Ok, the week got away from me. I'll add to this in a bit, both text and art, but to sort of keep to my self-imposed deadline, I wanted to have something up.
A lot of people feel that familiars are a liability. I can see their point, especially with Wizards' horrible joke about mystical lengths of time, where if your familiar dies you lose a bunch of xp and are out a class feature for a year and a day.
On the other hand, they're a great benefit for low level characters, and can add a lot of personality to a caster. They can also be just plain fun. I'm of the opinion that you can never have too many familiars or options there for.
The following familiars are available to characters with the Familiar class feature, Obtain Familiar feat, or, if you're using it, the Acquire Familiar feat (see below):
Lantern Beetles are large (roughly mouse-sized) beetles, distantly related to rhinoceros beetles. In place of the rhinoceros beetle's horn, however, the lantern beetle has a vine-like appendage from which sprouts blue-berry sized orbs around which float small rings, and a large dish-shaped structure over their abdomens in which they carry a these orbs as they grow. These orbs give off light and heat as candles, and the beetle itself gives off light as a torch when its dish is full. Lantern Beetle familiars use the same stats as bats (swap the fly speed for a 15' climb speed), and the light cast by its orbs act as a focus for evocation effects, granting their masters a +1 bonus to the DC to resist evocation spells the master casts.
A lot of people feel that familiars are a liability. I can see their point, especially with Wizards' horrible joke about mystical lengths of time, where if your familiar dies you lose a bunch of xp and are out a class feature for a year and a day.
On the other hand, they're a great benefit for low level characters, and can add a lot of personality to a caster. They can also be just plain fun. I'm of the opinion that you can never have too many familiars or options there for.
The following familiars are available to characters with the Familiar class feature, Obtain Familiar feat, or, if you're using it, the Acquire Familiar feat (see below):
Lantern Beetle
Lantern Beetles are large (roughly mouse-sized) beetles, distantly related to rhinoceros beetles. In place of the rhinoceros beetle's horn, however, the lantern beetle has a vine-like appendage from which sprouts blue-berry sized orbs around which float small rings, and a large dish-shaped structure over their abdomens in which they carry a these orbs as they grow. These orbs give off light and heat as candles, and the beetle itself gives off light as a torch when its dish is full. Lantern Beetle familiars use the same stats as bats (swap the fly speed for a 15' climb speed), and the light cast by its orbs act as a focus for evocation effects, granting their masters a +1 bonus to the DC to resist evocation spells the master casts.Meerkat
Meerkats are diminutive social mammals which live in warm plains in large family groups. They are well represented by a rat which has had it's swim speed traded for a 5' burrow speed and an immunity to diminutive and smaller scorpion venom. Meerkat familiars grant their master a +4 bonus to Initiative checks, and like to perch on their heads, or the heads of trusted party members, ever wary for danger.
Personal Dis Assistant
The forces of Hell are not just evil, they're ingenious and insidious. They have created amazingly small and innocuous fiends, capable of fitting in a case roughly the size of a tinderbox, and are busily peddling these diminutive devils to upwardly mobile spellcasters in search of familiars. The Personal Dis Assistant is very much like an imp in appearance, save that it is roughly six inches in height. They are capable of reproducing any image or sight which they can see so long as they are provided paint and paper or canvas (though the duplicate image is no larger than the case itself), and help the spellcaster remember important appointments and keep track of time. In addition, Personal Dis Assistants have vast memories and can hold all kinds of facts. A Personal Dis Assistant grants their master a +2 bonus on Knowledge the Planes, and one other Knowledge or Spellcraft.
Witch's Doll
Some casters create their familiars from mystic powders, pieces of ritually important animals, sturdy fabric and alchemical pigments. These familiars are readily overlooked by those not well versed in magic (Kn. Arcane DC 20 to recognize as an animate creature), and can create a link to their masters' enemies in combat, allowing them to better be affected with the caster's spells. As a swift action, the caster may gesture and chant with the witch's doll in the direction of a chosen enemy to create this link. As a benefit, the caster gains a +1 bonus to their attack rolls and +2 to the DC to resist the spell when they target that enemy (if the spell targets more than one enemy, the caster only gains this benefit against one of them).
Due to their special tie to their creator, a witch's doll may always Speak With Master, so long as their master is their creator.
Scaling Feat: Acquire Familiar [Spellcasting or Combat]
A character may set Acquire Familiar to scale by Caster Level or BAB. If they choose CL they can only choose familiars which require CL as a prerequisite, if they choose BAB, they can only chose familiars that require BAB as a prerequisite. Either scale allows familiars which require both, and either scale allows familiars to increase in size or masters to accumulate more familiars.
You have some creature that follows you around, gets things from shelves for you and occasionally fights off obnoxious goblins and kobolds while you’re casting the game ending spell.
