Obtain Familiar and warrior/mage PrC's

[Urbannen]

One of my players is playing a spellsword, Wizard6/Fighter1/Spellsword3. When he gets to 12th level (Wiz6/Ftr1/Spl5) he wants to take Obtain Familiar to improve his current familiar.

According to my reading of the feat, his familiar will gain the abilities of the familiar of an 11th level wizard when he takes the feat.

Is that correct? Have there been any rulings about this feat from WotC?

 

[Klaus]

One of my players is playing a spellsword, Wizard6/Fighter1/Spellsword3. When he gets to 12th level (Wiz6/Ftr1/Spl5) he wants to take Obtain Familiar to improve his current familiar.

According to my reading of the feat, his familiar will gain the abilities of the familiar of an 11th level wizard when he takes the feat.

Is that correct? Have there been any rulings about this feat from WotC?

Nope, that's pretty much right. Your levels in all your arcane spellcasting classes stack for familiar purposes.

 

[RangerWickett]

Related to this, it's really fun to be a duskblade with obtain familiar and improved familiar. Complete Warrior has a list of some ridiculous familiars you can get if you have a high base attack bonus. They assumed you'd be a multiclassed character with BAB lower than your level, but duskblade lets you stay at full BAB.

 

[Klaus]

Related to this, it's really fun to be a duskblade with obtain familiar and improved familiar. Complete Warrior has a list of some ridiculous familiars you can get if you have a high base attack bonus. They assumed you'd be a multiclassed character with BAB lower than your level, but duskblade lets you stay at full BAB.

... or that you'd be playing a Hexblade.

 

[moritheil]

One of my players is playing a spellsword, Wizard6/Fighter1/Spellsword3. When he gets to 12th level (Wiz6/Ftr1/Spl5) he wants to take Obtain Familiar to improve his current familiar.

According to my reading of the feat, his familiar will gain the abilities of the familiar of an 11th level wizard when he takes the feat.

Is that correct?

That's right. Furthermore, pushing your total caster levels well above your actual character level (possible with some builds) will result in an even more powerful familiar.

 

[Klaus]

That's right. Furthermore, pushing your total caster levels well above your actual character level (possible with some builds) will result in an even more powerful familiar.

But the real trick is having a caster level and a Base attack bonus as close to 1:1 as possible, opening up the combat-heavy options from Complete Warrior, like Hippogriff or Winter Wolf.

 

[Urbannen]

I think my real question is whether the levels of spellsword (or rage mage, bladesinger, etc.) that do NOT offer increases in caster level DO increase the power of the familiar when such a character takes the Obtain Familiar feat. These classes only improve the spellcasting every other level. I'm guessing that wasn't the intention of the writer of the feat.

Maybe I'm living in the prehistory of non-optimized spellcaster multi-classing, but it doesn't seem right. "Well, your BAB increases AND you get more HP than a wizard AND a you get a special ability AND your familiar gets tougher even though you're not a better spellcaster."

Or maybe any feat that buffs your "normal" familiar's relative level is waste in the first place?

 

[moritheil]

I think my real question is whether the levels of spellsword (or rage mage, bladesinger, etc.) that do NOT offer increases in caster level DO increase the power of the familiar when such a character takes the Obtain Familiar feat. These classes only improve the spellcasting every other level. I'm guessing that wasn't the intention of the writer of the feat.

Maybe I'm living in the prehistory of non-optimized spellcaster multi-classing, but it doesn't seem right. "Well, your BAB increases AND you get more HP than a wizard AND a you get a special ability AND your familiar gets tougher even though you're not a better spellcaster."

Or maybe any feat that buffs your "normal" familiar's relative level is waste in the first place?

Ah, you have us there. The level of Fighter would not actually go towards improving the familiar because it is not an arcane spellcasting level.

Putting a familiar in combat is generally sub-optimal due to the risk of XP loss. I wouldn't say it's a waste if you build around it, though.

 

[Urbannen]

I wasn't talking about the level of Fighter, I was talking about the even-numbered levels of Spellsword from Complete Warrior.

According to the wording of the feat, these levels would serve to increase the familiar's abilities, since "levels from classes that grant arcane spellcasting stack". Technically the Spellsword class grants levels in arcane spellcasting, so all levels would improve the familiar. That sounds a little fishy to me, however.

As for the in-game situation, the player wants to use the familiar and obviously having more arcane spellcasting levels count would help the familiar survive. The party is going to be descending soon into the Underdark with the City of the Spider Queen adventure. The character's bat familiar will be an ideal scout and 'see invisible' proxy. 'Speak with kind' and eventually 'scry on familiar' will be very useful. Obviously SR would improve the familiar's chance of survival somewhat.

 

[moritheil]

I wasn't talking about the level of Fighter, I was talking about the even-numbered levels of Spellsword from Complete Warrior.

According to the wording of the feat, these levels would serve to increase the familiar's abilities, since "levels from classes that grant arcane spellcasting stack". Technically the Spellsword class grants levels in arcane spellcasting, so all levels would improve the familiar. That sounds a little fishy to me, however.

I see. Well, it's hardly overpowering even if taken literally. I don't see the harm - and if a player wanted to argue for that IMC I would let him or her have it.

Of course, my campaign has a very long track record of people who use their familiars as combatants losing XP as a direct result.