Is it possible to allow conjurers to pick their familiars? It's somewhat frustrating to rely on the dice to give you what you want after 17 levels and promotes a bit of delete/reroll based on the outcome. I would equate it to picking your forms as a shapeshifter since each familiar has very different aspects (tanking, scouting, support, etc) and the roleplay implications of your familiar can be fairly huge (for example, getting a familiar who can talk). I can definitely see a use in each familiar now (well, maybe besides one or two of them) but now it's even harder to get the one you want.

Anyway we could make this change?

I think that it would be interesting to give a choice about having a choice (asinine wording ftw). What I mean is:

1. Provide conjurer's random familiar choice as is now
2. Also provide automated quest availible at level 15 that must be completed by level 17 that does two things
- gives the conjurer in question the ability to choose their familiar
- gives the conjurer some minor penalty, perhaps one that would be recoverable such as loss of 1 CON (perhaps the quest involves sacrificing a bit of your soul to control the being of your choice), perhaps some relatively large gold cost for the level like 15 or 20 gold (doable at that level, but a little thorn in the side), or some other penalty

My thought behind this is that you could provide choice to the conjurer if they find it important, but yet you could feel as though you have some slight advantage by rolling the dice for your conjurer.

Last minute idea: Perhaps have 1 familiar for each alignment that has slight advantages over the other options but is only attainable through random roll to give motivation to play the gamble

It's something I've considered and have not ruled out completely, but is also not something I have plans to implement currently.

the old implementation where your familiar was based on your name. keke :)

After all, I see no reason in implementing it that way other than being able to use that backdoor to pick a wanted familiar.
Calling rand() is easer than doing math with letters in your name.

One of those methods doesn't involve needing to save/read anything in the pfile to know what your familiar is. The person who originally implemented familiars didn't know how to do that.

If conjurors were allowed to "roll the dice" with their familiars.

Considering this is a lower-level skill, don't think it's worth an edge you'd have to wait 8+ levels to get when you can just delete and remake. I'm trying to give a solution that doesn't involve making throw-away characters to get a specific familiar.

It fits the life of a conjurer better.

Also, familiars do all seem to have their different strengths.

To me, picking a familiar is akin to re-rolling until you get good wand slots. Unnecessary.

I'm in this boat, too, honestly. I don't think a single conjurer I've played has ever drawn the familiar I was hoping for, and yet I still had fun with all of them.

But, I also know that stating a preference for randomness in some things will deeply offend the contingent that wants to eliminate it from the game, and I'd rather not have that holy war again.

With shifters and their forms I'm like "whatever," that's just the nature of the beast. But, conjurers seem all about specificity....specify an elemental, specify demon or angel, specify archon or devil. It's a class that, more than any other, seems to revolve around "knowing stuff" (I mean, divination is conjuration's buddy). But, before you get to specify anything you get Booboo the poo-throwing monkey instead of the shadowcat you always wanted.

I think anyone and everyone who has ever played a conjurer has crossed their fingers, hoping for some familiar or another. Many, like Torak, will delete upon hitting level 17 and getting something they don't want. It just seems unfun, and small potatoes compared to shifter forms. Mostly, it's done in a way that's kinda crummy for writing a role. Sure, you can incorporate whatever it is you get at level 17, or anytime thereafter, but some role concepts probably lose a lot of pizzazz when an unwanted familiar comes into the picture.