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Is that right? Casual Viking mentioned Blood Money so I looked into it...

It converts 1d6 hp and str dmg into material component [1 str dmg per 500gp of material component]... which explains what he meant by blood money + lesser restoration.

Edit: [Which works for fabricate. Blood money states that the material component turns into blood after 1 round if it's not used, but fabricate uses all the material component to craft something. So you craft gold bars thus it doesn't turn back into blood.]

Caster level x spell level x 10 = 3 x 2 x 10 = 60gp per casting of lesser restoration
7 x 4 x 10 = 280gp + 100gp diamond dust for restoration [benefit, only need 1 casting to recover all ability drain or temporary damage]
Blood money is a level 1 spell. 1 x 1 x 10 - 10 gp per casting…
Blood money has no scaling cost/benefit, it’s all about your health that you sacrifice.

1 casting of 500gp = 5 bars of gold, 5 lbs. [blood converted to gold then value measured by gold bars weight which are 50gp ea, 1 lb each.]

Spells cast by NPC’s.
Calculation done based off of single casting - not consecutive castings [which may or may not benefit from the amount of starting gold?].

pound to volume: [1 pound gold - 1 cubic foot volume]
http://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight
Used to determine the volume goal [cubic foot, 10 cubic foot etc]

1d6, 1 point strength dmg = 500gp, 5 lbs
1d6, 2 point strength dmg = 1000gp [450gp fabricate, 1 lesser restoration 60gp, 10gp blood money = 520gp, 480 gp material after expenses]
1d6, 3 point str dmg = 1500gp [equivalent to the cost of limited wish’s material component, 1500 gp of diamond dust]
1d6, 4 point str dmg = 2000gp [450gp per fabricate, 2 lesser restoration casts 120gp, 10gp blood money = 580gp cost; 1420gp material after expenses]
1d6, 10 point str dmg = 5000gp [450gp per fabricate, 4 lesser restoration to restore 10 points dmg, 240gp, 10gp per blood money spell = 700gp per attempt, 4300gp material after expenses]

1d6, 20 point str dmg = 10,000gp, 200 lbs [450gp per fabricate, 380gp for restoration [not lesser], 10gp per blood money = 840gp; 9160 gp left over]

*Finding a Wizard or Cleric with 20+ str may be difficult, but it seems this is going to be the best bang for your buck unless you’re going to a dragon for a single casting. At this point the cost for casting doesn’t increase, the total Str you need to survive the casting increases.

One casting converting blood into 200 lbs of gold.

1d6, 50 point str dmg = 25,000gp, 500 lbs [equivalent to material component cost of Wish spell, 25,000 gp diamond dust]

1d6, 120 point str dmg = 60,000gp, 1200 lbs [1 cubic foot of gold] [1,206.11 lbs give or take 305.5 gp]

1d6, 1200 point str dmg = 600,000gp, 12,000 lbs [10 cubic foot of gold] [12,061.1 lbs [give or take 3055 gp]

Hmm... it only occurred to me just now that Fabricate really... is like one of the shape x spells. Shape wood/stone ... you use craft skill check to turn raw start material into new shape. So you'd start with a block of wood, cast spell, make a statue [with skill check]. The volume rating being how big of a thing you could make with x amount of material. If you don't have enough material for your vision, it'd likely stretch it as thin as possible to try and make the desired dimensions, but then it'd probably collapse...

You could use fabricate to completely destroy a base item to recreate it [broken table, throw in some extra wood, now it's fixed with original + replacement material].

If that's right... you could always use fabricate to make a hole in a bank vault and walk out with the cash I guess. Or craft something of value from a raw material to resell. Assuming you can find a buyer.

Or you could make new novelty material... gold bar becomes gold silk fabric in a roll... adamantine becomes adamantine cloth like some kind of super fabric that's superior to chainmail. Well that is something I suppose. Maybe not the method of making gold that I thought, but it'd still make some rather valuable stuff.

I guess I finally found the spell I always wanted for near-instantly fixing stuff... I'm always amazed what new understanding I get from playing this game despite the years playing it.

Apologies. *sigh* You are right. I overlooked the description for the material component and the word conversion. What an oversight...

Goes to show that too little sleep and a lust for gold will blind the eyes.

Well. At least it was an interesting exercise in pounds to cubic square foot. The measurements are still helpful in determining the silly amounts of gold a dragon's hoard might have by squares alone. 10ft cube being 4 5ft squares.

