What happens to familiars after a master's death in your games?

[Rycaut]

This happened in an AP I ran where the party killed an NPC witch - the party witch wanted to learn spells from the now dead NPC's familiar. I ruled that he had 24 hrs to learn as many spells as he and his familiar could - assuming he could convince the familiar to teach them to him and his familiar. After that unless something happened I was going to have the familiar's magical abilities and spell knowledge etc start to fade away.

However I'm not entirely thrilled by this - though if it doesn't happen then what does happen to all of those dead wizards and witch's familiars?

(in my campaign another NPC who had been traveling with the party and just leveled up along with the party decided to take the ex-NPC's familiar on as her familiar - which also helped the party convince the familiar to train them)

I guess there are a few schools of thought around Familiars - one is that they are otherwise normal creatures transformed by a ritual into magical beasts - and that when their master dies that ritual dies with him or her and the familiar reverts (eventually) to be non-magical.

(how this works if the wizard or witch is raised from the dead is another question - I've never seen it ruled that the wizard or witch has to pay to get a new familiar if they die and their familiar lives)

Animal companions are a related question - though they aren't magical beasts like familiars are (as far as I know- been a while since I looked at every nuance of the Animal Companion rules)

What do folks do in their games around Familiars especially of NPCs or of PC's who have died? (do you do something different for Improved Familiars?)

[Dave Justus]

All of the bonuses to the base creature (hit points, stat bonuses, skills, special familiar abilties etc.) are based off of the power of the character, so those should go away when the main character is gone. An improved familiar would still be the 'base creature' (imp, fairy dragon etc.) but wouldn't have the benefits they get from being a familiar.

Gone though is difficult to exactly determine though. I certainly think that it shouldn't be instant (for one thing the familiar being able to rescue the dead master somehow is too cool.) I don't have an exact rule for this, but I go with the 'familiar presence' fading over days or weeks, and if the wizard is raised after that time it being fully restored. I would imagine that a very long period, years and a resurrection spell for example, might require getting a new familiar but that has never come up.

I can certainly see special things changing this default behavior. A special circumstance that allows a familiar to keep its powers (what a great evil mastermind!) or transferring to a new master, but in general having the familiar bond fade makes the most sense to me.

[DM_Blake]

The familiar becomes the master and takes on his own familiar, of course. Always two there are. No more. No less. A master and a familiar. But which one was destroyed? The master, or the familiar?

[M1k31]

isn't that how "chosen one" Paladin magical girls are made?

[LazarX]

That's in the category of things I don't worry about until they happen.

[BretI]

I do not think there are specific rules for this.

Since the familiar has a relatively high intelligence, they would likely want to continue being a familiar. This is especially true as a witch's familiar, since they are a channel to a patron's power. If you link the patron to the familiar rather than making the two separate, you now have a mysterious power that also wants that critter to get a new master.

In the end, I would suggest you do what makes for the best world building and story background.

[darth_borehd]

When a master dies, the familiar seeks out the next of kin that also is a class, or can be convinced to become a class, that has a familiar.

If there is no such person, then they become an Awakened animal free to do as they please until there is a person that can use their services. Improved familiars become a normal creature of their type but still remember their time as familiars.

[Qaianna]

In the Rise of the Runelords run we're doing, after the master's death, one familiar ... ended up shot by the barbarian testing out her new strength-rated composite longbow, and was ultimately used as goblin chow. (She thought the familiar would try to sound an alarm.)