SangoProduction
2017-10-25, 01:25 AM
In Dragon Magazine 280, page 62, there's a set of feats that affect your familiar(s). Of particular note is Extra Familiar, which explicitly allows you to take an additional familiar, with all the benefits (unless they are identical). And it has a little something that is of particular note (which Obtain familiar does not). It's not restricted to arcane familiars. This means, among other things, you can take it with Druid, which gets a strictly superior version of a familiar, in Urban Companion (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a). Oh, and Druids have a better BAB, fort save and HD, which makes for better familiars.
However, the familiars just being strictly better isn't that big of a deal. It's that they can cycle out their familiars in 24 hours. This means you can take Extra Familiar for all of your feats, up until you you have the level you need for your odd familiar feat (like Improved Familiar, or one of those presented on that same Dragon Magazine page). Then you can retire your old familiars to a menagerie, and adventure with a new set. (Don't worry. They lose their intelligence, so they are fine with being locked up and put on display.)
Oh. Also, take Token Familiar, because having to deal with bringing animals indoors is a pain. And don't forget to invent the laptop, which has a function to teleport your caged familiars, and give you your new prospects you already have cooped up. You know, just in case your current familiars just don't quite cut the job for this particular mission. Maybe have a construct familiar stay in the menagerie, specifically for this purpose. Or just hire someone. Most would be happy to set exotic creatures on a teleport pad, even on a pittance of an adventurer's income, even if they don't enjoy the job for what it is.
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Anyway! Basics aside, how do we make this well and truly optimal? I already did a bit of investigation in to uses for a Druid Dvati with a familiar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?510869-Optimizing-the-Dvati-race/page2). But for this special case, where you get multiple familiars (rather than just multiple "you"s), I've not yet done in depth research. By basic inspection, it would appear that you basically include every single buff you cast on yourself.
Also, honestly, this could be a neat build for premade teams who want to play as your familiars. The buff power is kinda insane.
You clearly want be a Human, because feats are super good, when your build scales off of feats. You also want to take as many Flaws as you can (often just 2). This leaves you with 4 feats at level 1.
One is Enspell Familiar, which extends the Share Spell ability to 1 mile. That's more than enough. Then take Improved Familiar. You can't take advantage of it yet, but who cares. You can in a couple levels, and you don't want to accidentally forget it. Take Token Familiar for your 3rd feat at first level. And lastly, to start things off, take your first Extra Familiar. (Alternatively, you can take Surrogate Spellcasting instead of Token Familiar. Le-sigh. Just make sure to retrain it, once you've got Natural Spell.)
Or, you can start off as a Wizard, trade away the familiar....Shoot, that makes you no longer qualify, and you can't gain Druid's familiar if you take the Sorcerer familiar. Well, the idea was to alternatively start Wizard, for Precocious Apprentice, so you can cast Mirror Image.
For first level, I'd probably take Rat-tata and zuBat as my first 2 familiars. They are pretty good, and generally inconspicuous scouts, even if they are somehow spotted (and if they are repeatedly getting spotted, start preparing Camouflage). I mean, not totally inconspicuous, but still, most probably wouldn't think, "Oh god, it's a rat, a wizard is spying on me!"
Plus, the bat is pretty good for keeping at your side in general settings, because of its notable perception bonus, and blindsense.
Make sure to prepare Lesser Vigor. (Yay, it's a druid spell!) However, until at least 5th level you really don't care that much, as familiars really aren't combat machines yet....unless you use any of the various transformation spells the druid has, like Aspect of the Wolf (level 1). Oooooh Yeah. Hyper intelligent wolf pack. That sounds like fun.
Level 3, you can take Extend Spell (which can likely add substantial duration now), or get an Extra Familiar again.
Level 5 is when you actually get some freedom to choose familiars specifically for what they already are. Like a Blink Dog. Great bulk, by virtue of its blink ability. But, what I find most interesting (enabled by this feat), is the Shocker Lizard.
