How do I add a familiar outside of a class?

[Mathias]

I'd like to add a familiar to a class from within a custom ability.

I tried using the minion button on the custom ability, and copying this from minion.dat to get the correct values for the various choices:

    <minion id="ArcFamil" inherit="yes">
      <tag group="Hero" tag="NoAdvance"/>
      <tag group="Hero" tag="AnyLangOK"/>
      <bootstrap thing="cArcFImpEv"/>
      <bootstrap thing="xSplRs"/>
      </minion>

That mostly works, but when you go to the familiar and choose a race, the list includes all the races, not just the familiars.

I got better results by bootstrapping cArcFamil to the custom ability - that gives the character all the appropriate familiar abilities, but the familiar's AC and intelligence don't increase with the character's levels and the within 1 mile checkbox doesn't add the appropriate skill bonus. Also, the familiar's list of races still includes every race.

I also tried adding the familiar to the class, and adding a condition statement to the bootstrap that adds, but I can't figure out how I can use a condition to look for a specific custom ability.

[Colen]

To add a familiar outside of a class, bootstrap the 'cArcFamil' pick -
this should attach the familiar automatically. I think you also have to
set its level to at least 1, by setting the "CompLevel" field before
First/10000.


--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com

[Mathias]

Sorry I hadn't gotten back to this for a while.

Adding the CompLevel fixes the problem that the familiar's powers weren't increasing (thank you), but I'm still not sure about how to restrict the available races for the familiar to just the familiars, and the class doesn't know what sort of familiar was bootstrapped for the purpose of the skill/save bonus.