School Familiar (Familiar Archetype)
Today’s entry is a bit of a departure from the norm, as this is the one archetype I know of that actually stems from a feat, and therefore does not actually replace any class abilities, instead being granted by the feat.
Normally, such a design choice would be superfluous, since the entire idea of feats is to grant abilities beyond what the normal class allows, but today’s archetype is complex enough that I’d say it warrants it.
Taken from the School Familiar and Greater School Familiar Feats, this archetype is for the familiars of school specialist wizards (or perhaps, the odd school savant arcanist, with vanilla arcanists being technically possible, but missing out on the full capabilities).
Essentially, early in their careers when they just start to get truly powerful magic, wizards can choose to interweave their specialized school of magic into the bond they share with their familiars, linking their preexisting powers to their familiar, as well as unlocking new ones.
While all school familiars share some abilities, what sets them apart is how each individual school of magic adds its own unique abilities.
Due to the focused nature of their bond, these familiars are only able to share and deliver spells that match that school.
Additionally, they also learn a single cantrip from that school that they can use at will.
More impressively, a wizard can channel their various limited-use abilities through their familiar, but doing so is expensive, taking up twice the energy to do so.
With the abjuration school, the basic power grants them a magical ward that dulls the brunt of energy damage, the type changeable with minimal effort, while also warding them against magic missiles like a shield spell. Furthermore, a single ally can receive the elemental protection benefits as well. Taking things further, such familiars can also deliver a dispelling charge of magic with their natural weaponry.
With conjuration, the wizards find their familiar is never far away, teleporting to them from afar. Investing in improving the bond allows the familiar to merge bodily with a summoned creature as it is coming into local reality, lending its intellect and familiar abilities to a larger, stronger form.
Divination familiars are supernaturally prescient, and are rarely caught off guard. Additionally, their connection to their master can allow said wizard to react faster to the onset of combat. With a greater bond, the wizard, regardless of level, can scry with great clarity on their familiar at any time.
The familiars of enchanters serve as a conduit for their master’s mind-bending spells, making them harder to resist if the creature is intimately close to the target. More powerful bonds allow the familiar to charm a foe with physical contact, though only once before the creature becomes immune forever. How effective the charm is varies on whether the familiar is able to speak and communicate with the target, but it can give an edge in the right circumstance.
Evokers use their familiars as channels for the deadly energies they wield, their familiars becoming resistant to a single element, but bolstering the harm of spells that deal the same type of damage. What’s more, the stronger bond make the familiar fully immune to that energy type, and allows their master to cast that sort of spell into their familiar to be unleashed later.
In the hands of the masters of illusion, this bond allows a familiar to take over concentrating on an illusion spell for their master, their bond slightly enhancing the believability of the spell as well. Those that master the bond further can spawn hundreds of illusionary duplicates of their familiar, creating a phantom swarm that can engulf, psychosomatically harm and distract foes, and provide some manner of protection to the actual familiar within.
Channeling unearthly energies, the school familiars of necromancers can aid their allies against incorporeal foes, allowing them to strike fully and true against such beings, and even sapping the energy of bodiless haunts. With a greater focus, these familiars become truly one with the dead, able to heal from negative energy, becoming imperceptible to the undead, and ignoring energy drain while also draining energy from living foes.
Transmuters are loath to see their works undone, so their familiars can hold a reserve of magical energy from a sacrificed spell, expending it to negate such a dispelling attempt on a nearby transmutation spell. More powerful mages can unstick the form of their familiar, allowing it to shapeshift into any sort of creature that is a viable familiar option (not including improved familiars), gaining all the advantages of that form, and even providing the appropriate bonus to their master that such a familiar would normally give.
As you can imagine, this archetype is very useful for any school specialist build that wants to rely heavily upon the bond between master and familiar, with some serving as excellent spies, while others providing an extra edge during combat or spellcasting. Consider all your options when building such a character, as well as the limitations of the wizard class as well.
While not listed, the section on the feat and archetype suggests that school familiars for the elementalist schools might exist, which sounds to me like a job for the homebrew enthusiasts out there. With that in mind, consider what subtle effect these bonds might have on the familiar, if any, similar to how the spirits of shamans affect their spirit animals, but perhaps less pronounced.
Famous for its arcane academy and the fashionable school familiar technique, the mountain city of Skytower has gone dark recently, and merchant caravans heading that way are never heard from again. It turns out a magical experiment gone wrong spawned a mountain blight, one that delights in laying siege to the mage town.
Eerie and impossibly old, Master Buborix has ruled over a vast region with his magic for many a generation of man, the owl-faced syrinx maintains order with dominated servitors, many of which were former heroes seeking to free the land. The most vexing are put to death in a circuitous manner, using his thrush familiar Thredony to charm foes from a distance, the talking bird promising the secret to unmaking him lying in all manner of deathtraps and monster dens.
Hailing from primieval lands, Chaku, a lizardfolk master of magic, commands the primal forces of nature, channeling the elements through himself and his archaeopteryx familiar. Though seemingly brutal or primitive on the surface, he is very much a brilliant wizard, and his treatise on magic have been translated and passed around to various academies.
