Replacing my Familiar (variants question)

[gallagher]

so what are all teh things i can switch my familiar out for? not necessarily SRD only, i was just wondering what options, as a sorceror, i could switch a pathetic familiar that i wont even be focusing on.

[Coidzor]

Hmm. I think sorcerers get, like, metamagic specialist or sommat. Not nearly as many options as wizards though.

Can always take a feat and get a familiar that can serve as a meatshield/secondary casterlite.

[Zaq]

There's one in CC that lets you swap your familiar for the ability to use extra spell slots to heal (meh) or get bonuses to defenses (often nice). Not as good as a familiar if you're willing to use all the tricks, but not bad.

If you're dwagonblooded, you can take the dwagonblood sub level in Races of the Dwagon that gives you Dwaconic Heritage in exchange for your familiar. Useful if you're going down that feat tree for some reason.

[Rannil]

Copy paste work from:
Alternative Class Features III
Some are already mentioned here I see.

Divine Companion (CC, 51): Lose familiar. Gain a spirit that stores spell energy and turns it into healing or deflection bonuses.
Dragonblood Sorcerer Substitution Levels (RDr, p 107): lose craft and profession, gain UMD
1st level: Arcane Insight (+2 knowledge: arcana), Dragon Heritage (the feat), lose familiar
Dwarf Sorcerer Substitution Levels (RS, p 161): d6 hitdice, add knowledge: dungeoneering
1st level: Arcane Earthblood (alertness feat, damage reduction), lose familiar
Metamagic Specialist (PHB 2, p 61): lose familiar. Gain the ability to apply metamagic rapidly 3 + Int bonus times per day.
Spell Shield (DS, p 13): Give up familiar. You can sacrifice a spell slot to prevent damage equal to five times the spell level.
Wilderness Companion (UA, p 58): Trade familiar for animal companion.

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But except Metamagic Specialist I don't know if they are really worth it. And Metamagic Specialist only works if you go the metamagic route.

[Hendel]

Familiars are great at higher levels with Imbue Familiar with Spell and you can have it cast the utility spells that you don't have the time for in combat. Mine has saved my life a few times with a timely Ruin Delver's Fortune or Wings of Cover when I already spent my swift/immediate action for the round.

[lsfreak]

Trade the familiar out for Metamagic Specialist. At 9th level, take Rapid Metamagic and retrain your metamagic specialist into a familiar using the class feature retraining rules in PHB2.