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What happens to an animal companion / familiar when their Biped dies?
1) It remains unchanged
2) Flowers for algeron
3) It instantly reverts to its un familiared/animalcompanion form (and lo, the roc grew three sizes that day) , probably making it explode if it had any damage on it.
4) Something else
This, of course.
More seriously, the last post of this thread makes really good sense.
The witch's familiar has rules. 24 hours. If you're a dead witch, you better get resurrected within 24 hours or, if it takes 25 hours or longer, you return to life with no familiar (and therefore no way to prepare spells). Sure, you can get a new one the next day, but it only has a basic spell list - too bad if your witch has spent lots of money and time teaching extra spells to your previous familiar; that's all permanently lost when you died and didn't get raised fast enough.
The rest of the classes have no rules for this. I like to think that a wizard's familiar waits around, tries to stay near his fallen master, tries to find somebody or some way to get him raised (unless it's impossible), and ultimately he'll be there when the master is brought back to life, no matter how long it takes.
However, in some cases, the familiar probably realizes that the master is NOT going to be raised. Ever. In those cases, it's really just up to the GM. I'd just have it wander off and whatever happens to it, happens off-stage where the PCs don't need to worry about it anymore.
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But what if everyone wants to keep the familiar as 'part of' the party? In particular, I'm thinking of an alchemist with a clockwork familiar in a game I'm currently playing. Our current plot line seems to be revolving around the familiar. Also, I care more about the familiar than about my human character. And he has developed close ties to other party members, also.
You won't find rules for that, unless clockwork familiar has its own rules about dead masters - I didn't see anything in the bestiary entry. At this point it's just up to you and your GM to figure it out. Whatever works best for the story.
Even the witch rules are not super clear. No mention of stats and hit point for instance. And the loosing memory of spells is only mentioned in the context of teaching others, I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume that if a witch is raised 25 hours after death, the renewal of the bond refreshes the familiars memory.
In general, I prefer a flowers for algernon scenario, without any hard and fast rules about how fast the 'specialness' fades. It could be linked to the casters soul finally achieving its final rest, it could just be related to time, or it could be both of those things. I also don't think in inappropriate for the occasional familiar or companion to be able to find something to essentially replace the power of the bond allowing it to keep its stats.
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Saw a short little post about an animal companion that lost its master, recalled after a time later when it gains sentience from an awakening spell.
I have no real 'memories' of my time before the awakening. Animals have only base intelligence, enough to coordinate their bodies, follow their instincts and, at the best of time, learn certain tricks taught to them by more intelligent beings, though only if reinforced constantly enough to become a sort of ... muscle memory. That was my existence. The thrill of the hunt, the taste of blood, ripping of flesh, sharp hunger pains that drove me to kill and the blissful medium of contentment after a full meal.
My story starts in servitude to what I now call a Druid. I would not call it slavery. I had the ability to ignore the summons, if not the knowledge that I could. It was like another instinct, calling me towards it as if another need, such a mating or the hunt. Whatever ritual called me, it awoke me to a level of understanding I previously lacked. I wanted, rather than needed, to protect the source of the call. It was a female. Some ugly, mutated and balding monkey of some sort. Halflings, I think they are called. Even then, I knew the thing was too immature, child-like, to survive very long without protection. ... I am, and was even then, fiercely protective of weak things that don't seem to be food. I still don't understand why this is but it is a part of me, something deep in what is referred to as a soul.
At the side of this halfling, I never did learn her name, I was taken to places far from my territory, faced creatures I would have avoided even if hunger was tearing at my innards, and I grew powerful. Not only that, I tasted real intelligence. Just as I was growing accustomed to this intelligence, it was taken from me. With the death of my Druid, all the power and intelligence, all the cunning and skill ... It was torn from me like the air from the lungs of a deer when its throat is ripped out.
I mourned her loss briefly, I had little capacity for true sorrow, and eventually made my way back to my old territory. My recall of this time is severely limited. Having possessed intelligence left me with a longing for what I had lost and this allowed some sort memories to develop. The next clear thing I remember was another calling. I was not the same as before. Something about it was sinister and caused the hairs on my body to stiffen and raise. I could not resist the call. Something in me remembered the power, the skill and the promise of intelligence. I answered... and regret it to this very day.
I've only seen this twice. Both NPCs, too--one had an animal companion attacking our group, so it died before its druid. The other was a wizard's familiar; when it ran away from its late master, the barbarian decided to not risk it alerting anyone else.
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In my campaign, I allow a familiar to hang around with the party but it loses one "level" of Familiar each day it goes without a master (losing INT, Natural Armor, skills, special abilities, etc.) When its familiar level reaches 0 it becomes an ordinary creature of its species, possibly losing all memory of ever being a familiar. Naturally intelligent creatures like many improved familiars might hang around longer to provide aid to their master's companions depending on their alignment or disposition toward the party but, since most familiar abilities are only useful if the master is alive, normal familiars are generally only capable of providing assistance with skill checks their master spent ranks on.