One familiar I feel has been overlooked in a degree that is close to criminal negligence, is the mighty Ratling.
This marvellous little feller has so many tricks up its non-existent sleeve, there is little contest.
Its SLA list alone is long, and full of goodies:
Constant—detect magic, read magic, speak with animals (rodents only), spider climb, tongues
3/day—cause fear (DC 12), dimension door, invisibility (self only)
1/day—summon swarm (rat swarm only)
1/week—commune (only when serving as a familiar; 6 questions, CL 12th)
Dimension door, that is not self-only! Commune, constant tongues! Blimey.
And with hands, darkvision, high stealth, scroll use (though it would still need a UMD skill check for most scrolls, as it just doesn't have the required ability scores for it), burrow speed and so on, it really is a great little helper.
Too bad it is stated that you have to be Chaotic Evil to get it as a familiar.
I also like the fluff, though I prefer it looking like a miniature Warhammer Skaven.
One fun thing about this creature, is that it is immune to poison and diseases, so it can act as your food taster.
This has to be my favourite familiar, with Greensting Scorpion (initiative!),the Clockwork familiar (pure fluff) and the Imp (I like Augury) as honourable mentions.
Funny how there are so few good, emm good familiars. My favourite is probably the Lyrakien, tool user, flyer, plenty of good skills, if a little on the My Little Pony cute side.
So what is your favourite familiar, and why?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My Conjuration (Teleportation) Wizard's Raven Familiar
having your familiar be able to talk is awesome
roleplaying it to sound like Yelling Bird from the indietits and Questionable Content comics by Jeph Jacques is even better
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
An idea I had, for my next wizard, was to use a thrush as a familiar, as they have the same ability to talk as the raven does. More precisely, the Blue Whistling Thrush, because it is such a beautiful bird, and then have it act as if it had a bad case of Tourette's, spewing profanities everywhere.
yes that is basically Yelling Bird
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A mute, mentally slow child.
"Just carry my spellbook and shut up, Gerald! No you can't have a horse like the rest of us!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Give the kid Fleet and a level of barbarian training and he'll be able to keep up.
As far as my own PCs, my favorite familiar was a mouse. Useless in a fight (but what familiar isn't?) and absolutely marvelous as a party scout. Even if an enemy beat his insane Stealth modifiers with a Perception check, the enemy was generally going to think, "Gee, a mouse." Element of surprise preserved.
Are you saying that a mouse is more common than a tiny woman with butterfly wings, surrounded by sparkles and rainbows?
Preposterous!A quick survey says that both have the same frequency of occurrence in my apartment.
;)
I always liked cats myself. They seem classic and classy/
Also snakes, the imagery of a character with a snake wrapped around a limb is pretty cool I've always thought.
Crow, hands down. I don't even need to look at the Crow's special abilities cause I know the Crow is my favorite familiar. They don't even have to have a special ability and I would still choose Crow.
Are you saying that a mouse is more common than a tiny woman with butterfly wings, surrounded by sparkles and rainbows?
Preposterous!
A quick survey says that both have the same frequency of occurrence in my apartment.;)
You might want to get that fairy pest problem checked, by the ways.
|
Several choices are good here, but my all-time favorite is the ferret/weasel. +2 to reflex is nice, but mainly I just like the dang animals. Plus, you get a living slinky as a familiar. Yay me. That being said, I have always been severally tempted to abuse familiars to make horrendously painful out-of-game references, like having a raven and have it recite line from Poe's works, or having a pig familiar named Waddles...
That aside, I don't object to the fox, which somehow feels classic "witch" to me (if I'm playing a witch, since foxes get the whole trickster/illusionist vibe, and I see witches fitting this trope), and ever since the platypus became avaliable...
To summarize. Favorite? Weasel. Close second: Platypus. Third: any of the above...
|
I don't play characters with pets very often, but I've always been partial to those that could fly.
My one and only PFS PC with a pet is a Tattooed Sorceress with an owl familiar tattoo. Unlike the iconic sorceress, mine always wears long dresses with long sleeves to hide her tattoos, because she's a distrustful person who doesn't like others to know what type of power she has.
So once per adventure, I make a point of describing her holding out her arm, and the fabric of her long sleeve suddenly starts to rise, as if there's a rapidly growing bulge on her arm. After a few seconds, the sleeve slides away to reveal the owl sitting on her arm, making people wonder where the owl came from.
