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Quale
Master of Realmslore
1757 Posts |
 Posted - 22 Oct 2011 : 15:07:33
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My current pc was a psion/wizard so I had a psicrystal/familiar in a form of paracletus aeon from Pathfinder. It looks like an atom. When the pc died the first time even his soul was damaged. The familiar shattered into tiny pieces (like a swarm of aeons), then the axiomites in Mechanus remade the body of the pc, the psicrystal swarm projected it holographically. It had the same stats as a human tough.
Usually I prefer unmovable or mechanical familiars. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 23 Oct 2011 : 23:09:32
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I don't normally play Mages, and the only one I ever bother to get a familiar for was a Quasit. (I hadn't played any MU's in 3rd edition, where familiars were actually worth getting)
That was my only epic character as well (although not called that back in 1e), so he had the spell-slot to waste.
If I ever play another Mage, maybe I'll get a duck-billed platypus. They give a +1 to egg-laying... not sure how often my PC my actually need that... 
quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
It depends on which Robin, really. I know many fans prefer Dick Grayson as the Boy Wonder, but I think Tim Drake is often overlooked as a worthwhile successor because he followed the "failed" Robin -- Jason Todd, and preceded the wildly popular Damian Wayne as the current Robin.
You forgot Carrie Kelly, my favorite - and only female - Robin.  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 23 Oct 2011 23:41:56 |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2011 : 02:19:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
It depends on which Robin, really. I know many fans prefer Dick Grayson as the Boy Wonder, but I think Tim Drake is often overlooked as a worthwhile successor because he followed the "failed" Robin -- Jason Todd, and preceded the wildly popular Damian Wayne as the current Robin.
You forgot Carrie Kelly, my favorite - and only female - Robin.
Slight correction:- Carrie Kelly is part of the non-canonical The Dark Knight Returns storyline, so she's not often counted among the list of former Robins.
Though, she also isn't the only female Robin either. Stephanie Brown briefly took up the role after Tim Drake stood down. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
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Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7974 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2011 : 05:14:48
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| Xena's horse was her familiar? I'd always thought it was that pet amazon who followed her around. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Therise
Master of Realmslore
1272 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2011 : 05:45:43
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
Xena's horse was her familiar? I'd always thought it was that pet amazon who followed her around.
Gabrielle? She was more of a sidekick/lover.
Or if you mean Amarice, she was sort of a camp follower/friend (and wannabe amazon).
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Female, 40-year DM of a homebrew-evolved 1E Realms, including a few added tidbits of 2E and 3E lore; played originally in AD&D, then in Rolemaster. Be a DM for your kids and grandkids, gaming is excellent for families! |
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Icelander
Master of Realmslore
1864 Posts |
Posted - 12 Nov 2011 : 02:59:44
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Players in my campaigns have had hawks, ravens and squirrels, I think. The hawk, given the visual acuity, tends to affect play the most, as the PC has far more situational awareness.
For NPCs, toads and rats are nice characterisation aids. Spiders, as well. Never had a PC go for such an 'unpleasant' species.
I agree with those who state that a wizard's familiar ought to reflect his personality. A raven familiar says things about you that a hummingbird does not and vice versa. |
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Forgotten Realms fans, please sign a petition to re-release the FR Interactive Atlas
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 05:22:45
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by entreri3478
Who has had the most extreme familiar?
As I recall, in one of the Pools novels, the spellslinger had a familiar that was some sort of big cat that turned into a human swordswinger.
I shan't say what kind of "extreme" I think that qualifies as.
That'd be Evaine and yes, her familiar typically held the form of a large mountain lion or maybe a sabre-toothed cat and could take human form. Gamaliel. Human average intelligence, some kind of telepathic link... Totally irregular and mary sue-ish but he was an intriguing character and the interactions between the two were interesting. |
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Thauranil
Master of Realmslore
India
1591 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 12:19:13
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| I have to go with Raven. It seems like the most appropriate beast for a wizard or perhaps i have just read too many George R martin novels. |
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Imp
Learned Scribe
231 Posts |
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Bakra
Senior Scribe
628 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 14:47:08
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quote:
Originally posted by Thauranil
I have to go with Raven. It seems like the most appropriate beast for a wizard or perhaps i have just read too many George R martin novels.
My favorite familiar from the 2nd edition era was a Giant Space Owl. The most extreme familiar occurred in the same campaign
.my 25th level summoner discovered he was the familiar.
Ahh yes. Good times.
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I hope Candlekeep continues to be the friendly forum of fellow Realms-lovers that it has always been, as we all go through this together. If you dont want to move to the new Realms, that doesnt mean theres anything wrong with either you or the old Realms. Goodness knows Candlekeep, and the hearts of its scribes, are both big enough to accommodate both. If we want them to be.
(Strikes dramatic pose, raises sword to gleam in the sunset, and hopes breeches wont fall down.)
