Some feats I whipped up for a Tome Series game

[Prak]

Hey, want'd to post these here for balance analysis and suggestions, so post 'em if you've got 'em, I guess. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Acquire Familiar (Magic or Combat)
A character may set Acquire Familiar to scale by Caster Level or BAB. If they choose CL they can only choose familiars which require CL as a prerequisite, if they choose BAB, they can only chose familiars that require BAB as a prerequisite. Either scale allows familiars which require both, and either scale allows familiars to increase in size or masters to accumulate more familiars.
You have some creature that follows you around, gets things from shelves for you and occasionally fights off obnoxious goblins and kobolds while you’re casting the game ending spell.
CL/BAB 0: You have some small animal (about Tiny or Diminutive size category) that follows you about. It is imbued with greater intelligence than normal for it’s type (it has Int 3) and is a magical beast rather than an animal.
CL/BAB 1: Your familiar advances as that of a wizard or sorcerer of your caster level.
CL/BAB 6: You may choose a new familiar from a small list of more powerful creatures. Either you dismiss your old familiar or it turns into the new creature really doesn’t matter, and can completely depend on your character. The character must have the Caster level or BAB (and occasionally both) indicated on the chart, and can be no more than one step away from the indicated alignment on each axis (good-evil and law-chaos). To select a familiar with an elemental or energy subtype, the master must have at least one Spell, Spell Like, Supernatural or Extraordinary ability of the same type. Alternatively, your familiar can become bigger (advance it by sufficient HD to make it's CR 3 less than your own, and increase it's size one category larger), or you can gain an additional normal one.

Improved Familiars

Familiar	Type/Subtype or AL	Caster Level and/or BAB	Source
Anarchic Creature	Chaotic	3rd	Planar Handbook
Axiomatic Creature	Lawful	3rd	Planar Handbook
Celestial Hawk(1)	Good	3rd	MM
Fiendish Tiny Viper(2)	Evil	3rd	MM
Krenshar	N	3rd and +3	MM
Worg	NE	3rd and +3	MM
Copper Asp	-	3rd	Drg 341
Razor Hawk	-	3rd	Drg 341
Shocker Lizard	Electricity or N	5th	MM
Stirge	N	5th	MM
Air elemental, small	Air	5th	MM
Earth elemental, small	Earth	5th	MM
Fire elemental, small	Fire	5th	MM
Water elemental, small	Water	5th	MM
Blink Dog	LG	5th and +5	MM
Hell Hound	LE	5th and +5	MM
Crystal Cat	-	5th	Drg 341
Glass Dragonfly	-	5th	Drg 341
Salvage Rat	-	5th	Drg 341
Xeg-yi	N	CL 7th	MotP
Xag-ya	N	CL 7th	MotP
Xac-Yel	N, Fire	CL 8th	Planar Handbook
Xac-Yij	N, Air	CL 8th	Planar Handbook
Xap-Yaup	N, Electricity	CL 8th	Planar Handbook
Xong-Yong	N, Sonic	CL 8th	Planar Handbook
Xor-Yost	N, Cold	CL 8th	Planar Handbook
Formian Worker	LN	7th	MM
Imp	LE	7th	MM
Psuedodragon	NG	7th	MM
Quasit	CE	7th	MM
Homunculus(3)	Undead	7th	MM
Mephit	Varies	7th	MM
Hippogriff	N	7th and +7	MM
Howler	CE	7th and +7	MM
Winter Wolf	LE	7th and +7	MM
Spark Guardian	-	7th	CW
Erudite Owl	-	7th	Drg 341
Mercurial Spider	-	7th	Drg 341
Gauntlet Guardian	-	9th	CW
Blade Guardian	-	11th	CW
1-Or other celestial animal from the standard familiar list. 2-Or other fiendish animal from the standard familiar list. 3-The master must first create the homunculus, substituting ichor or another part of the master’s body for blood if necessary.

CL 11/BAB: Choose one spell you know or can cast, your familiar can cast this spell as a spell like ability a number of time equal to 10-spell level per day.
CL 16/BAB: Your familiar gains a template from the following list, following the same guidelines as above, alternatively, your familiar becomes bigger (advance it’s HD enough to make it one size category larger).