My fave: Pseudodragon
The witch in one of my current campaigns: Arbiter
I recently started playing an air elementalist wizard with a thrush familiar, and I have to say, so far she has been amazing. I was worried at first that having a familiar that's so small (a thrush is Diminutive) would be a real problem, since she can't carry much weight at all and will never be able to do much in combat. But she turns out to be an absolutely brilliant little scout. Because of that small size, my wizard had to take only 1 rank of Stealth at level 1 to give her a +18 Stealth check right out of the gate. (+18!!!) Combine that with flight and language use, and a decent Perception check (a thrush gets Skill Focus (Perception) as its only feat), and you've got what's basically a permanent arcane eye. If your DM will let you give your familiar new languages when you take ranks in Linguistics, a thrush (or raven or parrot) could also speak new languages, making it still more useful as a spy. And I plan to fit her out with magical items (Muleback cords to increase her carrying capacity, a ring of invisibility, maybe a cloak of elvenkind or the like) and maybe eventually some permanent spells (see invisibility, arcane sight, comprehend languages, telepathic bond) to further increase her usefulness. I had my doubts about taking a familiar, and I worry about how well she'll scale up at high levels where really nasty area effects kick in and monsters with blindsight and true sight become more common, but so far she's been a great addition to the party.
Dimension door, that is not self-only!
You will run into issues of Reach if you ever want to have more than one passenger (who aren't already in one square).
scroll use (though it would still need a UMD skill check for most scrolls, as it just doesn't have the required ability scores for it)
the ability score isn't really the issue, it's CHA 13 is easy to boost to 15, enough for 5th level spells.
the main issue is really it's caster level, which presumably uses the caster level from it's SLA's (?), which doesn't scale.(it doesn't even correspond to it's HD, so there's no argument that it's caster level would scale as a familiar)
One fun thing about this creature, is that it is immune to poison and diseases, so it can act as your food taster.
Assuming it can perceive the poisons? I'd rather NOT assume it can perceive them, and have a food taster which drops dead if there is some inperceivable poison.
Funny how there are so few good, emm good familiars.
I like Pseudodragons.
Their normal 5' reach for Sleep tail stinger (scaling DC) is great, that can be increased by Enlarge Person and/or Reach Evolution,and makes them work great as Dimension Door agents (and touch spells in general), using the "toucher" and/or "counts as you" Familiar rules.
Blindsense, Telepathy, Sleep/Paralysis Immunity, 60' fly speed, and speech/hands are all great on top.
I find continual Blindsense a better over-all deal than Faery Dragon's 3/day Greater Invisibility (self only), casting Vanish/Invisibility(which usually suffice, or if not Grt Invisibility is also available) is do-able when needed, being aware of Invisible creatures every round every day is not as easily replicated and keeping the entire party aware of danger is usually better on an action-economy basis than the Faery Dragon themself going invisible.
(some people seem to think Faery Dragon sorceror casting progression would scale as a familiar's HD-linked effect, but i don't believe there is anything RAW that links it to HD even though it happens to correspond to the normal creature's HD)
Sylvanshee Agathions are also an awesome Good Improved Familiar
(Lay on Hands = HD-scaling effect, although SKR suggested not scaling the usages/day).
The relative lack of Good Familiars is probably down to there being less Good Monsters than Neutral/Evil.
But note that Familiars continue to retain their own Alignment and act in accordance with their personality (with Imps in particular called out as pursuing an agenda of their own, with their machinations imperilling the life/soul of their owner and as many others it can victimize)
...so selecting Evil Familiars can certainly have perils of it's own.
As far as base Familiars go, the mentioned Thrush and Weasels are cool (Attach and +2 Reflex/Fort for Weasel/Mongoose),
I also like the Rhamporhynchus Pterosaur ("Rampo"): flies, good perception, good stealth, scent, +2 init bonus to you.
Raven/Parrot are solid ones if you are interested in UMD Wand usage in a base Familiar (since they can talk),
Monkeys are good for general item manipulation (e.g. throwing Tanglefoot bags, opening/closing doors, feeding CLW potions to allies, etc).
