Familiar Feats (for both you and your familiar)

[rferries]

Hi all, this is sort of a Leadership equivalent for spellcasters. A strong buff for your familiar, enabling them to take feats of their own and even cast spells eventually. Or if you wish, you can do away with your familiar entirely to further your own ambitions.

Eschew Familiar
You have renounced your familiar or never bothered to summon one in the first place, gaining increased power at the expense of a true friend and ally.

Prerequisite: Summon familiar or Obtain Familiar.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to your caster level and a +2 increase to your Charisma and Intelligence scores solely for the purposes of determining your spells per day and the save DCs of your spells.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a familiar.

Greater Familiar
Your familiar has gained in power and become less dependent on you.

Prerequisite: Summon familiar or Obtain Familiar.

Benefit: Your familiar gains a number of benefits beyond those of a standard familiar, as detailed below. Furthermore, those statistics and abilities of your familiar that were determined by your class level are now determined by your character level instead.

Hit Dice: Your familiar's Hit Dice become equal to your character level. Recalculate base attack bonus, saves, feats and skill points, remembering that a familiar is a magical beast.

Hit Points: Your familiar's hit points are now determined by it's Hit Dice and Constitution score, rather than being one-half of your own.

Saving Throws: For Will saving throws your familiar uses its own base Will save or yours (as calculated from all your classes), whichever is better. For Fortitude and Reflex saving throws your familiar uses its own base saves.

Skills: Your familiar uses its own skill ranks instead of yours on skill checks. Its class skills are any skills possessed by the base animal and all class skills from all of your classes.

Ability Scores: Your familiar's Charisma score increases to match its Intelligence score.

Independence (Ex): You and your familiar retain the special abilities granted by your bond regardless of the distance between the two of you (but not if you are on different planes). You need not be within 5 feet of your familiar to share spells with it, nor be in contact with it for it to deliver touch spells for you.

Alignment: Your familiar's alignment now matches your own, if it didn't already. It remains loyal to you regardless of how evil it might become or how much power it might acquire i.e. through the Spellcasting Familiar feat.

Special: You may not apply the benefits of this feat to a familiar obtained through the Improved Familiar feat.

After taking this feat your familiar is eligible to take feats itself. Recommended feats are [General] feats, monster feats from the monster manuals, and the Aligned Familiar and Spellcasting Familiar feats detailed below.

Also considering adding other bonuses based on familiar species - e.g. an eagle familiar gains a Charisma bonus and/or grants one to it's master, etc.

The following feats are taken by the familiar itself:

Aligned Familiar
Your magical nature now fully reflects your master's alignment.

Prerequisite: Familiar, master of any good or evil alignment with the Greater Familiar or Improved Familiar feat.

Benefit: If your master is good-aligned you gain the celestial template. If your master is evil-aligned you gain the fiendish template.

Special: At your DM's discretion you may instead apply lawful-, chaotic-, or even neutrality-themed templates to your familiar as appropriate for your alignment, or take this feat twice to apply a template appropriate to your alignment for each alignment axis.

Spellcasting Familiar
You have learned a bit of magic from your master

Prerequisite: Familiar, master of at least 11th level with the Greater Familiar feat.

Benefit: You cast spells as a spellcaster of your master's class level-10.

If your master is a sorcerer you cast spells as a sorcerer, using your own Charisma score to determine save DCs and spells per day. Your spells known must be chosen from your master's spells known. If your master chooses to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows, you must similarly replace that spell if it is one you know. Otherwise you may replace one of your spells known every 4th level just as a standard sorcerer (provided the new spell you learn comes from your master's spells known).

If your master is a wizard you prepare and cast spells as a wizard, using your own Intelligence score to determine save DCs and spells per day. You do not learn spells yourself; you may only prepare spells from your master's spellbook. You and your master may prepare spells from the same spellbook at the same time without penalty. If your master is a specialist wizard you gain the same specialist advantages and drawbacks.

Special: If you have taken the Aligned Familiar feat, add all spells from the appropriate cleric domain to your spells known for each template you have added through that feat (e.g. the Good domain for the celestial template, the Evil domain for the fiendish template, etc.). If you cast spells as a sorcerer these spells do not count towards your number of spells known. If you cast spells as a wizard you may prepare these spells without needing a spellbook (as you would read magic).

When you cast alter self or similar spells, you are considered to be an animal rather than a magical beast.

[Westhart]

Greater Familiar
Your familiar has gained in power and become less dependent on you.

Prerequisite: Summon familiar or Obtain Familiar.

Benefit: Your familiar gains a number of benefits beyond those of a standard familiar, as detailed below. Furthermore, those statistics and abilities of your familiar that were determined by your class level are now determined by your character level instead.

Maybe total caster level? Otherwise you can argue that spellcasting familiar is based on character instead of caster level.


Hit Dice: Your familiar's Hit Dice become equal to your character level. Recalculate base attack bonus, saves, feats and skill points, remembering that a familiar is a magical beast.

Hmm, maybe since you were going for a 'leadership' type make it level -2


Hit Points: Your familiar's hit points are now determined by it's Hit Dice and Constitution score, rather than being one-half of your own.

Maybe change to this:
Hit Points: Your familiar's hit points are now determined by it's Hit Dice and Constitution score, or 1.2 your own, whichever is better.


Saving Throws: For Will saving throws your familiar uses its own base Will save or yours (as calculated from all your classes), whichever is better. For Fortitude and Reflex saving throws your familiar uses its own base saves.

Skills: Your familiar uses its own skill ranks instead of yours on skill checks. Its class skills are any skills possessed by the base animal and all class skills from all of your classes.

Hmm, maybe make it "its own skill ranks or yours, whichever is better, on skill checks."


Ability Scores: Your familiar's Charisma score increases to match its Intelligence score.

Independence (Ex): You and your familiar retain the special abilities granted by your bond regardless of the distance between the two of you (even if you are both on different planes). You need not be within 5 feet of your familiar to share spells with it, nor be in contact with it for it to deliver touch spells for you.

Independance is pretty strong, especially with arcane hierophant (Stacks familiar and animal companion on one), maybe consider not letting it work across planes? Most link type things do not (I think).


Alignment: Your familiar's alignment now matches your own, if it didn't already. It remains loyal to you regardless of how evil it might become or how much power it might acquire i.e. through the Spellcasting Familiar feat.

Special: You may not apply the benefits of this feat to a familiar obtained through the Improved Familiar feat.

BWAH?!?! I wanted a beguiler with this... (From a forgotten realms supplement, not the class). This is sad :smallfrown:


After taking this feat your familiar is eligible to take feats itself. Recommended feats are [General] feats, monster feats from the monster manuals, and the Aligned Familiar and Spellcasting Familiar feats detailed below.




Also considering adding other bonuses based on familiar species - e.g. an eagle familiar gains a Charisma bonus and/or grants one to it's master, etc.

With all the supplements etc that add certain creatures to spellcasting choice, this might not be the best idea unless you do it in a general way. In fact it might be bad with the spellcasting familiar feat...


Aligned Familiar
Your magical nature now fully reflects your master's alignment.

Prerequisite: Familiar, master of any good or evil alignment with the Greater Familiar or Improved Familiar feat.

Benefit: If your master is good-aligned you gain the celestial template. If your master is evil-aligned you gain the fiendish template.

Special: At your DM's discretion you may instead apply lawful-, chaotic-, or even neutrality-themed templates to your familiar as appropriate for your alignment, or take this feat twice to apply a template appropriate to your alignment for each alignment axis.[/SPOILER]

Seems good, not sure if spellcasters would take it though... maybe if you let them get both alignment, such as Axiomatic fiendish whatever if LE... After all spellcasters usually will be worrying about getting DC's up...


Spellcasting Familiar
You have learned a bit of magic from your master

Prerequisite: Familiar, master of at least 11th level with the Greater Familiar feat.

Benefit: You cast spells as a spellcaster of your master's class level-10.

If your master is a sorcerer you cast spells as a sorcerer, using your own Charisma score to determine save DCs and spells per day. Your spells known must be chosen from your master's spells known. If your master chooses to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows, you must similarly replace that spell if it is one you know. Otherwise you may replace one of your spells known every 4th level just as a standard sorcerer (provided the new spell you learn comes from your master's spells known).

If your master is a wizard you prepare and cast spells as a wizard, using your own Intelligence score to determine save DCs and spells per day. You do not learn spells yourself; you may only prepare spells from your master's spellbook. You and your master may prepare spells from the same spellbook at the same time without penalty. If your master is a specialist wizard you gain the same specialist advantages and drawbacks.

