I have always thought of a familiar as the wizards aid and companion. The person who is privy to all of the wizards study and helps them cast spells and do research. On that vein they should be smart and have a function other than a touch spell delivery system.
Familiars: In addition to their other talents and abilities the familiar will add a +2 to all knowledge or spell craft check that the wizard attempts. An Improved familiar increases this bonus to 4 and allows the wizard to attempt untrained knowledge rolls. Normally you may not attempt an untrained knowledge check with a difficulty greater then DC10. Don't know the answer? Ask the fairy dragon!
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Well a familiar can use either their ranks or their master's ranks in any skill, so they're actually pretty good at getting a second opinion from. That's why Ravens are so common as familiars, they can speak a language at first level so they can more quickly start adding to things.
Still use the familiar's ability scores, but still.
I have always thought of a familiar as the wizards aid and companion. The person who is privy to all of the wizards study and helps them cast spells and do research. On that vein they should be smart and have a function other than a touch spell delivery system.
Familiars: In addition to their other talents and abilities the familiar will add a +2 to all knowledge or spell craft check that the wizard attempts. An Improved familiar increases this bonus to 4 and allows the wizard to attempt untrained knowledge rolls. Normally you may not attempt an untrained knowledge check with a difficulty greater then DC10. Don't know the answer? Ask the fairy dragon!
I like it. But you might have to make a Diplomacy check with your familiar to get him to tell you the extra secrets, with circumstance bonuses for bringing him a treat (pie for your faerie dragon, virgin's blood for you imp, etc). Otherwise it begs the question of why the familiar didn't just tell you straight off.
An improved familiar should also give you some bonus in everything dealing with creatures of its type. Not only should you know more about fae and dragons if you have a faerie dragon familiar, but you should also get some bonus in dealing with them.
What I've done is just add 2 higher-level abilities to them:
9th Level: When concentrating on a spell with a duration of "concentration," as a free action, the master can transfer concentration on the spell to the familiar to maintain.
15th Level: Familiar gains the ability to perform somatic spell components for the master. Although this means that you essentially gain free Still spells, it also means that your spells can be disrupted by someone threatening your familiar.
These reinforce the flavor that a familiar actively assists its master with his magic, instead of just hanging around and occasionally getting eaten when the master sends it out to spy. ;)
What I've done is just add 2 higher-level abilities to them:
9th Level: When concentrating on a spell with a duration of "concentration," as a free action, the master can transfer concentration on the spell to the familiar to maintain.
15th Level: Familiar gains the ability to perform somatic spell components for the master. Although this means that you essentially gain free Still spells, it also means that your spells can be disrupted by someone threatening your familiar.
These reinforce the flavor that a familiar actively assists its master with his magic, instead of just hanging around and occasionally getting eaten when the master sends it out to spy. ;)
You do realize that if your familiar is casting the somatic component for your spell you can be in full plate armor with no penalty, right? Armor, without proficiency, adds a penalty to your attack rolls- but casting buffs and reflex-saves spells negate the need for a penalty.
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What I've done is just add 2 higher-level abilities to them:Those are cool ideas. I also like familiars, and made a few changes to them in my game.
Basically, I advance familiars as if they were a Class, so they get skill points and feats of their own (2+Int and 1/3 levels ... I'm still 3.5). Once they get to an Intelligence of 10+ they can really develop some personality in terms of stats.
I extrapolated their SR down through all levels, and am also eliminating "dead levels" by adding in abilities. The old idea of "seeing through your familiars eyes" is going to come back (assuming they let you) as will some other cool stuff. At the higher levels, I'm considering allowing them to take on the form of their master's race.
In between, I let them have other cool abilities that are appropriate to their species ... a spider monkey with spider climb for example.
Decades ago [b]Dragon[/i] had an article with an Enhance Familiar series of spells from 2nd through 9th level, and have provided inspiration for my attempts to make them more interesting.
Currently, my GF plays an Evoker with an owl familiar. The part is trying to concoct a way to use Quaal's feather token (anchor) to turn her into a dive-bomber.
FWIW,
Rez
This is very similar to something that happened in a game I was in. My wizard character died by falling into a lava lake, so I asked if I could take over the familiar. I spent the rest of that campaign as a hawk (magical beast) fighter, with some interesting feats for small flying animals we came up with.
One was dive bomb, which was kind of like Spring Attack for birds.
I really don't think any extra house-rules are necessary for what you're talking about.
As is, you can either have the familiar roll separately for skill checks or constantly Aid Another, whichever gives better chances. I see no reason why Aid Another shouldn't apply to Concentration checks either (I don't have my book with me right now, so I'm not sure if this is a 'legal' usage of Aid Another, but it seems like it should be.)* And if you invest in UMD, your Familiar can be running Wand support, which is not an insignifigant role.
* Actually, the PRD doesn't even seem to contain specific rules for Aid Another: Saving Throws, though that is suggested in the Aid Another section of "Special Attacks" ("You can also use this standard action to help a friend in other ways, such as when he is affected by a spell"). Is this an oversight, or what? Is Aid Another:Concentration a legitimate usage of Aid Another?
True you can use aid other for the basic familiar and it will work almost as well but here are two problems.
First it will practically do the same thing but require extra rolls for every check. This is slightly more powerful and simpler. KISS
Second I wanted to give the improved familiar a serious role. With the improved familiar and combat casting the wizard would have a huge advantage of casting spell in combat over those without these advantages.
It makes a serious alternative to the bounded item. To date I have not seen a single wizard or arcane sorcerer take a familiar over the bonded item.
You do realize that if your familiar is casting the somatic component for your spell you can be in full plate armor with no penalty, right? Armor, without proficiency, adds a penalty to your attack rolls- but casting buffs and reflex-saves spells negate the need for a penalty.
You do realize that if a 15th level wizard needs full plate armor, he's in a world of hurt already that the armor isn't going to help him with much, right? The guy can cast 8th level spells, and you're worried about armor use?