A Familiar Problem

[muklowd]

Hi there all - I have an odd one and I'm not sure if the problem is me or the system... hoping for some sage advice ...

I built a high-level character recently Druid3/Wiz11/AA3

Took the Improved Familiar feat and gave him a Lyrakien. All good. Selected Druid domain of Eagle and suddenly my Lyrakien is invalidated and I am only allowed a Hawk as a familiar. And it's not just cos it is a Lyrakien. Every familiar except Hawk is greyed out. Is this working as intended or have I messed up a setting somewhere?

[charlieluce]

I'm pretty sure that's how the animal domains are supposed to work.

[muklowd]

OK - if that's the way it is supposed to work then fair enough. I could see it working that way if you took Druid with Eagle domain first - committed for life sort of deal, but it just didn't seem to make sense that if you did it the other way round it should invalidate an existing familiar. Possibly just a case of mechanics I suppose. Thanks for the reply

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by muklowd

OK - if that's the way it is supposed to work then fair enough. I could see it working that way if you took Druid with Eagle domain first - committed for life sort of deal, but it just didn't seem to make sense that if you did it the other way round it should invalidate an existing familiar. Possibly just a case of mechanics I suppose. Thanks for the reply

The Pathfinder data set doesn't keep track of the order by which you create and progress your character. It only provides point-in-time rules validation. Some of the other systems let you lock your character after initial creation and use advancement rules, but Pathfinder does not do that. I'm not sure why. Maybe it wasn't feasible due to the complexity of the system and it's expanding rules, including third-party publishers? I don't know for sure, but that sounds like a reasonable guess.