Getting your familiar! Quest or Just have it?

[DrkMagusX]

I remember in D&D there was a quest in a magazine i believe for obtaining your familiar. I was just curious if the community has found anything like this to add a bit of roleplay to getting the familiar or does everyone just simply start with one.

I know usually you will just start with one, but this is just a thread on what others have used as creative ways of obtaining a familiar.

[Nymor]

i'd make it a generous share of the character's BG, so the player can be detailed or fast as he/she please without monopolizing a session of play. My witch's familiar was a sort of "reincarnated person who failed her quest", so it was up to the dm if use that quest (also described in the bg) as an hook

[Wyran]

My GM ran Preludes to all of our characters to tie in everyones BG into eachother. Really neat idea. However a GM could do that same and use it as a chance to obtain a familiar instead of choosing it. Really up to the GM and if he/she feels there is room in his/her timeline/story to put it in there.

[Cheeseweasel]

For a sandbox-type affair, when someone gets around to selecting Improved Familiar, I'm likely to run a brief bit around their acquisition. But only in a relaxed, unpaced game. The original, plain familiar -- if the player wants to make it part of their background, I'll let 'em run with it, but I don't spend in-game time on playing out that event.

I usually use PC background as a tool for acquainting the party with each other, and to give each player some awareness of the options available to them to start influencing the world I've put them in, so people have an idea of what to expect. What a player chooses to include in their background can give me an idea of what's important to them, letting me plan opportunities for them to achieve personally-relevant goals, moments, minions, or whatever.

If someone puts a lot of effort into forging the bond with a familiar, I am much more likely to involve myself in interactions between PC and critter, and let them express a personality of sorts as they get smarter.

[Shar Tahl]

Making certain classes not have all their features at character creation can be frustrating. I played in a game where my druid was going to need to quest for his companion. I ended up making a new character to avoid the hassle. Improved familiar would have more of a roleplaying way to get it.

[danielc]

To force a quest to find the familiar just is wrong in my opinion. Should a fighter have to quest to find armor? I would no more ask the wizard to play hide and seek for his familiar then I would force the cleric to hunt for his holy symbol or a summoner to quest for his eidolon.

We need to stop talking about a first level charactor like they just sprang into being. They didn't. They have lived for years before "first level creation" took place. As a Wizard in training they would have already "found" their familiar or bonded with their item.

Just my .02 on the idea.

[DrkMagusX]

It was just a option I have seen from past versions. There were one on one solo modules for characters and one was the familiar one.