ClassesClasses that grant familiars:- Wizard/Sorcerer PHB: These are the most common familiars and unfortunately, the weakest. The classes have bad hit points, BAB and saves, making them less useful in battle situations.
- Hexblade CW: Very nice class for a familiar. Hexblades are a full BAB and high hit die class, augmenting your familiar to nearly the maximum.
- Dread Necromancer HoH: Better familiars due to higher hit die compared to that of the wizard. Also they get a different selection of familiars.
- Nar Demonbinder UE: Gets an improved familiar. Sorcerer/wizard and Nar Demonbinder levels stack to determine familiar abilities.
- Celebrant of Sharess PGtF: Easy requirements and the familiar benefits at double the prestige class levels for the granted abilities.
Classes that stack for familiar abilities:- Alienist CA: Stacks for familiar abilities and it later acquires the pseudonatural template.
- Arcane Heirophant RotW: Your animal companion becomes your familiar.
- Fleshwarper LoM: Your familiar becomes an aberration and it gains new abilities.
Classes that benefit from Obtain Familiar:- Duskblade PHB II: Full BAB, some physical skills, ok hit die. However you won't probably have your familiar deliver your touch spells.
- Beguiler PHB II: Great skills, buff spells, higher hit die than normal sorcerers. Grab a raven familiar and give it a wand. It will probably be able to use it if you are high enough level.
- Bard PHB: As above, but better. Medium BAB actually helps. Also the spell list is wider and your familiar can be very helpful in situations like delivering healing spells in the battlefield, buffed by your personal range spells etc.
- Gish: While their familiars' abilities may be lower than normal, they do acquire some nice skills, have better BAB than normal and their hit dice are higher usually. Also most of the times these characters buff up pre combat, which benefits a familiar greatly.
- Warlock CA: Although your familiar can't really deliver your spells or benefit from buffs, you have UMD and several other nice skills.
- Dragonfire Adept DM: Ok hit die, nice skills and good saves. BAB hurts though.
Feats- Mounted Combat PHB: This is usually combined with high ride skill and improved familiars. Protecting your familiar from blows is nothing to scoff at.
- Toughness PHB: Don't even consider it for a HP - pump to your familiar :[/b]D.
- Improved Familiar various: Provides very nice options. A list of the best improved familiars will be included in the guide later.
- Improved Toughness CW: This is actually nice. The bonus HP are quite a few.
- Obtain Familiar CA: So you gain a familiar, with abilities based on your level? With a feat? Take a look at the sorcerer class. They hardly have any class features besides summon familiar.
- Bonded Familiar PHB II: Either way you lose experience. Of course it would be best if you didn't come in a situation to receive a deadly blow, but this feat is like 2/day avoid XP loss from death.
- Combat Familiar PHB II: This isn't nice, but it's required if your familiar is of small size and must be in the same square with the target to touch him.
- Lurking Familiar PHB II: Not so good. Requires combat familiar, which makes it unattractive. Also you need a familiar that can hide. This feat is effective when facing opponents that will get screwed if they lose their dexterity bonus to AC.
- Spell-linked Familiar PHB II: Your familiar gets an amount of your spells. Chose some that are capped out or that don't benefit from caster level. This feat essentially grants you extra actions in combat. Don't neglect this.
- Celestial Familiar BoED: As with improved familiar, this will be examined later.
- Dragon Familiar Draconomicon: Get a wyrmling dragon as a familiar. Great.
- Planar Familiar PlH: Offers some choices as improved familiar.
- Stitched Spell Familiar LM: Nice option for necromancers.
There is of course to edit some of your familiar's feats and skills, here's how:[/b] The power Psychic Reformation lets you tweak the subject's skills, feats or powers. Now most of the times your familiar won't even have powers, but the other two aspects are worth tweaking. Feats like track on a familiar that has scent (such as a rat), power attack, point blank shot, skill focus (Use Magic Device) are great options. Remember that in order to redistribute skill points, you can only re-spend them on class skills. A single use of psychic reformation can probably be bought, paying approximately 500 gp (assuming the cost is power level x manifester level x 25 gp). The XP cost can be translated to gp by paying 5 gp for each XP spend by the manifester (which is actually half, since you are going to spend some, too). Thus the XP cost is 125 x reformed HD. To add more to this, you can get the alternative feature drakken familiar. Your familiar now has the dragonblood subtype and if you give it the draconic aura feat, you can select a broad range of auras to help you and your party.
Spells- Augment Familiar SC: It's a +4 bonus to strength, dexterity and constitution, damage reduction 5/magic and +2 resistance to all saving throws. It's a big buff for a second level spell.
- Enhance Familiar SC: +2 competence bonus on saves, attack rolls, melee damage rolls and +2 dodge bonus to AC. Great duration.
- Familiar Pocket SC: This unfortunately only can hide tiny or smaller familiars.
- Fortify Familiar SC: 2d8 hit points, +2 enhancement bonus to natural armor, 25% fortification.
- Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability SC: This is a very interesting spell. You can give some of your spells to your familiar. That way you gain actions, since the spells transferred are at the same caster level as yours. This may give your familiar to use wands without need of use magic device.
Spells to use via Share Spells- Arrow Mind SC: Nice for outsider familiars, who have martial weapon proficiency.
- Aspect of the Earth Hunter SC: This is just great. Even a lowly lizard becomes a Bulette. Great stats, tremorsense, natural armor.
- Bite of the Werebear SC: Great enhancement bonuses to nearly everything and gives you the ability to use power attack and blind fight.
- Bite of the Wereboar SC: As above, but not as powerful.
- Bite of the Wererat SC: This is great, since the level is really low. If you can actually persist it, it will affect your familiar for 24 hours. Also gain the benefits of weapon finesse, if your familiar lacks it.
- Bite of the Weretiger SC: Pretty much the same with bite of the werebear.
- Bite of the Werewolf SC: Nice, but meh. The other bites are better.
- Blink/Improved PHB: Great defensive spells.
- Bloodhound SC: For familiar trackers.
- Body of War SC: Cast it on you and then dismiss it. Get a huge warforged familiar construct to smack your enemies.
- Comprehend Languages PHB: Great for getting your familiar to scout and snoop around.
- Contingency PHB: Essentially you get twice the spell levels you invest and protect both you and your familiar.
- Displacer Form SC: Nice for familiars, but there are better forms.
- Divine Sacrifice SC: If you can get yourself a wand of this and your familiar has fast healing or similar qualities, it will give high damage output.
- Dragon Breath SC: Gives both you and your familiar a breath weapon. You get two applications of the spell at the cost of one essentially.
- Dragonsight SC: Not only this is great by itself, but it makes your familiar great for delivering touch spells.
- Dragonskin SC: Enhancement bonus to natural armor and variable energy resistance. Not much, but handy.
- False Life PHB: It's an easy way for low level spellcasters to protect themselves and their familiars.
- Fiendform SC: This doesn't seem much, but it has some hidden qualities. First of all your familiar's type becomes an outsider, which means that it gains proficiency with martial weapons. It also gains supernatural, extraordinary and spell-like abilities of the new form.
- Find Traps PHB: If you can invest in disable device and search and don't have trapfinding, this spell can transform your familiar in a trapfinder.
- Fist of Stone SC: Nice if you have a familiar with the multiattack feat. Great even without it.
- Fire Whips SC: This gives you melee touch attacks that do 6d6 damage! Combined with high dexterity and weapon finesse can give you high attack roll so that you don't care about two-weapon fighting penalties.
- Flight of the Dragon SC: Nice long distance flying speed and gives your familiar a flight speed.
- Fly, Swift SC: Meh, 1 round flight as a swift action, may help but not worth its spell levels.
- Focusing Chant SC: Nice little buff for early levels. Even helps UMD, hide, move silently, spot, listen and attack rolls.
- Glibness SC: It would be interesting to see a raven bluffing a merchant :[/b]D:[/b]D.
- Grace SC: Nice buff and you can stack dexterity bonus, since that's sacred. Also bonus to land speed, which isn't much. The good-aligned weapons though can really help.
- Gutsnake SC: It's a nice spell, but a giant constrictor snake sprouting out of a rat's abdomen would be fun :[/b]D.
- Haste, Swift SC: This is of personal range so it can affect your familiar and has a duration greater than 1 round. Also it is a swift action.
- Improvisation SC: Great spell for familiars. You can use it to deliver an important touch spell or activate a magic item.
- Invisibility, Superior SC: This is a great invisibility spell and it can affect your familiar.
- Invisibility, Swift SC: As above, but the duration is crappy.
- Iron Body PHB: Great duration and you can dismiss it. Also the bonuses are great for a familiar.
- Kiss of the Vampire SC: Enervation or vampiric touch as a melee touch attack by both you and your familiar.
- Lightfoot SC: Great if you want your familiar to deliver a spell through a horde of enemies via flyby attack or the like.
- Lightning Ring SC: Double the damage output of lightning ring.
- Lion's Charge SC: Great if your BAB is good.
- Magic Fang, Superior SC: Very nice spell with personal range. Affects both your natural weapons and your familiar's.
- Master's Touch SC: Gives your outsider familiars the ability to carry shields.
- Mirror Image PHB: Is a huge buff and benefits are important to a combat familiar.
- Moment of Prescience PHB: You effectively get two bonuses to your rolls, as most of the checks can be done by your familiar, too.
- Mondekainen's Lucubration PHB: If this works with spells that your familiar can cast (through spells or feats) this is ok to have. You can regain any spell up to 5th level two times, so if you regain a 5th level spell of your own and a 1st or greater from your familiar, you essentially get 1-1 spell level trade.
