Why do you need a familiar?

[Baskineli]

This is the first time I play wizard, and I wonder, why do I need a familiar?

It is useless to deliver touch spells, since familiar can easily die.
What are his in-combat uses? And out of combat?


What familiar would you choose at level 1, and why?
Would you choose other familiar later on?

[random11]

The best practical I found was inforamtion.
A cat/raven/whatever is usually less suspicious then a man, especially if that man is armed.

But there is also the "cool factor", that manages to climb above any practical use.

[AmoDman]

You don't need a familiar. Check the 100s of variants out there. You'd probably have quickest access to the Unearthed Arcana familiar-less one, which is in the SRD.

They can, however, be useful...or detrimental. It's highly situational.

[Charity]

To be honest, you don't need a familiar.
They are mostly useless and vulnerable.
If you want a familiar, because you like the idea, just pick one you like, I think Ravens can be taught to speak, so they might be moderatly more useful than the others, that or a weasel for reflex saves or a rat for fortitude.
The rest are distinctly Meh mechanically as far as I can see.

[Yechezkiel]

No matter your alignment, you'll have someone to love you... for only 300gp to summon.

[Miles Invictus]

And then, if your familiar dies, you lose craploads of experience, and can't summon one for another year. Meanwhile, druids get a new one for free, a day later...

[Edo]

If you're a kobold, it helps to have a viper familiar.

I'm not going to say why, except that it starts with P.

[JellyPooga]

You can't go wrong with a snake familiar...gotta love that +3 Bluff....hmm, just had a thought - Warlock + Beguiling Influence + Obtain Familiar + Snake Familiar = Bluffmeister

[InaVegt]

If you're a kobold, it helps to have a viper familiar.

I'm not going to say why, except that it starts with P.

Godwin's law, the D&D version, has been applied very quickly this thread.

Otherwise, an improved familiar might be more to your tastes.

[cupkeyk]

There a few:

1 Carrying a three feet by five feet mirror worth five thousand gold pieces is not easy. You can scry using your familiar instead.

2 You gain Alertness whenever they are within five feet of you. That's useful since they should never leave your side anyway and spot and listen are not class skill for wizards or sorcerors.

3. The spell Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability. This lets you cast two spells during the first round. Or four if you prepare a swift or quickened spell and imbue your familiar with another swift or quickened spell. Four spells are more than enough to end combat. Why waste time with defensive buffs when you can end combat in one round?

4. Some improved familiars are awesome. Ghostly Visage basically protects you from any mind affecting spell effects and lets you gain control of a low will save beast as your personal bodyguard. A Beholderkin Eyeball lets you cast touch spells as rays with a range of thirty. As Diminuative creatures with good dex you can be sure to hit most opponents. A worg familiar compensates for a small casters bad over-land speed but a mount or phantom steed spell is usually better.

5. Familiars are by default magical beasts and may have more exotic types like abberration, construct or undead, casting Alter Self and Enlarge Person opens a multitude of mobility possibilities.

6. Tenser's Transformation makes you a fighting machine but you lose your spellcasting abilities. So give it to your familiar instead. A worg with Tenser's Transformation and Improved Unarmed Strike is more than a viable tank.

[PlatinumJester]

Familiars are considered emergency rations in party or bait.

[Saph]

For a simple, useful familiar, take an owl.

Owls have a +14 to Listen, a +17 to Move Silently, and, in shadows, a +14 to Spot as well. Remember that this is at level 1 or 2. That's the best Listen/Spot score in the party - even a druid won't come close.

This makes owls great for sentry duty at night. They're nocturnal anyway, so just set them to keep watch and let them sleep the next day. Several times, my enchanter wizard's been caught out on her own and has had to camp alone in the wilderness. Each time, I just set my owl on watch and go to sleep. Works like a charm. Stopped me from being eaten by werewolves, once.

Owls work great as after-dark scouts, too. If you need to reconniter an area, just send your owl to fly around it. They're so quiet that they'll probably never be noticed, if they are noticed they don't look suspicious, and even if they're attacked they have a starting AC of 17 plus the familiar bonuses, which probably makes them tougher than you.

Once you get to higher levels, you get all sorts more options for your familiar, as cupkeyk listed, which range from the merely good (Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability) to the ridiculously cheesy (using the share spells ability and one of the Polymorph-type spells to turn both you and your familiar into giant deadly monsters with just one casting).

- Saph

[Black Hand]

You know, Familiars are useful depending on how you play your wizard. If you are using a combat oriented wizard, you can probably do without.

But out of all the ones mentioned here, nobody has suggested the usefullness of the humble toad. They're small, they're naturally camoflagued, and are wicked lookouts. You're not goint to want to have 'Kermit' leap into the fray, but for scouting in or through small places toads can crawl in places even rats would have trouble squeezing through. Who needs them to talk to others? As long as they communicate with you you have a hidden pair of eyes whereever you want to put them.

[jjpickar]

Unfortunately toads have a habit of stealing motor cars. I would prefer a much more sensible rat, mole, or badger to a toad.

[Black Hand]

Stealing cars, heh heh.

They're hardy little buggers: Check this out, and being amphibious is a boon too. Yeah they can't fly, but if you're a wizard that's only a minor inconvienience.

And so they're not cuddly, but on those days there's nothing to do you can lick you familiar and have a wicked trip. Licking a rat will only give you fleas.

