Item Familiar

[etrpgb]

I read around that some people see this feat as overpowered. I was wondering why.

It gives some nifty effect like the skill bonuses or the fact you will be of a level higher than the rest of party... but it is really in powerful as Divine Metamagic, Shock Trooper or Initiate of Mystra?

I sought around but I found nothing really noteworthy... so please help me understanding every possible use and abuse of Item Familiar.

[Aegis013]

The biggest one is using it to gain bonus XP and pouring the additional XP into more crafting, allowing you to fairly quickly break WBL. Especially as an Artificer who already has a separate XP pool for crafting.

Edit: It's not on the same scale as Divine Metamagic or Initiate of Mystra, but it is more powerful than a lot of DMs are comfortable with, especially on an already incredible Artificer.

[Zaranthan]

It's mostly the free XP thing, though the untyped skill bonus causes some bonus bloat. Another issue is the lack of a way to deny the bonus without screwing the player over harshly. A balancing element of magic items is that you can lose them. A +2 longsword is replaceable. A +2 longsword with all your skill ranks in it is not, and if you don't get it back within 1 day per level, you lose those skill ranks forever.

[Jeff the Green]

There's also the fact that it's very binary: either you're getting a bunch of extra XP and skill bonuses, or it's stolen and you lose XP and skill points.

Edit: Swordsaged.

[Brock Samson]

The best reason not to allow it?

If you have, an Incantatrix has it. And then they're Persisting EVERY SPELL EVER CAST BY THEM AND THEIR ALLIES.

And really, it is certainly the situation of either you get something much nicer than everyone else has, or you lose it and feel like you've been completely picked on and screwed.

[gkathellar]

Partially, it's the arbitrarily high bonuses for very little investment.

Partially, it's because the supposed "balancing factor" is losing the item, and if you lose the item you will feel targeted and singled-out by your DM.

In summary, its entire design is oriented toward creating strife in the group.

[Medic!]

A lot of good info here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229452&highlight=item+familiar)

[Zaranthan]

Edit: Swordsaged.

Hey hey, it's my first time! Was it good for you?

[SirFredgar]

A lot of good info here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229452&highlight=item+familiar)

LOVE THE ASH AVATAR!!1!1one!

On Topic: Yeah, item familiar is pretty powerfull based off the XP bonus alone. an Extra 10% from every award can get rediculous if you have someone also riding the XP gravy train by purposefully staying one level behind the party for increased XP awards.

The untyped bonus on skill checks can get stupid, if the build takes advantage of anything based off skill ranks. I've seen a Warblade use it on concentration for no-if-ands-or-butts-I-Save boosts.

Some of the other powers are nifty too.... I guess....

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Divine Metamagic, Shock Trooper, Initiate of Mystra, etc. are extremely powerful on the right characters, but not everyone is going to use them. Item Familiar is one of those feats that every single character that ever gets played should take if at all possible. That's what is wrong with it, the benefits are so good and so applicable regardless of what character it goes on that every character should have it. You're probably not going to ever combine Divine Metamagic, Initiate of Mystra, Shock Trooper, Leap Attack, Arcane Thesis, etc. on one character, but any character who uses any of those feats should also take Item Familiar regardless of class.

[SirFredgar]

Divine Metamagic, Shock Trooper, Initiate of Mystra, etc. are extremely powerful on the right characters, but not everyone is going to use them. Item Familiar is one of those feats that every single character that ever gets played should take if at all possible. That's what is wrong with it, the benefits are so good and so applicable regardless of what character it goes on that every character should have it. You're probably not going to ever combine Divine Metamagic, Initiate of Mystra, Shock Trooper, Leap Attack, Arcane Thesis, etc. on one character, but any character who uses any of those feats should also take Item Familiar regardless of class.

This was well put. +1 internets.

[Ingus]

Moreover, if you have a spellcaster and you mesh Item Familiar with Weapon of Legacy, which thematically and mechanically fits very well too, you can have an item that casts on its own (as his action, not yours) at least one level of spell for each level you cast. Providing your Item Familiar with some quickened spell means you cast four spells a round before sheneningas.
Plus, you have all the goodies previously shown.
...with a modest investment
...with your object increasing in power while you increase in level
...without any downtime to improve it
...and continue with all that has been already said :smallwink:

[thorr-kan]

Moreover, if you have a spellcaster and you mesh Item Familiar with Weapon of Legacy, which thematically and mechanically fits very well too, you can have an item that casts on its own (as his action, not yours) at least one level of spell for each level you cast. Providing your Item Familiar with some quickened spell means you cast four spells a round before sheneningas.
Plus, you have all the goodies previously shown.
...with a modest investment
...with your object increasing in power while you increase in level
...without any downtime to improve it
...and continue with all that has been already said :smallwink:

In other words, "Congratulations, Sauron. You've invented the One Ring."

