Does a familiar gain feats? Do it's saves increase?
Can i have a familiar then take the leadership feat and advance the familiar as my cohort ?
Basically i would like (if anyone could) tell me how the familiars are supposed to work because compared to the bonded item they seem pretty less usefull.
Thank you
Familiers do not gain any feats, skills, or abilities that are not listed on the familiar advancement table in the wizard section of the core rule book.
They basically get a little harder to hit and get smarter. The main reasons for a familiar are to work as an extra set of eyes and scout... plus the ability to deliver touch spells while staying safely out of combat.
Anytime a mage can avoid being in combat or scouting ahead is a good thing, especially with the more difficult Concentration checks now.
What about familiar and leadership thing?
Can a familiar gain class levels in any way?
That is up to your DM to decide, but per the base level rules the answer is no. Familiars are an extension of the wizard master and not really an independent creature. Allowing the familiar to gain class levels would be the same as a druids animal companion gaining class levels after the druid raised the animals INT to 3. As such all forms of "pets" gain extra abilities already and giving them class levels on top of that is going to be much more powerful then either the class feature or leadership feat by themselves.
All of that being said, if your friends and DM are OK with it then go ahead and burn the feat and have fun with it.
This is not RAW, but in my last campaign I tried an option where Familiars and Animal Companions could be designated as henchmen if you also had the Leadership feat.
For Druids and Rangers, the animal lost all special abilities relating to being an animal companion, but was allowed to take class levels.
Familiars were similar but could reclaim the ability to channel touch attacks and such through feats.
The campaign didn't last all that long, so, I couldn't see how the balance of things turned out, but the concept lead to a lot of imaginative ideas.
The most imaginative character in that was an 11th level mage with a 9th level bard eagle familiar. The familiar took the ability to share buff spells, but not deliver touch attacks, and the mage regularly polymorphed into a hamster and rode the eagle into battle, raining fireballs down from the sky. Kinda silly, but the player had a blast.
Overall, a lot of the NPCs took advantage of it, and none of the players complained it was overpowered. This was a 3.5 game, not a Pathfinder, so... some classes (such as a hawk Paladin that can deliver touch attacks) might end up overpowered.
The rules for familiars are found in the SRD:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/classes/wizard.html#familiars
Familiars were very powerful in 3.5. Pathfinder has nerfed them in lots of ways but also removed the XP penalty when they get killed. There are still a lot of nice things about familiars though:
- Most familiars give you a +3 on a skill check or +2 to a save. Those bonuses would usually cost a feat.
- You can change your familiar into something else by sharing a polymorph spell. Since standard familiars are kind of wimpy this isn't that great for combat, but it can have other uses.
- Familiars have skills! Familiars have the normal skills for animals of their type. Some of them are pretty good at stuff like Perception, and the bat even has Blindsense. Familiars also get your ranks in a skill instead (if they're higher). That means that the familiar can probably "aid another" to give you +2 on most skill checks. Add that to the +3 bonus many of them grant and you're a skill superstar. This can also be very handy with Use Magic Device...
- The raven familiar can speak. This means it can use command word activated magic items. Considering the fact that it shares any skill ranks you may have in Use Magic Device it might be able to pull off some interesting stuff depending on what the DM will allow (can a raven unroll and read a scroll?)
- Having a familiar (instead of a bonded object) qualifies you to get an Improved Familiar. I'll go into more detail on that one...
Most of the Improved Familiars can speak and have hands. Combine this with some ranks in Use Magic Device and you've potentially got a pretty decent wand jockey (Imp is good for this). Who wouldn't want an invisible guy with a wand of Cure Moderate Wounds flying around patching up the party? The familiar could also potentially help you or other party members by applying low level buffs from wands or scrolls. Imps and earth elementals can be good scouts too. The elemental could even have some utility in melee. His HP will be low, but if things get tough he can go hide in the floor.
Ok, so if you have a Pseudo Dragon (that can speak) as an Improved Familiar, and it gets your skill ranks, does it gain extra languages (probably the ones your caster speaks) if the caster has ranks in Linguistics?
Bump....Anyone?
Ok, so if you have a Pseudo Dragon (that can speak) as an Improved Familiar, and it gets your skill ranks, does it gain extra languages (probably the ones your caster speaks) if the caster has ranks in Linguistics?
Yes. It treats the ranks as it's own for all purposes, including learning languages.
Two points. First, the GM is well within his rights to require that the familiar gain the same languages known as the master (its using the master's ranks after all). Generous GMs's can allow it to learn a different language here or there if there is a really good reason... but don't expect this.
Second, remember that just because your familiar knows several languages, that doesn't give it the ability to speak them. Understand them? Yes. Read them? Yes. Speak them? No.
Of course, in the case of a familiar capable of vocalization (such as a raven or imp) it would gain the ability to speak them...
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I would imagine that it would have to be the same languages the wizard spoke. That makes sense, as the ranks are acquired from the wizard.
I would assume that a Pseudodragon, like other dragons, could speak.
A cool thing about UMD is that you don't actually have to be able to speak to use command word items with UMD. The whole point of UMD is to be able to use items you wouldn't normally be able to use. Including items to which you don't know/can't speak the command word.
Now, if you gave you raven familiar, say, a Mask of the Skull, it could simply speak the command, and use it. No check necessary, and it's certainly smart enough.
You could also give your monkey familiar a wand, and assuming it can make a DC 25 UMD check, it can use the wand just fine.
Scrolls are the same. Your familiar would first have to decipher the scroll, but a shared Read Magic spell will take care of that. After that, to use UMD, all the familiar has to be able to do is hold the scroll.
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A cool thing about UMD is that you don't actually have to be able to speak to use command word items with UMD. The whole point of UMD is to be able to use items you wouldn't normally be able to use. Including items to which you don't know/can't speak the command word.
