SRD Talk:Familiars

Familiars and Non-Familiar Friendly Classes

If a Level 10 PC Sorcerer has a familier, and multiclasses to a class like Archmage at L11 (which does not grant a familiar), does the familiar continue to gain power while the PC is progressing through the Archmage class? How does this work? It says in the Familiar description that the familiar continues to gain power "depending on the master’s combined level in classes that grant familiars". Archmage doesn't grant a familiar. Does this mean that the familiar's development will stop at L10? --Othtim 11:36, 16 January 2008 (MST)

The familiar continues to advance in some aspects, but not in others. The information under "Familiar Basics" (i.e. Hit Dice, hit points, base attack bonus, saving throws, and skills) continue to progress because those are all based on master's stats regardless of what classes he has. The rest of the information under "Familiar Ability Descriptions" would stagnate at 10th level.

So with the given example (BTW, a 10th-level sorcerer does not qualify for archmage), the familiar would have a +5 natural armor adjustment, a 10 Int, and all the benefits up to and including speak with animals of its kind (Alertness, improved evasion, share spells, empathic link, deliver touch spells, and speak with master). Its Int and natural armor adjust would stay the same until he started taking levels in sorcerer again (or any other class that does familiars like wizard), nor would the familiar gain spell resistance, or scry on familiar until such time. However, Hit Dice, hit points, base attack bonus, saving throws, and skills would continue to increase. —Sledged (talk) 11:54, 16 January 2008 (MST)

Thank you for the clarification. --Othtim 22:45, 16 January 2008 (MST)

Languages Known

if a dwarven wizard has taken the speak languages skill in order to get goblin, and can speak draconic, gnome, undercommon, and terran from high intelligence at creation, and has a non raven familiar, what languages does the familiar know? i know the familiar can't speak any of them, but can it read or otherwise understand any of the known languages (since the familiar get skills that the master has ranks in)? i'll look in my 3.0 books to see if it mentions anything like this, if it is, then it would be a good idea to put it in the familiars page. --Jamoecw 23:53, 19 August 2009 (MDT)

Considering how low-level comprehend languages is, this tactic is of limited use.--Dmilewski 17:24, 20 August 2009 (MDT)

roleplay wise it makes a big difference, i found this in 'rules of the game' archives. under intelligence it says that familiars don't gain languages as it's intelligence goes up do to level, although it does start with the ability to understand one language. so in the above example it would probably speak common, and not draconic, gnome, undercommon, or terran. i would hazard a guess that it understands goblin due to skill ranks, which is independent to intelligence for languages. so i guess their is still the question of whether or not the second language granted by skills (if it does in fact get it) has to be the same as the master's. well i just read the 'mainfaqv06272003' and it states that the comprehend language skill does not confer ranks, and the description in the familiar's skills section states that the familiar gets ranks from the master, so no, it wouldn't get a second language of any type.--jamoecw 02:03, 22 August 2009 (MDT)

Altering Familiars with Fleshgrafters

If a character were to apply a graft (from the Graft Flesh feat) to a familiar, does it cease to be a familiar? Furthermore, can you alter it after it becomes a familiar with similar things or no? -- Atemu1234 15:26, 23 February 2014