Permanently buffing a Familiar slightly?

[Draconi Redfir]

So i have a Viper (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/snake/snake-viper/) with the two-headed (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/two-headed-cr-1-or-2/) template as a familiar, and while it doesn't come up in combat much, my character got captured by an assassin, prompting the Familiar to try and take a bite out of the Assassin's neck. Buut as you can see, Vipers have a 1d2-2 damage dice, so... they don't deal damage. of any kind.


are there any ways that you can think of that could either buff the Viper's strength, increase the damage-die, or give the viper Dex to Damage? I don't plan on the Familiar being used in every combat, but if the need arises, it'd be nice to have something other then a low-save poison to count on.

it doesn't have to be anything big, just looking for a way to get damage into positive numbers if possible.

[Brassthorn]

... Buut as you can see, Vipers have a 1d2-2 damage dice, so... they don't deal damage. of any kind.

Actually, they do 1 point. From the SRD:


Minimum Damage

If penalties reduce the damage result to less than 1, a hit still deals 1 point of damage.

[Draconi Redfir]

a'ight, better then nothing. still looking for options if any are possible though:smalltongue:

[Geddy2112]

As Brassthorn said, you still do 1 nonlethal damage if your damage is reduced to less than 1. The main sell of course is the venom not the bite...

You can take the evolved familiar (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/evolved-familiar/) feat, which could increase the bite dice size, or add some other benefits. Increasing the dice to 1d4 won't make it much more lethal though...

[Brassthorn]

a'ight, better then nothing. still looking for options if any are possible though:smalltongue:

A tiny Belt of Giant Strength (even a snake has a waist), or wishes for inherent strength bonuses(expensive!).

If you have a cleric, druid, or ranger then a wand of Venomfire (adds 1d6/CL acid damage, buff lasts 1 hour/level) is quite a boost. Even better if they will give up a 3rd level slot for your familiar's benefit (and a lesser rod of extend metamagic is pretty cheap for extended buff time). A staff with Venomfire gets you the caster's level (minimum of 8th) if they don't want to do that. Not permanent, but will last most adventuring days.

[Draconi Redfir]

As Brassthorn said, you still do 1 nonlethal damage if your damage is reduced to less than 1. The main sell of course is the venom not the bite...

You can take the evolved familiar (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/evolved-familiar/) feat, which could increase the bite dice size, or add some other benefits. Increasing the dice to 1d4 won't make it much more lethal though...

Hmmm... According to the "Bite" evolution, it would be a 1d6 bite though :P (Yes i'm sure RAI it would be 1d4. still better.)


A tiny Belt of Giant Strength (even a snake has a waist).

Was thinking this actually. DM doesn't like custom items though, and i'm noooot sure how "custom" a tiny BoGS is. or how much it'd cost.

[Kurald Galain]

Familiar archetypes would be a solution.

For instance, Mauler.

[noob]

If you take familiar archetypes there is one that gives your familiar eidolon evolution and makes it resurrect each morning when you prepare spells(but it halved the hit points of the familiar).

[Draconi Redfir]

could be worth looking into then. little hesitant about archetypes since i've had this familiar for awhile, but it's a possibility.

[Daefos]

Was thinking this actually. DM doesn't like custom items though, and i'm noooot sure how "custom" a tiny BoGS is. or how much it'd cost.

Nothing custom about it. Magical items (except weapons and armor) will resize themselves to fit the wearer. Just get a belt of strength and wrap it around your familiar, and you’re done.

[noob]

could be worth looking into then. little hesitant about archetypes since i've had this familiar for awhile, but it's a possibility.

Having your familiar come back to life when you prepare spells is surely helpful in keeping the familiar.
A quite fun thing is that if you lose your familiar you can take a new familiar but nothing says the old familiar stops being yours(if you are using pathfinder rules) nor that one of your familiars stops being a familiar once you find back the old one so you could have multiple familiars in pathfinder(for example give familiars scrolls of plane shift and lose them by throwing them into a random safe plane and recruit new familiars while the previous ones are lost until they decide to come back).

[Draconi Redfir]

Nothing custom about it. Magical items (except weapons and armor) will resize themselves to fit the wearer. Just get a belt of strength and wrap it around your familiar, and you’re done.

they only go up or down one size though. So a normal-sized belt could fit a small creature, but not a tiny one. I would need a belt of at least Small size... should be doable. just buy a gnome-belt i guess.

[Hellpyre]

they only go up or down one size though. So a normal-sized belt could fit a small creature, but not a tiny one. I would need a belt of at least Small size... should be doable. just buy a gnome-belt i guess.

Where are you getting that they only can change one size category?

[Draconi Redfir]

is that not a standard rule? Guess my whole group's been going on a houserule this whole time then.

[Elysiume]

is that not a standard rule? Guess my whole group's been going on a houserule this whole time then.Nope. Anything other than weapons and armor resizes with no stated limits.

Size and Magic Items
When an article of magic clothing or jewelry is discovered, most of the time size shouldn't be an issue. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they adjust themselves magically to the wearer. Size should not keep characters of various kinds from using magic items.

There may be rare exceptions, especially with race-specific items.

Armor and Weapon Sizes: Armor and weapons that are found at random have a 30% chance of being Small (01–30), a 60% chance of being Medium (31–90), and a 10% chance of being any other size (91–100).

[grarrrg]

You can take the evolved familiar (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/evolved-familiar/) feat, which could increase the bite dice size, or add some other benefits. Increasing the dice to 1d4 won't make it much more lethal though...

If bumped up it should wind up 1d3, not 1d4.
Doesn't matter if by Improved Natural Attack, or Evolved Familiar>Imp Damage. You started at 1d2, and only gain one die size.
(and you can't stack both/similar, as they are both 'effective' increases (https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9t5u))