|
Hit points and BAB. A barbarian can have the strongest familiar, but alas, no spellcasting. If you use early entry cheese to enter eldritch knight at 3rd level, that will go a long way to making your familiar combat viable.
Regeneration is great outside of combat but not particularly advantageous in combat (unless it is a large amount or combined with effective damage reduction). You will find that regeneration grants maybe an extra round of combat before your familiar drops. Its main advantage in combat is it stops bleed damage.
|
|
As you use the size advancement rules in the bestiary to bring your familiar to small size before applying the polymorph stat modifiers, it could be advantageous to choose a familiar strong for their size, not just strong.
I like the clockwork familiar but it can cost a king's ransom in upgrades and design features. They are quite strong too.
|
|
BUT the familiar won't die, which is a plus.Hit points and BAB. A barbarian can have the strongest familiar, but alas, no spellcasting. If you use early entry cheese to enter eldritch knight at 3rd level, that will go a long way to making your familiar combat viable.
Regeneration is great outside of combat but not particularly advantageous in combat (unless it is a large amount or combined with effective damage reduction). You will find that regeneration grants maybe an extra round of combat before your familiar drops. Its main advantage in combat is it stops bleed damage.
That is true, but regeneration is a lot weaker than it was in 3.5 - it doesn't take much to kill a regenerating creature now. It should make your familiar almost unkillable in certain encounters, though those encounters become rarer as you gain levels - and even wild animals can kill a regenerating creature if they eat it.
Plant Shape and Giant Form both grant regeneration.
|
Well, the Homunculus familiar can be created with additional HD, and with a Hit Dice increase by 50%, or more, you can increase it's size.
Then, later, you can add abilities, and additional HD, with Construct Modifications.
Also, you can nab the Celestial Servant feat, which will allow you to treat it as an animal, and use the Share Skin on.
Battle pig.
|
|
There is the Vampiric Companion feat from Blood of the Night:
Just as your undead existence mocks nature, so too are you granted a twisted companion that reflects the vile nature of vampirism.
Prerequisites: Dhampir or vampire, nongood alignment, 10 levels in a class that grants a familiar or animal companion.
Benefit: Your animal companion or familiar’s type changes to “undead.” The creature gains your vampire or dhampir weaknesses and fast healing 5. If you are a vampire, the creature also gains the following abilities, depending on what type of vampire you are.
Jiang-Shi: If the creature is adjacent to you or you are sharing a square, it gains the benefit of your prayer scroll ability. The creature crumbles into dust if destroyed ( just like a jiang-shi), but is not permanently destroyed unless measures are taken that would destroy a jiang-shi.
Moroi: If the creature is adjacent to or in your square when you assume gaseous form, it transforms with you and follows you; its transformation ends when yours does. If reduced to 0 hit points, it is forced into gaseous form and must return to your coffin to reform (or the foot of your coffin if it cannot fit within it).
Nosferatu: If the creature is adjacent to or in your square when you assume swarm form, it transforms with you and follows you; its transformation ends when yours does. The creature can climb as if using spider climb, even if its anatomy is not suitable for climbing (such as a horse).
Vetala: The creature may use malevolence and possession as if it were a vetala, but by touch and only affecting creatures or corpses that are the same type of creature as the animal companion or familiar (such as bear, horse, or snake). If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, the creature is helpless and its fast healing ceases to function for 1 hour (additional damage or desecration has no effect); after 1 hour it regains 1 hit point and is no longer helpless, and its fast healing resumes. It can be permanently destroyed as if it were a vetala.
Special: If your animal companion or familiar is destroyed, dismissed, or lost, you may apply the effects of this feat to the replacement creature. If you are destroyed, the creature retains its undead type but loses all other special abilities from this feat. If you have more than one animal companion or familiar, choose one of them when you select this feat and apply its effects to that creature.
You may select this feat more than once. Each time you select the feat, it applies to a different animal companion or familiar.
You can get this, and the Celestial Servant feat, by being an Aasimar, taking the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait, and the Racial Heritage(Dhampir) feat.
Sorcerer... Bloodline: Sylvan, Archetype: Razmiran Priest.
Sylvan BP:
Animal Companion (Ex): At 1st level, you gain an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this ability is equal to your sorcerer level – 3 (minimum 1st).
Then Grab boon companion sometime early.
Well, the limits of feats for familiars is another thing to consider. I tend to like the earth elemental since it is one of the few options that has feats that are appropriate for melee (power attack and improved bullrush for more damage and a tactic)
The fact that it can use earth glide might help in preserving its life, as well as adding another role as a scout.
