Item Familiar questions

[Zergrusheddie]

Item Familiar is something I have grappled with for the longest time and after seeing it used in a way that I can not find possible within the rules, I have decided to come back to the forums and ask you folks.

The player in question is a Blaster Wizard with an Item Familiar Staff. He has loaded something like 50 charges of Fireball that he uses his caster level for damage dice ala Create Staff and recharges them on non-adventure days. Also, he has a ton of 1/day abilities on his Staff that are spells in his prohibited school that are, supposedly, excessively cheap to add. Is this viable RAW?

Best of luck.
-Eddie

[Yuki Akuma]

Yes.567890

[Zergrusheddie]

That just seems wrong...

It allows a Wizard to utterly shatter both their spells available and spells per day. Just, whaaaat?

[Sliver]

Item Familiars are just bad. They are designed so that they are strong because the DM can take them away. But if the character makes any relevant investment in them, he will be really weak if they are stolen. An All or Nothing deal that is just wrong. I would allow a lot of things in my game, but this is one of the few that I won't consider.. (As written. If a player came up with a good fix that won't be broken, I'd look at it.)

[Irreverent Fool]

Is he using a normal item familiar or is he using an imbued staff (from Dragon #338 p.55 "Staffs of the Magi")?

The problem with item familiars (SRD) is that it's an arbitrary call on the DM's part a lot. It allows a huge boon to characters who are willing to risk a very painful backlash if it is loss. Balancing something by the DM's ability to take it away is terrible and for this reason, I've seen Item Familiar banned in most games (mostly for the XP gain part).

Edit: Ninja'd!

obnoxious
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[Zergrusheddie]

That is one thing I noticed: losing it means that you start a new character.

The DM can sunder the staff, at which point the Wizard probably jumps off a cliff or the DM can not utterly retard the Wizard at which case Item Familiar wins everything?

He is using run of the mill Item Familiar.

I re-ask the very serious question:

whaat?

[Sliver]

More fun!

You can make a character with an ultimate investment in the Item Familiar, that kills itself and gives the item to it's son or something, which takes the feat as well and gets full benefits of the Item Familiar from the go without investing anything in it.

They really think it through, don't you say?

[magic9mushroom]

Item Familiar is bad because either it's awesome or you get noobified, with no middle ground. It encourages your DM to smite you as a way of balancing it.

For extra weirdness, try making your Imbued Staff an Item Familiar and a Weapon of Legacy. I think it's just, barely, legal.

[Azernak0]

The thing is that an Item Familiar Staff sort of makes some sense in an RP way. Take the Lord of the Rings. a Wizard without a staff is just a geezer with a sword and a beard.

[magic9mushroom]

The thing is that an Item Familiar Staff sort of makes some sense in an RP way. Take the Lord of the Rings. a Wizard without a staff is just a geezer with a sword and a beard.

Or, Sauron is helpless without his Ring. (This was pretty much the inspiration for Item Familiars).

[Irreverent Fool]

That is one thing I noticed: losing it means that you start a new character.

The DM can sunder the staff, at which point the Wizard probably jumps off a cliff or the DM can not utterly retard the Wizard at which case Item Familiar wins everything?

He is using run of the mill Item Familiar.

I re-ask the very serious question:

whaat?

Can't really blame a DM for having an opponent use sunder. And if a DM isn't doing that, then there's no reason for everyone not to take Item Familiar, at which point there's no real reason to have it.

Hmmm... a campaign world in which everyone who has class levels has Item Familiar...

The thing is that an Item Familiar Staff sort of makes some sense in an RP way. Take the Lord of the Rings. a Wizard without a staff is just a geezer with a sword and a beard.

Works much better as an imbued staff because as cited above, Item Familiar is borked.

Or, Sauron is helpless without his Ring. (This was pretty much the inspiration for Item Familiars).

But then, the ring was indestructible short of being dunked in the volcano in which it was forged.

obnoxious
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[PhoenixRivers]

But then, the ring was indestructible short of being dunked in the volcano in which it was forged.

Nothing states that an item familiar can't be an Artifact, right?

[TheMadLinguist]

Just make your item familiar a spellblade(limited wish) -2 sword, cursed. Now nothing short of a wish or miracle can destroy it or seperate it from you.

[Irreverent Fool]

Just make your item familiar a spellblade(limited wish) -2 sword, cursed. Now nothing short of a wish or miracle can destroy it or seperate it from you.

That... is an excellent idea.

obnoxious
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[Jack_Simth]

That... is an excellent idea.

obnoxious
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Assuming, that is, you don't make melee attacks....

[Irreverent Fool]

Assuming, that is, you don't make melee attacks....

If you like melee attacks, I'd question why you're using a one-handed weapon.

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[Pechvarry]

So is there a decent way to balance Item Familiar without changing too much?

I'd nix the exp bonus for sure, and take out the verbiage about inheriting another's item familiar... anything else?

I was thinking perhaps the 10% exp bonus would be an effective "xp pool" which you use to purchase abilities for the item, turning it into a wondrous item.

[Starscream]

I once DMed a campaign where the creation and sale of magic items was a capital crime, so the party was reliant on the resident wizard for pretty much all of their magic item needs.

I did this mostly for fluff reasons, but also figured that being a level or so behind the rest of the party would help balance things out, as she was an experienced optimizer compared to the other players.

But it worked a little too well, and she was being left in the dust. To fix this without retconning away the party's items, I offered her a choice: she could either have a Craft Reserve as an artificer of half her level, or she could have an item familiar.

She took the familiar, and it both gave her a decent power boost and helped her catch up on XP. So in this particular case the familiar didn't break the game, but that's specifically because it gave her a "something for almost nothing" advantage. It just so happened that she was already behind enough that the additional power just fixed what was already broken.

[HunterOfJello]

Just make your item familiar a spellblade(limited wish) -2 sword, cursed. Now nothing short of a wish or miracle can destroy it or seperate it from you.

that's genius!


My first thought was a Warforged who enchants his own unremovable armor into becoming item familiar.

[Private-Prinny]

that's genius!


My first thought was a Warforged who enchants his own unremovable armor into becoming item familiar.

That's just evil.