Familiar companions

[Arkhosia]

What memorable pets, familiars, and animal companions have you had?


I had a ferret familiar named August that did stunts and tricks with my bard.

[The Rose Dragon]

I enjoy tree singers, especially for young female Solars.

[Rondodu]

This is not so much a particular pet and more of a whole race. A race of flying, talking cats. Who love to eat. And sleep. And eat. And whose conversation usually is “Hey, sir, do you love fish? I do love fish. I’m hungry. Do you have fish? There is in the river, but the river is also full of water and I don’t like water. Please get me fish, I’m hungry.”

Or “Fish, fi-fish, fish, fi-fish, fi-fish fi fi-fi- fi-fish”.

In a game, we tried to hide from a military camp nearby. Until said flying cat decided to go and see them. To tell them he wanted fish. And he was with nice, but fishless, people. Yes, they’re right this way.

In another game, we also add a pet house. She was nice. Well, we had some trouble preventing the mailbox from eating postmen, but other than that, really, she was adorable. Our group was heartbroken to leave her behind because of some dumb missing postman investigation.

[Bulhakov]

Some memorable ones my players had (all in Earthdawn games, in which a familiar/companion doesn't "pop" automatically, but must be tamed/attuned to over time):

- Staijan - a large bison-like mount with ram horns, and a dislike of horses
- Espagra - a flying lizard, just big enough to carry a light human, but spent most of the campaign as a freshly adopted hatchling, dog-sized and raptor-like (loved to hunt for chickens and cats)
- A floating sapient orb of living metal that could shape shift into many useful forms, but needed to feed on metal in large quantities (I shamelessly stole the idea from Goblins)

[Subaru Kujo]

In a Gestalt campaign, a wizard/druid friend of mine had 2 parrots: Gwibbly and Nigwig. Gwibbly occupied the gnome's right shoulder, and hurled insults at random people that passed by. Nigwig made nonsensical requests at random people.

[Zonbitara]

This is not so much a particular pet and more of a whole race. A race of flying, talking cats. Who love to eat. And sleep. And eat. And whose conversation usually is “Hey, sir, do you love fish? I do love fish. I’m hungry. Do you have fish? There is in the river, but the river is also full of water and I don’t like water. Please get me fish, I’m hungry.”

Happy?

Relating to the post, the only real familiar I've had was a bat. They never really played a huge role, and I ended up dying so when I was resurrected I lost my familiar and decided not to get a new one.

[Samshiir]

I am running a game with an NPC named Rossalcharronelsix... "Rossal" for short. Rossal is a half psuedo-dragon / half faerie-dragon, and has the best qualities of both species. He is extremely cunning, mischievous, and annoying. Rossal talks a lot. A lot.

The first time Rossal encountered the group, he decided to cast a Sleep spell on the party member that was on their watch shift, and then commenced to stealing supplies from the party. Granted, the only supplies he stole were all of their apples.

I have used Rossal in previous campaigns, and have allowed arcane spellcasters to take the improved familiar feat to gain Rossal as one, but I still play him as a minor NPC when he is.

[Decoy69]

My wizard had "Trolldog". Just a normal dog that I had fed too many troll scraps to. And who had hung around the back of my lab for too long, eating the magical garbage I'd made.
No matter what crazy stuff happened to him he was always back the next day. Waiting for me to throw an explosive bone for him.

Not the sharpest hammer in the box but happy nonetheless.

[Lvl45DM!]

Parumpapumpum the Gaki (like a ghoul that isn't undead) in an Oriental adventures campaign. Started off as an enemy got charmed and became out pet, cleaning away any evidence of our movements by eating corpses, got his name from activating the Crab Wall's Drum of Thunder destroying large sections of it. We had to leave him behind then and we mourned as we adventured through the Kaiju wall, when suddenly we were attacked by a group of Gaki with Parum in the back! We butchered 18 Gaki in one round as a level 8 party and all just stared at Parum. He gave us all a hug and set about eating his fellows.
Then he was our cook. It went pretty well.