You know, this reminds me of a few spells in DND, whose names really conjure up images of a person like Merlin instantly fixing or instantly conjuring x. Fabricate by its name always seemed to imply to me that it would create copies of the material. Mending/make whole that it wouldn't take forever to fix something.

Why they didn't call this "craft item" instead leaves me with a sleep deprived headache.

Is there any stipulation against using 'create demi-plane lesser' to make it full of x raw material?

Or is a player's only hope for the Midas touch a Wish spell?

Have any other ideas of turning early level gold into a dragon's hoard?

Gold Bar is raw gold. It is 100% raw gold. The spell creates more raw material. You can replace 'gold bar' with 100% pure gold ore, they trade the same by weight. 1 lb = 50gp.

You only have lbs. How are you going to convert weight by volume into cubic feet for the spell?

I happened to use the dimensions of real gold bars. By density it would be the same for the volume of cubic feet. The point is how much value would you then get for a block of gold that's 10 cubic feet. Which is significantly greater than 1 lb.

It is true that minting predates nation-states. The point being that mint or no mint, value perception isn't the point of the math.

It's how much gold can you get and what that would have been worth at the market price listed in the PHB prior to flooding the market.

A gold bar is a trade good made of pure gold. It trades for 50gp per gold bar. Since it's pure material, the spell will replicate the same quality for more quantity.

The point really isn't about how much 'value' that gold will have. What you have is the equivalent of Nature's Counterfeit Currency Printer in a way. Just because you have 9 square cubic feet of pure gold in bars, doesn't mean anyone wants it. It doesn't mean anyone will buy it. Gold's value is determined by those who want it and if there is a lot of it, it's value will inevitably drop.

Technically only a nation can 'mint' and its currency only recognized by other nations. Sure you can stamp anything yourself, but it won't have a recognized value. A gold bar is an international trade material that supersedes gold coins which are minted. You don't mint a gold bar you sell it by weight. In the Trades and Goods section it trades for 50gp and hence all the math is done following what a real gold bar would weigh based on its dimensions and so forth. A gold bar weighing only 1 lb, but what lb? In ounces? In Troy ounces? In fantasy lbs? I had to use something more tangible so I used a real gold bar's dimensions for the purposes of figuring out how many would fit in a cubic foot . Well, I did the best I could with what little patience I have with math as it is.

DND isn't really a game about economy. It's ratio's for 1 gp = 10 silver, 1 silver = 10 copper is a nightmare for a real nation's economy which can be seen in historical currency changes over time.

Honestly the trade currency could be used buttons and acorn shells collected only on a full moon. You could use Fabricate on those and have a ton of buttons and shells. You could do this to a gold coin and it would replicate that coin. But calculating how much you'd get per cubic foot would be a nightmare.

Honestly at the gaming table it'd make more sense for a DM to just say, "Hey you got a lot of x. It fills the room to bursting" and so forth. But players and sometimes DM's want numbers. The example above goes to show just how much number we're talking about .

Even if it's just gold bars and they have no value, if you wanted to live the dream of having a house made entirely of gold... you could do so. Easily. At very little cost.

The material made is permanent, and unlike illusions doesn't go away from casting dispell magic. You could do this to anything... adamanentine... silver, poisons, copper, wood, stone, and it'd create it 1 10 ft cubic block per caster level at a time. If you go through the list of what you could fabricate en-masse and then argue about value... well then nothing has value except Souls - which may be the only thing Fabricate might not replicate... unless of course you had a soul gem. And then the implications of that are well... Staggering.

Dwarves and their gold. Midas the Dwarf and I have a problem. He's just a lowly commoner [with a lot of cash], but he's looking towards the future.

I don't do a lot of math often, but today I knuckled down to find some answers. This question came up when I was sitting around doing a wealthy dwarf npc build and I asked myself... If I had a grand or two of starting gold, how would I do best for my investment? Be a crafter and spend forever building things and selling them from my shop? Not bad... but what if I could solve my problem with magic?

What if I used Fabricate?

If you are familiar with the spell it takes whatever raw material you start with and replicates the quality with quantity represented in 10 cubic ft per level. Kind of like copy/paste. With bonuses.

Fabricate 5th level spell ....
1 Fabricate spell scroll = 1,125 gp as a 5th level scroll
1 gold bar is 50 gp for trade good.

How much money are we talking about?

197,363.45 gp per minimum casting of Fabricate. Give or take 1 gp.
Cost of scroll = 1,125 gp
Cost of caster casting spell = 450 gp
Cost & time of researching spell from scratch = 17,500 gp over 35 days [500gp/day] no failure
Research spell DC = 20

There is 1206.11 lbs of gold per cubic foot.
A gold bar [US MINT] is 27.5 lbs.
There are 43.9 gold bars per cubic foot.
*50gp ea = 2192.93 gp per cubic foot
Fabricate makes 10 cubic foot of material per caster level.
Minimum Level for Wizard to cast this 5th level spell is 9.

Knowing is half the battle.
And now players can never complain of never having enough gold.
The implications of what happens in the campaign is for you and your DM to decide.

Before you jump to conclusions about nerfing this spell or banning it, I ask you why? It's a golden opportunity! Making a whole bunch of stuff is the whole point of Fabricate and it is Magic . Now your campaign can be full of stuff like finding buyers, sellers, and getting enough people to protect your hoard. You are well on your way to becoming a dragon or fighting one which sniffs out your stash! Realize your dream of the philosopher's stone! Turn gold into more gold!

So what does all that mean for the Caster in the example…
He started with a 22 charisma score right? And he was Level 8.
22
-2 no longer human
20
-2 now Orc
18

In this example the Sorcerer has suffered 5 permanent negative levels (After saves, reincarnation etc etc).

Due To Negative Levels that drop effective character caster level 8 to 3 (5 Permanent Negative Levels) you have an 18 charisma score, and a - 5 Penalty on Ability Check Rolls.

I’m a little confused here myself, but it either means that you apply a flat -5 penalty on any ability check roll (which I do below), or you take the 18 total, subtract 5, which results in a 13 score which has a +1 modifier. Personally, I prefer the Penalty being separate and so did my math with that in mind.

Which means that whenever you make a Charisma based roll or cast a spell your effective ability score doesn't change, but your Ability Checks have a -5 penalty.

Let's say I had a spell with a DC.
18 charisma states that you have a +4 modifier to Charisma.

Casting spell DC is calculated as
10 + Spell Level + Ability Score Modifier

This is an Ability based Check so the -5 penalty is being applied.

If the spell were level 1 then...
10 + 1 + 4 - 5

So a level 1 spell would have a DC of 10 after penalties.

As an Effective 3rd Level Caster due to negative levels you can not cast a spell higher than level 1. If you were 5th level effective caster you could not cast a spell higher than level 2. (Sorcerer spells per day chart.)

If you were trying to do a skill check... such as Bluff.

Bluff as a class skill gives you +3
You have your ranks in bluff
And then your ability score [Which Gets a Penalty].

Ability Score + Class Skill Bonus + Ranks in Skill + Other [feats etc]

18 charisma means +4 ability score
class skill = +3 bonus
ranks in bluff... let's say at level 8 you had 8 ranks in this example.
But no additional feats, racial and so on that gave you bonuses.

Now Apply the Penalty from Negative Levels:
Ability Score - Ability Check Penalty + Class Skill Bonus + Ranks in Skill

4 – 5 + 3 + 8

The result is a 10.

What was a 15 is now a 10.

Hope this helps.

The last post was last year, but this has been something that came up recently and I had to break it down for the player in my campaign. Since the thread was useful to me in my research and because MendedWall12 still requested anyone else's opinion on the matter I have decided to share what I figured out.

In the scenario the player in the campaign was a sorcerer who died due to receiving too many negative levels from an undead ghost. Through the complicated actions of party members and a bit of DM hand waving he was allowed to be reincarnated (which applies 2 permanent negative levels)... Basically he was given a grace removal of 2 negative levels so that he could roll against the negative levels he had gained and the new ones he was given due to reincarnation. He made a majority of these saves, but not all of them, and so he has a few negative levels that are "Permanent".

8th level Sorcerer, reincarnated from human to orc, negative levels drops him to effectively level 5.

He then asked me whether or not this meant that he lost spells known at higher level, and if he lost any feats (implied bloodline feat).
The short answers are Yes to both, which can be regained through restoration.

The long answer is as follows:
As a spontaneous caster if you are unable to cast the spell with your ability modifier then it is a moot point. [This is not the case, 18 (his caster level ability score even after reincarnation) is more than sufficient.]

As a spontaneous caster you have a %50 chance of losing unused spell slots upon being brought back to life after death. This is pointed out in the Reincarnation Spell Description.

This is the equivalent of feeling exhausted after a long battle. (Pew pew pew against death.)

This means that during the first 24 hrs after your completed reincarnation you are vulnerable.

Reincarnation states that:
"It [that which was reincarnated] retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed. Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged." However it then goes on to say that physical ability stats are changed, previous racial stats are removed, new ones are applied and if the results make a person unable to do xyz in their previous class then they should consider multi-classing...

So basically, normally you wouldn't lose a feat right? But if you had to have a certain requirement for it... You'd lose it.
Furthermore. In relation to the Negative Levels:

Feats typically are unaffected by death/revival unless something has changed a pre-requisite requirement for the feat. If you are not high enough level, lost a minimum stat/other requirement and so on then I'd say you lose access to the feat and if other feats are associated with it then your feat tree is broken. Or at least it would be fundamentally useless.

In an example, let's say that I needed 12 wisdom for a feat as a prerequisite but after reincarnation my stats were changed to a 10 wisdom. Then I don't get access to that feat in usage and anything associated with that feat is also useless because I don't have the pre-requisite for it.

In the case of a Sorcerer with a Bloodline Feat...
You are treated as lower level for level dependent variables Which means that you lose access to your Bloodline Feat at 7th level since you are treated as if you were lower due to the negative levels that have stuck.

Permanent Negative Levels in Pathfinder [unlike 3.5] is like "Permanent ___[spell]" In that Restoration can remove its effect similar to how dispel magic can remove a permanent effect [dispel magic will NOT remove a negative level].

This means that it isn't considered a 'True' level loss even if permanent even though it has all the hallmarks of a level loss.
penalties on everything except AC in relation to check rolls.
[Note that this does not talk about lost Ability POINTS, this talks about Ability CHECKS. The points LOST during a negative level incident is another thing entirely...]

Loss in Health.

Loss in level-dependent variables due to spell casting.

This does not apply to using something like a scroll for instance. The reasoning is that to use a scroll one must have a minimum ability amount (10 + spell level) followed by the use magic device check (20 + Caster Level Of the Spell On the Scroll). If you aren't using UMD but casting it as a caster that meets correct typing, class list and ability score... then it is a check DC of: Scroll's Caster Level + 1
Not your reduced level dependent casting ability.

So what does that reduced level dependent casting ability mean?

Your Effective Caster Level deals with:

Range
Duration
Damage dealt [in cases like 1d6 per caster level or 1d6 + 1 per caster level etc]
CL Check to overcome Target's Spell Resistance
CL Check in Dispelling Magic

In order to cast a spell you MUST have a CL High Enough for you to cast the spell. So if your Effective Level DROPS then You Can't Cast The Spell.

What it does NOT change Alone is your Spell's DC which is 10 + Spell Level + Ability Modifier = HOWEVER = Negative Levels gives you a penalty on Ability Score style Checks So that means that the penalty DOES stick your Spell DC's (As You Cast It).

As a spontaneous Caster this is a lot worse than for a prep-caster in the sense that a prep-caster can always refer back to their prep-sources or other sources and so always 'retain the knowledge of'.
In a sense the spontaneous caster 'temporarily loses' those spells known simply because they can not cast the spell in the first place. It is like they never had it. Once they regain their effective caster level then they can have access to those spells again.
Think of it like a very long lasting silence effect that shuts out higher level slots. The only cure is restoration.
------

Please note that the above is a unique situation which involved reincarnation; not just negative levels. Reincarnation resulted in ability score changes, racial changes, and %50 spell loss chance.
Furthermore I noticed that Sangalor mentioned reducing caster levels in the case of trying to mercy spell something to not kill it. Technically you can do that, and it says so under the description for Caster Level under Magic.

"You can cast a spell at a lower caster level than normal, but the caster level you choose must be high enough for you to cast the spell in question, and all level-dependent features must be based on the same caster level."

The above was rather critical for me coming to my conclusions.
I hope that this helps anyone else concerning Negative Levels.
Remember, Restoration is the Cure!

This conversation has definately whet my whistle, so now I am interested.