CL/BAB 0: You have some small animal (about Tiny or Diminutive size category) that follows you about. It is imbued with greater intelligence than normal for it’s type (it has Int 3) and is a magical beast rather than an animal.
CL/BAB 1: Your familiar advances as that of a wizard or sorcerer of your caster level.
CL/BAB 6: You may choose a new familiar from a small list of more powerful creatures. Either you dismiss your old familiar or it turns into the new creature, it really doesn't matter, and can completely depend on your character. The character must have the Caster level or BAB (and occasionally both) indicated on the chart, and can be no more than one step away from the indicated alignment on each axis (good-evil and law-chaos). To select a familiar with an elemental or energy subtype, the master must have at least one Spell, Spell Like, Supernatural or Extraordinary ability of the same type. Alternatively, your familiar can become bigger (advance it by sufficient HD to make it's CR 3 less than your own, and increase it's size one category larger), or you can gain an additional normal one.
| Familiar | Required AL | Caster Lv/BAB | Source |
| Anarchic Creature | Chaotic | 3rd | Planar Handbook |
| Axiomatic Creature | Lawful | 3rd | Planar Handbook |
| Celestial Hawk(1) | Good | 3rd | MM |
| Fiendish Tiny Viper(2) | Evil | 3rd | MM |
| Krenshar | N | 3rd or +3 | MM |
| Worg | NE | 3rd or +3 | MM |
| Copper Asp | - | 3rd | Drg 341 |
| Razor Hawk | - | 3rd | Drg 341 |
| Shocker Lizard | N | 5th | MM |
| Stirge | N | 5th | MM |
| Air elemental, small | - | 5th | MM |
| Earth elemental, small | - | 5th | MM |
| Fire elemental, small | - | 5th | MM |
| Water elemental, small | - | 5th | MM |
| Blink Dog | LG | 5th and +5 | MM |
| Hell Hound | LE | 5th and +5 | MM |
| Crystal Cat | - | 5th | Drg 341 |
| Glass Dragonfly | - | 5th | Drg 341 |
| Salvage Rat | - | 5th | Drg 341 |
| Xeg-yi | N | CL 7th | MotP |
| Xag-ya | N | CL 7th | MotP |
| Xac-Yel | N | CL 8th | Planar Handbook |
| Xac-Yij | N | CL 8th | Planar Handbook |
| Xap-Yaup | N | CL 8th | Planar Handbook |
| Xong-Yong | N | CL 8th | Planar Handbook |
| Xor-Yost | N | CL 8th | Planar Handbook |
| Formian Worker | LN | 7th | MM |
| Imp | LE | 7th | MM |
| Psuedodragon | NG | 7th | MM |
| Quasit | CE | 7th | MM |
| Homunculus(3) | - | 7th | MM |
| Mephit | N | 7th | MM |
| Hippogriff | N | 7th or +7 | MM |
| Howler | CE | 7th or +7 | MM |
| Winter Wolf | LE | 7th or +7 | MM |
| Spark Guardian | - | 7th | CW |
| Erudite Owl | - | 7th | Drg 341 |
| Mercurial Spider | - | 7th | Drg 341 |
| Gauntlet Guardian | - | 9th | CW |
| Blade Guardian | - | 11th | CW |
| 1-Or other celestial animal from the standard familiar list. 2-Or other fiendish animal from the standard familiar list. 3-The master must first create the homunculus, substituting ichor or another part of the master’s body for blood if necessary. | |||
CL 11/BAB 11: Choose one spell you know or can cast, your familiar can cast this spell as a spell like ability a number of time equal to 10-spell level per day.
CL 16/BAB 16: Your familiar gains a template from the following list, following the same guidelines as above, alternatively, your familiar becomes bigger (advance it’s HD enough to make it one size category larger).
| Template | Required AL | Source |
| Ghost | - | MM |
| Half Celestial | Good | MM |
| Half Fiend | Evil | MM |
| Half Dragon | - | MM |
| Vampire | - | MM |
| Umbral Creature | - | LM |
| Entropic Creature | - | Planar Handbook |
| Vivacious Creature | - | Planar Handbook |
| Cold Creature | - | Drg 347 |
| Magma Creature | - | Drg 347 |
| Ooze Creature | - | Drg 347 |
| Smoke Creature | - | Drg 347 |
| Air Creature | - | MotP |
| Earth Creature | - | MotP |
| Fire Creature | - | MotP |
| Water Creature | - | MotP |
| Arcane-Blood Creature(1) | - | Drg 350 |
| Poisonous Creature(1) | - | Drg 350 |
| Stonebone Creature(1) | - | Drg 350 |
| Corrupted Creature | - | Drg 350 |
| 1-The familiar also gains Evolved from the same article as a bonus feat. | ||
