Arcane Heirophant Companion Familiar

[schreier]

I know it has been talked about in the past ... but the Companion Familiar -

It's clear that the class does not require the animal companion feature as a prereq, nor does it require a familiar.

There are some questions though about how the power is interpreted:

1. Does it grant an animal companion if you don't already have one? It says "You may retain any one animal companion you already possess." It then says "You add your arcane hierophant class level to your druid or ranger level for purposes of determining your animal companion’s bonus Hit Dice, natural armor adjustment, and Strength/Dexterity adjustment" ...

Simple math, if you don't already have the feature (for example - Archivist 3 / Wizard 3 / Wildrunner 1 / Arcane Heirophant 5 - druid (0) + Arcane Heirophant (5) would be level 5 animal companion, right?


2. How is the familar ability calculated? It says "You add your arcane hierophant class level to your arcane spellcasting class level, and determine the Intelligence bonus and special abilities of your animal companion accordingly"

"Arcane Spellcasting Level" - is that the class level (i.e. Wizard), or Caster level? For example, Druid 3 / Wizard 3 / Arcane Heirophant 10 / Mystic Theurge 1 - Is the "familiar" level 13 or 14 (basically, does mystic theurge, or any arcane prestige class - count)


3. If you somehow add a mount class - how would theurgic bond, theurgic mount, and/or holy mount work? Can all of those (or any) work with Companion familiar with the right classes?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

1. Almost certainly yes. "You add your arcane hierophant class level to your druid or ranger level for purposes of determining your animal companion's bonus Hit Dice, natural armor adjustment, and Strength/Dexterity adjustment..." If you add Arcane Hierophant 1 to Druid 0, you're a Druid 1 for the animal companion's benefits.

2. It specifically says arcane spellcasting class level, not effective level (such as from other prestige classes like Mystic Theurge), not caster level. So a Druid 3/ Wizard 3/ Mystic Theurge 4/ Arcane Hierophant 10 would count as a Wizard 13 for the familiar's benefits. A Druid 8/ Suel Arcanamach 2/ Arcane Hierophant 10 would count as 12th level for the familiar's benefits, despite that arcane class not granting a familiar.

3. It depends entirely on how those abilities are worded and how your DM wants to rule it. Your Companion Familiar counts as both an animal companion and as a familiar, but it's specifically started as an animal companion and also gains the benefits of the familiar class feature. You couldn't get Improved Familiar for a Howler and add the Animal Companion benefits to it, because it's started as a Familiar. If something allows you to add the Animal Companion benefits to your special mount, it cannot be a Companion Familiar because it's not an animal companion, it's started as a special mount. The base creature must be a valid animal companion choice, and you must be able to add the other class feature's benefits to your animal companion, not any other way around.

[schreier]

Thanks! I always find the "arcane spellcasting class" stuff confusing - or at least a little strange (like calculating the sublime chord caster level) - I guess those class-related benefits are the main reason to stay in a base class

[DEMON]

1. Does it grant an animal companion if you don't already have one?

I don't think so. The Arcane Hierophant stacks with Ranger/Druid for determining your companion's benefits, but it makes no mention of actually giving you one, if you don't have it already.

In fact, it explicitly mentions the possibility that you don't have an AC in the same paragraph: "In addition, your animal companion (if any) gains many of the abilities that a familiar would normally possess.".