Help me get a familiar... sort of

[Dalebert]

I don't want an ACTUAL familiar. I gave up that ability for an alternate class feature. I just want a small and inconspicuous but also smart animal scout, probably flying, and possibly a way to communicate at a distance, though that would be icing.

My resources and potential setbacks: I'm beguiler 1(2) / spell thief 1 / wizard 3(5) / ultimate magus 2 (adding 1 to beguiler casting and 2 to wizard casting). There's a cleric in the party I could borrow spells from, currently lvl 9. The character is secretly a little bit evil so not opposed to exploiting someone for his own benefit or enslaving someone he didn't like. However, the party almost certainly would not approve which I think just adds an element of risk that would be fun to try to manage. It's a low magic world and druids are really elusive and secretive and never write anything down under penalty of death, so a scroll of awaken is probably out of the question.

Here are some thoughts I had, all of which will require me to gain a few levels. If you know of a way I can do it sooner, that would be awesome, and I'm always open to getting by for now and upgrading later.

The first idea is to baleful polymorph someone, possibly someone I've charmed or threatened to gain compliance. The problem is they will likely fail a save within a day or a few days and revert to animal mind. This would require dispelling it and refreshing it occasionally and runs the risk my familiar might run off and I'd never find it again. I might need to cage it when the time is coming up every day for safe keeping and it seems a bit tedious.

Another idea is to make a simulacrum of something that can polymorph into a small animal for a long time. A druid comes to mind but those are challenging to find to get a piece, as I said, and the simulacrum would be half level. A simulacrum scroll might be something I could get my hands on, however. Any other ideas for something that could polymorph into a small animal?

Are there any other ideas for a way to avoid the mind-reverting issue of baleful polymorph or for a different way of lasting transformation?

[Fouredged Sword]

Simulcra of a very young gold dragon. It can turn into any animal or humanoid form medium or smaller with no lower limit. It can change the form 3/day. It can revert to it's natural very young gold dragon form and carry you around as a mount.

Ice assassin would be better, it gets immunity to cold and is already immune to fire damage. It also nets you a telepathic bond to your minion. You can use gold dragon scale armor to create it (the dragon is surely dead).

[123456789blaaa]

The Obtain Familiar feat allows you to get a familiar even if you already traded the one given by your class features. I know you said you didn't want an actual familiar but I get the impression that mainly because you thought you couldn't.

[Dalebert]

Simulcra of a very young gold dragon.

That's an excellent idea though I would probably go with the simulacrum just for the ease of healing it since ice assassins require expensive lab time to heal. Honestly, it will probably be nigh impossible to even find the armor in this low magic game, or an actual dragon, but it's worth a try.


The Obtain Familiar feat allows you to get a familiar even if you already traded the one given by your class features. I know you said you didn't want an actual familiar but I get the impression that mainly because you thought you couldn't.

No, I really don't want an actual familiar. They're a liability. I don't want to take damage if it dies and not be able to get another one for a year. It wouldn't advance since I'm only 3rd level wizard. If I had an actual familiar, I wouldn't want to risk using it for scouting or spying. Never have been a fan of traditional familiars. I certainly don't want to give up a feat for one. If I'd wanted one, I wouldn't have traded it out for something else. I wouldn't use the ability even if I still had it.

EDIT: I just learned that the feat allows you to combine all arcane caster levels which would make it better than my class feature version, but that still only resolves one issue of which I have several with traditional familiars.

[infomatic]

What about just crafting a homunculus? That's within your means right now.

[Baroknik]

What about a Wild Cohort? They aren't super intelligent, but they overcome a bulk of your objections to familiars.

[Fouredged Sword]

Ok, so get the spell Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer added to your spellbook. Your material component pouch now contains "ink consisting of squid secretion with black dragon’s blood". Now you can make a simulacrum of a black dragon. Good day.

[Dalebert]

What about just crafting a homunculus? That's within your means right now.

I guess I won't rule it out but they represent something of a liability as well. Healing them is rather expensive too. I rather like the idea of a human intelligence animal, particularly if it could change shape. It would be less conspicuous than a little demonic-looking creature.

If it's capable of speech, a simple message spell will help somewhat for communication. Anyone know of any other telepathic-link sorts of spells between willing creatures?

[Kazyan]

It runs into the problem of needing levels, but a Binder dip with Improved Binding gets you access to Malphas's raven.

[Dalebert]

Ok, so get the spell Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer added to your spellbook. Your material component pouch now contains "ink consisting of squid secretion with black dragon’s blood". Now you can make a simulacrum of a black dragon. Good day.

I like you. Will you be my DM?

[Fouredged Sword]

Also, the component that is part of the creature has no listed value, and can thus be ignored with eschew materials.

[Person_Man]

I would also suggest taking the Obtain Familiar Feat. Though you could also take Shape Soulmeld (Necrocarnum Circlet) and Open Least Chakra (Crown) in order to get an infinitely replaceable Necrocarnum Zombie (from Magic of Incarnum), or the Summon Elemental reserve Feat (Complete Mage, though I'm not sure you qualify yet). You might also be able to get partial access to the Malphas vestige to get the infinitely replaceable bird scout thing with Binder Feats, though I'm away from books at the moment and I'm not sure about it. You could also take the Leadership Feat to get a cohort - I doubt your DM would object given the scope of your request.

Also, you should be aware that with beguiler 1(2) / spell thief 1 / wizard 3(5) / ultimate magus 2, you're about to hit a common mistake/problem with multi-class builds. Friends and enemies now have access to 3rd and 4th level spells (and will soon have 5th+ level), whereas you're stuck with a boatload of low level magic. One mid-high level spell can often solve or win many different types of encounters, whereas a lot of low level magic is far less useful. This is particularly true with a Beguiler/Wizard build, since their spell lists overlap entirely. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with this, especially if everyone else in your party is playing at a low optimization and/or Tier and/or limited Niche level. It's just a lot weaker and less flexible then a strait Beguiler or Wizard/PrC. So you may wish to consider talking to your DM about rebuilding.

[nedz]

Leadership feat — choose a strange cohort.

Summon Elemental Reserve feat. The elemental doesn't hang around for very long but you can get another one easily enough.

[Dalebert]

Also, you should be aware that with beguiler 1(2) / spell thief 1 / wizard 3(5) / ultimate magus 2, you're about to hit a common mistake/problem with multi-class builds.

I'm only lagging two levels as a wizard and I'm getting a LOT for that. So yes, I am lagging one spell level behind where I would otherwise be most of the time but I get all kinds of metamagic goodies via UM and I can specialize as a wizard without nearly as much pain by filling in gaps with beguiler.

The one level of spell thief combined with master spellthief feat means I can shove all my single caster level advances from UM into wizard which is crucial, plus I can steal higher level spells, plus I can wear light armor with no ACF for any of my spells.

Even so, I'm playing with mostly low-tier characters (a monk, thief, and barbarian, other than a cleric who is my other character) and I'm already going to be one of the most obnoxious characters in the game if I'm not careful how I play him.