[3.5] Arcane Hierophant question

[Valwyn]

Say you're planning on entering Arcane Hierophant as a Druid/Wizard and you traded away your familiar and/or animal companion. Would you still get the companion familiar? I'm leaning towards no, but the text does say "you must dismiss your familiar, if you have one" and "your animal companion (if any) gains many of the abilities that a familiar would normally possess," so I guess a case could be made that you still get the class feature. Is there any official answer to this?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You can use Bard or Suel Arcanamach or a similar arcane class that lacks a familiar, and still benefit from the Companion Familiar class feature. You even get to add those arcane class levels to your Arcane Hierophant level to determine your effective Wizard level for its benefits. It doesn't have a familiar as a prerequisite, so there's no reason you would need to be able to get a familiar prior to entering the prestige class.

The Animal Companion portion of it is worded similarly, you could enter with a Druidic Avenger or a Shapeshift Druid or some other variant that lacks an animal companion. You would still add your Druid level to your Arcane Hierophant level to determine your effective Druid level for your Companion Familiar's benefits.

Note however that the way it's written appears to presume that you haven't done any of the above, but the way it's written there's absolutely no drawback for doing it that way.

[Valwyn]

So basically, by RAW, you can trade both your AC and your familiar and enjoy the benefits, but by RAI they assume you kept both?


By the way, is the familar companion worth it? I've heard they tend to be squishy.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Animal Companions only get 2 HD per 3 druid HD so they tend to fall behind at higher levels unless you trade for a high level one. If you always get one of the latest list they have about the same HD as you, assuming pure druid or Natural Bond.
With 20 levels of animal companion progression a Dire Tiger has 18HD, for example. A wolf on the other hand only has 14HD.

Said Dire Tiger gets about 150hp and saves of +14/+14/+12 without buffs or items and Improved Evasion so i wouldn't really call it squishy.
Get it some gear and the right feats and buffs and it's a pretty effective melee combatant, depending on species of course.

If dragon magazine is allowed you can actually push your FC to 40-50HD by level 20, making it utterly deadly to anything it can get it's claws on (and giving it Familiar Spell x3 as bonus feats, too). 40HD Polar Bear casting 8th level spells? Definitely not squishy, and all it takes is two or three feats.


I normally favor trading out the AC for an Urban Companion at higher levels, for a straight druid, but that's mainly for utility. Arcane Hierophants can simply take the Obtain Familiar feat and keep their AC.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

By the way, is the familar companion worth it? I've heard they tend to be squishy.

It sort of depends. If you go something like (Wild) Elf (for proficiencies) Druid 8/ Suel Arcanamach 2/ Arcane Heirophant 10 (8/ Seeker of the Misty Isle 1/ whatever 1) then you keep a nearly full animal companion progression for your entire career. A Druid 3/ Wizard 3/ Mystic Theurge 2/ Arcane Heirophant 10/ Mystic Theurge 2 is quite a few levels behind on their animal companion progression, especially early on, though Natural Bond helps with that. You can use this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#sorcererWizard) from UA to make half your Wizard levels count toward your animal companion's benefits, but that only gets you one additional level.

If you trade your familiar for something else (Abrupt Jaunt) and pick up the feat Obtain Familiar, you'll actually count all your class levels that increase your Wizard spellcasting toward the familiar's benefits. If you can trade that familiar for the above ACF that counts half as many levels toward your animal companion's benefits, then you'll actually end up with an even stronger animal companion than you would have otherwise had. There are plenty of DMs that won't go for that, though, reasoning that a feat is not a class feature, but if you have the familiar to trade and have levels in the correct class then you should be able to take that ACF.

Your companion familiar has a decent Int score, so it doesn't have to have a neutral alignment. If your character is exalted, then you can have an exalted companion familiar and give it Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty. You won't need to give it any items and it wouldn't normally get a share of the loot, but it will gain all the benefits of having a set of basic gear. You can also share buffs with it (Bite of the Werecreature) and cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Enhance Familiar and Fortify Familiar on it. Plus it's almost certain to have a higher AC than the rest of the party. Even if you don't give it VoP, you can use (Greater) Mage/Luminous Armor on it and share Greater/Superior Resistance with it. Be sure to get Companion Spellbond.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Most of that is not necessary by RAW. You automatically get druid level + ranger level + AH level for animal companion progression and AH level + arcane spellcasting class level for familiar boni.
No matter if you traded away your familiar or not.