[3.5] Which PHB familiar is the best?

[Luccan]

The title. This is just the first PHB familiars, by the way. I know there are better ones outside of that, but I'm looking for what people think are the best of the original options.

Personally, I've always liked the Raven, since it can talk both to you (before level 5) and your allies if need be, which can be good for a variety of situations involving scouting or carrying messages at low levels. Rat and Weasel are also good, providing bonuses to either fortitude or reflex saves, which is handy since it essentially gives you a bonus save equal to or just behind your will save until level 8, where it admittedly starts to fall behind. I think Toad is the best for a first level wizard or sorcerer, since it's just toughness and a familiar that's hard to target. After awhile though, three extra hp doesn't matter as much. I don't find the skill bonuses from other familiars relevant to the caster's role in most parties, though I suppose listen from the Bat could be good and Bluff from the Snake could help a party-face Sorcerer. Hawk and Owl have the worst skill boosts hands down, since their bonuses to Spot rely on certain conditions.

[Zaq]

Depends on what you want, really. People will doubtlessly point out that the Raven's ability to speak means that it can activate wands, though you do need to put ranks into UMD for that to be worthwhile. (Also, I personally find that giving a familiar a wand and having it cast spells in combat makes it an unacceptably tempting target, so I don't like that much. Out of combat, why do you need to make the familiar use the wand instead of you? So it only matters in combat, and that's risky.)

It's relatively rare for a normal Wizard or Sorcerer to want or need to stack up tons of nickel-and-dime bonuses to skill checks (that makes a much bigger difference on, say, a Beguiler or a Bard who gain a familiar through a feat), but still, a +3 bonus to a skill can be useful. Remember that you get Alertness (so +2 Spot/Listen) from your familiar for free, so a bat effectively gives you +5 Listen, and a hawk or an owl effectively gives a +5 Spot in your favorite lighting conditions. Since Spot and Listen are always useful but aren't class skills for normal Wizards and Sorcerers, a +5 is a nontrivial bonus at low levels.

Once your familiar can communicate with you by means of words, bats are nice because they have Blindsense, so they might notice something you don't. If you trust your familiar to go on scouting missions, cats are stealthy and unobtrusive, but not everyone is comfortable letting their XP-linked target out of their sight.

There's something to be said for most of the PHB familiars, though. They're generally as useful as you make them, one way or another.

[Flickerdart]

A familiar is also a decent target for buff spells, if you are of the gishy persuasion. In that case, you want them to have an attack. Cats are good since they have 3 natural attacks. Hawks have the best base to-hit and damage. Weasels though have a unique ability to Attach, which can be exploited if you and your DM can determine whether or not the attach damage is an attack.

[Troacctid]

It's pretty competitive. Rat, owl, bat, weasel, and raven are all quite good.

I actually wrote a mini-handbook on familiars. Here's what I have for the PHB ones:
Bat (+3 to Listen)
Bats are most notable for their blindsense, which allows them to automatically detect and pinpoint enemies within 20 feet. That's a pretty excellent ability. The range may be short, but the ability to just say "No" to your enemies' Hide checks without even having to roll is a pretty substantial advantage, and automatically knowing the location of invisible or concealed enemies is definitely helpful, especially if you have access to area attacks that don't care about concealment. Other familiars have scent, which can fill a similar role (and occasionally offers additional utility, e.g. for penetrating disguises or tracking), but the additional precision of blindsense makes it an upgrade in combat scenarios, which are, of course, the most common scenarios.

Besides that, they have a fly speed with good maneuverability, so, unlike birds, they have the ability to hover in place and fly straight up. They also have a +14 on Hide and a +8 on Spot and Listen before any skill ranks. All in all, pretty good scouts.

The main drawback of the bat is probably its carrying capacity, or lack thereof. With 1 Strength and diminutive size, it takes less than a single pound of weight to encumber a bat. But considering their lack of opposable thumbs, they probably weren't handling a lot of items anyway.

Bottom line: Bats are one of the best standard familiars, with probably the best perception and mobility of all of them, and decent stealth to boot.

Cat (+3 to Move Silently)
The most notable feature of the cat is its three natural attacks (claw-claw-bite), which is more attacks than any of the other standard familiars. Unfortunately, being Tiny size, they can't really take advantage of them, since they have a 0-foot reach. Also, three attacks is less impressive when you consider that they're only dealing the minimum 1 damage.

Cats also have decent stealth (+16 Hide and +8 Move Silently before skill ranks) and scent, so they can scout a little, but since their Spot and Listen aren't very good and they don't have a fly speed or even a climb speed, you can do better.

There is one special advantage that cats have: the ability to take Feline feats (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c). Of course, since familiars don't gain feats, this is mostly irrelevant, unless you want to use Psychic Reformation to swap your cat's Stealthy feat for Flop, which has decent comedy value if nothing else.

Bottom line: I don't recommend a cat familiar unless you really want that +3 to Move Silently; even then, I'd recommend a snowy owl instead.