Does anyone know what 3.5 books have special spells/feats/abilities/magic items just for familiars or animal companions

There is a 3.0? 3.5? book called... Masters of the Wild which discusses druids, barbarians and rangers... It has a thing or two on animal companions.

There is a d20 supplement book meant to be used in 3.0~3.5 which concentrates on just familiars... I think it was just called the book of familiars or something =-=;;

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Familiars-d20-Justin-Bacon/dp/1931275289

That isn't the one I'm thinking of I don't think.

Legends Collection: Friends & Familiars Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Sourcebook) (Paperback) [haven't seen the inside apparently available at amazon though]

What is interesting though... is when one of the d20 books mentioned being able to give familiars class levels via spell progression [cost xp in the 3.0/3.5 system but like anything if you're going to use the book the stuff can always just be used as a reference or converted]. It also had an extended list of potential 'improved' familiars which included the Nymph. Heh.

When it concerns things like familiars and cohorts an important thing to consider is how you look at the familiar.

Don't think about what it can't do. Because the list is large.

Think about what it CAN do and then look into how this can be helpful.

In a scenario I had my wizard, a cohort [druid], the druid had an animal companion [bear], a charmed companion [ring of animal friendship~~~~] And, I had an improved familiar [dire rat with alter self cast on it].

The party had trouble surrounded by foes and they weren't having much fun when an enemy caster threw a fireball at them. So I went wizard hunting and I must say it was very fun.

My wizard used her hand of glory and it's 1/day 'see invisibility' power to spot the enemy caster who was hiding with that clever spell. She pointed in the rough area and my druid cast fairy fire. Robbing the caster of his invisibility, displacement, and blur [cover up spell in case one is dispelled]. The bears moved in claws and jaws swiping and snapping. The rat familiar positioned himself in the cramped confines of the warehouse we were fighting in and threw a thunderstone at the caster.

You see. He had alter self used on him to make sure that the dm couldn't argue the familiar being unable to manipulate objects. Well he can definitely manipulate objects now that he has thumbs [human~ and +2 str is fine for the little guy]. It wasn't hard for the dire rat to use alchemical items. I mean. They pretty much only require Touch attacks~.

In another scenario I used a trained hawk [not a companion, but a trained animal] to spot foes who were not in direct sight. The hawk would give a cry declaring it spotted a targeted and hover over the area. My druid would then call lightning again and again.

When it comes to familiars and companions it's all about team work~.

Here is another trick.
Caster? Have pyrotechnics? Need a fire? Have a familiar who can toss things? The familiar acts as an extension of possible actions. It throws an alchemist fire. Target is on fire. Target now chokes from smoke cloud taking str and dex penalties.

Touch spells can be delivered via an unarmed strike, thus they are treated like normal melee attacks [they do not hit touch AC, they hit the normal ac]. This combines w/e dmg is done with that physical strike and the touch attack.

If the bonded object is a ring for example it becomes irrelevant as to whether or not the bond can deliver the touch spell.

If one wishes to bring in some spell casting and melee... There is always the spell storing option which can be applied to weapons and of course that means weapon bonds.

Use hand of the apprentice to launch a melee weapon at an opponent.
Upon successfully hitting a stored spell can be instantly casted [limitations in the spell storing description, generally up to lvl 3 and must be standard action or less I believe]. The spell storing weapons can only hold 1 spell at a time, but a new spell can be put into the weapon as a standard action.

Is this a touch attack? Not specifically. But there are ways to reduce your opponent's AC bonus and get that bond into some gritty action.

For those who wish to read in the dark...
If the ink is metallic it could technically be breathed upon and those who can see temperature changes would thus technically be able to read upon it [like blowing your breath on a cold glass]...

Heat sight aside...

If an individual has experiencing living in the dark and needs to read, then there are various options available to them. One of course is a form of braille. But they could just simply use some form of ink that has special properties.

Think about it. This is DnD. It's a world of magic and strange things. Have the need and something can be created to fill that gap. Ink used for magical scroll writing or spellbook writing is not normal to begin with. It states this in the book.

For all a person could care... the ink could be invisible and only show up in candle light - or glow in the dark.

Since darkvision is described as black and white... I don't see why a drow would have a hard time looking at a piece of paper in the dark and read. Don't tell me the drow used white ink on white paper! Most inks are a dark color which is darker then the parchment or leather it's written on.