Special: If you have taken the Aligned Familiar feat, add all spells from the appropriate cleric domain to your spells known for each template you have added through that feat (e.g. the Good domain for the celestial template, the Evil domain for the fiendish template, etc.). If you cast spells as a sorcerer these spells do not count towards your number of spells known. If you cast spells as a wizard you may prepare these spells without needing a spellbook (as you would read magic).

When you cast alter self or similar spells, you are considered to be an animal rather than a magical beast.

Clarify the special, you were talking about the familiar and that just makes it sound like you still are... Something like: Special: If the master has taken the aligned familiar feat he adds all spells from the appropriate cleric domains(e.g. the Good domain for the celestial template, the Evil domain for the fiendish template, etc.). If the master casts spells as a sorcerer these spells do not count towards his number of spells known. If the master casts spells as a wizard he may prepare these spells without needing a spellbook (as he would read magic).
The problem is that you jump between you for the familiar and you for the master. At the beginning you=familiar, that part of the alignments=master, then the alter self=familiar... More of a clarity edit.


Eschew Familiar
You have renounced your familiar or never bothered to summon one in the first place, gaining increased power at the expense of a true friend and ally.

Prerequisite: Summon familiar or Obtain Familiar.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to your caster level and a +2 increase to your Charisma and Intelligence scores solely for the purposes of determining your spells per day and the save DCs of your spells.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a familiar.[/SPOILER]
[/quote]
This seems solid.

EDIT: Forgot some things for the spellcasting

Maybe cap at 20th caster level for familiar? That way they can not be slinging epic spells eventually?
Make it so they can not get a familiar with the obtain familiar feat.

[Morphic tide]

NothingAbnormal, you forgot that the Familiar is made able to take feats itself. It's the Familiar taking Aligned Familiar and Spellcasting Familiar, not the spellcaster.

And personally, I'd have Spellcasting Familiar make the Familiar have half the casting of the Master. This makes it more useable at low levels and makes it less cray in Epic, as you'd have to get to level 34 for your Familiar to get access to Epic spells, and that's if you're a full caster with no lost levels. As-is, they can get Epic casting at level 27.

I'd also have Aligned Familiar have more options than just Alignment, largely because it seems much too Divine for my tastes and Familiars are usually found on Arcane characters. Something like Empowered Familiar, getting access to Domain Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizardVariantDomainWiz ard) spells as the bonus spells and getting the School Powers of the associated School, as well as having it specifically mention Cleric Domains as another thing to choose if the caster has them, complete with granted powers. And keeping the availability of just going for Alignment domains.

[Westhart]

NothingAbnormal, you forgot that the Familiar is made able to take feats itself. It's the Familiar taking Aligned Familiar and Spellcasting Familiar, not the spellcaster.

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oh... :smallbiggrin:

[Morphic tide]

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oh... :smallbiggrin:

Well, it does open the nasty trick of having a 20+ HD two-templated housecat with the spellcasting of a 10th level Cleric or Wizard with the Chaos and Evil domains spells and full access to any desired feats the hit dice qualify for. That Strength penalty gets in the way of trying to go ubercharger with a cat, but it's still a 20+ Magical Beast HD housecat that is also a 10th level caster and has two templates.

And those HD are all d10, overriding the fractional hit dice of the base creature. And those 20 HD give 7 or 8 feats to work with. Which means access to some of the casting support stuff. Due to the way Epic qualification works, Automatic Silent and Automatic Still Spell might well be available, which means automatically casting 3rd level and lower spells as Silent and Still. Meaning that you have absolutely no need to worry about the cat breaking cover with their spells.

[Westhart]

Yeah, and it gets worse with arcane hierophant, animal companion benefits and familiar all on one... with the feats... :belkar: Things can get... Interesting maybe?

[Morphic tide]

Yeah, and it gets worse with arcane hierophant, animal companion benefits and familiar all on one... with the feats... :belkar: Things can get... Interesting maybe?

The guarantee of HD=Character Level makes some of the abuses go away, but also relaxes the need for those abuses. Depending on the wording of Hierophant, this may actually mean that the Animal Companion hit dice are stacked upon by the Familiar hit dice, or at least the health from them. A very important note is that it cannot apply to Familiars from the Improved Familiar feat, specifically, so any other way of switching your Familiar applies, including things that aren't Improved Familiar but use the same list.

