Index of familiars (1E)

This index contains lists and rules relevant only to Pathfinder First Edition. Descriptions of the nature of familiars and processes related to acquiring them, what occurs upon a familiar's death, and class-specific functions of familiars differ in Pathfinder Second Edition. For a Second Edition equivalent to this index, see Index of familiars (2E).

Many types of creatures can serve as familiars.

By class

Wizards and arcanists

Hawks are a common choice for a familiar.

The familiar of a wizard or arcanist grants special abilities to its master, but only when the familiar and its master are within 1 mile of each other.

Common familiars

The following familiars are commonly employed by wizards, arcanists, adepts, and some sorcerers and witches on Golarion.

• bat
• cat
• hawk
• lizard
• monkey (which may also be used by a sea singer bard)
• owl
• rat
• raven (see Witch familiars)
• snake, viper (also for a sorcerer with the serpentine bloodline).
• toad
• weasel

Pact wizards

Wizards who form eldritch pacts with outsiders from other planes are known as pact wizards. Rather than being the master to their familiar, they negotiate a pact with them in which they serve each other, with the outsider typically assuming the guise of an animal familiar.

School familiars

Wizards who specialize in a school of magic can adopt a familiar specific to their chosen school. These school familiars resemble normal familiars but gain powers associated with their master's specialization. For example, a transmutation familiar can gain the ability to shapeshift. Wizards who specialize in this practice are known as familiar adepts.

Soulbound familiars

Wizards who experience the loss of a loved one might bind their soul to a creature and continue to accompany them as a familiar. These familiars retain the personality, and some of the skills, of the deceased person whose soul inhabits them. Such wizards are also known as spirit binders.

Witches

The witch Feiya and her fox familiar Daji.

A witch's familiar is a mystical adviser who both serves her and reveals to her secrets unknown to most mortals. Familiars enhance their witches' skills, grant them additional spells, and help with some types of magic.

A witch must commune with her familiar daily to prepare her spells, which are stored inside their familiar; a witch cannot prepare a spell that is not stored by her familiar. A witch can also add additional spells to her familiar through a special ritual. If a witch's familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced one day later through a special ritual that takes eight hours to complete.

Common familiars

Witches of Irrisen favor ravens as familiars.

The following familiars are most associated with witches, but are also often used by wizards and sorcerers.

• almiraj
• centipede
• crab
• giant flea (only available for witches)
• fox
• octopus
• scorpion
• spider

Patron familiars

Patron familiars are witch familiars that are tied to the same patron as their mistress or master and reinforce the connections to the source of the witch's power. almost identical to a normal witch's familiar, patron familiars have certain special abilities that are associated with their patron power.

Synergists

Certain witches can merge their form with their familiar's to become one entity. These synergists remain separate consciousnesses and can separate their symbiosis as needed.

Sorcerers

Seoni and her blue-tailed skink tattoo familar.

As well as the choice of a familiar similar to a wizard's, sorcerers may choose to take on a familiar that is more sorcerer-related.

Bloodline familiars

Bloodline familiars are restricted to those spellcasters having an inherent magical capability such as sorcerers, but also bloodragers, whose magic is associated with the same bloodline as the familiar. These familiars tend to manifest abilities that resonate with the particular bloodline they share with their master or mistress.

Tattoo familiars

Some sorcerers adopt a tattoo as a familiar. The familiar creature can be carried as a tattoo on the sorcerer's skin or released as a normal familiar.

Alchemists

A tinkerer alchemist and clockwork familiar.

Alchemists who create alchemical homunculi can also employ these creations as familiars. Those who specialize in this practice are also known as homunculists.

Through alchemical discovery, some alchemists can create a tumour on their body which acts like a familiar. A tumour familiar is detachable and can move independently of the alchemist until such a point that it reattaches back to the alchemist's body. When moving on its own, a tumour familiar takes on the form of a common animal.

Druids

A blight druid might call a familiar in a similar fashion to a wizard, as they cannot call an animal companion.

Some druids associated with a domain may gain a familiar associated with their animal domain instead of attracting an animal companion.

Other druids attune themselves to disembodied nature spirits, and can bring these spirits into being as creatures called leshies that act like familiars.

Clerics and rangers

Clerics or rangers of Besmara may choose a familiar instead of a domain or an animal companion, respectively.

Shamans

Shamans often bond with animal servants of the spirits they devote themselves to, which are known as spirit animals but function similarly to familiars.

Paladins

Some paladins are called to serve a deity directly by an outsider emissary of that deity in the guise of an animal. Such an emissary serves the paladin in a manner similar to a familiar, and who also mentors the paladin.

Bards

Duettist bards can work with a bonded familiar to supplement their performances through close coordination.

Fighters

Fighters who train to defend against magical threats are known as eldritch guardians, and can gain a magical bond with a familiar who fights alongside them.

Magi

Magi who fight in tandem with a familiar are known as beastblades.

Stargazers

A stargazer of Pulura with his cat familiar.

This section is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.

Uncommon familiars

A platypus can be a more unusual familiar.

Followers of Calistria sometimes have wasp familiars.

The following familiars are either less commonly chosen, or are common only for specific races or in certain locations: It is quite possible that many other animals, similar to those mentioned here, could also be adopted as a familiar.

