How to Improved Familiar?

[Bloodgruve]

Hello Playgrounders,

I'm picking up an Improved Familiar, Quasit, but I've never run or seen a familiar perform in a game. I'd like to use it for actions/attacks/flanking in combat and scouting/utility OOC. It's tiny so it will provoke AOO's moving to good positions, I'm not sure how to run it and I don't want to put it in overly dangerous situations.

I'm running a Clawlock setup for scouting. Don't have access yet to the nice Familiar spells. Got a wizard that can make wands though. I have a wand of Alter Self..

Any suggestion on Tactics or input on how to properly use a Familiar most effectively would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Blood~

[Elkad]

http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html

Enspell Familiar, Dragon Compendium. Shared spells extend to a mile instead of 5ft.
This is the big one, as it lets your familiar keep shared buffs while it's off scouting.

Combat Familiar, PHB2. If holding a touch spell, it can close to range0 without an AoO. Neat, but not sure worth a feat.

Other than that, remember it gets all your skills (plus it's own), so it can UMD for you if you put points in it, aid another on basically every skill check you make, borrow your checks for spellcraft when spying on the enemy witchdoctor, etc.

As an outsider, it gets a bunch of non-standard alter self forms, there are lists out there.

My current imp gets stuck pulling guard duty on my shift every night, while I sleep, which annoys her to no end (and will probably get the party in deep trouble eventually)

[Troacctid]

Remember that tiny or smaller creatures can't flank, as they do not threaten adjacent squares. You'll probably want to have it in its centipede or wolf form for combat.

[Elkad]

Remember that tiny or smaller creatures can't flank, as they do not threaten adjacent squares. You'll probably want to have it in its centipede or wolf form for combat.

If the opponent is Medium or bigger, a Tiny creature can enter his square (possibly provoking an AoO for doing so), and then provide flanking to everyone. (DMG p29). Or you can give it a reach weapon if you only need flanking from one side. (Yes, someone else will soon post and say 2x0=0, but the DMG disagrees)

[Flickerdart]

Quasit kinda sucks. Pick up a Beguiler, or use Exalted Familiar for Coure Eladrin.

[Bloodgruve]

Thanks for the input.


Quasit kinda sucks. Pick up a Beguiler, or use Exalted Familiar for Coure Eladrin.
I'd love to take something else but I'm CN so Quasit or a Mephit were my best choices.

I'm limited in what books we can use which I prolly should have mentioned. Enspell Familiar isn't open to me unfortunately. Core, Completes, SpC, PHB2, ToM, and MIC are what I get to work with. Not sure which MM's I can use yet so to my next question;


If I use Alter Self from a wand but use it on my Quasit only, will it still have the 5' restriction?

Also, I'm assuming my ability as a warlock to take 10 on a UMD check will not transfer over to my Quasit making UMD checks, correct?

Lastly, is it worth Alter Self and having my Quasit hop into melee or is that something that I should just avoid?

Much appreciate,

Blood~

[Elkad]

Any spell you cast directly on your familiar doesn't have the 5' restriction. So you can alter self just it (rather than sharing a charge for both of you) and it can move freely.

"Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of "You" on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself."

Take 10 isn't skill points, so no it does not transfer over. Quasit still gets to use your ranks in UMD (with it's own Cha bonus) though.

Having your familiar melee is always questionable. If it dies, you lose a pile of XP. Of course it may keep you from dying, in which case you'd lose even more XP.

Alter self vs it's own shapechange or natural form? Since alter self is restricted to Small creatures, you may not gain much. Guess it depends if you need a movement mode or something.