Which Familiar is the best?

EnterHaerDalis

Which familiar is the best? Sorry if a similar thread already exists
source (ToB familiar stats included on this page) - http://www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/familiar.htm

Pseudo Dragon- Lawful Good, Neutral Good
24 hp, AC=-2, THAC0=13, ApR=2, 1D3 Piercing+chance of Sleep. 50% Magic Resistance. Can cast Blur 1x/day. Regenerates 1hp/round.

Ferret - Lawful Neutral
24 hp, AC=0, THAC0=17, ApR=2, 1D3 Slashing. 50% magic resistance, 75% Pick Pockets, 20% Find Traps, 40% Stealth.

Imp - Lawful Evil
18 hp, AC=2, THAC0=19, ApR=1, 1D6 Piercing+chance of Poison (POISON = NERFED IN BG:EE, DOES NO DAMAGE). Resistances: 25% Magic, 100% Cold/Electricity/Fire. Can cast Polymorph Other 1x/day. Regenerates 1hp/round.

Rabbit - True Neutral
24 hp, AC=1, THAC0=17, ApR=2, 1D2 Slashing. Resistances: 65% Magic, 75% Cold/Fire/Electricity. 30% Stealth, 50% Find Traps.

Dust Mephit - Neutral Evil
24 hp, AC=6, THAC0=17, ApR=2, 1D2+1 Slashing. Resistances: 10% Magic, 50% Slashing/Piercing/Missile, 100% Fire. Can cast Glitterdust 1x/day & Glass Dust 2x/day. Regenerates 1hp/round.

Fairy Dragon - Chaotic Good
24 hp, AC=4, THAC0=17, ApR=2, 1D2 Slashing. 32% Magic Resistance. Can cast Mirror Image and Invisibility 10' Radius, each 1x/day.

Cat - Chaotic Neutral
24 hp, AC=0, THAC0=17, ApR=2, 1D3 Slashing. 50% magic resistance, 30% Pick Pockets, 99% Stealth.

Quasit - Chaotic Evil
24 hp, AC=2, THAC0=17, ApR=3, 1D6 Slashing. Resistances: 25% Magic, 100% Cold/Electricity/Fire. Can cast Blur & Horror each 1x/day. Regenerates 1hp/round.

moopy

Aren't most of the listed stats for them actually wrong?

KidCarnival

For a jester/bard, it's the mephit. I never played other arcane casters, so no idea. But Glitterdust is an essential to go with the jester song, therefore the mephit takes the cake.

Mykra

I love the Fairy Dragon.

The 10' Invis just keeps on helping out from start to finish. Such a great thing to help you out versus some of the harder fights in the game. Just recently I used it against the Sirines - a full invis party starting the combat against three Sirines in melee range? Fantastic. Getting a Mage up close to drop Cloudkill or Skull Trap into the middle of bounty hunters? Love it. And for the first several levels he can easily tank/kill enemies with Mirror Image up, helping balance the weakest parts of a Mages career.

I'm sure all the other familiars rock hard, but I love that bloody familiar.

Jean_Luc

Something tells me ferret should be chaotic neutral.

Pantalion

It's worth noting that the cat actually has a 20% pick pocket chance, meaning it can, like the ferret, gank things from party members for the same results.

As it stands, familiars are too fragile and too important to use in combat situations, so it's only pick pocket, scouting and spells that have merit, this leaves the Ferret, Fairy Dragon - Scouting is great with invisibility 10', but you can get that spell yourself, and the Cat. The Imp gets honourable mention for the polymorph spell.
For the Fairy Dragon, a once per day Invisibility 10' Radius works out as an extra level 4 spell; useful, but obsolescent, and since it's once per day, that rather disqualifies it from a realistic scouting role. The same applies to all the spellcaster familiars, the value of one or two spells per day when a mage can end up with all the spells they need, it's a temporary bonus that starts great and loses value.
Likewise, whilst the Imp is pretty well top tier early BG, polymorph doesn't increase its health overmuch, so in the end it's one hit away from being a Constitution penalty.
Since pickpocketing without reloading is dangerous when targeted at anyone it may have a chance of failure against, that's a sizeable blow against the Ferret, which can never auto-succeed or improve its chances beyond 75%; so the main use of the Ferret would be for interparty pick pocketting, which, with patience and an unarmed participant, is effectively automatic.
This leaves the cat, which has a 99% stealth chance. At early levels, it can backstab to support you, arguably giving it the potential to be one of the overall best damaging familiars, whilst its ability to stealth and scout - assuming you practice some caution and avoid trap hotspots - is always useful, as is the 50% MR, which gives it a chance even if you do fluff avoiding the traps. On top of that, whilst it takes longer to interparty pick pocket, but it can still do so.

