I have some questions about familiars and tumor familiars. With the familiar Folio coming out having some answers would be nice.
1) A wizard with a familiar take eldrich heritage for a familiar. How many familiars does he have? How would you calculate the levels if you combine them?
2) An alchemist has a tumor familiar and takes a level of wizard and gets a familiar. How many familiars does he have? How would you calculate the levels if you combine them?
3) an alchemist has tumor familiar and then takes eldrich heritage. How many familiars does he have? How would you calculate the levels if you combine them?
1. One
2. One
3. One
Pretty sure this is an FAQ already.
if you could help me find that FAQ that would be great.
Yeah I'm looking -- it was tied into the same thing with animal companions... but other than that I don't remember.
iirc you end up with a familiar/animal companion that can't exceed you in general, but again I'm kind of fuzzy and still looking.
Alright for the first part it's because all classes stack for your class ability familiar, it's part of the familiar class feature itself.
Second you can't 'double count' any level for the level of your familiar. There was a recent FAQ that talked about 'double ups' recently and at one point there was some other talk by the developers on it.
Searching the forums with the term "Multiple Familiars" or "Multiple Animal Companions" will give you plenty of information for your own research on it, as I'm wiped for the night.
Do you have any source or statements saying you can't double count levels?
"A familiar is an animal chosen by a spellcaster to aid him
in his study of magic. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice,
base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of
the normal animal it once was, but is now a magical beast
for the purpose of effects that depend on its type. Only a
normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An
animal companion cannot also function as a familiar.
A familiar grants special abilities to its master, as given
on the table below. These special abilities apply only when
the master and familiar are within 1 mile of each other.
Levels of different classes that are entitled to familiars
stack for the purpose of determining any familiar abilities
that depend on the master’s level.
If a familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced 1 week later
through a specialized ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard
level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete."
Core Rulebook pg82
"You can never have more than one familiar."
Familiar Bond Feat, Familiar Folio pg18
So you can have both an Animal Companion and a Familiar, but not more than one familiar or one that counts as the other. You can have more than one Animal companion though, so you might want to look into that.
Ultimate Magic pg17:
"The tumor has all the abilities of the animal it resembles (for example, a batlike tumor can fly) and familiar abilities based on the alchemist’s caster level (though some familiar abilities may be useless to an alchemist). The tumor acts as the alchemist’s familiar whether attached
or separated (providing a skill bonus, the Alertness feat, and so on)."
Pretty sure "Acts as the alchemist's familiar whether attached or seperated." answers that question. As for the Homunculus, all they ever are is a familiar, and even when a Wizard/Sorcerer has one, it still counts as their familiar. It applies the same reason you can't have a regular familiar like a raven and an Improved Familiar like an imp. Only one at a time. If you want multiple magical beasties you may want to use Animal Companions, monster cohorts from the Leadership Feat, the Broodmaster Summoner archetype, or some mix thereof.