Pseudo-Familiar

When find familiar is cast in the misty dread realm, the animal that arrives may be an impostor. A pseudo-familiar looks like an ordinary cat, toad, crow or similar beast, only finer: richer colors, glowing health and a sharp intelligence in its eyes. It understands every human and demihuman language, speaks mind to mind with its wizard and its own kind, and grants all the usual familiar benefits, which is exactly why the trick works.

It avoids melee when it can, fighting if cornered with the natural weapons of the animal it copies. It always has one Hit Die more than a mundane beast of its type, gains +2 on damage rolls, and is quick enough that its Armor Class is 1 point better. Only +2 or better weapons can strike it, though spells affect it normally.

Its true weapon resembles a ring of vampiric regeneration. The moment the familiar or its master is hurt, the power switches on: each round, every wounded creature within 30 feet, friend or foe, loses 2 hit points, split evenly between familiar and wizard until both are whole. Its eyes glow an eerie purple as it feeds.

If only the pair are hurt and everyone else is healthy, it drains sleepers instead, at just 2 hit points per hour. This leaves no wounds, only restless nightmares and a sore, unrested morning, so it can bleed a party a little every night without being caught. A wizard who learns of the harm and does nothing must make a dark powers check each round, failing on 1% per hit point drained that round.

The creature lives to rule its master and kill his companions. Every fortnight the wizard must save vs. spell or fall under its control, with a cumulative -1 penalty for each fortnight after the first, as his own goals blur into the familiar's.

Protection from evil, remove curse and similar magic cannot cut the link; normally only atonement, dispel evil or banishment will. Killing the thing is possible, but the wizard then risks the usual penalties for losing a familiar under find familiar.

Stolen hit points are all it needs, though it nibbles at its animal counterpart's food for show. It never sleeps, keeping watch over its master all night.