Non-evil literate familiar

[Egon the Monkey]

I was looking at the familiars and noted that all the ones able of carrying on a conversation are Evil-aligned. Now, for RP and plotting purposes, Neutral/Good casters might want to use a familiar to chat to/as advisors or messengers, and picking a familiar opposed to your alignment is discouraged.

Therefore I'd like to suggest scrapping the Floating Eyeball (IMO the least used familiar) for a re-designed  Mephit/Pseudodragon/Mini Celestial capable of intelligent conversation and with a Neutral or Good alignment.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

This is obviously to promote the Stigma good=stupid.

[Porky]

Elemental Bond: Element should turn your Familiar into a Mephit of that colour.

[Meldread]

Nooooooooo!  I'm using the Eyeball, and it's important to my character. :(  I FORBID KILLING THE EYEBALL!

Call up Colonel Sanders and kill the Chicken.

[Equinox]

Chicken is fucking sick. Eyeball sucks ass change it to a good aligned outsider capable of conversation

[Egon the Monkey]

Bwukkah was more badass than the Eyeball.  She had a MOUND on her kill list, was K.G.S's security officer  and had DJspecter's rogue worried she's blast him :D. Also, being a chicken, I lost count of the times dumber PCs made a "can I buy the chicken" comment and tended to get the response of "you cook it, my fireball cooks you".

I suggested the eyeball mostly as it's the least useful RP wise IMO. You could always get a custom tweak for your PC, but it's a rather Kill On Sight thing, and doesn't sync well with demonologists like the imp or necromancers like the Skull. Maybe the Seagull then, as it duplicates the spell that the Bat has and the "sailor" flavour that the Parrot has?

[Meldread]

Yes, the eyeball sucks.  I freely admit this.  Even it's Protection from Evil buff doesn't work.  :(

It is also KoS in most cases, but that's no different than the Skull or even the Imp.  Or even the slime.  Like the Skull, though, it could get your character killed simply by summoning it.

But it is the only aberration on the list, and I picked it for flavor purposes for my character.  And I've used it numerous times so far.... >_>

I still vote to kill one of the birds.  There are lots of birds on the list and thematically speaking only the Parrot is really flavorful.  I do agree with the suggestion that we need a neutral aligned familiar that can speak, and I think Mephit works best for that.

[Lulzebub]

Do you mean something like a pixie?

[FleetingHeart]

Mephits are generally hard to distinguish from their demonic cousins, often leading to Kill on Sight situations as well.

I don't think you really want that.

[Meldread]

Use Nixies since they are True Neutral.  They use the Pixie Model, but have webbed fingers and toes, and can breathe underwater.

Speaking of breathing underwater... both the Skull and maybe the Slime, which have no lungs (not to mention one of them being undead), can still drown. >_>

[Gnome on the Strange]

I'm sure you can think of something, Nut, having created all those awesome familiars. Mini dragon, talking Ball of Light Celestial, Tiny Golem....

[Egon the Monkey]

Ba-bump.
I have a planned concept that I wanted to use a "messenger" familiar for, but couldn't without taking an Evil one. Perhaps just state that the Raven can talk legibly when it's posessed by a PC, but is too stupid to do so alone?

[Equinox]

TINY QUARTZ GOLEM

[Barehander]

Seagull is the coolest bird, though. Don't kill that one!

I've used a downsized water elemental as a nixie, to good effect. You could also have baby sphinxes, though they're somewhat odd flavor-wise. Golems can't typically talk. I reckon ravens and parrots could, though. And familiars are intelligent, so they'd understand the concept of speech, too. (They do understand telepathic commands, after all.) I don't see why you couldn't say ravens and parrots can talk, because they both have the physical capability as well as the intelligence required thanks to magical augmentation. Easier than making something new, at least.