Ways to improve a familiar?

[Rojek]

I recently started a thread about ways to disguise a skeleton cohort from the general masses and received some ideas about actually making the skeleton my familiar.

I was initially concerned about it not keeping up with the party as we gained in power however I'd like to explore the possibility of taking such a route?

What I'd like from any who can help are a list of feats, spells rules etc. and their sourcebooks so that I might explore this possibility further.

Can anyone help me please?

 

[Alzrius]

A good place to brush up on the basics is WotC's website, which has a four-part article on familiars with Rules of the Game: Familiars.

They also had some familiar-based spells in their Spellbook column there a while back, but bear in mind that these are 3E, not 3.5E, so many need some tweaking for that: animate dead familiar, elemental familiar, and planar familiar.

You might want to also check out any of the following Dragon articles:
"A Little More Familiar" #280 - This 3E article gives several new animals that can be taken as familiars. It also has five feats (Enspell Familiar, Extra Familiar, Construct Familiar, Token Familiar, and Undead Familiar) and five spells (familiar's sense, familiar's touch, share life, familiar's form, and call familiar).
"Swarm Familiars" #329 - This Class Acts article discusses taking the Improved Familiar feat to get a swarm of creatures as a familiar.
"Familiarity Breeds" #331 - This Class Acts article gives rules on taking the Improved Familiar feat to enhance an existing familiar.
"Familiar Flavoring" #341 - This Class Acts article gives several new familiars.

Stitched-Flesh Familiar is a feat to take an undead familiar found in Libris Mortis.

Obtain Familiar, which lets any arcane spellcaster gain a familiar, is in Complete Arcane.

 

[atomn]

Libris Mortis also has a bunch of feats that bolster the corporeal undead (+4 Str and +2 hp/level; +4 turn resistance; +1d6 Cold damage her natural weapon; +2 AC; +4 Init. and +10' speed; bursts in 10' area if destroyed, dealing 1d6 + 1d6 per 2 HD) that you animate or summon with a Necromancy spell. I don't know if an undead familiar would count; RAW, but your GM may allow it to affect your familiar if you ask.

 

[Rojek]

Ok thanks for that, plenty of material to be going on with

 

[Plane Sailing]

Sticking completely within the three core books, you could easily invest in an ioun stone of spell storing, and give your familiar 3 levels of spell to 'cast' no matter what it is. If it was actually a skeleton familiar with fingers, you could use cheaper rings of spell storing instead.