????Familiars????

[apollo]

HI!!


what the hell are familiars??? Where do you get them???
Who can get them?????

[andrewas]

Familiar are small magical creatures that can be summoned by a magic user. Any PC that can cast Arcane magic from scroll can get one. The in game NPCs *cannot* get one, just the player character.

AS for what it does - your max HP is raised by half of the familiars HP, some of the familiars have useful abilities, notably theiving skills, and it can offer hints as to what to do next, although those are redundant after youve played the game at least once.

On the downside, its too weak to survive in combat, and if kept in your backpack occupies a slot you will probably want to use for something else. You really dont want to let it die though, since when it dies you lose the extra HP, take some additional damage, and lose a point of CON permanently.

All in all, I would consider a familiar well worth getting, even if all you get from it is the few extra HP. The slot you lose isnt so much bother when you have a gem bag, scroll case, potion case and a bag of holding. And it cant die when its in your backpack, so its safe.

[Pyrenk]

There is a way to get a familiar even if you can't cast spells, although it is a bug.

1. Pause the game.
2. Put a potion and a Find Familiar scroll in your inventory.
3. Right click the potion, and select "Drink Potion".
4. Swap the potion and scroll's slots.
5. Unpause the game.

When you do this, your character should start summoning a familiar. This will work on all scrolls that you don't need a target for (maybe area-effect, but I haven't tried), such as Mordy's Sword, Stoneskin, Spell Trap, etc. Quite useful, but, as I said, it's a bug.

Credit goes to Alex Malano (his "Anyone can use Mage scrolls" strategy).

[ 08-06-2003, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Pyrenk ]

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by apollo: HI!! what the hell are familiars??? Where do you get them??? Who can get them?????

1: Please be kind to those of us with 56K dialup. You're sig's a bit too moveable for my computer to handle.
2: PLEASE read this site. Trust me, it's a great read! You'll laugh, cry, fall in love all over again, and it'll answer all your questions too! http://www.geocities.com/sixospades/bg/bgguide.htm
3: Mind reading your BG2: SoA manual so we can stop doing your work for you?

[esquire]

Familiars give life saving advice, just talk to it

[jinny]

APOLLO IS A REBEL! YEA! GO APOLLO! WHOOOOO

[Taran]

i dont know, i dont want a wussy one like a cat, i dont need hide in shadow, i want a pseudo dragon just because. all my poeople get crappy familiars.

[Pyrenk]

Why does it matter? If you want to use them for fighting, don't. Just keep it in your pack all day for free hp. The best one to get is the one with the most hp, though. Also, if you aren't a thief, and soloing, try to get the rabbit.

[BaRoN NiGhT]

yeah, dont try using yer familiar for fighting.you'll be sorry if u do.try a ferret (IIRC that name) if you dont have a thief that can pick pocket some one, like when soloing a character.

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[Pyrenk]

A rabbit is better for a soloing, non thief/priest character, as it can Find Traps. Pick Pocket isn't really useful, because with the familiar, you can't pick pocket from an inventory.