Huh, I was just thinking about combining these two feats overnight. I wonder if you could combine them with Ancestral Relic for even more fun. "It's alive. ALIVE! And I will hug it and squeeze it and call it George."

[Poranthi]

I know this thread is a bit old, but my group actively plays 3.5 and recently ran across this feat.

As far as taking this feat we pondered the idea of a house ruling it that you need to take the Obtain Familiar from Complete Arcane with some modifications to the Obtain Familiar feat to say "minimum character level 3rd" rather than the "arcane caster level 3rd" (as not to exclude non-arcane casters from taking the feat); Knowledge (Arcane) 4 ranks still required *OR* ability to acquire a new familiar. In essence making it a 2 feat drop (for non-caster types) in order to take it.

Now here is a real kicker - A 9th level focused enchanter has an intelligent item, of home grown nature, that he would like to apply this feat to upon taking his next level. He has the ability to acquire a new familiar as an arcane caster. Which meets our requirements for taking the feat. Question is: How the @#$% do I figure out the stats for this thing?

Original Item:
Parsel: Open mouthed cobra headed cane.
Intelligent (Ego: 10; Neutral; Empathy; Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 12).
Two Pearls of Power (1@ lvl 1, 1@ lvl 2) are built in as the eyes.
Cane sheath holds a +2 Dagger [1d4+3, crit 19-20/x2, 1 lb., light, piercing].
Item can use Detect Magic and Light as spells at will.
Acts as an arcane focus item. (negates use of material components of 1gp value or less)

Any help what so ever on this would be AWESOME!

Should I just take the additions from the standard familiar and add them to the item?

[Beneath]

Just adding the Item Familiar feat takes a Truenamer from completely unplayable to competitive or at least viable.

That's how powerful it is, and like Biffoniacus_Furiou said there's no reason someone else wouldn't take it.

[Divide by Zero]

Just adding the Item Familiar feat takes a Truenamer from completely unplayable to competitive or at least viable.

That's how powerful it is, and like Biffoniacus_Furiou said there's no reason someone else wouldn't take it.

To be fair, Truenamer is kind of an extreme case since its ability to function at all is totally dependent on poorly-scaling skill checks.

[bjoern]

Thia feat is stupid good.

The feat replaces itself several times over.

What you give up to get this feat is only 1 feat slot

Out of it you get alertness, craft magic item feat (basically), xp, skill, and spell slot boosts, free magic weapon upgrades for a fighter and another standard action for spellcasting every turn for a mage.

[Biskup]

Sorry for digging up old topic, but just today I had... "discovered" this feat and it's... rather unclear to me. 1st of all, as far as I checked, it's not from any official DnD books - it's homebrew (or am i wrong?).

Secondly, regardless of how good this feat look like, taking it on level other than 1st or maybe 2nd make less and less sense (due to loss of EXP reward).

Last thing is lore for such item. Lets say that this feat can be "applied" to any kind of item - trinket lets say. PC bonds so strongly with normal item (could we use... frying pan for that? As improvised weapon? :P ) that it starts to show magic properties and later on even communicating with owner? This make no sense even in world filled with magic :P

[Kelb_Panthera]

Sorry for digging up old topic, but just today I had... "discovered" this feat and it's... rather unclear to me. 1st of all, as far as I checked, it's not from any official DnD books - it's homebrew (or am i wrong?).

Secondly, regardless of how good this feat look like, taking it on level other than 1st or maybe 2nd make less and less sense (due to loss of EXP reward).

Last thing is lore for such item. Lets say that this feat can be "applied" to any kind of item - trinket lets say. PC bonds so strongly with normal item (could we use... frying pan for that? As improvised weapon? :P ) that it starts to show magic properties and later on even communicating with owner? This make no sense even in world filled with magic :P

Unearthed Arcana or here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm).

You underestimate just how full of magic the typical DND world is.

[VisitingDaGulag]

It's not. This feat is no where near as powerful as a commoner taking the leadership feat and suddenly getting a wizard cohort for all his fullcasting needs.

It's powerful because XP as a river is broken.

It's powerful because skills are broken (some too powerful, some too weak)

It's powerful because you won't ever lose your feat's benefits, if you optimize. Oops, that's normal even without optimization. Just correct the other problems in 3rd edition.

[Coretron03]

Its broken because it lets truenamers actually use their powers!

And this thread was necro'd twice, both in 2 year increments. Good job guys.

[Kelb_Panthera]

There's really nothing left to say on the matter at this point, anyway.

[unseenmage]

Well, there was that one time I tried giving Item Familiar to a Construct minion and had to try and figure out how extra xp works for creatures that arent supposed to be tracking xp at all...

[TristanS]

I've never been clear how the spell slot investment works ... you put a slot in, get a lower slot back ... so does the item familiar or you have access the the "slot put in"?

It just says " A character with an item familiar may choose to invest a single spell slot in his familiar and gain a bonus spell slot in return."