I know the Improved Familiar feat exists, but what other ways exist to make familiars more durable and useful?
Can we turn it into a cohort via Leadership, like how Paladins do with their special mounts?
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Try the inherent rules for familiars:
1) They get their master's skill ranks. But they get different bonuses, based on their own list of class skills (Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, Swim). They usually get a +8 to Stealth for being Tiny. This adds up pretty quickly.
2) You can cast spells on them that you can normally only cast on yourself, like Alter Self, Shield or Elemental Body. Some of those combinations can be really powerful.
They can wear magic items. Check the book Animal Archive for what slots they can wear.
- Gauss
Never heard of Animal Archive.
master's skill ranks?
Piccolo, a familiar has 1/2 of the Master's hitpoints and possesses all of the Master's skill ranks.
So, if the Master has 10 ranks of a skill then so does the familiar.
Basically, anytime the Master rolls a knowledge check to identify a monster he rolls twice, once for himself and once for his familiar. It sucks for the GM but that is one of the advantages for having a Familiar. Then the familiar conveys the information to the Master and he relays it to others.
Wizards with ranks in Use Magic Device and Improved Familiars are quite popular. Many Improved Familiars can speak and hold items and so the Master gives the familiar a wand. Since the familiar has the same ranks as the Master the familiar can attempt to use the wand by rolling the check.
- Gauss
Never heard of Animal Archive.
It just hit the shelves this week.
Yes, for any given skill the familiar uses either its own ranks or its master's, whichever is better; it always uses its own skill bonuses based on ability scores.
Obviously for some familiars, physical limitations may make using the master's ranks in certain skills impossible. If your wizard has ranks in Craft(alchemy), a raven familiar might be able to use those ranks to identify an alchemical substance, but he's not going to be able to create one because he can't physically manipulate the tools.
Expanding on Gauss's point about wizards with UMD and Improved Familiar, you can also take the Evolved Familiar feat, which allows you to choose a single 1-point evolution from those available to a summoner's eidolon. One of these options grants a +8 racial bonus to a single skill, UMD for example. So your familiar can be a lot better at using magic devices than his master is. Other 1-point evolution options include energy resistance, a +2 natural armor bonus, the ability to cast one spell as a spell-like ability, and a bunch that improve a creature's combat ability, which isn't usually appropriate for a familiar.
Even if you do not have Imp Familiar a familiar such as a monkey can throw things like alchemist fire or gel shards or even use a wand of Silent Image or MM with UMD ranks.
Other old tricks:
* have them use Aid Another on your skill checks whenever feasible; easier to justify when you can speak with them, or with a familiar who can speak (raven, thrush, etc)
* have them fetch or deposit items (such as caltrops); they may also be able to throw alchemical items (tanglefoot bag, acid, etc)
* some familiars have pretty decent poison (house centipede, greensting scorpion, even the skunk's musk despite not being an actual poison), and recall that poison DCs are based on the creature's HD, and your familiar's HD is equal to your character level
* anything that increases your own base HP increases the HP of your familiar; something to keep in mind if for some reason you're picking up a familiar for a melee class character (either with a dip or via eldritch heritage or whatever)
* small familiars (such as the goat, donkey rat, dwarf caiman, etc) threaten squares and can be used to flank and deliver touch spells, but watch that AC!
* you can get a flying squirrel familiar; if that doesn't automatically make you win the game, I don't know what does.
You can also take the Evolved Familiar feat to give your familiar (and any subsequent familiars) a 1 point Summoner evolution.
Reach is a great choice for delivering touch attacks, most of the others are sort of under whelming or situationally useful.
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* some familiars have pretty decent poison (house centipede, greensting scorpion, even the skunk's musk despite not being an actual poison), and recall that poison DCs are based on the creature's HD, and your familiar's HD is equal to your character level
Before anyone gets too excited, I'll just offer a reminder that this is untrue, in PFS play at least. Your familiar's HD is equal to yours only for purposes of effects that are based on HD, such as Fear or Sleep. Which is still awesome, but poison DCs aren't really an effect. In a home game, though, you could probably get a GM to agree that your familiar's poison should scale with level.