Getting it's own skill ranks means it can optimize for an entirely different role. For example, a housecat familiar can optimize around sneaking, while an owl can optimize around spotting. This lets the caster focus on other things by having the Familiar carry a bunch of the otherwise-needed utility skills, possibly including Knowledge skills the caster lacks or can't properly invest in. Of important note is that the caster and familiar can have very different needs: Familiars can have flight right at level 1, which means they rarely, if ever, need to have Climb or Jump, so they have skill ranks to spare. Granted, everything is cross-class for them, but there's nothing stopping one from having them focus on a skill cheese that the caster doesn't have enough ranks to spare for or lacks the needed ability scores/feat slots to truly go all out on.

Also, I just noticed Eschew Familiar: That thing needs to scale amazingly and interact with major Familiar-improving feats, like the other three shown in this thread, otherwise it's utter trash.

[rferries]

Hello gentlemen/women! I must admit I'm disturbed at all this talk of epic-casting hellcats :D To reply to your points:

NothingAbnormal
-I specifically made it character level so that the familiar isn't penalised for it's masters multiclassing and prestige-classing choices, as so often happens.
-Leadership wasn't a great comparison on my part; although the familiar will have a great BAB, saves, HD etc it still won't be much use in combat so I don't think it needs the -2 levels (you'd be better off just taking Leadership and getting someone with actual class levels).
-Conversely, I don't think it needs a 1.2x multiplier for hp either, it should be fine with it's HD and any Constitution items you give it.
-With respect to skill ranks I'm torn; as you say my version is technically weaker in some ways than the base familiar, I just felt like the skill points my feat grants only matter if you had to spend them wisely. I'll rethink this.
-For Independence you're absolutely right, usually interplanar stuff doesn't work. I wanted to make the bond "special" but I think it's better to align with the rest of the game mechanics, so edited now to only work on the same plane.
-Haha yep, I wanted to avoid somehow abusing this feat with one of the myriad Improved Familiar options available.
-Apologies for the confusion between the master's and familiar's feats, I probably should have put them in separate sections
-Good point about the Obtain Familiar feat! I suppose you could raise an army of familiars in that way - in fact I'm sure I've read about a munchkin who worked out how to do that already :D

Morphic Tide:
-The spellcasting works this way so that the familar can cast spells given it's intelligence/charisma (needs 10+ the relevant stat, so can't cast 1st level spells until the master is 11th level and it has an intelligence of 11 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#familiars)). n.b. I included the Charisma increase to match the Intelligence increase in the Greater Familiar feat so that the Spellcasting Familiar feat works for sorcerers too. Of course items can get around this,or the feats could simply increase their ability scores faster but I'm leery of making it too good. You two have already been plotting how to abuse it, haha!
-You've made me paranoid now; how could the familiar get epic casting at level 27? Shouldn't it still be "just" a 17th-level caster at that point? I suppose it's all academic at that power level anyways.
-Aligned Familiar is indeed a limited one; I probably won't expand it myself but there's a wealth of sources to draw on as you say.
-I hope you're wrong about those epic metamagic feats, but if you aren't it just goes to show that I should have been even more restrictive. I thought I was so clever with the alter self workaround, too...:D
-With respect to Eschew Familiar, I suppose it could scale with character level (essentially a free headband of intellect etc.) but I'd worry about balancing. Though I suppose if you spend a feat and give up a class feature you're entitled to something more powerful. A flat +2 to all ability scores or permanent heroism (since you're going it alone), maybe?

Thanks for your insight, guys!

[Morphic tide]

Morphic Tide:
-The spellcasting works this way so that the familar can cast spells given it's intelligence/charisma (needs 10+ the relevant stat, so can't cast 1st level spells until the master is 11th level and it has an intelligence of 11 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#familiars)). n.b. I included the Charisma increase to match the Intelligence increase in the Greater Familiar feat so that the Spellcasting Familiar feat works for sorcerers too. Of course items can get around this,or the feats could simply increase their ability scores faster but I'm leery of making it too good. You two have already been plotting how to abuse it, haha!
The prerequisite covers the point of having it start at level 11, and the Familiar's getting access to all the spells it has all of three or four levels later. In the mean time, it has the slots for abilities that do stuff to slots, the restriction prevents casting spells from those slots.


