Improved Familiar req's

[darthkilmor]

Simple question: Can a human take a fire or earth elemental as a familiar with the Improved Familiar feat?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Simple question: Can a human take a fire or earth elemental as a familiar with the Improved Familiar feat?

It's pretty much up to the DM.

"Almost any creature of the same general size and power as those on the list makes a suitable familiar. Nor is the master’s alignment the only possible categorization. For instance, improved familiars could be assigned by the master’s creature type or subtype, as shown below."

So your DM might rule that you must have the Fire subtype to have a Fire Elemental familiar; or he might rule that you must not have the Water subtype; or he might rule that you must worship a deity with the Fire domain; or know three spells with the [Fire] descriptor...

... it depends on what sort of categorizations he comes up with.

-Hyp.

 

[Thurbane]

This is something I really would have liked to see from WotC before the "end" of 3.5 - a definitive list of what is and isn't usable as an improved familiar. (Along with expanded Summon Monster tables with extra creatures from the various books).

Although from memory, Complete Warrior blows the initial description of "same size and power" out of the water by including a hippogriff (?) on the list...

 

[blargney the second]

There's a little chain of alternate class features you might be allowed to follow:
UA has a wizard variant that lets you sub out your familiar for an animal companion.
Complete Mage has a variant called Elemental Companion that lets you sub out the animal for an elemental.

 

[darthkilmor]

Simple question: Can a human take a fire or earth elemental as a familiar with the Improved Familiar feat?

Ok in a similar vein to the first question: Would a Shadow Asp(fiend folio) be a reasonable familiar to have with the improved familiar feat? Too powerful? Too weak? The only problem area I can see is the create spawn ability.

 

[Storme]

No one can count on my feeble memory, but...

Isn't small elemental ON the list? Along with Mephit and others?



Storme

 

[Hypersmurf]

No one can count on my feeble memory, but...

Isn't small elemental ON the list? Along with Mephit and others?

Yes.

There's a list of creatures you can choose, restricted by your alignment. In Core, it includes Shocker lizard, Stirge, Formian Worker, Imp, Pseudodragon, and Quasit. You can't take the Imp, say, unless you're LE, NE, LN, or TN. You can't take the Pseudodragon unless you're LG, NG, CG, LN, TN, or CN. You can take a Shocker Lizard or Stirge regardless of your alignment.

It goes on to say that this list is not exhaustive, and: "Nor is the master’s alignment the only possible categorization. For instance, improved familiars could be assigned by the master’s creature type or subtype, as shown below."

Fire Elemental is shown as an option for a master with a subtype of 'Fire'. Humans don't have the Fire subtype, so based purely on the text in the feat description, a human with Improved Familiar doesn't qualify for a Fire Elemental familiar.

However, since it also says "The list in the table above presents only a few possible improved familiars. Almost any creature of the same general size and power as those on the list makes a suitable familiar.", there's certainly room for the DM to add creatures to the list and provide categorization criteria that would permit certain humans to qualify.

-Hyp.