Kineticist Talents that give familiars, source Horror Adventures
Elemental Whispers
Elemental Whispers, Greater
Aberrant tumor for bloodrager and sorcerer
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Tumour familiar, aberrant tumour, serpent domain, crocodile domain as a few extra sources.
Eyebiter mesmerist gets a familiar.
You may want to consider a second rating for mauler as different things make them viable. Mainly there strength score.
If I remember other things I will put them here. I would also have a section rating the few feats they can swap in according to the familiar folio.
Haunted Heroes Handbook IIRC.
A few other ways to get a familiar
Investigators with the bonded investigator archetype get one.
Vigilantes with the magical child archetype get a familiar which automatically upgrades to an improved familiar, with extra abilities. With the cabalist or warlock archetypes they can spend a vigilante talent to get a normal familiar.
Hunters with the courtly hunter archetype get a sort of cross between a familiar and an animal companion.
Alchemists with the tinkerer archetype get a clockwork spy which upgrades to a clockwork familiar.
A migrus locker gives you a construct cat familiar which respawns.
A periapt of temporary familiar gives you a familiar for 5 minutes, 3/day.
Also it's worth noting that a spirit binder wizard gets a better familiar than most.
Make sure to add the Feat Only familiars in the list. Crawling Hand from the Detached Hand feat is AMAZING, albeit not PFS legal.
Also, are you planning to add the seperate Archetypes in this guide as well?
Cleric archetype Fiendish vessel grants an improved familiar at level 3. Imp, quasit or cacodaemon based on your alignament. Imp at level 3 is super handy.
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I tried to do a guide to communicating with familiars here. It may have errors, and I haven't updated it but if you can pull anything useful from it that would be great.
Let's not forget the Adept class, which gets a Familiar at its 2nd level.
Depending how this works, an aether elemental could make a powerful familiar. "Hit Dice: For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the master's character level or the familiar's normal HD total, whichever is higher. "
It's not entirely on topic, but you may want to discuss how the Improved familiars perform as guardian spirits.
Blight Druid gets a familiar instead of an animal companion.
Homunculi can not only be Familiars, they can also act as "pseudo-familiars" of a sort fpr any owner. That might be worth a mention.
And speaking of such, the Promethen Alchemist gets a Homunculus that isn't a Familiar, but is better in some ways. And the character still can get a regular Familiar.
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Couple things to note,
Bard has another familiar archetype, Duettist
The arcanist can get a familiar from the Familiar or Bloodline Development exploits.
The trait, House of Green Mothers Pupil, substitutes as the Iron Will requirement for the feat Familiar Bond.(Is also PFS legal)
The Beast-Bonded Witch transfers feats to familiars.
The Eldrich Guardian fighter archetype transfers combat feats to familiars.
The Carnivalist rogue archetype grants sneak attack dice to the familiar.
A flying familiar with the mauler archetype can be ridden by a small character or a medium character with the Undersized Mount feat.
The School Familiar is also an archetype. It is gated by the feats School Familiar and Greater School Familiar
Each familiar archetype has an archetype specific feat that increases its abilities somehow.
The sorcerer can also, along with the bloodrager, get a Bloodline familiar by switching out their first bloodline power.
You can trade out a familiar's initial feats for a certain selection of feats as noted in the Animal Archive.
Also worth noting that as far as I know no one know how Figurines of Wondrous Power work.
How do you mean?
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I have seen a number of discussions about if they level with the owner, can they take archtypes and whether or not you need to have to class feature first and these just alter it. There are several rules form threads so I have avoided them even though I have really wanted to use them several times.
I guess I mean these in combination with companion figurine feat.
Grandlounge,
Are you talking about figurines of power as familiars via this feat?
Source Classic Treasures Revisited pg. 25 (Amazon)
You’ve developed an especially close bond with the creature summoned by your figurine of wondrous power.
Prerequisites: Handle Animal 1 rank, own a figurine of wondrous power.
Benefit: You may select the creature summoned by your figurine of wondrous power as an animal companion or familiar, or as appropriate. The figurine has the standard abilities of a familiar or animal companion of its type, plus additional abilities related to its figurine type (see below). The main advantage of this is that if your familiar or companion is killed in creature form, it merely reverts to statue form and can be used again later. The following standard figurines are available as animal companions (C) or familiars (F).
Ebony Fly (C): You must have the Vermin Heart feat (see page 219 of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting) to select this creature as an animal companion. It is treated as a horse animal companion, and at 8th level it gains a fly speed of 120 feet (average maneuverability).
Golden Lions (C): When you select a golden lion as an animal companion, one of the pair becomes your companion and the other retains its standard figurine abilities.
Ivory Goats (C): When selecting an ivory goat as an animal companion, you select one of the three goats in the set (traveling, travail, or terror) as your companion; the others remain standard figurines. All three goats are treated as horse companions. The goat of traveling never suffers from fatigue or exhaustion from extended travel. The goat of travail has 2 horn attacks (1d8 + Str bonus) in addition to a horse’s normal attacks. The goat of terror has the fear aura and magical weapon horns as described in its figurine entry.
Marble Elephant (C): The elephant is treated as an elephant companion (see page 128 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary).
Serpentine Owl (C, F): The owl is treated as a bird animal companion or an owl familiar, but only in its Small horned owl form. In its giant owl form, it is merely a creature, not an animal companion or familiar. After three uses of its giant owl form, the figurine loses that transformation ability forever but still functions normally in its horned owl form as an animal companion or familiar.
Silver Raven (C, F): The raven is treated as a bird animal companion or a raven familiar. It retains its metallic appearance and animal messenger ability (though this is redundant for an intelligent familiar) but not its hardness when in animal form.
While the figurine is active, you and the active figurine gain all the normal benefits of having a companion creature; for example, a wizard with a silver raven familiar gains a +3 bonus on Appraise checks, the raven can speak one language, and so on. While the figure is inactive, you gain none of these benefits but are not otherwise hampered by its inert state (as if the creature were out of range but not dead). The usable duration of the companion figurine doubles; for example, an ebony fly is normally usable up to three times per week for up to 12 hours per use, but as a companion creature you may use it up to six times per week for up to 12 hours per use. The figurine is still a magic item and is subject to effects like antimagic field and dispel magic that affect magic items; it uses its caster level or your own, whichever is greater.
Per the prerequisites the character does not have to be able gain a familiar or companion via another way.
Per the description, "The figurine has the standard abilities of a familiar or animal companion of its type, plus additional abilities related to its figurine type."
It would gain levels or effective levels as any companion or familiar would. I would rule it would be based on character level, not any class levels. I wouldn't rule that that having familiar/companion class or feat ability would have any effect on a figurine companion. You are not getting an actual familiar/companion, you are just getting rather a lot more than others out of a figurine or figurines you possess. It never says you get any extra time active out of the figurine, so the advantage is good, but short of ridiculous.
I would rule that you can't have more than one companion figurine active at a time, even if you have managed to acquire a menagerie.
EDIT/ADD:
I would rule that this is a psuedo-familiar, acting like one, but not actually one.
One correction, a monkey familiar is tiny not small. Which makes it even better in your opinion I expect. Also there's one more way of gaining a familiar you forgot to mention: being a wizard!
Everything a familiar could do might be too much to cover in one guide. You could do a guide just on familiars as skill users, or on familiars as flankers or solo combatants, or on familiars as magic item users. Just listing all the familiars and saying which is generally best in your opinion isn't really better than linking to Archives of Nethys.
Zauriel,
If you have a section for things that act like a familiar/companion, but aren't, quite, put the Companion Figurine there. Homunculi, and possibly Simulacra, could go there. Homunculi can also become true familiars because nothing is ever that simple.
The document is getting pretty dense and unwieldy, due to walls of text and formatting. I suggest the following:
-Increased the size of headings so it is easier to find the section you are looking for.
-Organize the familiar list into groups.
-Based on the quantity of familiars available now it might be worth not list all of those you list in red, unless you think it has some unique quality worth mentioning.
Some groups of familiars you might consider: CRB only, flying, small size, aquatic only.
You list the hawk as an example of a good candidate for delivering touch attacks. If you mean to delivered offensive touch spells, then I strongly disagree because a creature should have a reach of 5 ft or more to do so. If the touch spell is a helpful one intended to be cast on the master or an ally (which is the smart way to use this ability), then a familiar with a high speed (such as the hawk) is better.
-Put all of the familiars from the CRB into a group at the beginning, and then list the others.
Might want to mention that anyone can get a Familiar with 2 feats and CHA13 by level 3.
- Skill Focus - Knowledge (pick one)
- Eldritch Heritage - Arcane
Then consider that an Alchemist, Bard or Summoner have caster levels, and thus can qualify for Improved Familiar.
Too bad it says "arcane" caster level, or Paladins and Oracles and Clerics (who would meet that CHA requirement no problem) could do it too.
For the Bard (who is very skill-heavy) the Familiar is a fun option with all those shared skill ranks.
That Skill Focus feat may seem expensive, but if you're a Half Elf, or a Human with the Focused Study racial trait you get a free skill focus anyway. Besides, if you pick Skill Focus - Know Planar you can also qualify for Eldritch Heritage [abyssal, elemental, djinn, protean, efreeti, shaitan, marid] as well. Or Skill Focus - Know Religion for [undead]... or Know Nature for [starsoul, stormborn, verdant, fey]... or Know Dungeoneering for [deep earth, aberrant]...
So it lets you into the door for some fun and interesting abilities.
There's a FAQ now that allows anyone to take Improved Familiar if their effective familiar level is high enough. FAQ
So a Paladins with a Cassian Angel familiar is possible ... nice!
So a Paladins with a Cassian Angel familiar is possible ... nice!
Yes, but also see the Chosen One archetype for the paladin for a possibly better way of doing this.
I see you have not gotten into the Archetypes too much.
A reminder of the recent change that Tumor familiars cannot take the Protector Archetype anymore.
Are there any advanced familiars capable of using (for example) wands that a Chaotic Good Wizard can get? It seems like all the familiars that do that sort of thing are evil...
Try a faerie dragon. Or a pooka. Or a sprite... just about anything fey really.
Are there any advanced familiars capable of using (for example) wands that a Chaotic Good Wizard can get? It seems like all the familiars that do that sort of thing are evil...
The cassisian can shape change to a humanoid form, so could use wands like that. It’s neutral good so available to chaotic good as well.