[3.5] Beguiler With An Imp Familiar

[Thurbane]

So, at some point I would like to play a Beguiler, with an Imp familiar.

The easy way to do this is with the Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar feats.

Bearing this in mind, how would you optimise a Beguiler build to make use of an Imp familiar? Pumping stuff like UMD is obvious, so the Imp can use wands etc.

I guess general Beguiler handbook stuff is obvious, but what can be done to best utilise the Imp?

Official 3.5 material only please, no PF, homebrew, or 3rd party. And preferably no Dragon/Dungeon material.

Will be playing levels 1 through 12 or so; and won't be picking up the Imp before level 7.

Cheers - T

[Anthrowhale]

An Imp is a pretty good scout between Tiny, darkvision, at-will invisibility/detect magic/detect good, and perfect flight. Investing skill ranks in scout skills (Hide/Move Silently/Spot/Search) would improve that as would appropriate items. At high levels, Advanced Learning[Superior Invisibility] would improve it even more.

In terms of combat, the only thing which comes to mind other than generic use of a familiar is Venomfire, but that seems tricky to get on a Beguiler. The dexterity damage is good, but in a to-small quantity. Perhaps Snake's Swiftness would help? Or Wraithstrike? Maybe get access to these spells via the Channel Charge feat (or plain old UMD on a wand?)? Presumably, the save DC rises with the character's level at least.

[Kaleph]

I've once used an improved (actually, celestial) familiar on a warlock, which is an UMD-user like the beguiler, and the things I had planned the familiar for were:

Exploration/intelligence gathering, using its own skills, SLA's, movement modes and tiny size,
Wands, in order to cast offensive low-level no-save spells (blinding spittle, grease, web),
Scrolls, in order to remove negative conditions (remove paralysis...) whenever I'm affected,
Party buff through its own SLA's (actually this ain't gonna work with an Imp, but that's not a big problem since its SLA's offer other resources, like suggestion and divinations...),
Cuteness (again, the concept has to be slightly adapted/changed if you use an Imp).

Points 1 and 4 have meant to me that I could effectively support the party scout, use the "help another" action, and complement its ability; you will get even more synergy if you are a beguiler (but don't forget that your familiar's not going to help with magical traps, since it hasn't trapfinding).

The advantage of points 2 and 3 is of course in terms of actions' economy. The only problem I've noticed is that, once you get the familiar at level 7, your resources may possibly be destined to more urgent stuff than UMD, wands and scrolls; also, even if you maxx UMD out, its usage isn't yet reliable at the beginning. This strategy is going to kick-in most likely around level 10. Oh, BTW, at least an imp has 14 Cha, which is a nice place to start...

EDIT: a friend of mine played a stalwart battle sorcerer flanking with its imp familiar, after it had been appropriately buffed with alter self; not sure if this strategy could be useful to a beguiler, but I guess you want to gather as much info as possible, so it doesn't hurt to mention it.

[liquidformat]

I actually prefer to have Musteval Guardinal, Pseudodragon, or Coure Eladrin as my familiar since Beguilers work so amazingly well with vow of nonviolence. Anyways as said above being a Beguiler you will want to focus on the skill uses and utility of your familiar, so pumping skills to do stealth and scouting is always smart and giving them utility scrolls and wands can also be very useful. Actually in the case of the Psedodragon, Quasit, and Imp venomfire wands are a pretty good choice due to the hour/caster level duration, as long as your familiar can consistently make the UMD check it is a pretty good investment.

I actually prefer improved familiar on gish, duskblades, hexblade, and other higher bab arcanists as they tend to be more powerful due both to the higher bab and health. With Beguilers, wizards, and sorcerers they tend to be a lot more squishy so you have to be more careful how you utilize them since loosing your familiar is a big deal.

[Troacctid]

In my useful items spreadsheet, I included a tag for items that your familiar can use effectively. Just go to the filter view drop-down and select the "Familiar" tag. Link (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sJRCphWkrtLm8Q6iD6_YPp00MggiAT556j9231uu5Lg/edit#gid=0&fvid=1671128173)

[Thurbane]

If I really want the familiar to be a focus of the build, is it worth investing in familiar feats: Enspell Familiar, Spell-Linked Familiar etc.?

Also, would it be worth UMDing Planar Familiar (https://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011020a) or similar to give templates to the Imp?

How about wands or scrolls of Augment Familiar, Enhance Familiar etc?

[Kaleph]

Apparently "planar familiar" won't work on the imp - or on any creature that is already an outsider. The other spells I cannot really judge, since I've never seen in play. The spells I've typically considered for familiars were alter self and imbue familiar with spell ability.

[ShurikVch]

Note: often, feats are considering more expensive than class levels, since you may get up to 20 levels (or even more, if Epic), but only up to 7 feats (sans bonus feats, flaws, and - again - Epic)
So, question: maybe, it would be better to get the Imp via 1-level dip in Nar Demonbinder?
Or 2-levels dip in Diabolist? (Although it would require ability to cast Shriveling as a Beguiler...)

[Anthrowhale]

Augment/Enhance familiar are ok spells for familiars in combat.

Enspell Familiar is fantastic in general. With something like Telepathic Bond + Chain of Eyes, you can be in constant communication and drop spells on the familiar when/where it's needed from outside the dungeon, leaving the familiar to adventure on your behalf as a combat/scout who has buffs pumped in on demand. This works to a lesser but still nontrivial extent with a Beguiler, due to a limited spell selection range. Maybe with enough UMD by the Beguiler it could be great.

[Anthrowhale]

If you are willing to go there, it looks like Dragon #280 has some nice things. This is back in the dragon-is-first-party days, but it's 3.0 content.

Familiar's Sense = Sor/Wiz L2 that allows you to get your familiar's sensory information.
Familiar's Touch = Sor/Wiz L2 that allows the familiar to touch for a touch spell you cast.
Familiar's Form = Sor/Wiz L3 which is a familiar-only form of magic jar.
Call Familiar = Sor/Wiz L3 which teleports familiar within 1 mile directly to you.
Construct Familiar = feat which allows you to get any familiar as a construct version of the same.

Construct Familiar enables qualification for Planar Familiar and gives substantial extra immunities.
Familiar's Sense + Familiar's Touch + Call Familiar is a great scouting combo.
Familiar's Form + Imbue with Spell Ability[Shield Other] could make a potent proxy.