Hawk (+3 to Spot checks in bright light)
Hawks are the fastest of the standard familiars, with a 60-foot flight speed (although only average maneuverability). They also have decent AC and Dexterity, and a good Spot check (+16). Other than that, there's nothing really worth noting. Low-light vision, but no darkvision. Worst stealth of any standard familiar. No scent or anything like that.

Basically, they're like owls, except instead of having +17 to Move Silently, they have an extra 20 feet of speed. Most of the time, I expect the Move Silently is going to be more important.

Also, note that hawks are strictly worse than gyrfalcons, which have all the same statistics, but offer the +3 Spot to their master in all lighting conditions.

Bottom line: Hawks are a solid bird-type familiar, but nothing special, and there's little reason to choose them over an owl.

Lizard (+3 to Climb)
Lizards are underwhelming. Their stats are weak, their skills are weak, and they give you a +3 to Climb, which is completely useless. Sure, they're good climbers, but considering that they're competing with familiars that can fly, that's not really an advantage.

It does let you speak with lizards, I guess. Including dinosaurs. So that's something.

Bottom line: With weak stats across the board and no useful abilities, it's a poor choice overall.

Owl (+3 to Spot checks in shadows)
Owls are like hawks, except they have Listen instead of Spot, and a +17 to Move Silently instead of a faster flight speed. If you're in dim light, the owl's +8 racial bonus to Spot checks in shadowy illumination kicks in, bringing its Spot up to only 2 points below the hawk's.

Listen tends to be more reliable than Spot, since poor visual conditions are more common than strong winds or magical silence, and a decent portion of the time, the owl will have a great Spot check too. Furthermore, the extra stealth is a pretty big deal for scouting; +17 is a lot of Move Silently. So I'd definitely rank owls above hawks.

Take note that snowy owls have the same stats, but give you a +3 to Move Silently instead of +3 to Spot checks in shadows.

Bottom line: Swift, stealthy, and perceptive, owls are essentially a better version of hawks, and a solid choice overall.

Rat (+2 to Fortitude)
Rats have pretty good stealth, with +16 Hide and +10 Move Silently before skill ranks. They're not very fast, with a speed of only 15 feet, and they don't fly, but they have climb and swim speeds, so that's not too bad. They don't have Spot or Listen, but they do have scent, which does a good job making up for it. Overall, their stats are definitely passable.

The main reason you'd want a rat, though, is to shore up your saves. The +2 to Fortitude is in the running for the best bonus you can get from a familiar. Considering that rats have pretty reasonable stats and abilities on top of that, they're a pretty good deal.

Bottom line: The +2 to Fort is great, and the rat itself has decent stealth and movement modes, plus scent for perception. A strong choice.

Raven (+3 to Appraise)
If you look at the numbers on the raven, it comes out behind owls and hawks across the board. Crummy skills, weak stats, slower flight speed, and... Appraise? Who even uses Appraise, seriously? Come on.

What makes ravens (and parrots) worth taking is their ability to speak. Unlike other standard familiars, ravens speak one language of their master's choice as a supernatural ability. This allows them to communicate with other party members and NPCs, but more importantly, it allows them to activate magic items that require a command word or a spell trigger. So if your build has Use Magic Device ranks to share with the raven (or parrot), it can use wands and stuff, which is pretty nice.

Bottom line: Ravens are good because they can talk and talking lets them say command words.

Snake (+3 to Bluff)
Snakes have okay stats, with good AC and Dexterity, climb and swim speeds, and scent. They've got a decent Hide mod (+15), but no Move Silently.

Mainly, snakes have two features that might make you want one. The first is the +3 Bluff. Bluff is a pretty decent skill, and if you care about it at all, you probably want it as high as possible. The second is their poison, which deals 1d6 Constitution damage on a failed save. Unfortunately, the save DC is pitifully low, and immunity to poison is common, so odds are good that you will never deal any actual Constitution damage to anyone with your snake. I mean, maybe you might get someone at low levels, if your snake can get a hit in without dying to an attack of opportunity. (Remember, 0-foot reach.) Or maybe you can milk the venom and apply it to your weapon before combat, or during combat with an alchemical capsule retainer (see Complete Adventurer p122), but honestly, as cool as that strategy might sound, it's just not very practical. Remember, you still need to follow the crafting rules—if you don't invest any ranks in Craft (poisonmaking), you're looking at maybe two-ish doses for a week's worth of crafting, and you still have to pay 1/6 of the market price for them.

Ultimately, it's not as good as other familiars, but at least it's not the worst, and it has gimmick value. I'd mainly look to take it as a thematic choice for a character who likes snakes and/or poison. See also the sea snake, which trades away some general utility for an improved poison DC.

Bottom line: Meh. Poison is a cute gimmick, but you can do better. At least they have scent.

Toad (+3 hit points)
Toads are kind of terrible. They have no mobility, with only a 5-foot land speed (not even a swim speed). No scent, no skills besides Hide, no useful abilities, crummy stats...they're just generally not-good.