So yeah, the cat is the best familiar; it has two valuable roles it can perform instead of one, on top of being one of the most survivable familiars thanks to Stealth plus Magic Resistance.

Lifat

I use my familiar vs. spellcasters all the time. Haven't died once so far. The useability disappears in BG2 though because too much aoe damage is being flung around.

Kurumi

I agree with Pantalion even though I think the rabbit has it's uses, too.. and it's the cutest.

Wowo

What is the purpose of interparty pick pocketing?

Roller12

carrying stuff and avoiding item checks. For instance in Bg2 certain very powerful items are only available for a limited time, and then they get .. destroyed. Not if the familiar was having them, cause the game doesnt check on them.

Lifat

Familiars using cheese as reasoning for which is better? Come on. That they are better at cheesing shouldn't really mean that they are better as a familiar.

Pantalion

From memory, the familiar also does not have an encumbrance, so using your familiar to pick your pocket of fourteen ankheg shells until you reach Beregost works out even better than bringing Dorn along.

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Roller12

Quasit is actually the best, but i dont have the game installed to back it up with actual gameplay data, so take it with a grain of salt. Here are his stats

24 hp, AC=2, THAC0=17, ApR=3, 1D6 Slashing. Resistances: 25% Magic, 100% Cold/Electricity/Fire. Can cast Blur & Horror each 1x/day. Regenerates 1hp/round.

See all the huge immunities? In other words, he can tank fireballs and burning hands, eat magic missiles, disrupt mages and heal on his own if in danger. Gets even better in BG2, with improved haste he gets 6 attacks per round and his attacks get dex draining ability. So can actually kill stuff even in ToB, but most fights are over too quickly for him to make any impact.

See the full stats here http://www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/familiar.htm

Illustair

@Roller12
Am I missing something here? Why did you vote for Dust Mephit then, instead of Quasit? I've never had an evil playthrough, nor do let my familiar go into combat...but those are some pretty solid immunities! Looks good on paper, but have you tried them on actual combat in ToB?

Roller12

fredamora said:

@Roller12
Am I missing something here? Why did you vote for Dust Mephit then, instead of Quasit? I've never had an evil playthrough, nor do let my familiar go into combat...but those are some pretty solid immunities! Looks good on paper, but have you tried them on actual combat in ToB?

It isnt possible to revote.., voted dust mephit strictly for glitterdust and glassdust x2, providing a solid alpha strike edge early in the game without being exposed to danger. Blind is a very powerful effect. In ToB none of that really matters, never even took him out.

Kamigoroshi

Quasits have the loviest personalities of them all!

CoryNewb

I like my dust mephit along with Monty and my sorc. Accidently voted imp.

Djimmy

Familiars are weak, too weak

Jaxsbudgie

I chose cat, because cats.

Anduin

Each familiar has a perk. But these perks are usually negated by your need to face more and more powerful enemies as you progress. For reasons unfathomable. Familiars do not progress with you until you reach ToB, and even then the progression they make is poor and not worth the effort to take them out your backpack...

Pseudo Dragon can actually be used in a fight, in BG1 certainly, it is dangerous and can keep a group going. It also heals itself. But after awhile in BG2 sending in your dragon could be suicide and a recipe for losing 1 constitution point. Quasit and Dust Mephit are fighting familiars also but even though they have good resistances and heal as well, the sleep effect of the dragon is just BETTER.

Your thieving animals i.e. Rabbit, Cat, Ferret, are poor thieves. They cannot drink potions of master thievery so you stuck at the levels they come with. Not bad at the start of BG1, absolutely a waste of time by BG2. They can pickpocket and hold an item for you I suppose... But that is that.

