Suggestion re. Familiars

Linarius

I know there are D&D rules about familiars and maybe those rules are being followed in BG, but, purely from a gameplay perspective within BG alone... familiars seem pretty silly to me and need a serious reworking. Every time they are out of your pack you risk a permanent -1 constitution penalty, which if you have a mage that's normally designed means going from 16 to 15 constitution so losing 1hp / level forever. So in practice the 'Find Familiar' spell is actually just the 'Find 6 (or 12) hp' spell. You cast it and gain a few hp and lose an inventory slot permanently. In practice its a spell that has nothing to do with familiars really. That's kind of silly and also renders the differences between familiar types pretty meaningless. Familiars could be so much fun to have in the game! But at present they really are not in the game.

Id suggest either:

1) keeping the actual gameplay rules re familiars as is, but change the graphic rendering so that even when a familiar is 'in your pack' and safe, its still hopping (or flying) around near you. Perhaps all the time when you are out of combat, or intermittently, and it cant be selected and attacked or take any damage or be harmed in any way. When you enter combat it disappears into your pack. So purely visual candy but it would make all casters with familiars more fun to look at and play.

2) Change the rule that you lose -1 constitution permanently. Make it maybe that (just for example) you immediately take damage equal to the full max hp of your familiar if it dies (maybe killing you), and are automatically stunned for 1-2 rounds. And make Find Familiar only castable once per day (or per week if this is possible)

Those are my suggestions. Probably option 1 is at least conceivable, I bet option 2 since it involves making up different D&D rules is less likely to happen.

(This was first posted at the end of a familiar discussion in the fixed bug forums and Tresset suggested I move it here).

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Linarius

How often do you actually use your familiar, Samus? I find that after the first few levels of the game its just too dangerous to keep them out. And certainly in SoA and ToB, I can't have them out against anything but the most trivial opponents (against which you don't need help anyway). So I never see my familiar in the game since I don't want to lose cons permanently. And that seems a loss to me, of a fun experience playing a caster. I suspect most people do the same, but is your experience different? I really like the option 1 idea above, at least let people visually see the familiars in the game more often.

OurQuestIsVain

Many of the familiars are immune to petrification so are good at running in as a decoy against basilisks. Some familiars have invulnerability to fire or frost, frost being good against winter wolves. Some have abilities that are down right handy like polymorph self or glass dust. Granted some of the familiars are completely and utterly useless being only mediocre at stealth or pick pocketing. It all depends on how you use them, try being creative with them. Even if you do keep them in your pack all the time, using up one inventory slot for a small boost to HP is nothing to scoff at especially for a mage.

Linarius

Well basilisks can be slaughtered like sheep using a first level spell (protection from petrification), and winter wolves dispatched with zero risk using the belt that makes you 100% immune to cold (which you get very early on). I do much agree that 'even if you keep them in your pack all the time, using up one inventory slot for a small boost to HP is nothing to scoff at'... that's kind of my original point, actually. If that small increase is nothing to scoff at, then losing a point of constitution permanently (and many more HP) is by definition something to scoff at, its quite bad! So the best strategy for the 'Find Familiar' spell is just to keep it in your pack?

Bottom line for me is, if as a mage your familiar is not visible on the screen at least 50% of the time throughout the BG trilogy, its a poorly designed spell/feature. Do most players keep a familiar out this often? Ive soloed the game many times as a fighter/mage or sorceror, and I really doubt anyone can keep a familiar out through the trilogy without it dying many, many times. But think about it, as a mage, don't we all love the idea of 'you and your pet familiar' against the world? So many great examples from fantasy novels (such as Ged and his little otek from the Earthsea trilogy) provide inspiration here.

So I still think it would make playing a mage or sorceror so much more fun and engaging if you could at least just SEE your familiar on the screen, fluttering around occasionally (even if it was technically 'in your pack' as I think most players have to keep it most of the time). Purely eye candy but should be easy to change. I can't imagine anyone would not like to see more of their familiar, either!

Nifft

Nobody uses Familiars for anything except:
- Bonus HP
- That one spell per day (then back in the pack)

Making familiars which cost money to revive instead of permanent Con loss would go a long way to making them useful allies rather than backpack stuffing.