So today im going to play my first game with a familiar and was hoping to get some tips and answer a few questions.
First i would like to say that ive looked around for tips on using familiar and only found two good and pretty obvious ones.
1. Have your familiar scout ahead with either Stealth or Fly
2. Have your Familiar Aid you in Skill Checks.
Any other tips for Familiars would be much welcomed ^-^
I also have another question as ive been thinking about it but havnt seen it as a tip. Why not have your familiar use Aid Another to give you a +2 Bonus To AC against any guy about to attack you. As far as i know there is no size limit on using the Aid Another feature in this way. If the GM wants to be snide about it and attack your familiar thats doing it then you can just as easly say that you count as Partial Cover and your familiar gains a +2 Bonus to AC agaisnt said attack and a +4 from ranged attacks through Soft Cover(and familiars usually have decently high AC).
Is there anything saying that you cant do this?
A lot of players are intimidated by familiars because they feel they must use them constantly or risk not being a good player. I tell my players all the time that it is simply okay to keep your familiar on hand to simply gain the benefits like getting Alertness for a free +2/+4 to Perception, plus whatever bonus the familiar gives you.
Other uses of familiars come with different character concepts. In the game I'm running I have a player who likes to use Burning Gaze with his familiar. If you want to use the Improved Familiar feat you can get a familiar who can have skills that you don't allowing for more coverage of resources (such as a UMD check). Something like that can actually buy you extra actions in combat. Another thing to look at is the feat Familiar Spell which is a metamagic feat that can also net you more actions in a round.
One of my favorite builds, the Samsaran Conjurer Healing Wizard, takes an improved familiar in the form of a Fairy Dragon and uses the familiar to deliver touch spells that happen to be Cure spells, since the fairy dragon can turn itself invisible and traverse the battlefield easily and heal my allies without me having to move into the red zone myself.
There are only as many uses of your familiar as you can think of.
Yea i dont think im gonna be too pressured to use my familiar as they dont have a ton of uses until you get improved familiar. I was just wondering if there was anything i was missing out on. And thanks for the idea to use your familiar to send cure spells. Whenever i thought of "Deliver Touch" i always though of attack but i forgot you can deliver buffs and cures aswell ^-^
Actually it cannot use Aid another in this case. You need to be in position to make a melee attack against the opponent, and without reach this is not the case.
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The Familiar can Aid Another, but it would have to enter your opponent's square to do so, which would provoke, and probably end up with a squished Familiar.
Other ideas:
A bat Familiar can help point out invisible opponents.
Give your imp/quasit/azata a Headband of Intelligence, with Use Magic Device as the associated skill. Familiars use their Master's Caster Level to determine effects based on HD, so the Familiar of a 10th level Wizard would gain 10 skill ranks via a Headband.
If you like mayhem, give that same Familiar a Rod of Wonder.
Have your flying Familiar drop caltrops to interrupt enemy charge lines.
There are ways for healing types to gain a Familiar, and delivering healing spells with a range of touch from a distance is helpful.
If you are going to use your familiar in combat you MUST enhance acrobatics. It is essential that your little buddy have the ability to enter, leave and dart through threatened squares without provoking. Since they'll never get any feats in this regard, this is the next best option.
Other ideas for familiar help:
- Put Detect spells on your familiar
- Your flying familiar (or a familiar wearing a Mage Hand) can deliver many different payloads: alchemical flasks, potions to friends, a 5# bag of marbles, etc
- Some animal and many improved familiars can manipulate wands
- look to polymorph school alterations: it might be sub-optimal but your little toad can become a grippli with the right spell and then begin wielding weapons, tools etc to expand usefulness
Seriously, familiars are a GREAT resource. Remember though to NEVER forget your helper. I know combat gets heated and I know risking the little guy makes you sweat, but every round/action your GM ticks off think: "what can my familiar do to help here?"
Sometimes it won't be anything but sometimes it will be awesome! Oh, there's goblins up-trail waiting to ambush? My owl spots them while flying ahead. Oh, the impossibly locked portcullis is our only means to escape? My cat can fit through the bars and help from the other side.
The other thing I'd stress if you're going to have a familiar and plan for their long-term usefulness is to outfit them. Alchemical items, pouch-sized "saddle bags", Tiny barding, magic items, etc. This creature is a second set of actions, albeit limited, that you can take in a round and unlike other summoned/created beings it never goes away.
Besides the ye' old wand trick, you can take ranks in intimidate (or give your familiar a headband with the skill) and let him debuff all your foes with demoralization effects for your save or die spells.