Since shock has no listed action cost, it's just one standard action per each burst. Yeah. Already 6d8 points of AoE lightning damage per lizard. This means 18d8 per round, AoE at level 5, no limit, with only modest investment. If you really, absolutely, totally, needed to maximize this, you could have taken 5 feats by now, so 10d8 per lizard, which is 50d8 per round. Screw the spell Call Lightning. You're already Thor.
If you wanted to be reasonable, you could implement Pathfinder's restriction of contributing to a burst once per 1d4 rounds. Or you can say that they all need to invest their standard action when contributing. Even so, 6d8 AoE damage per round is respectable. It's better current damage than most spells at this level, and doesn't cost a resource.
Now you just need a way to fling them in to the enemy! Token Familiar makes this relatively easy, as you can set each of their activation commands to be the same one, so even for a puny human, you can toss a coin pouch reasonably far. If the DM is treating this as an improvised weapon's range, pick up a sling. Maybe have them in an alternative bullet. Of course... Token Familiar says nothing about the shape of the inanimate objects they turn in to. Make of that what you will.
However, if you don't want raw damage, you can diversify your familiar pool. An imp for scouting (and activating magic items), Psuedodragon for....scouting...If you are able to replace its feats with that telepathy sense thing.
Level 6, you can pick up any utility feat you missed thus far, including Natural Spell or an Extra Familiar. (Yay, 8d8 AoE at level 6.)
Level 9, you can start raising dragons by picking up Dragon Familiar. Coincidentally, it's also the same level you qualify to raise a Brass Dragon (the one you actually want to have). It'd be nice if you got this in-story by being granting a dragon's egg by a grateful dragon, because that's just cool, and some DMs would go for it. But, anyway, yeah. Cool. Save or dies without a limited resource are powerful.
Or you could be boring, and take yet another Extra Familiar. (10d8 AoE. Still outpacing most blast spells.)
Oh. And remember. It doesn't really matter that you're investing feats in to your familiars. You're still a full spellcasters who can shape change in to devastating monsters. You can, of course simply mix this build with other druid builds, rather than going whole hog. But hey. That was obvious.
Lastly, you want to figure out if casting from a scroll or wand counts as casting on yourself, for the purpose of spell sharing.
However, the familiars just being strictly better isn't that big of a deal. It's that they can cycle out their familiars in 24 hours. This means you can take Extra Familiar for all of your feats, up until you you have the level you need for your odd familiar feat (like Improved Familiar, or one of those presented on that same Dragon Magazine page). Then you can retire your old familiars to a menagerie, and adventure with a new set. (Don't worry. They lose their intelligence, so they are fine with being locked up and put on display.)
Oh. Also, take Token Familiar, because having to deal with bringing animals indoors is a pain. And don't forget to invent the laptop, which has a function to teleport your caged familiars, and give you your new prospects you already have cooped up. You know, just in case your current familiars just don't quite cut the job for this particular mission. Maybe have a construct familiar stay in the menagerie, specifically for this purpose. Or just hire someone. Most would be happy to set exotic creatures on a teleport pad, even on a pittance of an adventurer's income, even if they don't enjoy the job for what it is.
-----
Anyway! Basics aside, how do we make this well and truly optimal? I already did a bit of investigation in to uses for a Druid Dvati with a familiar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?510869-Optimizing-the-Dvati-race/page2). But for this special case, where you get multiple familiars (rather than just multiple "you"s), I've not yet done in depth research. By basic inspection, it would appear that you basically include every single buff you cast on yourself.
Also, honestly, this could be a neat build for premade teams who want to play as your familiars. The buff power is kinda insane.
You clearly want be a Human, because feats are super good, when your build scales off of feats. You also want to take as many Flaws as you can (often just 2). This leaves you with 4 feats at level 1.
