Author Topic: Optimized Familiar?  (Read 9732 times)

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Cavalry_Medic

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Optimized Familiar?
« on: July 20, 2008, 09:50:39 PM »
Here's an idea I've been juggling for some time now and I'm seeking some input & polish.

The hook: An arcane caster with a familiar.  The caster (after 7th level or so) stays "home" (or right outside the dungeon), crafts poison & alchemy, casts buff spells as needed, and the familiar does the adventuring.  Requires a liberal reading of the Changeling 5th level ACF in Races of Eberron.

The tools:
Race:  Changeling

Classes:  Battle sorcerer + stalwart sorcerer 10 (Complete Mage + Unearthed Arcana) (almost entirely for the hit points)/Wizard (transmuter) 5/Recaster 5 (Races of Eberron)
Progression (Sorc 1, Wiz 1-5, Sorc 2-9, Recaster 1-5)

28 pt buy (Currently S 10, I 14, W 10, D 12, C 15, Ch 14)

House rules:  Heighten spell for free (cannot be used to qualify for much of anything).  Craft alchemy/poison may be one and the same; I'll have to check.  Campaign setting independent.

Skills:  Concentration, Spellcraft, Knowledge arcane, Speak lots and lots of languages (it's a class skill for Changelings), Craft alchemy/poison

1st level:  Spell focus - transmutation (req'd for next feat)
Trade Familiar for feat (Ability Enhancer) [Best of Dragon]
2nd level:  Trade Familiar for feat (Practiced spellcaster - sorc)
3rd level:  Obtain Familiar (doing it this way nets me one feat, and let's the prestige class(es) count for familiar progression.
6th level:  Changeling wizard substitution level, feat (Improved familiar)
9th level:  Feat (Enspell Familiar from alternate source, allows me to cast on familiar up to 1 mile away as if it were adjacent); I can stay "home" now.  Craft skill can be neglected until now.
12th level:  Feat (Dragon familiar, will depend on alignment)
15th level:  Empower spell (need 2 metamagic feats to qualify for Recaster)
18th level:  open feat

Sorcerer spells known:
0:  Quick boost +4 (Monte Cook)
1:  Fist of stone +8, Enlarge person, Cutting hand, Prot/align
2:  Animalistic power +4, Augment familiar +6, other stat enhancers, maybe Alter self?
3:  Enhance familiar, Fortify familiar, Haste
4:  Polymorph, Stoneskin
5:  Draconic might +6, Permanency, Nightstalker's transformation +6
6:  Imbue familiar with spell ability, Tenser's transformation +6
7:  Bite of the werebear +18/+4/+10

Note:  Item crafting isn't conducive to stopping at 9 a.m. and tossing a Stoneskin on the familiar 750 feet away.  However, crafting has no such limitation, so I went that direction.

Wish list:
More hps for familiar

Craft Wondrous Items to make use of downtime & best outfit familiar

Some way to avoid paying for some/all the components for Nightstalker's / Tenser's transformation, such as Brew Potion or that feat that lets you store a spell (e.g. Bull's Strength) within yourself.

Your thoughts will be appreciated.

ksbsnowowl

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2008, 12:48:46 AM »
In what book is the "Enspell Familiar" feat found?  I'm assuming it's third party. Rather overpowered sounding, when compared to the Companion Spellbond feat from PHBII.

Granted, the goal is to adventure via your familiar, but your character is rather gimped, being primarily a sorcerer (and a varient that gets even slower spell progression), but "wasting" 5 levels on wizard.  I think you'd end up with a reasonable and rather buff familiar via the Arcane Hierophant PrC.  Not exactly the direction you were planning to go with this (I'm assuming you mean to have your familiar be an Imp or somesuch, and later on a dragon).

Not sure if the Dragon familiar feat can interact well with Arc Hierophant, but it might be worth a look.  I'm sure others can give more relevant advice.
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Cavalry_Medic

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2008, 06:59:41 PM »
Yes, it's a third party feat and honestly, I don't remember where I got it.  It's just on my .txt list of compiled feats.  I hadn't realized there was a similar official feat to compare it with.  I have to agree, it's probably overpowered, however I still want to run with this character, so I may talk the DM into ignoring it.