Their normal 5' reach for Sleep tail stinger (scaling DC) is great, that can be increased by Enlarge Person
Last I checked, Pseudodragons weren't humanoids.
For what it's worth, my preference is the Compsonagthus (cause it's rad as hell (it's a tiny dinosaur (and the improved init doesn't hurt either)))
Last I checked, Pseudodragons weren't humanoids.Correct, but I take it you're forgetting this rule?
Share Spells: The wizard may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on himself. A wizard may cast spells on his familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar's type (magical beast).
Last I checked, Pseudodragons weren't humanoids.Correct, but I take it you're forgetting this rule?Share Spells: The wizard may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on himself. A wizard may cast spells on his familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar's type (magical beast).
Yup. My mistake.
Wolpertinger. Because psychotic, flying, carnivorous jackalope, that's why.
My favorite official choice would be the pixie
a mountain of SLAS
permanent flight with amazingly good manueverability
permanent greater invisibility that be can be reactivated as a free action
childlike appearance
opposeable thumbs and speech for UMD combined with a high charisma
ridiculously good scouting ability
can be used to provide flank
other good choices that i respect are
the cassian angel
the fairy dragon
the imp
when it comes to houseruled familiars
i like young nymphs and young succubi for flavor.
I wasn't aware Pixies were options for a Familiar...?
No love for the Lyrakien?
No love for the Lyrakien?
I mentioned it in the first post as my favourite good aligned familiar.
I wasn't aware Pixies were options for a Familiar...?
I don't think it is. Perhaps in an AP somewhere?
the ability score isn't really the issue, it's CHA 13 is easy to boost to 15, enough for 5th level spells.
the main issue is really it's caster level, which presumably uses the caster level from it's SLA's (?), which doesn't scale.
(it doesn't even correspond to it's HD, so there's no argument that it's caster level would scale as a familiar)
CL 6 is good enough for 3rd level, which includes most of the good emergency spells.
The wording on the Emulate an Ability Score is a bit off, and suggest you need wisdom to use a divine scroll. Now any sane GM would of course just let you use Charisma, and cast any scroll as an Oracle/Sorcerer, but not all GMs are sane."Emulate an Ability Score: To cast a spell from a scroll, you need a high score in the appropriate ability (Intelligence for wizard spells, Wisdom for divine spells, or Charisma for sorcerer or bard spells). Your effective ability score (appropriate to the class you're emulating when you try to cast the spell from the scroll) is your Use Magic Device check result minus 15. If you already have a high enough score in the appropriate ability, you don't need to make this check."
So it can pretty much cast any 3rd level spell from a scroll.
Higher than that, yeah, the CL is going to take a bit of luck to get off in one go, what with a DC 27+ UMD check.
However, it can just do a caster level check instead of an UMD check, which is probably a fair bit easier than the UMD check, and in that case, it would only need the UMD ability score check (if it lacks the required ability score). It is usually a whole lot easier to do a caster level check, as the DC is a maximum of 16 for a 9th level spell, with a minimum of +6 mod to the die roll, so a maximum of a 10 needed. So unless you have an UMD mod of 26+, the caster level check is easier.
So, in most cases but the extreme, what you need is the ability score UMD check, if any at all.
(Truth to be told, I had missed that it had a charisma of 13, so now it is even better, with a small boost to its charisma, it can double as an emergency healer, with pretty much all of the Remove X spells within its capabilities, and Dimension Door to get to the injured, or remove them from battle. I love it, if only it weren't evil.)
IMHO,
There's no real justification to impose UMD's Emulate an Ability Score rules, when you aren't using UMD to Emulate an Ability score.
The rules for normal casting from scrolls (without UMD), which is how "Scroll Use" is supposed to function, just state 'sufficient ability score'
and leave it at that, there's no indication that Sorc/Oracles have a problem using scrolls, and I don't see the difference here.
The most rules grounded approach would just use the stat that the SLAs use, since that's where the Caster Level is coming from (apparently).
It's pretty non-standard, but technically you can craft sub-par caster level scrolls, i.e. CL6 5th level spells.
That makes them cheaper, too... Not sure if that's PFS legit, though.
Just keep it happily fed with the blood of LG children, and you have nothing to worry about with your little Florence Nightingale, battlefield humanitarian. :-)
It's pretty non-standard, but technically you can craft sub-par caster level scrolls, i.e. CL6 5th level spells.