- Negative Energy Aura SC: If you and your familiar are both undead somehow, you get to heal one another, damage living creatures and heal other undead creatures that are probably around.
- Nightshield SC: Great spell that grants bonuses to saving throws and blocks magic missiles.
- Nightstalker's Transformation SC: Wow. Just wow. Great bonuses to stats, skills, AC, saves. Also proficiencies and weapon finesse, as well as evasion. Also 3d6 sneak attack dice! If you want to use magic items and spells, just dismiss it. Your familiar will still be a killer with this one.
- Nimbus of Light SC: It's easy to get a wand out of this and you get two discharges at the cost of one.
- Nixie's Grace SC: Very nice buff, but it's a little high in level. However the +8 enhancement bonus to charisma helps both his bard and his familiar.
- Opalescent Glare SC: Two gaze attacks at the cost of one. Great for stacking fear effects.
- Positive Energy Aura SC: As with negative energy aura.
- Primal Form SC: Some defensive abilities and nice duration. Also low level.
- Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer PHB: If you can use this with abilities like Spell-linked familiar feat, this is indeed great. You get 3*2 = 6 spell levels to use at the cost of just 4. Same goes with retain ability.
- Ray Deflection SC: It the case thet your familiar gets targeted by rays regularly, this will provide it protection.
- Ruin Delver's Fortune SC: Great, but you really need to find a way in casting it persistent. That way it will sit all day for both you and your familiar.
- See Invisibility PHB: Great for familiar scouts.
- Serene Visage SC: As with glibness.
- Shapechange PHB: Great spell. The im-possibilities are endless :[/b]D.
- Mental Pinnacle XPH: It's only blue because it's not dismiss-able. Otherwise you and your familiar gain the power of a psion of your caster level?! It's insane!
- Heroics SC: Can't be actually shared, but it gives you a fighter feat. Great for those feats like power attack and the like. At later levels, even brutal strike and similar feats may be attained if your familiar meets the requirements.
ItemsWeapons:Weapons can be used by some familiars that are proficient with them, such as outsiders. Interesting weapons would include:
- Spell Storing DMG: Spell storing weapons just give another way for your familiar to save actions for you.
- Dispelling, Greater MIC: Well it's greater dispel magic 3/day at a great caster level. More charges from your familiar.
- Illuminating MIC: Cheap and if your familiar flies, it can act as a cute little torch.
- Precise MIC: Gives you the benefits of the precise shot feat. Nice for archer familiars.
- Shattermantle MIC: Great! Your familiar attacks some times your enemy to reduce his spell resistance and then you blast away.
- Sizing MIC: Familiars are generally not of their master's size. So with the sizing enhancement, which is cheap and has other wonderful abilities, you can trade weapons easily.
Miscellaneous:- Circlet of Persuation DMG: +3 to UMD and charisma based checks.
- Glove of Storing DMG: Nice for snooping familiars, you can get it to steal stuff and store them there so it can carry them.
- Ring of Spell Storing DMG: Put some spells inside it for your familiar to use.
- Tomes and Manuals DMG: If your familiar can read (or with comprehend languages) it will be able to read this books to boost its stats. Mind you, i don't suggest that you should spend a +5 tome on your familiar, but more of using +1 tomes to round up stats.
Should i trade my familiar?Well the short answer is no. Familiars are too good to trade for any other alternative class ability. Remember that even normal familiars grant you bonuses to different areas. If you consider that they use your base attack, base saves and skills, they are a weak copy (only regarding HP) of you. On the other hand, the major alternative class features that let you trade for a familiar, are the sorcerers' metamagic specialist and the wizards' immediate magic. Metamagic specialist's granted power can be easily acquired with just one feat. Immediate magic requires you to be a specialist wizard and the best ability is that of the conjuration school.
What is a familiar worth?It's a good question. What help and bonuses can a familiar provide his master? There is a feat, called Savvy Rogue. This augments a rogue's special abilities. If you have the skill mastery special ability, this allows you to take "12" with your mastered skills. Now familiars may not have anything to do with this feat, but they, too, grant their masters +2 on every class skill they have with a score of 9 and higher. The same goes for every skill the familiar has with a score of 9 or higher. This is because a familiar can aid you whenever you make a check. Also all familiars grant a feat, alertness and maybe even more in case of improved familiars. So to sum them all up you get:
- +2 to all your high skills and high familiar skills.
- alertness feat.
- speak with animals.
- deliver touch spells. In case your dexterity lacks, just select a familiar with high dexterity.
- Scry 1/day.
- Your personal scout/stalker.
- Additional body slots. Items such as the commander shield/armor ability provide diplomacy and will save bonuses. Same goes for a banner of the storm's eye and similar items.
- Additional actions. A spell cast from a ring of spell storing or a similar ioun stone casted pre-combat inside it by you, is completely the same with your spell only you don't have to spend an action to cast it.
- Extended role playing possibilities.
The list goes on and would be enormous if the improved familiars get into discussion.