I'm just upgrading my familiar (thrush) to a lyrakien, and getting ready to invest in some 1st level wands. What are your favorite 1st level wands for familiars to use? Here's my short list of stuff I'm thinking of getting first:
-- Grease (making allies slippery and making foes flat-footed, even if they don't fall)
-- Speak w/ Animals (intel; otherwise our party has no access to it)
-- Faerie Fire (likewise, otherwise party has no access)
-- CLW (obviously)
-- Ill Omen (no save!)
-- Obscuring Mist (when I get Fly-by Attack at 11th level, this will be AWESOME!)
-- Prot. from Evil
-- Silent Image
-- Magic Missile (for when there's nothing else for her to do)
I know there are awesome higher-level spells out there I'll want to get eventually (invisibility at the top of the list), but I'm trying to keep it cheap for now. Any others you think I should really give a serious look to?
Depends partly on the kind pc pc you play. As far as I know all of the following can get familiars even without using eldritch heritage (arcane):
Wizard, sorc, magus, cleric, inquisitor, bard and I think rogue.
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I personally like Wands of Enervate. (It's expensive I know!) Typically the Familiar goes on the players turn (some GM differ on this) and having your Familiar open with a No save Level reducer is a nice way to start combat with the thing your hitting with your spell. I also Favor: Magic Missile, Scorching Ray, Dimension Door, Invisibility, and Dispel Magic.
If you have a Familiar with Invisibility he can help the group fighter close distance with D. Door as well as Move about and make party members invisible making them basically disappear and reappear in better places.
Permanency on Arcane sight and give him a wand of Dispel magic for targeted ripping of buffs. He gets your skills in spell craft to determine spells active and can provide needed de-buffs.
Nothing with a save
Higher level. Haste n enervate
Cheap: Ill Omen
Expensive: Enervation
Switch over once your familiar gets that +19 UMD
Depends partly on the kind pc pc you play. As far as I know all of the following can get familiars even without using eldritch heritage (arcane):
Wizard, sorc, magus, cleric, inquisitor, bard and I think rogue.
I play an air elementalist wizard, presently 7th level.
It's going to be a while before I can afford a 4th level wand, but D-door and Enervate both sound like great ideas as wands. I'm also thinking a 3rd level wand of Mad Monkeys might make a lot of sense; I've certainly been getting loads of use out of that spell just as a prep, and it's not heavily dependent on caster level or saves to be effective. And if the familiar were casting it from a wand, it wouldn't be as big a deal to spend a full round casting.
It also occurs to me that a wand of Vanish might be handy, and costs a lot less than a wand of Invisibility. It would have a narrower range of uses, but it could allow the melee types to get in a quick sneak attack, or reposition safely without suffering AoO's.
More ideas! This is all helpful so far!
I suppose I could always pay for a Vanish wand with a higher caster level if I thought 1 rd. per use wasn't enough, but for the party rogue's purposes, 1 rd. is probably just fine.
Rounds per level buff spells mostly. As a caster, I absolutely hate wasting my initial actions on any buff spells. Better to let the familiar do it.
A 5 round Haste wand is usually more than enough to last the battle.
Then a MM wand for simple "It has nothing better to do and feels relatively safe" damage from the familiar.
Then a CLW wand for after battle recovery.
-- Grease (making allies slippery and making foes flat-footed, even if they don't fall)I don't believe it makes them flat footed any more (though it did in 3.5 if they had less then 5? ranks in balance).
Can you link or quote wher it makes them flat footed?
If they're standing still, you're right, they aren't considered flat-footed. But I take it that if they move (and hence are making an Acrobatics check) then they're balancing, lose their Dex bonus to AC, and are considered flat-footed. So a sneak attacker would maybe need to ready an action to attack when the target started to move.
Also, grease could be used to prevent a charge even if the attacker doesn't fall. And then there's slopes....
Once I'm in the market for 4th level wands, a wand of Detonate might make sense as well, since my lyrakien is immune to electricity damage. A 30' spread of 7d8 electricity damage (with a DC 16 Reflex save for half) could be pretty useful. This would work well for any familiar with any kind of energy immunity. (Though it's a spell my wizard, lacking energy immunity, would probably never use himself.)
Also, grease could be used to prevent a charge even if the attacker doesn't fall.Caltrops?
Sure, that too, plus lots of alchemical items. My wizard's going to craft her a tiny-sized handy haversack to carry that stuff around. Plus, since a lyrakien has Agile Maneuvers, I'm going to give her a masterwork ranseur so that once in a while she can make a disarm attempt (when a bad guy is out of AoO's). But for this thread I was hoping to focus on wands :-)
If you're really cheap/poor, I bet Stabilize could come in handy. Allows you to keep allies from bleeding to death without wasting the cleric's time. Plus, the familiar doesn't have to come close to the fray to cast it.
Good idea! I've thought about a wand of Mage Hand as well. Maybe Spark too.
This is all making me want to take Craft Wand :p
Also, you could set the familiar to buff a single partymember. Have it go around with a wand of bull's strength or shield for the greatsword-swinging barbarian, or a wand of cat's grace or gravity bow for the archer.
Oh, right. I was just reading about that recently.
So, mage armor for monks and the like.