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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaisoku" data-source="post: 5439501" data-attributes="member: 58447">A couple problems.1. In pathfinder, there isn't an "Improving Monsters" section. It's called "Monster Advancement", which has this line as the main explanation of the section:"The following rules allow you to adjust monsters, increasing (or even  decreasing) their statistics and abilities while still creating a  balanced and fun encounter."This is clearly meant for GMs trying to create encounters. It is not rules for advancing a character via experience.2. The section on "Adding Racial Hitdice" says this:"Adding racial Hit Dice to a monster is a similar process to building a monster from scratch."This is clearly meant to be used for creating a monster for an encounter, as you don't "create from scratch" each level.3. The section on "Adding Class Levels" says this:"Of all the methods of advancing a monster, adding class levels requires the most adjudication and careful comparison."Once again, it's not just 'gain experience, add levels', it's 'GM making an encounter and using the base monster + class levels to get what he wants'.And while Pathfinder did reword the bestiary, they haven't really changed the process from 3.5e.The quote you posted is the preface to the Improving Monsters section of the Monster Manual. If you continue reading, you will get the following details about hitdice:"Creatures with increased Hit Dice are usually superior specimens of  their race, bigger and more powerful than their run-of-the-mill fellows."Considering these are the same rules that apply to humanoids and animals as they do magical beasts, it's not about gaining experience and magically becoming bigger somehow. It's talking about a naturally larger specimen, that at best grew into the new HD.Remember, in 3.5e, each creature had an "Advancement" entry, which showed specifically how big that creature "might" grow (usually a range with a size increase noted next to it).The Familiars in 3.5e mostly had NO advancement available, if you went strictly by the rules, but even then.. that's what the line "a normal unmodified animal" means. Increasing the HD would make it a modified animal (a "beefier" version), it needs to be the standard bestiary version.Finally.. "gaining experience" is specifically defined in both 3.5e and Pathfinder. It's something that PCs get.NPCs, Monsters, etc, do not gain experience normally. If you buy a dog, or hire a henchman, they do not gain experience when they come along with you on adventures. Not by RAW.The only rules in place for experience for non-PCs is in the Leadership feat, and even that specifically mentions it's for the cohort, and very specific in how it's handled (which was changed between 3.5e and Pathfinder I believe, without looking).What is most damning, is how it specifically mentions that the followers do not gain experience, and in fact you simply gain higher level followers when those levels open up.Familiars do not gain experience. There would have to be a clause mentioning that they do.Since they can't gain racial hit dice normally (it's a factor of growing), and they can't gain a template (short of some strange event causing it, such as vampirism or lycanthropy, and even then, they'd have to qualify), that only leaves class levels as an even remotely possible option.Now, they qualify for it in the sense that they have enough Intelligence, but since they are not your cohort, it simply isn't in the RAW.Just like your henchmen and followers, and purchased pets, your familiar has no rules allowing it to gain experience. Hence the reason for it to have so many factors based on the master: it's going to need them since it's not advancing on it's own.TL;DR - You are referencing rules meant for GMs adjudicating encounters that aren't the default from the Monster Manual or Bestiary. They are not meant for Players to advance familiars.</blockquote>

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