10
\$\begingroup\$

On one of my Pathfinder tables, two players came up with the idea of having their new characters - two 3rd level Sorceresses - not only having a romantic relationship, but also being so important to each other that they went through a ritual that made both of them a familiar for each other.

Their plan is for them to build their characters as Fey-Touched, take Improved Familiar and then bind each other as a familiar.

While Improved Familiar is pretty clear regarding Fey-Touched creatures being a valid target for a familiar, I'm under the impression that what the rules are saying is that you can pick a regular familiar with the template "Fey-touched" applied upon it, not any arbitrary creature with said template, and so they wouldn't be able to make this work.

I'm not even sure if a PC can be built with the Fey-Touched template from the get go, but assuming it is possible:

  • Is my reading of Improved Familiar correct?
  • If it is and it is impossible for them to proceed with their plan this way, is there any other build that could enable them to follow this concept that would be valid with no or minimal DM-fiat?

I'm looking for Pathfinder 1e answers, but if there is a way to make this work in D&D 3.X, that would be welcome too.

Improve this question
\$\endgroup\$
7
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry if my English looks weird. It isn't my first language, and sometimes what makes sense in my mind end up looking very strange for native speakers! \$\endgroup\$
    – T. Sar
    Nov 11, 2019 at 11:32
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Your English is actually fairly good in my opinion (not that I'm a native speaker myself) \$\endgroup\$
    – Sdjz
    Nov 11, 2019 at 11:42
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ This didn’t even register as other than fluent and colloquial English. :) \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Nov 11, 2019 at 17:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ Since the answer is likely either “no” or trivial (“you can do anything you want!”), you might want to ask another question about balance and any similar concerns if you decide to allow it anyway. \$\endgroup\$
    – fectin
    Nov 11, 2019 at 21:55
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @lfusaso My group exists in some sort of limbo between 3.5 and Pathfinder, so we end up mixing and matching the rules as needed. Sometimes, that ends up creating some confusion. Thanks for pointing that up \$\endgroup\$
    – T. Sar
    Nov 12, 2019 at 10:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8
+50
\$\begingroup\$

Your reading is correct.

If we look at the Fey-Touched Creature template it says:

Spellcasters with ties to the fey (such as sorcerers with the fey bloodline) can summon fey-touched creatures with summon monster spells and take fey-touched creatures as improved familiars at 3rd level, similar to selecting celestial or infernal familiars.

If we look at the Improved Familiar list (here or here, we see that celestial and infernal improved familiars refer to a note:

Or other celestial, entropic, fiendish, or resolute animal from the standard familiar list.

So they would not be able to select each other, as they are not creatures on the standard familiar list (I presume).

There is no way for them to become each others' familiar in Pathfinder.1

This is definitely intended, as aside from obvious balance concerns like duplicate familiar, there's also all the different familiar abilities that they'd get, and would need adjudicating for.

1 As far as I can determine, players cannot become each others' familiar in Paizo published content. I could be wrong, though.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .