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I know that both the 3.5 rules and the current version of the Pathfinder Alpha state that a Familiar cannot also be an Animal Companion. I understand this and I'm OK with that rule as the normal state of affairs ...
BUT ...
I really think there should be some way of allowing it in certain situations. I would think a Feat would be the obvious way to go. I know 3.5 has the Improved Familiar feat (in the DMG) which is kind of in the right direction, but not the same thing.
I realize that an individual DM could simply house rule it in his campaign, most likely by using a modified version of the Improved Familiar feat or by creating a similar feat specifically for this (in fact, as a DM, I would see no problem with this).
My question(s) is/are:
Is there a 3.5 feat out there somewhere that actually DOES allow this?
If not, and this is obviously aimed mostly at Jason and company: Will the Pathfinder rules include the Improved Familiar feat? If so, maybe the wording could also allow a Druid/Sorcerer to instead combine their familiar and companion? If that would be two much for one feat (and I'm thinking it probably might be) could Pathfinder maybe also have a feat called Companion Familiar (or something similar) that allows this?
I think a separate feat is probably the way to go. It is certainly no more powerful that the Improved Familiar feat, and would allow Druid/Sorcerers, Druid/Wizards etc a pretty cool and interesting way to customize their character.
Thoughts (both from my fellow message board readers AND from Jason and company if at all possible)???
Thanks!
There's not a feat, as far as I know, in 3.5 that will combine your familiar and animal companion - but there is a prestige class that accomplishes the same thing.
It's called the Arcane Hierophant and it's in Races of the Wild. You gain a level in both your divine and arcane casting class for determining spellcasting and your levels stack for determining your animal companion/familiar and your animal companion gets all of the familiar special abilities. You also get a few other token abilities.
Hope this helps!
Considering how they are making druids, rangers, sorcerers and wizards work in Pathfinder this could be a non-issue. But the idea of a feat to combine them wouldn't be too outrageous I would think. Especially if you keep levels in both fairly even.
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Silly question - but why not just house rule that you can combine them? Seems a waste of a feat if you ask me.
That's a good point ... so good in fact that I actually said as much in my original post. It's right up there at the top of this thread. Go ahead and scroll up ... we'll wait :)
My point was that I realized that one could simply house rule it in one's own campaign - my main question was if Pathfinder was going to add a feat to allow it officially. It seems that a feat would be an easy way to allow that flexibility if one wanted it.
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Considering how they are making druids, rangers, sorcerers and wizards work in Pathfinder this could be a non-issue. But the idea of a feat to combine them wouldn't be too outrageous I would think. Especially if you keep levels in both fairly even.
Thanks Fenry. I'm not quite sure what you mean though when you say 'Considering how they are making druids, rangers, sorcerers and wizards work in Pathfinder this could be a non-issue'. Why would that be? Assuming that a player wanted to play, for example, a Druid/Wizard and he opted for the animal companion as his Druid nature bond and opted for a familiar instead of a bonded item for his Wizard bond, my question is still valid isn't it?
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If there isn't such a feat, I would certainly be willing to make one, based off of the Arcane Heirophant guidelines. It's a very cool notion for a Druid / Sorcerer or Ranger / Wizard sort (ah, the good old days, when Rangers had magic-user spells *and* druid spells).
For a character who already has a Familiar and / or Companion, the feat would ideally allow them to shift the abilities to the other creature and dismiss the other one or something. Having to wait a full year before calling up another Familiar would rot, if that rule is being enforced.
For a more sinister version, perhaps one of them (likely the Companion) has to *eat* the other to absorb it's connection... Mwa-ha-ha.
"Why does your bear have glowing eyes and little horns? Is it a Dire Bear?"
"No, I had a Quasit familiar for awhile, but he eated it, and now he's got the Fiendish template."
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This just came up in my campaign.
To very thinly summarize the situation...
The name of the kingdom translates to 'land of sharp teeth' and was recently founded upon a fierce land of races of the dragon and other creatures, in a setting where there are three gods of neutrality including an earthmother, as well as two dragon-gods in the pantheon. Now, the youngest player is playing a PRPG Druid. After some time, I ruled that his Eagle had flow off due to the dire storm that was summoned by the villain. After the storm dissolved, when the druid called for another companion, a small pseudodragon appeared. Very cool.
Several decades ago, I recall someone had a wizard who had a pseudodragon familiar. While I have not ruled that this pseudodragon is any kind of familiar, I have had it behave as an animal companion. And honestly, becuase it is so fitting with the setting and story it works wonderfully.
To the point made earlier, why bother trying to write rules around the combination of familiar and animal companion. Given the context, and the story-value, I'm houseruling this, but most would otherwise never do so. In other words, although DMs may do as they wish, the concepts of familair and animal companion are really two distinct concepts.
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Is there a 3.5 feat out there somewhere that actually DOES allow this?
Theurgic Bond from Dragon issue 325
prereq: Ability to gain familiar and ability to gain animal companion
Benefit: Choose your Familiar –or– your Animal Companion. When determining its abilities, add the levels of your Familiar granting classes to your Animal Companion granting classes.
The purpose of that feat was to boost your effective druid levels for the Animal Companion power, it did not give your animal companion familiar abilities..
Is there a 3.5 feat out there somewhere that actually DOES allow this?
Theurgic Bond from Dragon issue 325
prereq: Ability to gain familiar and ability to gain animal companion
Benefit: Choose your Familiar –or– your Animal Companion. When determining its abilities, add the levels of your Familiar granting classes to your Animal Companion granting classes.
The Arcane Hierophant does give your Animal Companion the Familiar abilities and is actually renamed to become a Companion Familiar. There are a few down sides to this...
1. Like any prestige class it doesn't do what you want until a certain level... this one in particular is 8th level. (4 Druid/3 Wizard/1 Arcane Hierophant.) It requires a certain BAB, +4 I believe, hence 4 Druid levels. The skills were not much of a problem.
2. Your Animal Companion will be gimped by 3 levels aka the Wizard levels. However there is a Feat for just such an occassion... "Natural Bond", sorry I forget which book this was in, I would guess Complete Divine though. With the feat the animal companion continues progression during 3 levels of multi-class as well.
I am currently playing on of these and he is almost level 7, so far it has been quite enjoyable. Another good Feat for this character was "Spellbound Companion" (PHB2), which allows you to cast touch spells/share spells on your companion up to 30 feet away, instead of the normal 5 foot. This is not of big importance to my character as his companion is his mount(Kobold & Boar), but at some point it could be very very useful.