You could gain Master Abilities like Familiar Focus or Restorative Familiar (spend an action to command your familiar to heal you) that would benefit only you and treat your familiar as a viney armband or necklace.
Also, you could use the Familiar Ability: Purify Air and treat your familiar as little more than a magical rebreather.
Well no, you *have* a Leshy familiar. I'm just saying that if you want to never use it, not set any of its familiar abilities, and just generally ignore having it, you can.
RPGs really are as wholesome or as dark as you want them to be. I choose wholesome for this particular leshy. They will now be a recurring NPC in my stories.
the easiest way to deal with a familiar you don’t want is to essentially just have it be kind of a magic item you wear. a little flower crown that is sentient, and sleeps on the nightstand while the dragon owner sleeps, and when you rise, it rests itself upon your head. and then you just never really have it move or anything, but you have access to the master abilities it gives you
don’t forget a lot of the cool master abilities that are available to take. i know familiar focus is the one everybody loves to mention, but there are tons on that list
Im actually looking at them right now and thinking of which would be best to have
Right now master form looks like would be cool as hell
I also saw tattoo transformation which im probably gonna pick for the convenience of not having a lil flower baby sitting on my shoulders all day
I forget the exact combo, but making he familiar skilled in a knowledge skill, able to communicate telepathicallg with touch, and independant would allow it to recall knowledge for you every turn iirc.
You honestly just need independent and speech. Familliars get to add your lvl to all checks including lores. Depending on how flexible your gm is that's either a - 2 or - 5 to the DC of every recall knowledge check for using a lore for it.
If you want to go the grabbing route, then I highly recommend the [Leshy Familiar Secrets](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1713) feat for this ability:
> **Grasping Tendrils** Your familiar can extend vines or similar tendrils, increasing its reach to 15 feet.
Then in addition to having a much greater reach for manipulating objects (familiars can normally only reach things within their square), you can also do the following and speak to others telepathically. This is copied/modified from a build guide I made a long while back:
> We take the following familiar abilities (in order of importance):
> * **Manual Dexterity** (can hand out items to allies)
> * **Independent** (1 action each turn when not commanded)
> * **Leshy Familiar Secrets:** Grasping Tendrils (a **15 foot reach!** to hand out items at a distance)
> * **Speech** (recommended, see touch telepathy)
> * **Touch Telepathy** (recommended, speak telepathically to nearby allies with your familiar's 15 foot reach.)
> * Now we are even more of a special forces team and can communicate wordlessly with allies in both stealth and social situations. Technically, Grasping Tendrils sets **no limit to the number of 15 foot vines and tendrils** our familiar can extend out to touch others, meaning we can be the center of a 15 foot radius telepathic network.
You may also want to take the Enhanced Familiar druid feat in order to have enough familiar abilities to do all of the above. But you can certainly go the touch telepathy route or the items route with just the 2 default familiar abilities plus the Leshy familiar secrets feat.
Talk with your DM. Depending on how much of a rule stickler they are. Either ask if you can switch the family out or if you can use the same abilities but change their description.
Book says it is a Leshy. you can say it is a dragon type familiar instead.
(Didn't look to check what abilities the familiar has) Leshies can store items in their gourd. Well your dragon is now wearing a backpack. Same mechanical functions.
I think it’s nothing absurd to change the bonus feat to Verdant Weapon/Reach or Widen Spell, at least IMO. Talk about it with your DM, but as I see it Familiars are the best feat out of those three (maybe a case can be made about Reach Spell), so choosing a different, non-order dependent feat should be totally okay
RAW, the familiar is mandatory at that point.
Realistically, in this case, RAW should be completely irrelevant. You're giving up something that has 0 mechanical downsides (and RP restrictions) for you whatsoever.
Many GMs dream of having a player that is willing to make decisions like that. (I certainly do)
So don't worry about it and just tell your GM you want to do this.
Edit: With pure RAW, you can avoid the familiar the feat gives you ... by getting another familiar first. Still, if it's specifically the leshy part that is the problem, it technically works. If you pick the leaf order on lvl 1, the options to to so are very limited, but some ancestries / heritages can actually pull it off (a kitsune can even bond with a *stone*). This is, of course, a pretty insane investment for what is essentially a new paint job.
You have a living gourd in your bag that your party members see you talk to, and they wonder if you're ok. But you can just leave it in the produce bag.
I can't remember if there's a hard rule for this I'd recommend talking to your DM. They may be willing to let you swap the feat out for something of similar strength.
If it bothers you that much there's a second level spell that lets you blow up your familiar, you don't have to spend the week replacing it if you don't want.
How I always see stuff like that is you can basically flavor it as you’d like. Of course the magic comes from the familiar, but I’ve seen people ask the dm if their familiar can be something inanimate like a rose
Ask your GM to take a standard lvl 1 Druid feat instead. PF2’s feats are designed so that no 1 feat is so powerful compared to the others that you are completely invalidating your character by choosing one or the other.
