Familiars on their own

[FrancisBean]

I have a penchant for running one-shot sessions which force players to take on unusual characters. I'm about to start writing up another one. Here's the premise, which the players will know ahead of time. (I.e., tailoring builds is fair game.)

The players each bring a character with a familiar. Tentatively, let's say 25th lvl. At the start of the session the group of main characters gets nailed by a weaker enemy with an overpowered McGuffin; they are all petrified/paralyzed/physically out of play for the duration. They are alive and mentally aware and able to communicate with the familiars via the empathic bond within the 1-mile radius. The familiars escape and have to rescue their masters by acquiring and destroying the McGuffin.

My problem: I'm an old-time RPG hand, but only lately come to 3.5. I don't know the references well enough to anticipate some of the clever builds. I haven't even settled on which sources I'll allow the players to use. Can some of you unspeakably, fiendishly clever people point out some of the things I'll need to acquaint myself with? I'm also happy to take suggestions on sources I should ban as too cheesy, or changes I might want to make to the conditions (level, classes, alignments?, etc.).

[Extra Anchovies]

Specifically familiars, or are animal companions/special mounts good? If you want to focus on the fact that the familiars can't really fight, ban Improved/Celestial/Dragon Familiar and don't allow companions/mounts.

[FrancisBean]

Specifically familiars, or are animal companions/special mounts good? If you want to focus on the fact that the familiars can't really fight, ban Improved/Celestial/Dragon Familiar and don't allow companions/mounts.

I hadn't actually considered companions and mounts! Yeah, they're really not much like the usual familiar builds. I was already debating punting the Dragonomicon because of the dragon familiars, but I figured I should listen to suggestions first.

Plot-wise, I figure it should be obvious that anything which can take down the Masters is something the familiars shouldn't face head-on. I assumed that no sane players would try to build combat familiars... But I'm neglecting to consider the typical Sanity scores of most players. :smallamused:

[Urpriest]

I hadn't actually considered companions and mounts! Yeah, they're really not much like the usual familiar builds. I was already debating punting the Dragonomicon because of the dragon familiars, but I figured I should listen to suggestions first.

Plot-wise, I figure it should be obvious that anything which can take down the Masters is something the familiars shouldn't face head-on. I assumed that no sane players would try to build combat familiars... But I'm neglecting to consider the typical Sanity scores of most players. :smallamused:

There are also lots of ridiculously versatile non-combat familiars out there, though. There'll be a pretty big range of capabilities unless your players know what to expect. And heck, every familiar is still getting BAB and 1/2 hp of its master, so some of them will be pretty decent combatants in their own right.

Any reason for 25th level? The epic level rules are pretty haphazard, for a concept like this there really isn't much reason to use them.

[FrancisBean]

Any reason for 25th level? The epic level rules are pretty haphazard, for a concept like this there really isn't much reason to use them.

Nope -- I could just as easily drop it down. The only reason I wanted to bump up the Masters is because I want the quick victory condition: once the McGuffin is destroyed and the Masters are freed, they'll nuke the site from orbit. That concept still works below epic.

[daremetoidareyo]

how long till you run this?

Maybe make a contest: Build a tier 1 familiar!

Conjurer 5/verminlord 1/alienist 5/flesh warper 7
Vermin lord gives a second vermin based familiar
improved familiar at level 9

A pseudonatural flying dire weasel with wings, an attack tentacle, and scales
A pseudo natural large scorpion (is carrion crawler an option?) with wings an attack tentacle and amorphous form
Plus any crazy grafts the wizard put on the familiars
Share spells would allow the familiars to summon or perhaps even planarly bind???




That is excluding making a crazy druid using urban companion ACF for a familiar that would have access to shared druid spells.

[FrancisBean]

how long till you run this?

Maybe make a contest: Build a tier 1 familiar!

Conjurer 5/verminlord 1/alienist 5/flesh warper 7
Vermin lord gives a second vermin based familiar
improved familiar at level 9

A pseudonatural flying dire weasel with wings, an attack tentacle, and scales
A pseudo natural large scorpion (is carrion crawler an option?) with wings an attack tentacle and amorphous form
Plus any crazy grafts the wizard put on the familiars
Share spells would allow the familiars to summon or perhaps even planarly bind???


That is excluding making a crazy druid using urban companion ACF for a familiar that would have access to shared druid spells.

There's plenty of time to burn... And you've got a very sick mind. Thank you for sharing it with us! :smallbiggrin:

[Bronk]

I think that's an interesting idea for a game! Familiars don't seem to get a lot of screen time, even though they're all super geniuses by the time level 25 rolls around.

It would be interesting to see what the players come up with... they could have all sorts of animals that might fly, or put templates on them (like the previous pseudonatural example), and you'd expect the players to give them all sorts of magic items and whatnot. Even taking dragon familiars off the table though, they might get an imp or a courre eladrin and basically have a normal (flying) little person running around. Most creatures can take advantage of most of the magic item slots already, but that might not be the feel your going for. Also something to keep in mind, there are casting classes like the Hexblade that grant familiars and have full BAB, making them extra fighty.

For medium characters, non draconic familiars are usually tiny or smaller, and although they are treated as having the hit dice and other stats of their masters, they don't get any actual hit dice, so they don't get any extra feats... all that would be a contrast to Animal Companions, Wild Cohorts and Mounts if you decide to let your players use those instead or in addition to familiars (they can be quite large, tough and strong, do gain HD, feats, and so on). That might make for a fun team based game... wee familiars riding the normally less intelligent animals around.