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I am a Peri-Blooded Aasimar Winter Witch 5/Winter Witch 1 (PrC)/Evangelist 1 in Society Play.
I just got Improved Familiar and am trying to decide between these two.
A lot of arguments I see for the Lyrakien have to do with overall amazing stats, abilities, and its ability to Use Magic Device and Wands.
However, it appears the Nycar can also Use Magic Device and Wands, and while its stats may not compare, it is nearly invincible.
My familiar would be a Valet and I mostly used it to deliver helpful hexes, though now it can aid another another well and might be good at delivering harmful touch hexes and spells now.
Which should I go with and why?
The myrakien's abilty to remove fatigue and exhaustion once a day can be very useful. Having access to commune once a week without your cleric having to spend 500gp on incense is great. Constant detect magic, detect evil and freedom of movement are pretty awesome as well.
My witch has never regretted her choice of a lyrakien.
BTW, I later gave mine Evolved Familiar: Skilled for a +8 racial bonus on UMD.
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The myrakien's abilty to remove fatigue and exhaustion once a day can be very useful. Having access to commune once a week without your cleric having to spend 500gp on incense is great. Constant detect magic, detect evil and freedom of movement are pretty awesome as well.
My witch has never regretted her choice of a lyrakien.
BTW, I later gave mine Evolved Familiar: Skilled for a +8 racial bonus on UMD.
How did you commonly use your familiar?
She would often back up our Rogue for scouting ahead. The Rogue was stealthy and had great Perception, but lacked darkvision or the constant detect evil/detect magic the familiar brought to the table. We were much better prepared when the two of them went forward together.
She also wore a tiny efficient quiver to carry up to six wands (javelin- or spear-sized objects, for her) so she could save the 'casters a round or two applying abundant ammunition or potent weapon or whatever, or to toss off an extra sound burst or 5d6 lightning bolt for that little extra bit of damage. One of her carried wands was cure critical wounds, and having her fly around (80', perfect) tapping our badly wounded as needed freed the Cleric and Paladin up for offense throughout the battle.
We relied on her commune ability several times, both before our Cleric reached 9th level and on days when he didn't prepare that spell. Once or twice her truespeech came in handy. I think the last useful thing we had her do was carry a portable hole that contained a certain deity's skull; anyone carrying the item, even within an extradimensional space, incurred 3 temporary negative levels for as long as contact persisted, and we didn't need any of the PCs under that cloud while we went off to battle the god in question.
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That sounds very useful but I won't be able to afford a lot of that in Society, and not to critique, I don't think a lot of that would be an issue or compatible for Society.
What kind of witch were you? Hexes?
What dangers affected your lyrakien?
If you had a nycar and the hex vulnerability spell, how do you think things would have gone?
Also, what is the ultimate grand use of commune? I don't see it as that helpful
That sounds very useful but I won't be able to afford a lot of that in Society, and not to critique, I don't think a lot of that would be an issue or compatible for Society.
I don't keep up with what is and is not PFS-legal, but apart from potent weapon, which is a 3pp spell, I can't think what in my description should be a problem.
What kind of witch were you? Hexes?
Plain vanilla witch. Agility patron (which in retrospect was probably not my best choice, but I'd be our group's only arcane caster and I wanted access to cat's grace and haste.)
Hexes (): Cackle, Evil Eye, Flight, Fortune, Misfortune, Slumber, Ward
Major Hexes: Ally (3pp), Retribution, Major Healing
Grand Hex: Life Giver
I also took the Split Hex feat.
What dangers affected your lyrakien?
Mainly area of effect spells. And she was damn near killed by our own Ranger once, when he got hit with confusion and she was the only nearby ally.
If you had a nycar and the hex vulnerability spell, how do you think things would have gone?
It's just a matter of personal taste, but I wouldn't have taken a nycar. It just seems a lot more useful to me to have a familiar who can speak, fly, detect auras at range, use magic items and employ spell-like abilities than one who can swim and is hard to kill, but otherwise offers me nothing in the way of "Improved". Before I chose a lyrakien I was considering a brownie.
I'll grant you that with the familiar doing double duty as a witch's "spellbook", a nycar probably saves you from the expense of a stone familiar as a backup hard drive.
Hex vulnerability, though, I'd have been all over if it had been available earlier in the game. As it is I picked it up as a favored class bonus when I hit 17th level -- the end of the AP, but ahead of the added-on part our GM ran (we ended up at 19th level/Mythic Tier 3.)
Also, what is the ultimate grand use of commune? I don't see it as that helpful
I don't think I suggested there was anything "ultimate" or "grand" about commune. It's useful to have, and even better if you don't have to shell out 500gp to ask a few Yes/No questions.
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Society has limited gold and purchase limits (right now, I cannot purchase anything worth more than 11,000ish.)
I am a Winter Witch with Slumber, Flight, and Water Lung. I focus on blasting and healing. Most of the lyrakien's abilities I already cover, including truespeech. I need a familiar that can deliver touch hexes on friends and possibly foes.
An invincible familiar that can be on the front lines is invaluable but I cannot deny the powers of the lyrakien but I'm unsure if it fits what I need.
I've always heard of commune as this amazing spell but never got why. Oh well. Also, in Society, it can only be used once per game.
What do you recommend for me? Need more details?
Also, remember that a wand of Ill omen is a very powerful and cheap "weapon" for your familiar, and it meshes well with the SoS nature of the witch.
Also, remember that a wand of Ill omen is a very powerful and cheap "weapon" for your familiar, and it meshes well with the SoS nature of the witch.
Agreed. It was one of the six wands my lyrakien carried in her quiver.
I'm not that kind of witch
That's what they all say...