Why no battle familiars?

[Mangaholic13]

So, yeah, this is just something that's been bugging me for ages now:
Why can't familiars Strike or make any kind of attack? Why is it only Animal Companions are able to Strike? Heck, why isn't there even a spell that lets you turn your Familiar into an Animal Companion version briefly? I'm just confused why, if you want your Familiar to have a use in combat, you have to take a whole bunch of loopholes in order to do so.
I don't know, I guess I just have this mental image of a witch/wizard casting a spell that turns that tiny animal they're carrying (rat, bat, cat, or dog) into a large beast of battle (rodents of unusually large size, giant bat, panther, or wolf).

Also, apologies if there is already a thread dedicated to this. I thought about searching and posting in such a thread, but I didn't want to accidentally become a thread necromancer.

[moosher12]

Likely due to precedent, familiars striking was probably considered vistigial and cut off

In Pathfinder 1E, familiars could Strike, but for the grand majority, the best the majority of familiars could ever do was 1 damage, maybe 2 damage for a particularly strong one. For example, a cat did 1d3 - 4 damage, which essentially just meant 1 damage, as any successful attack did entitle you to a minimum of 1 damage, unless a resistance or immunity got in the way.

[graystone]

Mainly to simplify things IMO. As moosher12 pointed out, attacks for familiars was mostly vestigial and would just add complexity and word count for little benefit.

For attacks a familiar can do, they can use the Spellcasting familiar ability, Calligraphy Wyrm's Ink Spray, Elemental Scamp's Elemental Breath, Faerie Dragon's Breath Weapon, House Drake's Breath Weapon or a Shadow Familiar's Steal Shadow [and some witch feats like Patron’s Claim]. Of course, you can always use Final Sacrifice too.

[Easl]

Mangaholic13 wrote:

I guess I just have this mental image of a witch/wizard casting a spell that turns that tiny animal they're carrying (rat, bat, cat, or dog) into a large beast of battle (rodents of unusually large size, giant bat, panther, or wolf).

The kineticist's Fearsome Familiar feat kinda does that, though it's limited to once per day. And your cat's going to be made of fire or metal or whatever.

Witches have Spirit Familiar and Stitched Familiar, which could easily be reskinned to be "familiar monsters out and attacks".

But you'll want to take Summoner if you want your familiar to independently act in combat, and if you want "my familiar attacks" to be a major contributor to your combat capabilities. Summoner is the PF2E "my magical battle animal is awesome" class.

[Castilliano]

As Easl says, if you want a familiar that's significant in combat, it has to be an Eidelon via Summoner. Anything less would fall in the Animal Companion territory (and those represent many feats of PC power). And as mentioned above anything even less than that wasn't worth Paizo developing.
Unfortunately there's no way to blend the concepts, though in a home game I'd likely work something out so that these overlap in the same creature as long as there weren't any shenanigans that amplified more than its breadth. I'd use the fact that the familiar could just as well be on the PC's body as a tattoo/tucked away as a baseline. The witch's ability to replace a familiar daily might be a bit too strong for an AC, so maybe it would take time for those abilities to redevelop after death/rebirth.

[Kyrone]

These days we do have a few specific familiars with some combat actions like the ones that graystone mentioned.

Also something like the Spellcasting familiar ability to cast a spell 5 lvls lower than your maximum once per day. Laughing Fit is popular on an independent familiar on this one.

[Finoan]

The Gatewalkers AP has the Scion of Domora archetype that gives you a familiar that is capable of making Strike attacks. If you want to houserule it, that would be a good place to start.

So it isn't that the option of familiars making Strike just wasn't thought about. It is that in general being a combat partner isn't the role of a familiar.

[Easl]

Finoan wrote:

So it isn't that the option of familiars making Strike just wasn't thought about. It is that in general being a combat partner isn't the role of a familiar.

I think that in general, PF2E devs didn't want "supporting cast" attacks to be as strong as any classes' primary schtick. So whether it's a summon spell, or a command a pet action, or some feat that powers up the familiar, the resulting attack will be weaker than your average PC's primary attack mode in some way. Either lower attack value (just like if the PC had MAP! Because really, that's what it's standing in for), or lower damage, or both.

Summoner excepted. They get a primary-attack-sized companion attack because, well, that's their whole schtick.

[lemeres]

I imagine because it risks going into strange alleys with unintended consequences. If you make combat familiars, you are tempted to write up archetypes and such that make those familiars 'worth it'. And that can be a can of worms.

I remember going to strange places with the Elrditch Guardian (archetype for fighters). It let you share all your feats with your familiar.

Since the edition did not have minion rules, this effectively doubled your action economy for maneuver based builds. And some feats had major pay offs because the designers assumed you would never be able to pull the trick off on your own.

This is the problem- combat familiars have to be unique enough to be more than just animal companions, but they also can't be big enough beat sticks taht they take over the eidolon's territory. So they tend to get weird, risky stuff like this.

[QuidEst]

Getting a familiar in 2e is pretty "inexpensive"- they're available for a first-level ancestry feat on a decent number of ancestries, and you can get a pet operating on similar rules for a general feat.

A level 1 ancestry feat probably shouldn't be giving you a combat companion.

A spell to transform your familiar isn't unreasonable, buuut at the same time... it'd more or less need to be balanced around a summons. And, at that point, you could just summon something with that same spell. That's why Kineticist gets just that- because they don't have spells, "replacing your familiar with the summons" is a good way to balance it.

So, if "turning your familiar into a creature" is what you want, why not just... flavor a summoning spell as that? It's pretty reasonable to assume that's what any familiar-transformation spell would look like.

[OrochiFuror]

Easl wrote:

Finoan wrote:

So it isn't that the option of familiars making Strike just wasn't thought about. It is that in general being a combat partner isn't the role of a familiar.

I think that in general, PF2E devs didn't want "supporting cast" attacks to be as strong as any classes' primary schtick. So whether it's a summon spell, or a command a pet action, or some feat that powers up the familiar, the resulting attack will be weaker than your average PC's primary attack mode in some way. Either lower attack value (just like if the PC had MAP! Because really, that's what it's standing in for), or lower damage, or both.

Summoner excepted. They get a primary-attack-sized companion attack because, well, that's their whole schtick.

Adding onto this. It's also about cost. One feat for a familiar puts them in the lowest possible tier of effectiveness. Witch and Familiar master can put more in to get more out.

Animal companions require a lot more feats and thus are much more effective in combat.
Summoner loses a lot of spell casting to have a companion that likely will also take up a lot of their feats but is by far the most effective companion.
Summoning spells create minions up to 5 levels lower then you, severely limiting what they are capable of, because it's just one spell slot.
Rituals can also get you minions 4 levels lower then you but cost wealth, something that is generally finite.

There's a fair amount of spells now that effect companions and minions, so I don't think it's too far out there to think we might get battle form spells for familiars that work like summoning spells.

Sadly as much as you might love your familiar, it's just one feat and thus a steadily shrinking portion of your overall power.