Ah, thanks for the heads-up there. I don't play PFS, so that's never come up.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that you can comission armor for your familiar, too. A tiny suit of masterwork studded leather armor is a mere 175 gp, weighs 2 lb, max dex bonus +5, and no armor check penalty, so it shouldn't impede a familiar with a Str greater than 1 (it's a medium load for a tiny Str 1 familiar, such as a house centipede). You could also conceivably put a masterwork buckler (also no armor check penalty) on some familiars, such as a monkey.
The upside to this: it's a super cheap +3 bonus to your familiar's AC and it's hella adorable. The downside: your familiar will stand out like a sore thumb.
Man, Evolved Familiar looks nice. Now I regret dumping my Cha.
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Ah, thanks for the heads-up there. I don't play PFS, so that's never come up.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that you can comission armor for your familiar, too. A tiny suit of masterwork studded leather armor is a mere 175 gp, weighs 2 lb, max dex bonus +5, and no armor check penalty, so it shouldn't impede a familiar with a Str greater than 1 (it's a medium load for a tiny Str 1 familiar, such as a house centipede). You could also conceivably put a masterwork buckler (also no armor check penalty) on some familiars, such as a monkey.
The upside to this: it's a super cheap +3 bonus to your familiar's AC and it's hella adorable. The downside: your familiar will stand out like a sore thumb.
Tiny armor divides the AC boost by half, so your +3 boost drops to +1. You're better off with plain leather or maybe a mithril chain shirt.
Our monkey has a red fez that doubles as a handy haversack. It'll be real cute when he hauls some tiny pellet grenades out and goes to work!
I double checked that rule about tiny armor bonuses being divided, but I thought the asterisk was just a spot of dust on my screen. lol I see now that it's real. Sad.
i think a wand of mage armor works better since it isn't halved.
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In 3x there were some feats to make your familiar more combat ready. I have the book at home and no ability to search for it right now, but the book I'm thinking of was the Magic Compendium I think. Other than that, the above is pretty much it.
At low levels they make great spies and lackeys. If you're honestly serious about having a useful familar one of the first magic items to have made at 3rd level is a wand of alter self. It'll be costly, but now you have a bird on your shoulder which, in times of need, becomes a tengu armed with your other wand...of fireballs. Add in a 1 pt evolution making it ridiculously good at UMD and suddenly you've got a nice double-barreled wizard.
At mid levels the standard familiar does kind of fade into the background unless you stay vigilant. Oh sure, you could cheap out and pick up an imp, but if you're really committed then you could keep your bird and just use spells like polymorph, transformation and elemental body. Your fighter's going to just sell that worthless +1 longspear he found? Buy it or barter it off him and keep it shrunk in your pack, then hand it off to your Transformed/Polymorphed/Enlarge Personed bird familiar for an extra melee fighter.
You can also stick to the bird staying as a spy. There's plenty of spell combos that allow an unassuming animal to go wherever it wishes, listen to or detect anything, and then report back to you, so long as your GM is patient and your villain doesn't expect it. Invisibility, a wand of Sanctuary with it's unusually high UMD, perhaps a detect magic or detect thoughts on the thing before it takes off and to finish throw on some protections like globes of invulnerability or stoneskin or some such.
Finally at high level...well if you've come this far you're probably not going to stop now. At this point you're making/commissioning permanent effects/magic items so that your familar is nearly its own person. Its armed and armored, backed by your spells and serves as both a combatant (albeit probably about 4 levels below APL) or a passable scout.
becomes a tengu armed with your other wand...of fireballs. Add in a 1 pt evolution making it ridiculously good at UMD and suddenly you've got a nice double-barreled wizard....use spells like polymorph, transformation and elemental body.
Permanent Anthropomorphic Animal does a lot of the same thing as well for the non-imp familiars.
On a side note I've always wanted to snag a Wizard's ex-familiar when he gets Imp Fam and cast Anthro Animal on it so it can follow the wizard around screaming:"Why did you leave me! I LOVED YOU! Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo!!"
Hilarious!
Lochmonster, a monkey cannot speak and therefore it cannot use a wand. Unless of course you purchase a magic item out of Animal Archives to allow it to speak.
- Gauss
Lochmonster, a monkey cannot speak and therefore it cannot use a wand. Unless of course you purchase a magic item out of Animal Archives to allow it to speak.