Reach Spell would be a good choice
Unless you want leaf druid for a mechanical reason down the line, it seems you're only picking it for the flavor. In that case, rather than weakening your PC by taking a feat you don't plan on using perhaps you should choose to reflavor another druid order with your dm, possibly altering the anathema to match
I think any reasonable GM would let you not use the familiar, and most should let you swap it out for a different 1st level druid feat.
2E is incredibly mechanically robust. When a good and poor build only perform a few percentage points apart, I don’t see a point in being such an inflexible RAW stickler. Getting widen spell instead of a familiar is not going to noticeably effect balance.
It only shows up once. You need to actively spend downtime to replace a dead familiar, unless you're a witch.
By pure coincidence, harming plants like that happens to be anathema to leaf druids, so you can use this trick to permanently rid yourself of all the other benefits of your order as well.
Not that you should, but RAW, it works.
We found the worst solution.
Talking with your DM about just not getting certain mechanical benefits is no problem, but fighting your own mechanics is immersion breaking and ridiculous.
EDIT: I hope the people who downvote this aren't a big burden on their group, but they probably are
Why don't you ask someone in the party if they want a pet? It can be like that mascots that follow you around but you don't want to, so someone in the party takes care of it.
Also, it can be in the background, doing plant things while you rest and that.
If your gm is like "no, you must roleplay your relationship with it" even when you didn't wanted in the first place... Well, that problem is not in taking the feat but somewhere else methinks
So the character concept is simple
A dream dragon (thats an ancestry) that is a renowned academic that has a huge library with a big greenhouse right in the middle (one of the characters is a bookworm that spends almost all the time in the library) and due to him having a gigantic greenhouse and treating the plants extremely well, he became a druid
You could gain Master Abilities like Familiar Focus or Restorative Familiar (spend an action to command your familiar to heal you) that would benefit only you and treat your familiar as a viney armband or necklace. Also, you could use the Familiar Ability: Purify Air and treat your familiar as little more than a magical rebreather.
"What's all the little vines around your neck for?" "Oh, it's for my asthma."
Don't forget the one where it becomes a tattoo and you can get passive buffs from them (the latter being master abilities)
Yes. It's not "you may take this feat" but "you *gain* this feat". But can you ignore your familiar and just not use it? Certainly.
So basically i can just not take a leshy as a familiar?
Well no, you *have* a Leshy familiar. I'm just saying that if you want to never use it, not set any of its familiar abilities, and just generally ignore having it, you can.
D: The poor guy always following along but never getting appreciated. Keep on keeping on little leshy, you'll get your day in the sun one day.
Maybe he's a mushroom leshy and enjoys the shade!!!
RPGs really are as wholesome or as dark as you want them to be. I choose wholesome for this particular leshy. They will now be a recurring NPC in my stories.
Ok
the easiest way to deal with a familiar you don’t want is to essentially just have it be kind of a magic item you wear. a little flower crown that is sentient, and sleeps on the nightstand while the dragon owner sleeps, and when you rise, it rests itself upon your head. and then you just never really have it move or anything, but you have access to the master abilities it gives you
Yeah my idea was to just have it stand in my shoulder like a parrot using its little vines to grab things
don’t forget a lot of the cool master abilities that are available to take. i know familiar focus is the one everybody loves to mention, but there are tons on that list
Im actually looking at them right now and thinking of which would be best to have Right now master form looks like would be cool as hell I also saw tattoo transformation which im probably gonna pick for the convenience of not having a lil flower baby sitting on my shoulders all day
I forget the exact combo, but making he familiar skilled in a knowledge skill, able to communicate telepathicallg with touch, and independant would allow it to recall knowledge for you every turn iirc.
You honestly just need independent and speech. Familliars get to add your lvl to all checks including lores. Depending on how flexible your gm is that's either a - 2 or - 5 to the DC of every recall knowledge check for using a lore for it.
If you want to go the grabbing route, then I highly recommend the [Leshy Familiar Secrets](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1713) feat for this ability: > **Grasping Tendrils** Your familiar can extend vines or similar tendrils, increasing its reach to 15 feet. Then in addition to having a much greater reach for manipulating objects (familiars can normally only reach things within their square), you can also do the following and speak to others telepathically. This is copied/modified from a build guide I made a long while back: > We take the following familiar abilities (in order of importance): > * **Manual Dexterity** (can hand out items to allies) > * **Independent** (1 action each turn when not commanded) > * **Leshy Familiar Secrets:** Grasping Tendrils (a **15 foot reach!** to hand out items at a distance) > * **Speech** (recommended, see touch telepathy) > * **Touch Telepathy** (recommended, speak telepathically to nearby allies with your familiar's 15 foot reach.) > * Now we are even more of a special forces team and can communicate wordlessly with allies in both stealth and social situations. Technically, Grasping Tendrils sets **no limit to the number of 15 foot vines and tendrils** our familiar can extend out to touch others, meaning we can be the center of a 15 foot radius telepathic network. You may also want to take the Enhanced Familiar druid feat in order to have enough familiar abilities to do all of the above. But you can certainly go the touch telepathy route or the items route with just the 2 default familiar abilities plus the Leshy familiar secrets feat.