-You've made me paranoid now; how could the familiar get epic casting at level 27? Shouldn't it still be "just" a 17th-level caster at that point? I suppose it's all academic at that power level anyways.

The qualification for Epic casting is 9th level spells and ECL 21/21 HD, not CL 21. So the Familiar qualifies the moment it's got 9th level spells. Well, if you meet the Spellcraft requirement, but feats exist to make it a class skill to hit that prerequisite.


-Aligned Familiar is indeed a limited one; I probably won't expand it myself but there's a wealth of sources to draw on as you say.

The template could be dropped, or swapped for a more open set that's more flexible than alignment. Like Half-Dragon, if one wishes to be silly. My main point, there, is that an Alignment-based effect doesn't really fit Arcane casters, who are most likely to have Familiars. Maybe have the choice be any template within a limit of LA or CR increase.


-I hope you're wrong about those epic metamagic feats, but if you aren't it just goes to show that I should have been even more restrictive. I thought I was so clever with the alter self workaround, too...:D

Well, it's only 1st through 3rd level spells for the feats, and it's two separate fears so you need the Familiar at 24 HD to get it. One is much better off with getting one of them twice, to auto-Still or Silence any spells up to 6th level. Or grab the same function for Empower. And it's Epic, you don't balance for it.


-With respect to Eschew Familiar, I suppose it could scale with character level (essentially a free headband of intellect etc.) but I'd worry about balancing. Though I suppose if you spend a feat and give up a class feature you're entitled to something more powerful. A flat +2 to all ability scores or permanent heroism (since you're going it alone), maybe?

I'd go with something like +1 HP per level and making Fortitude a strong save, to cover a bit of squishiness casters tend to have. The effects for the Familiar feats could be directly connected to what they do, with Spellcasting Familiar doing something like doubling the slots you get for a high casting score modifier or doubling your casting modifier for spell slots, do note that the latter is considerably better than the former because it gives you higher level bonus slots.

Aligned Familiar could give you something like DR equal to your character level, bypassed by the opposed alignment, because the templates come with LA that cripples PCs.

Greater Familiar could give you an Enhancement Bonus to either Strength or to-hit and either Constitution or Natural Armor based on level. The point of having it be an enhancement bonus is to avert stacking this bonus with spells or items, making it so that it's overriding one of the more common bonuses. I'd go for Strength and Constitution, because they are more useful and have more Enhancement bonuses they are competing with.

Personally, I'd love for Eschew Familiar to be all about turning your caster into someone who can beat faces in personally by boosting their stats in accordance with the effective level their Familiar would have. It makes the rather laughable Battle Sorcerer or Martial Wizard have a reason to be used. They are supposed to be Gish variants of Sorcerer and Wizard. They fail pretty hard.

[Westhart]

Hello gentlemen/women! I must admit I'm disturbed at all this talk of epic-casting hellcats :D To reply to your points:

NothingAbnormal
-I specifically made it character level so that the familiar isn't penalised for it's masters multiclassing and prestige-classing choices, as so often happens.

Fair enough


-Leadership wasn't a great comparison on my part; although the familiar will have a great BAB, saves, HD etc it still won't be much use in combat so I don't think it needs the -2 levels (you'd be better off just taking Leadership and getting someone with actual class levels).

Hey! I got it, make the familiar get leadership :smallwink:


-Conversely, I don't think it needs a 1.2x multiplier for hp either, it should be fine with it's HD and any Constitution items you give it.

Woops, exposed to be 1/2 not 1.2 :smallbiggrin:


-With respect to skill ranks I'm torn; as you say my version is technically weaker in some ways than the base familiar, I just felt like the skill points my feat grants only matter if you had to spend them wisely. I'll rethink this.

Look at morphic tides comment on the skills, he has a good point


-For Independence you're absolutely right, usually interplanar stuff doesn't work. I wanted to make the bond "special" but I think it's better to align with the rest of the game mechanics, so edited now to only work on the same plane.

If you like it that way keep it, just thought it was funny because you could beon the material plane affecting your familiar on... say the astral plane...


-Haha yep, I wanted to avoid somehow abusing this feat with one of the myriad Improved Familiar options available.

:smallfrown::smalltongue:


-Apologies for the confusion between the master's and familiar's feats, I probably should have put them in separate sections

It's all good mate.