The main circumstance where you'd select a toad would be if you're a 1st level Sorcerer or Wizard and you desperately need those +3 hit points in order to not fall over in a stiff breeze. Even then, you're not really happy about it. There's a reason Neville Longbottom is the only kid at Hogwarts with a pet toad, and it's not because he's a trend-setter who's ahead of the curve.

Bottom line: Do you have 10 or more HP already? Then you have no reason to pick a toad.

Weasel (+2 to Reflex)
Weasels are essentially rats, but with Reflex instead of Fortitude. Their stats and abilities are roughly comparable--rats are a little stealthier, weasels are a little faster, rats can swim, weasels have that weird (mostly useless) attach ability.

On the whole, though, I'd say rats are a little better. The extra Hide bonus is relevant, and unless you have really low HP, Fortitude tends to be a slightly more important save to shore up than Reflex. Still, it's close, and there are definitely characters who might want a weasel.

Bottom line: Better saves are always going to be good, so weasels are a fine choice.

[stanprollyright]

Birds make for the most useful companions IMO; otherwise grab a toad for the HP boost.

[D.M.Hentchel]

Level 1: Toad
Level 2 - 4: Raven or Rat
Level 5+: Raven, Rat, or Bat

Toad:
The HP boost from toads is nothing to scoff at level 1. In my experience it often makes the difference between going down in 1 hit vs 2, which is often the difference between landing color spray or not.

Raven:
It can use your social skills and UMD if you invest ranks into those, which can make this familiar an actual combatant. Also being able to speak is really helpful at early stages.

Rat:
Great stealth and a bonus to Fortitude saves. Also inconspicuous to boot, a great choice for people that don't invest in ranks into UMD.

Bat:
Blindsense is great once you can speak with it and it has a bonus to listen checks, which can be nice especially if you cross-class

Special mention to Snake though, sorcerers can get very high bluff checks with it. In a core only game spending feats to maximize bluff isn't a bad idea.

[Deophaun]

Depends on what you want, really. People will doubtlessly point out that the Raven's ability to speak means that it can activate wands, though you do need to put ranks into UMD for that to be worthwhile. (Also, I personally find that giving a familiar a wand and having it cast spells in combat makes it an unacceptably tempting target, so I don't like that much. Out of combat, why do you need to make the familiar use the wand instead of you? So it only matters in combat, and that's risky.)
Unless they're casting touch spells on you, in which case they can safely do that from inside your backpack. I like it for an urban companion on a ranger for a poor-man's haste via snake's swiftness. Resurgence is also nice, as is obscuring mist. Of course, an urban companion being targeted for murder isn't that scary.

[Elkad]

Benign Transposition is another good wand for your Raven once you have a few levels under your belt.

Easy way to pull someone out of a sticky spot, and your familiar likely has the AC/speed to bail out on it's own.
Plus the non-combat utility use. Raven flies past obstacle, uses wand to move party. Sure, it's more expensive than a solution with ropes and climb checks and such, but its fast.

[Thurbane]

If you're going to use a Raven for UMD, check with your DM first. I've seen some rule that their talons are not up to the task of wielding a wand, and/or that the ability to speak one language may not allow command words or UMD checks. The RAW/RAI on both these points is not exactly clear cut.

FWIW, I'd allow it in my games.

[Elkad]

If you're going to use a Raven for UMD, check with your DM first. I've seen some rule that their talons are not up to the task of wielding a wand, and/or that the ability to speak one language may not allow command words or UMD checks. The RAW/RAI on both these points is not exactly clear cut.

FWIW, I'd allow it in my games.

Given the choice between a bit of Familiar Cheese, and dealing with Abrupt Jaunt arguments, I'll take the wand-waving bird every time.

"But it says "Immediate"! That means I can wait till the bad guy stabs me, let the sword break the skin for 1 damage, triggering my defensive abilities X, Y, and Z, and then teleport away before the sword penetrates to anything important. And now he's used his attack and can't just move 10' more and hit me anyway!"

[Kelb_Panthera]

Well obiously the answer is toad. This is because mental pinnacle is a thing and that gets you this:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0003971684_10.jpg

[Ruethgar]

Actually, investment in the Hypnosis skill can give you the Hypno-Toad without Mental Pinacle. I think it was language dependant though, so have to wait unless you go Raven.

[Troacctid]

Actually, investment in the Hypnosis skill can give you the Hypno-Toad without Mental Pinacle. I think it was language dependant though, so have to wait unless you go Raven.

What Hypnosis skill?

[Blackhawk748]

Bat or Raven id say. Raven cuz wand shenanigans and Bat for the darkness + touch spell of choice combo.

[mabriss lethe]

What Hypnosis skill?

I want to say it's in the licensed 3.5 Ravenloft material, But I'm not sure.

[Ruethgar]

I want to say it's in the licensed 3.5 Ravenloft material, But I'm not sure.

That'ld be it.

[Telok]

Bat, rat, raven.
Bat and raven are pretty well covered by previous posters, but the rat has an often overlooked special ability. There are rats everywhere.

Rats are very very common, especially in Medieval settings. Thus they often arouse no suspicion.

As a bonus you can tote around some normal rats trained to follow you familiar. It's like a non-magic Mirror Image.