    Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice What happens to a familiar when their wizard dies? Advice | Search Thread Search this Thread: |  | Thirdhorseman | Aug 10, 2015, 01:00 pm | | 1 person marked this as a favorite. |  do they revert to a normal animal, or retain their intelligence? or does anything else happen? Thanks!! | Thirdhorseman | Aug 10, 2015, 03:05 pm | bump | Taku Ooka Nin | Aug 10, 2015, 03:14 pm |  Paizo FAQ wrote:Sorcerer/Wizard: Can I dismiss my familiar so I may select a new familiar? This isn't addressed in the rules anywhere, but yes, you should be able to dismiss a familiar if you want to select a new one. However, you must still wait 1 week and pay 200 gp for the 8-hour ritual. Dismissing a familiar is ending a link between your soul and it, so it should probably take about an hour. The exception to the above is if you take the Improved Familiar feat, which allows you to immediately replace your familiar with the new familiar, at no cost or time required (it is assumed this occurs during whatever preparations you make while leveling up). Once dismissed, an animal familiar is just a normal animal of its type (a special familiar from the Improved Familiar feat reverts to a normal creature of its type). Whether or not it wants to remain with you is up to your GM and probably based on how you treated the creature while it was your familiar.
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9o81 From this we can infer that if the class feature ends, such as if you die, the familiar returns to being a normal animal of its type. If the class feature returns to being active, you are raised from the dead, the very same familiar regains all of its former powers/abilities and probably seeks you out if you are not immediately available. If the familiar dies while you are dead, then you need to pay the cost to replace it per normal. | Thirdhorseman | Aug 10, 2015, 03:17 pm | thanks, good to know | Taku Ooka Nin | Aug 10, 2015, 03:21 pm | You're probably not going to find a specific rule here, mainly because when people die they tend to stay dead. Therefore you can just assume the class feature is turning on and off. Assume that the familiar retains its intelligence score, but becomes an animal (or whatever it was) again. It recalls all of its life experiences, and could even decide to go do other things with its life. All of its attributes would probably remain as they were before you died. | spectrevk | Aug 10, 2015, 03:24 pm | | 3 people marked this as a favorite. |  I like to think that old Wizard familiars go on to find new apprentices to teach magic to, and thus become Witch familiars :) | Kayerloth | Aug 12, 2015, 09:06 am | | 1 person marked this as a favorite. | And expect a lot of variance between GM's. Personally if I knew story-wise or from party chatter that the character was going to be subject to being Raised or Rezzed in the near future I'd not have the familiar 'immediately or within an hour' return to 'normal'. Might even have it fade slowly over time (days??) while treating it as an NPC remaining near the corpse or even perhaps loitering near where the soul was if for some reason the soul was in a separate location. If, for example, his soul was being effected by magic to remain near the scene of their death the familiar may remain near the soul rather than following the corpse (whether the party or some creature is dragging it off etc.). Basically it's a potential story device and if suitable to the campaign, party, character I'd use it as such. | alexd1976 | Aug 12, 2015, 09:23 am |  Kayerloth wrote: And expect a lot of variance between GM's. Personally if I knew story-wise or from party chatter that the character was going to be subject to being Raised or Rezzed in the near future I'd not have the familiar 'immediately or within an hour' return to 'normal'. Might even have it fade slowly over time (days??) while treating it as an NPC remaining near the corpse or even perhaps loitering near where the soul was if for some reason the soul was in a separate location. If, for example, his soul was being effected by magic to remain near the scene of their death the familiar may remain near the soul rather than following the corpse (whether the party or some creature is dragging it off etc.). Basically it's a potential story device and if suitable to the campaign, party, character I'd use it as such. I like this approach, and use it as well. | Cevah | Aug 12, 2015, 07:03 pm |  If the familiar is a Homunculus, there is this text: SRD wrote: If the creature's master is slain, the homunculus goes insane—it loses its Intelligence score, all feats, and all skill ranks, and generally claims the immediate surroundings as its domain, mindlessly attacking any who intrude upon its lair. On rare occasions, a homunculus freed from its servitude rises above its master's original intent and becomes more than a half-insane construct guardian of a long-forgotten lair. In some cases, a homunculus might even come to see itself as the rightful heir to its master's legacy, or even the reincarnated spirit of the master himself.
For witches, the situation is a bit clearer: Witch's Familiar SRD wrote:If a familiar belongs to a witch that has died, it only retains its knowledge of spells for 24 hours, during which time it is possible to coerce or bribe the familiar into teaching its spells to another, subject to GM discretion. /cevah | Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / What happens to a familiar when their wizard dies? | All Messageboards | | Forums Paizo Announcements General Discussion Product Discussion Website Feedback PaizoCon General Discussion Events Organized Play Paizo Events Third-Party and Fan Events Community Use Licensed Products General Discussion Comics Digital Games Owlcat Pathfinder CRPGs Pathfinder Online Miniatures Pathfinder Pathfinder Second Edition General Discussion Advice Risks and Rewards Class Playtest Playtest General Discussion Daredevil Class Discussion Slayer Class Discussion Rules Discussion Paizo Products Pathfinder Beginner Box Pathfinder Quest 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Paizo FAQ wrote:
Kayerloth wrote: