Familiars 3.P

[AOKost]

I'm creating a character for my players to come across that takes extra special pride in his unique Familiar. For this project, I would like to have the most unique familiar possible for a 5th level character (not using Improved Familiar).

Could the playground help me with this unique and possibly monstrous being?

Edit: I've decided to go with a Spark Guardian (Complete Warrior, p. 118-119). It looks to require level 7 and the Improved Familiar feat, and it doesn't have an intelligence score, lacks the improved evasion and empathic link, and doesn't confer the Alertness feat.

On the other hand, it retains it's own HP even if it's greater than that of it's Master, and uses it's racial hit dice or has hit dice equal to its Master's level, whichever is greater... and since they are constructs that's a d10 of hp... chances are likely they will have greater hp than their Master.

The Intelligence can be relatively easily solved by casting Awaken Construct, if that's allowed...

I would like to find another Guardian similar to those listed in Complete Warrior, but have been unable to find any. I would prefer one that was much smaller. The fluff is that it can act as a ring, but it's actually a familiar that looks like a tiny dragon that bits it's own tail. (Think something similar to the one in the movie The Sorcerer's Apprentice)

Now I find myself wondering what templates can be added to it, and could it be used in the way I'm suggesting?

[Florian]

Pinguin with the Mauler archetype?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Does it have to be a RAW familiar? Because this sounds perfect for a Summoner and their Eidolon.

[ATHATH]

A familiar with the Divine Emissary archetype gets to pick up a 1st level domain power after a certain point, which is pretty neat/unique. It also gets Guidance as an at-will SLA, IIRC.

[AOKost]

Any and all templates are welcome as suggestions, especially if they stack. This guy is willing to spend virtually every penny on making his familiar the best it possibly could be. Can a summoner use an Eidolon as a familiar in the traditional sense? I'm also thinking if the party runs into this guy later on, It would be cool if he could have more than one familiar that's all 'pimped out' if you will and started working on a second or third, or maybe taken levels in Druid and gotten an Animal Companion to work on? Suggestions?

This guy could also be an Artificer, seing as they have some interesting Familiar choices...

[noob]

Wizard then take a construct familiar and max its int.
Now you look dumb in comparison to your familiar which is kind of an exception for a wizard.
And you can cast mind seed on it before making it very intelligent and now you have a wizard familiar who have unbeatable dcs for his spells and lots of bonus slots.

[AOKost]

Wizard then take a construct familiar and max its int.
Now you look dumb in comparison to your familiar which is kind of an exception for a wizard.
And you can cast mind seed on it before making it very intelligent and now you have a wizard familiar who have unbeatable dcs for his spells and lots of bonus slots.

Could you be a bit more specific? What levels and feats are required for such a build?

[Menzath]

This challenge had a bit to do with optimizing familiars(And I won!), and I think one of the following challenges as well touched on some stuff.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?509597-Optimize-This-Feat-17-Betrayal-of-the-spirit-linked-from-dragon-magazine-336

Also there are some guides/handbooks
http://rpgbot.net/dnd35/characters/familiars.php

That one and dictum mortuums

http://dictummortuum.blogspot.qa/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html?m=1

[Ellrin]

All this talk about familiar archetypes and no mention of Figment? Your familiar is literally a figment of your imagination and gets some limited access to an eidolon's evolutions.

And/or take the Possessed Hand line of feats. When you get to Hand's Detachment, your hand can come off your body and gain many of the same abilities as familiars. If you're eligible for a new familiar, you can even pick the hand to get all the familiar abilities with it. Combine that with figment to have an imaginary magical hand crawling around doing your bidding; or the mauler archetype to turn your hand into a Medium creature--if you're Small, you can literally ride your own hand!

There's also the Eyebiter Mesmerist, who can turn his own detached eye into a familiar, and the alchemist, who can grow a tumor in his own body that becomes a familiar.

[noob]

Could you be a bit more specific? What levels and feats are required for such a build?
you need the following: craft construct feat.
optionally you can take psionic wizard if you want your familiar to cast spells(or buy a single power stone or whatever was the name of a psionic scroll)
The craft construct feat allows to at will increase any stats of a construct of 2 by spending 5000 gold and 5 days(yes playing a construct is even more broken than having a construct familiar)

[Psyren]

Evolved Familiar (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/evolved-familiar/) gives your familiar some eidolon options, you can use those to get pretty unique. Figment familiars would also be pretty unique.

[eldskald]

Alchemists can do some neat tricks with familiars too. The homunculist archetype gets a familiar and gives it evolution points for free. They can also get Evolved Familiar both as a feat and as discovery and stack more evolution points into it. But judging by your last post, I think you would like the Promethean Alchemist archetype more. They get an homunculus companion, which is like a fusion between familiar and animal companion. They get lots of hp, bab, feats, size growth like companion and basically all familiar features. Except that they're an homunculus, which is a lv 7 improved familiar. All of that right at lv 1. They can use your extracts without infusion discovery, which means they can heal on their own, use polymorph spells and other crazy buffs. That can be a pretty cool build.

[Psyren]

You can also do a tumor familiar as an alchemist, which is definitely... unique.

[AOKost]

I like the idea of a figment disembodied hand... that sounds rather fun in general.

I also like the sounds of crafting a construct familiar, though I'd like to see more rules on it. I know you can craft a Homunculous and use it as a familiar... What details are given on crafting a construct familiar other than Homunculi?

I'm surprised no one's gone into detail about Artificers having familiars besides the suggestion of crafting a construct... I don't remember that much about them, but I know they have some unique feats available to them.

What's the general consensus about the best creature (or type) to use for a base familiar? Could I take a cat, and add the Magewrough and Drakken Blooded templates? What about the Wartrained template?

[AOKost]

This challenge had a bit to do with optimizing familiars(And I won!), and I think one of the following challenges as well touched on some stuff.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?509597-Optimize-This-Feat-17-Betrayal-of-the-spirit-linked-from-dragon-magazine-336

Also there are some guides/handbooks
http://rpgbot.net/dnd35/characters/familiars.php

That one and dictum mortuums

http://dictummortuum.blogspot.qa/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html?m=1

Thank you! I will look through these at once! :D

[thorr-kan]

The figment and evolution comments make me want to port them to 3.5 and combine them. That's some good stuff, there.

[Psyren]

The figment and evolution comments make me want to port them to 3.5 and combine them. That's some good stuff, there.

It's all OGL, so go nuts :smallsmile:

[noob]

What do OGL even means?
Anyway if you want to be allowed by dnd rules to play pathfinder content without playing pathfinder play in 4E essentials.

[Florian]

What do OGL even means?

Open Gaming Licence. It´s public domain, so you can use it.