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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 473464" data-attributes="member: 545">What exactly does it mean that a familiar may use the master's skills?&nbsp; What bonuses do and don't transfer over?PHB p. 51: &quot;Skills: Use the normal skills for an animal of that type or the master's, whichever are better.&quot;Suppose I have a Wizard with a Spot skill of:+6 Ranks +1 Wis +2 Unnamed (Alertness from Familiar) +5 Circumstance (Eyes of the Eagle) +1 Luck (Luckstone) = +15Is my Wizard's skill a +15 for the Familiar?&nbsp; A +7?&nbsp; Somewhere in between?To make things more interesting, suppose I have a Bat Familiar.&nbsp; From Tome &amp; Blood, we see the Bat has +3 Ranks +2 Wis +4 Unnamed Racial bonus (when using its Blindsight) = +9If the Bat uses my Wizard's skill, does he still get the +4 bonus on top of that for using Blindsight?My intuition says...(0) Ranks and Wis of Master transfer over, obviously.(1) Circumstance bonuses never transfer over.(2) If the Wiz has Skill Focus, it seems natural that the Familiar gains the benefit as much as any ranks.&nbsp; So Alertness does transfer.(3) Luck bonuses?&nbsp; Competence bonuses?&nbsp; Really not sure.&nbsp; I am leaning towards &quot;yes&quot;.&nbsp; Competence bonuses one &quot;better&quot;, so that seems like it is part of the skill*.&nbsp; Luck is a little fishy to me.(4) The Bat does get to add on its +4 Unnamed bonus for Blindsight after choosing to use either its Master's or its own skill.&nbsp; This should be true because the Bat has two distinct Spot skills, based on whether it is in a Silence zone or not.*I am ignoring for the moment the fact that most Competence bonuses come from using tools.&nbsp; Theorectically, I could have, say, a Ring of Spotting that gives a Competence bonus.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 473464, member: 545"] What [i]exactly[/i] does it mean that a familiar may use the master's skills? What bonuses do and don't transfer over? PHB p. 51: "[i]Skills:[/i] Use the normal skills for an animal of that type or the master's, whichever are better." Suppose I have a Wizard with a Spot skill of: +6 Ranks +1 Wis +2 Unnamed (Alertness from Familiar) +5 Circumstance (Eyes of the Eagle) +1 Luck (Luckstone) = +15 Is my Wizard's skill a +15 for the Familiar? A +7? Somewhere in between? To make things more interesting, suppose I have a Bat Familiar. From Tome & Blood, we see the Bat has +3 Ranks +2 Wis +4 Unnamed Racial bonus (when using its Blindsight) = +9 If the Bat uses my Wizard's skill, does he still get the +4 bonus on top of that for using Blindsight? My intuition says... (0) Ranks and Wis of Master transfer over, obviously. (1) Circumstance bonuses never transfer over. (2) If the Wiz has Skill Focus, it seems natural that the Familiar gains the benefit as much as any ranks. So Alertness does transfer. (3) Luck bonuses? Competence bonuses? Really not sure. I am leaning towards "yes". Competence bonuses one "better", so that seems like it is part of the skill*. Luck is a little fishy to me. (4) The Bat does get to add on its +4 Unnamed bonus for Blindsight [i]after[/i] choosing to use either its Master's or its own skill. This should be true because the Bat has two distinct Spot skills, based on whether it is in a Silence zone or not. *I am ignoring for the moment the fact that most Competence bonuses come from using tools. Theorectically, I could have, say, a Ring of Spotting that gives a Competence bonus. [/QUOTE]

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