Familiars, like hearts, will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable, to paraphrase the Great and Powerful. Still, your polymorph strategy is only as good as 2 factors: half your HP, and your character's BAB.
Since your familiar's combat ability is based on those things to start, maximizing those can go a long way toward upping your little buddy's staying power. I've always favored familiars with Weapon Finesse and then polymorphing them into forms w/natural weapons. Then the familiar itself suffers no non-proficiency penalties for fighting in its new form.
I haven't played around very much with improved familiars. I have utilized a homunculus and though you can trick them out with all kinds of extra HD and Size and such, they are still constructs so do not heal unless you blow a 2nd level spell (Make Whole). See if your GM will let you put Make Whole on a wondrous item your little buddy can wear so that it gets its own healing or regeneration or what not. Also with the homunculus bear in mind: if he goes down he's dinging you for 1d10 HP along with the other negative effects for losing a familiar.
You might also merely consider making your better half simply into a ranged combatant. It's not optimal DPR and they'll suffer non-proficiency penalties, but having your familiar turn into a humanoid with a decent dex and handing him a crossbow frees you up for all kinds of buffs to help him out. Gravity Bow, Flame Arrow, and Cat's Grace all leap to mind. Now you've got a Medium humanoid armed with a 1d10 Flaming crossbow firing at your BAB -4, +2, plus whatever their original Dex bonus is.
|
For some reason, this never occurred to me. What's ramziran priest though?Sorcerer... Bloodline: Sylvan, Archetype: Razmiran Priest.
Sylvan BP:
Animal Companion (Ex): At 1st level, you gain an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this ability is equal to your sorcerer level – 3 (minimum 1st).Then Grab boon companion sometime early.
Not sure about the priest part but im doing this atm in the game im in and form of the dragon works wonders on it. The pet im using btw is a Deinonychus because of its cha, int, and size. Int is 2 meaning i only needed tto raise it by 1 to have it get feats that are not native to the animal companion feat list. The cha on it is quite high, well at least for an animal companion, making Celestial Servant worth the pick up on it imo. Also its size is small then medium witch i like because it means i dont have to worry about bringing it into a dungeon with space parameters that wont allow larger+ creatures to move let alone enter witch my DM has done to my party on multiple occasions.
O btw if you want to go a summoner wrought on the sorcerer if you do decide that path i highly advise picking up 1 level of druid like i did. The reasoning for this is to get the benefits of Moonlight, Starlight, and Sunlight Summons feats.
Don't forget to cast Greater False Life on your familiar once you can. And maybe Shield.
A few buffs greatly increase survivability for your familiar.
One reason I wanted to do this with a familiar was because familiars are small and inconspicuous. What companions are good but also easily overlooked?
Any normal animal fits this bill. Something size Tiny has a great stealth advantage and can hide on your person. Also if it fits the terrain, more's the better. If you stroll through sandpoint with a demonic-looking Small humanoid perched on your shoulder (homunculus) fluttering it's leathery wings, folks might be unnerved. If on the other hand your little tabby Lady Mittens Von Whiskers is on your lap in the tavern, most won't pay you much heed.
Also for overlooking, consider any familar and a Hat of Disguise or some other wondrous item that alters their appearance. In fact, if you're going battle familiar, you'll need a whole array of magic items. Remember; familiars don't get feats to help them in a fight. You'll need armor, buffing items, ranged options and consumables your little buddy can use in a variety of forms.
One thing I've houseruled in my games (though the wizard never took advantage) was that the familiar had all the same basic weapon/armor usage as their master. If you can get away with just that, you could easily craft an arsenal for your familiar that would rival a fighter cohort.
If you didnt take a look already, heres a link for the priest.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/archetypes/paizo---so rcerer-archetypes/razmiran-priest
If ok with your DM go with a Tide pool Dragon, good str, fire breath weapon very 1d4 round, and spells. Use polymorph any object on it to have a strong spell casting battle buddy.
Pooka is another good chose.
The Pseudodragon is a good fall back. It has a 5ft. ranch while being tiny. Good defenses, is a dragon so the polymorph any object will work on it. Str is ok. UMD is a class skill for it. (see dragon class skills)
I have been called back from the grave!
Yeah, this info is quite old and there are now many better ways of doing this.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If you start with a earth mephit it has decent combat stats, starts at small size and can self enlarge to medium.
Why do I want that archetype? It seems useless.
That the archetype, put together a book of divine scrolls. Go pathfinder savant after level 9. Cast any spell in your "spellbook" using your spell slots at your caster level. Have more on the spot diversity than anyone else in the game.