Acquiring a new familiar with Improved Familiar feat


Rules Questions

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

Hello all,

The Familiar section in the Wizard description states:

Quote:
If a familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced 1 week later through a specialized ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete.

The Improved Familiar feat states:

Quote:
This feat allows you to acquire a powerful familiar, but only when you could normally acquire a new familiar.

So are you only allowed to acquire a familiar with this feat when your existing familiar is lost or dies? Or can you just acquire one with this feat at 3rd, 5th, or 7th level? Do you have to "lose" your familiar on purpose?

Thanks.


You can only have one familiar (unless you have the 3.0 extra familiar feat).

You can aquire the inproved familiar when your previous familiar dies, abandons you or is released (by you) from service.

Dark Archive

The Grandfather wrote:

You can only have one familiar (unless you have the 3.0 extra familiar feat).

You can aquire the inproved familiar when your previous familiar dies, abandons you or is released (by you) from service.

Thanks Grandfather. That clears up my confusion.

Grand Lodge

MoFiddy wrote:

Hello all,

The Familiar section in the Wizard description states:

Quote:
If a familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced 1 week later through a specialized ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete.

The Improved Familiar feat states:

Quote:
This feat allows you to acquire a powerful familiar, but only when you could normally acquire a new familiar.

So are you only allowed to acquire a familiar with this feat when your existing familiar is lost or dies? Or can you just acquire one with this feat at 3rd, 5th, or 7th level? Do you have to "lose" your familiar on purpose?

Thanks.

I once had a character that was a Gnome bard follower of Cayden Calien with a rat familair (yes I took the feat) and the GM knew I was going to take Improved Familair. He decided when I the rat would become a Dire Rat as a gift from my deity. It worked at was pretty cool.

Dark Archive

Andrew Betts wrote:
MoFiddy wrote:

Hello all,

The Familiar section in the Wizard description states:

Quote:
If a familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced 1 week later through a specialized ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete.

The Improved Familiar feat states:

Quote:
This feat allows you to acquire a powerful familiar, but only when you could normally acquire a new familiar.

So are you only allowed to acquire a familiar with this feat when your existing familiar is lost or dies? Or can you just acquire one with this feat at 3rd, 5th, or 7th level? Do you have to "lose" your familiar on purpose?

Thanks.

I once had a character that was a Gnome bard follower of Cayden Calien with a rat familair (yes I took the feat) and the GM knew I was going to take Improved Familair. He decided when I the rat would become a Dire Rat as a gift from my deity. It worked at was pretty cool.

Very nice. Did you keep the +2 fortitude save bonus when you acquired the dire rat?

Say, for example, that I picked a raven as my first familiar and then upgraded to an imp at some later time. Would I keep the bonus from the raven and would I gain another bonus from the imp? I searched the player's guide, but I didn't see anything that mentioned this.

Grand Lodge

I did not


MoFiddy wrote:
Say, for example, that I picked a raven as my first familiar and then upgraded to an imp at some later time. Would I keep the bonus from the raven and would I gain another bonus from the imp? I searched the player's guide, but I didn't see anything that mentioned this.

I *seriously* doubt it. That would be extremely broken.

Also:

PFSRD Core wrote:
A familiar grants special abilities to its master, as given on the table below. These special abilities apply only when the master and familiar are within 1 mile of each other.

Other than the fact that your old familiar is no longer your familiar, and you are no longer it's master, it is also unlikely to be within one mile of you.


Speaking of Improved Familiar, do any of the new familiars available impart special abilities such as the regular familiars? i.e., a rat familiar grants the owner a +2 to fortitude saves, would a dire rat confer any such benefit?

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