Familiars!

[Vinyl Scratch]

I've noted recently in both the Complete Warrior and Arcane books a few wizard/sorcerer spells aimed at directly buffing your familiar, such as Augment Familiar, Enhance Familiar, and Fortify Familiar. How useful would these be? How powerful could you make it in terms of a character theme?


Also, since a familiar gains hit dice to match its owner, does that means it can benefit from new feats?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Familiar's Handbook by Dictum Mortuum. (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html)

And familiars HD only count a HD for the purpose of effects and spell like in Sleep or holy Word, so sadly no they do not get new feats.

[Thurbane]

And familiars HD only count a HD for the purpose of effects and spell like in Sleep or holy Word, so sadly no they do not get new feats.
They do count for things like HD dependant template abilities, as well...

[Yuki Akuma]

Familiars don't gain hit dice. Therefore, they don't get feats.

Animal companions, paladin mounts and psicrystals do gain hit dice, so they do get feats, but familiars specifically do not gain extra hit dice.

They just get protection from spells and etc. that only work on things with low HD.

[Acanous]

Which is what makes Arcane Heirophant so cheesy. Familiar Companion explicitly is an animal companion that gains all the benefits of a Familiar. Things like Draconic Familiar or Improved Familiar allow you to choose what it is from a different list. That's a benefit. So picking up a wyrmling, then adding HD to it because it's an animal companion advances it a couple categories. Plus you get an AC bonus and some other fun advantages.

[Keneth]

Speaking of familiars and HD. Familiars get half your HP regardless of their HD and I've never paid much attention to this fact since I don't generally use familiars in combat but -- is this your base HP or the one modified by your Con score?

[Acanous]

Prety sure it includes your con score, and doesn't include the familiar's.

[Keneth]

So what happens if you increase your constitution with, say, Bear's Endurance? The hit points are not temporary so do your familiar's hit points increase too?

[Ashtagon]

So what happens if you increase your constitution with, say, Bear's Endurance? The hit points are not temporary so do your familiar's hit points increase too?

The hp might not be "temporary hp", but the Con bonus is certainly a temporary bonus. Generally, knock-on effects only happen if an ability score bonus is expected to last 24 hours or more.

[HunterOfJello]

So what happens if you increase your constitution with, say, Bear's Endurance? The hit points are not temporary so do your familiar's hit points increase too?

RAW, yes they would. They would increase by half the full bonus that the wizard's hit points increased by.

Hit points gained from Bear's Endurance are not temporary hit points, as you said.


Hit points gained by a temporary increase in Constitution score are not temporary hit points.


The familiar has one-half the master’s total hit points (not including temporary hit points), rounded down, regardless of its actual Hit Dice.

There's nothing in the Familiar entry that designates between temporary increases in ability scores to the benefit of familiars versus actual temporary hit points.

I doubt this is answered explicitly in any of the books. It would probably be up to the DM, and unless you're using a powerful Familiar Companion as an Arcane Heirophant, then boosting your familiars hp a bit probably won't be that big a deal.

[Tytalus]

Which is what makes Arcane Heirophant so cheesy. Familiar Companion explicitly is an animal companion that gains all the benefits of a Familiar. Things like Draconic Familiar or Improved Familiar allow you to choose what it is from a different list. That's a benefit. So picking up a wyrmling, then adding HD to it because it's an animal companion advances it a couple categories. Plus you get an AC bonus and some other fun advantages.

Familiar Companion work differently. First, only your Companion can become a Familiar Companion (not the Familiar), and second the Familiar Companion does gain Familiar benefits, but is technically not a familiar. Thus, Familiar-enhancing feats, class features, etc. shouldn't work on it.

[Prime32]

So picking up a wyrmling, then adding HD to it because it's an animal companion advances it a couple categories.The bonus HD granted to animal companions work like class levels, they don't count towards advancement. And besides, True Dragon advancement is based on age, not HD.

[Ancient Mage]

Maybe you could eke some benefit out of having a tougher familiar. If your familiar has more hit points, then you can use a feat from PH2, Bonded Familiar, to increase your survival rate by having the damage transferred to your now more powerful familiar. Or you could get improved familiar or dragon familiar, and buff them.
Overall though, the familiar does not belong in a fight unless he is doing something that is not too dangerous.

-Ancient Mage

[Snowbluff]

The bonus HD granted to animal companions work like class levels, they don't count towards advancement. And besides, True Dragon advancement is based on age, not HD.

If that's the case, do you choose their feats as you level? :smallconfused:

[Yuki Akuma]

If that's the case, do you choose their feats as you level? :smallconfused:

There are no rules on who gets to pick the feats for animal companions. Usually it defaults to the player who owns them, but in some games they're treated more like NPCs and the DM decides.

Some people forget they get feats at all.

[Snowbluff]

There are no rules on who gets to pick the feats for animal companions. Usually it defaults to the player who owns them, but in some games they're treated more like NPCs and the DM decides.

Some people forget they get feats at all.

Okay, if it's supposed to work like AnC I can figure this out.

In other news. Draconic Familiar. Best feat ever? You can potentially have your own little uber-charger or at least an extra sword to benefit from Dragonfire Inspiration.

[Yuki Akuma]

Are you still under the impression that familiars gain feats or something?

Otherwise, I can't work out what you're trying to say at all.

[ORione]

I'm not familiar with Draconic Familiar, but I'm guessing that it's a feat sorcerers and wizards can take in order to get a special familiar.

[Necroticplague]

Are you still under the impression that familiars gain feats or something?

Otherwise, I can't work out what you're trying to say at all.

They do gain one feat for being nonmindless and existing, and some have bonus feats based on what they are (alot of tiny familiars have weapon finesse).

[Snowbluff]

I'm not familiar with Draconic Familiar, but I'm guessing that it's a feat sorcerers and wizards can take in order to get a special familiar.

It gives you a Wyrmling as a familar. It has Full BaB (which will always be equal or better than yours) D12 HD (Same, and they get all of it), Draconic HD grant feats. In my opinion, you familiar becomes stronger than most Animal Companions.

It's from Player's Feat section of the Draconomic, and I found out about it in the familiar hand book.