One of the campaigns that I've been playing in for a while has just been converted to pathfinder, which prompted me to re-work my sheet and take a bit more of a look at just what the heck I've been doing until now (the campaign had been on ice for some months so some of it had been forgotten). And, well, the conversion was rather kind to my sorcerer, what with the bloodline stuff, which in this case was Draconic (brass type dragon).
So I pretty much looked at his list of bonus spells, noticed the Shape of the dragon" spells and thought that yeah, I can have some fun with that. My character is very dragon themed and his grand aspiration is to one day become a true dragon himself. Mostly as a mythology gag, he's a carp hengeyokai after all.
But anyway, this got me thinking that "Hey, form of the dragon is a personal spell, and sorcerers/familiars get the share spells feature... this could be fun."
(I grabbed "Skill focus: knowledge arcana" as a bonus feat, took eldritch heritage for a normal one, and then improved familiaro n top of that because he had that in 3.5 too. Just in case you happen to be wondering how a Draconic bloodline sorcerer has a familiar).
My sorcerer as of now is level 10, full on sorcerer (though I might take a level in fighter soonish to make loot piles more fun) and his familiar is going to be a Faerie dragon once we make a detour to where they live.
So aside from choice of familiar (which I don't want to change), does anyone have any fun tips on hijinx that can be done with those? My known spell pool is a bit limited, but our GM is rather generous with treasure, so wands and other items shouldn't be too hard to afford.
Burning gaze cast on your familiar will allow him to burn enemies as a standard action while you do your thing. Turns a crap spell into a very useful one.
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Hi Sagiso,
Don't forget that familiars are assistants in magic and they can aid you on any Knowledge check that you know. Their bonus isn't high, but it's something.
Their armor class can be fairly high if buffed up. I toyed a bit with several spells and came up with 30 AC at level 9 with Vermin Shape and Mage Armor being active on it, but if you plan to put your familiar at melee, try to figure out some back up plan if things go wrong in case he doesn't die. Getting new familiar can be expensive.
That's a few things of the top of my head,
Malag
Check wit your GM, some let familiars, especially improved ones, use wands with UMD.
Check out the Familiar Archetypes in either The Animal Archives or on some reference site (pfsrd d20 for example!). There is some neat things there : )
Message + Flying familiar to gain a nice overview of the battlefield is one of my other favourites
Burning gaze cast on your familiar will allow him to burn enemies as a standard action while you do your thing. Turns a crap spell into a very useful one.
I like the idea of giving him snapdragon fireworks, instead (or in addition). It's a crap spell most of the time but the name is fitting and it, too is activated as a move action.
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One of the best uses that I have found is having them deploy minor magics:
Toss a bead of force or similar small item.
Drop a shrunk item such as:
-- Fill a large flat box full of rocks, and build a 3' tall panel of wood on top of it to create an instant battlement for cover
-- Drop a bonfire into a pit that you summoned
-- A REALLY BIG flask of alchemist fire
-- Have it toss a shrunken rock onto the ceiling, it then grows and drops onto a foe.
-- Deploy a trap that you build ahead of time
Many of these uses require a flying familiar, but it's pretty good mojo, especially since the spells you cast to shrink these items last for days.
Activate a scroll using either UMD or it's own innate abilities (fairy dragon works well here). This last one is VERY powerful. There are a lot of spells that don't use required saves, such as buffs, walls, etc. etc.
Burning gaze cast on your familiar will allow him to burn enemies as a standard action while you do your thing. Turns a crap spell into a very useful one.I like the idea of giving him snapdragon fireworks, instead (or in addition). It's a crap spell most of the time but the name is fitting and it, too is activated as a move action.
Is Snapdragon Fireworks a legal target for Share Spells? Sadly, it lacks the important 'you' target and it isn't personal either ... : /
I had a wizard in one game who liked casting Call the Void and invisibility on his mephit. Pretty nasty combo for anything that needs to breath.
Familiars get the same skills as the master. if you have a monkey familiar and take linguistics to learn sign language, you can then have your monkey report back on what he saw.
If he knows your languages couldn't you just give him a pen and paper?
Anyway I'm a fan of the Raktervana (spelling?) Improved Familiar; it can disguise itself as an item and has a bite with Modify Memory. I always wanted to be a caster with False Focus and use it as my holy symbol.
But, if the OP is level 10, wouldn't he be able to just talk to the familiar?
You're going faerie dragon right? Well, let's see...
It's got Mage Hand and Ghost Sound at will. It also knows your skills. Take one rank in a performance and the 2 of you will be an unstoppable duo on stage. Other things:
- It can be constantly carrying 5lbs of something for you. Depending on the situation, that might be: a change of clothes, a sack of flour, a sack of rocks, your weapons while you're casting, a shield, etc.
