Using Familiars in Combat

[Beholder Bob]

You can have alter self effect your familiar. It is a magical beast. Hmmmm.

Assuming your pet was 1 step short of small, you can have it turn into:

Badger
Dog
Dog - Albadian Battle Dog
Dog - Climbdog
Eagle
Eagle - Legendary Animal
Elk/Deer - Dallisad
Jackal - Miser Jackal
Lizard - Lemax (Lizard Monkey)
Lizard - Razor Leaf
Octopus
Rat - Dire
Snake - Tobaryl
Snake, Viper - Small
Weasel - Ice Weasel

- with the fiendish or celestial template (making it a magical beast).
or even use the savage species template Monstrous Beast...

Nah, still not worth it!

BB

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I've found that, at mid-APLs, worg and winter wolf familiars (Improved Familiars as per Complete Warrior) can be devastatingly effective--especially for fighter/wizard types. Share Mage Armor and False Life or give the familiar his own at high levels. Share Mirror Image, Blink, and Shield. Your familiar will get a surprisingly good AC for the level. Even at low levels, you can get a lot more milage if you share a True Strike and your familiar uses it the round you cast it then you move up and power attack for full using the same true strike (since you haven't made an attack yet). Sharing a Chill touch can improve the familiar's damage a bit and get the foe to roll a 1 on the fort save that much faster.

Of course, Augment Familiar is very very good in this capacity too. It's not too impressive on normal familiars because, even with all the bonusses, they still can't attack worth a darn. However, if you put it on a worg, winter wolf, or hippogriff, it can carve people up like nobody's business.

Otherwise, I would guess that your best bet is sharing a polymorph spell with your familiar and giving them a chill touch spell to use.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

However, if you put it on a worg, winter wolf, or hippogriff, it can carve people up like nobody's business.

You can get a hippogriff as your familiar these days? Good grief, that's a paladin's mount option...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I think they require the ability to cast 4th level arcane spells or so and a +7 BAB in order to get it so the earliest a single classed wizard could get it would be 14th level. An Eldritch Knight type could get it by around 10th level. I've never actually used that one but I know my players were rather surprised by the Ftr 2/Wiz 4 with a Worg familiar I sprung on them. Scared them nearly as much as the 11th level fighter/necromancer in the fight.

You can get a hippogriff as your familiar these days? Good grief, that's a paladin's mount option...

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I think they require the ability to cast 4th level arcane spells or so and a +7 BAB in order to get it so the earliest a single classed wizard could get it would be 14th level. An Eldritch Knight type could get it by around 10th level. I've never actually used that one but I know my players were rather surprised by the Ftr 2/Wiz 4 with a Worg familiar I sprung on them. Scared them nearly as much as the 11th level fighter/necromancer in the fight.

Well then, if the wizard can call a hippogriff, the paladin needs an upgrade.

 

[Shayuri]

Consider the lowly psuedodragon!

My sorceress has had Improved Familiar for awhile now, and selected a psuedodragon (which her ferret then mutated into...long story ). While I'm not casual about tossing my little shoulder dragon into combat, I find that he can be hugely effective against foes that are vulnerable to poison.

The buff suite goes like this:

Mage Armor, Shield (cast by touch, not Shared), Bear's Endurance, Magic Circle vs Evil.

That's a hot, crispy +10 to AC against evil folks, and the Endurance kicks his poison DC up by 2.

For you folks at home, that gives my l'il dragon buddy an AC of 32. He also has:
- SR 19 (natural ability of psuedodragons)
- Blindsense 60'
- A tail with a 5' reach so he doesn't take the dreaded AoO
- Poison DC 16 that, if successful, knocks a foe out for 10 rounds.
- A fly speed of 60' with Good manueverability
- +9 to hit (+2 from size, +5 from my BAB, and +2 from weapon finesse and Dex)
- Oh, and Improved Evasion.

Not to mention decent saves when buffed by the Circle. And of course, a quick little flying Magic Circle vs Evil can have good party buffing effects too.

Granted he's not got much in the way of hit points, but if he steers clear of the front line and darts back to where the enemy mages are, he can mess them up pretty good. And for noncombat/RP he's got Telepathy so he can communicate with other characters, carry messages, etc etc. And a monstrous Hide skill of +20, making him a good scout and spy too!

Wanting the perfect familiar? Consider the psuedodragon!

PS - Not sure if it's possible, but imagine the applications of casting Antimagic Field by touch on your pseudodragon(tm) familiar! A fast moving antimagic field that can steer clear of any melee screen, and still have an effective defense (Even without buffs, psuedodragon familiars have excellent AC's), and offense (DC 14 poison against mages with no magic augmentation to their save is still nasty).

PSUEDODRAGON!

 

[Storminator]

Unfortunately, AFAIK, familiars cannot use spell completion items. They don't have a class spell list. You'd have to spend the cash for a Ring of Spell Storing. Since a Raven can speak, it would have no trouble with a Command Word item.

Take ranks in UMD, which your familiar can use. Then it can use wands, scrolls, etc.

PS

 

[Stormrunner]

Summoned animals of the same type can be as effective as mirror image. Use those pipes of the sewers and send your rat familiar in with the horde. Attacked by a dozen rats, the opponent knows one of them is a familiar but one rat looks much like another...