Advanced Method

You may want a familiar that is radically different from any other creature on the list. In these cases, your best bet is to select the familiar creature that is closest to what you’re looking for, then work with your GM to come up with suitable ability substitutions or statistical alterations that bring the statistics in line with your imagined familiar. (Remember, always ask for your GM’s approval before altering creature statistics or using homebrew elements in the game!)

You’ll need to be well versed in the rules to create a balanced creature, and even if you do the math perfectly, your GM may still decide the creature is too powerful.

Generally, the less dramatic the change to your familiar’s base creature, the more balanced the resulting familiar will be. Players should always have a concrete theme in mind before adjusting familiars’ statistics, preferably a concept that aims toward creating a familiar of an existing type that has a slightly specialized skill set. Creatures that are unique, though still largely natural, and tie into a character’s backstory can also make good concepts.

Players who are considering altering a pre-existing familiar should consider one or more of the following changes to the familiar’s statistics, which are ordered from least to most impactful to the game mechanics.

Skills: Reverse-calculating where skill ranks went is generally easier with familiars than with other creatures, since familiars rarely have more than 1 Hit Die, and rarely have more than 1 or 2 skill ranks to begin with. Reallocating skill ranks can be an easy way of customizing a creature’s statistics to better fit your image of your familiar’s personality. For instance, to create a primate familiar that is good at stealing small trinkets, you might start with the statistics of a monkey and simply reallocate its skill ranks from Perception to Sleight of Hand or Stealth.

Feats: You can easily exchange a pre-built familiar’s starting feats with different feats that better match your concept, such as the familiar feats. There are also new feats relating to familiars, allowing a great deal of customization and sometimes adding unusual mystical qualities and abilities.

Attacks: While changing the damage dice for a creature’s attacks can quickly create an underwhelming or overpowered familiar, exchanging natural attacks for other types of natural attacks is generally a safe practice. Using the natural attacks table, you can easily switch out a bat’s bite attack for two claws or a gore attack. Generally, you should replace a primary natural attack with another primary natural attack, and secondary attacks with other secondary attacks.

Speed: Changing a creature’s movement types or speeds is usually to be avoided. However, it can be relatively safe as long as you are exchanging an unusual movement spe