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Hey everyone. On my mission to make the worlds most bad-expletive mauler familiar I stumbled upon shaman. Please tell me I'm doing something wrong, because this all seems to check out... (this is at level 20)
nature shaman (halfling or racial heritage halfling) favored class bonus:
"Add ½ to the shaman’s effective class level for the purpose of determining her spirit animal‘s natural armor adjustment, Intelligence, and special abilities."
mauler familiar (pick any): this archetype gets a special ability:
Increased Strength (Ex)
At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, a mauler’s Strength score increases by 1. As a result of this ability, the familiar’s Intelligence score remains 6; a mauler can never have an Intelligence score higher than 6. (there is no cap)
nature shaman level 16 true spirit ability
Companion Animal (Su): The shaman’s spirit animal takes the form of an animal companion of her choice, using her shaman level as her effective druid level. The animal retains all the special abilities and the Intelligence score of the spirit animal, but also has the statistics and abilities of an animal companion. If the animal is dismissed, is lost, or dies, it can be replaced in the same way as a normal spirit animal.
So without being a halfling and using tiger stats I get 38 strength in natural form. Add halfling for caretaker and 10 free levels of nothing but tasty cappless str bonus from mauler, and I end up at 45. If I min maxed with a stronger pet I could go higher but hey I like tigers. This is without magic/inherent bonuses/etc. Tell me I am missing something obvious? Thanks!
Your Animal Companion isn't a Familiar.
Yes it is, at level 15 or 16 or 17 can't remember a Nature Shaman Familiar become a Familiar and an Animal Companion at the same time... Hard to keep track of all the stuff, gives a headache but it's how it works... :/
You must have quoted me in the 10 seconds it took for me to delete my post, after realizing that =).
Sorry :p
So a Nature Spirit Shaman is a famioliar and at level 16 it gain :
Companion Animal (Su): The shaman’s spirit animal takes the form of an animal companion of her choice, using her shaman level as her effective druid level. The animal retains all the special abilities and the Intelligence score of the spirit animal, but also has the statistics and abilities of an animal companion. If the animal is dismissed, is lost, or dies, it can be replaced in the same way as a normal spirit animal.
Now I don't know if what the op post is right or wrong 'cause Nature Spirit are a pain to manage as is, so if you add some crunch in it it's too much for me... :p
This class ability is their answer for the old arcane heirophant prestige class from 3rd edition, it did the same thing of combining a familiar and an animal companion. I was super excited to see they did it finally in pathfinder since it was one of my favorites, I just wish it hit sooner than level 16 since you don't usually get to play much after that
This class ability is their answer for the old arcane heirophant prestige class from 3rd edition, it did the same thing of combining a familiar and an animal companion. I was super excited to see they did it finally in pathfinder since it was one of my favorites, I just wish it hit sooner than level 16 since you don't usually get to play much after that
At first you get it at very low level (around 1-3) but it was deemed (and frankly for a reason) too powerful and they put it at level 16 where it count a lot less to have a fighting familiar that is intelligent (feat, don't have to take orders, spell etc.)
as for the number crunch:
a level 20 druid's tiger is 13(nat)+8(level 7 size increase)+6(str/dex level increase)+4(every 4 levels +1 stat) =31
a level 20 mauler (calculated as 30 with halfling bouns) gets +14 str
caretaker wasn't in original math but adds 2 to a stat of your choice.
all together=47
there's plenty of cheese to be added to it after that, but this is all just the very basics.
as for the number crunch:
a level 20 druid's tiger is 13(nat)+8(level 7 size increase)+6(str/dex level increase)+4(every 4 levels +1 stat) =31
a level 20 mauler (calculated as 30 with halfling bouns) gets +14 str
caretaker wasn't in original math but adds 2 to a stat of your choice.
all together=47there's plenty of cheese to be added to it after that, but this is all just the very basics.
Well... I think by RAW it's legit...
What I don't know is : how many hp it will have : Half yours ? Like a Tiger level 20 Animal companion ? Best of either ? :p
as for the number crunch:
a level 20 druid's tiger is 13(nat)+8(level 7 size increase)+6(str/dex level increase)+4(every 4 levels +1 stat) =31
a level 20 mauler (calculated as 30 with halfling bouns) gets +14 str
caretaker wasn't in original math but adds 2 to a stat of your choice.
all together=47there's plenty of cheese to be added to it after that, but this is all just the very basics.
Well... I think by RAW it's legit...
What I don't know is : how many hp it will have : Half yours ? Like a Tiger level 20 Animal companion ? Best of either ? :p
My interpretation of the HP is that it still uses your HP/2 since its essence is still a familiar. I think of it as something similar to an improved familiar (or the way the wasp familiar works) where it replaces its stat block with the new creature but retains the normal rules, and since it only gets 16 HD max it would refer to your own:
normal familiar rules:
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.
Hit Points: The familiar has half the master’s total hit points (not including temporary hit points), rounded down, regardless of its actual Hit Dice.