- Gauss
According the table called "Magic item slots for animals" found further down on this page, it looks like one of the speech-enabled bird familiars can UMD a Wand without ever needing the Improved Familiar Feat... The chart says they can "grasp / carry" and the familiar's special perk is itself that it can speak. Specifically, the Parrot, Raven and Thrush.
Hmmmmm...
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Take Evolved Familiar twice and give your monkey familiar gills and a swim speed.
Instant sea monkey! :D
Alternatively, an aquatic fox. ;D
Aunt Tony, agreed, but that is not a monkey. :)
- Gauss
Aunt Tony, agreed, but that is not a monkey. :)
- Gauss
There are no cool sea monkey pics online it would seem. That's as close as I could get.
Aunt Tony, agreed, but that is not a monkey. :)
No no, I just mean that Improve Familiar is probably not necessary for the fashionable ploy of a wand-whipping pet.
Take Evolved Familiar twice and give your monkey familiar gills and a swim speed.
Instant sea monkey! :D
Alternatively, an aquatic fox. ;D
Or give your witch a flying monkey, of course.
Sadly I don't think it works like that.
:(
Nope. Wings are a 2-point evolution. :(
Piccolo, a familiar has 1/2 of the Master's hitpoints and possesses all of the Master's skill ranks.
So, if the Master has 10 ranks of a skill then so does the familiar.
Basically, anytime the Master rolls a knowledge check to identify a monster he rolls twice, once for himself and once for his familiar. It sucks for the GM but that is one of the advantages for having a Familiar. Then the familiar conveys the information to the Master and he relays it to others.
Wizards with ranks in Use Magic Device and Improved Familiars are quite popular. Many Improved Familiars can speak and hold items and so the Master gives the familiar a wand. Since the familiar has the same ranks as the Master the familiar can attempt to use the wand by rolling the check.
- Gauss
I dunno, putting ranks in Use Magic Device is kinda a waste for Wizards.
Wait, how the heck could a crow/raven using a wand? The only way they can hold one is with their beak, and they have to be able to speak to use a wand, right?
I am starting to see why a homonculus would be a superior familiar, that is if you want it to use a wand.
Ravens are surprisingly capable at manipulating things so I hear.
Ravens are surprisingly capable at manipulating things so I hear.
But how would it hold a wand AND speak at the same time? All it has is a beak to work with.
Piccolo, birds frequently stand on one leg and manipulate things with the other leg. An intelligent bird would be even better at that.
And most players have their characters' familiars fly and use the wand with their talons anyway.
Piccolo, you are in the minority regarding that opinion. :) Many people use it in order to double a Wizard's action economy.
A familiar with a wand means that the wizard does not have to cast the spell the familiar is casting. This frees up the Wizard to cast something else.
Finally, not all familiars belong to Wizards. Anyone can have a familiar with the proper feats.
Oh, and just so the point you understand how useful this COULD be, a completely legal (and VERY broken) tactic is possible if you have an Arbiter familiar that uses UMD to activate a wand of Shield Other (preferably a Wand of reach spell Shield Other). Use it on each party member, stick the Arbiter in a Familiar Satchel and now your party takes half damage for the duration of the Shield Other spell. Just expect your GM to throw a hard (possibly pointy) object at you for this one.
- Gauss
What wire?!
And, how the heck could other classes get a familiar? The only ones I know of is the Witch and Arcane bloodline of Sorcerer, and that's because it's a class feature.
Arbiter familiar? And why would a Wizard need Use Magic Device, other than to give ranks to the familiar? I haven't found the Wizard yet that wants to use Bard, Cleric, Druid spells.
Uhm, doesn't Shield Other channel the other half of that damage to your familiar?
@ Piccolo: Like Shfish said, anyone can have one through Eldritch Heritage (Arcane).
As for a wizard using other spells through UMD, while they may not need to, there are probably plenty of possibilities where it could come in handy. Raise Dead and the like come to mind, if the party is lacking any classes that have that ability, not to mention, again, just letting the familiar toss spells every turn.
And moving half the damage to the Arbiter Inevitable is the point of that combo. It has Regeneration, so it can't die no matter how much damage it takes unless its Regen is stopped (and I'm pretty sure Shield Other does untyped damage?). So, it can siphon off half the party's damage well beyond normal death threshold, get knocked out for a few minutes, then wake up once it regens back into positive health.
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Shfish and Darkwolf are correct.
