I haven't actually played a wizard before, but I've heard that the familiar is very good for wizards. However, reading up on the features, I'm not sure if it's worth investing the arcana/feat in for the magus. For one thing, one of the defining features of the magus makes what seems to be a defining feature of familiars (delivering touch spells) a little redundant.
Are there benefits that I'm not immediately seeing?
A greensting scorpion Will give the magus +4 on initiative and +2 on perception amd sense motive. As well as a stealthy scout when you get the talk to familiar ability. All for the cost of a feat. There are other options like the orator feat and a parrot that Can make you the party face and improved familiar tricks. All in all the basic familiar is a good buy, IMOP.
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A magus 'should' have higher HP than a wizard, which means the familiar will be sturdier as well.
The familiar Arcana is the best feat in the magus list if you find an appropriate archetype that fits with your character concept.
I recommend a 'Thrush' familiar (they can speak and fly) with the archetype 'Protector' (+2AC to your Magus).
They also make better scouts than rogues.
Put 1 rank in stealth and the Thrush will have:
Stealth: Size+Dex+ranks+Class skill
Stealth: 12+2+1+3= 18 +1d20
You could go for a Mauler Familiar and have a battle buddy instead, if you want.
A familiar grants the Alertness feat, which gives a +2 (or +4 at 10th level) to the most important skill in the game, Perception. Alertness also gives the same +2/+4 to sense motive. In addition the familiar grants another virtual feat which stacks with the real feat. The most common of these is a +3 to a skill or +4 t initiative, but boosts to saves also exist. So two feats for the price of one is a bargain, even if you never put the familiar on the battle mat to take advantage of its other abilities.
You could also have the familiar trained to pour a potion down your throat if you go unconscious, or an improved familiar with wands.
Outside from some numeric bonuses, do you want a familiar?
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Well, the Beastblade Archetype from the Familiar Folio splat gets some nifty tricks to use their familiars. Though that archetype thrives more on chaining AoO's with teamwork feats and Frostbite/Chilltouch type spell shenanigans than the standard Shocking Grasp spikers.
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It's all about action economy. A familiar gives you extra actions: holding extra stuff for you, picking things up off the ground, etc. And if you take an improved familiar and invest ranks in Use Magic Device (arguably one of the most versatile skills in the game), you get access to every 1st-4th level spell in the game thanks to wands, which require a flat 20 UMD check to operate. I play a wizard, not a magus, but I don't care what class you're playing -- having a familiar hitting an enemy with a 1st level spell from a wand every round is awesome. Grease, Ill Omen, Faerie Fire, Entangle, Silent Image, Ray of Enfeeblement -- even if the save DC's are low, these spells still can make life harder for the bad guys and turn the tide. Not to mention the option of having it sit on your shoulder with a cure spell wand. Familiars are crazy good.
A wand jockey familiar can help you get out lots of low level spell effects really fast. If you can get the other PCs to chip in some gold a wand of Good Hope is almost like having a Bard in a stick. Getting a +2 to attacks, damage, and saving throws is a pretty big deal. As long as you restrict the familiar to buffs and cures a lot of DMs won't even send in the hardcore familiar killing squads.
If you don't want to invest in Improved Familiar then the Valet familiar archetype helps you craft twice as fast and also gets all your teamwork feats. There's also a Bodyguard archetype which raises your AC and an Emissary archetype which can use a Cleric domain power once per day. Even if your DM tells you straight up that he or she will be on a non-stop mission to slaughter familiars you could probably still get a lot of service out of a figment archetype familiar since it comes back every day even if killed kind of like an eidolon. Attacks which are killing your familiar aren't killing you, and later on the figment can get some interesting evolutions.
My player has a one that she uses alot. What she does is fave it flank them and use the aid. If the familier hits the AC 10 with the +2 from flank the Magues gets a +4 (+2 flank and +2 aid) each attack. This is not a small thing and since she upgraded to a Air Mite with the improve familer it now has fast healing from air morving and flying. This help if the baddy turns on the familer.
Tiny critters have no reach and thus cannot set up a flank. They also have problems using aid another as they have to enter their opponent's square (provoking an AOO). You have to have a small sized familiar to pull off those tricks.
So taking into account that I've decided I want a familiar regardless and the flavor of my character, I've decided on a faerie dragon. Thanks for the input!
If you've got 13 Int and Cha you could also take Evolved Familiar for Reach. The Figment archetype familiar could get it too.
You can’t split touches from a single cast with your familiar. When you cast the spell you have to designate who the toucher is for that spell
The beast blade archetype may have some of what you are looking for, but giving up spell recall is probably not worth it.
You need to read the bit before that.
he can designate his familiar as the “toucher”
Maybe I misunderstood what you were getting at. There is only one toucher per spell. The magus could use spell combat to attack and cast the touch spell, but the magus couldn’t deliver that spell himself if his familiar is the toucher.
So as a full round action the magus could attack and cast a touch spell that will be delivered by his familiar, but he couldn’t also use spellstrike to attack with that spell himself. I don’t really see a benefit to doing it that way, as you are giving up the extra weapon damage from spellstrike, but it could have some niche uses.
It also depends a lot on which one you take and what your problems are. If you take one that is going to help you not die/ otherwise helps you avoid derailing the game it's a lot different than if you take one that gives you a + 3 in a skill you don't think you're ever going to use.
