Best ways to protect a familiar?


Advice


I've never played a class with a familiar before, and now that I have one (rabbit) I'm kinda paranoid about him dying.

I want to keep the benefits of having him close, but I'm afraid he is going to die to a fireball or something.

How do you guys keep your familiars safe? What do you do when you enter combat?


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Renlar wrote:

I've never played a class with a familiar before, and now that I have one (rabbit) I'm kinda paranoid about him dying.

I want to keep the benefits of having him close, but I'm afraid he is going to die to a fireball or something.

How do you guys keep your familiars safe? What do you do when you enter combat?

Don't ever talk about him. Dms tend to forget hes there.

In all seriousness, theres like a familiar pouch you can get or you can keep it in a bag of holding that is loosely open.


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Yes, let letting the Gm forget about it the most common defence.
The ultimate defenses are extra dimensional holes, animated, adamantium chests with a bottle of air inside, or the good old familiar satchel (25gp 6lb) (total cover). Or get a flying familiar and cast invisibility permanency and have it fly out of range (with message cast so it can still receive instructions).

I would be more worried about a spellbook than the familiar really, familiars have evasion and can gain SR, they can move if necessary, and the wizard counts as cover if he is between the AOE and the familiar. Spellbooks can be destroyed by water, acid, fire, pick pocketed, disintegrated, erased, etc. If someone tries to pickpocket your familiar then it can scream and bite till you can magic missile that thief =p

Most GM's should not be focusing on your familiar (most even ignore NPC wizards familiars {usually a toad} as unimportant). Command your familiar to stay behind you or in your familiar satchel (to avoid AOE). And grab a concealing pocket for your spellbook.

Silver Crusade

carry companion spell, as soon as you can get it

or hosteling armor of a sort with 0 arcane spell failure

but at low levels, yeah have them keep behind you, or have something that flies.


All great advice, thanks guys!

Sovereign Court

Don't make him do stuff in combat. Don't even mention him in combat.

Make sure he looks ordinary. Invest in Stealth, because your familiar gains the benefit of your skill ranks, and Stealth is a class skill for animals. And Tiny creatures get a +8 size bonus to Stealth.

Bags work well for both familiars and spellbooks, because of the weird AoE vs. equipment rules. Your equipment isn't affected by area effects unless you roll a 1 on the save, in which case one random thing is affected. It's always something on the outside of your person; the stuff inside your bags isn't affected until the bag is gone.

It's not very realistic, but it's not as annoying as rolling item saving throws for your entire equipment list every time a fireball hits you. And it's really nice for familiars and spellbooks.


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Step 1: Take the Evolved Familiar feat.
Step 2: Grant your familiar the Gills evolution.
Step 3: Keep your familiar in a cauldron of water, with a lid on it.

Your aquatic bunny can, per the rules, breathe underwater indefinitely. So it can't choke and no-one has line of sight to it even if they know you have a rabbitfish in the pot you carry.
And should you get hungry, you've a good start on rabbit stew.

...

Or, you know, share the Skinsend spell with it, and have a "dead" bunny in your pocket while a balloon bunny provides familiar services.

Silver Crusade

what Scavion says "works". My PFS sorcerer has a farie dragon named Rindywipple as a familiar. My sorcerer actually was able to survive both levels of Bone Keep....He hid behind the front row of fighter types.

And maybe it was due to my own absentmindedness.....but I didn't once remember that my character had Rindywipple as a familiar, and of course If I forgot about him, I never mentioned him to the GM....and he never showed up in the scenarios.....and was never "exposed" to any dangerous situations. I cant say the same for my sorcerer....but at least his pet farie dragon was safe.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

merge with familiar keeps the familiar completely safe.


Well, if you want the best way to protect your familiar, there is the figment familiar. Note that this doesn't work for Witch or Shaman (the classes most interested in protecting their familiar), but it does make your familiar immortal so long as you're still alive. If it dies, it will form again once you've had a good night's sleep. It does come with some hefty drawbacks- it has to stay within 100 feet of you, and it's only got half the normal hit points. But it's the best guarantee you'll never have to shell out for a new familiar.


Tattooed Sorcerer archetype allows your familiar to became a safe Familiar Tattoo.


T.A.U. wrote:
Tattooed Sorcerer archetype allows your familiar to became a safe Familiar Tattoo.

In a similar vein, Aberrant Tumor or the Tumor Familiar Discovery gets you a familiar that can attach/detach from you at will. While attached, it has fast healing 5. Those are a little specific on requirements, though.

For something even more specific, Dhampirs of at least tenth level can take Vampiric Companion, making their familiar undead and giving it permanent fast healing 5.

Spirit's Gift can be used to grant your familiar DR 5/Adamantine straight from level one, or Fast Healing 1.

If you get the Mauler archetype, Mauler's Endurance gets it +2 hp/level.

The Duplicate Familiar spell lets you create a temporary copy of your familiar. Pretty high level spell, but it does let your familiar do reckless thingsin combat without risk.

Hope that's helpful!


You can also protect a familiar with the Synergist archetype for witches. Which functions like tattoo sorcerer or a tumor alchemist.


Aasimars can take the Celestial Servamt feat which would toughen up your bunny by adding the celestial template.

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