Acquire Familiar

[Zaister]

A sorcerer in my Legacy of Fire campaign has taken a liking to a certain lucky cat. She would really like to take the cat as a familiar, mostly to protect it from harm. Unfortunately she has a bloodline that does not include the Arcane Bond ability. I'm considering allowing her to spend her next feat to get this ability. Is this a viable solution, or can anyone think of a better way? Or do we already have a way to make this happen that I'm not aware of?

Thank you for your advice.

[Symar]

Eldritch Heritage feat in Ultimate Magic lets them pick up a first level bloodline power, although you count as your level -2.
Snag Arcane and you get Arcane Bond, which is how you get a familiar.

You need Cha13, to be at least level 3, and have Skill Focus: Knowledge (any) to get it, though. (Which skill you need Skill Focus for changes based on which bloodline you're after.)

[Anguish]

There was a feat in Complete Arcane, one of the earlier 3.5e class expansion books called Obtain Familiar. Requirements were pretty much "be an arcane caster" and benefits were "get a familiar as usual". It was intended for the three new arcane classes in that book, which didn't get familiars. That all being said, the earlier Completes were the most cautious of the series, so that feat being that early in the evolution I'd be completely comfortable with it in PFRPG.

[Thefurmonger]

As Symar pointed out, Eldritch Heritage is the PF version of the old Obtain Familiar.

Yeas you count as 2 lower level but really thats not so bad, and the Skill focus comes in real handy anyway.

I have this on my Bard ATM and it's great.

[Zaister]

Symar wrote:

Eldritch Heritage feat in Ultimate Magic lets them pick up a first level bloodline power, although you count as your level -2.

Snag Arcane and you get Arcane Bond, which is how you get a familiar.

You need Cha13, to be at least level 3, and have Skill Focus: Knowledge (any) to get it, though. (Which skill you need Skill Focus for changes based on which bloodline you're after.)

Ah, that would be the correct Pathfinder solution, with the problem that she'd actually have to take two feats - this one, and Skill Focus (Knowledge (arcane)) - to make this happen. Hm. Thanks for the tip. I'll bring it up in the game tonight.

[Jeremiziah]

To give you another measure of the designer's perception of the power of a familiar, the Magus can get a familiar as a magus arcana, and they get those every four levels. So definitely stronger than a feat, which is a more limited resource.

[The Chort]

Jeremiziah wrote:

To give you another measure of the designer's perception of the power of a familiar, the Magus can get a familiar as a magus arcana, and they get those every four levels. So definitely stronger than a feat, which is a more limited resource.

Actually, Magi get them every 3 levels: 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc.

Oracles, on the other hand, get a Revelation at 1st, 3rd, 7th, 11th, etc. ...and a revelation can get you... An animal companion.

But that doesn't stop feats like Extra Arcana and Extra Revelation from being made, each of which can be taken multiple times...

Anyway, I do recommend the Eldritch Heritage series of feats. (Familiar, bonus spells/faster metamagic, and +2 to the DC of your choice in school? Not bad!)

However, if your character has no interest in taking the subsequent feats, I think I'd allow Acquire Familiar as an exception. Requiring 2 feats for something that's more for character flavor... Meh. I guess the character could play it up as a realization of a hidden power; i.e. Eldritch Heritage

So yeah, I wouldn't worry about game balance when it comes to familiars. Just whatever works best for the storyline and your players. (Unless sticking to PF rules really matters to y'all.)

[Bugaboo-X]

Zaister wrote:

A sorcerer in my Legacy of Fire campaign has taken a liking to a certain lucky cat. She would really like to take the cat as a familiar, mostly to protect it from harm. Unfortunately she has a bloodline that does not include the Arcane Bond ability. I'm considering allowing her to spend her next feat to get this ability. Is this a viable solution, or can anyone think of a better way? Or do we already have a way to make this happen that I'm not aware of?

Thank you for your advice.

What they said.

Take a look at the character's progression so far and consider the possibility that a less-than-optimal choice was already made that could justify this sort of exception. Or an upcoming class feature that can be traded instead of a feat.

The relative "balance" issue is close enough for your purposes. At the end of the day, it's YOUR game anyway; not like you're going to submit the character and campaign for a federal grant under super-strict guidelines.