Advancing famaliars

[pbd]

Do famialiars gain feats, skills, and inherant ability raises? I am thinking of playing a sorc and am wondering if his pseudodragon familiar can eventually get the fly-by attack feat and if it will gain skills.

 

[Infiniti2000]

No. Familiars gain no hit dice.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

No. Familiars gain no hit dice.

Right.

But remember that your familiar has access to all of your sorcerer's skill ranks. So the way to improve a skill for your familiar is to take it yourself.

 

[pbd]

Thanks for the responses and clarifications.

Is there a way to get them feats? If the character took fly-by attack, could the familiar have it? Or conversely, could the charatcre "give" a feat to the familiar (ie. fly-by attack)?

Just trying to figure out the bounds here.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Is there a way to get them feats? If the character took fly-by attack, could the familiar have it? Or conversely, could the charatcre "give" a feat to the familiar (ie. fly-by attack)?

Not per the rules, no. Giving a familiar one of your feat choices might not be a bad houserule, though. It's dangerous because if that familiar dies, the wizard is not only out the familiar and all that entails, but is also out the feat. He will basically have to get that familiar raised, resurrected, or true resurrected.

 

[werk]

You could try making magic items that grant feats, like NWN. Obviously up to your DM.

 

[Kaledor]

I had a similar question to this thread, so I figured I'd piggy-back.

It's clear that familiars don't gain feats or more skill points b/c they don't gain new levels or hit dice.

However, they DO gain more intelligence. SOooo... do they gain more skill points as a result of their intelligence modifier? Do they gain more known languages as a result of their intelligence modifier?

And is there any reason why a familiar cannot take class levels just like any other creature in the Monster Manual?

 

[Infiniti2000]

No. No creature gains retroactive skill points for a higher Int.

A familiar that gains XP could potentially gain class levels (if possible), but familiars don't gain XP.

 

[sukael]

On a side note--do psicrystals count as actually gaining hit dice, and thus qualify for feat gain?

 

[Scion]

On a side note--do psicrystals count as actually gaining hit dice, and thus qualify for feat gain?

Strangely enough, psicrystals do have greater hd as time goes on.

And, take this as you will, custserve says that they do gain feats.

The wording between familiars and psicrystals is 'very' different in this respect.