Hey there, been a lurker for sometime and I'm a long-time player of Pathfinder. I've recently stumbled upon an interaction that I'd like to get a bit of clarification on.
It is a fact that Improved Familiars lose their ability to speak with animals of their kind. But Witches have the option to take a 'Patron Familiar' as detailed in the Familiar Folio player companion, and those witches who choose the 'Animal' Patron grant their Familiar the ability to 'Speak with Animals of their kind' as a first level ability.
I've mulled and ruminated on this idea for several days now, because at first I waved it away as a separate ability, however the wording:
"The familiar gains the ability to speak with animals of its kind at 1st level.
If it would normally gain this ability at 7th level, the familiar gains the ability to speak with all animals (as though constantly under the effects of speak with animals) at 7th level."
The wording heavily implies two things. 1.) Patron Familiars can be improved familiars, since as far as I am aware, Improved Familiars are the only familiars that would not normally gain that ability at 7th level. 2.) That the ability is directly tied to the Familiars level progression similar to its other abilities, and would be something that could be removed by an archetype later, as for a normal Familiar it simply moves when they would normally gain their ability.
My end question really is, does this logic hold up? Could an Animal Witch with a Patron Familiar get their Improved Familiar an archetype in this way?
I suggest you for the purpose of archetypes to treat all familiars as having Speak with Animals of Its Kind and all Animal Companions as if they had Share Spells, least things like Charger that is clearly intended for Cavaliers cannot even be taken by Cavalier's mount for it replaces share spells with Light Armor Proficiency.
archetypes can't go on things that modify the same thing. The improved familiar losing and regaining speech doesn't count as original speech for the archetype to replace.
archetypes can't go on things that modify the same thing. The improved familiar losing and regaining speech doesn't count as original speech for the archetype to replace.
Do you have a citation for this anywhere in the rules? I found a few FAQ's that talk about treating Improved Familiar as an archetype and such, but nothing that states the above. Is there an FAQ I'm missing?
A character can take more than one archetype and garner additional alternate class features, but none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the core class as another alternate class feature. For example, a paladin could not be both a hospitaler and an undead scourge since they both modify the smite evil class feature and both replace the aura of justice class feature. A paladin could, however, be both an undead scourge and a warrior of the holy light, since none of their new class features replace the same core class feature.
FAQ Clarifying that basically any mention of a class ability counts as altering that ability.
Ah, yes. I saw what you meant when I combined it with another FAQ's ruling. That is a shame. I was hoping for a moment that a 1-level dip into Witch could make a Beastblade Magus' familiar a more threatening presence on the battlefield.
Thanks for your help, friends.