No, I don't want to take Improved Familiar. I have a first level Wizard, a cute little gal with a pet black cat. As she goes up in level I want the thing to do more than cower in her backpack. Other characters get animal companions and one game I played had the Druid constantly tinkering with his wolf to keep it as a viable combatant even at high levels.
I don't need He-Man's Battlecat here; I was thinking of making it more the party's spy and scout but what spells/feats/magic items should I have in place and are there any PERMANENT things I can do to pump it up?
Witches has the beastbonded archetype where they can give their familliar some feats instead of taking the feats themselves.
You could make the battle-cat some sort of coup-de-grace monster giving it a high-crit weapon. Doesn't matter about its attack bonus, since it's Coup-de-Grace.
Your options depends on the source material your GM allows. I'm fond of the elemental familiar spell as an alternative to an improved familiar. The xp component would have to be changed to a monetary one to conform with other Pathfinder spells, but it's otherwise little problem to convert it for use in PF. Start saving your gold now.
Spells:
Enlarge Person - Small size so it threatens and has reach of 5 ft instead of 0 ft. More useful in combat for touch spells against enemies and allies so it doesn't provoke by entering someone's square, which a tiny creature needs to do.
Reduce Person - Scout.
Mage Armor or Shield to boost AC
Invisibility - Scout or touch attack.
Equipment: Tiny-sized leather armor for +1 armor bonus that can be enhanced later on if you're inclined to.
I know you don't want Improved Familiar, but the Silvanshee (Bestiary 2) improved familiar is an awesome cat that can fly, teleport, has truespeech (it can translate for you), and can heal.
No, I don't want to take Improved Familiar. I have a first level Wizard, a cute little gal with a pet black cat. As she goes up in level I want the thing to do more than cower in her backpack. Other characters get animal companions and one game I played had the Druid constantly tinkering with his wolf to keep it as a viable combatant even at high levels.
I don't need He-Man's Battlecat here; I was thinking of making it more the party's spy and scout but what spells/feats/magic items should I have in place and are there any PERMANENT things I can do to pump it up?
Key thing is, it uses your skill ranks (but its class skill list). Anything you want it to be good at, be good at yourself; ranks in Stealth and Perception go a long way for spying and scouting, and your DM may want Bluff checks for it to pass itself off as a normal cat.
Acrobatics and such could be useful to take as well.
And the real cool thing is, your spell caster will be proficient in a good list of cool tricks as well :)
On a more serious note: you can make it a magic collar to give it invisibility or super speed or the ability to transform into a much larger more dangerous cat.
Share Spells + Polymorph is a cool looking trick, to be sure, but beware the fact that it may not make your familiar the combat machine you're hoping for.
Its a GREAT visual though, and can allow for some pretty potent deceptions.
Do familiars get feats? If it's HD and Int increase, plus it is technically the Magical Beast type could it take a class level? What if the thing became a leveled cohort?
Familiar: Magical Beast (cat) Oracle (Spellscar)1? That would get kinda ridiculous I guess...
I like the idea of items for the cat at higher level. How many body slots are there on a black cat? Also at higher level what spells could I permanize on it?
I'm planning on making the cat's mistress be an item maker so this kind of fits. I can imagine many of her potions will be milk-based or soaked into a ration box of dried fish. "Here puss...make sure and eat all your Reduce Person Fancy Feast! That's a good kitty..."
They don't get HD, and thus, no feats.
The eye for talent human ability lets you add 2 to the familiars stat of your choice.
I keep meaning to run a really dumb arcane sorcerer who's familiar is leading him around.
Sharing Alter Self gives your wizard a humanoid beau on her arm for a few minutes.
My players remembered the Forgotten Realms Myth Drannon book had twisty kind of elven designed wands that you could wear as rings [two max per hand]. They looked for any surviving but ended up crafting them for themselves...
Enter 'tina, a little dragonet [not a pseudo dragon but close enough] who wears them on her legs as bracelets and can strafe enemies with magic missiles/fireballs/ecetera. Her master greatly prizes his little draconic A-10 close air support familiar!
How bout these as you said your character was an item maker?
"Cormanthyr Empire of the Elves...arcane age supplement..."Beluth"...darn I have so much...stuff!"