It could be argued that darkvision combined with read magic would have allowed the reading in the dark.

If this wasn't satisfactory to players worried that they are about to receive something painful, it could be stated that the concealed drow who is out of sight [behind something] uses fairy fire on the page. Though rather unnecessary.

Could use a small glowing piece of mushroom.

Any small amount of fluff should be adequate to say that the drow, an individual who has lived in the dark underground, has found a way to read in the dark.

As for people stumbling around in the dark... It should really stress team work.

If a person has the ability to see in the dark at all, then they should be helping any player who can't. Give them a piece of rope to hang onto... cast spells... devote enough party cash to buying dark vision goggles... get him/her a pet that can see in the dark. Something. Forcing a person to play a character race they don't want to is poor game ship in my opinion.

The person wants to play what they want. That's the point in DnD.

Darkvision is in my opinion not something that should result in such overblown arguments... At least it's not like Fog. Which blocks ALL vision.

Being in a situation where fog comes up, and the gm argues that, No, your spell which states it can blow fog away can't work in this situation; resulting in 3 hours of the party arguing, a player dieing and the same scenario being dragged into the next session... can make one almost envy a drow and his scroll which he read in the dark.

Bring it on.

A familiar is all dependent on the player and the party/game that's happening. Familiars overall are highly versatile, and it is obvious by their size and stats that most familiars are best as scouts or similar function. However like anything in DnD, if you do the build you can always weaponize familiars or companions to the point where they can be far more effective. It boils down to what you are willing to do, and whether or not you want to go in there with tooth and claw or have the familiar do it for you.

In the mid higher levels a wizard/sorc for example acquires polymorph. This is something that you can use on the familiar to turn it into something less crunchy and with more bite. If you had improved familiar then it's already less fragile, yet this can further buff it up or if the familiar isn't serving a function you desire then it can be shaped into something else.

Of course one might argue, "Why not just summon something instead?" Well. The familiar is around all the time. A summon is not. Even though polymorph or similar spells might have limited durations, they will generally last longer then a summon creature, be faster to use on a draw [polymorph is a standard action, summoning spells in most cases take a full round action], and has a peculiar air of flair.

Once was a mephit, now is a ____. Talk about a magic trick.

In pathfinder familiars no longer cost you xp, though there are a few less options in comparison to 3.5 in the area of feats and 3.0 in the area of things you could do to a familiar... But at least you're no longer losing xp.

As a wizard, do you really want to be the one duking it out with a monster in close quarters mortal combat? Or would you want something that could potentially be more powerful doing that for you while you continue casting spells.

To live vicariously or to risk life on a dice roll? Such is the question of style.

Druids have an advantage with animal companions now in the sense that companions can have feats [a subject not clarified for familiars, though with supplements in 3.0/3.5 you could give feats or even class levels to familiars via spells that cost xp], and animal companions tend to be a little tougher naturally.

Unfortunately for druids, animal companions aren't as well.. magical. You can't have a mephit for an animal companion for example [though you can surely summon them when you're high enough leveled]. Druids can wild shape, so having a companion boils down to whether or not the druid really wants to get their teeth and fangs wet... and whether or not they want to do it alone.

Instead of giving your druid or wizard or sorc with familiar magical gear items that for example... increase their physical [not mental] stats... You can give it to the familiar or companion to make it more effective in combat. If party members worry that less spells might come their way, consider this; several party friendly spells such as haste affect multiple targets at once.

Familiars if they're next to you, gain w/e spell you cast upon yourself. So long as they stick close.

At some point even with weaponization there will be situations where it simply isn't favorable to have a familiar, companion etc. A player has to cope with the realization that either the character adopts to the requirements of a new role temporary or not for that familiar/companion, or else the long time ally is toast.

And if it's a case like that, worrying about something with 1/2 your total hp might not be a top priority.

Edit:
Here is another idea for living vicariously through your familiar. Polymorph the familiar. Change your own size, shape etc or even visiblity in any way desired. The goal is to somehow get your character to be able to not only be in the same square as your newly changed or already super familiar while riding it.

Be out of sight and out of mind as the familiar dukes it out... And keeps delivering vampiric touch [giving you or it the temporary hit point bonus]. Of course one could always do this with a spectral hand, but at least this has the potential to look a lot more awesome.

Be like clay my familiar, and become the desires I dream of.