Arcane Heirophant' Companion Familiar

[ArqArturo]

Rereading the Arcane Heirophant, I didn't remember how powerful (well, maybe not that powerful), the animal companion turns. Since it gets the Int modifier of the familiar, the critter effectively no longer needs to know tricks. And you can teach him to use wield weapons (in the case of, say, dire apes, or just a regular ape will do, but I'm around optimizers in this thread, damn it!), or be a very smart supermount.

So, which animals work best with the AH buffs? My favorite has to be the Fleshraker, because everything about it is dangerous. Apes are pretty good too for the obvious reasons (weapon-wielding), and you can teach them drow sign language to speak with them.

[Chronos]

Just a note that, unlike a true familiar, the Companion Familiar does not gain your BAB, skills, or HP that scale directly with yours. So keep that in mind.

[jedipilot24]

Here is the handbook for the Arcane Hierophant (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868490/The_Arcane_Hierophant_Examined).

Here's the General Druid Handbook. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=940.0)

[ArqArturo]

Just a note that, unlike a true familiar, the Companion Familiar does not gain your BAB, skills, or HP that scale directly with yours. So keep that in mind.

Oh yeah, that doesn't really bother me, but it does have its own HD and both the physical enhancements of the druid, and the mental ones of the arcane caster.


Here is the handbook for the Arcane Hierophant (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868490/The_Arcane_Hierophant_Examined).

Here's the General Druid Handbook. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=940.0)

I forgot about the Druid handbook. Thanks :D

[ksbsnowowl]

Recall that everything w/ an intelligence over 2 understands at least one language. Though it is unlikely you companion familiar gains the ability to speak, it should gain the ability to understand at least one language the master knows.

[Spuddles]

Shared spells like Tenser's Transformation, Undermaster, and Mental Pinnacle are pretty awesome.

Polymorph spells are also really good, like the ones that turn you into a dragon. Generally later polymorph spells are bad because you lose spells while under the effect of one, but a familiar companion doesn't lose much.

[ksbsnowowl]

Shared spells like Tenser's Transformation, Undermaster, and Mental Pinnacle are pretty awesome.

Polymorph spells are also really good, like the ones that turn you into a dragon. Generally later polymorph spells are bad because you lose spells while under the effect of one, but a familiar companion doesn't lose much.

Lightning Leap (CM?) is also quite good w/ a companion familiar.

[Phelix-Mu]

Pretty much any AC gets a nice boost when it becomes a CF, since now it basically is a cohort-grade npc. Have special items made for it. Give it Martial Study, Martial Stance, Dragontouched or w/e so it can get Draconic Aura. There's a whole bunch of awesome tactics that you can have it start to use, too, like give it boots of flying or something and have it do strafing attacks.

My AC/CF for my main AH is a tiger, I think. I thought about upgrading to dire tiger, but you end up losing lots of bonus HD, which means less feats, and not gaining as much as one might hope. Tigers have a pretty decent skillset, nice attacks, and great flavor. Not really optimized, mind you; fleshraker is the melee blender of the lot, and there are markedly better grapplers.

[Incanur]

Familiars by themselves become rather ridiculous at higher levels. In my mind, the best part about the Companion Familiar is that you don't lose XP when it dies.

[Phelix-Mu]

Familiars by themselves become rather ridiculous at higher levels. In my mind, the best part about the Companion Familiar is that you don't lose XP when it dies.

Oh, right, well there are a couple tricks this reminded me of.

1.) My favorite spell, possibly ever: Imbue familiar with spell ability (Spell Compendium). Give your familiar useful spells, buffs, and the like. There's a cap of 5th level spells or lower, but that still provides some desirable range.

2.) Getting a CF and a normal familiar: The wording is not clear on this, but I seem to remember that there is an opening for taking Obtain Familiar after acquiring the CF. There are several feats from Dragon Mag that stack levels for stuff, and I believe they are used for the ubermounting. The synergy can get pretty intense, if you have a mildly permissive DM.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

At 5th level a familiar gains "Speak with master" so you don't really need to teach it sign language. You could always just Tongues + Permanency it, too.

I'm a big fan of giving animal companions a few cross-class Spellcraft ranks for Mage Slayer (CA) and maybe the other two in that chain. That's especially good with a companion that can trip, grapple, etc. so opponents can't just 5-ft. step away and cast.

Casting Enhance Familiar is extremely strong, and while becoming a companion familiar costs you Target: Animal spells like Enrage Animal, (Extended) Augment Familiar is probably worth it. You can even use a Circlet of Rapid Casting to make that a swift action.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Companion Familiar explicitly allows harmless spells that target animals to affect your companion.

[Spuddles]

Companion Familiar explicitly allows harmless spells that target animals to affect your companion.

Enrage Animal is not harmless.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Enrage Animal is not harmless.

Well, no. There's also no reason i can see why you'd want to cast it on your AC.
You also lose the benefit of Animal Growth but Magic Fang still works.
Your post makes it sound as if all spells that affect animals are off the table (at least to me but english isn't my native language).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Well, no. There's also no reason i can see why you'd want to cast it on your AC.
You also lose the benefit of Animal Growth but Magic Fang still works.
Your post makes it sound as if all spells that affect animals are off the table (at least to me but english isn't my native language).

Enrage Animal gives the exact same benefits of a Barbarian's Rage, without the fatigue when it ends, there's no reason you wouldn't want to buff your animal companion with it.
Animal Growth is not marked as harmless, and it's probably the only core spell that you would have been casting on your animal companion that is restricted to animals. Nature's Favor and Nature's Avatar are harmless, but they don't see nearly as much use as the two I've already mentioned that cannot be used on a companion familiar. You do lose out on some of the better animal companion buffs by making it a companion familiar.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Ah, i was looking at the CoR version. The SC version makes more sense.
And while Animal Growth is out you can share Enlarge Person with your CF.