-Good point about the Obtain Familiar feat! I suppose you could raise an army of familiars in that way - in fact I'm sure I've read about a munchkin who worked out how to do that already :D

Sounds familiar ^^

[Southern Cross]

Here are a few familiar feats that have Eschew Familiar as a prerequisite.
Psi-Crystal Familiar
You have innate psionic abilities that prevent you from summoning a normal familiar.

Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar, plus you must never have summoned a familiar.

Benefit: You gain a psi-crystal familiar as per a psion, instead of a normal familiar.
You also gain the following benefits:
1) Wild Talent as a bonus feat
2) You can learn a first level psionic power as a spell, and every wizard level you gain, you can learn another psionic power as a spell.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

Weapon Familiar
Instead of summoning a familiar, you have somehow bound yourself to a weapon.

Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar.

Benefit: You have somehow bound yourself to a weapon, instead of a living creature. You are now proficient with all weapons of that type, and that weapon is now considered a masterwork weapon when you use it.
You can enchant the weapon as if you had the appropriate feats (though you must still be high enough level) and at half cost, but only you can use the weapon enhancements (and spells).


Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar. However, if the psi-crystal is embedded in the weapon, the character can have both Psi-Crystal and a Weapon Familiar.

[rferries]

Here are a few familiar feats that have Eschew Familiar as a prerequisite.
Psi-Crystal Familiar
You have innate psionic abilities that prevent you from summoning a normal familiar.

Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar, plus you must never have summoned a familiar.

Benefit: You gain a psi-crystal familiar as per a psion, instead of a normal familiar.
You also gain the following benefits:
Wild Talent as a bonus feat:
You can learn a first level psionic power as a spell, and every wizard level you gain, you can learn another psionic power as a spell.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

Weapon Familiar
Instead of summoning a familiar, you have somehow bound yourself to a weapon.

Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar.

Benefit: You have somehow bound yourself to a weapon, instead of a living creature. You are now proficient with all weapons of that type, and that weapon is now considered a masterwork weapon when you use it.
You can enchant the weapon as if you had the appropriate feats (though you must still be high enough level) and at half cost, but only you can use the weapon enhancements (and spells).


Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.[/SPOILER]

Very nice! Encourages entirely different wizard archetypes.

[Morphic tide]

Here are a few familiar feats that have Eschew Familiar as a prerequisite.
Psi-Crystal Familiar
You have innate psionic abilities that prevent you from summoning a normal familiar.

Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar, plus you must never have summoned a familiar.

Benefit: You gain a psi-crystal familiar as per a psion, instead of a normal familiar.
You also gain the following benefits:
Wild Talent as a bonus feat:
You can learn a first level psionic power as a spell, and every wizard level you gain, you can learn another psionic power as a spell.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

Weapon Familiar
Instead of summoning a familiar, you have somehow bound yourself to a weapon.

Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar.

Benefit: You have somehow bound yourself to a weapon, instead of a living creature. You are now proficient with all weapons of that type, and that weapon is now considered a masterwork weapon when you use it.
You can enchant the weapon as if you had the appropriate feats (though you must still be high enough level) and at half cost, but only you can use the weapon enhancements (and spells).


Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.[/SPOILER]

My versions of them:

[Psionic]
Prerequisites: Must have a Psycrystal
Benefits: The benefits of your Familiar are applied to your Psycrystal.
Special: If you have the Eschew Familiar feat, you gain the benefits of the Psionic Body feat and bonus [Psionic] feats equal to one-third your effective Psion level for the purposes of Psycrystal abilities. These bonus feats may not affect Psionic Powers or Manifester Level, such as Overchannel and [Metapsionic] feats. You lose the benefits of this feat if you have a Familiar. If you have a Psycrystal, you do not count as having Eschew Familiar for any purpose(note: the Psycristal gets the benefits of being your Familiar, it does not actually qualify as a Familiar)


Prerequisites: Must have a Familiar or Eschew Familiar
Benefits: You may replace your Familiar with an item. This item becomes Masterwork if it is not already Masterwork, and you may apply magic item enhancements to the item without paying XP costs or having required spells or feats.
Special: If you have the Eschew Familiar feat, you may expend spell slots to apply item enhancements with a GP value of 1,000 times the total spell levels expended, with a maximum value of your effective Wizard level for Familiar abilities times 10,000.(at level 20, this leads to the 200,000 GP pre-Epic limit)

[Southern Cross]

That was the idea.

