True Familiar

A familiar is a normal animal (beast) of size small or smaller that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a wizard by imbuing the animal with a portion of the wizard's soul. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was, but it is treated as a magical beast instead of an animal for the purpose of any effect that depends on its type. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An animal companion cannot also function as a familiar.

A familiar also grants special abilities to its wizard, depending on its species. Check with your DM as to what benefit a given species may provide; examples include an owl granting +3 Perception in shadows, a weasel granting +2 on Dexterity saves, or a cat granting +3 stealth. These special abilities apply only when the master and familiar are within 1 mile of each other.

Familiar Basics

Use the basic statistics for a creature of the familiar’s kind, but make the following changes:

Hit Dice

For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the master’s character level or the familiar’s normal HD total, whichever is higher.

Hit Points

The familiar has one-half the master’s total hit points (not including temporary hit points), rounded down, regardless of its actual Hit Dice.

Attacks

Use the master’s base attack bonus, as calculated from all his classes. Use the familiar’s Dexterity or Strength modifier, whichever is greater, to get the familiar’s melee attack bonus with natural weapons.

Damage equals that of a normal creature of the familiar’s kind.

Saving Throws

For each saving throw, use either the animal's base save bonus or the wizard’s, whichever is better. The familiar uses its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any of the other bonuses that the master might have on saves.

Skills

For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill proficiencies for an animal of that type or the master’s skill proficiencies, whichever are better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar’s total skill modifiers, some skills may situationally remain beyond the familiar’s ability to use.

Familiar Ability Descriptions

All familiars have special abilities (or impart abilities to their masters) depending on the master’s wizard level. The abilities given on the table are cumulative.

Natural Armor Adjustment

The number noted here is an improvement to the familiar’s AC.

Int

The familiar’s Intelligence score.

Alertness

While a familiar is within arm’s reach, the master gains the Alert feat.

Improved Evasion 

When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Dexterity saving throw for half damage, a familiar takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails.

Share Spells

At the wizard's option, he may have any spell he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit.

If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the familiar again even if it returns to the master before the duration expires. Additionally, the wizard may cast a spell with a target of "You" on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself.

A wizard and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).

Empathic Link

The wizard has an empathic link with his familiar out to a distance of up to 1 mile. The wizard cannot see through the familiar’s eyes, but they can communicate empathically. Because of the limited nature of the link, only general emotional content can be communicated.

Because of this empathic link, the wizard has the same connection to an item or place that his familiar does.

Deliver Touch Spells

If the wizard is 3rd level or higher, a familiar can deliver touch spells for him. If the master and the familiar are in contact at the time the master casts a touch spell, he can designate his familiar as the "toucher." The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the master could. As usual, if the master casts another spell before the touch is delivered, the touch spell dissipates.

Speak with Master

If the wizard is 5th level or higher, a familiar and the master can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help.

Speak with Animals of Its Kind

If the wizard is 7th level or higher, a familiar can communicate with animals of approximately the same kind as itself (including dire varieties): bats with bats, rats with rodents, cats with felines, hawks and owls and ravens with birds, lizards and snakes with reptiles, toads with amphibians, weasels with similar creatures (weasels, minks, polecats, ermines, skunks, wolverines, and badgers). Such communication is limited by the intelligence of the conversing creatures.

Spell Resistance

If the wizard is 11th level or higher, a familiar gains spell resistance equal to the master’s level + 5. To affect the familiar with a spell, another spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the familiar’s spell resistance.

Scry on Familiar

If the master is 13th level or higher, he may scry on his familiar (as if casting the scrying spell) once per day.

Limitations of and from a Familiar

The powerful magical bond between a familiar and its wizard is due to the linkage of a fragment of the wizard's soul in the familiar. This spell, upon completion, gives the caster 3 levels of exhaustion.

Further, this spell may not be cast again while the familiar lives, nor for a year and a day after the death of the familiar while the part of the wizard's soul that was imbued in the familiar regrows within the wizard. Attempting to do so fractures the wizard's soul irreparably, instantly killing the wizard in a way that only Wish may be used to resurrect the wizard's soul to an intact enough state that a more conventional resurrection may be attempted. A wizard killed this way does not pass on to any afterlife, as there is not an intact enough soul to do so.

The death of the familiar results in a spiritual backlash, dealing the wizard irreducible damage equal to half his or her maximum hit point total, and giving 3 levels of exhaustion.

While a wizard have a familiar, the spell Find Familiar will silently fail, as the spirits that would normally serve this purpose are unsettled by the split soul of the casting wizard and will refuse to answer the call.

The familiar is not restricted from being in a different dimension or plane from the wizard, including pocket dimensions like those of a Druid's Bag.