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Jack_Simth
2008-01-26, 11:26 AM
Feat Type:
[Familiar]: The master takes feats of this type, and they apply to the master's familiar.

Toughened Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisite: Improved Familiar
Benefit: Your familiar's hit point maximum is equal to your hit point maximum.
Normal: Your familiar's hit point maximum is equal to one-half your hit point maximum.

Enlarged Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisite: Improved Familiar
Benefit: Your familiar is one size category larger than is normal for it's kind, with the changes to stats, natural armor, AC, Attack, natural weapon damage, and everything else that a size increase normally entails (see the Improving Monsters section of the Monster Manual). This is a supernatural ability.
Normal: Your familiar is the same size category of normal creatures of it's kind.
Special: You can take this feat more than once, and each time, your familiar's size increases by another size category, to a maximum of Colossal.

Growing Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisites: Improved Familiar, Enlarged Familiar
Benefit: As a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, your familiar can choose to suppress, or not, the effects of the Enlarged Familiar feat. This is a supernatural ability.
Normal: Your familiar's size is fixed.
Special: If you have taken the Enlarged Familiar feat multiple times, your familiar can choose to suppress or resume any number of instances of the feat with the same standard action.

Shifting Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisites: Improved Familiar, Enlarged Familiar, Growing Familiar
Benefit: Your familiar gains the Alternate Form ability, and is able to take on the form of any humanoid or animal of a size it can reach through it's Growing Familiar ability as a full-round action at will.

Classy Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisites: Improved Familiar, Toughened Familiar
Benefit: Your familiar uses your Base Attack Bonus, or it's own, whichever is higher. Additionally, your familiar gains the class features of your classes at 1/2 the levels you have in those classes (round down, minimum 0). For purposes of class features only (such as a Sorcerer's spellcasting or a Monk's unarmored AC bonus), the familiar uses it's master's base statistics, or it's own, whichever is better (magical bonuses do not count for this). For instance, a familiar of a Sorcerer-6/Barbarian-14 with a base 16 Charisma and a Cloak of Charisma +4, this feat would give the familiar the ability to cast charisma-based spells as a 3rd level Sorcerer with 16 Charisma, as well as grant the familiar the Barbarian-7's Fast Movement, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Trap Sense +2, 2/day Rage, and DR 1/-.
Special: This feat never grants your familiar a familiar, animal companion, special mount, cohort, or similar companion of it's own. Additionally, if you use a spellbook, prayerbook, or similiar, the familiar does not get it's own, but must use it's master's. If you cast spells spontaneously, the familiar must select it's spells known from your list of spells known.

Edit:
Soul-bonded Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisites: Improved Familiar, four or more Familiar feats
Benefit: If the master is slain, the master's soul immediately flies to the familiar's body, where it is stored in relative safety. While so stored, the master can use the familiar's senses, and can communicate mentally with his familiar. Additionally, the familiar suffers no loss of abilities related to being a familiar, no matter how long the master is slain. If the master's body is restored through Raise Dead, Reincarnate, Resurrection, Clone, or similar while the familiar is present, the familiar can place the master's soul very carefully in the new body, in such a way that the master does not suffer the level loss or constitution loss normally associated with such spells.

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So, any comments on the balance or how worthwhile these feats are?

Half-blood
2008-01-26, 11:39 AM
good idea, but a problem might be that, well say that I get 15 levels in barbarian, and one level in sorcerer,, and get lets say...enlarge familiar,grow familiar, and classy familiar with a tiny snake, that snake becomes a medium snake, and about seven levels in barbarian! same thing with the spells. good idea. but I think it's just a little overpowered.

Kai-Palin
2008-01-26, 11:41 AM
I just keep seeing a house cat morph into a dire bear. :smalleek:

I like all of them, except Classy Familiar. It just seems wrong that a bird or rat could concievably bend the forces of reality just because they've been following their wizard around.
I know that familiars are underpowered as it is, but do wizards and sorcerors really need an animal companion equivalent?

Jack_Simth
2008-01-26, 11:50 AM
good idea, but a problem might be that, well say that I get 15 levels in barbarian, and one level in sorcerer,, and get lets say...enlarge familiar,grow familiar, and classy familiar with a tiny snake, that snake becomes a medium snake, and about seven levels in barbarian! same thing with the spells. good idea. but I think it's just a little overpowered.

Improved Familiar requires a minimum of 3rd level - and that's just for applying the celestial or fiendish template.

Also note the feat requirements - to get a Classy Familiar, you have spent, at a minimum, three feats. And as Improved Familiar has a stealth requirement of third level, and these are not on any bonus feat lists, this means that you're a minimum of 9th level before your familiar can get any class features at all. Compare to Leadership, where you get something stronger for much less, sooner, that isn't limited to stuff you could do.

I just keep seeing a house cat morph into a dire bear. :smalleek:

A Dire Bear is Large, a house cat is Tiny. That requires:

Improved Familiar (base requirement for all of the Familiar feats)
Enlarged Familiar * 3 (three size increases)
Growing Familiar (as a requirement for the next)
Shifting Familiar (to actually change form).

That's six feats... and without Toughened Familiar, it's a really bad idea. As you can't get Improved Familiar prior to 3rd, you're going to 18th level at a minimum (21st, to give the familiar a reasonable amount of HP) before this can happen. At which point, you could also just cast Shapechange directly on your familiar.

I thought of that.


I like all of them, except Classy Familiar. It just seems wrong that a bird or rat could concievably bend the forces of reality just because they've been following their wizard around.
I know that familiars are underpowered as it is, but do wizards and sorcerors really need an animal companion equivalent?
Eh, I suppose I could dump Classy Familiar, yes.

Stycotl
2008-01-27, 01:46 PM
Enlarged Familiar [Familiar]
Prerequisite: Improved Familiar
Benefit: Your familiar is one size category larger than is normal for it's kind, with the changes to stats, natural armor, AC, Attack, natural weapon damage, and everything else that a size increase normally entails (see the Improving Monsters section of the Monster Manual). This is a supernatural ability.
Normal: Your familiar is the same size category of normal creatures of it's kind.
Special: You can take this feat more than once, and each time, your familiar's size increases by another size category, to a maximum of Colossal.


is that on purpose? you want it to be suppressable? i understand that the next feat lets it change and suppressed. but this one strikes me as odd.

Jack_Simth
2008-01-27, 04:37 PM
is that on purpose? you want it to be suppressable? i understand that the next feat lets it change and suppressed. but this one strikes me as odd.
I was kinda torn on that one.

On the one hand, if it's Su, it's a feat that grants a Supernatural effect, which isn't the norm. On the other hand, if it's Ex, then it's really strange when your familiar suddenly doubles in size with no magic applied when you get the feat.

The thing that made me go with Su was that with enough of these your familiar becomes a reasonable combatant - if it doesn't go away in an antimagic field, then anyone in the party playing an actual combatant can't be spotlighted by antimagic effects; that Quasit or Imp becomes a surprisingly decent combatant if you apply enough Enlarged Familiar feats to it.