For a long time, I've wanted to do something neat with a basic familiar. (That is, not taking the Improved Familiar feat.) I have always loved the classic tropes of wizards and witches with bonded animals to enhance their ability, though it needn't be limited to those classes.
One of the things I've come up with would be a Gnome or Halfling with a pig or goat as a familiar using reduce person and a Lance. (Or enlarge person on the familiar if spell sharing works that way.)
I read somewhere about the Half-Elf barbarian with a grappling Ferret. That sounded neat too.
But even then, having never used a familiar, I hardly know what they're capable of. Witches are probably not the best to use as they cannot risk their familiar to much. I rather like some of the druid domains that grant familiars (Monkey in particular, mostly for the flavor of it.) Those rare full BAB classes that get familiars (Buccaneer gunslinger for example) are also interesting, though I'm not sure how much benefit they can really get from it. Of course, with Eldritch Heritage, any class could get a familiar.
So, what ideas do you have? Again, I'd prefer not to use improved familiar, just the basic ones.
Get Familiar Spell
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- Give a Familiar the Valet archetype, then take the Escape Route feat. While "Toady" is in your pocket, you never incur an Attack of Opportunity for movement.
- A Valet Familiar also lets you do twice as much work in a day, if you're inclined.
- Casting Alter Self on your Familiar gives you a second character to play around with for a short while.
- A Tumor Familiar or a Tattoo Familiar can be a very nice trick to have up your sleeve, plus it gives your PC a reason to speak of themselves in plural.
your link to the escape route feat is really a link to this thread, you may want to fix that
your link to the escape route feat is really a link to this thread, you may want to fix that
Too late to edit, but here's a link to that feat. It's a nifty trick, though rather rule-abusive.
Thanks for the heads-up.
I am a big fan of the beast bonded witch 1/ fighter x
You get to give your "monkey" as many feats as you want and if it dies it is 200gp to replace!
Oh man, some of these suggestions are so cool!
For the fighter/beast bonded witch combo, could you take the Eldrich Heritage: Arcane to take a familiar with a better class level total? I love the idea of a flanking goat.
Man oh man, the valet archetype does some silly, silly things.
Thanks for the ideas, cats!
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- Give a Familiar the Valet archetype, then take the Escape Route feat. While "Toady" is in your pocket, you never incur an Attack of Opportunity for movement.
- A Valet Familiar also lets you do twice as much work in a day, if you're inclined.
- Casting Alter Self on your Familiar gives you a second character to play around with for a short while.
- A Tumor Familiar or a Tattoo Familiar can be a very nice trick to have up your sleeve, plus it gives your PC a reason to speak of themselves in plural.
You missed the biggest one of all:
A valet familiar gets Spring Attack for free. Admittedly it's only for touch spells but still so cool.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Wow, the Valet->Escape Route trick is really excellent. I already liked the Valet archetype, but this just makes it even more amazing. Gives me a reason to go Eldritch Heritage with more of my combat-oriented characters, just to get a familiar for this trick.
I have a Sylvan Sorcerer with a dinosaur companion who I'm having tons of fun buffing up and transforming into other animals with Beast Shape spells, so yeah, that one's a good one.
- Give a Familiar the Valet archetype, then take the Escape Route feat. While "Toady" is in your pocket, you never incur an Attack of Opportunity for movement.
- A Valet Familiar also lets you do twice as much work in a day, if you're inclined.
- Casting Alter Self on your Familiar gives you a second character to play around with for a short while.
- A Tumor Familiar or a Tattoo Familiar can be a very nice trick to have up your sleeve, plus it gives your PC a reason to speak of themselves in plural.
You missed the biggest one of all:
A valet familiar gets Spring Attack for free. Admittedly it's only for touch spells but still so cool.
that would be spring attack when delivering 'a harmless touch spell to a willing creature'. not exactly spring attack, it just lets you buff allies at range.
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farie dragon invisble over the enemy doing a flat footed touch attack with this spell:
Calcific Touch
School transmutation [earth]; Level sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target creature or creatures touched (up to one per level)
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Fortitude partial; Spell Resistance yes
Your touch progressively transmutes the substance of creatures you touch into stone. Once per round, you may deliver a touch attack that inflicts 1d4 points of Dexterity damage and slows the target (as the spell) for 1 round. A successful Fortitude save negates the slow effect but not the ability damage. A target reduced to 0 Dexterity is petrified permanently. Break enchantment, restoration, or stone to flesh can reverse the effects of calcific touch.
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that would be spring attack when delivering 'a harmless touch spell to a willing creature'. not exactly spring attack, it just lets you buff allies at range.
- Give a Familiar the Valet archetype, then take the Escape Route feat. While "Toady" is in your pocket, you never incur an Attack of Opportunity for movement.
- A Valet Familiar also lets you do twice as much work in a day, if you're inclined.
- Casting Alter Self on your Familiar gives you a second character to play around with for a short while.
- A Tumor Familiar or a Tattoo Familiar can be a very nice trick to have up your sleeve, plus it gives your PC a reason to speak of themselves in plural.
You missed the biggest one of all:
A valet familiar gets Spring Attack for free. Admittedly it's only for touch spells but still so cool.
It's actually allows you to buff your allies or deliver other spells at range while keeping your familiar out of harms way or needing to use reach metamagic or wasting a spell slot on spectral touch.
A noticeable difference, especially if you have a fast, flying, invisible familiar like I do (imp).
Also consider permanent Enlarge/Reduce persons cast on your familiar at higher levels.
