For the vanilla version of the spell, see Find Familiar.
Find Familiar
Level: 1
School: Universal
Range: Short
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: None
This spell enables the caster to summon a familiar to act as his aide and companion. Familiars are typically small creatures. A creature acting as a familiar can benefit a wizard, conveying its sensory powers to its master, conversing with him, and serving as a guard/scout/spy as well. A wizard can have only one familiar at a time, and he has no control over what sort of creature answers the summoning, if any come at all. Note that this spell may only be cast by the protagonist.
The creature is always more intelligent than others of its type (typically by 2 or 3 intelligence points), and its bond with the wizard confers upon it an exceptionally long life. The wizard has an empathic link with the familiar and can issue it mental commands. The caster receives half the familiar’s total hit points as bonus hit points. However, the caster must take care to treat his familiar well, for if the familiar should die, the caster will lose the bonus hit points and half the familiar’s hit points again as damage. Also, when a familiar dies, the caster loses 1 point of constitution permanently.
Example: A mage has 15 hit points and casts Find Familiar. The imp summoned has 24 hit points, so the caster gets a bonus of 12 hit points. The caster now has 27 hit points. If the familiar dies, the caster will lose those additional 12 hit points (putting him back at 12), permanently lose 1 point of constitution (which may cause additional hit point loss), and take 12 damage.
Here is a list of the familiars that the player receives according to alignment:
LAWFUL GOOD, NEUTRAL GOOD: Pseudo Dragon
CHAOTIC GOOD: Fairy Dragon
LAWFUL NEUTRAL: Ferret
NEUTRAL: Rabbit
CHAOTIC NEUTRAL: Cat
LAWFUL EVIL: Imp
NEUTRAL EVIL: Dust Mephit
CHAOTIC EVIL: Quasit
You can view your familiar’s statistics from the inventory screen.