In my opinion, far too often wizard's familiars are an after thought. They don't do anything, participate in anything, fight anything. I want to play a wizard with a viper familiar that isn't forgotten about. What are some good ways you've come across to do this?
Well, beyond snake in the robe jokes to remind people it exist, you can always have it participate in your activities. One of the big uses for familiars is assisting you with skills and recon anyway. Occasionally roleplay buying it food, letting it sit, possibly having a chat when no ones around, listening to its commentary. My last familiar was a part of my wardrobe, my next one is the characters housepet and hunting partner. Use it for more than just a +4 to initiative which is just one of those dozens of ways you can use the thing to help attain ultimate power.
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In my opinion, far too often wizard's familiars are an after thought. They don't do anything, participate in anything, fight anything. I want to play a wizard with a viper familiar that isn't forgotten about. What are some good ways you've come across to do this?
People play it as an after thought because usually if you don't use it, you don't have to worry about the GM destroying it. Constantly paying for replacements can get expensive, particularly if your a witch, better to just forget its even there and take the +4 init and alertness bonus.
That being said it is cool when people actually use their familiars, but there is very very strong reasoning in not using it. I have a friend in society whose familiar is always fighting things, its hilarious. He's even got a few bodies, but he has a few deaths too.
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My friend plays a CN Tengu Cavalier Rogue with a Mokingfey familiar that is always in the form of a flying monkey. The familiar has come up on a number of occasions, including fetching thrown weapons, playing sick to get past a guard, and throwing turds (no one's quite sure where the little brat gets them) at people he doesn't like.
My witch's current familiar is a Whippoorwhill, who doesn't do much, aside from look all Phrasaman. I'm going to be getting a physcopomp and level 7.
I allowed one of my players to take the Improved Familiar feat and retain his rat familiar he had before. In exchange, the familiar can cast a spell 1/day from his spellbook like a bonded object. I figure, I don't have to worry about an improved familiar wielding wands and plenty of familiars have multiple SLA's anyway. While certainly more versatile and powerful than a standard Improved familiar, it is weaker than some builds with Improved familiar and weaker than a straight bonded object in that he can’t enchant it. Win / Win.
He roleplays it as a spellcaster in its own right, but who only casts a spell when it's absolutely needed. Always with a snicker and a shake of its tiny little head (complete with miniature pointed hat), it casts the exact spell needed to remedy a sticky situation. It's tons of fun, especially when the little familiar has to save the haughty and arrogant caster every now and then.
I played a Samsaran wizard who was a devout follower of Shelyn. He dyed his birds (a blue thrush) tail feathers as her symbol and wore it as a symbol and as a fashion accessory, then ventriloquism and share language meant that he could talk to the bird, and it could "respond" in kind. The wizard is always right, but it's nice to hear someone else say it =p
My Lyrakien Azata would use her ventriloquism to cheerfully say "your all going to die down here" after my wizard would cast one of his pit traps. After the first one I played her as slightly more and more deranged/unstable. It was great fun.
Characterization is the way to go to make any familiar a more present and memorable part of your game. I chose an owl for my wizard familiar, but I researched types of owls until I found one I particularly liked. I would personally find a viper a little limiting in how it might interact with others, since it would understand less of what they say/do, but I'm also not fond of snakes, so I think interest is key to make it fun for you. I've seen a witch character that kept a viper familiar very "present" by writing (since this was PbP) good descriptions of the snake climbing and coiling around her body. In PbP or email games, I link to images to give visual reference but a physical prop would work better for in-person play.
I try to remember the empathetic link conveys your emotional state to the animal, but they may not understand the whys of how you feel. Any animal would be likely to make an aggressive or fearful posture when they feel strong anger or anxiety coming through that bond while the PC is still thinking over what to do. I find it's enjoyable to try and imagine how the familiar reacts to the PC's feelings and play that. ^_^
Also I like the spell burning gaze for a familiar to help out in battle. It can easily make a gaze attack from the safety of your shoulder and not really be at risk.
- Have two snakes. One's your Familiar, the other just a pet.
- Transmute your Familiar often, into more useful shapes. Preferably (semi-)humanoid shapes.
- Make your Familiar communicate with NPCs and fellow party members. That's tricky for a snake of course, but it can be done.
Use it for more than just a +4 to initiative which is just one of those dozens of ways you can use the thing to help attain ultimate power.
Thanks for the reply. Where did you get that a familiar grants a +4 initiative? I don't see that anywhere. Did I miss it?
Use it for more than just a +4 to initiative which is just one of those dozens of ways you can use the thing to help attain ultimate power.Thanks for the reply. Where did you get that a familiar grants a +4 initiative? I don't see that anywhere. Did I miss it?
Some familiar options grant a +4 to initiative, and that's easily the go to option if your optimizing your character. Your snake grants you a +3 to bluff for instance, but if you grabbed a rabbit you could get +4 initiative. Its really popular to grab a familiar that gives +4 initiative, which originally was a greensting scorpion and a type of dinosaur, and just forget it exist but take those nifty bonuses it gives you.
