Familiars and Companions

Familiars

Familiars are magically linked to their masters. In some sense, the familiar and the master are practically one being. That’s why, for example, the master can cast a personal range spell on a familiar even though normally he can only cast such a spell on himself. You may only have one familiar at a time and the bond is such that you cannot gain a new one until the previous one has died and you have had time to adjust. Before taking a new familiar, 1 month of game time needs to pass, or you gain a level. This is not grieving time, it is because you lost part of yourself and needs to happen even if you kill your familiar yourself to get a new one. Familiars are similar to the normal creatures they resemble. However, some familiars have special abilities or grant special abilities to their master as given on the table below. These special abilities only apply when the master and familiar are within one mile of each other. A list of familiars can be found on a separate page.
Familiar Basics: Use the basic statistics for a creature of its type, as given in the Monster Manual, but make these changes:
Hit Dice: Treat as the master’s character level (for effects related to Hit Dice). Use the familiar’s normal total if it is higher.
Hit Points: One-half the master’s total, rounded down. For example, at 2nd level, Hennet has 9 hit points, so his familiar has 4.
Attacks: Use the master’s base attack bonus. Use the familiar’s Dexterity or Strength modifier, whichever is greater, to get the familiar’s melee attack bonus with unarmed attacks. Damage equals that of a normal creature of that type.
Saving Throws: The familiar uses the master’s base saving throw bonuses if they’re better than the familiar’s (Fortitude +2, Reflex +2, Will +0).
Skills: Use the normal skills for an animal of that type or the master’s, whichever is better.
Familiar Ability Descriptions: All familiars have special abilities (or impart abilities to their masters) depending on the level of the master, as shown in the below table. The abilities are cumulative.
Natural Armor: This number improves the familiar’s AC. It represents a familiar’s preternatural toughness.
Intelligence: The familiar’s Intelligence score. Familiars are as smart as people (though not necessarily as smart as smart people).

Mana Progression Rank	Natural Armor	Int	Special
1-2	+1	6	Alertness, Evasion Rank 2, share spells, empathic link
3-4	+2	7	Touch
5-6	+3	8	Speak with master
7-8	+4	9	Speak with animals of its type
9-10	+5	10
11-12	+6	11	Spell resistance
13-14	+7	12
15-16	+8	13	Scry on familiar
17-18	+9	14
19-20	+10	15
21-22	+11	16	Familiar Spell
23-24	+12	17
25-26	+13	18
27-28	+14	19
29-30	+15	20	Familiar Spell

Alertness: The presence of the familiar sharpens its master’s senses. While the familiar is within arm’s reach, the master gains Alertness.
Evasion Rank 2: If the familiar is subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, the familiar takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails. Evasion is an extraordinary ability.
Share Spells: At the master’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. If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the spell stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away. The spell’s effect will not be restored even if the familiar returns to the master before the duration would otherwise have ended. Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a Touch range spell) instead of on himself. The master and familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).
Empathic Link: The master has an empathic link with the familiar out to a distance of up to one mile. The master cannot see through the familiar’s eyes, but the two of them can communicate telepathically. Note that the low Intelligence of a low-level master’s familiar limits what it is able to communicate or understand, and even intelligent familiars see the world differently from humans. This is a supernatural ability. Because of the empathic link between the familiar and the master, the master has the same connection to an item or place that the familiar does. For instance, if his familiar has seen a room, a master can teleport into that room as if he has seen it too.
Touch: If the master is 3rd level or higher, the familiar can deliver touch spells for the master. When the master casts a touch spell, he can designate his familiar as the “toucher.” (The master and the familiar have to be in contact at the time of casting.) The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the master could. As normal, if the master casts another spell, the touch spell dissipates.
Speak with Animals of Its Type: The familiar can communicate with animals of approximately the same type as itself (including dire variants): bats and rats with rodents, cats with felines, hawks and owls and ravens with birds, snakes with reptiles, toads with amphibians, weasels with creatures of the Mustelidae family (weasels, minks, polecats, ermines, skunks, wolverines, and badgers). The communication is limited by the Intelligence of the conversing creatures.
Speak with Master: The familiar and master can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help.
Spell Resistance: If the master is 11th level or higher, the familiar gains spell resistance equal to the master’s level + 5. If another spellcaster tries to affect someone else’s familiar with a spell, that spellcaster must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) at least equal to the familiar’s spell resistance.
Scry: If the master is 13th level or higher, the master may scry on the familiar (as if casting the spell scrying) once per day. This is a spell-like ability that requires no material components or focus.
Familiar Spell: Choose one arcane spell the character knows of 8th level or lower. The character’s familiar can now use this spell once per day as a spell-like ability, at a caster level equal to the character’s caster level. A character cannot bestow a spell to his or her familiar if the spell normally has a material component cost of more than 1 gp or an XP cost.
Each time the character receives the feat, they can give their familiar a different spell-like ability or another daily use of the same spell-like ability.
Death of a Familiar: In the worst-case scenario that your familiar dies or is dismissed, you suffer immediate effects. Because of the link you share with your familiar, you are under the effects of a temporary level loss. You must also make a Fortitude save (DC 15), if failed you lose 200 xp per mana rank. The temporary level loss continues until you are either able to resurrect your familiar (same as resurrecting a fallen ally, treat your mana rank as the familiar's level), or 1 month of game time needs to pass, or you gain a level. During the time you are affected by the level loss, you will be unable to summon a new familiar. Any xp lost from the failed fortitude save is not regained by raising your familiar from the dead.

