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Does a familiar for a witch need it's own character sheet? I understand it can die, but outside of knowings the base stats, is there really a need? I have a fox familiar as of the moment, and when i reached 7th level, I plan on getting a Pseudodragon. The pseudodragon seems to be a little more complicated then a fox that really can't do anything in combat, so it would make sense to have a little more information written down for that then the fox... (Yes, I know it takes the Improved Familiar feat, just to stop that now ;) )
Obviously you need to keep track of its stats (HP, skill bonuses, saves, etc) but how you choose to keep track of this is up to you. Some GMs do it themselves, treating the familiar as an NPC. I tend to just scrawl the info somewhere with enough space - sometimes on the back of a character sheet, or on a post-it.
As a witch, keeping your familiar alive is especially important, so keeping track of its vitals is a good idea.
I'm considering playing a Witch with Improved Familiar myself. However, 2 things remain unclear:
1. You lose pretty much all your spells when your familar dies or is lost. Does this also apply if you voluntarily switch your familiar? Or could you transfer all your spells to the new familiar during the binding ritual if our old familiar is present (and alive)?
2. On a more general note about Improved Familiar: Where does the new Familiar come from anyway? Do I need to summon it before making it my Familiar (via planar binding or something similar) or is it summoned during the binding ritual? Does the ritual come with the gold costs when you replace a living Familiar?
3. Some of the Mephits can cast Blur as a SLA one per hour. Is there some limitation to the targeting of the SLA that I'm missing or could you really use the Mephit's Blur on your Witch? I think this would greatly help with the Witch's lack of defensive spells.
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I'm considering playing a Witch with Improved Familiar myself. However, 2 things remain unclear:
1. You lose pretty much all your spells when your familar dies or is lost. Does this also apply if you voluntarily switch your familiar? Or could you transfer all your spells to the new familiar during the binding ritual if our old familiar is present (and alive)?
2. On a more general note about Improved Familiar: Where does the new Familiar come from anyway? Do I need to summon it before making it my Familiar (via planar binding or something similar) or is it summoned during the binding ritual? Does the ritual come with the gold costs when you replace a living Familiar?
3. Some of the Mephits can cast Blur as a SLA one per hour. Is there some limitation to the targeting of the SLA that I'm missing or could you really use the Mephit's Blur on your Witch? I think this would greatly help with the Witch's lack of defensive spells.
1. Left up to DM Fiat.
2. Also DM Fiat.3. Blur has a target of "Creature Touched" so no, there is nothing preventing you from targeting your witch as opposed to the Mephit itself. Keep in mind however it's caster level.
your familiar is the one that knows the spells it's essentially the liason to yourvpatron. if you got improved familiar you would loose the spells by RAW. dm fiat could have your familiar transform though.
one can only have one familiar
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Along the same line... Wizards can have multiple spellbooks.
Can Witches have multiple Familiars? For instance I currently have a 9th level Witch with a Pseudodragon Familiar that I adventure with. Could I also have say a cat that stays at home while I am out with my spell repertoire there as well? It states that Familiars can teach other familiars but does not state that we are limited to one. I'd just like to get some opinions on this. Not saying that I'm going to be 'that person with 29 cats'. I'd just like to have a backup should my main spell storing device get eaten or whatnot.
There is a feat in one of the Witch pamphlets that gives you another familiar. The benefit is that if you have 4 1st level spells known then each familiar gets 4 1st level spells effectively giving you double the number of spells known. You can't cast more spells per day, but it opens up the number of spells you get (and the second familiar can choose a different domain and get another set of domain bonus spells known too).
You do also know that you could always pay a wizard to write all the spells you have down into a book too...then if something happens and you need to get your spells back you can have your familiar study and learn the spells from a book. Or pay and keep a library of scrolls for all your spells too.
Oh, and BTW if you take Improved Familiar ask the GM to roleplay it out so it isn't a POOF new familiar appears and old one dies instantly. If you roleplay it like you are supposed to then it should be sent to you by your patron (a god) so either it will be sent knowing all the same stuff (because gods have that power) or you can have your old familiar teach your new improved familiar before returning to the unknown to assist another up and coming witch.
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I'm considering playing a Witch with Improved Familiar myself. However, 2 things remain unclear:
1. You lose pretty much all your spells when your familar dies or is lost. Does this also apply if you voluntarily switch your familiar? Or could you transfer all your spells to the new familiar during the binding ritual if our old familiar is present (and alive)?
2. On a more general note about Improved Familiar: Where does the new Familiar come from anyway? Do I need to summon it before making it my Familiar (via planar binding or something similar) or is it summoned during the binding ritual? Does the ritual come with the gold costs when you replace a living Familiar?
3. Some of the Mephits can cast Blur as a SLA one per hour. Is there some limitation to the targeting of the SLA that I'm missing or could you really use the Mephit's Blur on your Witch? I think this would greatly help with the Witch's lack of defensive spells.
1. Left up to DM Fiat.
2. Also DM Fiat.
3. Blur has a target of "Creature Touched" so no, there is nothing preventing you from targeting your witch as opposed to the Mephit itself. Keep in mind however it's caster level.
Your interpretation on 1 & 2 are incorrect. in the core rulebook under familiars (pg. 82) it states:
If a familiar is dismissed, 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.
As it says above you only lose the spells stored in it if your familiar is Killed, Dismissed or Lost, replaced is not on that list so you keep those spells. They actually have a dev post stating this is how it works.
Also the only requirements for that new familiar is the above stated ritual, that's all you need to do. Anything else is fluff your GM has decided to add.|
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Or buy a stone familiar (acts like a backup drive) and download all the spells your familiar knows intot eh stone familiar and if familiar dies you can use the stone familiar to add all the spells to the new familiar so no spells are lost.
This, and honestly, the very existence of this item says to me that Witches have a risk of losing their spells (at least for awhile) with the familiar. So every Witch should budget for this item and every DM that plans to go after the familiar in combat should let this item be available.
Does a familiar for a witch need it's own character sheet?
Depends on your game. I've played in plenty where the familiar actually doesn't come up, and much more where it does come up but the stats don't. Its useful to have if something does come up(oh hey, my familiar has scent and 24 perception!), but if you never need that your probably good being lazy and reducing your paperwork load.