Bonded Ring and a familiar?


Rules Questions


Ok so I'd love to make a dwarf wizard magic item crafter who runs his shop like on Pawnstars that has a raven familiar AND a bonded ring... Can it be done with eldritch heritage arcane?
The arcane blood line says you can't have a familiar and an object and I was wondering how you the community feel the eldritch heritage feat interplays with that rule...

It seems that if I can't have both I can have one Powerful Familiar
Example: level 10 wizard with a level 18 familiar(eldritch heritage gives you a "sorcerer level" that specifically stacks with your wizard level for determining it's abilities
Could lead to monster SR on said familiar? And an expensive replacement should it die...

Thoughts?


Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

In the Feat description it says

UM pg 149: Eldritch Heritage wrote:
For purposes of using the power treat your sorcerer level as equal to your character level -2, even if you have levels in sorcerer

This language seems to imply that your "effective sorcerer level" from the feat does not stack with any other abilities.

As to using Eldritch heritage to get both a familiar and bonded item....?
Arcane bloodline specifically says you can't use it to have both, so I don't think you can get around that requirement by taking it as a feat and not as a class feature.

No to both. It seems to be a hard and fast rule that having both bonded item and familiar is considered overpowering and unbalanced. Because classes that get a familiar stack for determining power, you could have a Witch 5/Wiz 5/Sorc 5/Rogue 5 and have a lvl 20 familiar. Because the familiar scales w/ lvl but a lvl 1 bonded item is just as powerful as a lvl 20 bonded item having both is too strong.


Arcane Bond (Su): At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to your sorcerer level. Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.

It seems to me that the EH feat for arcane bloodline grants you a sorcerer level that is CharacterLevel-2 and it also states that sorcerer level stacks with wizard levels

So for the 10th level example 10wiz+(10-2=8sor)=18 effective level for familiar

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Sandbox wrote:

Arcane Bond (Su): At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to your sorcerer level. Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.

It seems to me that the EH feat for arcane bloodline grants you a sorcerer level that is CharacterLevel-2 and it also states that sorcerer level stacks with wizard levels

So for the 10th level example 10wiz+(10-2=8sor)=18 effective level for familiar

You can't use arcane bond to double dip your wizard levels for your arcane bond. Essentially taking this feat would leave you as Wizard plus sorcerer for your present familliar abilities. The level stacking is for the spell like abilities that OTHER bloodlines would give you since they would not be duplicating abilities from the wizard class.

So essentially you gain nothing for taking eldritch heritage this way.

You want a talking raven? Get a Druid to do a favor by Awakening a Raven and take it on as a Cohort. Or give up your magic ring and get a familliar.


I assume you're referring to the arcane bloodline.

From the PHB:

Arcane Bond (Su) : At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond , as a wizard equal to your sorcerer level. Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.

Note the bolded part.


Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber
Sandbox wrote:

Arcane Bond (Su): At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to your sorcerer level. Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.

It seems to me that the EH feat for arcane bloodline grants you a sorcerer level that is CharacterLevel-2 and it also states that sorcerer level stacks with wizard levels

So for the 10th level example 10wiz+(10-2=8sor)=18 effective level for familiar

yes if you get Arcane Bond from Sorc Class levels then it does stack with Wiz, but the feat doesn't stack with existing levels even if those levels are Sorcerer levels.

The language "EVEN IF YOU HAVE SORCERER LEVELS" is included to prevent exactly what you are doing here. The feat say your new ability functions at an effective sorcerer level of Class level -2, period. There is no way to increase this w/o taking another feat that specifically states otherwise.


Take the Raven, then buy a magic ring. Spell storing does pretty much what you want.

You really can not have both as they are the same class feature.


Or build an homunculus that looks like a raven, just have it act like a familiar.
Or take a level of summoner and build an eidolon that looks like a raven...etc


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Actually, there is no reason you can't have both by taking levels in Witch and levels in Wizard (choosing the bonded object). Of course, by choosing the bonded object, you are choosing not to have a familiar as a class feature, and so the levels would not stack to determine the powers of your familiar. This seems to be fair and equitable, for the most part, and also RAW.