It was my understanding that you had to at least have the minimum CL required to cast the spell, but maybe I'm thinking 3.5 and not Pathfinder...
Regarding familiars, I've never really gotten a chance to play with Improved Familiars much. Of the classic options, I've always had a fondness for the Hawk. Possibly because I've always wanted one in real life. :)
The eyeball beholderkin was a personal favorite of mine. It flew and made your touch attacks into ray attacks so it could float about the battlefield and zap away!
What book is this from? Google searches turn up nothing.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/improved-familiar
Mr.tortuga
my wife's witch familiar nothing special i just like the imagery of a gnome with a turtle strap to her back pack
The eyeball beholderkin was a personal favorite of mine. It flew and made your touch attacks into ray attacks so it could float about the battlefield and zap away!What book is this from? Google searches turn up nothing.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/improved-familiar
Beholders are WotC IP, so they are not in Pathfinder. Van Horn was probably talking about a D&D character.
tyvm, rtanen.
I think you're right, the rules don't really state so very directly, but I think you can get that from the following:It's pretty non-standard, but technically you can craft sub-par caster level scrolls, i.e. CL6 5th level spells.It was my understanding that you had to at least have the minimum CL required to cast the spell, but maybe I'm thinking 3.5 and not Pathfinder...
For potions, scrolls, and wands, the creator can set the caster level of an item at any number high enough to cast the stored spell but not higher than her own caster level.
Table: Scrolls gives sample prices for scrolls created at the lowest possible caster level for each spellcasting class. Note that some spells appear at different levels for different casters. The level of such spells depends on the caster scribing the scroll.
There isn't normally any causative relationship between caster level (distinct from caster progression) and being able to cast a spell, but the reference to the Table as "the lowest possible caster level" for each spell level/spellcasting class seems enough to justify your understanding.
So if somehow you had 'permanent' damage to your caster level, you could not craft scrolls of those spells even though you could cast them normally (at lesser caster level).
That sounds like it's own thread topic...
Gah! Can you imagine a villain learning that his hideout is infested with pixies? They'd have to gas the place!
Well its easy for bad guys to Gas their lairs. Just feed the Orc Guards bean and cheese burritos and its done.
But for my Favorite standard Familiar , Im also voting for the Raven. My witch has a Raven used for scouting outdoors and to deliver messages is very useful. And if the bad guys see a Raven flying outside who gives it second thought?
And if the bad guys see a Raven flying outside who gives it second thought?
I know right, first and last thoughts are "Taste like chicken!"
The safety of your familiar varies from GM to GM.
I wasn't aware Pixies were options for a Familiar...?
they were a 5th-6th level or so familiar option in 3.5
plus they are an option in some old AP somewhere, can't remember which one though
but i tend to play with a lot of 3.5 material
and there was a 3.5 sourcebook that allowed PCs to take nymphs and succubi as familiars around 8th-10th level or so. the only downside was, was that they were small and had similar changes to the young template.
there was a 3.5 sourcebook that allowed PCs to take nymphs and succubi as familiars around 8th-10th level or so. the only downside was, was that they were small and had similar changes to the young template.
So not just a submissive sex slave, but an underaged submissive sex slave? Oooi.
there was a 3.5 sourcebook that allowed PCs to take nymphs and succubi as familiars around 8th-10th level or so. the only downside was, was that they were small and had similar changes to the young template.So not just a submissive sex slave, but an underaged submissive sex slave? Oooi.
the book had a lot of details on slavery, a variety of forms of slavery
and an underaged nymph or succubus need not be a sex slave
they could be
a maid in training
a library assistant or intern in training
a surrogate daughter for the desperate wizard with desires to be a parent
or even
a chore girl
i had characters that used them, not sexually, but as surrogate daughters because they couldn't become parents.
Lady Flutterfly, the rat folk wizard's faerie dragon friend who speaks with a southern belle accent and who always seems to roll higher on knowledge checks than he does. She is quickly becoming convinced that the rat is HER familiar.
I wasn't aware Pixies were options for a Familiar...?they were a 5th-6th level or so familiar option in 3.5
plus they are an option in some old AP somewhere, can't remember which one though
but i tend to play with a lot of 3.5 material
and there was a 3.5 sourcebook that allowed PCs to take nymphs and succubi as familiars around 8th-10th level or so. the only downside was, was that they were small and had similar changes to the young template.
