Feats for your pet friends

[RUMBLETiGER]

Inspired by This Thread...

Mounts, Animal Companions, and plain Handle Animal trained pets. They all gain feats as they gain HD.

Sure, there are the usual, basic combat feats like Multiattack, Dodge and Improved Initiative. Dash a few times would be nifty.

But I'm interested in some really creative feats that a INT 2, or lacking a humanoid body shape, could qualify for. In the above linked thread, [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] suggested the following:

Wild Talent.

That opens up feats like Mental Leap, the Psionic Fist feat tree, and Psionic Dodge...as well as the Kineticist PrCl.

This got me thinking, There are plenty of nifty feats that have requirements that an animal or somesuch could meet.

And so, I ask you, fellow Enworlders, What are creative feats that one might grant a pet friend?

 

[Jack Simth]

Inspired by This Thread...

Mounts, Animal Companions, and plain Handle Animal trained pets. They all gain feats as they gain HD.

Sure, there are the usual, basic combat feats like Multiattack, Dodge and Improved Initiative. Dash a few times would be nifty.

But I'm interested in some really creative feats that a INT 2, or lacking a humanoid body shape, could qualify for. In the above linked thread, [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] suggested the following:



This got me thinking, There are plenty of nifty feats that have requirements that an animal or somesuch could meet.

And so, I ask you, fellow Enworlders, What are creative feats that one might grant a pet friend?

If the critter has Pounce, then the lowly Improved Unarmed Strike does interesting things to their damage output (they're considered light weapons, which means the beast gets iterative attacks with them).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, you could take Wild...errrrr...


Try Combat Reflexes- a dexterous pet suddenly gets the most out of its stats. Weapon finesse also could make a nifty change. Improved initiative could let your pet get in a strike before anyone expects.

Dodge, Toughness, Run or Endurance could accentuate a pet's attributes.

 

[Empirate]

Bind Vestige. Improved Bind Vestige. Bind Savnok, get magical Full Plate. Or bind Focalor, get Aura of Sadness. Very nice feats for Improved Familiars, less so for animals (I have a hard time picturing a warhorse drawing a binding sigil...). But technically, the feats have no prereqs AT ALL.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Bind Vestige. Improved Bind Vestige. Bind Savnok, get magical Full Plate. Or bind Focalor, get Aura of Sadness. Very nice feats for Improved Familiars, less so for animals (I have a hard time picturing a warhorse drawing a binding sigil...). But technically, the feats have no prereqs AT ALL.

THAT'S what I'm talking about.

I didn't include familiars in my list 'o pets, because they gain HD differently. They don't gain feats, or am I wrong?

 

[Empirate]

Don't they? I'm pretty sure Improved Familiars get feats from their normal hit dice. An Imp, for example, normally gets Dodge and Weapon Finesse from its three Outsider HD. Why shouldn't an Improved Familiar get those feats? Or choose different feats, for that matter?

...damn. Now I'm itching to play a Bard with a Salt Mephit familiar, using UMD to wand it all the way, and binding Karsus for Heavy Magic...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Don't they? I'm pretty sure Improved Familiars get feats from their normal hit dice. An Imp, for example, normally gets Dodge and Weapon Finesse from its three Outsider HD. Why shouldn't an Improved Familiar get those feats? Or choose different feats, for that matter?

...damn. Now I'm itching to play a Bard with a Salt Mephit familiar, using UMD to wand it all the way, and binding Karsus for Heavy Magic...

While the familiar would come with the feats the base creature has, it appears that familiars, who don't gain HD normally, do not gain feats.
Discussed Here.
And Here.
Also Here.
Oh, Also I Brought It Up Here.

And so, this thread is for non-familar pets.

 

[jefgorbach]

Each Hd gained advances the Familiar like any other Magical Beast, so it gains 2+Int Mod skill points, +1d10 hit dice (but uses half its master's hp if result is more), +1 BAB, and 1 +1 feat per 3 Hd per RAW.

However, they have Int >6 so -should- (depending upon you GM) have the option to apply the additional Hd to whatever Class levels they qualify for like any other sentient creature.

 

[Jack Simth]

Each Hd gained advances the Familiar like any other Magical Beast, so it gains 2+Int Mod skill points, +1d10 hit dice (but uses half its master's hp if result is more), +1 BAB, and 1 +1 feat per 3 Hd per RAW.

Ah, but familiars don't actually gain hit dice! The relevant lines are

It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was

(emphasis added)

And:

For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the master’s character level or the familiar’s normal HD total, whichever is higher.

(emphasis added)


So when someone sets off a Blasphemy, your familiar is treated as though it has your hit dice for purposes of how it is affected, it doesn't actually have them (it still has the hit dice of it's base critter), so it doesn't get BAB, HP, skill points, saves, or feats.

Psicrystals do, though, due to their monster entry.

 

[Empirate]

So beside the point. Imps, Quasits, Mephits etc. have 3 HD before they ever become a familiar. So they have two feats right out of the gates. Now whether those can be changed from the ones given in their MM entry is an entirely different question - but if they CAN, you have two feats to work with. Which can be used for Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige, for example.