Familiars and Hit Dice

[nyjm]

For a Sorcerer's or Wizard's familiar: "Hit Dice: For the purpose of effects related to number of Hit Dice, use the master’s character level or the familiar’s normal HD total, whichever is higher." (SRD).

This seems a little vague. Does that mean that as your character gains levels (and hit dice), your familiar also gains hit dice - and the concurrent bonuses of increased BAB, base saves, skill points and feats?

The player in me says: "Yes! The wording is a little vague, but BAB, saves, skill points and feats are all "effects related to number of Hit Dice."

The DM in me says: "No. For one thing, hit points are also "effects related to number of Hit Dice" and they do not improve normally. Also, there are companion creatures (the Druid's and Ranger's animal companions) that improve via Hit Dice and the entry for them is very clear:

"Bonus HD: Extra eight-sided (d8) Hit Dice, each of which gains a Constitution modifier, as normal. Remember that extra Hit Dice improve the animal companion’s base attack and base save bonuses. An animal companion’s base attack bonus is the same as that of a druid of a level equal to the animal’s HD. An animal companion has good Fortitude and Reflex saves (treat it as a character whose level equals the animal’s HD). An animal companion gains additional skill points and feats for bonus HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice."

If the rules meant for a familiar to increase in power like a Druid's animal companion, they would have stated so.

Any thoughts?

 

[drunkmoogle]

When in doubt, go for the GM voice in your head.

Like you said, it would've explicitly said if the familiar advances.

My bias: well... I'm a GM.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

No.

The progression by wiz/sorc level replaces the normal feats, etc. a familiar gains. The HD number is phony because the HP are locked in as half of the master. The HD is a convenience so that the familiar is not vaporized by magical effects that are index by victim's HD.

In real play, you will find the familiar is far from cheated. Not only are there the oddball "feats" but the Share Skills ability means that your wee beastie can have amazing skills. It is not unusual for the familiar to have some of the best skills in the party.

 

[Bigwilly]

My take on familiars

As a DM, I have ruled the following:

A familiar's effective HD is the same as the PC's total character level (e.g. Wiz3/Rog5 is char level 8). This doesn't actually mean much but could affect stuff like poison saves for a spider/snake familiar (10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus). This is how I believe it's written. It gains no other benefits from its effective HD.

For attacks, I use the PCs BAB modified by the Familiar's Str or Dex. That does mean that a familiar can have a good attack bonus and multiple attacks, but for most familiars it's still only going to do 1 HP of damage per round.

I also give the familiar HP equal to half the PCs - straight divide by two round down, no adjusting for different Con bonuses. This makes life easy for me.

A familiar's abilities however, are based on the PC's caster level (i.e for the same Wiz3/Rog5, the familiar's intelligence, natural armor, etc. are as for a 3rd level wizard.)

Saying that, only the PC with the Improved familiar (Pseudodragon) has ever used his familiar in combat, although it does do a lot of scouting.

Bigwilly

 

[Perun]

In our group, we sort of house-ruled it (well, we actually got a confirmation from the WotC customer service, but that's neither here nor there). The familiar has his HD, hit points, skills, BAB and save bases determined according to his master's level, and they ignore familiar's HD and/or its type.

However, familiars do not share feats with their masters, so in our campaigns (and, as I said, according to the customer service) they gain feats according to their HD (which is, naturally, equal to their master's level).

This HD also counts for any other abilities the familiar might posess (i.e. poison).

While it might seem we overdid it a bit -- we didn't really. It's just that it seemed silly that paladin's special mount and druid's animal companion get all the benefits of increased HD, as well as a bunch of special abilities that are almost identical to those a familiar gets.

Regards!