[Morphic tide]

That was the idea.

My versions have clearer wording and change function when Eschew Familiar is present, rather than requiring it for the basic function.

[khadgar567]

Is it epic casting require just the hit dice since venerable pun pun cheese uses the age and hit dice to get epic early then normal

[Morphic tide]

Is it epic casting require just the hit dice since venerable pun pun cheese uses the age and hit dice to get epic early then normal

Epic casting requires 20-something ranks in Spellcraft and the ability to cast 9th level spells. Being an Epic feat, it has the additional requirement of having either more than 20 hit dice or being above ECL 20.

The Venerable Dragonwrought Kobald thing is due to a specific exception to this rule for dragons past a certain age category.

[Corenthius]

I like the aligned familiar feat.

It gave me the idea for a feat to add the Draconic template (RotD p.74) to a familiar.

[rferries]

I like the aligned familiar feat.

It gave me the idea for a feat to add the Draconic template (RotD p.74) to a familiar.

Very nice!

[noob]

I quite remember commenting a greater familiar feat with the same text.
It seems to still be a feat penalizing your familiar on some aspects.
It can lower it hits points(if the wizard had megatons of hit points relatively to its level through some way such as using mind swap on a tarrasque or some other silly thing), make it lose its current classes(poor familiar that went from being a level 17 psionic wizard with 8 permanent negative levels to just being a creature with 17 magical creature hit dice) and lower all its save except for will saves(because it stops using the better between its save and its master saves except for will saves).

[rferries]

I quite remember commenting a greater familiar feat with the same text.
It seems to still be a feat penalizing your familiar on some aspects.
It can lower it hits points(if the wizard had megatons of hit points relatively to its level through some way such as using mind swap on a tarrasque or some other silly thing), make it lose its current classes(poor familiar that went from being a level 17 psionic wizard with 8 permanent negative levels to just being a creature with 17 magical creature hit dice) and lower all its save except for will saves(because it stops using the better between its save and its master saves except for will saves).

Yes this was a very old thread, I later revised it here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542987-Familiar-Feats-Take-2&p=22600600). I think the other commenter was just browsing through my older material.

[Debihuman]

I really like the Eschew Familiar feat.

I'm considering using that in my 3.5 Ravenloft campaign as none of my NPC witches have a familiar due to having take dread familiar (see 3.5 Ravenloft Player's Handbook page 50).

This is an extra feat, but it could be useful.

FYI, I also use the rules from Liber Mysterium when making my witches' coven. I've stall on the project for a long time, but this might give me an incentive to start a new NPC.

Debby

[Southern Cross]

I also like the Eschew Familiar feat, Debihuman (which is why I designed a couple of feats which have it as a prerequisite).

[khadgar567]

you know in pathfinder your familiar can turn in to any small creature or clone of your self yet all people likes is ability go without familiar no thanks I take my eagle familiar who can turn in to imp and acts like a regular human in an emergency.

[rferries]

I really like the Eschew Familiar feat.

I'm considering using that in my 3.5 Ravenloft campaign as none of my NPC witches have a familiar due to having take dread familiar (see 3.5 Ravenloft Player's Handbook page 50).

This is an extra feat, but it could be useful.

FYI, I also use the rules from Liber Mysterium when making my witches' coven. I've stall on the project for a long time, but this might give me an incentive to start a new NPC.

Debby

Thanks! And thanks for the references.

[Southern Cross]

I really like the Domain Wizard class option from Unearthed Arcana, but think it's too powerful, so here it is as a familiar feat:
Domain Wizard
You have an innate knack for certain spells.
Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar.
Benefit: You gain the Domain Wizard alternate class feature (along with the associated benefits) from Unearthed Arcana instead of a normal familiar.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

[rferries]

I really like the Domain Wizard class option from Unearthed Arcana, but think it's too powerful, so here it is as a familiar feat:
Domain Wizard
You have an innate knack for certain spells.
Prerequisite: Eschew Familiar.
Benefit: You gain the Domain Wizard alternate class feature (along with the associated benefits) from Unearthed Arcana instead of a normal familiar.

Special: You lose the benefits of this feat while you possess a living familiar.

I like it!