Enough for now. The Realms lives! I have spoken! Ale and light wines half price, served by a smiling Storm Silverhand fetchingly clad in thigh-high boots and naught else! Ahem . .
So saith Ed. <snip>
love to all,
THO
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 16:01:45
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Oh, heh, I totally didn't even answer the question.
Of the conventional familiars, yeah, I like a raven. Sometimes I even roll with two ravens if I want to burn the feat. I find that in the games I tend to play, there's a lot of heavy emphasis on the RP angle of the game and the familiar factors in fairly well. Plus, with a raven, they're airborne, so they make really good scouts. And they can talk! I play in a couple of solo games as well as group-oriented sessions, so I like to have NPCs to talk to, and the DM often takes over the personality of the familiar.
I love dragonlings as a familiar, though, that's my favorite. |
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Manstein
Acolyte
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 19:00:26
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| As a 2nd Edition player who has played a good many wizards, I have never used a familiar. In 2nd Ed. the risks really just outweigh the meager benefits. |
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
-Thomas Jefferson
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 19:18:57
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Yeah, the risks to a wizard for trusting a familiar are significant. That's half of the fun, though, at least IMHO, because it gives you something else to consider when you going off half-cocked into some fight. Or really, when you're in conversations that might spawn such conflict.
I dunno, if you look at it from an RP perspective, familiars are great. If you're min-maxing or are otherwise in a combat-heavy campaign where the familiar is likely to be in danger, they are far more difficult to manage and thus less appealing. A flying familiar, though, is one which can simply move itself out of the way of the fight. Perched off in a tree some place, they are far less likely to draw attention than the battle-crazed fighter on your side, or even yourself, as you sling war spells of various sorts in an attempt to slaughter your foes.
It's all perspective.
To borrow a line once spoken by the sadly-now-departed Sir Alec Guiness... "So what I told you is true... from a certain point of view."
That's half of the beauty of the game; it can be taken in so many directions, can have such distinctly different feel depending on the players, the DM and the current plot line. |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3738 Posts |
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Bakra
Senior Scribe
628 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 21:07:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Am I in the extreme, weird minority for having played a bunch of magicians, but never summoning a familiar? They provide eh bonuses and handy abilities most of the time, but I always see them as baggage.
Nope. I knew a few people who never summoned a familiar. I never really considered the familiar a burden....my characters on the other hand viewed them as baggage or their best friends. |
I hope Candlekeep continues to be the friendly forum of fellow Realms-lovers that it has always been, as we all go through this together. If you dont want to move to the new Realms, that doesnt mean theres anything wrong with either you or the old Realms. Goodness knows Candlekeep, and the hearts of its scribes, are both big enough to accommodate both. If we want them to be.
(Strikes dramatic pose, raises sword to gleam in the sunset, and hopes breeches wont fall down.)
Enough for now. The Realms lives! I have spoken! Ale and light wines half price, served by a smiling Storm Silverhand fetchingly clad in thigh-high boots and naught else! Ahem . .
So saith Ed. <snip>
love to all,
THO
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36782 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 21:21:32
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Am I in the extreme, weird minority for having played a bunch of magicians, but never summoning a familiar? They provide eh bonuses and handy abilities most of the time, but I always see them as baggage.
I think in 3.X, the limitations became fewer and the benefits better. There are various ways to improve familiars, too -- I recall a series of spells for doing that in 2E (presented in Dragon) and I'm fairly certain 3.x had a similar mechanism. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 21:31:17
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Yeah, there are feats and other things you can do in order to wield beefier familiars that aren't as easy to splatter. And there is a concurrent increase in their utility as well. Good times. The whole premise was to make them a little more varied and more mechanically useful as well, a better trade-off for what their vulnerability costs a mage.
Improved familiars, just for a quick look, can include (off of the base feat) shocker lizards, stirges, formian workers, imps, quasists, pseudodragons, celestial hawks, fiendish vipers, even small elementals. And all of those are base ideas; in principle, a DM could riff off of those to use other, similarly-powered options.
And that doesn't even touch upon item familiars. There are definitely options that make for an improved gaming experience if you've avoided familiars because they were so squishy. |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3738 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 22:50:51
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quote:
Originally posted by Warrax
And that doesn't even touch upon item familiars. There are definitely options that make for an improved gaming experience if you've avoided familiars because they were so squishy.