A lot of talk is wasted on the resistances of all the familiars. Lets face it, none are 100%. and due to pitiful hp it only means they survive a couple of more rounds out in the open before dying a pointless death.

However...

Imp can turn into a slime and become 100% magic resistant. Very useful send one in against a wizard or lich, let it cast all it's spells. Wait for said wizard to get frustrated and wade in with dagger... You make an appearance and end the sorry mage. Perfect. So powerful they nerfed the hp of the Imp. It's other polymorphous traits ain't bad either, although the hp thing is an issue later on, and not very useful after chapter 4 or 5 in BG1. The slime however is useful all the way through to ToB.

The best for me is the fairy dragon. Useless in a fight. No thieving skills. Resistance ain't that good either.
BUT IT CAN CAST Invisibility 10" Sphere. Solid gold. Rest. Cast. Send out with a real thief and disarm those traps. You can use it through ToB as well, just chuck a non-detection spell on them first. A true scout. However it was so solid gold in BG2 it did not get many extra benefits in ToB...

So my list of familiars in rank are...

Gold Medal = Fairy Dragon Chaotic Good
Silver Medal = Imp Lawful Evil
Bronze Medal = Pseudo Dragon Lawful / Neutral Good
Fourth = Dust Mephit Neutral Evil
Fifth = Quasit Chaotic Evil
Sixth = Ferret Lawful Neutral
Seventh = Rabbit True Neutral
Eighth = Cat Chaotic Neutral

Why can't you have a Tresset or a Wolf? A Neutral Good could be a winter wolf or some kind of good aligned dog type... The natural antithesis of the cat...

Roller12

Polymorph is a regular spell, mages can cast it too. So is sleep, which is a level 1 area spell and doesnt need a thac0 13 to hit first. Dont even need spells for invisibility. Imp's resistances are good though, but he lacks offensive powers. Little point in letting him tag along. The bad guys arent alone and the bad spells arent single target. Putting the Cat as the weakest familiar is just wrong. xD

UnknownQuantity

The best place for a familiar is in your backpack. :P

EnterHaerDalis

@Roller12

Thanks for posting that. Knew the full stats weren't listed on the spell description when I CTRL+Q'd them

edited the first page

Nifft

The Dust Mephit was the only one whose spells were useful to me while playing through BG2.

One should always avoid combat with all of them, so that's not even a consideration IMHO.

ajwz

Technically, Imp is by far the best in combat.
However, since I never use a familiar incombat, Imp is by far the weakest because it has the lowest hp

EnterHaerDalis

ajwz said:

Technically, Imp is by far the best in combat.
However, since I never use a familiar incombat, Imp is by far the weakest because it has the lowest hp

Imp's still have the 1hp regeneration per round. I'm playing with an Imp on my Wild Mage right now and I'm pretty sure you get a perma haste when you polymorph. Ogre form is beastly and the Jelly is a game breaker for mages as stated above by @Anduin. Too bad the poison proc that comes up was nerfed for BG:EE and actually doesn't do any damage

ajwz

EnterHaerDalis said:

ajwz said:

Technically, Imp is by far the best in combat.
However, since I never use a familiar incombat, Imp is by far the weakest because it has the lowest hp

Imp's still have the 1hp regeneration per round. I'm playing with an Imp on my Wild Mage right now and I'm pretty sure you get a perma haste when you polymorph. Ogre form is beastly and the Jelly is a game breaker for mages as stated above by @Anduin. Too bad the poison proc that comes up was nerfed for BG:EE and actually doesn't do any damage

I was referring to it being the weakest out of combat because a mage gets 1/2 the familiars hp added to their hp, so if you stick it in your backpack for the whole game like most people, then imp is definitely the worst

Kirkor

Doesn't matter, had bonus hp.

Anduin

@ajwz Although it is a long wait. The hp issue is resolved in ToB, with all familiars giving the same hp to their masters. The imp's ability to turn into a jelly though is not a waste of time.

*Re-reads post due to sanity reasons.*

EDIT: Anduin has been carted off to the asylum.

Avenger_teambg

Are you guys sure the rabbit has slashing damage?