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Animal Companions

You can use the animal friendship spell to gain animal companions. Use these rules of thumb when characters have animal companions. While the spell allows a character to have animals whose Hit Dice total double the character's caster level, that maximum assumes optimal conditions. The typical adventurer should be able to maintain animal companions whose Hit Dice total half the maximum caster level. If the character spends most of her time in the animals' home territory and treats them well, she can approach and even achieve her maximum Hit Dice. If she spends most of her time at sea, in cities, or otherwise in places that the animals don't like, her animals desert, and she will not be able to retain even half her maximum. Remember, these creatures are loyal friends but not pets or servants. They won't remain loyal if being the character's friend becomes too onerous.
The animal is still an animal. It's not a magical beast, as a familiar or a paladin's mount is. While it may have learned some tricks, it's still no more intelligent than any other animal of its kind, and it retains all its bestial instincts. Unlike intelligent followers or cohorts, animals can't follow complex instructions, such as "Attack the gnoll with the wand." A character can give a simple verbal command, such as "Attack" or "Come," as a free action, provided such a command is among the tricks the animal has learned. A more complex instruction, such as telling an animal to attack and pointing out a specific target, is a standard action. Animals are ill-equipped to handle unusual situations, such as combats with invisible opponents, and they typically hesitate to attack weird and unnatural creatures, such as beholders and oozes.
Left to its own judgment, an animal follows a character and attacks creatures that attack her (or that attack the animal itself).
To do more than that, it needs to learn tricks. An animal with an Intelligence of 2 can learn six tricks. Possible tricks include:
"Attack": The animal attacks apparent enemies. The character may point to a particular creature to direct the animal to attack that creature. Normally, an animal will not attack unnatural creatures (though it will defend people, guard places, and protect characters against them). Teaching an animal to be willing to attack unnatural creatures counts as two tricks.
"Come": The animal comes to the character, even if the animal normally would not do so (such as following the character onto a boat).
"Defend": The animal defends the character (or is ready to defend the character if no threat is present).
"Down": The animal breaks off from combat or otherwise backs down.
"Fetch": The animal goes and gets something. The character must point out a specific object or the animal fetches some random object.
"Guard": The animal stays in place and prevents others from approaching.
"Heel": The animal follows the character closely, even to places where it normally wouldn't go.
"Perform": The animal does a variety of simple tricks like sitting up, rolling over, roaring, and so on.
"Protect": The animal follows a specific other character and protects him from danger (like "Defend," but for another character).
"Seek": The animal moves into an area and looks around for anything unusual.
"Stay": The animal stays in place waiting for the character to return. It does not challenge other creatures that come by, though it still defends itself if it needs to.
"Track": The animal tracks the scent presented to it.
An animal companion selected from the animal companion list on a different page. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies you on your adventures as appropriate for its kind. (For instance, an aquatic creature can’t adventure with you on land and shouldn’t be selected by a nonaquatic character without extenuating circumstances). In most cases, the animal companion functions as a mount, sentry, scout, or hunting animals, rather than as a protector.

Feat Rank	HD	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Skills	Feats	Natural Armor Bonus	Str/Dex Bonus	Bonus Tricks	Special
1	2	+1	3	3	0	2	1	0	0	1	Link, share spells
2	3	+2	3	3	1	3	2	0	0	1
3	3	+2	3	3	1	3	2	2	1	2	Evasion
4	4	+3	4	4	1	4	2	2	1	2
5	5	+3	4	4	1	5	3	2	1	2	Ability score increase
6	6	+4	5	5	2	6	3	4	2	3
7	6	+4	5	5	2	6	3	4	2	3	Devotion
8	7	+5	5	5	2	7	4	4	2	3
9	8	+5	6	6	2	8	4	6	3	4	Ability score increase, Multiattack
10	9	+6	6	6	3	9	4	6	3	4
11	9	+6	6	6	3	9	5	6	3	4
12	10	+7	7	7	3	10	5	8	4	5
13	11	+7	7	7	3	11	5	8	4	5
14	12	+8	8	8	4	12	6	8	4	5	Ability score increase
15	12	+8	8	8	4	12	6	10	5	6	Improved evasion
16	13	+9	8	8	4	13	6	10	5	6
17	14	+9	9	9	4	14	7	10	5	6
18	15	+10	9	9	5	15	7	12	6	7
19	15	+10	9	9	5	15	7	12	6	7
20	16	+11	10	10	5	16	8	12	6	7	Ability score increase
21	17	+11	10	10	5	17	8	14	7	8
22	18	+12	10	10	6	18	8	14	7	8
23	18	+12	11	11	6	18	9	14	7	8
24	19	+13	11	11	6	19	9	16	8	9
25	20	+13	11	11	6	20	9	16	8	9
26	21	+14	11	11	7	21	10	16	8	9	Ability score increase
27	21	+14	12	12	7	21	10	18	9	10
28	22	+15	12	12	7	22	10	18	9	10
29	23	+15	12	12	7	23	11	18	9	10
30	24	+16	12	12	8	24	11	20	10	11

Companion Death: Your bond with your animal companion is not the same as an arcane user's familiar. A lost animal companion, cohort, or follower can be raised or resurrected with spells such as raise dead, resurrection, or true resurrection. In some cases, replacing an animal companion can be as easy as purchasing an animal of the desired type and declaring it your new companion. Attuning a companion to its new master requires a ritual. Choosing an animal companion requires 24 hours of prayer. The ceremony can also be used to attract and bond with an animal appropriate to the local environment. However, you might want to wait for the campaign to present an appropriate companion, such as an animal you rescue from a cruel enemy that you tame with the ritual or ceremony. In terms of game mechanics, there is no difference between any of these options, and you should work with the GM to find a replacement method that is appropriate to the campaign.