I have about 2000 gp available to spend within a couple hours. (Hooray for Friday Night Pathfinder!)
...so I thought I'd spend it on the debut of my first Improved Familiar, a Lyrakien, who has absolutely nothing at the moment.
Our party is at level 7 and I'm curious what would be some good things to buy. What are your favorite wands, potions and scrolls for your familiar? Alchemical items? Anything else?
I have about 2000 gp available to spend within a couple hours. (Hooray for Friday Night Pathfinder!)
...so I thought I'd spend it on the debut of my first Improved Familiar, a Lyrakien, who has absolutely nothing at the moment.
Our party is at level 7 and I'm curious what would be some good things to buy. What are your favorite wands, potions and scrolls for your familiar? Alchemical items? Anything else?
Grab your familiar some masterwork armor sized for a tiny nonhumanoid. Studded leather works nice (nice AC bonus, no check penalties, no proficiency needed). As others pointed out, tanglefoot bags are good. Wands of magic missile turn your familiar into a pain in the ass for other casters. Have your familiar sit back using you for soft cover and pop enemy mages with magic missiles every time they try to cast. Wands of CL 9 magic missile are pretty reasonable at 135 gp per charge, and hit for 5d4+5 force damage at a range of 190 feet. Not a bad thing for your wizard to use to blast casters with.
If you're using Use Magic Device, get your familiar some holy and mistletoe (free, weightless) and a wand of entangle. Drop the plants into an area then pop entangle. The plants (presumably grow to) entangle everything in 40 ft. radius, which can make nice big "don't stand here" locations. I have a druid who carries around a potted rose vine (thorns, yay) to use as a focus for her entangle spells.
Create water is cheap and produces 2 gallons of water per caster level and can be aimed as a rainshower. Good for putting out allies who are hit by alchemist fire, or putting out mundane fires.
Alter self is pretty amusing if you want to have your familiar take a humanoid form for a while. Can lead to kinky goodness as well, if you're into that sort of thing. :3
Create water is cheap and produces 2 gallons of water per caster level and can be aimed as a rainshower. Good for putting out allies who are hit by alchemist fire, or putting out mundane fires.
As I recall, conjuration spells aren't able to bring something into being in "empty space" so aimed rainshower is actually not possible. The spell has to be cast either in the container that will house the water or if there are multiple containers it can create a "downpour" over them so the water falls into the containers.
This means no putting out fires, or casting it on/over characters. It came up in a thread quite some time ago about using the spell by casting it over a flame elemental (I believe was the target). Technically if you can't hold the amount of water in the container (as in you create 4 gallons but the jug is 3 gallons), I'm not even sure the spell will go off as the requirements for the conjuration school aren't met and so it fizzles. You'd have to put another container next to it, or cast the spell at a "lower caster level" so that the water had an appropriate target/home into which to go.
So... 2000 gp has turned into 20,000 gp. GM was generous last night. :3
Unfortunately, I didn't buy anything for her in time for the game, but she did alright; had some of the best skill checks of everybody, making great knowledge checks and perception checks. She was great at scouting with her fly speed of 80ft and her constant detect magic and detect evil. Her cure light wounds saved a friend, her lesser confusion helped defeat some dire boars... Overall not bad.
But now to deck her out with more cool stuff! (And myself for that matter) On the top of my list:
Wand of Ill Omen - I've been convinced that this is one of the better uses of your familiar's actions; and economical!
Wand of Cure Light Wounds - Perhaps not the best combat spell, but might as well have her carry it and use it if she's run out her 1/day cure light wounds.
Wand of Entangle - Economical form of battlefield control.
Tanglefoot Bags - I've used this a few times before and have been rather impressed by this relatively cheap item (Only ~17 gp if you make it yourself) Seems much better than any scroll I could make for around that much.
Handy Haversack - This item is long overdue. Got to stash this stuff somewhere!
Any other thoughts on stuff to grab?
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Spend all of it on wenches and ale. All of it.
Create water is cheap and produces 2 gallons of water per caster level and can be aimed as a rainshower. Good for putting out allies who are hit by alchemist fire, or putting out mundane fires.As I recall, conjuration spells aren't able to bring something into being in "empty space" so aimed rainshower is actually not possible. The spell has to be cast either in the container that will house the water or if there are multiple containers it can create a "downpour" over them so the water falls into the containers.
This means no putting out fires, or casting it on/over characters. It came up in a thread quite some time ago about using the spell by casting it over a flame elemental (I believe was the target). Technically if you can't hold the amount of water in the container (as in you create 4 gallons but the jug is 3 gallons), I'm not even sure the spell will go off as the requirements for the conjuration school aren't met and so it fizzles. You'd have to put another container next to it, or cast the spell at a "lower caster level" so that the water had an appropriate target/home into which to go.
I've read the spell, and yes you can create a "downpour" into a container or tarp to hold the water created per the conjuration school rules. Targeting someone is not part of the spell description nor is putting out fires. It is a cantrip and there are other spells that do what you are suggesting. Giving advice on making the most of spells is a good, suggesting ways of using it in which bend to rules (and which have been stated by the paizo crew to not be intended to work) is bad. If you want to houserule it, cool, fine, do so. But if the character is playing PFS or with someone familiar with post I mentioned and is told "sorry it doesn't work that way" I'd want them to know ahead of time that you're suggesting a houserule. Regardless I don't want to derail the thread, please feel free to look for the post if it matters to you.
I've read the spell, and yes you can create a "downpour" into a container or tarp to hold the water created per the conjuration school rules. Targeting someone is not part of the spell description nor is putting out fires. It is a cantrip and there are other spells that do what you are suggesting. Giving advice on making the most of spells is a good, suggesting ways of using it in which bend to rules (and which have been stated by the paizo crew to not be intended to work) is bad. If you want to houserule it, cool, fine, do so. But if the character is playing PFS or with someone familiar with post I mentioned and is told "sorry it doesn't work that way" I'd want them to know ahead of time that you're suggesting a houserule. Regardless I don't want to derail the thread, please feel free to look for the post if it matters to you.
Pay careful attention to the word "or". Creating a downpour means you are not creating the water in or on something that sustains it, because it a downpour. It clearly excepts itself from the usual standard. Simply read the spell, and understand the word "or" is different than the word "and".