Familiars!

[RolandOfGilead]

Alz - at that level I'd expect a wizard bothering to spellstich his familiar to give it a +3 tome of understanding (making his wisdom a 15 -- allowing him to have preprogrammed 4th level spells) also note a good choice for a familiar like this is Chill touch - negative energy damage it can use to heal itself (1d6 x up to 5 touches aint half bad for a first level spell)

This is why I chose a raven as my undead familiar. it has a wisdom of 14 already.. with just a +1 it has enough for 4th level spells.. and with a +3 would have enough for 2 5th level spells! awesome!

 

[Alzrius]

Alz - at that level I'd expect a wizard bothering to spellstich his familiar to give it a +3 tome of understanding (making his wisdom a 15 -- allowing him to have preprogrammed 4th level spells)

You're probably right. As it stands, any 20th level arcane spellcaster would probably have many, many more options for adding new, permanent effects to buff their familiar with. I simply wanted to present a generic example of a modified familiar (well, as generic as making it fiendish, undead, and spellstitched, when it was already an imp, can be).

As it stands, if anyone wants to have it be a bit simpler, removing the Spellstitched template would just lower the saves by 2, remove the turn resistance and DR 5/magic and silver, and the 2/day SLA's, and then it's "just" a fiendish undead imp.

It's worth noting that making a familiar undead has been done thrice in three different ways:

One is the Undead Familiar feat in Dragon #280, which offers no advantage beyond the familiar being undead (though it can be applied to any familiar, apparently).

The second is the animate dead familiar spell above, which gives the undead familiar one special attack, and makes it immune to turning/rebuking as long as its in empathic range of its master (and can also be applied to any familiar).

The last one is the Stitched Flesh Familiar feat in Libris Mortis. This one (being the only option here for 3.5E) limits your choices to the "standard" familiars in the PHB. It also doesn't give the familiar's normal benefits found in the second column of the table on the sidebar of page 52 of the PHB. However, it does let you control 4 more hit dice than normal of total undead you can control.

Of these three options, I think the second one is best. It applies to any familiar, with no drawbacks of any kind (save the usual in becoming undead). In truth, the limitations of the Stitched Flesh Familiar feat (that it only applies to "standard" familiars, and they give up their normal benefit for the new benefit) should probably apply to all of these options (and others from 3E), since that seems the standard for 3.5E. However, by the RAW, they don't, giving you some mean combinations.

also note a good choice for a familiar like this is Chill touch - negative energy damage it can use to heal itself (1d6 x up to 5 touches aint half bad for a first level spell)

A healing spell is good, but I felt it unnecessary here. With the ability to fly, turning invisible, and fast healing 2, it's extremely easy for an imp to just retreat and heal up quickly. A healing spell seemed unnecessary.

 

[Eltern]

So does the undead imp who's shape changed into a raven still look undead?

 

[RolandOfGilead]

Also, for some good ideas:
Permanent rary's telepathic bond with your familiar. works over any distance.

Enspell familiar (from dragon) - allows your personal spells to extend to your familiar at a larger range. 1 mile I believe.. so mage armor cast on yourself and your familiar still has it when he's exploring the dungeon ahead of you by about 60 feet.. real handy.

Extra familiar (from dragon) - allows you to have 2 familiars. Coolness!

 

[Eltern]

Enspell familiar (from dragon) - allows your personal spells to extend to your familiar at a larger range. 1 mile I believe.. so mage armor cast on yourself and your familiar still has it when he's exploring the dungeon ahead of you by about 60 feet.. real handy.

Extra familiar (from dragon) - allows you to have 2 familiars. Coolness!

Do you have issue numbers for those?

 

[Alzrius]

Do you have issue numbers for those?

Both are from Dragon #280, in the article "A Little More Familiar" that Arbiter of Wyrms mentioned.

As for whether or not the imp's alternate form looks undead or not...I think it looks alive. The ability says it functions as polymorph, which is silent on the issue. However, polymorph says that it's like alter self, which dictates that "You can freely designate the new form’s minor physical qualities (such as hair color, hair texture, and skin color) within the normal ranges for a creature of that kind. The new form’s significant physical qualities (such as height, weight, and gender) are also under your control, but they must fall within the norms for the new form’s kind. You are effectively disguised as an average member of the new form’s race."

So in other words, it'd look like an average (and therefore living) raven.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

An Example...

Just as an example my "Wizard with cool familiar(s)" character had the following feats:

Improved familiar (Beholderkin Eyeball)
Construct Familiar (Familiar gets construct type and special traits) (Drg 280)
Extra familiar (two beholderkin eyeballs) (Drg 280)
Enspell familiar (Spells work at a distance) (Drg 280)

My familiars were tough. they couldnt be hurt by ALOT of things.. they had improved evasion, immune to Fort based effects except Disintigrate type effects, Immune to mind influencing effects and illusions, immune to nonlethal damage, etc etc. they had a NICE ac, especially when my mage armor affected all 3 of us, at a distance up to 1 mile. they could eye ray and "Spell ray".. ah, good times. Of course, my DM went out of his way to try to kill them.. but even if you get 1, I have another My character was a tinker type wizard with profession: Engineering so these were little toy clockwork beholders that I gave life to with magic.

 

[Rkhet]

You do realize you have burnt up four feats to do this, though. For a single feat you can pick up Leadership, which nets you a cohort - a considerably better deal.

 

[Voadam]

Relics and Rituals has an improved familiar spell that basically duplicates improved familiar but does not use a feat, 4th or 5th level IIRC.

Most of the others I can think of have already been mentioned.

I have but haven't looked through DQG's familiar book yet. I don't have Troll lord games one or the Mongoose Encyclopedia Arcane familiars book.