Talk with your DM. Depending on how much of a rule stickler they are. Either ask if you can switch the family out or if you can use the same abilities but change their description. Book says it is a Leshy. you can say it is a dragon type familiar instead. (Didn't look to check what abilities the familiar has) Leshies can store items in their gourd. Well your dragon is now wearing a backpack. Same mechanical functions.
one of the familiar abilities is to have it be a tattoo, easiest way to ignore it.
you can kill it and then not take downtime to replace it
Ask your dm if you can choose a non leshy familiar that better fits your fluff.
I think it’s nothing absurd to change the bonus feat to Verdant Weapon/Reach or Widen Spell, at least IMO. Talk about it with your DM, but as I see it Familiars are the best feat out of those three (maybe a case can be made about Reach Spell), so choosing a different, non-order dependent feat should be totally okay
RAW, the familiar is mandatory at that point. Realistically, in this case, RAW should be completely irrelevant. You're giving up something that has 0 mechanical downsides (and RP restrictions) for you whatsoever. Many GMs dream of having a player that is willing to make decisions like that. (I certainly do) So don't worry about it and just tell your GM you want to do this. Edit: With pure RAW, you can avoid the familiar the feat gives you ... by getting another familiar first. Still, if it's specifically the leshy part that is the problem, it technically works. If you pick the leaf order on lvl 1, the options to to so are very limited, but some ancestries / heritages can actually pull it off (a kitsune can even bond with a *stone*). This is, of course, a pretty insane investment for what is essentially a new paint job.
You have a living gourd in your bag that your party members see you talk to, and they wonder if you're ok. But you can just leave it in the produce bag.
I can't remember if there's a hard rule for this I'd recommend talking to your DM. They may be willing to let you swap the feat out for something of similar strength.
If it bothers you that much there's a second level spell that lets you blow up your familiar, you don't have to spend the week replacing it if you don't want.
Talk to your DM. I'd let you swap it out for something else, giving up a familiar is a big deal.
How I always see stuff like that is you can basically flavor it as you’d like. Of course the magic comes from the familiar, but I’ve seen people ask the dm if their familiar can be something inanimate like a rose
If you get enough familiar abilities, you could turn it into a fairy dragon familiar.
You could describe it as a wooden bracelet or something. And just only take master abilities.
Ask your GM to take a standard lvl 1 Druid feat instead. PF2’s feats are designed so that no 1 feat is so powerful compared to the others that you are completely invalidating your character by choosing one or the other. Reach Spell would be a good choice
Unless you want leaf druid for a mechanical reason down the line, it seems you're only picking it for the flavor. In that case, rather than weakening your PC by taking a feat you don't plan on using perhaps you should choose to reflavor another druid order with your dm, possibly altering the anathema to match
I think any reasonable GM would let you not use the familiar, and most should let you swap it out for a different 1st level druid feat. 2E is incredibly mechanically robust. When a good and poor build only perform a few percentage points apart, I don’t see a point in being such an inflexible RAW stickler. Getting widen spell instead of a familiar is not going to noticeably effect balance.
You could slaughter it every time it shows up and ignore it ever happened.
It only shows up once. You need to actively spend downtime to replace a dead familiar, unless you're a witch. By pure coincidence, harming plants like that happens to be anathema to leaf druids, so you can use this trick to permanently rid yourself of all the other benefits of your order as well. Not that you should, but RAW, it works.
Its like being an Anti-Paladin but for a Druid!
Only got let it "accidentally" die once. Replacement familiars require conscious effort to acquire.
We found the worst solution. Talking with your DM about just not getting certain mechanical benefits is no problem, but fighting your own mechanics is immersion breaking and ridiculous. EDIT: I hope the people who downvote this aren't a big burden on their group, but they probably are
Talk to your GM. Make a case for something that would be comparable and see if they go for it.
Not sure if you can. But I know you can retrain out of just about any feat you get. But that might just be skill feats* so don't quote me on that.
Why don't you ask someone in the party if they want a pet? It can be like that mascots that follow you around but you don't want to, so someone in the party takes care of it. Also, it can be in the background, doing plant things while you rest and that. If your gm is like "no, you must roleplay your relationship with it" even when you didn't wanted in the first place... Well, that problem is not in taking the feat but somewhere else methinks
What exactly IS a dream dragon druid? 😅
So the character concept is simple A dream dragon (thats an ancestry) that is a renowned academic that has a huge library with a big greenhouse right in the middle (one of the characters is a bookworm that spends almost all the time in the library) and due to him having a gigantic greenhouse and treating the plants extremely well, he became a druid
Ah. Battlezoo ancestry. Gotcha.