The Familiars' Handbook

[Gods_Trick]

Heh, that was me.

There are rules in the DMG for making a cohort into a special mount for +2 LA. There's an lv5 wizard ACF (High One warrior-wizard?) which combines your familiar with your special mount.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3127

Heh, do you know my brother Straw_Man actually ran the Succubus familiar version?  Didn't know he actually suggested it on the thread though.

[Iskajir]

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20030504x

After a little play, I would have to say that the tiny air elemental was well worth 500xp. Aside from spacing, I think it's every bit as good as a small elemental without costing a feat. I don't, however, use him to deliver touch spells to enemies, only touch buffs to unthreatened allies. The spacing might make a difference if the familiar was used for Shivering Touch, etc.

[Gods_Trick]

Would a reach weapon fix Tiny and smaller familiar's lack of reach?

[bearsarebrown]

Would a reach weapon fix Tiny and smaller familiar's lack of reach?

Yes but good luck delivering touch attacks.

[Gods_Trick]

Would a reach weapon fix Tiny and smaller familiar's lack of reach?

Yes but good luck delivering touch attacks.

If it lets the familiar not provoke AoO due to size when entering a square, I don't care  The claw attack itself won't provoke, so its all good.

[Garryl]

Entering another's square provokes an AoO regardless of whether you have reach or not. You can try using the Tumble skill to avoid it (I think it's DC 25).

[Andion Isurand]

Don't forget about giving living familiars grafts.
I like the elemental grafts in Magic of Eberron.

Breath of the Waves is a great graft for its Revitalizing Breath ability.

Revitalizing Breath: Once per hour, you may breathe on an adjacent creature (or yourself) as a standard action to instantly rid it of the following condtions: exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, paralyzed, sickened, or stunned. If dying (at –1 to –9 hit points) the creature automatically stabilizes at its current hit point total.

It says its magically charged by the graft, so I'm not sure if it would count as a supernatural ability or something like it.

[acelegna]

Whats the rules of adding a template to the possible familiar?  I'd figured instead of getting a Winter Wolf at CL 7, i could get a Half-Dragon Winter Wolf at CL 10 (7th CL + 3 LA) with Improved Familair feat. 

Is this possible?  If it has to be homebrewed, do you think adding the template's LA to the minimum CL prerequisite is fair??

[Prime32]

There are no rules for that, but the alienist PrC can give its familiar the pseudonatural template (not the ELH one).

[X-Codes]

Whats the rules of adding a template to the possible familiar?  I'd figured instead of getting a Winter Wolf at CL 7, i could get a Half-Dragon Winter Wolf at CL 10 (7th CL + 3 LA) with Improved Familair feat. 

Is this possible?  If it has to be homebrewed, do you think adding the template's LA to the minimum CL prerequisite is fair??

No.  If you look at the examples provided of improved familiars, there really isn't a strong correlation between the minimum CL requirement and the CR or ECLs of the creatures.  It's much more a function of how useful the familiars abilities are to the master.  For example, arguably the most useful feature of the Imp and Quasit familiars is their Commune ability.  Once per week they get 6 questions.  The time restriction, however, makes it more similar to a Divination spell every day than an actual 5th-level spell, so a minimum CL of 7 to reflect the ability to use a 4th-level spell seems justified.

For a Half-Dragon Winter Wolf, the big draw would be the freakishly high 26 strength (for a familiar, at least) and 100' fly speed.  If it's a half-red, then it's not even vulnerable to Fire anymore, in addition to the usual added immunities.  To compare, a Gold Wyrmling requires a CL of 14, has a strength of 17, and a 200' fly speed at the same maneuverability.

That said, a Winter Wolf also has a requirement of BAB +7, so maybe increasing both the BAB and CL requirements would be best.  I'd suggest CL and BAB of 11.

[acelegna]

Whats the rules of adding a template to the possible familiar?  I'd figured instead of getting a Winter Wolf at CL 7, i could get a Half-Dragon Winter Wolf at CL 10 (7th CL + 3 LA) with Improved Familair feat. 

Is this possible?  If it has to be homebrewed, do you think adding the template's LA to the minimum CL prerequisite is fair??

No.  If you look at the examples provided of improved familiars, there really isn't a strong correlation between the minimum CL requirement and the CR or ECLs of the creatures.  It's much more a function of how useful the familiars abilities are to the master.  For example, arguably the most useful feature of the Imp and Quasit familiars is their Commune ability.  Once per week they get 6 questions.  The time restriction, however, makes it more similar to a Divination spell every day than an actual 5th-level spell, so a minimum CL of 7 to reflect the ability to use a 4th-level spell seems justified.

For a Half-Dragon Winter Wolf, the big draw would be the freakishly high 26 strength (for a familiar, at least) and 100' fly speed.  If it's a half-red, then it's not even vulnerable to Fire anymore, in addition to the usual added immunities.  To compare, a Gold Wyrmling requires a CL of 14, has a strength of 17, and a 200' fly speed at the same maneuverability.

That said, a Winter Wolf also has a requirement of BAB +7, so maybe increasing both the BAB and CL requirements would be best.  I'd suggest CL and BAB of 11.

That would actually be fine.  Im playing a 9th level Duskblade (BAB = CL) taking the imporved familiar feat.  I'll just wait 2 lvls to get my mega mount/tripper.

[Torvon]

Awesome handbook - thank you very much!

What I didn't understand is:

One of the best parts is that it is of the dragon type, which benefits alter self.

My familiar will be a Pseudodragon. Do you have any item recommendations? I'Ll play it as intelligent, very well read "scholar".

Thanks
Torvon

[McPoyo]

As it's of the dragon type, it can benefit from an Alter Self to become a bigger, more dangerous race, like a shadow wyrmling.

[ninjarabbit]

Some food for thought: the npc class adept is the only divine spellcasting class that gets a familiar as a class feature. Just too bad by RAW that the improved familiar feat goes off of arcane class levels.

[McPoyo]

Isn't the adept an arcane casting class?

[snakeman830]

Isn't the adept an arcane casting class?

Nope.  Divine.  The Magewright is the NPC Arcane class.

[kremti]

So I was looking at Mental Pinnacle and I was thinking "Hey, we can have some caster level trick like Master Spellthief + Sublime Chord, and give some spiffy amount of power points to myself and familiar, and spam Ego Whip with myself AND the familiar."

And realized all the power on that list is mind-affecting.  And then wished there were ways to add other powers to the list...

Any way we can give familiar some powers cheaply, and let them use the power points from the Mental Pinnacle to fuel it, some juicy ones like Astral Construct?

-K

[Havok4]

Hidden talent might work. It is not in the feats section of the xph, it is on page 67.

[X-Codes]

I know that somewhere there's a book with a Spider familiar in it, but I just don't know where.  Help?

[stanprollyright]

Probably Underdark or Drow of the.