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I think its about giving the familiar personality, my diviner's familiar is a blue thrush that speaks varisian mocks the parties grumpy magus who cannot understand him and shows his devotion to Desna by eating butterflies. The rest of the group should know your familiars name and interact with it, etc., make it a character in its own right.
Of course its slightly easier with a talking familiar, but my old rat Furkiss was a malicious terror who wielded familiar spell to assassinate several foes and had a scary high intimidate - I forget quite how it was 3.5 I think it was by the book. In the next Campaign the DM used his as a low level big bad who ended up joining the parties bard as an Improved Familiar.
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Interact with your familiar is the best course you can take. Especially at higher levels where you can actually communicate with it, deliver touch spells though it, etc.
The two most memorable familiars any of my PCs have had were a raven named Muninn (which was the familiar to two separate wizards in the same campaign) and a stirge by the name of Pokem.
Muninn was known for gathering info and being a bit of a wise ass (he spoke common).
Pokem has been a boon in combat ... he is given mage armor and made invisible, flies in and attaches to an enemy in combat for three rounds, gets his fill and flies out, leaving the opponent down 3 Con and curls up in the hood of the wizard's cloak to nap post meal. End result is reducing the opponent by 15 hp and reducing fort saves by 1 pt. not a huge difference, but entertaining none the less.
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Improved familiars can express personality through their spells. Consider a fairy dragon who uses audible glamor to "increase" the noise of a part member so that every step they take sounds like a horn,
or a silent image of a red carpet rolling out, in a cartoonish way, so that the (invisible) dragon appears at the end of the carpet a-la Bugs Bunny.
Or even just using prestidigitation to turn the fighter's mustache pink.
There are lots of zany options here.
Love your familiar.
Interact with it and make it interact with others. My first familiar was a scorpion, Bluetooth. It was often playing around and my master used it to communicate me things I could not see. It was a good scout, especially for its favourite food.
Later on, it could not do much for the group so I took Advanced Familiar feat and Bumblebee, my consular imp, changed the game. Imps, like many advanced familiars, are powerful, they can really change the course of a fight if used properly. Out of a fight, advanced familiars have a lot of options for roleplaying, they have a lot of background personality in many PF books (especially campaign settings) and my players love interacting with him as much as with my wizard, sometimes even more (he often offers them Hell cigarettes without filter). Moreover, I have a blog where every PC can write and express things they could not express during the game, and Bumblebee writes there too.
I actually play two characters, and Bumblebee is our rockstar.
I remember I had a raven familiar when I played a conjurer wizard once. Looking over the ravens statistics it could speak one language I could speak so I obviously picked Infernal as my wizard was from Cheliax. Nicest wizard, don't talk to the bird it's evil. The familiar was basically a bound devil forced to serve me. I was debating being an infernal binder and at lvl 7 when I got the imp have the raven burst into flames and have an imp rise from the ashes cackling like a madman escaping from prison.
These are some good ideas. One of the reasons that I chose the viper was to help my bluff skill for the Council of Thieves AP. I'm thinking about alluding to the viper actually hypnotizing people my PC lies to.
As far as combat, until he can use more effective spells, I thought about having the viper hide in an adjacent square (having the PC use bluff to create a diviersion if necessary) and if sn enemy enters that square, having the viper bite. It's got a +5 attack which is great for level 1, and 1d2 CON damage can be helpful. The save DC is only 9, but it's smoething. A hidden tiny animal shouldn't provoke an attack of opportunity from a foe entering ths square as long as he doesn't spot it.
Not every familiar has to be a combatant to have a personality. You have a viper right?
1. Have it scout; more importantly work w/your GM to see if the starting Int of the thing is enough to answer yes or no questions (this is something I worked out w/a player in my home game). If it can, when it returns roleplay the conversation with the thing. "Did you see anyone at the end of the hall?" It nods, "Did they look anything like me or my compatriots?" it indicates the human...
2. I like your bluff idea. Another way to reference your familiar in a bluff is that YOU are in fact more hypnotizing by virtue of the snake coiled around your wrist. Hiss or lisp when you talk, draw out your words or sway as you speak in character
3. Give the creature healing/buff effects to put on your allies.
4. In non-combat scenes work the familiar into the picture: have it slithering through the bar eavesdropping on conversations while looking for mice, point out that it's winding through the vials of the alchemist's shop, play up it's natural fear of horses (isn't that an animal snakes fear?) and have it hissing at passing quadrupeds.
I always loved animal familiars and only once upgraded to a homunculus. I know Improved Familiar gives superior combatants, but there's something cool about a witch or wizard having a good old-fashioned cat or bird on their shoulder.
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I always make sure I have a familiar when playing an arcane caster. My last one was a pig named Jorry. This was our evil campaign and my arcane sorcerer had an intelligence of 6 while Jorry had a 12. The idea was my sorcerer gained power and the pig took advantage I was just a tool for the lawful evil pig Jorry to take over the world with. During combat his actions were generally he trots over to me/he lays down/ he eats grass. I played him for one session but my friends still talk about the moron sorcerer with the pig who would someday sit on a throne to rule the land.
I got the idea for Jorry after listening to Avenged Sevenfolds Hail to the King.