Anyone can get a familiar.
Rogues can get a familiar using an advanced talent.
At least one cleric archetype is granted a familiar.
Witches get familiars.
Sorcerers with the Arcane Bloodline get familiars.
Wizards get familiars.
And for everyone else? 2 feats give them a familiar via the Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) bloodline.
Inevitable Arbiters and Kyton Augurs can do the Shield Other trick. Both have Regeneration. Unless they are struck with a weapon or effect that shuts down that regeneration they cannot die from the damage they suffer from Shield Other. Yes, it is broken as all hell.
Note: HaraldKlak figured out how the Kyton Augur can use the Shield Other wand. It involves a wizard casting Alter Self on the Kyton Augur to give the Kyton Augur speech and limbs. The Augur then casts Shield Other (via wand) on the party. Finally, the Alter Self is dismissed and the Augur goes into the Satchel.
- Gauss
Whoof, well, thanks for telling me, I have just banned both familiars from the game. I should note that no familiar that comes with regeneration, or who is given regeneration, should be allowed to combo with Shield Other.
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I have a wizard with a maxed UMD and a Lyrakien Azata familiar. She's awesome for flying around buffing the party and wrecking face with wands.
Right now she's got a wand of haste, a wand of lesser restoration, a wand of Protection from Evil, a wand of obscurring mist, a wand of silent image, wand of CLW, wand of remove Paralysis
...we've been decking her the f*** out, craft wands helps.
I almost have enough to make her a wand of enervation.
Piccolo,
An easy fix is to fix Shield Other so that it is dispelled after the creature on the receiving end hits negatives. This way it would help for 1 single burst of damage sending the familiar into the negatives but it deactivates afterwards. It would also have the added effect of removing a major reason clerics using Shield Other die. I do not consider that a bad thing.
- Gauss
Actually Elamdri, it might instead be handier to have a flying familiar that could cast restorative or curative spells, perhaps while invisible, instead of concentrating on offense.
How the heck does it switch wands? Where does it carry all those wands?
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Actually Elamdri, it might instead be handier to have a flying familiar that could cast restorative or curative spells, perhaps while invisible, instead of concentrating on offense.
How the heck does it switch wands? Where does it carry all those wands?
What exactly your familiar does is up to you, Azata is one of my favorites because she can't be grappled, she's got truespeech, she's got commune, she's got a 20 Charisma, she has 80 feet of perfect fly, permanent darkvision, detect evil and detect magic and a crapload of defensive abilities.
I don't personally like casting curative spells in combat unless absolutely necessary. I think those are for after combat is over.
Also, she has an efficient quiver for the wands.
Elamdri is correct, casting healing during combat should be used as a last resort. It is much better to prevent damage. A number of spells are fun like that.
Example: Fog Cloud or Obscuring Mist, a couple of the best spells out there to prevent damage.
Ready an action for when the enemy begins movement towards the group. Action: cast Fog Cloud (or ANY spell which will disrupt movement, there are quite a few).
When the enemy charges or moves they wind up wasting an action because the intended action gets screwed up. :)
How does a familiar switch wands? The same way most creatures switch items. It puts one away and gets one out. Familiars can carry many of the same pieces of equipment that PCs can. Animal Archive has demonstrated this.
- Gauss
I dunno, putting ranks in Use Magic Device is kinda a waste for Wizards.
I plan on getting my UMD from a headband of vast intellect. I see no reason why those ranks wouldn't also transfer to the familiar.
Elamdri, even more fun when the enemy is using aerial mounted combat and you drop a fog cloud in the air, right when a group is about to charge you, forcing them to waste that round +2 more to get into a new position while you deal with their fellows that had already charged.
Did I mention I LOVE Wizards? My best wizard build is a battlefield control wizard specializing in conjuration (teleportation) with Greater Spell Focus in both Conjuration and Necromancy. He has all 3 saves covered and loves pits, clouds, summoning, and a variety of necro debuff spells. :D
- Gauss
BTW, why the heck did Headbands of Intellect become forced skill points in certain areas, instead of a general Int skill point booster? Just seems like a silly waste to do that. Just leave it as is, and call it good. Yeah, who cares if it doesn't make sense to suddenly get retroactive skill points? It doesn't make any sense to wear a magic belt that makes your muscles bigger either, so :ppppppp!