelings. Pinching yourself in your arm could be a signal to your familiar, for example.

Even without any of the special familiar abilities, they are at least as useful as a highly-trained animal. Get inspired by real-world uses of those, and then figure that a familiar is actually smart (magically enhanced intelligence).

Familiars share your skills. This means you can include your familiar every single time you make a skill-check - by having it aid you via Aid Another. Try descriptions of it using its animal senses and sharing that information via empathic link, or handling small items for you, or even aiding your grip while climbing.
In Pathfinder, this gets enhanced even more by the Valet Familiar Archetype (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/familiar/familiar-archetypes/valet-familiar-archetype)
which shares all teamwork-feats. Which means you can do even more cooperation that just skills.

Shared skill-ranks also means that a familiar can use Use Magic Device. This can be used for a ton of things - starting with using wands to supplement your spellcasting, to using more exotic items. Granted, for everything that needs fine manipulation or command words you need a improved familiar or need to modify your familiar in some way to have access to both (your shared language technically fulfils the second prerequisite).

Familiars can also be useful for delivering touch-spells - they might be squishy, but so is a wizard and their small size is helpful. Enhanced with a few defensive spells, its an acceptable risk.

[Acit Cratna]

Oh nice! I hadn't even thought of some of these. This is all great. Thank you all! I'll totally be using some of these, and bringing them up in our sessions.

[Serafina]

Some examples in play, also demonstrating that a familiar can be used quite well to enhance roleplaying:
Smell-based Perception-roll (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16287822&postcount=5) Note how the familiar just gets three emotive words - thats both to demonstrate what is felt over the empathic link, as well as to account for the low intelligence.
Aiding with Spellcraft for Identification (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16359410&postcount=81)
Entirely from the PoV of the familiar. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16409467&postcount=100) Just to mix it up a little, and again demonstrating the lower intelligence. Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16526746&postcount=165) it gets used again, but this time as a substitution for dialogue - i didn't know what my character could possibly say to aid another with intimidation, so i just rendered it unintelligible by writing from a different PoV.

What i haven't demonstrated/used so far is potential different interests and personalities. An example that comes to mind is a familiar that is very kid-friendly, with a master that isn't. Cue familiar running off to get petted by local children (not running away entirely of course that would be silly).
Or it actually being the familiar that is interested in material wealth and thus hoards all the shiny things! And gets upset every time the master spends some of them. Especially fun if the familiar lives in the bag where the gold is being transported - who doesn't want a bigger someone to carry ones hoard around and defend it to boot!

[Acit Cratna]

Ooo, yeah I like those.
I had wondered before if a familiar is ever bitter about being summoned away from it's life to serve a Caster? Possibly Role-playing aspects of having a familiar that isn't entirely obedient to the Caster? Or is part of the summoning forcing it to be obedient?

[WeaselGuy]

I had my familiar drop a bead of force on a bandit camps' main gate... allowed us to a) acquire speedy entry to the compound, and b) take out the large cluster of enemies in that area.

That same campaign, since I typically acted as a scout (I was a shadowcaster with better hide/move silently than either of the rangers) and my Dark Raven familiar can speak a language of my choice, I used it to relay information back to the party through that fancy little empathic link thingy that familiars have with their masters :D

[Grod_The_Giant]

I wanted to make familiars a bigger part of a Casters life, and feel like more a part of the character, so I was just curious what other sorts of interactions I can put in my games to bring familiars to the forefront a bit more.
If you want to do that, I suggest lessening the penalty for your familiar dying. As is, the potential loss of xp makes it a huge liability. I suggest something like "save or take a negative level for 24 hours; afterwards, you may summon a replacement familiar."

[Serafina]

Eh, most of the interactions listed are not done in-combat. There is very little risk of your familiar dying if it plays research assistant, a pair of shoulder-located extra eyes etc.
Heck, even in combat a familiar is pretty save unless someone starts throwing area-fortitude spells, what with Improved Evasion and all that. And really, who is gonna attack a familiar instead of a spellcaster when they get into melee range?

The main risk is scouting, but here familiars can rely on looking like any ordinary animal. Only an *******-GM would do something like this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0154.html) - unless the familiars animal species is wildly out of place or in an area with no animals at all, it shouldn't get attacked while scouting given that not even magic can tell that it is actually a familiar rather than an ordinary animal.

Of course thats all dependent on how the GM treats the familiar - it CAN easily get killed. But if you are actually using it as a sidekick, with its own quirks and contribution to the story, why kill it off? It's a source of fun and a legitimate class feature.

[Lord_Jord]

Ooo, yeah I like those.
I had wondered before if a familiar is ever bitter about being summoned away from it's life to serve a Caster? Possibly Role-playing aspects of having a familiar that isn't entirely obedient to the Caster? Or is part of the summoning forcing it to be obedient?

I actually read a short story about the summoning of a familiar, it was in a compilation of FR short stories (Though I forget who it was written by, and its title). It tackled this exact idea, how does the animal (Or in this case, Brownie) feel about being summoned against its will. I would say that, unless you're using the Improved Familiar feat, the animal would hardly know the difference. I imagine that the mind compulsion is such that it feels to the familiar like youve known and trained it for years, you are its closest friend. Personally I dont like the idea of a summoned familiar, I would much rather catch or purchase my own, and then perform the ritual on the specimin. This way you can actually choosr what the specific animal or creature looks like, eg. Is it big for its size, what color fur/feathers does it have, etc etc. But then again im not all for the randomness of summoning.

[Gildedragon]

i've wondered:
does the familiar learn to speak if the master takes ranks in "speak language"

[thorr-kan]

I've wondered: If you take the Extra Familiar feat from Dragon Magazine, then take Improved Familiar, Construct Familiar, or Undead Familiar, do these feats apply to all familiars or just one?

[Urpriest]

In 3.0, familiars weren't summoned, rather the ritual to gain a familiar required a preexisting animal. The Wizard caught an animal, then used the ritual to bind it to them.

In 3.5, it's more ambiguous. You don't summon it, since the relevant keyword isn't present and they can't be dispelled. You just...obtain one.

In some fantasy settings, a familiar is a natural extension of the caster's personality. While there's nowhere that's explicitly true in D&D, it's as consistent with the familiar rules as anything.

[KillianHawkeye]

Also, do they have a lifespan?
If an Elf Wizard takes a Cat as a familiar
A cat's lifespan can be about 20 years-ish
Whereas an Elf will live hundreds more. Do Familiars age and die before their masters?

I believe that older editions of D&D mentioned that the familiar's lifespan changes to match the master's.

I remember an old story from somewhere, about two boys in a village. One of them was studying magic, and had the grandiose plan to make a nearby dragon into his familiar rather than a normal animal. Many years later, the boy returned to his village and met his friend again, now a grown man. However, the boy himself had not aged at all. You see, the ritual had worked, but the dragon's will was too strong. The boy had tried to make a dragon his familiar, but became the dragon's familiar instead. :smallamused:



i've wondered:
does the familiar learn to speak if the master takes ranks in "speak language"

No, because you cannot gain ranks in the Speak Language skill.

You can purchase Speak Language just like any other skill, but instead of buying a rank in it, you choose a new language that you can speak.

The purchasing of skill tricks works the same way; you spend the skill points but get something other than skill ranks in return.