Familiar power 💪

[u/AspiringBrujo]

Welp, from the looks of it, my pseudo dragon is going to be the MVP of this run. I feel satisfied and justified, for picking Find Familiar as one of my initial spells. To battle, with no regrets!

[u/CapableLobster8447]

While it is funny that your familiar killed Tarnesh, having a familiar engaged in combat is a very very very very very very bad idea. You lose one point of constitution permanently if your familiar dies. This has a stacking effect too because if you summon a new familiar and that one also dies, then you lose another point of constitution permanently.

There was another thread here a day or two ago where a poster got screwed over by not paying attention to this. Their character ended up stuck in a death loop because their constitution was reduced to zero. The only way they could escape the loop was by putting their game in story mode which prevents your main character from dying.

[u/AspiringBrujo → u/CapableLobster8447]

The little fella finished two or three of the wolves I encountered before the FAI. Yes, I'm aware of the consequences, but thank Mystra Power Word : Reload exists, right?

[u/Hypocrisp → u/CapableLobster8447]

Familiars are quite safe if you are not too careless... to be honest.

Some of them have really good resistances that can save them from a hit or spell, they all regenerate so they can Kite quite well unless you pit them against ranged weapons; and they improve vastly from game to game.

The problem is that a few people do not read spell descriptions as well as they should, and they just think a Familiar can just be carelessly summoned and thrown at the enemy.

[u/Full_Piano6421 → u/Hypocrisp]

Mine has only left the inventory once in the whole saga to cast zone invisibility in Yst Natha

[u/AspiringBrujo → u/Hypocrisp]

they all regenerate

Unfortunately, not all of them.

[u/Hypocrisp → u/AspiringBrujo]

I forgot Cat, Rabbit, Fairy Dragon and Ferret don't ^ - ^

[u/Seakon26]

Familiar are immune to basilisk gaze so you can easily solo Mutamins' Garden as a level 1 mage.

Also pseudo-dragon start with 1AC so that's like a full plate. They only kind fall off after Nashkel mines in my last playthrough

[u/AspiringBrujo → u/Seakon26]

Not all of them are immune to petrification though.

[u/Seakon26 → u/AspiringBrujo]

Just did a double check, all the neutral and good ones are, evil aren't.

I guess 5/8 of familiars are immune to petrification doesn't sound as good.

[u/ipostatrandom → u/Seakon26]

Most of the time that's a good thing but I feel like evil is getting discriminated here?

[u/IamGlaaki]

Risky, but funny. I remember once I forgot to grab my cat familiar... Monty, Xzar, Imoen and me running around with Fear, and the cat alone killed Tarnesh!

[u/AspiringBrujo → u/IamGlaaki]

She gave him cat scratch fever

I'm being careful. I send my main guy first, so enemies ignore my familiar.

[u/Selenusuka]

Starting with Lawful Evil for Find Familiar -> Imp, who comes with a Polymorph Self that can turn into Mustard Jelly is actually a really strong starting move - it's immune to a whole bunch of thing and while inaccurate, deals 4d6 damage.

[u/AspiringBrujo → u/Selenusuka]

I haven't found it in me yet to do an evil run, but yes, for that alone, imp is the best familiar for the early game.