Off the Top of My Head: Improved Familiar Qualification


Rules Questions


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Familiar can be gained in multiple ways now, by anyone and everyone that wants one.
1) Be a Wizard. Instead of a bonded object, you've chosen a familiar. A Witch is also given a familiar whether she wants one or not (barring certain archetypes). The Arcane Sorcerer also can gain a familiar. Also as a Magus Arcana.
2) Eldrich Heritage. This requires some charisma investment and two feats, but you can get a familiar if you want one. Taking the Boon Companion feat brings your familiar up to your level.
3) Be a Rogue. I'm not kidding. This requires three (3) whole investments of Rogue Talents and a minimum of 10 levels of Rogue to get the Familiar Advanced Rogue Talent, but there you have it, as well as burning a feat on Boon Companion to get your familiar up to snuff.
4) The new feat, Familiar Bond, as well as Improved Familiar Bond to give your familiar all its good familiar features.
5) Trade in your first level Bloodline ability for one. This also grants your familiar cool features based on your Bloodline.

Those are the ways I know of, off the top of my head.

Improved Familiar allows you to trade in your old, unwashed familiar for something new and shiny. How do you get one? By taking the Improved Familiar feat, of course. Anyone with a familiar can take this feat. Maybe.

Huh? What's up with that? How do I gain an Improved Familiar, maybe?

You require an Arcane Caster Level. How does one go about this?

Classes that grant Arcane Casting:
Wizard
Sorcerer
Witch
Bloodrager
Magus
Rogue (using Minor/Major Magic Rogue Talents)
Summoner
Bard
Monk (through specific Qinggong abilities)
Ninja
Arcanist
Skald
Investigator (Rogue Talent - Minor Magic), also depends if Extracts count as Arcane spellcasting
(Alchemist maybe, if Extracts count as Arcane spellcasting)

Races that grant Arcane SLAs (Wizard/Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, Bard, Paladin, Ranger):
Elf (alternate racial traits)
Gnome
Drow
Aasimar
Dhampir
Fetchling
Ifrit
Sylph
Tiefling
Undine
Duergar
Kitsune
Nagaji
Samsaran
Svirfneblin
Wayang

Specific traits can give a 0-level SLA and a caster level of 1, but those don't progress the character's CL with that SLA.

The Arcane Talent feat gives you a 0-level SLA 3/day with a CL equal to your character level.

Any one of the above that eventually grants a CL of 3 or higher (with Arcane spells or at least one Arcane SLA) qualifies you, if you already have the means to gain a familiar, to take and use Improved Familiar. Everyone else is out of luck.

Honestly, this is a lot of ways. But with the new book out, Familiar Folio, not everyone that can gain a familiar can gain an Improved Familiar. Maybe this is just fine, as some of those non-improved versions can still take archetypes that the Improved versions can't take. Still, it'd be nice to have the option.


I had a debate with myself when writing the above post. Which sub-forum to put it in. This is not really rules questions, but it is related to rules as written. I could put it into Pathfinder General,but it's too specific, and specific trumps general. (Har har.) I could put it into Product Discussion, but this was already being discussed prior to Familiar Folio even being announced. If the mods see it another way, please move this to the correct sub-forum.


A lot of the options for Familiars are like that, in that there's a whole slew of feats with requirements you may not be able to meet. Alchemists may for instance have their Tumor Familiar, but don't have the Familiar class feature required for, say, the Evolved Familiar feat. When looking at the "rules as written", there's a difference between:

  • Having a Familiar.
  • Having the ability to "aquire a new Familiar". (Which logically would mean your old one must be dead or dismissed beforehand.)
  • Having the Familiar Class Feature.
  • Having the Summon Familiar Class Feature.
  • Having level(s) in a class that grants a Familiar.
And there are probably a few others I missed.

So the fact that some characters with a Familiar can't take the Improved Familiar feat is probably best house-ruled away, along with the rest of these petty distinctions.


Additionally, the following classes have archetypes that gives them familiars:

Rogue (Carnivalist)
Fighter (Eldritch Guardian)
Paladin (Chosen One
Druid (but only a Leshy, Leshy Warden)
Bard (Duettist)
Alchemist (Homunculist)

The Bloodrager & Sorcerer (of any sort) gains the option to switch out their first bloodline power for a familiar in the Familiar Folio book.

Additionally, in the latest playtest, the Occulist could get a *kindof* familiar via the Necromancy resonant powers.


When it was just the Wizard and Sorcerer that could have familiars everything was fine because they could easily meet the prerequisites. When the Rogue gained the Familiar Advanced Rogue Talent is was okay because who would spend 3 Talents on a familiar anyway. Magus plays by the same rules as Wizard, using his Magus level as his effective Wizard Level. The Adept is an NPC class nobody plays. The Witch also references the Wizard, plus a few extra rules.

Then Eldrich Heritage comes along and says, "Familiar for anyone that wants them!" And the waters got muddied.

Familiar Folio muddies the water even more by granting anyone that wants a familiar to have one without going the Skill Focus, Eldrich Heritage route, as well as presenting class-specific options for gaining a useful familiar as well.

So my Human Fighter didn't have an Arcane Caster Level. By a strict reading of rules, I can't take an Improved Familiar. Maybe you would tell me I'd be perfectly happy with a Mauler. What if my Fighter really wants that fairy on his arm constantly yelling at him? "Hey! Listen!"


CalethosVB wrote:
What if my Fighter really wants that fairy on his arm constantly yelling at him? "Hey! Listen!"

Well... the feat doesn't require a Caster Level - the Familiar selection does. So if we're sticking to the RAW, you'd only need an Arcane CL while selecting your Pixie.