[Talya]

Is there any way to release a familiar to gain a new one without incurring any penalty?

[Viscount Einstrauss]

As has been mentioned already, there are several good circumstances where a familiar can be an excellent tool. Besides that, though, it's a lot like owning a house in D&D- it can have some good benefits, sure, but you really got it just because it's cool to have your own place. Sometimes it's the little things that make playing D&D fun.

[Nevar]

For me I use the familiar to get a better pet. But that's because I do Arcane Hierophant (Races of the Wild) Very awsome and fun class to play. Plus your Familiar/ Animal Companion really becomes another member of the party.

[Indon]

You could grab Exalted Familiar out of the Book of Exalted Deeds, and then you can have a Lantern Archon (read: spy _and_ everburning torch) as a familiar.

[Person_Man]

I think there are a variety of variant familiars that are the same as a minor magic item - a hummingbird that gives you +1 to your Dodge AC, a Hedgehog that gives you +1 to your natural armor, etc.

I like them mostly for roleplaying. Have your familiar scout for you, or get help when you're locked in a prison, or distract a guard when you need to sneak into town, etc.

Otherwise, they're useless. Any Wizard worth their spellbook will head into a prestige class after level 5. Prestige classes don't progress your familiar's bonuses. Thus, a familiar becomes even more useless once you hit mid levels.

[Koji]

Once, my tiny viper killed a pair of gargoyles.

He was a very lucky snake.

[the_tick_rules]

One use is for convenience and flavor. Wizards and such are known in historical settings for having small creature to fetch vials, books and being such helpers in their studies.

One is for spying. Like mentioned above a bat or snake may be better at sneaking and spying than the wizard himself.

There are familiar boosting feats. one feat (i think in complete warrior) allow your familiar to cast spells as a spell-like ability. it may take away from you, but your familiar can be made into a powerful combatant.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

Is there any way to release a familiar to gain a new one without incurring any penalty?

No, dismissing a familiar incurs the same penalties as if it dies, even if you want to acquire a new one through the Improved Familiar feat.

On another note, Animate Dead Familiar is good fun, if you are into stuff like that of course

[Soepvork]

Just out of curiosity, are there any wizards in any fantasy setting that actually has a familiar (not counting books based on D&D of course). Merlin's owl? Harry Potter's owl? Gandalf's... hm... hobbit?

[Fourth Tempter]

At its most basic, a familiar can provide you with a useful bonus (such as a rat's +2 on Fortitude saves) and never be heard of again as you neglect to mention him; it is presumed that he is somewhere in your pocket.

One can get significant mileage out of a familiar, however, with Complete Arcane's Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability spell, which will allow it to cast a few spells for you--this is essentially the same as quickening them, only you are not paying for it (beyond the slot you dedicate to Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability, that is)!

Additionally (and quite possible with nothing save the core books), if one's familiar is a Raven, it can speak a language. Familiars, one may note, share their master's skill ranks. Therefore, if a wizard takes the Loremaster prestige class, and invests in the Use Magic Device skill, his familiar will have his ranks. If it is a raven, it will be able to speak. Therefore, the raven can activate wands and some scrolls for its master with Use Magic Device.

[Indon]

Just out of curiosity, are there any wizards in any fantasy setting that actually has a familiar (not counting books based on D&D of course). Merlin's owl? Harry Potter's owl? Gandalf's... hm... hobbit?

Merlin of Chaos (Chronicles of Amber, not to be confused with the Arthurian spellcaster) has a familiar; it's an intelligent magical item, though.

[Hzurr]

Unfortunately toads have a habit of stealing motor cars. I would prefer a much more sensible rat, mole, or badger to a toad.

But come on! The toad was the only cool character from that entire book/movie. The other ones were 3 kinds of boring

[Draz74]

Just out of curiosity, are there any wizards in any fantasy setting that actually has a familiar (not counting books based on D&D of course). Merlin's owl? Harry Potter's owl? Gandalf's... hm... hobbit?

Plenty, if you count literary witches as wizards.

Of course, most of them would be better represented as Adepts or Sorcerers (which also gain familiars), or Warlocks or whatever.

[NEO|Phyte]

If if you could make one change to a familiar to increase its usefulness, I know exactly what my change would be.

Channel PowerSpell (Sp)

If the owner is 15th level or higher, he can manifest powerscast spells through the psicrystalfamiliar to a distance of up to 1 mile. The psicrystalfamiliar is treated as the power’sspell's originator, and all ranges are calculated from its location.
When channeling a powerspell through his psicrystalfamiliar, the owner manifests the powercasts the spell by paying its power point costexpending the appropriate spell slot. He is still subject to attacks of opportunity and other hazards of manifesting a powercasting a spell, if applicable (for instance, he becomes visible when manifestingcasting an offensive powerspell if invisible, as does the psicrystalfamiliar).

[NullAshton]

Familiars can be extremely useful as a scout. Don't want to leave someone to stay awake the whole night? Have your familiar stay in hiding a little ways away, telling it to wake you(through the empathic link) when it sees something. The bonuses are also fairly neat, nearly equivalent to a free skill focus feat. You also DO get a free skill feat when your familiar is 5 feet near you, namely the alertness feat. Extremely useful if you're, for example, an elf. Not that useful, but still kind of useful.

Also, familiars are a classic of D&D. There were some first edition D&D comics, I believe, where they have villains holding familiars hostage...