Familiar as a feat?

GM wants to know peoples opinions. Is it broken to allow People/casters a Familiar by taking a feat?

There used to be a feat called Extra Familiar, but it required that you have a Familiar as a class feature first.

That at least seems to imply that a familiar is worth a feat, at least if you already have one.

GM wants to know peoples opinions. Is it broken to allow People/casters a Familiar by taking a feat?

I'm not generally fond of giving away class features that cheaply,

As it is, they can have it for TWO feats, plus the price of some investment in Charisma.

Seems to me there was a feat for acquiring a familiar in 3.5. I guess not in PF (I'm newish to the PF system, so still exploring). Personally, I think it's worth a feat for a class that normally doesn't get one. MHO, YMMV.

We also discussed Doing it like a Ranger getting a Pet... Would be Based at Caster Level -3 for your familiar levels. And you would have to be an arcane caster

Presently the rules already allow it to be done.

You need to take the Eldritch Bloodline Arcane, which gives you the Arcane Bond power. You need a Charisma of 13 as a prereq and the Skill Focus feat...either Spellcraft of Knowledge Arcana. I forget which.

It would be less broken than Leadership.

Personally, I'd limit feat-familiars to tiny creatures.

Presently the rules already allow it to be done.

You need to take the Eldritch Bloodline Arcane, which gives you the Arcane Bond power. You need a Charisma of 13 as a prereq and the Skill Focus feat...either Spellcraft of Knowledge Arcana. I forget which.

Its a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer who wants one... so we are trying for another way

I don't think it is broken, but I would make the feat have prerequisites if I were to allow it.

I'd be ok with the -3 version or such.
But handing out class features for just a feat doesn't go well with me.

All the possibilities to take a feat that gives you something like another classes abilities seems to be very much weaker.

Having a familiar is like having alertness + other bonuses. So it nets you more than a normal feat.

LazarX wrote:

Presently the rules already allow it to be done.

You need to take the Eldritch Bloodline Arcane, which gives you the Arcane Bond power. You need a Charisma of 13 as a prereq and the Skill Focus feat...either Spellcraft of Knowledge Arcana. I forget which.

Its a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer who wants one... so we are trying for another way

You're misunderstanding him, that approach EXACTLY works for a Dragon Disciple.

With the Eldritch Heritage Feat, you can't take a Bloodline which you already have (which is Draconic in your case), but that isn't a problem, since you want to select Eldritch Heritage with the Arcane Bloodline (i.e. the one that grants Arcane Bond at 1st level, with your choice of an Item Bond or a Familiar). To qualify for Eldritch Heritage(Arcane BL), you need to take ANY Skill Focus: Knowledge (i.e. what type of Knowledge doesn't matter), but coincidentally enough, Skill Focus: Knowledge(Arcana) is one of the options for the Draconic Bloodline's Bonus Feats, making it easier for you to 'fit in' that Feat.

If your GM allows Wildblooded Bloodline 'variants' to count as Bloodlines in their own right, I believe there are a few other bloodlines that also have abilities granting a Familiar, albeit not the 1st level ability (so you would have to take Improved Eldritch Heritage as well).

Its a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer who wants one... so we are trying for another way

Why? Sorcerers can take Eldritch Heritage Feats. It represents their bloodline being a bit more mixed.

EDIT: Ninja'd by 19 seconds.

The 3E feat was called Obtain Familiar. ANY arcane caster could take it.

The feat ironically was actually better than the base familiar ability, because its advancement was tied to your CL, *not* a particular base class level, like wizard and sorc's familiars. Keeping in mind that in 3E, every caster bailed on their base class for a full casting PrC by level 6 if not sooner. A lot of people actually would swap out the class-gained familiar for a perk from unearthed arcana or elsewhere, and then pick it back up with the feat and enjoy a better advanced familiar than they would have had otherwise.

by a single feat, yes it is over powered, Rogues have to use one rogue talent, and two advanced rogue talents to gain a Familiar, and is considered at a -4 effective level for power of their familiar

It's probably useful to note that some familiar stats are tied purely to generic character stats, like HPs and Saves, so a Barbarian or Paladin or Monk with Familiar via Eldritch Heritage(Arcane BL) will almost certainly have a Familiar much stronger in those areas than full Wizards/Witches.

Improved Familiar also only has Pre-Reqs of Caster Level to qualify for better Familiars.

