Beware Riot Raccoon! [Pathfinder]

[Amechra]

Our character is a pious young lady; she always respects the spirit's mandates, and keeps careful care of their gift to her, an apparently wild raccoon that walked into her camp one day and just kinda curled up at her feet.

She doesn't question this.

Pious Blossom
Halfling Shaman (Battle) 8/Witch (Beast Bonded) 1
Hexes: Battle Master, Feral Speech, Fortune, Witch Hex(Scar)
Feats: Spirit's Gift, any other four
Favored Class Bonus Halfling Shaman x8, Halfling Witch

And her dashing little Raccoon she calls Bandit:

Bandit
Familiar (Mauler) 13
As a normal Raccoon, except as follows:
Type: Outsider (Native)
Natural Armor: Increase by +9.
Special Abilities: Battle Form
Special Qualities: Alertness, Bond Forged in Blood, Improved Evasion
Ability Scores: Strength is increased by +6.
Skills: Intimidate is a class skill.

Unimpressive, right? Wrong!

With Battle Form, Bandit increases to Medium size, for a total ability score adjustment of +10 Str, -4 Dex, +2 Con. In other words, Bandit has Str 24, Dex 11, and Con 13. Spirit's Gift can crank that up to Str 26 with the Mammoth Spirit.


This probably can be optimised further; if there's a way to make a Familiar into an Animal Companion, then there are a couple other nasty options I can think of (Transfer Feat to give Bandit Stalker's Boon (Bull), for example).

The main trick is that the Halfling Shaman Favored Class Bonus is pretty damn good; +1/2 to your Shaman level for the purposes of everything you actually care about when it comes to a Familiar is... nice.

Actually, are there any ways to cheese a faster Favored Class Bonus?

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Theme song:  Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k8W4LE2xts

Too obvious Marvel pic delete.


Is this the start of suPFermount ?!

[phaedrusxy]

You know that as a Beast-Bound Witch you can "give" the familiar all of your feats, right? I think there is quite some potential to make a "Big Guy is With Me" build using a Beast-Bound Witch in PF... The Protector archetype might be better, as at level 5+ you can have half the damage the familiar takes go to you instead of it (as via Shield Other), and of course you can cast all those tasty "self only" buffs onto it (Beast Shape, Mirror Image, etc).

[Amechra]

Yeah, I dipped Witch for that exact reason (and to qualify for Spirit's Gift).

The one trick I kinda covered over is that Bandit the Riot Raccoon is actually combat effective starting at around 3rd level, thanks to the Halfling Shaman FC benefit letting you advance the Mauler Familiar Archetype a level quicker.

So the Raccoon is getting a +4 bonus to NA and has 19 Str. He can also stay in that upgraded form indefinitely, so you can use him as a mount or whatever.

I mean, Halfling Shamans are kinda silly anyway once you throw in Familiar Archetypes; by 6th level, their Familiar acts as if they were 9th level for NA, Intelligence, and special abilities.

By 20th level, we're looking at a Familiar equivalent to what a 30th level character would have. Despite the fact that 30th level characters aren't something Pathfinder lets you do, iirc.

For a normal Familiar, that's SR 35; sadly, Int and NA are just table entries, not formulas. However, the Mauler archetype explicitly states that the strength bonus is +1 at 3rd level, and +1 for every two levels after that.

That comes out to a +14 to Str. Which, especially if you start with a Familiar with decent Strength but Tiny size (like a Raccoon), means you are looking at a +24 to Str, which can pop right up to +26 if you picked the Mammoth spirit.

That's an untyped bonus, by the way.


Hmm... The Familiar Folio has a list of options anyone with a Bloodline can take which replaces their first-level benefit with a boost to their Familiar. I think you can technically grab those with the Eldritch Heritage feat (or a Sorcerer dip, if push comes to shove), so I'm going to give them a good look-through.

EDIT: Ooh, Witches have a couple options for boosting Familiars too, based off their Patron; doing so delays their Patron spells by a level, but if you're only dipping Witch to boost your Familiar...

I think the most abusable one has to be the one for the Animal Patron, surprisingly enough - it gives them the Speak With Animals Of Their Own Kind at 1st level, even if they wouldn't normally get it.

So phaedrus? That's how you stick the Protector Archetype on an Improved Familiar.