Are familiars summoned?

[Pseudonym]

I have a player who is a conjuration specialist. She plans on taking Improved Familiar to get a small air elemental familiar. The question arose as to if this special familiar is summoned, so as to benefit from her Augmented Summoning feat (+4 Str and Con).

On the one hand, it would appear that the familiar just shows up out of nowhere at some point during the 24 hour ritual. It wouldn't necessarily be summoned as per Summoned Monster, as even a specialist wizard with Conjuration as a barred school can acquire a familiar.

On the other hand, small air elementals aren't just wandering the Material Plane, so it would have to be summoned, in the conjuration sense, from the Elemental Plane of Air. This calling forth of the elemental would be part of the 24 hour ritual, I would think.

So, any opinions on this? Has this occurred in anyone else's campaign? Do you think it would be unbalancing to give her familiar +4 to Str and Con?

 

[Staffan]

I'd say no. Augment Summoning applies to things you get with the Summon spells, not to called things (which I'd classify the elemental familiar as).

 

[Olive]

There are two questions here:

a) does it makes rules sense?

The answer is no, it makes no sense at all. As you pointed out, famillirs can be invoked by any mgic user, regardless of their ability to use conjuration school spells. It's not a conjuration effect, it's a special universal effect. Plus the feat is obviously about effecting a specific spell type - sumoon monster spells.

b) would it be unbalancing?

for a normal familiar perhaps not, but probably for an improved one. Over all, not really, but it doesn't change the fact that it makes no rules sense whatsoever.

I'd say no. It doesn't even have any cool flavour.

 

[0-hr]

I'm not aware of any rules that say an elemental is summoned.

If you run into an elemental in a dungeon, can it touch someone under the effects of "Protection from Evil"? If so, then elementals on the prime material are not (by default) summoned creatures.

You could always let the player have a "summoned" elemental for a familiar, but boy will he be pissed when someone casts a area dispel in his vicinity

There are other ways to get to this plane - the elemental could be "called", it could come via some portal, or some other agent could send it forth. It might even be created out of nothing by the ritual. Who knows? But there is nothing to indicate that it is "summoned" in the sense of that feat.

Just IMO.

 

[Olive]

On the other hand, small air elementals aren't just wandering the Material Plane, so it would have to be summoned, in the conjuration sense, from the Elemental Plane of Air. This calling forth of the elemental would be part of the 24 hour ritual, I would think.

I didn't weven notice this bit.

No. The elemental would have to be called, not summoned. If it was summoned, it would be affected by protection spells, dispel magic and all the other things KiRyn mentions.

 

[Li Shenron]

AUGMENT SUMMONING [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Spell Focus (conjuration).

Benefit: Each creature you conjure with any summon spell gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength and Constitution for the duration of the spell that summoned it.

In any case, Augment Summoning clearly works only on SPELLS, and the ritual to summon a familiar is not a spell.

I also agree that since the familiar is permanent and since it can be killed, it is rather called than summoned, and I think the feat works only on summoning, not calling. I believe it is because summoning spells generally have a duration, while calling spells generally don't (IIRC) which would make this improvement better.

 

[Pseudonym]

Thanks for the input. I was inclined to say no from the beginning, but I wanted to toss this out to the general wisdom of the board anyway, incase anyone had a differeing perspective.