![]() ![]() This makes breath weapons with status effects (especially save or suck effects) extremely potent, as they can keep pace with their master’s highest DC spells and can be used every 1d4+1 rounds. Familiars are treated as using their master’s character level for effects related to hit dice, including ability progression like the DCs of breath weapons. Because their breath weapon damage will be terrible as wyrmlings, you want a dragon with a save or suck breath weapon. Despite these issues, Dragons are a great choice of familiar they can fly, they can speak, they’re intelligent, they have opposable digits, and they have breath weapons. This delays the lowest-level familiar abilities a bit, but because dragons can already speak you skip the speech abilities, and pick up Spell Resistance and Scry on Familiar a few levels late. Dragon Familiar Dr: It’s important to note that Dragon Familiar uses a different familiar ability progression.Combat Familiar PHB2: Good for casters who like to deliver touch spells through their familiar, but not helpful for combat familiars.Celestial Familiar BoED: The lantern archon and musteval guardinal are absolutely fantastic options as both support and light damage output, which makes them fantastic for conventional casters, but not useful for combat casters.Bonded Familiar PHB2: Allows you or your familiar to save each other’s life.Because familiars use their master’s BAB and calculate their HP based on their masters, combat familiars generally work best for combat classes like Duskblade and Hexblade. There is a fantastically long list of wonderful options (see “Expanded Familiar Options”, below), many of which can be very capable combatants. The biggest reason to pick up Improved Familiar (or any of the other special familiar feats) is because you want to turn your familiar into a fighting animal. You might also let your familiar make spot/listen/search checks by itself, but the ability to provide the Alertness feat seems to be intended to reflect your familiar aiding you. Similarly, if your familiar can speak you might be able to use your familiar as the party’s Face if your Dm allows it. A wizard’s familiar gets the same modifier to Knowledge skills, but I don’t think any reasonable DM would allow a familiar to make a Knowledge check. The exact mechanics of other skills are somewhat suspect. They lack Trapfinding, and can’t get the ability from their master, so be wary of traps. Skilled FamiliarsĮspecially useful if they have opposable digits, familiars can serve as Scouts nearly as well a Rogue. Remember that Spell Trigger items like wands and Command Word items both require that the user be able to speak. This can make your familiar extremely useful if you hand them wands of Lesser Vigor, or scrolls/wands offensive spells which don’t allow saving throws, like Grease. If your GM allows it, your Familiar may be able to use magic items, especially if you have Use Magic Device. They can also act as couriers for Exploding Runes and Sepia Snake Sigil, or for delivering messages non-magically to nearby recipients. They can serve as a delivery mechanism for touch spells, and because of their small size and good Dexterity they are often excellent at Hide and Move Silently, allowing them to move into position to attack before the party kicks in the door. Basic FamiliarsĬommon among Sorcerers and Wizards who make no effort to capitalize on their Familiars, a basic Familiar is still an excellent tool. Familiars in the Partyīecause Familiars determine their abilities based on their master’s hit points, BAB, and skills, familiars can fill many roles in the party as well as or sometimes better than their master. I also omit the use of “Flaws” since they allow a massive increase in power with essentially no cost to the character. Those options also tend to be wildly unbalanced and rarely receive errata. I am of the opinion that those options are intended to be limited to campaigns run in those settings, and as such they don’t really apply to a generic campaign. It’s important to note that I generally omit campaign-setting specific content. Blue: Fantastic options, often essential.Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichĪre extremely situational.For help identifying sourcebook abbreviations, see my Sourcebook Abbreviations Guide. Because so little of 3.5 is available on the SRD, I will attempt to tag items with a superscript indicating their book of origin. RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which tend to be more consistent than 3.5 handbooks. This article also includes a comprehensive list of available familiar options, including those from feats like Improved Familiar. Originally a pet for Sorcerers and Wizards, familiars have become great utility and combat options easily on par with Animal Companions. ![]()
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