What tricks exist to grant a CL, even if it's only for a moment?


having a SLA gives you a caster level.


"Improved Familiar" wrote:

Prerequisites

Ability to acquire a new familiar, compatible alignment, sufficiently high level (see below).

The wording on this, inherited from 3.5e, is all over the place. First:

"Ability to acquire a new familiar..."
People who count their levels as their effective Wizard Level qualify for this, or even Level - X = EWL. Others that don't reference Wizard when determining how they may obtain a familiar do not qualify unless the way they obtain that familiar is documented.

"...compatible alignment..."
As determined by how? The intended familiar? In which case this should be listed under benefits and not prerequisites. Any alignment is considered compatible to take this feat. Specific familiar may not be compatible with your alignment (benefits section).

"...sufficiently high level (see below)."
Makes no mention of your caster level here, just your level.

However, within the benefits section of the feat, you must have an Arcane Caster Level equal to the requirement for a specific familiar to pick up that familiar.

So if my Fighter wants, he can take the Eldrich Guardian archetype and pick up a familiar, as well as take Improved Familiar, but as he has no Arcane Caster Level he cannot benefit from Improved Familiar unless he has an Arcane SLA that grants a caster level, or levels in a class that grant Arcane Spellcasting and thus an Arcane Caster Level, of at least the prerequisite for his intended Improved Familiar.


Chess Pwn wrote:
having a SLA gives you a caster level.

It depends. Having a race or class-granted SLA generally uses your level or your level in that class as that SLA's CL. Getting an SLA from a trait gives you a CL of 1 that does not improve with your level. (See first post.)


The premise of this thread is slightly flawed.

Improved Familiar, as written, does not require an Arcane Caster Level.

It requires an Arcane Spellcaster Level.

This wording has been an issue for a while, and I am not aware of any clarification ever being made.


11 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 1 person marked this as a favorite.
Avoron wrote:

The premise of this thread is slightly flawed.

Improved Familiar, as written, does not require an Arcane Caster Level.

It requires an Arcane Spellcaster Level.

This wording has been an issue for a while, and I am not aware of any clarification ever being made.

You're right. I was in error.

If a class, archetype, feat, or other ability references your Effective Wizard Level, does that satisfy the requirement of having an Arcane Spellcaster Level for the purpose of gaining an Improved Familiar via the Improved Familiar feat?


CalethosVB wrote:
Chess Pwn wrote:
having a SLA gives you a caster level.
It depends. Having a race or class-granted SLA generally uses your level or your level in that class as that SLA's CL. Getting an SLA from a trait gives you a CL of 1 that does not improve with your level. (See first post.)

Unless there is some "errata" that rewrites certain traits, many of the traits that grant an SLA explicitly give you a caster level equal to your character level. Only a handful of the more recent ones don't.

Scarab Sages

It's a year later and I'm still hoping for a response to this.


I asked in some other thread recently, and supposedly this is one of the things on their radar which they may eventually decide to put clarification out for.

So keep your hopes up, I guess.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lorewalker wrote:
It's a year later and I'm still hoping for a response to this.

There's no clear, easy-to answer question in the OP, so don't expect a FAQ answer anytime soon.

In the meantime, we have developer intent that the feat is supposed to be level-restricted but not specific to arcane casters.

We also have RAW in favor of easy familiar access. The argument has two steps:

The requirement is for arcane spellcaster level. That's a unique concept referenced nowhere else; the rules consistently say "caster level" or "CL" when they mean caster level. This indicates that it means something other than "caster level". The only interpretation that makes sense is "levels in an arcane spellcasting class". When Improved Familiar was printed in the 3.5 PHB (and the PF CRB version is unchanged), both Sorcerers and Wizards automatically came with a familiar. Also, familiars in PF (and 3.5) progress by class level, not caster level, which supports the idea that Improved Familiar checks for class level, not caster level. Specifically, all familiar-related abilities check for effective wizard level.

How fortunate, then, that everyone who has a familiar also has an effective wizard level for that familiar. Given that Improved Familiar requires "Wizard class level" and is entirely about familiars, I find it self-evident that "effective wizard levels (for the purpose of familiars)" qualifies.

[b][/b]

Scarab Sages

Casual Viking wrote:
Lorewalker wrote:
It's a year later and I'm still hoping for a response to this.

There's no clear, easy-to answer question in the OP, so don't expect a FAQ answer anytime soon.

In the meantime, we have developer intent that the feat is supposed to be level-restricted but not specific to arcane casters.

We also have RAW in favor of easy familiar access. The argument has two steps:

The requirement is for arcane spellcaster level. That's a unique concept referenced nowhere else; the rules consistently say "caster level" or "CL" when they mean caster level. This indicates that it means something other than "caster level". The only interpretation that makes sense is "levels in an arcane spellcasting class". When Improved Familiar was printed in the 3.5 PHB (and the PF CRB version is unchanged), both Sorcerers and Wizards automatically came with a familiar. Also, familiars in PF (and 3.5) progress by class level, not caster level, which supports the idea that Improved Familiar checks for class level, not caster level. Specifically, all familiar-related abilities check for effective wizard level.

How fortunate, then, that everyone who has a familiar also has an effective wizard level for that familiar. Given that Improved Familiar requires "Wizard class level" and is entirely about familiars, I find it self-evident that "effective wizard levels (for the purpose of familiars)" qualifies.

[b][/b]

That is a nice way to view it but it is not 100% definite. Because of the way the feat works it checks your class levels, but not through the lens of your familiar.

It is possible the way you describe is how it should work, but it is also equally possible that it isn't. Thus the issue. If you are right, my eldritch guardian will be very happy.

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