|
5 years ago ::
Jun 15, 2008 - 1:05AM
#51
|
Date Joined:
Dec 18, 2003
|
It's a bit premature to call them extinct, given that we've only had the base 3 books released.
As other posters have already said, Wizards probably just wanted to take a little extra time tweaking the rules before they released Summons, Companions, and Familiars.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Jun 15, 2008 - 11:56AM
#52
|
|
|
It just dawned on me what could work as a wizard’s familiar in 4th edition:
MAGE HAND
You can personalize the way your spells look (magic missile can look like a small glowing dart or a puff of eldritch energy, for example), so you could, theoretically, make your mage hand look like a ghostly tressym. In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, they’re shy winged cat-owl hybrids depicted as the pets of wizards. Just make it tiny-sized, not able to do anything other than what Mage Hand can do, and ta-da! You’ve got a “familiar spirit” that can manipulate things from a distance for you, winking in and out of existence when needed. The wizard cantrips are now at-wills that can be sustained pretty much all day with no effort, so it wouldn’t be game-impacting to allow it to rest on your shoulder while you’re walking around. It couldn’t make noises, act as a scout, or do anything in combat, but it could, for instance, fly over to a lever and pull it, thereby raising a portcullis. Or it could hold a lantern while the group is walking down a corridor. Or reach into your pack & give you your small hammer so you can pound in some tent pegs. Tons of stuff.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Jun 15, 2008 - 12:32PM
#53
|
Date Joined:
Apr 12, 2003
|
Don't bring a cat to a sword fight... that's all I'm saying.
Aesop had it right 2,500 years ago, "By endeavoring to please everyone, he had pleased no one, and lost his ass in the bargain".
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Jun 15, 2008 - 12:36PM
#54
|
Date Joined:
Mar 13, 2007
|
It just dawned on me what could work as a wizard’s familiar in 4th edition:
MAGE HAND
You can personalize the way your spells look (magic missile can look like a small glowing dart or a puff of eldritch energy, for example), so you could, theoretically, make your mage hand look like a ghostly tressym. In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, they’re shy winged cat-owl hybrids depicted as the pets of wizards. Just make it tiny-sized, not able to do anything other than what Mage Hand can do, and ta-da! You’ve got a “familiar spirit” that can manipulate things from a distance for you, winking in and out of existence when needed. The wizard cantrips are now at-wills that can be sustained pretty much all day with no effort, so it wouldn’t be game-impacting to allow it to rest on your shoulder while you’re walking around. It couldn’t make noises, act as a scout, or do anything in combat, but it could, for instance, fly over to a lever and pull it, thereby raising a portcullis. Or it could hold a lantern while the group is walking down a corridor. Or reach into your pack & give you your small hammer so you can pound in some tent pegs. Tons of stuff.
Thats actually a really good idea. I like it. And you could have any familiar, meaning stuff like big dragonflies are now an option.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Jun 16, 2008 - 1:52AM
#55
|
Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2005
|
You know, I've never heard a Frenzied Berserker "Hack & Slasher" ever ask how he could get a familiar. Not Once.
|
|
|
|
5 years ago ::
Jun 16, 2008 - 2:47PM
#56
|
Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2006
|
With all this talk of familiars, it had to be mentioned: Familiar
More seriously, though, I've found familiars to be next to useless, and given the huge handicaps attached to them (ie: if their fragile little selves get killed, you lose a ton of XP), they didn't get used. In fact, in 8 years of playing 3rd Edition, I can remember a grand total of one player who bothered to get a familiar, a sorcerer who picked up a raven. Then he made the tactical blunder of trying to use it to deliver a touch spell and got it eaten by a troll. After that, everybody in my group sort of lost interest in the idea.
I use mine a lot as a mystic theurge -- They can deliver healing touch spells safely.
A pseudodragon familiar can detect invisible with 60' and polymorphed to a dragon, he's not that pathetic in combat.
Of course, in 4e we might actually want other players as well as wizards to be useful in combat, so that model of a familiar should also get killed...
|
|
|