Template	AL or Type/Subtype	Source
Ghost	Undead	MM
Half Celestial	Good	MM
Half Fiend	Evil	MM
Half Dragon	Air, Cold, Earth, Fire or Water	MM
Vampire	Undead	MM
Umbral Creature	Undead	LM
Entropic Creature	Negative Energy	Planar Handbook
Vivacious Creature	Positive Energy	Planar Handbook
Cold Creature	Cold	Drg 347
Magma Creature	Earth, Fire	Drg 347
Ooze Creature	Earth, Water	Drg 347
Smoke Creature	Air, Fire	Drg 347
Air Creature	Air	MotP
Earth Creature	Earth	MotP
Fire Creature	Fire	MotP
Water Creature	Water	MotP
Arcane-Blood Creature(1)	-	Drg 350
Poisonous Creature(1)	-	Drg 350
Stonebone Creature(1)	-	Drg 350
Corrupted Creature	-	Drg 350
1-The familiar also gains Evolved from the same article as a bonus feat.

Sacrificial Mastery (Skill: Knowledge [Religion])
You know how to trade with the dark gods in the tender of flesh.
Initial Benefit: You may perform sacrifices to receive awards as per the sacrifice rules in Book of Vile Darkness.
4: You gain a +5 competance bonus to Knowledge (Religion) checks made as part of a sacrifice. Further more, you may take an appropriate amount of time and create an area to be considered an alter dedicated to a dark god for the purposes of sacrifice check bonuses. Creatures of Medium size or smaller require one full round of preparation, Large creatures require two full rounds of preparation, Huge creatures require four full rounds, etc. Two creatures of the same size count as being a single creature of one size category larger for the purposes of preparing an alter and can be sacrificed together on a suitably large alter.

and I've kinda run out of ideas for the rest of the benefits for that one... I've also got an Astrology feat tied to an issue of Dragon coming as soon as I sit down to write it...
so any comments or suggestions?

[MrWaeseL]

Spell-like abilities without restrictions are a baaad idea. Hello there, Wish-granting familiar!

[CalibronXXX]

Seeing as how you'd have to wait 'till level 18 to take the feat, and it would count as an XP-less Wish, thus lowering the abuseability, it doesn't seem so bad. I'm sure there're some spells that this would be too powerful when combined with, but I can't think of any off-hand, 'cept Miracle of course.

[MrWaeseL]

It wouldn't have to be an XP-less wish. That's only in the Tome series.

EDIT: Should've read the title:bricks:

[CalibronXXX]

Aren't (Magic), (Combat), and (Skill) feats going to be unbalanced in a non-Tomes game regardless of XP free wishes?

[Brobdingnagian]

The spell-like ability has a restriction. It can only be use a number of times per day equal to ten minus the spell level. It says it right there.

[Prak]

thank you! yes people, that means your familiar can use wish, but it's only once a day, so make it good! and like it really matters in a game when chain-binding and face-stabbing of efreets for wishes is expected...

[Catharz]

Having alignment subtype restrictions on familiars: OK (although good wizard/imp familiar can be fun).
Having other subtype restrictions on familiars: Bad.

[Prak]

meh, wasn't so attached to the subtype restriction. it's gone.

[shirak]

Why wouldn't everybody get a Positive Energon (Xag-Yi I think) in their pants?

[Prak]

cause not everyone thinks about their healing abilities...

[Koumei]

I always like to choose a Mephit for my Improved Familiar. Simply because I think they're cool.

Then I feel like I wasted a feat. Especially when they die. This feat is a lot nicer.

[Prak]

yeah, that year and a day rule is stupid, and a joke. And when I say joke, I mean like material components. It's a reference to the amount of time it supposedly takes for an initiate in wicca to actually study enough and decide that wicca is really for them and become an actual wiccan. Or something like that. I know it's a reference to occult stupidity, and it's not a funny one, just like material components. If your familiar dies, you should be able to go right out and get a new one, none of this rules-enforced rp-ing that doesn't make sense, and forces you to go a year of game time without a class ability. I think that if your character is in mourning for his familiar, you'll roleplay it just fine, and you should get some form of ability to take the place of the familiar until such time as you get a new one. Now, I haven't worked that in, but I think if you lose your familiar and want to wait before taking another one, it should be perfectly fine for you to grab a different magic feat that fills in for your familiar.

[Koumei]

But wouldn't that make sense? D&D frowns on that.

[Prak]

It also thinks raping folk lore is fun... I however, don't....