Wizard Familiar

[War Maiden]

I just tried to summon a familiar as a Wizard, it worked, and I chose the spider option, as a Drow whom is Lolth-sworn, but is this familiar permanent or on the clock, it doesn't seem temporary so... If permanent, why can we not name our familiar, as it will be our faithful extension of our being? I'm sure we can even give it personality, like the petting dog?

I'm sure we can make quality of life MUCH more interesting and what if, the familiar whom is bound by magic and created of such have suggestions on use? Could we make all familiars symbiotic to their Masters? IE: Master is of this experience level, they can do this level of whatever school they are aligned to...

Oh But Sir/Ma'am, have you tried...? Kinda things to enhance their capabilities. It doesn't even have to be of the preferred school. 'Oh Master, this spell would save you so much time / protect you better / make your enemies tremble.' Seriously, a Familiar could do a lot of things being a magical being itself and attuned to ones own capabilities. I'm sure i'm not the only one whom thinks this is a good idea to have a 'competent' or even 'more experienced and willing to filter the Masters magic through them' familiar?

[jonnin]

Its a until dies or you sleep duration summon critter spell. Its a total waste of a spell slot.

[Indure]

Originally posted by jonnin:

Its a until dies or you sleep duration summon critter spell. Its a total waste of a spell slot.

Definitely not a waste of a spell slot. Its trading a magic missle of about 9 damage, with a raven that can fly to any opponent and have a 75% chance to blind them, which gives disadvantage to them, advantage to everyone in your party and makes it so they can't range attack. If your careful with it, you can get 10-20 attacks with it during a day.

[War Maiden]

Originally posted by Indure:

Originally posted by jonnin:

Its a until dies or you sleep duration summon critter spell. Its a total waste of a spell slot.

Definitely not a waste of a spell slot. Its trading a magic missle of about 9 damage, with a raven that can fly to any opponent and have a 75% chance to blind them, which gives disadvantage to them, advantage to everyone in your party and makes it so they can't range attack. If your careful with it, you can get 10-20 attacks with it during a day.

So again, if the familiar was permanent, like if they died, they would need to be resurrected/revivified or one could go the whole spirit being route and just resummon them after a 'recovery period' of a few hours or after sleeping.

[Indure]

If this helps, the D&D version of the spell is:

You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, Lizard, Octopus, owl, Poisonous Snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, Sea Horse, Spider, or Weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the Statistics of the chosen form, though it is a Celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast.

Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In Combat, it rolls its own Initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can't Attack, but it can take other Actions as normal.

When the familiar drops to 0 Hit Points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again.

While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any Special Senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own Senses.

As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar. It disappears into a pocket dimension where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.

You can't have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature.

Finally, when you Cast a Spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its Reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an Attack roll, you use your Attack modifier for the roll.

[War Maiden]

Originally posted by Indure:

If this helps, the D&D version of the spell is:

You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, Lizard, Octopus, owl, Poisonous Snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, Sea Horse, Spider, or Weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the Statistics of the chosen form, though it is a Celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast.

Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In Combat, it rolls its own Initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can't Attack, but it can take other Actions as normal.

When the familiar drops to 0 Hit Points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again.

While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any Special Senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own Senses.

As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar. It disappears into a pocket dimension where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.

You can't have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature.

Finally, when you Cast a Spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its Reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an Attack roll, you use your Attack modifier for the roll.

Thank you for that. Some interesting points in the write-up, like the pocket dimension, the touch spell, the senses capability. Some good exploitable things one could use tactically assuming they are/will be implemented. Would still like to name the familiar, not sure if Larian will make them sentient to the point of being more useful than a tool, but we will see.

[Indure]

I think if it was just find familiar they wouldn't bother, but with the ranger's animal companion, which is something they should be able to talk to and for all intents amd purposes be another party member, Larian should have these features to do that class justice.

The scroll you find to summon the quasit "Shovel" gives me hope Larian might introduce summons that are more than meatshields or tools.

[War Maiden]

Originally posted by Indure:

I think if it was just find familiar they wouldn't bother, but with the ranger's animal companion, which is something they should be able to talk to and for all intents amd purposes be another party member, Larian should have these features to do that class justice.

The scroll you find to summon the quasit "Shovel" gives me hope Larian might introduce summons that are more than meatshields or tools.

+2

[jonnin]

the raven is nice, esp the first 1/2 of the game, but you have, at level 4, 4 level 1 spells. You use FF out of combat. You fight whatever and they kill the raven with bomb-spam. So that combat ends and you cast it again... its not well set up in a world full of explosions to have a 1 hp companion or specifically, losing 2 or more casts per rest to get a mobile sneak attack enabler (esp when the warlock's pet has 10 hp and ignores fire and does not cost a spell, or a ranger can cover the spell without any costs... ).

Wizards got the short end of the stick with this design.