Guess then that means caster have another use for the enlarge spell then.
Raven gets the vote for standard familiars. Very cool, and talking ability right away. Ferret is an honorable mention.
Young Nymph sounds beyond cool, but outside the intended flavor. Lyrakin [sic] gets the improved familiar vote.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Goat, small sized quadruped. Perfect for helping the wizard carry things. Make it a female and have milk on tap, take craft cheese and have food.
Being a bit of a Spider-Man geek, I really like being able to take a scarlet spider familiar. It is not at all optimal, but it is a lot of fun and works well for a dark elf wizard--one that I have been meaning to reroll from 3.5e for a while.
there was a 3.5 sourcebook that allowed PCs to take nymphs and succubi as familiars around 8th-10th level or so. the only downside was, was that they were small and had similar changes to the young template.So not just a submissive sex slave, but an underaged submissive sex slave? Oooi.the book had a lot of details on slavery, a variety of forms of slavery
and an underaged nymph or succubus need not be a sex slave
they could be
a maid in training
a library assistant or intern in training
a surrogate daughter for the desperate wizard with desires to be a parent
or even
a chore girl
i had characters that used them, not sexually, but as surrogate daughters because they couldn't become parents.
Most of those options sounds like some kind of twisted set up for... certain movies...So basically, you have not actually dissuaded the perception much.
But I'll excuse that since most of your suggested familiars can at least look fairly human with just a minimum of disguise, no? Some of the official Paizo options have the ability to disguise itself as a child too (at least I think the Cassisian does)
Compared to the strange chaos snakes, tiny dragons, and forces of freaking nature seen on the rest of the list, a small humanoid would at least make a useful prop when trying to be inconspicuous. I mean, who expects the person walking around with a 5 year old of being the rebel wizard that leads Le Resistance? Or something of that nature. I still think I'd prefer a familiar that could go invisible, but meh.
Ceru because its a pocket freaking elephant thats lucky, unlucky, and poisonous.
there was a 3.5 sourcebook that allowed PCs to take nymphs and succubi as familiars around 8th-10th level or so. the only downside was, was that they were small and had similar changes to the young template.So not just a submissive sex slave, but an underaged submissive sex slave? Oooi.the book had a lot of details on slavery, a variety of forms of slavery
and an underaged nymph or succubus need not be a sex slave
they could be
a maid in training
a library assistant or intern in training
a surrogate daughter for the desperate wizard with desires to be a parent
or even
a chore girl
i had characters that used them, not sexually, but as surrogate daughters because they couldn't become parents.
Most of those options sounds like some kind of twisted set up for... certain movies...So basically, you have not actually dissuaded the perception much.
But I'll excuse that since most of your suggested familiars can at least look fairly human with just a minimum of disguise, no? Some of the official Paizo options have the ability to disguise itself as a child too (at least I think the Cassisian does)
Compared to the strange chaos snakes, tiny dragons, and forces of freaking nature seen on the rest of the list, a small humanoid would at least make a useful prop when trying to be inconspicuous. I mean, who expects the person walking around with a 5 year old of being the rebel wizard that leads Le Resistance? Or something of that nature. I still think I'd prefer a familiar that could go invisible, but meh.
i like the familiar that can pretend to be a child. very inconspicuous, please also comes with the option of UMD, SLAs, diplomacy checks, and the like. sometimes, it is easier for the familiar to speak if she can pass for human
but i wasn't thinking of the setup for adult films
i like the advantage of a less conspicuous familiar
invisible familiars can still be detected at higher levels, and are likely to be suspected, which is why i prefer familiars that can pretend to be human.
another thing i do
is look for odd custom animals to make familiars out of that not many people expect
such as doves, butterflies, rabbits, and the like.
or 3.5 options/AP options for improved familiars that if they can't pass for human, are at least inconspicuous enough to not draw excessive attention.
I see no mention of the Alchemist Tumor Familiar on this thread. Disappointing. The "ick!" factor little 'Whiskers' causes in our ditzy cleric of Desna would be hilarious if she ever stopped threatening to cast Destruction on the poor guy.