A Familiar Question

[candidus_cogitens]

A technical question: Tome and Blood, p. 13 states, "In addition to their own special qualities, all familiars grant their master the Alertness feat, improved evasion, empathic link, and shared spells at 1st level ..."

Is it really true that the MASTER gets improved evasion?! I can find nowhere else in any book that says this. Surely this is simply a badly worded sentence. Am I wrong?

I would also be interested in discussing other stuff about familiars, such as how to keep them alive, how to make the best use of them, etc.

My second level wizard just got a ferret familiar and I'm excited!

 

[Douane]

Unfortunately, you are right ; according to the Unofficial FAQ at WOTC'S boards familiars don't give Improved Evasion.

As for the use of familiars, it really depends: Our only player with a familiar (Al Qadim style sorceress) uses her falcon to scout ahead; but then up to now (3rd level) almost no traditional dungeon crawling, where it would be rather useless and endangered.


Hope this helps!

Folkert

 

[Dr. Zoom]

A technical question: Tome and Blood, p. 13 states, "In addition to their own special qualities, all familiars grant their master the Alertness feat, improved evasion, empathic link, and shared spells at 1st level ..."

Is it really true that the MASTER gets improved evasion?! I can find nowhere else in any book that says this. Surely this is simply a badly worded sentence. Am I wrong?

No, it is not really true, and it is a badly worded sentence. The familiar has improved evasion, not the master. See PH, page 51, for the definition of these special abilities.

 

[Thanee]

Familiars are extraordinary scouts, especially in the wilderness. Just leave your lil ferret in a tree close to the area you want to observe and gain information via the empathic link.

With their improved evasion, familiars are usually not too susceptible to area effect spells and they should generally stay out of harm's way in combat anyways (familiar pocket is a good spell later on, when it gets really rough at times).

But I have a question on my own...

Does a shared Endurance spell increase the familiar's hit points directly (using the master's hit dice) or indirectly (using the master's hit die total, for half effect basically) or even both?

Bye
Thanee

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Thanks for your help. Here's another question: It also says on p.18 that if the familiar shares your square, it gets +4 AC, no AoO and +2 reflex saves because of cover.

I didnt know about that before! They should say that in the PHB

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Does a shared Endurance spell increase the familiar's hit points directly (using the master's hit dice) or indirectly (using the master's hit die total, for half effect basically) or even both?

Bye
Thanee

It would have a direct effect.

Only permanent changes to the master's hit points would result in an indirect increase to the familiar's HP.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Does a familiar get a Con bonus to hit points?

All of the standard familiars have Con 10-11, but let's say an Endurance bumps it up to 14. Master is a 6th level wizard with 20 hit points.

Does the familiar count as a 6HD creature for purposes of Con adjustments - hp go up to 22? As a <1HD creature - hp go up to 12? As a creature whose hit points are equal to half its master's max, regardless of its own Con - hp stay at 10?

-Hyp.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

IF the creature naturally had a 12 con, it MAY get a bonus added to its hitpoints, but ONLY if its natural hitpoints are higher than half of the master's hitpoints. Usually though, a familiars hitpoints are determined by halving the master's hitpoints, and in such cases, its CON bonus would be irrelevant (T&B p. 10).

However, I believe that a temporary change in CON, caused by a spell that effects the familiar (and not just the master) would actually add some hitpoints for the duration of the spell. If Endurance were cast on the master BY the master, then I believe it would effect the familiar as well, because of the Shared Spells ability. But if it were cast on the master by someone else, then it would not be shared with the familiar.

The first part, I'm sure about, but the second part I'm less sure about. It might be that the familiar's hitpoints would never be affected by any means other than a permanent change to the master's hit point total (again, assuming that its natural hit points for a creature of its type are not higher--which they are usually not).

 

[Pbartender]

I would also be interested in discussing other stuff about familiars, such as how to keep them alive, how to make the best use of them, etc.

My second level wizard just got a ferret familiar and I'm excited!

I'm playing an Illusionist who has taken the guild Wizard of Waterdeep PrC. At 3rd level, he took the Improved Familiar feat, and gained a Celestial Cat, by the name of Schrodinger (I really want to make him a Collar of Blinking), as his familiar. The primary advantage being... The Celestial template still gains power as the cat's HD increase, even though he won't gain many additional Familiar abilities.

Primarily, I use him as "Scout Support" and messenger and lookout... the halfling rogue will head out to go scouting, and Schrodinger follows along. Should they run into trouble, I can cast buffing touch spells on the halfling through my Cat.

 

[Oni]

Doesn't the wizard and familiar have to be in contact at the time of the casting of the spell in order to designate the familiar as the toucher?