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Beelzebub1111
2010-10-25, 02:35 PM
What is recommended, and what books can I find to use them (pages would be appreciated)? Think combat oriented.

Tokuhara
2010-10-25, 02:40 PM
I suggest taking Elemental Familair (Cannot remember what sodding book its from), and take up a small Half-Water Earth Elemental. It's a walking Hammer.

Dragon Familair is also cool, minus the goofy rule on age-category requirements. Pick up Improved to make it either Fiendish or Celestial, depending on your taste

gorfnab
2010-10-25, 03:31 PM
From the Hexblade's Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=9gkdncvrflfbfa1nq7sfu2j0n5&topic=7412.0)


Improved Familiar CW: There are lots of useful choices to this and your familiar's abilities are already powerful compared to that of spellcasters. The best known choice is the imp familiar. You can find more information on the imp and their uses later in the guide. Other good options include Howlers and Winter Wolves, which you can also ride. Salt mephits are excellent in combat and they also have glitterdust 1/hour and a debuffing breath weapon which lowers AC and attack rolls, great if you want to capitalize power attack damage, both for you and your familiar.

A different way to go is to get the Dark Companion ACF (PHBII) and then take the feats Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar.

Amphetryon
2010-10-25, 03:38 PM
From the Hexblade's Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=9gkdncvrflfbfa1nq7sfu2j0n5&topic=7412.0)


A different way to go is to get the Dark Companion ACF (PHBII) and then take the feats Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar.

That's a highly recommended course of action, by the way. It's even better if you have a feat to spare for Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a). Wolf pack, go.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-10-25, 04:08 PM
My personal favorite is getting a large familiar (worg/winter wolf works best for this) and then pay someone to cast PAO on your familiar, change it into a Displacer Beast for a vicious six-legged, tentacle-d kitty :smalltongue:

On a more serious note, I second dragon familiar they are nice targets for alter self.

Kesnit
2010-10-25, 04:40 PM
Does it do any good? The familiars abilities are based on caster level, and Hexblades have 1/2 CL. Even boosting CL, there will be a point where the familiar is just too low level to be useful, unless a massive amount of WBL is spent on it.

Amphetryon
2010-10-25, 04:44 PM
Does it do any good? The familiars abilities are based on caster level, and Hexblades have 1/2 CL. Even boosting CL, there will be a point where the familiar is just too low level to be useful, unless a massive amount of WBL is spent on it.

Practiced Caster helps, as explained in the linked handbook. :smallsmile:

Zaydos
2010-10-25, 04:48 PM
Does it do any good? The familiars abilities are based on caster level, and Hexblades have 1/2 CL. Even boosting CL, there will be a point where the familiar is just too low level to be useful, unless a massive amount of WBL is spent on it.

Familiar abilities are based on your Sorc/Wizard class level normally; or Hexblade level -3. Improved Familiars require a minimum Arcane Spellcaster Level not Caster Level. Also Obtain Familiar says it makes you count as your combined total in all classes which grant Arcane Spellcasting for familiars with no mention of Caster Level.

Thrawn183
2010-10-25, 05:31 PM
The abilities aren't what's good. What's good is they use your BAB (full for a hexblade) and half your HP (ok for a hexblade.)

Zaydos
2010-10-25, 06:14 PM
Level 6 (minimum level to take Improved Familiar without taking Obtain Familiar):
I'd say worg would be fun.

Level 8:
Blink Dog.

Level 9 (minimum level to take Improved Familiar or Dragon Familiar if taking Obtain Familiar):
Blink Dog
Wyrmling Green Dragon
Hippogriff (if you have Obtain Familiar)

Lv 10: (without Obtain Familiar)
Blink Dog
Hippogriff
(with)
Wyrmling Blue Dragon

Lv 11
add Wyrmling Bronze

Lv 12:
add Wyrmling Red (if you have obtain familiar)
(if you don't)
add Green.

Lv 14:
Gold Dragon Wyrmling

Lv 15: Wyrmling Red w/o Obtain Familiar.

Honestly I'd go for a Blink Dog or a hippogriff (flying mount).

Kesnit
2010-10-25, 07:29 PM
Practiced Caster helps, as explained in the linked handbook. :smallsmile:


Familiar abilities are based on your Sorc/Wizard class level normally; or Hexblade level -3. Improved Familiars require a minimum Arcane Spellcaster Level not Caster Level. Also Obtain Familiar says it makes you count as your combined total in all classes which grant Arcane Spellcasting for familiars with no mention of Caster Level.

Heh, maybe I was playing it wrong. I was a LVL 18 Hexblade with Practiced Caster, which I thought gave me a CL of 13. (Though I could have sworn Hexblade had a CL of 1/2 Hexblade level.) If I was wrong on that, I'm rather annoyed, since most of my spells were useless. (CL was so low I couldn't pass SR and buffs were easily dispelled.)

Maybe the problem was my choice of familiar (Hellhound). Sure, he used my BAB, but his breath weapon was useless. (CON based, with a base CON of 13. The DM let me buy a collar that upped his STR and CON, but the cost was so high that I could only boost them +2 each.) And his AC was so low, he couldn't really get in melee. (Again, the DM let me buy armor, but the cost was high.)

Zaydos
2010-10-25, 07:47 PM
Well that would have made a 2 point difference in AC, given it some SR, and... not really mattered the most.

Armor for a hellhound shouldn't be too much. Mithril chain shirt for a non-humanoid creature is only 2200 GP and has the normal cost to enchant it.

Then again at the same level you can get hippogriffs which have 1 worse AC, are large enough to ride, can fly, have 3 attacks (each dealing 2 less damage on average than a hellhound's single attack), have +3 better strength (even after size that's a +2 additional bonus to hit), and mostly just lack fire immunity compared to hellhounds.

At the same level you can also get Winter Wolf which has 1 worse AC, are large enough to fly, have +3 better strength (+5 better damage on average), and have 4 higher Con for +2 to their breath weapon DC (so 13 +1/2 your level) and are compatible with all hexblades.

If you really need medium I'd still suggest Blink Dogs unless you're evil. Not as strong numerically (no special attacks, for example) their continuous blinking (except when they don't need to be; free action to toggle no limit of times per round) and free action dimension door with action afterward makes them great for delivering touch spells, though that's probably better for duskblades and wizard. As an additional plus since you keep racial Su abilities (other than breath weapon and gaze) when polymorphed you can polymorph them too (at which point they become even better), though that is more of a wizard's trick than anything a hexblade will pull off.

Also as a random note it wasn't till today that I realized that nothing about familiars actually says Caster Level (and thought hexblade's were 1/2 your character level). I just knew that pumping CL didn't pump your familiar level so I had to check what was up.

Edit: Too clarify in Complete Warrior under the entry Familiar in Hexblade it says:
Treat the hexblade as a sorcerer of three levels lower for determining the familiar’s powers and abilities (see the Familiars sidebar on page 52 of the Player’s Handbook).

No mention is ever made about Caster Level in Familiar, Improved Familiar, or Obtain Familiar; only Arcane Spellcaster Level which !/= Caster Level.