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So, one of my characters is a Beast-Bonded Witch and will take the Eldritch Heritage: Arcane Bloodline feat at third level leading to a VERY high level weasel familiar from which to cast consecutive Shocking Grasps upon my enemies while it remains attached to them.
The big question comes from the interaction or lack thereof between the Enhanced Familiar Beast-Bonded class feature and the Eldritch Heritage: Arcane Bloodline feat. The familiar gets features for 5 levels from Witch and either 2 or 3 levels from Eldritch Heritage, depending on how the feat and class feature interact.
At fourth level a Beast-Bonded Witch 'treats her familiar as if she were one level higher than her actual witch level', does this include Eldritch Heritage?
The two features are mutually exclusive. It's an either or situation, you take the highest level and run with it.
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The two features are mutually exclusive. It's an either or situation, you take the highest level and run with it.
I'm confused as to what you are referring to with your statement. Are you saying that the levels from Enhanced Familiar and Eldritch Heritage are exclusive and can't be used together at all, that my witch levels do not stack with Eldritch Heritage, or that the two are exclusive in that I can either have +1 level from Enhanced Familiar or [my level -2] levels from Eldritch Heritage?
All familiars have special abilities (or impart abilities to their masters) depending on the master's combined level in classes that grant familiars
You gain the first-level bloodline power for the selected bloodline. For purposes of using that power, treat your sorcerer level as equal to your character level – 2, even if you have levels in sorcerer
so RAW a 5th level witch or wizard with the 2 feats necessary for eldritch heritage would have an 8th level equivalent familiar, and it would gain 2 levels every time you gained a level in a class that had a familiar.
arguably that character could wear a robe of arcane heritage that would increase that by 4, so at 9th level, with that robe, that character would have the familiar of a 20th level wizard.
EDIT: which technically would only give it a pretty decent AC for it's level(+10 instead of +5), and make it a bit smarter (which doesn't really have game mechanics effect)
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Right, which I understand (and can make for some awesome familiars), but what I do not understands is the interaction between the Enhanced Familiar Beast-Bonded Witch class feature and the Eldritch Heritage feat.
Is the familiar, at witch level 4, either:
4 from level
1 from Enhanced Familiar
2 from Eldritch Heritage (4 -2)?
or
4 from level
1 from Enhanced Familiar
3 from Eldritch Heritage (5 -2)?
which technically would only give it a pretty decent AC for it's level(+10 instead of +5), and make it a bit smarter (which doesn't really have game mechanics effect)
And also gain a much better Spell Resistance much earlier than usual and get DR/resistances 10 with Celestial Servant earlier in addition to more bonus damage from that 1/day Smite Evil along with several other small tricks.
i would say since eldritch heritage is specifically looking at your character level, regardless of what abilities that class may or may not get, so it would be 4 from witch, 2 from eldritch heritage based on that witch level, then +1 for enhanced familiar. even though you're only looking at the feat in regards of the affect it has on your familiar, the core wording of the feat is generic and only applies to your character level, because after all, you could be getting an entirely different bloodline ability with the same feat instead of the arcane one.
i would say since eldritch heritage is specifically looking at your character level, regardless of what abilities that class may or may not get, so it would be 4 from witch, 2 from eldritch heritage based on that witch level, then +1 for enhanced familiar. even though you're only looking at the feat in regards of the affect it has on your familiar, the core wording of the feat is generic and only applies to your character level, because after all, you could be getting an entirely different bloodline ability with the same feat instead of the arcane one.
Agreed; also the beast-bonded witch archetype states: "Enhanced Familiar (Su): At 4th level, the beast-bonded witch's connection with her familiar strengthens. For the purposes of determining her familiar's powers and abilities, she treats her familiar as if she were one level higher than her actual witch level. This ability replaces the witch's 4th-level hex."
I bolded all the pronouns because each of them refers back to "the beast-bonded witch's." This (combined with "witch level" there at the end) means that it is only for witch levels (not "character levels") that Enhanced Familiar has any effect.Thus your 4 from level +1 from enhanced familiar +2 from eldritch heritage should be the correct interpretation.