Non-PFS game, so "not sure whether this is allowed" or "your GM might let you" advice is fine and possibly-useful.
20th level wizard, Improved Familiar -> faerie dragon. Also a second familiar, a pseudodragon (like I said, house rules are in play). I have a lot of budget to spend on buying items if I can find them, and can craft wondrous items. ("A lot" => I can probably spend 100kgp or equivalent on an item. I haven't got the time to craft a ton of things, though, so anything over 100k, I'm gonna have to pay retail.)
The most obvious thing so far is rings of spell-storing, because five levels of spells which don't even have to be spells available to me normally, as long as a party member can cast them would be great. (10-level rings are Too Expensive.)
I'm also interested in magic items useful to a wizard, but I have a whole lot of the obviously appealing ones already.
One thing to help them out is a bit strange but a con belt for you raises the familiars HP. False life item could help if you custom craft it, anything to boost AC and saves because they will have few hit points for a high level game. I played in levels 20+ and have up on having my imp with me because he kept on getting killed.
Our GM is a real sweetie, and lets us basically leave the familiars hidden in pockets or clothing and not subject to most attacks, because otherwise they're totally useless. Basically, if they start popping out and doing things, then they are vulnerable. So mostly they don't, because Pathfinder's huge offense>defense bias means that in practice there's not much we encounter that couldn't one-shot them.
Maybe see about investing in some tiny magical staffs; give your familiars some heavy hitting spell casting at the cost of you needing to spend your spell slots to recharge them?
chaoseffect wrote: Maybe see about investing in some tiny magical staffs; give your familiars some heavy hitting spell casting at the cost of you needing to spend your spell slots to recharge them? It wouldn't be very heavy-hitting, would it? I don't think they get to use my casting ability, so my casting mod is wayyyy higher, as is my caster level. So it'd barely be better than having wands, except for recharging during downtime. (That said, I note that I have enough ranks in UMD that they could UMD any staff. Downside, I have no idea at all what the casting stat for the pseudodragon is, so I can't determine the spell DCs.)
Ah true enough, I forgot about using their stats. Still you could consider using save less spells; meta-magic'd Enervation or some such thing... hmm then again you could probably just make a bunch of scrolls along the same lines much cheaper. The appeal of magical staffs is that they're not one use items, but if you had enough scrolls it wouldn't really matter.
Maybe do that. Bags and bags and bags of scrolls for your buddies to use. As a 20th level Wizard you may already be doing that though.
Mostly haven't bothered with scrolls, they cost money and take time to make, and I am usually very short on time for crafting stuff. I sort of like the potential for Enervation, though. Hmm.
Is there a chart stating which items a familiar can wear like there is for animal companions? Can the faerie wear magical rings, headbands etc?
I don't know. It's a fairly generic (albeit tiny) dragon.
In "magic items" there is a chart of animals item slots. I am on my phone so I cannot post a link. It has no place for dragons but I feel like a dragon can wear any slot. I know dragons can wear rings, gloves and boots would be my main concern.
Magic Item Slots for Animals
d20pfsrd
You could make a set of Mindmaster's Eyes so one of them can run around using Charm Monster at will. Most things will make the save on a 2 at this level, but some things won't. I like charming all the low level plot NPCs to make my life easier too.
seebs wrote: It wouldn't be very heavy-hitting, would it? I don't think they get to use my casting ability, so my casting mod is wayyyy higher, as is my caster level. So it'd barely be better than having wands, except for recharging during downtime. (That said, I note that I have enough ranks in UMD that they could UMD any staff. Downside, I have no idea at all what the casting stat for the pseudodragon is, so I can't determine the spell DCs.) You could give them staves which use spells without DC's. Monster Summoning, Walls and buff spells all work really well.
Yeah, the animal list doesn't cover dragons.
Good point about spells without saves, I should think about that. Although staves get really pricey really fast. Still, pretty tempting.
Improved familiars using wands is a fairly common tactic. Pick the most common low level buff spells and go to town with improved action economy. Haste is an excellent choice as are things like Good Hope. For debuffs Ill Omen is very strong and does not allow a save.
Those would require a lot of UMD ranks but doable mid levels. Buy it a circlet of persuasion.
We're 20th level. I have 19 ranks in UMD. Even with charisma 10, the dragon can't fail the UMD check for a staff or wand.
And yeah, ill omen's not bad at all. Sure, it'll only get one roll at first level, but that's still one roll. And honestly, a CL5 wand wouldn't be too expensive at this point. Nice!
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