PF2e Remastered Companions and Familiars Guide

Introduction

Companions and familiars add scouting, support benefits, item delivery, mounted movement, extra senses, and character flavor. They work best when their actions are planned as part of the character's turn, not treated as a second full PC.

The key question is not "Can I have a creature?" It is "What action, feat, class feature, and table procedure makes that creature useful this turn?" Start with actions and activities, then use this guide for companion-specific timing and sourcebook choices.

Quick Ratings

What Counts

PF2e separates several creature-side options that often get blurred together:

That last row matters because a summoned creature is close enough to cause confusion but different enough to deserve its own guide. Use summoned creatures when the creature came from a spell instead of a class feature, feat, or familiar bond.

The Minion Rule Is The Spine

Most of the table arguments around companions come from skipping the minion trait. A minion acts on your turn only when the correct command or sustaining procedure gives it actions. Animal companions use the companion version of Command an Animal, and the companion rules remove the normal Nature check for your own companion.

The practical version is simple:

The rules are short; the time cost comes from a player who does not have the stat block, support benefit, Speed, and command plan ready.

Animal Companions

Animal companions are the combat-forward version of this subsystem. A class feature or feat gives you access, the companion's level tracks yours, and you normally have one animal companion at a time. If the companion dies, the rules support replacing it with downtime instead of forcing the campaign to become a grief simulator with initiative rolls.

Animal companions bring three major benefits:

The Support action is easy to undervalue. A companion can use Support, then spend only basic move actions that turn to get into the right position. That sounds restrictive until you build around it. If your ranger or druid plans to use the support benefit every round, that companion's movement route is part of your damage plan.

Advancement Matters

Young animal companions are useful, but mature companions are where the subsystem starts to feel smooth. The mature upgrade can give a limited action even when you do not command the companion, usually Stride or Strike depending on the exact rule source. Nimble, savage, and specialized upgrades then push the creature toward mobility, offense, or a more focused battlefield role.

Do not oversell companion attacks. The strongest companion builds usually get value from support, flanking, movement pressure, and forced enemy actions.

Familiar Basics

Familiars are the flexible utility side. They are usually animals changed by a magical bond, though some familiar options can have other traits. Unlike animal companions, familiars are not primarily designed to maul enemies. Their value comes from choosing the right familiar and master abilities for the day.

Good familiar play starts with a daily question: "What problem is my familiar solving today?"

Player Core familiar abilities cover movement, senses, durability, manipulation, and other utility roles. Player Core 2 adds particularly practical support through abilities like Item Delivery and Second Opinion. Item Delivery can make consumables, alchemical tools, and emergency handoffs matter without forcing the caster or alchemist to cross the battlefield.

Familiar Class Hooks

Familiars also interact with detection and senses, stealth, Thievery, Arcana, Occultism, Nature, and Religion. If your familiar is scouting, retrieving, or helping identify things, the skill rules still matter.

Sourcebook Companion And Familiar Options

The sourcebook entries below are useful only when their support benefit solves a job your character already performs. Confirm Uncommon or Rare access with the GM, especially for dragon, undead, or organization-linked choices. The Draconic Acolyte section, Drake Rider section, Shining Kingdoms world guide, and academy campaigns guide provide the build or setting decision that this guide does not repeat.

Draconic Codex: Familiar And Dragon Companion Choices

Draconic Familiar is a familiar branch, not a companion shortcut. It does not turn a familiar into a striker or erase the familiar's fragile utility role. Pick the daily abilities before play, then decide whether the spectral-dragon channeling benefit is worth keeping active for that day's familiar plan. The Draconic Acolyte guide covers the dedication's qualifying-skill tradition lock, position engine, and other feat choices.

A riding dragonet is a companion route, not a familiar and not an eidolon. It still needs the normal companion command procedure even though Drake Rider provides 100-foot telepathic communication. Mature advancement improves turn flexibility, but it does not make the creature an extra PC. Treat the permanent-flight milestone as a 10th-level build payoff, not something the dedication supplies at level 2. The Drake Rider guide compares that commitment with other martial archetypes.

Animal Companions And Companion Routes

The gray bladeling and severed head are not cosmetic reskins. Their unusual traits should be discussed before play, along with how the group handles void healing, appearance, and local reactions. The Demon-Hunting Companion feat is similarly narrow: it is a strong campaign tool, not a reason to take Wylderheart in a fiend-light game.

Specific Familiars

The Kitharodian Actor feat Animal Actor is companion-adjacent rather than a companion grant. It improves animal handling and related knowledge; it does not give you an animal companion or familiar. Take it when theatrical animal work is part of the character concept, then obtain a companion from the normal class or feat route.

