Is it better to use a witch's familiar tactically (scout, assassin, to deliver touch attacks, etc.) or is it better to keep it safe and secure hidden on the witch's person at all times.
The best use of a witches familiar is a place to put your spells, and the bonus you get for having one.
They are too much of a pain to have to replace, and unlike wizard familiars, are crippling when you lose them.
In lower risk/high RP gaming, they are nice extra eyes, but you need to recall it out of harms way once the dice start flying.
For a wizard: scout is good. Assassin is tricky; make sure they can't retaliate. Touch attacks are iffy, use your judgment.
But: You're playing a witch! That's your spellbook, man! Love it and coddle it and never let it go!
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I picked a hawk for the bonus to perception (in retrospect, an owl would have been better at that), and for the utility of having a flying familiar. I use him to occasionally deliver touch spells on allies, like Cat's Grace (my patron spell) and Cure spells. That helps me save my move actions for keeping Cackle running.
I keep him the heck away from opponents whenever possible though :P
That's what I figured. The centipede with dazing poison and scorpion with sickening poison seem like fun, but very risky. I might stick with my turtle and its +1 to my natural AC.
Its called Beast Bound Witch.
At 10th level your immortal and your familiar is whatever you want him to be.... Ogre, Dragon, human... just keep him safe in case you croak!
Wow; beastbound is broken.
I've only played wizards w/familiars and no one ever caught this before PF but most familiars are so small that, in order to deliver a touch attack on an enemy it needs to ENTER THE ENEMY'S SQUARE, causing an AOO. Boo Hoo for my female wizard w/her owl.
I'm currently in negotiations w/my GM; I'd like to cast Enlarge Person, sharing it w/my owl, then have the NPC mentor cast Permanency. I don't really feel its a game breaker but he's the one ruling on it.
Still there's been a lot of threads on the use and utility of these little critters. I personally am a huge proponent of NOT taking Improved Familiar - stick it out with the turtle through 20 levels and see what you can make of him. But with flyers you've got built in bombers to strafe the battlefield; some animals can hold/manipulate wands without being Improved; they act as a second head for knowledge checks; in downtime they're a double-check for that roll to make scrolls, potions and such; and finally, when they're high enough level, then you start sending them into the fray with attack spells and raged attacks and such.
Turtle + ant haul = a way to pull the paladin off the front line and over to the cleric's Channel radius...
Using magic items or staying as hidden on your person as possible. NEVER have it scout or (what the hell's wrong with you?) melee or deliver your touch spells!
If you're splitting the party (what the hell's wrong with you?), sending the familiar with the other group, assuming you trust someone in there to defend it with his life if necessary, might be handy. Since Share Senses is such a low level spell to keep aware of the other half of the party.
Witch has the weakest familiar class feature in the whole game. Half of a d6 HD, only good base will saves, poor BAB, and costs 2.5x as much as it does for other familiars to be replaced. And takes most of your spell knowledge with it. And gives no option for a bonded object instead. There's literally no other class that can get a familiar that has such an awful familiar class feature.
I have no idea why the class most associated in myth and fantasy with having a familiar got the crappiest iteration of the class feature, you'd have to ask paizo that one.
Improved familiars are like taking leadership without all the paperwork. You can get an outsider with tons of special abilities, the ability to change shape into a normal-looking person, the ability to use magical items, and so forth. You don't have to figure out what level of cohort you can have based on your leadership score, it gains in power as you level up regardless of how much XP it would have gotten if it were a cohort itself, and it's like having another character to RP.
I like the idea of the severed head familiar with the burning (and maybe belching and screaming) template added to it. Kind of like hanging out with the severed head of Ghost Rider.
I had an idea for using a familiar like a scorpion, spider, or related creature. If your party happens to have another character who is good with grappling (Monk is first to come to mind) then you could have the familiar hide in his/her clothing most of the time and wait until an enemy is grappled... then crawl out onto the enemy (I would have it crawl onto their neck and sting/bite or whatever). Of course, this requires the character holding the familiar to not be arachnophobic...
Clever, but the caster would lose the benefit of alertness unless ze were to stand next to the monk at all times.
That is true, I am sure that there is a way of being able to utilize this tactic after relevant perception or sense motive checks have already been made though.
I've said this before and been attacked as a "badwrongfun" or "antiplayer" GM, but I that's fine.
If you introduce your familiar into the tactical equation of the battle, my intelligent NPCs will adjust and respond to the new tactical element.
As others have pointed out, for the vast majority of familiars, delivering a touch attack requires entering the target's square, and that engenders an attack of opportunity.
Familiars using wands might not get targeted if they are using CLW wands to heal party members, it depends on how many times someone gets up, but familiars tossing off fireballs are going to find themselves the recipient of unwelcome attention.
In general my own wizards and witches keep their familiars out of combat, but do use them for scouting, delivering messages, impressing the gullible, etc.
My witch is actually a gravewalker with a poppet who has purchased a trained hunting hawk as a deliberate device to convince everyone that his hawk is his familiar. I keep that hawk out of combat too.
He is good for a meal of quail or rabbit from time to time.
I like the idea of the severed head familiar with the burning (and maybe belching and screaming) template added to it. Kind of like hanging out with the severed head of Ghost Rider.
I'd prefer Bob the skull.
i generally don't use them all the time, only when extra action economy seems crucial.
as long as they stay on your person, your saving throws 'shield' them, which is nice.
familiar-delivered dimension door is pretty awesome.
(the DD trick is nice in that you get an extra move action towards targets (i.e. the familiar's own movement), you don't have to enter the area where targets are, you don't have to go with the targets, etc)
i like pseudodragons/faerydragons: 5' reach normally, 10' enlarged, nice immunities, special abilities, etc.
people worried about their familiar being killed might like the silvanshee with Paladin Lay on Hands.
the high CHA familiars can reliably use wands, etc, that much sooner with UMD.
how many witches (/other) have used resurrection on their familiar?
Keep them safe. If you loose it you are screwed.
I like the idea of the severed head familiar with the burning (and maybe belching and screaming) template added to it. Kind of like hanging out with the severed head of Ghost Rider.I'd prefer Bob the skull.
Everything's fine, as long as you don't end up with Murray.
If you are going to put your familiar on the line, join a coven or something and teach all of your spells to another witch that you trust. That way if Tibbles gets spit on a pike, you have a chance to get your old spells back. (And you'd get to keep your two new spells per spell level. Hmmmm.....)
I always liked to have a flying pet and use a spell from the Spell Compendium 3.5 sourcebook. The spell is a 1st lv sor/wiz Conjuration spell called Benign Transposition. Basically lets you and one willing creature switch places within range. I would use it to get out of tight spots or difficult to reach spots. But a little dangerous for your familiar if your being chased.