I'm not overly concerned about gimping my spellcasting.  I wanted familiar progression and hps.  I had to take 5th level Changeling wizard ACF.

I'm giving Arcane Hierophant a second look.  While having a dragon familiar is cool, it was also the easiest way I could think of to customize the familiars feats.  Having the familiar as an advancing animal would accomplish the same.

Thanks for the tip(s), Snow.

bayar

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2008, 07:39:47 PM »
Wait, you can get a familiar from both sorcerer and wizard on the same character? Wow...yeah, if you havent traded it, it would have been applied only once due to no stacking rule...

DavidWL

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2008, 04:30:46 AM »
I second Arcane Heirophant as a good fit.

Have you seen the supermount thread?
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=382372

Best,
David
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Akalsaris

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2008, 04:37:59 PM »
The fleshwarper is a 10-level PrC from Lords of Madness you might look into - he's designed as an item crafter whose familiar gains abomination abilities every other level (and stacks for familiar abilities).  It's also a d6 and medium attack progression class with only 1 spell level lost, so your familiar will actually take a few hits and hit reliably at the mid-levels - and he gets an exp pool for crafting grafts, so the familiar can have a few grafts without you losing experience.  The text indicates that you can enter at 6th as an adept ( :lol), despite the crafter feat required needing 8th level due to skill prerequisites before you can take the required crafting feat, so let's assume the skill requirements were lowered and you can enter at 6th.

Here's an alternate build that gets +12 BAB, 5d4, 10d6, and 5d10 HP, 19th level Wiz casting, and 15th level familiar advancement (OK, so it loses 2 NA and 1 Int).  This build gets the familiar shared Shapechanges and PaO's, and the character is actually playable, if not particularly awesome. 

(Note: the build below assumes that your familiar gains aberration traits without losing its base dragon traits, since otherwise the dragon familiar feat is a bad choice)

NG Changeling Abjurer 5/Fleshwarper 10/Abjurant Champion 5
1st char: Bonded Familiar (PHB II)
1st familiar: Hummingbird, he won't do much yet except buff your Init by +4 (Dragon mag.)
1st bonus: trade that Scribe Scroll for a fighter feat like Improved Initiative or something.
3rd char: Improved Familiar (great, now you've got a celestial hummingbird, yippee)
5th familiar: we move on up to the air elemental!
5th ACF: Changeling Substitution level
6th char: Craft Graft (prereq, but we're crafting stuff anyways!)
6th familiar: holy crap, it's an aberration air elemental!
7th familiar: whoa, now it's an aberration memphit!
9th char: Enspell Familiar (as you said, by now it's safe to stay home while your familiar travels around kicking butt for you)
12th char: Dragon Familiar (pity about the 13 cha requirement though)
12th familiar: aberration silver dragon!
14th familiar: aberration gold dragon!
14th char: retrain Improved Familiar for Combat Casting (wasted feat for Abjurant Champion)
15th char: retrain Improved Initiative for MWP: Longbow (or find a way to sneak in a martial weapon prof. for abjurant champion)
15th char: Craft Wondrous Item
18th char: Open feat!  Maybe Improved Toughness, your familiar still needs HP quite badly.

Here's the Familiar's Handbook by Dictum Mortum, it has some great advice (and inspired me to make my bard with a coure familiar!)
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=875062

Cavalry_Medic

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2008, 10:45:42 PM »
That's a very nice build.  I had read the Familiars handbook, and I had considered Fleshwarper, but I had missed some finer points.

I hadn't considered Abjurant Champion for some BAB help.  Thanks for the tip!

I'm pretty stuck on being a Transmuter specialist with Ability Enhancer to be of some worth to my party as well as my familiar.

And I hadn't noticed the 13 cha requirement for Dragon Familiar (Shame on me!)


Akalsaris

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Re: Optimized Familiar?
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2008, 06:11:34 AM »
Abjurant Champ will also give d10 HP's, nothing wrong with those :)

Good luck with the transmuter build!