Familiar stories and awesome interactions

[Jawziemotto]

I have been recently working on a concept for a character in an upcoming campaign I will be playing in. Party of 3 with no cleric, which opened the door for me to play one of my personal favorite archetypes, the abjuration wizard. I love familiars and personally find them underused. This led me to want to find creative ways to really have my familiar be a real presence in the party.

Tell me your favorite familiar stories of your own or from other players you have played with. What are some of the most creative and interesting uses for familiars you have seen?

[KillianHawkeye]

My own abjurer wizard took the Planar Familiar feat and got a Lantern Archon familiar.

Let me tell ya, put some BAB and hit points on a lantern archon and they're actually pretty decent! At-will aid and greater teleport, and the constant magic circle against evil are all pretty useful. It was an incredible scout and I can't stress how many times an extra d6 or two of unblockable damage can be (the light beams ignore DR).

[Elkad]

I had a lot of fun with my Imp one game.

Table had a houserule to swap one class skill, I took UMD on my Wizard. Conjuration Specialist.
Notable feats. Enspell Familiar, Obtain Familiar, Improved Familiar. Through working with the DM, I took a rat at 3rd, with the understanding that it was actually my Imp, just trapped in that form and missing the rest of it's powers until I could "fully bond with it". A little Roleplay to avoid dismissing a familiar. Once it became an Imp at 7, Rat was it's only Alternate Form.

I had permission from the DM to pick it's feats and skills. Took Darkstalker and Improved Initiative, and spent skillpoints as a scout. Stealth, Perception, Tumble, etc.

Had a fair amount of basic gear I'd been collecting/buying. Tiny +1 longbow, Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, etc.
Several wands, mostly 1st level stuff. CLW, Benign Transposition, Blockade, Obscuring Mist, etc. A few scrolls.

Game broke up (RL issues) mid-level.
I've got her L9 sheet still.
AC33 with Greater Mage Armor, plus Invisibility, Perfect Flight, and often Shield and/or Mirror Images.
HP24 was thin, but with high AC, 50% miss chance, Evasion, DR5, and FastHealing2, it was always enough to survive a hit and get out of range. Fast Healing and the CLW wand fixed her right up.

Lots of shenanigans out scouting alone, etc.

Most serious fights she'd stay out of the way and invisible. Fighters are pretty tough at low levels with an invisible CLW bot bonking them on the head with a wand every turn. If it looked safe to be visible, she might shoot her longbow some, sometimes poisoned with her own tail poison.

The memorable stuff.

One: Fighting a bunch of enemies, including some grapplers. Imp is using Benign Transposition to get party members out of grapples by trading places with them, trusting to her high AC, miss chance, and Tumble to escape herself. I get grappled and take a lot of damage. From a safe spot she swaps with me. It all goes wrong, she gets grappled, takes a bunch of damage as well, and has about 3hp left. As a tiny creature, she has no chance of breaking out. But her wand of BT was in-hand. So who to swap with? Most people were in melee range of something else, so no help. Her pet Wizard (me) was in her former spot (safe) but putting me in the grapple when I'm already almost dead wouldn't help. However, the Druid's AC had just downed it's target and was in the clear. So she swapped with the AC. Now she's in the clear to run and heal up, and the grappler is now grappling a FULLY BUFFED TIGER.

Two: Party is in a tricky spot and gets ambushed. BBEGal is behind some melee types, and had high SR and energy resistances so our casters couldn't hurt her. Our tank was fighting the melee types, which would normally be fine, but wasn't taking my (player) advice to change targets to the BBEG none of the rest of us could hurt. So the Imp used Suggestion to say "Attack the boss, don't let her get away!". Tank fails Will save, and roleplays it great, running through a bunch of AoOs to get on the *correct* target.

Which led to the BBEG running, the tank chasing, the rest of the party caught up in the current fight and unable to join. So the Imp flew after the tank and played support the whole time, as the BBEG fled through a whole string of rooms full of enemies with our tank in hot pursuit, and those new enemies chasing the tank, as the Imp used every trick she had to slow the enemies down. Grease, Mist, Blockades, Webs, and then chase the tank again to try to get a couple heals off as the tank ran directly through rooms ignoring everything (and taking lots of AoOs) chasing the boss. Basically unraveled the whole dungeon, while majorly splitting the party. It was very resource-intensive, but then it was also a lot of fun too.

Three: Kidnappers have taken a bunch of children from a village. We track them. They are holed up in a large sturdy stone barnlike structure. Imp scouts a bit, reports back. It's open inside, with enemies on the ground and balconies full of archers 15' up with partial cover. Ladders to balcony are all pulled up. We've got a few NPCs from town along, but it will still be a deathtrap to run into. But I'm a Wizard dammit, and Wizard's are always prepared. Tank opens the door, I send in a Cloudkill, tank closes the door. Now we wait. Except my Imp has ducked inside again. Immune to poison, she watches. The ground enemies fail their saves over the next couple rounds (4-6hd) and die. The ones on the balcony are trying to climb the walls and mostly failing (thus dying as well), and a few are jumping out windows to escape (and keeping the rest of the party busy). Then the Cloudkill behind the closed doors starts dissipating early, not that anyone but my familiar can see that. No, it's not dissipating, it's pouring into a trap door hidden under a hay pile in the back! Imp goes to investigate. It's a basement, also with the ladder missing. And all the village kids are down there. They don't even get a save, they just die. By the time it's safe to go in and we've mopped up the few survivors (including the not-very-tough boss with a bunch of Con damage), Imp has covered the trap door with an Illusion, and that plus a bunch of misdirection and Bluff checks keeps the rest of the party, the NPCs, the villagers, and the local Lord paying our reward, from ever knowing I'd inadvertently killed all the hostages...