It also helps your allies.
Regular familiars can...
1) Scout/Spy
2) Aid Other
3) Extra Spot/Search checks
4) Wand wielder
5) Deliver spells (can help reach allies for buffs/healing)
6) guard/alarm
7) radar (Bat)
8) drop alchemical weapons/other stuff
9) fetch things that are out of reach
10) intimidate skill
11) additional combatant (best when buffed; ex. Transformation/Form of Dragon)
12) communicate between separate party members (Raven)
13) source of poison
14) better vision in dark places (if human)
Improved familiars can....
15) help make magic items (sorcerer casting familiars)
16) teach spells (by helping to make a scroll)
17) use spells/spell like abilities (attack, defense, debuff, divination)
18) aid communications when you don't speak a language (truespeech/telepathy)
and more.
One thing you should probably not use your familiar for is
1) meat shield
2) meat (emergency rations)
Cast burning gaze on my familiar and let him light enemies up from my shoulder every round while conserving my caster's action economy.
If you're a powerful wizard, a familiar is a must. Get a familiar with hands and outfit him with a little trumpet. He will announce you before you enter any room.
He doesn't even have to be particularly good at the trumpet.
Awesome.
The Animal Archive has some good stuff for familiars as well.
I particularly like the Valet Familiar archetype although the Pilferer can be handy as well.
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I have a witch who constantly talks to his snake like it were his best friend. Companions for life! or maybe he's just crazy.
I have a wizard who wears his scorpion as a bracelet. Familiars can make great fashion accessories!
I know someone who managed to convince a group of people he's familiar was a deity. That's something.
I have a wizard who used his fairy as an exposition fairy and also used him as a shoulder angel, with him playing the bad guy and the fairy playing the good side.
You mean there are familiars other than greensting scorpions?
Yarr, a dodo. I hear its good eatin'.
I'm so wild for familiars in 3.5 I made up a city w/many wizards - in Netherdam (said city) there is an inn called The Preen and Plume where familiars are offered as many amenities as their masters. Free grooming and the finest food. For familiars who choose to forage their own access to several "safe" tiny demiplanes. With an upcharge the master can order a rope-trick-like space added to their room which the familiar may access and this space is bedecked as sumptuously as the wizard's own accommodations - fluffy pillow beds, replenishing scratching posts, plush perches with silk lacing, etc.
NEVER forget your familiar in game. Give it its own mini. If you draw/find/create pics of your character, add it. Get offended when NPCs offer YOU drinks and not your familiar.
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coup-de-grace attacks are a good use of the familiar, just to make sure those sleeping goblins don't get up.
They are also useful for setting up situations where you get to meet that hot chick in the park, because your cute little familiar "just happened" to get it's leash tangled up around her legs, forcing the two of you together, in a classic romantic encounter (or a similar role-playing situation).
Don't forget this little tidbit:
Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master's skill ranks, whichever is better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar's total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar's ability to use. Familiars treat Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim as class skills.
At level 5 (for Wizards, anyway), the familiar can speak with its master. Did you botch that essential knowledge check by rolling a 1? Have your familiar re-roll it. He's won't do any worse than you! My familiar in the Kingmaker campaign I was playing save the day a couple of times with knowledge that even wizard didn't have.
I once used a ferret to smuggle lockpicks to some companions so they could bust out of jail. I simply tied them to the little guy and set him loose in the castle grounds lookin for the little barred window (he had a high Stealth). He hopped in, they used the picks, and he escaped with them haha.
Another use: setting watch. If you have a nocturnal animal or perhaps one not requiring sleep, use this creature to keep an eye out for danger.
One thing you should do RIGHT AWAY is clarify w/your GM what information is communicated to you in the empathic link. Also see what their thoughts are on yes/no questions. If your little buddy can hear and understand EVERYTHING your arcanist says then in my games with me as a GM I've ruled that they can answer in some pre-determined way.
Wizard: so, my greensting friend: are there orcs behind that door?
Scorpion flicks its tail to indicate "no"
Wizard: and yet you were frightened...is there some OTHER monster in there?
Scorpion flicks it's tail "yes"
Wizard: (to the remainder of the party) well, at least we know after picking the lock our day will be interesting...
No, it's not ideal communication but it does allow for some info to pass between owner and familiar. This simple change greatly enhanced the utility of familiars in my games. If your GM balks remind them that the base Int for a 1st level familiar is a 6, same as a Worg.
