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View Full Version : [Feat] Developed Familiar (now for other classes too!)



Peregrine
2008-01-25, 08:14 PM
Developed Bond [General]
You have put time and effort into developing your bond with your familiar, animal companion or special mount, in spite of pursuing goals that might otherwise have distracted you.
Prerequisite: Must have a familiar, animal companion or special mount.
Benefit: Your class level for determining your familiar, animal companion or special mount's powers is increased by +4, to a maximum of your character level.

Yes, that's right, it's Practised Spellcaster, but for familiars instead of caster level. It will move your familiar up two tiers, getting it +2 natural armor, +2 Intelligence, and possibly a special ability or two. I have no idea whether this has been done in anything official -- I've never seen or heard of it, but it just seems like such an obvious thing to do... Anyway, feedback? (Better names?)

Edit: Made it apply to animal companions and special mounts, too. It fits special mounts very neatly, as these gain a new advance every four paladin levels, thus the feat moves the special mount up one tier. It's not so neat on animal companions, who may move up one tier or two for druids, and one or none for rangers.

Hyrael
2008-01-25, 08:38 PM
But...Familiars suck. Or rather, the abilities they get as you level are very minor. what matters more is what said familiar actually IS, or what template has been applied to it via the Improved Familiar Feat.

This just doesnt seem quite worth it. sorry.

I do, however, appreciate someone trying to provide more support for familiars. Personally, I'd like to see a three-level prestige class that specializes in powering up the familiar.

RandomFellow
2008-01-25, 09:21 PM
Just a suggestion...have it also increase the bonus of the familiar by 100% (e.g. +3hp becomes +6hp, +2 to a save becomes +4). As it is now, I'd rather have Improved Familiar.

Peregrine
2008-01-25, 09:26 PM
Well, this feat was never going to be the next Quicken Spell, but nor is it on par with, say, Toughness. :smalltongue: Yeah, familiars are not the path to power. But they're kind of cool from a roleplaying perspective. This feat would be nice for someone who (contrary to sound, cautious doctrine) uses their familiar for various duties -- it could get a prestige-classed wizard's familiar up to, say, the spell resistance level. Or it could get the useful abilities for a character who merely dipped an arcane class (a 1- or 2-level dip would miss out on deliver touch spells and speak with master, which would be quite handy for a rogue, for instance).

RandomFellow
2008-01-26, 12:25 AM
For most levels it is actually on par (or worse than) Toughness imho. I'd rather have +3 Hp than a stronger familiar. =) Unless your letting them gain epic 'powers'...in which case it is very overpowered since your familiar can cast twi spells up to 8th 2x/day

Fiery Diamond
2008-01-26, 01:54 AM
For what it's worth, I like it.

-Fiery Diamond

Magnor Criol
2008-01-26, 09:12 AM
I like it too. Mechanically, sure, 3 hit points may be a better choice than a familiar bonus, but that's not what I play the game for. Those 3 HP also lose their luster after just a few levels; this has the benefit of taking longer to really lose its usefulness, I think. Anything that works with familiars more, so that they aren't so weak and useless, would be cool.

You could take RandomFellow's idea and modify it a bit. Make it a separate feat (lumping it in with this one doesn't feel right). And make it increase the bonus by, say, 25%. The feat can be taken multiple times; each time, it increases the percent (so it's 50% at second, and so on.) Or some multiple thereof.

Triaxx
2008-01-26, 09:44 AM
It's interesting. On the other hand, if it could easily be altered to affect any companion animal, a Paladin's special mount, or an Animal companion, it would be more useful, particularly for the level 4+ druid AC's.

Eighth_Seraph
2008-01-26, 10:14 AM
Hm. It's useful in a circumstantial sense: for multiclassed wizards who use their owl, cat, or rat familiars as scouts. I like it from a flavor standpoint, even if it isn't particularly powerful. Then again, I've never been a huge fan of playing arcane casters, so it's not something I have too much experience in.

Peregrine
2008-01-26, 10:15 AM
It's interesting. On the other hand, if it could easily be altered to affect any companion animal, a Paladin's special mount, or an Animal companion, it would be more useful, particularly for the level 4+ druid AC's.

Done. See the edit note, though; it's very neat and tidy for special mounts, but not so much for animal companions (rangers in particular can lose out).

Naga-Darmag
2008-01-26, 12:33 PM
There is already a feat that work like practised spell caster for animal companions. Natural bond in Complete adventure. It gives a +3 on your effective druid level (also known as half your ranger level) for the abilities of your animal companion (up to your total hd).

Triaxx
2008-01-26, 06:47 PM
What I meant was that the druids gain an expanded list of Companions every four levels, and the companions on the list at fourth level are treated as if the druid were level one. This boost gives those a power boost to at level.

Peregrine
2008-01-26, 07:46 PM
There is already a feat that work like practised spell caster for animal companions. Natural bond in Complete adventure. It gives a +3 on your effective druid level (also known as half your ranger level) for the abilities of your animal companion (up to your total hd).

Ah. See, I thought there must have been something like it somewhere. Fortunately, independent invention is perfectly valid (and CAdv isn't OGC). I personally would probably have both feats in a game I was hypothetically running, and I would have mine work only for familiars or special mounts. As I said in the edit note, +4 levels is just not "neat" for animal companions, especially for rangers.


What I meant was that the druids gain an expanded list of Companions every four levels, and the companions on the list at fourth level are treated as if the druid were level one. This boost gives those a power boost to at level.

This on the other hand is a very good point. +4 levels might give druids one or two tiers of animal powers, but it gives precisely one level of "better" companions. Or it would if I'd written that into the feat (right now it's ambiguous). Might have to fix that... later...