-Item familiars? This intrigues me... |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)
Elves of Faerūn
Vol I- The Elves of Faerūn
Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 22:58:49
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Yeah, neat concept, eh? It's kind of like a back-scaled intelligent weapon, one that grows in power and sentience over time. Need to be 3rd level to do it, and they don't necessarily begin intelligent, but transform as such over time as the user increases in power and experience. They gain sapience as the character hits 7th level. The item then rolls at a 10/10/12 (arranged as you like across INT, WIS, CHA) level and gains an Ego score, though unlike traditional intelligent items, it is utterly loyal to its owner/wielder unless there's something weird, like a radical alignment shift or possession, domination, etc. It can see and hear in a 60' radius, and if you don't have it already, you snake the Alertness feat while you have the item with you. Communications-wise, it's limited to emotions and impulses at that point. Kind of like the way Thomas Miller portrays Blackrazor in the peldor.com stories, similar to the way R.A. Salvatore conveys the manipulations of the Crystal Shard. Just those silent compulsions, feelings of fear, etc. At levels 10, 14, 18 (and really, every 4 levels after 10), it gains a special ability, and there's a long list of such things. You might go for improved senses or sapience or a variety of other powers.
Increased sapience is boss:
quote:
An item familiar empowered with this special ability gains +4 to any single ability score and +2 to its other two scores. The item can now communicate telepathically in a recognizable language with the master out to 120 feet and can speak audibly in Common. It can speak, read, and understand one additional language per point of Intelligence bonus. A character may select this special ability multiple times, each time improving all three of the items ability scores and increasing the number of languages it can speak, read, and understand.
That makes it into a relatively valuable ally, even if its mobility is nothing like a conventional familiar because it is, in fact, an inanimate object with legs, wings or anything similar.
You can grab any of the special powers from the intelligent weapons table, including special purpose and it makes for a pretty awesome time. I LOVE item familiars. |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3738 Posts |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2012 : 23:38:25
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| You can find all the requisite information in the SRD. |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7974 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 01:27:01
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| Vizier's Turbans were highly desirable in 2E, at least in Zakhara (Al-Qadim) settings. I think they served more like 3E familiars, that is, if they died you'd lose their bonuses but wouldn't otherwise suffer permanent crippling penalties. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Imp
Learned Scribe
231 Posts |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3738 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 01:57:08
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| -How much stuff is in the SRD that isn't actually in any of the core rulebooks, or Unearthed Arcana? I always thought the SRD was basically just that stuff (minus a few things WotC wanted to keep to themselves) written up online. |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)
Elves of Faerūn
Vol I- The Elves of Faerūn
Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 02:02:36
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| It includes the Expanded Psionics Handbook, a bunch of monster stuff, the core books, the epic level handbook, Unearthed Arcana... at least those. I don't think there's anything besides that, though, certainly nothing from the Complete Books or any of the Tome-type supplements, nor the Heroes of series. |
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Imp
Learned Scribe
231 Posts |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 02:28:01
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| Oh right, that's true. |
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Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 02:32:27
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quote:
Originally posted by Warrax
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by entreri3478
Who has had the most extreme familiar?
As I recall, in one of the Pools novels, the spellslinger had a familiar that was some sort of big cat that turned into a human swordswinger.
I shan't say what kind of "extreme" I think that qualifies as.
That'd be Evaine and yes, her familiar typically held the form of a large mountain lion or maybe a sabre-toothed cat and could take human form. Gamaliel. Human average intelligence, some kind of telepathic link... Totally irregular and mary sue-ish but he was an intriguing character and the interactions between the two were interesting.
That's one of the very few things I did not hate about that very disappointing (understatement of the century) book. He wasn't a lion, but a sabre-toothed cat quite large for its kind.
IMO, Jet (Aoth's griffon) is the most interesting and coolest familiar that ever appeared in novels. Intelligent, fierce, has a sense of humor, and can fly. What more can you ask for? |
Every beginning has an end. |
Edited by - Dennis on 07 Mar 2012 02:35:28 |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 02:51:13
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I rather enjoyed the series. I call it "junk food fiction," because it was far from a literary masterpiece... but then again, literature is usually boring as it gets because it's too wrapped up in academic structure to be busy with good story.
The first one was kind of cliche and not so great, but it established the basic connection between the characters. The second story, I thought, was interesting. There was a fiend manipulating a power-crazed wizard, an artifact connected to an evil deity, classic heroes with a twist, I mean it's all there, especially with Miltiades. It's an iconic fantasy story. Pool of Twilight was kind of interesting for the whole spooky factor and the chance to see everyone like two decades later. The degradation of Phlan, the changes in the region, it's all there. I loved them. :D
Of course, I read them at a rather formative age, so they hold a special place in my heart, but that's the way things work. I read Making of a Mage not long after. Well, it was a bit after, because Pool of Radiance came out in 89, Darkness in 92 and Twilight a year after. Making of a Mage was 94. Anyway, dates are inconsequential; it was an entertaining ride, it was never meant to be Dickens or Dostoyevsky. |
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Warrax
Learned Scribe
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2012 : 02:52:05
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| Also, gryphons/griffons were done the best by Mercedes Lackey in the Mage Wars series. :D |
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Topic |
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Which familiar do you prefer for your wizard?
