'Alizarin' Phoenix 2.0 - Improved Familiar


Homebrew and House Rules

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There have been a number of revisions and updates since I first put forward my idea, though it took the help of friends and members more experienced in homebrewing then I. There may be an expansion of this idea, based on age category like dragons perhaps, though if I do expand this idea the phoenix will not be reaching gargantuan size on adulthood. If it is such a size, I would give it the ability to shrink its size.
 
Yet such consideration can come later, this is for having a phoenix as an familiar which can be acquired by the Improved Familiar feat:
Phoenix, Alizarin

Tell me what you all think.

Dark Archive

So there seems to be a lot of viewers looking through my Alizarin Phoenix... but no comments at all?


Calm down broski. The Phoenix is my fav mythical creature, as such I immediately noticed. I love the idea of it as a familiar (grants not the most powerful option) the fact it can come back is a huge boon in and of itself. Though I feel it's strength a tad high for it's size and I imagine Phoenix's graceful and powerful in essence, like it's magical ability ETC, and IMO they are a charismatic creature but that's a me issue. All in all I'd use it had I not already had my own made up (As well as Pheonix's of varying age categories :p)

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Oh really Conrad, perhaps you be willing to post or PM a link? Maybe I could even consider bits and pieces of your homebrew and use it for mine, it that is okay that is with you? that it. On the other bit, well... since it has Weapon Finesse, strength could perhaps be lowered a bit. The concern raised before the last edit was that of it having negative attack/damage.


Uh, I might look for my link, I forget where I put it though. As far as -attack, it's a familiar, chances are low it'll ever even swing unless someone uses the brawler (Or whatever it's called) familiar archetype which covers that problem in and of itself

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Hmm... I will consider lowering the strength, though for now I will leave it. If you can find a link I would appreciate it.


Quasits and Imps are Tiny, and can be familiars. They have Str 8 and Str 10 respectively. The Alizarin Phoenix has a Str 11, but it also only has 2d10 for HD, unlike 3d10 for quasit and imp. The Alizarin Phoenix has a few other abilities that are pretty nifty, thus the 2d10 HD. And as they are smaller cousins of sorts of the true phoenix, they should have a non-negative bonus for Str. But not necessarily a positive bonus one either.


Jon, I found another mistake I missed. The AP has a Wis of 12, which is a +1 bonus. So, the Will save should read +1, and Perception should be +6.

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@Elghinn
Fixed the mistakes, and thanks for explaining that. ^^

Shadow Lodge

I like the change to the resurrection ability - it's more in line with the true phoenix, and still grants a benefit to the master without encouraging them to be too cavalier with the familiar's safety.

Elghinn Lightbringer wrote:
Quasits and Imps are Tiny, and can be familiars. They have Str 8 and Str 10 respectively. The Alizarin Phoenix has a Str 11, but it also only has 2d10 for HD, unlike 3d10 for quasit and imp. The Alizarin Phoenix has a few other abilities that are pretty nifty, thus the 2d10 HD.

HD doesn't mean much for improved familiars, since it is replaced with the master's. A 7th level familiar is treated as having 7 HD, BAB at least +3, and likely 17 HP (half average rolled HP for a wizard with 12 Con or a FCB to HP). These are all at least as good as the Imp's values. The good saves for 2 vs 3 HD are identical, and the phoenix' poor save (Will) is almost certainly replaced with a master's good Will save base bonus, so the fact that it's normally 1 lower than the Imp is irrelevant. (In fact the Phoenix gets a small bonus here compared to the Imp, since the Imp's poor save is Fort, which is more likely to be a poor save for the master than Will.) The extra skill ranks may be relevant, or they may be redundant to the master's ranks.

All this makes the Phoenix' low number of HD compared to the Imp a pretty minor disadvantage, possibly completely irrelevant.

Elghinn Lightbringer wrote:
And as they are smaller cousins of sorts of the true phoenix, they should have a non-negative bonus for Str. But not necessarily a positive bonus one either.

I'm not sure that follows. Phoenix are pretty strong, but they're not all that strong for their size. And while following the Polymorph guide to adjusting stats for size we see that a Phoenix that somehow became tiny would have an 11 Str, the great wyrm blue dragon has a Str 12 points higher than the adult blue dragon and 26 higher than the wyrmling, not 8 and 18 points as we would expect from size alone. The Pseudodragon has Str 7, compared to the wyrmling white dragon (also tiny size) which has Str 11. It seems based on these examples that the strength of powerful creatures is not based solely on size but on magical power. An 8 Strength would be quite suitable for a lesser, tiny phoenix.

The Alizarin Phoenix is a very good familiar. The constant detect magic and detect poison are very handy, as are the HP transfer and see invisibility SLA, and the combination of DR and regeneration with one free self-resurrection (per year) makes it very durable.

I don't think it's too powerful for a 7th level improved familiar. The imp's and quasit's at-will invisibility and change shape make them fantastic scouts and spies, the lyrakien azata and faerie dragon have some very useful magical support abilities, and the silvanshee is very mobile and can be useful in combat thanks to its heroic strength and pounce. But it is one of the stronger 7th level familiars, better than for example the pseudodragon, brownie, harbinger archon, mephits, or shadow drake.

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@Weirdo Well if you have ideas in weakening them a little bit I am willing to hear them.

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