Note that the bonded item does, in fact, scale with level, in that it can only be used to cast spells in the Wizard's spellbook, with no oppositional schools allowed, and if you want to be a hard@ss (I would), and has effects based on the number of Wizard levels the character has. So yeah, you could enchant it based on your caster level, but that extra first level spell per day isn't all that big of a deal. N.B. this is assuming you go Wiz 1/Witch X, or something similar. Multiclassing is not all that great in this circumstance, so why not?


Ok I'll admit the rules exicitly state that you can't have both item and familiar...

But now I'm stuck on this idea of a better familiar. Hear me out...
Eldritch heritage grants you a sorcerer level that cannot be enhanced by additional sorcerer levels. All you do is become a familiar user...you can stack levels of familiar using classes together to determine their abilities. Additional sorcerer levels are explicitly excluded.

So. If you are a wizard with a familiar who takes the feat, EH grants you an effective sorcerer level that stacks for determining familiar abilities...

The wording of eldrich heritage prevents double dipping of character level and sorcerer level, it does not prevent effective sorcerer level from stacking normally with wizard levels as it is spelled out in arcane bond.

Lets not assume paizo has edited the text perfectly. This could be a hole that was passed over as they produce more and more splatbooks


Sandbox wrote:

Ok I'll admit the rules exicitly state that you can't have both item and familiar...

But now I'm stuck on this idea of a better familiar. Hear me out...
Eldritch heritage grants you a sorcerer level that cannot be enhanced by additional sorcerer levels. All you do is become a familiar user...you can stack levels of familiar using classes together to determine their abilities. Additional sorcerer levels are explicitly excluded.

So. If you are a wizard with a familiar who takes the feat, EH grants you an effective sorcerer level that stacks for determining familiar abilities...

The wording of eldrich heritage prevents double dipping of character level and sorcerer level, it does not prevent effective sorcerer level from stacking normally with wizard levels as it is spelled out in arcane bond.

Lets not assume paizo has edited the text perfectly. This could be a hole that was passed over as they produce more and more splatbooks

So what's the big deal? For a feat you get a higher level familiar? It has more armor and intelligence, the best thing is you give it a huge spell resistance. So for a feat you make a familiar that won't die nearly as much, and might be smarter than you.


See I like that I'm totally with you pinkycatcher.
I'd love to play a chucklehead dwarf wizard with a wisecracking raven


Sandbox wrote:

See I like that I'm totally with you pinkycatcher.

I'd love to play a chucklehead dwarf wizard with a wisecracking raven

Make a ring of tounges for another type of familiar, would be even better, everybody expects a raven to speak, nobody expects a monkey to hold a conversation about chess.


Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

The problem is that you don't actually have sorcerer levels. The feat allows you to have an ability that you normally would not have access to w/o taking levels in the class AND it allows that ability to advance on a CL not Sorcerer level basis.

You have no Sorcerer level, you are a lvl 0 sorcerer. W/o sorcerer levels you can't stack them with Wiz levels. You are also double counting the same levels. Either you are a sorcerer of CL -2 OR a lvl 10 Wizard, not both.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Sandbox wrote:

Ok I'll admit the rules exicitly state that you can't have both item and familiar...

But now I'm stuck on this idea of a better familiar. Hear me out...
Eldritch heritage grants you a sorcerer level that cannot be enhanced by additional sorcerer levels. All you do is become a familiar user...you can stack levels of familiar using classes together to determine their abilities. Additional sorcerer levels are explicitly excluded.

So. If you are a wizard with a familiar who takes the feat, EH grants you an effective sorcerer level that stacks for determining familiar abilities...

The wording of eldrich heritage prevents double dipping of character level and sorcerer level, it does not prevent effective sorcerer level from stacking normally with wizard levels as it is spelled out in arcane bond.

Lets not assume paizo has edited the text perfectly. This could be a hole that was passed over as they produce more and more splatbooks

Not doable because then you're taking arcane bond twice. You can only have it once.

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