Hi,
my character needs an eagle as familiar for style purposes. How do I manage to get one?
I don't think he needs to get Improved Familiar for an ordinary animal. What do you think?
charm it? Then some animal handling...
Its not like ppl have to grab feats or class abilities to have a dog or parrot :p
I think if there was an eagle familiar the eagle domain would not grant a hawk familiar.
So RAW no.
Thanks blackbloodtroll. :) That's exactly what I needed to know.
@all other: Thank you for your suggestions. :)
Eagle and Hawk have the same stats.
They don't in my printing of the bestiary or in the PRD.
They are different size categories and have stat differences as expected by such.XP 200
N Small animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +10
Defense
AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)
hp 5 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +2
Offense
Speed 10 ft., fly 80 ft. (average)
Melee 2 talons +3 (1d4), bite +3 (1d4)
Statistics
Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB –1; CMD 11
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +8, Perception +10; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
XP 135
N Tiny animal
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +14
Defense
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size)
hp 4 (1d8)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +2
Offense
Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee 2 talons +5 (1d4–2)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Statistics
Str 6, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 9
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +7, Perception +14; Racial Modifier +8 Perception
Which is no reason not to have a familiar hawk flavoured as a smaller than average eagle.
Is there no legal way to have an eagle as familiar?
No, not really. The Eagle is a touch large for the traditional familiar. The pig and goat are oddballs that were added later, after the eagle was already decided upon.
My suggestion is to talk to your GM, so long as your not in society play. Either 1) Take the Eagle anyhow
Or 2) Use the Hawk statblock and call it an eagle. Hey, maybe it's still young?
I'll note that for Animal Companion (Druid), they put Eagle and Hawk both in the same category: Bird.
Technically there are differences between them, as Mighty Squash posted. So I suppose you couldn't use an Eagle as a Familiar in a PFS campaign. But probably outside of sanctioned/organized play,* 90% of DMs are going to let you have an Eagle familiar instead of a Hawk one and treat it as cosmetically different.
It's not like you're powergaming with the choice.
*Where they have to be sticklers otherwise cats and dogs will end up living together.
you could always take a level in falconeer (ranger) and skin the falcon as an eagle since they use the same stats
You can take a hawk familiar, an eagle would definately be an improved familiar by comparison (roughly 5th lvl caster required) but is not an option by the rules.
Take the hawk familiar and call it an eagle.
Done.
Actually you would be, if you're using the Bestiary Eagle.
I suppose strictly speaking it would be. But "IRL" there are a variety of eagles, and in PF some versions of critters are smaller than normal versions (compare the Roc a Druid can get at low levels, with what it can grow into at mid levels, with Roc in the beastiary).
So the solution here would be to have an Eagle who is smaller than the "normal" one (which is actually a fairly large eagle, if it's as big as a halfling); size = Tiny. Stats then = Hawk (named "The Slayer"). Done.
Here it's just reskinning/reflavoring the Hawk as an "Eagle." Which I think is all the player really wants.
Then hopefully everyone can be happy.
Hawk the Slayer? Wow. I thought I liked obscure fantasy references!
Thanks. I really don't want to powergame. The miniature I want to use has an eagle on its wrist. We are about to start a kingmaker game and I'd like to play the general. Having a familiar that can scout the battlefield would be super awesome. Therefore I want a familiar and not a animal companion that cannot communicate properly.