Tumor Familiars - Interesting character concepts

[RigaMortus]

I never really liked the Tumor Familiar alchemist discovery. It never appealed to me before. Didn’t seem like there was much gain to acquire one and burn a Discovery on it. Recently I re-examined it and came up with a few cool (I think) character concepts. I wanted to put them out there incase it inspired others, or maybe someone can expand upon it and post a build. Also, I’m not sure if some of these concepts work rules-wise so please correct where you might see an error.

1) Alchemist 2 / Paladin X w Tumor Familiar. Take Improved Familiar and select Beheaded. Take Evolved Familiar (Reach) so it has a 5 ft reach. Now you are a “cursed” Paladin or a Paladin w a horrible secret. An extra head protruding from your chest (that can now threaten and attack w its 5 ft reach). Flavor wise this could be a curse put upon you, maybe a cajoined twin, etc. Extra scary when it detaches and attack on its own…

2) Similar build to above except we’re mostly going to try and capitalize on the Fast Healing 5. Perhaps an Oradin build w a dip into Alchemist for Tumor Familiar. Have the familiar cast Shield Otger on you, while you do same to your party. Now you take some of the party’s damage, your familiar takes some of yours, it Fast Heals 5 of it. There are ways to get your familiar to cast spells or obtain feats that allows them to do so (Beast Bond Witch).

3) This option I am most interested in… Vivisectionist 2 / Rogue X… You can go straight alchemist I just went Viv to not lose Sneak Attack… Pick a Diminutive sized Familiar (this is important) and get Evolved Familiar (Reach) for the 5 ft reach. We’re going to make the familiar a Valet familiar so it shares Teamwork Feats. We pick up Overwhelm which gives both myself and my Familiar flanking as long as one of us threatens an enemy that is 2 size categories bigger. Since our Familiar is diminutive that means Medium size or bigger enemies we always threaten. Take Outflank for the +4 to hit. Take Feint Partner and Improved Feint Partner - Familiar Feints (using your skill ranks), you get AoO w Sneak Attack. Take Paired Opportunist and that’s +4 to the AoO and +4 because you’re still Outflanking them.

[VoodistMonk]

Human takes the Racial Heritage (Ogre) feat, and then Vestigial Head... because two heads are better than one... then, yeah, Beheaded Tumor Familiar... because three heads are better than two?

[Mark Hoover 330]

Overwhelm wrote:

You are considered to be flanking an opponent if at least one ally who also has this feat is threatening that opponent and the opponent is at least two size categories larger than the larger of you or your ally, regardless of your actual positioning.

So, the feat says you figure the size difference from the larger of you or your ally. If your Familiar is anything from Diminutive to Medium, it probably won't matter since the PC will likely determine the size difference.

Prankster familiar gains Improved Dirty Trick and later Greater Dirty Trick as bonus feats. A 1 point Evolution through Evolved Familiar gives a Familiar the ability to cast Mage Hand at will. Retraining the L1 feat for the Familiar for Magic Trick allows the Familiar to use Dirty Magic Trick; they can attempt a Dirty Trick maneuver in the spell's range using their CMB for the attempt.

If you're going with levels in Rogue, taking the Carnivalist rogue lets any other class' levels for Familiar advancement stack with the Carnivalist levels. They get slow advancement for SA damage but your Familiar can also deliver SA damage as well.

Any Familiar that again, receives the Mage Hand spell at will and can retrain a feat for Improved Unarmed Attack can deliver a 1d3 Force damage slap within the range of Mage Hand as if it were an attack (not Touch). If however the familiar can deal SA damage and attacks from Stealth or their foe is otherwise denied its Dex bonus, you can tack on SA damage with the force slap.

Imagine you slough off your tumor in an area of Cover and you both use Stealth. On your Surprise round you pop out delivering a crossbow bolt with SA damage on it, then your tumor lobs a TK slap for 1d3 plus SA damage. You leave the familiar where it is and it returns to Stealth, then later in the fight if needed it pops back up while you take a 5' step back and your familiar delivers another SA.

As far as flavor goes, imagine a Tumor Familiar made into an Improved Familiar and the Improved Familiar is any of the Small Elemental types; when it merges into you it instead resembles: a coating of stone over a body part; a sheath of ice across a body part; smoldering magma just under the skin of a body part; a single body part cloaked in a thin but visible mist, or perhaps coursing with electricity.

Other weird forms from Improved Familiars for the tumor to appear as:

A clockwork familiar that literally resembles a cuckoo clock embedded in your skin

A spirit oni that first resembles strange tattoos across the face, then it can emerge from within the body to form a mask over the PC's face or literally detach to become its own independent self

A sprite which embeds itself in your flesh but still generates an aura of faint light outlining the "tumor" from under your skin

A Galluvix which, when merged with your flesh resembles a Tiny sized rooster egg embedded in your skin; when the creature emerges unless you command it otherwise the egg "hatches" complete with a Ghost Sound of the cracking eggshell as the creature issues forth with a triumphant shriek

[VoodistMonk]

We can also VMC Sorcerer for the Aberrant Bloodline and take Aberrant Tumor... thus gaining a Tumor Familiar without Alchemist levels.

[Azothath]

it's an interesting option with some twisted flavor.

I follow PFS's advice and ban Alchemist Vivisectionist archetype.