Well, time for another entry: the
Impundulu familiar, which seems to be a must-have for Witches (just be 7th level and have
Improved Familiar to qualify). Cannot be bothered to give the whole familiar description, but will cite the most interesting parts:
Familiar Service A mortal of 7th level or higher with the Improved Familiar feat can summon an impundulu to serve as her familiar; an impundulu familiar appears as a birdlike imp or quasit, has the normal statistics of an imp or quasit, and loses all of its own abilities except its subtypes, alignment, and damage reduction. If its master is slain, the impundulu seizes its former master’s soul, retreats to a hidden place, and consumes the soul, after which it metamorphoses over the next 24 hours into its natural form, regains all of its normal abilities, and becomes free; most aging masters pass on their impundulu familiars to younger family members rather than let the creatures turn on them.
Witchcraft An impundulu serving as a witch’s familiar gives its master additional spells known, just like a witch’s patron. The master must choose from one of the following patron themes when binding the impundulu, and this choice cannot be changed without dismissing and re-summoning the impundulu: Agility, Elements, or Transformation. These patron spells known are in addition to any granted by the witch’s actual patron.
Yep, bonus patron for a Witch, and these
patrons are not bad. Transformation is pretty weak (If it'd given
Beast Shape IV instead of
Form of the Dragon I, it'd be a lot better), especially for the low levels, and generally outclassed by Agility (unless you want Form of the Dragon, which is not that bad as far as buffs go), but Agility
and Endurance (mostly for the MIracle finisher) both has some real prizes there. Elements does give you a complete set of blasting spells that the Witch normally doesn't have (although you're probably better off just hexing enemies), but you'll probably want metamagic and the like to give the spells more useful riders (or just use
Magic Trick (
Fireball) for an unusually high damage Fireball).
Wall of Ice is a handy spell, at least.
Use a
Collar of Sacrifice and you should be fine. While a sulking familiar is probably not much use, Witches generally prefer the use of a
familiar satchel rather than risk their living spellbooks in combat anyway (unless they are level 10+
Beast-Bonded Witches, which do not need to worry about having their soul consumed by the Impundulu anyway, since their soul auto-possesses their familiars when they die, unless they're both dead).
Alternatively, you can
Geas your familiar into not consuming your soul, or use a
Clone to preempt the possibility at even higher levels. Whether or not
Lesser Geas works would require GM adjudication, since the base form of the Impundulu has 14 HD, but the familiar forms it turns into have less than 8 HD. Familiars use their master's level as their HD if it is higher, however, so you would only be able to cast this at level 7 (when you get Lesser Geas) or lower (with a scroll or similar).