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You mean there are familiars other than greensting scorpions?
In PFS I have two characters with Familiars, and one that'll acquire a Familiar next level. One's a Quasit (Magus), one will be a Hawk (Oracle), and the other is a Greensting Scorpion (Witch).
Before making my Witch I disliked the proportions of casters I encountered that had Greensting Scorpions as Familiars, doing nothing more than hiding out of sight. At the time I categorized those players into either "good roleplayers" or "number crunchers".
And then I drafted up my Witch, and realized how screwed you were if your Familiar died. My Magus has more hit points than many Barbarians, so his Quasit can take a few hits, but my Witch is squishy, and one bad Reflex save and my Scorpion is toast.
After many revisions, going from the thematic Cat, to the social Thrush, or the helpful Bat, I decided to go with a creature that would probably be happiest never seeing the light of day, or the perils of combat. And since the rest of the party would likely never meet it, I may as well choose something that still gave me a mechanical benefit, which for a class that loves to go first in combat meant a Greensting Scorpion.
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Besides the ye' old wand trick, you can take ranks in intimidate (or give your familiar a headband with the skill) and let him debuff all your foes with demoralization effects for your save or die spells.
It also helps your allies.
Oh, I'm so stealing this... Thank you for the idea.
Oh, I'm so stealing this... Thank you for the idea.Besides the ye' old wand trick, you can take ranks in intimidate (or give your familiar a headband with the skill) and let him debuff all your foes with demoralization effects for your save or die spells.
It also helps your allies.
Wouldn't a familiar take massive size penalties for Intimidate checks?
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Wouldn't a familiar take massive size penalties for Intimidate checks?Oh, I'm so stealing this... Thank you for the idea.Besides the ye' old wand trick, you can take ranks in intimidate (or give your familiar a headband with the skill) and let him debuff all your foes with demoralization effects for your save or die spells.
It also helps your allies.
"Special: You also gain a +4 bonus on Intimidate checks
if you are larger than your target and a –4 penalty onIntimidate checks if you are smaller than your target."
So it's 'only' a -4. If you've a high charisma familiar (like a lyrakien that's +5, plus your level, (using the headband trick) and maybe +3 more if you get a circlet of persuastion. It won't do good against monsters (whose hit dice scale much more rapidly) but against humanoids their CR is likely only going to be a couple higher than the PCs.
So, Witch 7's lyrakien familiar would have a +12 (-4 for size) with a DC (Assuming target is a cleric) of 22 or so (10 + 8 HD +18 wis) 40% chance to hit him with -2s? Not bad for a 'free' action. (I used witch because you have to be within 30' for hexes.) Add the circlet and it becomes a 55% chance.
Huh, I could have sworn it was -4 per size category. Cool!
I recently got a Migrus (check out the "migrus locker" item) in a game I'm playing. Any idea how to best use something with the "base" cat familiar stats? I've mainly been using it to boost my stealth (which is now at +20 thanks to it) but I'm wondering if their are other better uses seeing as it doesnt scale.
You mean there are familiars other than greensting scorpions?
I plan on pickup up a hedgehob tumor familiar with my Alchemist next level, because I really need that +2 to my Will saves.
My witch has improved familiar. Her Silvanshee Agathion tries to keep her on the path of good (or at least keep her from falling towards evil). The DM has taken to calling it Nyan-Cat, probably due to the gnome bard giving it an illusory rainbow wake coupled with its high fly speed.
It had an epic "dogfight" with the undead raven familiar of weakened litch that our party was fighting on the ground. It sometimes dashes in to provide a quick "lay-on-hands" as a second level paladin once a day. If there's time, it uses the spectral mist ability to get there and back in one piece.
But, as mentioned above, a witch is in real trouble if something happens to the familiar, so BE CAREFUL (and/or have a scroll of/prepare raise dead).
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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My witch has improved familiar. Her Silvanshee Agathion tries to keep her on the path of good (or at least keep her from falling towards evil). The DM has taken to calling it Nyan-Cat, probably due to the gnome bard giving it an illusory rainbow wake coupled with its high fly speed.
I named Ksenia's familir Covestka for the same reason (it's a basterized feminine word for 'conscience'). So far she's been hiding in the backpack for the most part, though she's armed with a couple wands.
But, as mentioned above, a witch is in real trouble if something happens to the familiar, so BE CAREFUL (and/or have a scroll of/prepare raise dead).
Funny (to the GM) Sanos Abudction moment.
Are there any other animals from the Archive that grant Initiative?