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<blockquote data-quote="Brown Jenkin" data-source="post: 502608" data-attributes="member: 2572">It needs to be character level for game balance reasons, especialy at higher levels. If it is only HD of caster level then your Ftr19/Wiz1 will have a 1HD creature with 2-4 hp. Now consider minimun damage being handed out by 20th level characters and spell effects that vary based on hit die. Your familiar would be dead before the end of your first encounter. You would then take the xp penalty for a dead familiar and have to wait a year to repeat this process. This makes taking a familiar in these circumstances a penalty rather than a benefit. By making the familiar HD based on Character level your familiar can survive. This does not overpower it as all the other benefits are tied to caster level (Int, AC, Touch Spells, speaking, SR).And yes this does lead to amusing things like that Ftr19/Wiz1 familiar possibly having more HPs than the Wiz20. But the Wiz20 familiar probably has a higher Int than the Ftr19/Wiz1.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brown Jenkin, post: 502608, member: 2572"] It needs to be character level for game balance reasons, especialy at higher levels. If it is only HD of caster level then your Ftr19/Wiz1 will have a 1HD creature with 2-4 hp. Now consider minimun damage being handed out by 20th level characters and spell effects that vary based on hit die. Your familiar would be dead before the end of your first encounter. You would then take the xp penalty for a dead familiar and have to wait a year to repeat this process. This makes taking a familiar in these circumstances a penalty rather than a benefit. By making the familiar HD based on Character level your familiar can survive. This does not overpower it as all the other benefits are tied to caster level (Int, AC, Touch Spells, speaking, SR). And yes this does lead to amusing things like that Ftr19/Wiz1 familiar possibly having more HPs than the Wiz20. But the Wiz20 familiar probably has a higher Int than the Ftr19/Wiz1. [/QUOTE]

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