The stuff like Deliver Touch Spells, Spell Resistance, Scrying, depends on 'Class Level' (e.g. Wizard),
but conveniently enough, Eldritch Heritage says:
For purposes of using that power, treat your sorcerer level as equal to your character level – 2, even if you have levels in sorcerer.
So you may lag behind by 2 levels, but you will eventually get all of that stuff too.
For the OP's Dragon Disciple character, note the explicit language 'even if you have levels in sorceror'.

by a single feat, yes it is over powered, Rogues have to use one rogue talent, and two advanced rogue talents to gain a Familiar, and is considered at a -4 effective level for power of their familiar

For what its worth, that advanced talent, and all the talents it requires, much as can be said of rogue talents in general...sucks. :p

I would never ever take that as a rogue. Waste all those talents and wait till level 10+ just to get a gimped familiar I can't use share spells and deliver touch spells through, due to not being a spellcaster? Hahano.

Sure. 3.5 Obtain Familiar feat. Never heard anyone decry it as being overpowered.

I agree that the rogue talents are not a good path to follow, however, it is a mechanical example of how, a character who normally does not have a familiar, can indeed gain one.

Since this character is already a Sorcerer they can use the "Tattooed Sorcerer" archetype in The inner sea magic book. That grants a familar and before the archetype takes too muck of the bloodline away this character can start Disciple-ing.

Personally , since it takes 2 feats for a non-spellcaster to get a familiar it is only fair that a spellcaster get a familiar in one.

As others have said, you can get a familiar with Eldritch Heritage. So it is not overpowered for a feat.

You can re-flavor itif you don't want your character having two different bloodlines, for background reasons. As long as you have the same requisites, it's not going to be overpowered.

Ya i pointed out out eldritch heritage. thanks guys

Use Leadership and give a familiar instead of a cohort?

Its a Dragon Disciple Sorcerer who wants one... so we are trying for another way

Psudodragons are telepathic and cost 200 gp according to the pfsrd goods and services list.

You wouldn't get to share spells, but you'd have a brain-talking pet.

Throw in a couple magic items to simulate or improve upon familiar style bonuses, and you're good.

Even better, take Leadership, get a Psudodragon cohort and pile on some class levels.

While Tattoo'd Sorcerer allows them to gain a familiar it will stop progressing as soon as the person becomes a Dragon Disciple. The advantage of going the Eldritch Heritage route is that it is based on character level-2 not class level.

There is a cleric of Nethys in my game that has the eldritch heritage feat to get a familiar. It has served her quite well. - Gauss

Sure. 3.5 Obtain Familiar feat. Never heard anyone decry it as being overpowered.

Mainly because on a Pathfinder board, I've got better things to do than discuss out of print, out of balance, non-SRD, 3.5 splat material, that I'd never use nor allow.

Mainly because on a Pathfinder board, I've got better things to do than discuss out of print, out of balance, non-SRD, 3.5 splat material, that I'd never use nor allow.

Apparently not.

Eldritch Heritage and Boon Companion will give you some good synergy, and strengthen your familiar.

So with all said, do people think that using two feats is worth it, for the player, to acquire a familiar?

And then, to go on, is it worth it for the player to use three feats to get an improved familiar? (We're assuming Skill Focus/Eldritch Heritage/Improved Familiar as the feats necessary.)

And finally, if the initial three are worth it for the player, are there any other feats that relate to the familiar that are worth taking?

It depends. For a cleric to be casting touch spells at range without raising the spell level or costing gp (rod of reach) is quite useful. However, as the DM of the player in question I only allowed her to take it (flavorwise) is because she is a cleric of Nethys. I would have a problem if this becomes standard for every cleric. - Gauss

So with all said, do people think that using two feats is worth it, for the player, to acquire a familiar?

And then, to go on, is it worth it for the player to use three feats to get an improved familiar? (We're assuming Skill Focus/Eldritch Heritage/Improved Familiar as the feats necessary.)

And finally, if the initial three are worth it for the player, are there any other feats that relate to the familiar that are worth taking?

It really depends on what the player wants out of that familiar and what corner rules the DM will allow. Many folks want special familiars that they'll load up with a wand and magic items and treat almost as a second character on the battle field. Others just want a companion. Keep in mind that the more you make your familiar a threat, the more likely it becomes a target.

Ambrus wrote:

Sure. 3.5 Obtain Familiar feat. Never heard anyone decry it as being overpowered.

Mainly because on a Pathfinder board, I've got better things to do than discuss out of print, out of balance, non-SRD, 3.5 splat material, that I'd never use nor allow.

So what you're saying is, maybe you'd consider it?

(j/k)

GM wants to know peoples opinions. Is it broken to allow People/casters a Familiar by taking a feat?

There is already a raw feat that lets u get a familiar, and it's based on your character level.

It's called Familiar bond.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/iron-will/
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/familiar-bond/
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/improved-familiar-bond/

8 years late Arcanus, they've all moved on.

Can we get a lock on inactive threads after a year or 2? No reason to Necro threads.