Hey I'm Jake, I make rpg supplements and videos about Pathfinder2 or Pftoo.
I LOVE PFtoo and as a long-time player of DnD and other games I want to share my thoughts on things I find along my journey.
Dude - I have looked all over for videos and text resources for guidance on how Familiars work and it is just VERY RARE that I've found something clear and useful so I thought I would share my research with you. Links to videos that I watched for info on this can be found below in case you want to see them. How It's Played was probably the most useful.
I will be covering Familiars overall, not specific familiars. If you want me to go over specific familiars, tell me in the Youtube comments here. Everything I say here is Rules as Written except where I make it obvious.
To start off with: there are several rules about Familiars overall and then a shitload of other rules that you would only use in special situations. Some rules or abilities you can take later will modify these general rules.
Here are the overall rules:
Familiars do not follow the rules of any creature they resemble. Their looks don't mean anything.
Familiars are Minions. Meaning you have to spend 1 action on your turn to command them, giving them 2 actions to spend.
Familiars only have the abilities that you give them (usually 2).
Familiars all follow these basic familiar rules:
Tiny Size
5 Hit Points for each of your levels
Low-light vision
Empathic communication within 1 mile (this just means you feel it's feelings).
Speed of 25 feet or a swim Speed of 25 feet. Choose when you get the familiar
Your Familiars AC equals yours before applying circumstance or status bonuses or penalties. Yes, this means that if YOU put on armor, your Familiar essentially puts on armor too.
Familiars can't make strikes (that doesn't mean that Familiars can't Attack. Just Strikes are forbidden).
Any skill check that adds level uses your level as its modifier.
Familiars add your level plus your spellcasting ability modifier to it's Perception, Acrobatics, and Stealth rolls. Charisma is the default.
You can choose 2 or more familiar or master abilities for your familiar depending on your level and class. If your familiar is an animal that naturally has one of these abilities (for instance, an owl has a fly Speed), you must select that ability. Your familiar can’t be an animal that naturally has more familiar abilities than your daily maximum familiar abilities.
Two of these possible selections allow your familiar to take additional actions, particularly if both of these selections are taken. These ability selections are Manual Dexterity and Skilled.
Here are the explanations of these abilities:
Manual Dexterity - It can use up to two of its limbs as if they were hands to perform manipulate actions.
This ability is deceptive in it's seeming simplicity. It is quite complex and it's uses will vary depending on your capabilities and indeed, your equipment and gear. Manipulate actions are a very large category of actions and so they will have varied uses.
The following actions require a Manipulate action and therefore can only be taken by a familiar if you choose the Manual Dexterity ability.
This whole list will be downloadable for free Here.
So all this together means that you can have a really useful healer familiar or thieving familiar. Or just one who spends their actions moving items around or preparing items for use. Like affixing a talisman or grabbing a healing potion and bringing it to an ally.
Compose Missive - A missive is a type of magic item that came out in Treasure Vault. It's basically a magic piece of paper that you write on (composing the missive) and when your target reads it, they trigger the effect of that missive magic item. For example: An Explosive Missive deals 4d6 damage to each creature in a 5-foot burst when it's read.
Actions from Optional Camping Rules
Cook Basic Meal - I don't know about you but I love the idea of my little leshy cooking up some sausages from breakfast for everyone, just cute and whistling a happy tune.
Driving actions
Take Control - means you become the pilot of a vehicle if you're close to the controls.
The other ability that opens up lots of options is Skilled - Choose a skill other than Acrobatics or Stealth. Your familiar's modifier for that skill is equal to your level plus your key spellcasting ability modifier, rather than just your level. You can select this ability repeatedly, choosing a different skill each time.
This means that your familiar will be nearly as good as you with this skill, except that they do not gain your proficiency bonus, as they are never considered trained or better in them.
If the familiar has the skilled ability for an appropriate skill, they can use any of the following skill actions as well:
Yeah. My "Playmate" witch poppet's poppet familiar can TRIP PEOPLE! These aren't strikes. technically they're fair game.
As you can see, some of the actions that can be taken by your familiar with the Manual Dexterity ability are largely useless unless you COMBINE the Manual Dexterity ability with the Skilled ability for a relevant skill; such as choosing Skilled for the Medicine skill in order to stabilize patients or treat wounds.
Additionally, some of these actions require some sort of tools. These actions then further require the Toolbearer ability. It's easily possible to need Manual Dexterity, Skilled, AND Toolbearer in order to perform an action.
To recap the basics:
Familiars do not follow the rules of any creature they resemble.
Familiars are Minions. Meaning you have to spend 1 action on your turn to command them, giving them 2 actions to spend.
Familiars only have the abilities that you give them, plus the following
5 hit points for each of your levels
your Armor Class
tiny size
low-light vision
a land OR swim speed of 25 ft.
Most of the Familiar Abilities are easily understood, but there are a couple that hold a wealth of opportunity and function: Manual Dexterity and Skilled.
Master these and you will have a great, multifunctional magical friend who perfectly compliments your skill set.
Familiars are WAY cooler than they seem at first blush. We can make AWESOME combos and stories with our little fuzzy critter friends. So go crazy with this.
PLEASE - share this with someone who needs to know how familiars work. Let's band together on this one. Everyone needs to know this shit!
And Remember: The average American will eat 35,000 cookies in their lifetime. Yeah... I think I'm ahead of the curve on that one.
Resources for the research for this video: General Familiars overview (Most Helpful) from How It's Played
Familiar general overview from Collective Arcana
Familiar Master, Tangentially related from TheeBadLuckGamer
Multiclass Familiar info from How it's Played
Familiar's AC calculations from How It's Played
Familiar's in-combat utility (crossbow discussion); How It's Played Interview with Mark Seifter
Familiar overview from The Sly Strategist