Pets Are Not Companions

The Pet feat gives a small creature with the minion trait, but it is not an animal companion. That distinction matters. A pet can be flavorful and useful, but it does not get the companion chassis, companion advancement, or combat profile. It also cannot make Strikes.

Pet is best when you want an owl on your shoulder, a lizard in your sleeve, or a small companion for simple noncombat tasks. It is not a substitute for an animal companion.

Mounted Combat

Mounted combat is where companion rules meet map reality. Your mount generally needs to be willing and large enough for you to ride, it acts on your initiative, and you still need the right command procedure to make it useful. The Ride skill feat can smooth mounted movement by making the basic command procedure more reliable when you are using a mount to move.

Champion has the most obvious Player Core 2 mount package through Faithful Steed and later mount upgrades. Those feats are strongest in campaigns where a mount can move, engage, reposition, and survive. In a ten-foot hallway, use the mount's limits as part of the tactical problem.

GM Core's mounted-combat advice is mostly practical table mercy: build some fights where the mount shines, some spaces where it is awkward, and avoid making every enemy obsessively attack the mount unless the encounter logic supports it. If a player invested class feats into a mount, the campaign should sometimes pay that off.

Companion Items And Gear

Companion gear is deliberately narrower than PC gear. Companion items use the companion trait and are normally the main item category built for animal companions, familiars, and similar creatures. A companion can invest only a small number of worn companion items, and companions do not normally activate items themselves.

Dragon companions use the same practical equipment boundary. Barding is armor for the companion, not a workaround that gives it a second character's item economy. Before buying it for a riding dragonet, confirm that the armor category fits the creature's body, the item is available to it, and the mount can still move through the campaign's doors, ladders, and terrain. The armor guide covers equipment decisions; this guide keeps the focus on command, mount, and companion procedure.

That means two things for players:

Use equipment, worn and invested items, magic items by level, and Treasure Vault when you are building a character around companion gear.

Best Builds For Companions

For more combat context, pair this with three-action economy, movement actions, flanking and positioning, and reactions.

Common Mistakes

GM Guidance

GMs should ask every companion or familiar player for a one-page reference: Speed, defenses, senses, attacks if relevant, support benefit, daily familiar abilities, command action, and any special exception. This is not busywork. It is how you keep initiative moving.

For scouting, decide what the familiar can perceive, what language or communication limit applies, how doors and hazards work, and whether enemies are alert. Tiny creatures are not invisible drones. They are creatures in a dangerous world.

For combat, be consistent. An enemy with animal-handling knowledge might pressure a companion. A mindless undead creature probably attacks whatever is obvious. A tactical boss may try to punish the mount after seeing it shape the fight. That is all fair. What feels bad is deleting a companion every encounter just because the player brought one.

Tie long-term expectations to session zero and encounter design to GM environment guidance. A campaign with ships, cliffs, narrow tombs, and social intrigue will treat companions differently than a campaign of open-field monster hunts.

NPC Allies Are Encounter Creatures

An NPC who travels with an animal, pet, or familiar does not grant the party a player companion. NPC Core treats that creature as part of the encounter: it uses its normal creature statistics and actions and counts toward the encounter budget. Build and run it as an encounter participant, not as a minion that borrows a PC's command action.

Use a companion's presence to make an NPC's job visible: a lookout with a scent tracker, a courier with a riding animal, or a handler with a creature that protects their escape route. Do not copy a player companion chassis onto the NPC. If the animal changes encounter difficulty or turn pressure, make that call in encounter building before play.

How To Run Them Fast

1. Put the companion or familiar reference in front of the player.
2. Pick daily familiar abilities before adventuring starts.
3. Decide the creature's default combat job: flank, support, carry, scout, mount, or body-block.
4. Call the command action before moving pieces.
5. Resolve the creature's two actions quickly.
6. Track conditions on the creature the same way you track them on a PC.

If a companion turn takes longer than the fighter's turn, the player needs a clearer reference and a default job for the creature.

Best Links

Start with the PF2e rules guide, then use summoned creatures, actions and activities, detection and senses, conditions, and hero points.

For character builds, use classes, ranger, druid, witch, champion, alchemist, sorcerer, Draconic Acolyte, and Drake Rider.

For gear and campaign context, use equipment, consumables, worn and invested items, Howl of the Wild, and GM guides.

Hot Take: Drake Rider is a companion build, not a discount flight package. If you will not spend actions on the companion and archetype feats through Wing Rider at 10th level, pick a mount option that pays off earlier.

Return to the PF2e rules guide.