Now, if you gave you raven familiar, say, a Mask of the Skull, it could simply speak the command, and use it. No check necessary, and it's certainly smart enough.
You could also give your monkey familiar a wand, and assuming it can make a DC 25 UMD check, it can use the wand just fine.
Scrolls are the same. Your familiar would first have to decipher the scroll, but a shared Read Magic spell will take care of that. After that, to use UMD, all the familiar has to be able to do is hold the scroll.
And if you have any doubts about having a familiar being able to succeed on that UMD check simply take the feat Evolved Familiar from Ultimate magic and grab the skilled Evolution. A +8 racial bonus to UMD with a Circlet of Persuasion for another +3 and lets assume a 5th level wizard (earliest you'd have the feat and cash available) for another 5 gives your familiar a flat +16 on any UMD check.
As for which Familiar to use I personally prefer the Homunculus.
1). It's the only improved familiar without alignment restrictions,
2). No ulterior motives like the imp, quasit or pseudodragon,
3). Has a superior Telepathic link for scouting,
4). Has more hit Die then all the other Familiars (+1HD per 2000gp you spend)
5). Comes with it's own feats and skills since it has more than 2HD
6). It's a construct and keeps all the construct traits
Low-light vision.
Darkvision 60 feet.
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms,compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
Immunity to disease, death effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
Constructs can be healed through spells such as make whole.
Not subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage.
Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
Not at risk of death from massive damage.
Constructs do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
For the cost of a single feat at 7th level you get a permanent low light vision/Darkvision, Clairvoyance/clairaudience and a free chance to recognize/ignore all illusions.
Add to that a super fast, flying spy/helper/craftsman who is totally loyal and probably tougher then you are (they are a D10 Hit Die type).
Spend 10 grand on it and you have a 6HD companion with at least 12 skillpoints, 2-4 extra feats a gob of defenses on it and freely upgradeable if you are willing to spend the cash on it.
Heck, if you are willing to burn 20-30 grand you can have a familiar tougher and more powerful then your tanking fighter (probably smarter too).
The best part about it is you can have as many of these as you want (and can afford). I routinely have 4-5 of them with at least one with the additional traits (magical talent) doing repairs on all the gear items we find.
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1). It's the only improved familiar without alignment restrictions
Except that, these days, you can be one step out on both axis when compared to your Improved Familiar's alignment, so any choice listed as 'Neutral' is, by extension, unrestricted as far as alignment goes (so Dire Rat, Elemental, Stirge, and Mephit from Core are all 'unrestricted' as well).
... take the monkey and add wings to it...
Since Flight is a 2pt evolution with a requirement of 5 levels of Summoner to take it, it's doubtful you'll be doing this with the 1pt evolution you get from the Evolved Familiar Feat (even if you take the Feat multiple times it only means you can take multiple 1pt evolutions, you can't add the points together to take 2pt or higher ones). The Skilled evolution really does seem the best choice, mechanically, for this Feat, IMHO.
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1). It's the only improved familiar without alignment restrictionsExcept that, these days, you can be one step out on both axis when compared to your Improved Familiar's alignment, so any choice listed as 'Neutral' is, by extension, unrestricted as far as alignment goes (so Dire Rat, Elemental, Stirge, and Mephit from Core are all 'unrestricted' as well).
That's still an alignment restriction, just because it's an easy one to fill doesn't change that fact.
It's been awhile since I pulled my wizard out I forgot just how amazing the homunculus really is. Can't wait till I get my witch high enough to have one again.
I remember reading about a feat lately that basicly gave your familiar a feat. In other words you trade one of your own feats for one of your familiar.
I'm not sure what it was called anymore, and where it's from. It's quite possible that it was from Dragon Magazine, or some other non-core, non-PF source.
I'm npt looking to optimise my familiar (and I'll of course ask my GM about what HE has in his game) I'm more interested in the RP aspect of a speaking pseudodragon.
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That's still an alignment restriction, just because it's an easy one to fill doesn't change that fact.
It's not an 'easy to fill' restriction, it's an 'impossible not to fill' restriction. There's no alignment which can't qualify for a Neutral Improved Familiar, because there's no possible way to ever be more than one step away from neutral on the two alignment axis. Whatever semantics are involved, the Homonculus is no better or worse than any Neutral aligned familiar in this respect.
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I was mostly speaking to the OP since Familiars don't ever improve their skills or feats. In that regard the only real choice you should ever take is the Homonculus since it lets you build your familiar however you want with more feats and skills then any other familiar.
The pseudodragon is nice but it never improves on any of it's abilities once you take it as a familiar and it's flighty and likely to abandon you if you do something it doesn't like so I always give it a pass.
That's the real problem with using most of the improved familiars, if used as they are supposed to be they put restrictions on what your character can do (PseudoDragon, celestial hawk) or actively try to destroy you (imp, Quasit). A familiar is not my partner in this like an Animal Companion, it's a tool to use as I see fit.
Add to that the new Construct rules from Ultimate Magic and the homonculus becomes leaps and bounds better then any other choice.
OK. I used to think that familiars gained racial hit dice because the wizard entry says their HD equal to yours for related purposes. I have been corrected in that manner.
I do pose the question, why do familiars gain increased intelligence? They don't get new skill points. Is it just for role playing purposes? Is your raven familiar supposed to go on Jeopardy when you are level 18 and beat out the humans with its superior int?
I think the intelligence is there to justify using you familiar for specific actions.
"Sure my cat can follow my instructions on how to work the button system. It is smarter than our fighter, and you didn't complain when I told him how to do it."
note that if you have a faerie dragon familiar you can give him pages of spell knowledge to increase his known 1st level sorcerer spells