Too familiar a villain 3.P

[kulosle]

So I really want to make a villain using the extra familiar feat from dragon magazine. With the intend to make as powerful an army of familiars as possible. The idea being that each one could be a mid boss (with supporting looks if need be). The familiar could pair up towards the end and the last few would be with their master.

I am going for a mad scientist that rules over a decent size island. And so far the best I have is the humongulist alchemists and the fleshwarper prestige class. This gets the feel pretty good. I was just wondering what the strongest set up would be. I would like to be able to make as strong of familiar as possible at as low of a level as possible so that they can fight the master and still have a chance.

The problem is I need to use a lot of his feats on extra familiar and there just arent enough prestige classes that boost familiar or classes that boost them in compatible ways. Also a lot of the familiar bonuses only work when the master is near and I want them to be able to be autonomous. So thoughts suggestions?

The party is level 8. We did some preliminary getting to kmow each other stuff and theu are abput to crashland on tgis guys island. Also I am obviously ruling that something that boost one familiar it boosts them all. So what do you think? I am fairly aware of most the options 3.5 has to offer and I am mainly interested in what pathfinder can bring to the character. Is there even a prestige class in pathfinder that increases familars? I can only think of 2 I'm 3.5 that do and the alienist is clearly not good for the buils.

[Nifft]

One of the least-known but best-powered Familiar boosters is the Soul Caster prestige class in combo with the Share Soulmeld feat.

You could build the Wizard to use either Incarnate or Totemist -- both are good, but quite different in terms of aesthetic.

That would conflict with the Fleshwarper PrC, unfortunately.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

One of the least-known but best-powered Familiar boosters is the Soul Caster prestige class in combo with the Share Soulmeld feat.

You could build the Wizard to use either Incarnate or Totemist -- both are good, but quite different in terms of aesthetic.

That would conflict with the Fleshwarper PrC, unfortunately.The familiar must remain within 5' of you at all times, however. Okay for familiars that never leave your person, but it does reduce the usefulness of many familiars considerably.

[SpamCreateWater]

Weeellll... depending on your houserules and ability to break rules because you're (assumedly) the DM... you could just take extra familiar granting feats and hand wave any "there may be only one" clauses. Usually only recommended if you have the trust of your players.

As for Pathfinder options...
Eldritch Guardian (Fighter archetype) gives you a familiar at level 1 as per the Wizard class ability. It scales with your Fighter level.
Two feats (Skill Focus (Any Knowledge) and Eldritch Heritage (Arcane Bloodline)) along with 13 CHA will get you a familiar that scales with character level.
VMC Wizard gets you a familiar instead of your 3rd level feat that scales with character level.

What about Wild Cohort and Natural Bond feats from 3.5?

[Nifft]

The familiar must remain within 5' of you at all times, however. Okay for familiars that never leave your person, but it does reduce the usefulness of many familiars considerably.

The same feat which gives your Share Spells a 1 mile radius ought to grant the same radius to Share Soulmelds, given the transparency between spells and soulmelds.

[ExLibrisMortis]

There are a few ways to stack familiar progression and animal companion/paladin mount progression. Things like Theurgic Mount and Arcane Hierophant, for instance.

[WhamBamSam]

Since Dragon Magazine is on the table, you can use Spell Sovereign to get Living Spell familiars. Combine with Changeling Wizard's Morphic Familiar for added fun.

Alternatively, make the main boss a dragon. That'll give you a lot of feats for extra familiar, high HP and BAB for the familiars to inherit, and access to the familiar options for larger creatures.

[kulosle]

One of the least-known but best-powered Familiar boosters is the Soul Caster prestige class in combo with the Share Soulmeld feat.
You could build the Wizard to use either Incarnate or Totemist -- both are good, but quite different in terms of aesthetic.
That would conflict with the Fleshwarper PrC, unfortunately.

I hadn't thought about this. it doesn't technically advance the familiar but it gives them a lot of oomph. and I wouldn't have to dip too much to get a fair amount of melds. especially with the spells to help with being able to bind them


The same feat which gives your Share Spells a 1 mile radius ought to grant the same radius to Share Soulmelds, given the transparency between spells and soulmelds.

what is this feat and is there a way to make it larger


Since Dragon Magazine is on the table, you can use Spell Sovereign to get Living Spell familiars. Combine with Changeling Wizard's Morphic Familiar for added fun.

Alternatively, make the main boss a dragon. That'll give you a lot of feats for extra familiar, high HP and BAB for the familiars to inherit, and access to the familiar options for larger creatures.

ooh these are some interesting options I'll have to look into them

[ExLibrisMortis]

what is this feat and is there a way to make it larger
Enspell Familiar extends the range to one mile (Dragon 280). However, it doesn't work for soulmelds, and there's no good reason why it should. Transparency does not apply to feats, and soulmelds are quite different from spells.

That said, there's lots of useful things you can do with shared spells. For example, combine body outside body with a funky buff routine (bite of the werebear, draconic polymorph, haste), and you've got yourself an army that you can tailor on the fly, at range.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you want soulmelds on your familiars, take the Improved Familiar feat for higher level familiars, recycle their existing feats into Shape Soulmeld for whatever soulmelds you want on them using the Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?119456-What-is-a-quot-Chaos-Shuffle-quot), then cast one of the open X chakra spells to bind them. Preferably Extended. Normally, the spells last 24 hours, but Extended, you can halve the number of spell slots you have to use for the effect each day at the cost of using higher level slots (or expending gp for a metamagic rod of Extend Spell).

[kulosle]

so are there no additional options for large character familars? improved familiar or the like don't seem to give any additional option to them. that's rather boring. I might have to toy around with the idea of some house ruled improved familiar for large and bigger characters. Any thoughts?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

so are there no additional options for large character familars? improved familiar or the like don't seem to give any additional option to them. that's rather boring. I might have to toy around with the idea of some house ruled improved familiar for large and bigger characters. Any thoughts?If you have enough divine ranks, you can make anything or anyone your familiar.

Yes, that includes the tarrasque.

[Nifft]

so are there no additional options for large character familars? improved familiar or the like don't seem to give any additional option to them. that's rather boring. I might have to toy around with the idea of some house ruled improved familiar for large and bigger characters. Any thoughts?

Those are just suggestions for a DM.

You're a DM -- you can make things happen if you want them to happen.

Follow the pattern if you find it helpful, or make a judgment call based on what you want the PCs to fight.

Heck you could invent a new spell -- Contempt Breeds Familiarity -- which turns any planar bound Outsider or Elemental into your Familiar, but it leaves your service and returns to its home plane after 24 hours, if it survives for the duration.

If the PCs fail to kill one of these Familiar (Temp) critters, or better yet spare one's life, they can meet the critter later on its home plane. The critter might give them info about its former master.

[WhamBamSam]

so are there no additional options for large character familars? improved familiar or the like don't seem to give any additional option to them. that's rather boring. I might have to toy around with the idea of some house ruled improved familiar for large and bigger characters. Any thoughts?DMG pg.203. They're standard, non-Improved familiars. The best are probably the Leopard (Pounce), Wolverine (Rage), and Raven sized up to Small. None of them are really as good as a well chosen Improved (or Planar, Dragon, etc) Familiar or a Dung Snake, but they might add some variety to your minibosses.

[ShurikVch]

Note an article in Dragon #338 allow to get Imbued Staff as a Familiar
So, how about the idea of your PCs attacked by flying sentient magical staff?
(The idea was inspired by the main villain in Elegia Eternum (https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/ee1-elegia-eternum-full-version))