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I agree that an Improved Familiar that can use wands is very powerful. A local player has a familiar who sits on his shoulder with a Wand of True Strike and UMDs it each round. They can also be useful scouts and you should never underestimate extra actions in combat.
Priceless memory - playing a PFS game where an ally has just been fascinated. I cast a spell, then opened my spell pouch as a move action. "My familiar crawls out of my familiar pouch and bites him as a standard action to wake him up."
No one had seen my familiar up until then. The player of the fascinated character got a funny look on his face and said, "Uh, no offense, but WHAT EXACTLY IS BITING ME?"
I find that familiars who are used offensively in combat tend to get themselves killed pretty quickly. I like using them defensively, such as by delivering a Resist Energy to an ally across the room who's about to get blasted by a lightning bolt.
Melee with good hp can get some really great mileage out of mauler familiars. Maulers unlock the combat teamwork feats for you.
OP & R doesn't work. The mounted combat and trick riding feats do of course.
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A dhampire can take improved familiar and get an incorporeal creature with a negative energy touch. Effectively free fast healing 2d6 from a creature inside you
this thing
A dhampire can take improved familiar and get an incorporeal creature with a negative energy touch. Effectively free fast healing 2d6 from a creature inside you
this thing
Is that an actual rule someplace or is it left vague? Because negative energy doesn't always heal Undead creatures, i.e. Channel energy.
Is that an actual rule someplace or is it left vague? Because negative energy doesn't always heal Undead creatures, i.e. Channel energy.A dhampire can take improved familiar and get an incorporeal creature with a negative energy touch. Effectively free fast healing 2d6 from a creature inside you
this thing
From Undead Traits
Cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score, although it can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. The fast healing special quality works regardless of the creature’s Intelligence score.
So, it depends on the ability in question. Negative energy has a healing effect on undead so long as its stated that it does.
The spell Orb of the Void for example is a negative energy effect that only grants temporary HP to undead that it hits.
edit: Out of curiosity I looked for a creature that is incorporeal, deals negative energy damage, and can be a familiar via improved familiar. The only creature I found that met all of those criteria is the Smokeshade. It's not stated how it's attack affects undead so that would be a DM call. Even if it works it wouldn't be able to live inside of most characters because it specifically can't enter liquids. I guess depending on the type of undead you are you not contain any liquids, but since dhampir are only half-vampires I don't think they are a type of undead that lacks internal fluids, even when hungry.
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No one has mentioned this, but a Mauler familiar can make for the perfect mount for a small creature. The fact it can change size at will means you can use it in any environment.
Because you are mounted, it means that they can easily deliver touch spells.
And for the same reason, they become much tankier having access to the protection of feats like Mounted Combat and Ride By Attack.
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* P.S. Technically, you can ride a flying familiar using this technique. So Shadow Drake mount, Fairy Dragon Mount, Beheaded Mount, etc. The possibilities are endless.
Mauler is generally not compatible with Improved Familiar, since Mauler gives up speak with animals of its kind, which Improved Familiars don’t get.
Mauler is generally not compatible with Improved Familiar, since Mauler gives up speak with animals of its kind, which Improved Familiars don’t get.No one has mentioned this, but a Mauler familiar can make for the perfect mount for a small creature. The fact it can change size at will means you can use it in any environment.
Because you are mounted, it means that they can easily deliver touch spells.
And for the same reason, they become much tankier having access to the protection of feats like Mounted Combat and Ride By Attack.
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* P.S. Technically, you can ride a flying familiar using this technique. So Shadow Drake mount, Fairy Dragon Mount, Beheaded Mount, etc. The possibilities are endless.
It's true. You can fly on a fruit bat (flying fox) mauler familiar or something though. Someone on these forums made a grippli on a peacock who'd fly in and intimidate people once.
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Just a quick note: you might consider giving your familiar a spell to hold the charge of. Per the Combat section, under Casting Spells/Touch Spells/Hold the Charge, there's a little bit about how, if making a Natural Attack, a person holding the charge of a Touch spell can make their normal, Natural Attack(s) and if they successfully hit they discharge the spell, otherwise the charge is still held.
Well it looks like it works, but I fail to see the point. Instead of you getting +5d6 damage, the familiar gets the same +5d6 damage and it has a lower chance to hit than you do. So this doesn't appear to be a benefit. And the one-per-day empower, there's an arcana for that.
A familiar is still very good on a Magus - but not as a frontliner. Even a mauler with a bloodstone collar is just not an effective frontliner.
Well it looks like it works, but I fail to see the point. Instead of you getting +5d6 damage, the familiar gets the same +5d6 damage and it has a lower chance to hit than you do. So this doesn't appear to be a benefit. And the one-per-day empower, there's an arcana for that.
A familiar is still very good on a Magus - but not as a frontliner. Even a mauler with a bloodstone collar is just not an effective frontliner.
How do you figure its chance to hit is lower?
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A familiar is still very good on a Magus - but not as a frontliner. Even a mauler with a bloodstone collar is just not an effective frontliner.How do you figure its chance to hit is lower?
Because it has lower primary ability, no magic weapon, no pool enchant, and no weapon focus.
So that's easily a -5 to -10 to hit compared to the Magus, depending on level.