Best familiar for Shadowcaster/Sorcerer gestalt?

[Bad Wolf]

Basically what the title says. I'm CN, so certain familiars might not be available. I'm willing to burn a feat slot on Improved Familiar, so there's that.

[Blackhawk748]

Bats are pretty nifty, drop Darkness on your opponents and then have it hit them with your touch spell.

[Troacctid]

Trade in your Sorcerer familiar for an alternate class feature and take the Shadow Familiar feat to get a familiar with the Dark template instead. Then you can take Improved Familiar and that'll have the Dark template too. It'll be super-sneaky.

Quasits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#quasit) are the main standby for CN familiars. At-will invisibility, detect magic, detect good, 50 ft flight (perfect), commune 1/week, poison, and they can shapeshift. Dragon Familiars are also good, although you have to wait a little longer.

[malonkey1]

Trade in your Sorcerer familiar for an alternate class feature and take the Shadow Familiar feat to get a familiar with the Dark template instead. Then you can take Improved Familiar and that'll have the Dark template too. It'll be super-sneaky.

Quasits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#quasit) are the main standby for CN familiars. At-will invisibility, detect magic, detect good, 50 ft flight (perfect), commune 1/week, poison, and they can shapeshift. Dragon Familiars are also good, although you have to wait a little longer.

Seconded. A few good or semi-good ACFs and Substitutions include:


Dragonblood Sorcerer 1RotD (gain UMD as a class skill, +2 on Knowledge[Arcana], and Dragon Heritage for free.
Dwarf Sorcerer 1RoS (Hit die for this level is d6, gain alertness and DR)
Metamagic SpecialistPHB2 (You can use metamagic without increasing casting time 3 + Int per day)
SpellshieldDS (Expend a slot to reduce damage by 5*spell level)

[Bad Wolf]

Trade in your Sorcerer familiar for an alternate class feature and take the Shadow Familiar feat to get a familiar with the Dark template instead. Then you can take Improved Familiar and that'll have the Dark template too. It'll be super-sneaky.

Quasits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#quasit) are the main standby for CN familiars. At-will invisibility, detect magic, detect good, 50 ft flight (perfect), commune 1/week, poison, and they can shapeshift. Dragon Familiars are also good, although you have to wait a little longer.

Quasits seem nice, if a little too evil. Seems like it'll try and kill me in the middle of the night.

[Fax Celestis]

I wish Master of Shadows wasn't so mediocre.

[Jeff the Green]

My go-to Improved Familiar (when I can't cheese my way into swapping it at will) is beguiler. Always-on trueseeing is awesome, particularly if you have Hide and Move Silently ranks, which, as a Shadowcaster, you should.

[Bad Wolf]

My go-to Improved Familiar (when I can't cheese my way into swapping it at will) is beguiler. Always-on trueseeing is awesome, particularly if you have Hide and Move Silently ranks, which, as a Shadowcaster, you should.

I checked out the Beguiler, and it seems a little too long overpowered. Seriously, true seeing at 7th level? I think I'll take it, but I'm also considering the Starsnake (same book).

[Extra Anchovies]

If you prefer flavor over function, I'd recommend a Weasel; the boost to reflex shores up your worst save a little, and for some reason I think it just fits well with a shadowcaster. Not sure why.

Also they're so cute :smallbiggrin: :
http://ecache.ilbe.com/files/attach/new/20131207/14357299/994279354/2498800778/c13b9fbf71e2b80057b248fa4b1b9daa.jpg

[DurionArcanis]

My go-to Improved Familiar (when I can't cheese my way into swapping it at will) is beguiler. Always-on trueseeing is awesome, particularly if you have Hide and Move Silently ranks, which, as a Shadowcaster, you should.

Beguiler hands down. Take the Shadow Familiar feat as well, turn it into a Dark Beguiler. Why have such a temptingly overpowered and squishy familiar if you don't make it damn near impossible to find/kill?

[Bad Wolf]

Before I settle on anything permanently, are there any other good choices? I was looking through a copy of Dragon Magazine #322, when I found the Darkness Familiar feat. It gives you a choice of a bunch of creepy darkness I related familiars, like Shadows or Wraiths. Are any of them a good choice?

[DurionArcanis]

Before I settle on anything permanently, are there any other good choices? I was looking through a copy of Dragon Magazine #322, when I found the Darkness Familiar feat. It gives you a choice of a bunch of creepy darkness I related familiars, like Shadows or Wraiths. Are any of them a good choice?

I would still say Dark Beguiler, and you can buff it with spells as well. Wouldn't know much about the Dragon Mag stuff since most games I've been in tend to ban Dragon Mag.

[Jeff the Green]

I would still say Dark Beguiler, and you can buff it with spells as well.

Speaking of, if you want to blow a third feat, there's Enspell Familiar in Dragon Compendium. It lets you share spells with your familiar as long as they're within a mile.

[ShurikVch]

From the Darkness Familiar list, Cloaker is kinda interesting (but required 14th level :smallannoyed:)

If zook1shoe (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=7059.msg108520#msg108520) (from the Min/Max Boards (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php)) is correct, with Dragon Familiar you can get Shadow Dragon (at 8th level)

Finally, Spell Sovereign PrC allow you to take Living Spell as a familiar. (Living Shadow Conjuration (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shadowConjuration.htm)... :smallamused: with metamagic... :smallwink:) Unfortunately, it's only 7/10 caster, and the 1st CL loss is right at the 1st level