- It can generate fanfare every time you enter a room. Also the sound of a dragon's roar for your theme.
- giving it any of the "form" or other polymorph spells opens endless possibilities. Not only do these have obvious combat uses but also having a small or tiny humanoid with a +9 UMD allows the familiar to lob wands, scrolls and what not without any houseruling.
- You have picked a superb scout that can turn invisible 3/day and move up to 100' while still telepathically telling you everything it's experiencing.
- Enlarge Person + Share Spells gives you a small creature with 11 Str. In an absolute emergency that might be just enough to hoist your character into the air for a couple rounds of escape.
- It has a Swim speed. This means it moves 30 through water without making a swim check. That plus it's skill means you've got an ATV for land, air and water assaults.
You've got a really versatile familiar there. I have always reserved mine for out of combat skills, scouting and as a potential flanker or booster with magic items, but a faerie dragon with a few buff spells might not be a bad melee soldier for a few rounds.
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Enlarge person doesn't work, does it? It doesn't have a range of "you" and it's not a person.
Since it's telepathic, you can share elemental form with it, and have it scout by walking through walls as an earth elemental. If you are high enough to scry on it, you can then teleport to it's location with the party in tow.
Wow, that's a lot of replies, though I think I might have to clarify one thing since a bunch of people seems to be concerned about communication.
My character is level 10 right now and he might be a level or two higher when we do get the time to track down those faerie dragons. In any case, this places him well over the "communicate with master" ability that a familiar gets when the master is at 5th level. (Faerie dragons require the master to be at least lv7 too, so it really shouldn't be a concern for that particular type of familiar).
Furthermore, faerie dragons naturally speak common, draconic and sylvan, all of which are languages that my sorcerer knows. They also get telepathy out to 100ft if all else fails.
So basically, since I'm dead set on having a Faerie Dragon, language shouldn't be an issue.
Burning gaze sounds like it could be fun and work thematically, I'm not sure if I'd like to use up a slot for it, but a wand could do the trick (and I have gold to spend on items, our GM is VERY generous with the treasure), I'm also liking the whole shriking items to drop strategically in/out of combat, so I'll look into that.
(My definition of fun is both combat and RP stuff, though right now I'm trying to figure out the former a bit more than the latter).
Also, I asked my GM about it and he gave the faerie dragon the OK to use wands, so that opens up some neat possibilities, especially in terms of buffing (I prefer blasting, despite knowing that it is not the optimal choice).
But yeah, thanks for the advices, everyone. I know I didn't adress all the responses here, but I'll make sure to keep them in mindforreference anyway.
Muleback Cords + Ant Haul gives you Fairy Dragon a decent carrying capacity (a light load of 129 lbs if I calculated correctly), so if your sorcerer is one of the lighter races - he could totally grab you by the arms and fly off ^^
Now that I think of it, its max load would be 390 lbs - and I believe the line about 'can only carry a light load or less' only applies to mounts. So depending on your DM your familiar would then be more then capable to haul your PC around ^^
Is Snapdragon Fireworks a legal target for Share Spells? Sadly, it lacks the important 'you' target and it isn't personal either ... : /Burning gaze cast on your familiar will allow him to burn enemies as a standard action while you do your thing. Turns a crap spell into a very useful one.I like the idea of giving him snapdragon fireworks, instead (or in addition). It's a crap spell most of the time but the name is fitting and it, too is activated as a move action.
Missed that. Thanks for pointing it out.
Missed that. Thanks for pointing it out.Is Snapdragon Fireworks a legal target for Share Spells? Sadly, it lacks the important 'you' target and it isn't personal either ... : /Burning gaze cast on your familiar will allow him to burn enemies as a standard action while you do your thing. Turns a crap spell into a very useful one.I like the idea of giving him snapdragon fireworks, instead (or in addition). It's a crap spell most of the time but the name is fitting and it, too is activated as a move action.
Np =) I actually went looking, hoping that I missed something. It's a shame, the spell would actually be fairly useful if you could spell-share it!
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OK, here is a good one:
Have a fairy dragon familiar. Cast Shrink Item on a loaded small Ballista, one that is equipped with several additional bolts (a built-in bolt rack).
OR
Have a separate crate of bolts shrunk and ready.
Give familiar a wand of true strike.
Round 1: Summon Monster III – summoning lemurs, Familiar casts true strike on self.
Round 2: Familiar fires ballista (-4 non proficiency, -6 size penalty + 20 true strike +3 BAB = +13 to hit, 2d8 damage.
Command the lemurs to reload the ballista. Wizard engages in other actions
Round 3: Wizard continues to engage in other actions, Lemur’s reload ballista, familiar casts true strike
Round 4: Rinse and repeat.
Is it cheesy? Yes.
Is it a summon monster III that would have been better used doing something else? Probably.
But think of the look on your GM’s face! :-P