Decisions, Decisions. Improved Familiar for a Chaotic Good Wizard?

[Marik Whiterose]

Hey all,
In my current Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign My C/G Wizard is fast approaching 7th level and is considering taking the Improved Familiar feat. I've been scouring the internet and have come up with some ideas from which to choose but would like some additional feedback.
I've currently whittled my list down to the following choices:

Drake, house (because, Majenko)
Psuedodragon
Dragon, faerie
Azata, lyrakien
Agathion, silvanshee

While the House Drake is more flavorful to the AP I'm more inclined to choose the actual Psuedodragon over it, because chewing on silver apparently affects your mental facilities and you lose your telepathy.
The Faerie Dragon s currently leading the the pack because of the Greater Invisibility, followed by the Azata, and Agathion for the healing and Commune.

Right now I'm just spinning my wheels trying to decide.

[deuxhero]

Faerie Dragon. Actually having spellcasting allows it to do all kinds of nifty stuff. This includes no UMD checks for sorcerer/wizard spell items and Page of Spell Knowledge to cast without blowing money.

[WagnerSika]

Faerie dragon seconded. My gnome wizard has one and she is awesome. She is able to use wands and spells with pages of spell knowledge. Can be combat medic having a high fly speed. I have a Headband of vast intelligence with UMD on it so she can use cleric scrolls and wands.
If you put Intimidate on the headband she can give enemies -2 on saves.

Second choice would be lyrakien.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Let me put in a word for the silvanshee.

The Silvanshee is not a combat creature. But look at it again. It's a Tiny creature that has Fly at 90' and has +19 Stealth and darkvision and +10 Perception. This thing is your little flying spy, yes? And it can talk to animals at will, so it can zoom around the city chatting up stray dogs or horses whatever to collect information. Know Direction at will means it never gets lost. It can ooze gaseously through the smallest crack and Dimension Door through walls and locked portals And it looks more or less like a normal cat -- hey, kitty, how'd you get in here? (Personally I'd allow a Knowledge [planes] check to ID it, but that's my own interpretation, and anyway not a lot of people throw ranks at that.)

Furthermore, it's very difficult to catch. Grab it and grapple it? +8 Str burst. Throw a net over it? Gaseous form. Surrounded by enemies? Poof, dimension door.

Next, check out that Cat's Luck power. By itself it's NBD -- +1 to all saves for 10 minutes / day. But it's wonderfully abusable. Take Fate's Favored as a trait and it becomes +2. Throw Eagle's Splendor on your cat and it becomes +4. Get the cat a Cha boosting item and now it's +5 -- again, that's to ALL saves. And the cat can give you the boost as a standard action any old time.

And finally, while 1d6 of healing ain't much, 1d6 of healing plus a 90' move means that the cat is your party's EMT. Desperate boss fight, your party's tank just got critted down to -15, he'll bleed out in a couple of rounds. Does your cleric waste a precious, precious combat round healing him? Ha no, your cat zooms in from 90' away and stabilizes.

The Faerie Dragon is fine too, sure. But the silvanshee is really flexible, especially in an urban environment.

Doug M.

[Melkiador]

You did an excellent job of singing the praises of the silvanshee, but the one big thing it has going against it is a lack of hands. Unless you polymorph it, it’s not going to be able to use wands for you. I guess you could look on the bright side and decide it’s one less thing to keep track of in combat though.

[Marik Whiterose]

Thank you all for your feedback. As I've been mulling it over for the past couple of days I find that, as a worshipper of Desna, the Azata is edging out the Faerie Dragon. Although the dragon is the most powerful, the Lyrakien is a close second and is more thematically in tune with the character.

Change My Mind

I Was Just Looking

[Wheldrake]

I really liked having an azata familiar, and an extra wand blast here and there can be very helpful. Great for the Desna theme tie-in, too.

[baggageboy]

Check out the shapless familiar and changling familiar feats too. Make your familiar a full size person at will, awesome stuff. Keep in mind also outsiders have martial weapon proficiency. Probably not quite as good for a wizard and a lot martial character, but it's worth looking at.

[Cevah]

Going out of the box, there is the Homunculus. Upgradable, hands, voice [optional], and you can see and hear what it does out to 1500 feet.

/cevah

[Marik Whiterose]

Okay, with the type of familiar decided I'm now considering the Emissary archetype for said Azata (to play up the Desna connection) but I've got a few questions.

1) the Azata, as an Outsider, gets Knowledge (planes) as a class skill but according to it's stat block the Lyrakien gets Knowledge (choose one) as a class skill. Does the Lyrakien have to choose planes or can she choose another in it's place.
I'm thinking No.

1a) If she chooses another Knowledge skill, say nature, does she get the two Knowledge skills (planes and nature) as class skills or does one supersede the other (nature instead of planes)?
I'm thinking the latter.

2) As an Emissary, the Lyrakien would get access to Desna's Bit of Luck power from the Luck domain. Is there any way to use this power at range?
I was thinking about creating a magic item with spectral hand but I'm not sure it would work with the spell-like abilities granted from the archetype.

[Lelomenia]

Could probably use a Conductive whip or ranged weapon?

[Marik Whiterose]

Unfortunately, Conductive wouldn't work. It requires two uses of an ability to function and as an Emissary the Azata only gets one use a day.
Oh well, there's always Invisibility.