One is Enspell Familiar, which extends the Share Spell ability to 1 mile. That's more than enough. Then take Improved Familiar. You can't take advantage of it yet, but who cares. You can in a couple levels, and you don't want to accidentally forget it. Take Token Familiar for your 3rd feat at first level. And lastly, to start things off, take your first Extra Familiar. (Alternatively, you can take Surrogate Spellcasting instead of Token Familiar. Le-sigh. Just make sure to retrain it, once you've got Natural Spell.)
Or, you can start off as a Wizard, trade away the familiar....Shoot, that makes you no longer qualify, and you can't gain Druid's familiar if you take the Sorcerer familiar. Well, the idea was to alternatively start Wizard, for Precocious Apprentice, so you can cast Mirror Image.
For first level, I'd probably take Rat-tata and zuBat as my first 2 familiars. They are pretty good, and generally inconspicuous scouts, even if they are somehow spotted (and if they are repeatedly getting spotted, start preparing Camouflage). I mean, not totally inconspicuous, but still, most probably wouldn't think, "Oh god, it's a rat, a wizard is spying on me!"
Plus, the bat is pretty good for keeping at your side in general settings, because of its notable perception bonus, and blindsense.
Make sure to prepare Lesser Vigor. (Yay, it's a druid spell!) However, until at least 5th level you really don't care that much, as familiars really aren't combat machines yet....unless you use any of the various transformation spells the druid has, like Aspect of the Wolf (level 1). Oooooh Yeah. Hyper intelligent wolf pack. That sounds like fun.
Level 3, you can take Extend Spell (which can likely add substantial duration now), or get an Extra Familiar again.
Level 5 is when you actually get some freedom to choose familiars specifically for what they already are. Like a Blink Dog. Great bulk, by virtue of its blink ability. But, what I find most interesting (enabled by this feat), is the Shocker Lizard.
Since shock has no listed action cost, it's just one standard action per each burst. Yeah. Already 6d8 points of AoE lightning damage per lizard. This means 18d8 per round, AoE at level 5, no limit, with only modest investment. If you really, absolutely, totally, needed to maximize this, you could have taken 5 feats by now, so 10d8 per lizard, which is 50d8 per round. Screw the spell Call Lightning. You're already Thor.
If you wanted to be reasonable, you could implement Pathfinder's restriction of contributing to a burst once per 1d4 rounds. Or you can say that they all need to invest their standard action when contributing. Even so, 6d8 AoE damage per round is respectable. It's better current damage than most spells at this level, and doesn't cost a resource.
Now you just need a way to fling them in to the enemy! Token Familiar makes this relatively easy, as you can set each of their activation commands to be the same one, so even for a puny human, you can toss a coin pouch reasonably far. If the DM is treating this as an improvised weapon's range, pick up a sling. Maybe have them in an alternative bullet. Of course... Token Familiar says nothing about the shape of the inanimate objects they turn in to. Make of that what you will.
However, if you don't want raw damage, you can diversify your familiar pool. An imp for scouting (and activating magic items), Psuedodragon for....scouting...If you are able to replace its feats with that telepathy sense thing.
Level 6, you can pick up any utility feat you missed thus far, including Natural Spell or an Extra Familiar. (Yay, 8d8 AoE at level 6.)
Level 9, you can start raising dragons by picking up Dragon Familiar. Coincidentally, it's also the same level you qualify to raise a Brass Dragon (the one you actually want to have). It'd be nice if you got this in-story by being granting a dragon's egg by a grateful dragon, because that's just cool, and some DMs would go for it. But, anyway, yeah. Cool. Save or dies without a limited resource are powerful.
Or you could be boring, and take yet another Extra Familiar. (10d8 AoE. Still outpacing most blast spells.)
Oh. And remember. It doesn't really matter that you're investing feats in to your familiars. You're still a full spellcasters who can shape change in to devastating monsters. You can, of course simply mix this build with other druid builds, rather than going whole hog. But hey. That was obvious.
Lastly, you want to figure out if casting from a scroll or wand counts as casting on yourself, for the purpose of spell sharing.