3.5 Question about Familiars...

[PangolinPie]

My character is currently Wizard 1/Barbarian 10 and never took a familiar. I know advanced familiar options are based on caster level but are there any feats that could land him a decently powerful option?

I'm not talking about something like magical via Improved Familiar; right now I have my heart set on a Dire Boar which is available to level 7-9 casters and works thematically with my character to use as a mount (Barbarian chef/butcher Gnome) and am getting another feat next level.

Do I have any options here?

[Dagroth]

My character is currently Wizard 1/Barbarian 10 and never took a familiar. I know advanced familiar options are based on caster level but are there any feats that could land him a decently powerful option?

I'm not talking about something like magical via Improved Familiar; right now I have my heart set on a Dire Boar which is available to level 7-9 casters and works thematically with my character to use as a mount (Barbarian chef/butcher Gnome) and am getting another feat next level.

Do I have any options here?

Animal Cohort.

[ATHATH]

Would the Obtain Familiar feat work? It's based on your character level, not your caster level, IIRC.

[MHCD]

Practiced spellcaster feat will improve his options overall for improved familiar et al.

[Ashtagon]

My character is currently Wizard 1/Barbarian 10 and never took a familiar. I know advanced familiar options are based on caster level but are there any feats that could land him a decently powerful option?

I'm not talking about something like magical via Improved Familiar; right now I have my heart set on a Dire Boar which is available to level 7-9 casters and works thematically with my character to use as a mount (Barbarian chef/butcher Gnome) and am getting another feat next level.

Do I have any options here?

I suspect you may be confusing the druid class feature animal companion, and the wizard class feature summon familiar.

Druids do indeed get dire boar (among many others) as animal companion options as they level up. However, these choices are limited by the character's druid class level, not total character level. Suppose your character were a druid 1 / barbarian 10, he'd still only count as 1st level for the purpose of choosing an animal companion. A horse remains an option here (warhorse too, depending on how lenient your GM is on what "horse" encompasses).

However, your character is a wizard 1 / barbarian 10. Assuming SRD only, there are 10 familiar options, none of which make particularly good tanks, and given the penalties a wizard suffers should they familiar die, they probably shouldn't ever be used as meat shields. They main use is an extra pair of eyes for scouting, spell range shenanigans, and a small bonus to certain rolls. There are a few extra options in the three terrain splatbooks, but again, these are not combat familiars.

There is an option presented in Complete Warrior that may be of interest though.

Going outside class features and into feat options, I would suggest http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a

[tiercel]

Would the Obtain Familiar feat work? It's based on your character level, not your caster level, IIRC.
Goes off "your levels in all classes that allow you to cast arcane spells"; also requires 4 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) and arcane caster level 3rd.

With CL 1, trading in the unused familiar might be best, if retroactive ACF/variant is allowed, but familiar trade-ins are mostly for specialist wizards (*cough*AbruptJaunt*cough*broken*cough*). For a regular general wizard there is..... Wizard of Sun and Moon (Dungeonscape), which is kinda, eh? Kinda sounds like "just summon and keep the familiar in your pocket for the +2 to Reflex saves or whatever" common usage (though, notably, the familiar has half your hp, which is significant for a mostly-barbarian).

Wild Cohort feat sounds like the ticket for special mount (see link in Ashtagon's post).

[PangolinPie]

Wild Cohort sounds like my best option. I'm going to ask my GM if since I'm taking the feat for this, if maybe I can grant my wild cohort the familiar bonuses like the telepathic link and so on so it counts as both.

[Ashtagon]

Also, if you are having a wild boar as your Wild Cohort, see if your GM will let you have a "piglet" familiar, as a re-fluff of the rat familiar's bonuses.