• archaeopteryx
• armadillo
• flying fox
• bustard, often in Katapesh
• capybara
• margay
• house centipede
• chicken
• king crab
• crow, frequently used by orc sorcerers
• compsognathus dinosaur
• figurine of wondrous power
• fox
  • bushtail fennec fox, often in Katapesh
• goat
• hedgehog
• ioun wyrd
• jerboa, often in Katapesh
• kakapo
• koala
• lich newt
• mole
• blue-ringed octopus
• otter
• peacock
• penguin
• petrifern
• petromin
• pig
• platypus
• popoto dolphins
• rhamphorhynchus pterosaur
• pufferfish
• rabbit
• raccoon
• donkey rat
• red panda
• scalliwing
• scorpions, including:
  • greensting scorpion
  • lashtail scorpion, often in Katapesh
• skunk
• sloth
• leopard slug
• spider
  • scarlet spider
  • solifugid, often in Katapesh
• squirrel
  • flying squirrel
• thrush
• torble
• tortoise
• trilobite, a vermin familiar
• tuatara
  • rock tuatara
• turtle
  • snapping turtle
• wallaby
• wasp, only for Calistrians

Cold-climate familiars

The following familiars are more appropriate for residents of the colder parts of Golarion:

• arctic fox
• arctic hare
• arctic tern
• ermine
• lemming
• penguin
• ptarmigan
• puffin
• snowy owl

Elemental familiars

Sometimes, a familiar is infused with raw elemental power—air, earth, fire, or water—that manifests in an element-appropriate fashion, such as the power of flight for an air-infused familiar; toughened skin for earth-infused; flaming attacks for fire-infused; and the ability to thrive under water for water-infused familiars. All such familiars can speak the elemental language associated with their respective elemental plane.

Nautical and piratical familiars

A dodo and a dwarf caiman.

The following more exotic familiars are mostly associated with pirates and nautical spellcasters, but are not exclusive to them.

• dodo
• dwarf caiman
• marine iguana
• giant isopod
• mongoose
• osprey
• parrot (which may also be used by a sea singer bard)
• sea krait
• seal
• snail kite
• toucan
• tullimonstrum

In addition to the normal array of familiars, Besmara allows birds, blue-ringed octopus, king crabs or monkeys.

Vampiric familiars

Some vampires and dhampirs may call a vampiric familiar.

Other familiars

A spellcaster with a possessed hand familiar.

Some spellcasters choose their own hand as a familiar after making a mutually acceptable bargain with some form of spirit, ghost, or outsider to possess their hand. This form of familiar may aid its "master" in a number of ways, for instance, with extra powers of sight through the hand, with aid to fight with a weapon more effectively, or with ability to act on its own to manipulate objects on behalf of the caster. Perhaps somewhat more horrifically, such a familiar can rip from its master's body and act utterly independently before being reattached to the master's arm.

Some constructs can be used as familiars, such as small hand-crafted poppets.

Improved familiars

An imp, an example of an improved familiar.

Some powerful spellcasters may call a greater familiar, more powerful than those listed above, including:

• celestial version of a standard familiar, e.g., a celestial hawk
• entropic version of a standard familiar
• fiendish version of a standard familiar, e.g., a fiendish viper
• resolute version of a standard familiar
• paracletus aeon
• silvanshee agathion
• almiraj
• cassisian angel
• harbinger archon
• tripurasura
• lyrakien azata
• sootwing bat
• beheaded, severed heads especially popular with necromancers and undead wizards
• bloodseeker
• brain mole
• brownie
• carbuncle, especially sorcerers with a fey bloodline and enchanters
• cat sith
• caypup
• ceru
• chuspiki
• clockwork familiar
• coral capuchin
• cacodaemon, chosen familiar of souldrinkers
• quasit demons, who must serve a demon-sworn witch
• imp and imp consular
• doru div
• calligraphy wyrm
• faerie dragon
• pseudodragon
• pseudowyvern
• pyrausta
• tidepool dragon
• shadow drake
• dweomercat cub
• small air elemental
• small earth elemental
• small fire elemental
• small water elemental
• elemental scamp
• familiar automaton
• galluvix
• jocta genie
• zhyen genie, especially to a daivrat
• homunculus
• impundulu, which appears as an imp or quasit when called as a familiar and consumes its master's soul when the master dies. Witches can also take an impundulu as their familiar.
• arbiter inevitable
• isitoq
• shikigami, or garden kami, sometimes used by Tian casters
• katroome
• augur velstrac
• mamiwa
• mandragora
• mockingfey
• nehushtan
• nycar
• spirit oni
• pipefox
• pooka
• pseudosphinx
• psyche serpent
• nosoi psychopomp
• voidworm protean
• cythnigot
• giant rat
• raktavarna rakshasa
• ratling
• esipil sahkil
• seru
• sin seeker
• skvader
• smokeshade
• sprite
  • liminal sprite
• typhilipede
• wolpertinger
• wysp
• xiao
• zoog

Related items

Aquatic familiars can accompany their master through the use of an aquarium ball. Magical equivalents automatically refresh their water, and can also feed and protect their inhabitants.

Magic items, such as a glove of familiar's touch or spell-sharing collar, extend or enhance spellcasting abilities related to familiars.

Mundanity grease can temporarily sever the bond between a familiar and their master.

Bonds

Pathfinder First Edition content This section covers a term or subject that is relevant to the Pathfinder campaign setting only in the context of the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

The bond between a familiar and their spellcaster connects the caster's soul to their familiar. Forging this bond requires 8 hours of time and 200 gold pieces of materials.

Such a bond cannot be trivially severed. If a familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced one week later and requires repeating the bonding ritual. A spellcaster can choose to dismiss their bond with a familiar in a process that requires at least an hour's time, which reverts the familiar to the mundane existence it experienced prior to becoming a familiar.

References

Paizo published Familiar Folio, a major Pathfinder First Edition work about familiars.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

External links

• Familiar rules and list of wizard familiars on Archives of Nethys for Pathfinder First Edition