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So, i have a lvl 2 LESHY Kineticist [Wood] that I've been jokingly saying has a Bee/Wasp or other insectoid flying/crawling about his being. Now that he's lvl 2, he can access that feat. But i've never really played a wizard or any class [in PF1 or 2e] that dealt with utilizing a familiar, and trying to understand 2e Familiar rules is confusing me.
so, help me out. Would a Kineticist benefit from a familiar, even if it is primarily flavor and how to set one up.
Thanks.
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Maybe the Magnificient Menagerie Familiar Guide will help you to parse the rules, especially the "How familiars work" section.
In my opinion, you don't need rule elements for flavor, you need them if you want to use a familiar to influence the outcomes of the game, be it in exploration, in combat or in social encounters.
You could use a familiar as a scout, for example, or to help you with skill checks or do them on their own.
Without further investments, your familiar will have two abilities, and if it should be able to fly that would consume one. If you want it to scout, it should probably be able to communicate its findings, it will need speech or touch telepathy, or maybe share senses to let you see through it.
Two abilities is not a lot, but you can change them with your daily prepreations. If you want more, you would have to invest more feats for familiar master archetype or the like.
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A flying familiar is especially helpful for scouting purposes, as they tend to be less conspicuous than PCs. They're great for utility purposes, if you're a little creative. Delivering a letter, fetching something from a distance, and so on.
Default familiars have two abilities, I believe. You select these abilities from a list, and any abilities the creature would innately have, you have to choose first. So a parrot familiar would have the Speech and Flying abilities, for example. A monkey would have manual dexterity and a climb speed. If you have leftover abilities, you can give them other abilities as well, so you can have a talking bee, or give it darkvision. Important to know is that you can swap out these abilities each day, so you can have a talking bee one day, and one that resists fire the next. Discuss with your GM if you want your familiar to have specific abilities, but don't have the "slots" for it.
There are also "Master abilities" that allow you to do something, such as access to an extra cantrip, or look through your familiar's eyes. These work the same as the normal familiar abilities, in that you select them each day, just that they give you an extra ability, rather than your familiar.
There are feats and classes that increase the number of abilities your familiar has. The Witch starts with four abilities instead of two, and Enhanced Familiar does the same.
You can have specific familiars with special abilities if you have a certain number of abilities. For instance, a Mood Cloud requires you to have 3 abilities (so only available to Witches or if you take Enhanced Familiar), and comes with two of these abilities "pre-installed."
Familiars don't act in combat by default. You can give them a command as one action to give them two actions. The Independent ability gives them one free action each turn. They're (usually) not designed for combat, as they have terrible HP and no attacks. A familiar uses your AC and saves as its own AC and saves.
If you want an insect familiar, this is how I'd set it up:
- Give it the Flier ability for 25 fly speed. This one is mandatory.
- Give it one other ability of your choice. Independent, Manual Dexterity, and Speech are generally good ones, but depending on what you want, you can give it other abilities.
That's it! You now have a flying insect familiar! If you want to give your familiar more abilities, take the Familiar Master dedication, or ask your GM if you can take Enhanced Familiar as a class feat.
The Witch starts with four abilities instead of two
Only three are selectable. The fourth one is permanently chosen by the Patron. But that detail should not be very important in this case for a Kineticist.
Several of the familiar master abilities are designed for use for a spellcaster and would have no effect on a Kineticist. Cantrip Connection, for example, would not grant an additional Cantrip. But many master abilities will continue to function properly, as will all of the abilities that affect the familiar itself.
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Okay, let me be a little more specific- unlike PF1, there isn't a "this creature can be used as a familiar" list that i can find for 2e, so actually *creating* the familiar is what's confusing me.
Let's say i want to stay within the "flying insectoid" theme- would the familiar itself even have a stat block? Flying/Shared Senses for scouting would be all it would used for.
If the creature itself is naught more than 'extra appendage' as added utility to the class itself, i wish that were more clear in the rulings. Thanks all.
Familiars use pet statistics: https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=5186
They're basically pets with special abilities, per the familiar rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Familiars.aspx
"Familiars are mystically bonded creatures tied to your magic. Most familiars were originally animals, though the ritual of becoming a familiar makes them something more. You gain the Pet general feat, except that your pet has special abilities. Common choices for familiars include bats, cats, foxes, ravens, and snakes."
My opinion, familiars aren't worth it unless you're going to spend several of your character resources on making them worth it.
The class feat that grants you a familiar on its own doesn't make it good.
I was recently building an earth kineticist and was debating about it, but decided that Geologic Attunement was a better choice.
But I would totally have a Gluttonous Geode as a (decorative) pet.
Having seen it in action it still probably wouldn't be my personal first choice. But it has exceeded my 'going in' expectations, and I know the player is quite happy with their choice.
As long as the player is happy, that's what matters most.
Considering the amount of choices available to a Kineticist, I probably wouldn't take it.
If I got free archetype on a character, I might consider taking the familiar archetype....but it's still doubtful since there are better ways I could spend it.
Having a familiar to scout is not without value, but I still have a hard time spending even a single class feat on it.