Kalendraf
Explorer
I have the Spells and Spellcraft book produced by Fantasy Flight Games. It contains a section about enhancing familiars by paying experience and some gold. From what I've been able to determine, this seems to be very abusive and even broken in some sitations.
Here are some examples:
Damage reduction 5/+1 - costs 300 exp and 100gp
Spell like ability able to be used 3 times per day - spell level squared times 100 exp, 100 gp.
Note - the caster level on the spell like ability is the minimum to cast that spell.
Basically, a wizard can spend a few hundred experience and turn his familiar into a lethal weapon, even being able to cast a spell more often then the caster can. Imagine having your familiar be able to cast Fireball 3 times per day for 900 exp, or Ice Storm 3 times per day for a mere 1600 exp.
Many of the other abilities aren't terribly unbalancing - such as making your familiar able to fly or making them "cute", etc. However, in combination, a few of the abilities listed seem to become just too good.
I realize that if the familiar dies and isn't raised, the wizard will have lost this exp, but so far that's easier said than done. Most of these familiars have lots of hit points and good saves making them very difficult to kill.
If you have any experience with these enhancements in your group, please give me some feedback. Right now, there's 1 owl with damage reduction and two 1st level spells in the group, and it's already seeming a tad overpowering. And the other spellcasters now want to upgrade their familiar's next.
Here are some examples:
Damage reduction 5/+1 - costs 300 exp and 100gp
Spell like ability able to be used 3 times per day - spell level squared times 100 exp, 100 gp.
Note - the caster level on the spell like ability is the minimum to cast that spell.
Basically, a wizard can spend a few hundred experience and turn his familiar into a lethal weapon, even being able to cast a spell more often then the caster can. Imagine having your familiar be able to cast Fireball 3 times per day for 900 exp, or Ice Storm 3 times per day for a mere 1600 exp.
Many of the other abilities aren't terribly unbalancing - such as making your familiar able to fly or making them "cute", etc. However, in combination, a few of the abilities listed seem to become just too good.
I realize that if the familiar dies and isn't raised, the wizard will have lost this exp, but so far that's easier said than done. Most of these familiars have lots of hit points and good saves making them very difficult to kill.
If you have any experience with these enhancements in your group, please give me some feedback. Right now, there's 1 owl with damage reduction and two 1st level spells in the group, and it's already seeming a tad overpowering. And the other spellcasters now want to upgrade their familiar's next.
