There is probably something I'm missing, but I was just wondering why they were nerfed so badly, as I really can't see the justification.

Familiars, in Dungeons and Dragons, despite what Neverwinter Nights seems to have implemented, are not supposed to be anything like animal companions. It's supposed to be a small animal with which you share a close, magical bond. At high levels, the familiar can even communicate with you.

It makes no sense at all to have a talking baby dragon as a familiar, imo.

In D&D, familiars can do all sorts of fun things for you. Scout, go into small places, deliver messages, assist you in magical experiments, and find allies or gather information for you. A friend of mine in a P&P game once had a gnome sorcerer with a rodent familiar. Since gnomes can communicate with burrowing mammals, he could speak to his familiar even at low levels. So he would send his familiar to find rat warrens in dungeons and essentially get the dungeon layout by having his familiar negotiate with the rats, sometimes even having them aid us in puzzles or fights in some humorous manner. Since you can actually directly control your familiar, most of this can be done in NWN, even without DM help. Familiars are roleplaying tools, friends and staunch allies of your character. I'd really encourage more mages to use their familiar, especially out of combat. If you dislike the basic familiar selection, apply for a custom familiar.

I've tried to use familiars in RP situations, It ends up being annoying and a frustration with PCs killing them and such. Just quite annoying.

Then apply for a less imposing or dangerous-looking familiar than the EfU standards, like a dog or a rat or a bird. These are much more traditional familiars anyhow.

It was the floating light... What is less threatening than a little ball of light?

"Mage Eater! Kill it!"

Yes, actually, I could think of several reasons for wanting to kill a randomly appearing orb of light. <.< So, too, for most of the standard familiars -- especially when summoned in the middle of town.

Perhaps the familiars should be customized again? If what we have can't be used regularly for roleplaying, since the majority of people would just kill them on sight, maybe it would be best that we replace them with non-threatening little things?

I would love to have a chicken familiar. I really, really would.

I pulled out my familiar several times. A few people tried to kill it. Two were successful. I used it mostly for fun when there was nothing going on. I'd send it out to spy or whatever. It was the orb of light.

It couldn't talk or anything, but to communicate I had it's light grow dimmer or brighter depending on its mood. If it was scared it'd grow dimmer, but if it was happy it'd grow brighter. I also had it bob and weave around people, do twirls in the air, etc.

I actually had someone follow it around for almost two hours talking to it. Seriously. All it did was what I described and they spent two hours talking to a glowing ball of light.

In one of my pnp games I had a tiny viper fmailiar that would stay wrapped around my sarcers hand. Pnp familiars could deliver touch attack spells. When the combat started i would use spare spell and give my familiar some sort of spell such as color spray or hold person or the like. If any one got close to me he would deliver it.

To bad you cant do this in EFU :(

Familiars need redone.

I have nightmares of Johannes' wizard's familiar sometimes.