Hating on familiars

[nameless]

Can you give a thread or an example of these killer familiar builds which you allude to?

I've used a killer familiar before. The advantage is based on abusing Share Spells. Any buff you cast, is duplicated on the familiar as long as he stays no more than 5' away from you. Or, if you like, you can cast a personal range spell on your familiar and ignore the distance restriction. Even the least abusable shapeshifting spell (like the fixed polymorph replacements, such as trollform) is a huge bonus on the familiar.

You can buff both yourself and your familiar to the gills and basically double your damage output, without burning any extra spell slots. And you can combine unintended spell effects, like antimagic shell on your flying familiar to strip an opponent's magical abilities while you still cast spells at full power. And while it's a bummer to lose a familiar, it's still far preferrable to dying yourself.

 

[Cabral]

I'm looking for wizard class variants exchanging the Summon Familiar class ability for...anything else.

I couldn't find any in Complete Arcane, but I think I remember one/some in PHB2.

Where can I find all of these? WotC only please.

One of the Dragon Magazines swapped it out for a magic quarterstaff, IIRC.

 

[Krafen]

Another fun one is to cast shield other and share it with your familiar. Your familiar chooses you as the subject of its spell. You then dismiss the spell on yourself. Cast false life along with any other spells that give you additional HP and share them with your familiar as well. You essentially get twice the extra HP. Your familiar can dismiss shield other if it starts taking too much damage.

 

[rgard]

I'm looking for wizard class variants exchanging the Summon Familiar class ability for...anything else.

I couldn't find any in Complete Arcane, but I think I remember one/some in PHB2.

Where can I find all of these? WotC only please.

Somebody above mentioned the staff feats, but there is another Dragon mag that had 2 feats to use in lieu of Familiar. I'll try to find the issue and post a note about each. Another way forward is in a different Dragon that has something like a 'Loner' flaw where you don't get a familiar, but can choose a feat to offset the flaw.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[werk]

Somebody above mentioned the staff feats, but there is another Dragon mag that had 2 feats to use in lieu of Familiar. I'll try to find the issue and post a note about each. Another way forward is in a different Dragon that has something like a 'Loner' flaw where you don't get a familiar, but can choose a feat to offset the flaw.

Thanks,
Rich

Thanks all. I went over the UA and PHB2 alternates and they both require being a specialist.

Does anyone know specifically which dragon mag that is with the staff familiar...that would be much more in-line with the character concept, if not as useful as swapping for a feat.

I wanted to get everything together before I go to the DM. IMC, I just allow it to swap for a wizard bonus feat.

 

[wayne62682]

Dragon #348 (Vecna on the cover) has an option called Arcane Reabsorbtion that lets you regain a spell when that spell fails to bypass SR or is countered (but you take 1 point of nonlethal damage per spell level). It's a DC (20 + [spell level x3]) Spellcraft check.


It also has "Focus Caster" which lets you use a masterwork item as the focus for spells (you can interestingly enough pick anything, so you could pick a sword and you gain proficiency with just that particular sword), and you can attune it to a specific school (do not have to specialize, though) and get some minor benefit:

Abjuration: Any abjuration spell with one or more targets can affect one extra target; extra targets are affected for half the normal duration (goes away at 7th level, and at 15th you can cast any personal spell as a touch spell).

Conjuration: Increase duration of conjuration by +1 round (increases at 7th and 15th)

Divination: +1 caster level for Divination spells (increases at 7th, you get a bonus to resist divinations at 15th)

Enchantment: +1 round duration (increases at 7th, DC of enchantment spells increase at 15th)

Evocation: +1 point of damage to evocation spells (extra benefits related to immunities at higher levels)

Illusion: +1 caster level, misc bonuses

Necromancy: +25% range of necromancy spells, added benefits related to ability score damage

Transmutation: As Abjuration, 15th level doubles the bonus when you cast something that enhances ability scores (e.g. Bull's Strength gives +8 instead of +4)

 

[irdeggman]

Does anyone know specifically which dragon mag that is with the staff familiar...that would be much more in-line with the character concept, if not as useful as swapping for a feat.

Try this thread

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=183300&highlight=staff+familiar

 

[werk]

Try this thread

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=183300&highlight=staff+familiar

So...your thread says #338, but Wayne says #348. Is it both?

 

[wayne62682]

The one I posted isn't the staff one, its another one. I've heard of the staff one and could have sworn I had the issue it's in, but I cant find it

 

[werk]

The one I posted isn't the staff one, its another one. I've heard of the staff one and could have sworn I had the issue it's in, but I cant find it

I'll read that as both.

Thanks ALL!