No SR for Psuedodragon familiar?!

[Grundle]

Improved Familiar (Psuedodragon)
This feat from TaB allows one to take a pseudodragon as a familiar. I can reconcile all the staticstics given in TaB for the psuedodragon with the MM except for SR. Is this a misprint, or was SR intentionally removed from the psuedodragon familiar for game balance reasons. I notice that some of the other familiars have SR - abeit not an SR of 19 like the MM psuedodragon.

Is their an errata for TaB somewhere? If not, what would be your call?

Duchess, my poor little familiar, needs all the help she can get!

 

[Galfridus]

Haven't seen any clarification on this point. My best guess is that they took it out because SR is a familiar ability gained later on. Unless they put out errata, I would probably keep it that way. Perhaps the ritual of becoming a familiar requires the p-dragon to lower its natural resistance; only when the wizard gains in power is it able to reconcile the constant magical link with its innate defenses.

 

[phillipjp]

Grundle, I'm working the stats for a Pseudeodragon famaliar for the sorcerer in our party as well.

I could also reconcile everything, except for two things:

The attack bonus for the bite. Why is it +0? For that matter, why is the bite for the P.D. in the MM -1? Is that the modifier if it multi-attacks? Shouldn't be, since the P.D. doesn't have a high enough base attack to be able to get multiple attacks. It gets +2 for size and +3 for master's BAB, where does the -5 bite penalty come from?

Saving throws. Is the familiar stuck with it's own 2HD base saves of +3 Fort +3 Ref +3 wis until the masters is better, or does it follow the monster progression chart for a 7HD dragon and have +5 to all saves?

As for SR, I noticed other improved familiars got to keep their SR so I left it on. I assumed it was a misprint.

 

[Caliban]

Grundle, I'm working the stats for a Pseudeodragon famaliar for the sorcerer in our party as well.

I could also reconcile everything, except for two things:

The attack bonus for the bite. Why is it +0?

Because the BAB of a sorcer at 7th level (minimum level at which you can get a pseudodragon familiar) is +3. A normal pseudodragon's BAB is +2.

For that matter, why is the bite for the P.D. in the MM -1? Is that the modifier if it multi-attacks? Shouldn't be, since the P.D. doesn't have a high enough base attack to be able to get multiple attacks. It gets +2 for size and +3 for master's BAB, where does the -5 bite penalty come from?

Monsters with natural weapons don't use the iterative attack rules for a high BAB. Those only apply to manufactured weapons and monks.

See the MM (page 7, I believe). Monsters with natural weapons get one or more Primary Attacks at their full bonus, and possibly one or more Seocndary Attacks at a -5 penalty.

The Pseudodragon has 1 Primary Attack (it's sting) and one Secondary Attack (it's bite).

Saving throws. Is the familiar stuck with it's own 2HD base saves of +3 Fort +3 Ref +3 wis until the masters is better, or does it follow the monster progression chart for a 7HD dragon and have +5 to all saves?

It's stuck with it's own until the master's get better. It's not progressing as a Dragon, it's progressing as a Familiar. Think of it like a prestige class.

As for SR, I noticed other improved familiars got to keep their SR so I left it on. I assumed it was a misprint.

I agree.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

I could also reconcile everything, except for two things:

The attack bonus for the bite. Why is it +0? For that matter, why is the bite for the P.D. in the MM -1? Is that the modifier if it multi-attacks? Shouldn't be, since the P.D. doesn't have a high enough base attack to be able to get multiple attacks. It gets +2 for size and +3 for master's BAB, where does the -5 bite penalty come from?

The PD uses natural weapons. Its primary atack is his sting. It is the only attack that gets the full attack bonus. All the other natural weapons, only the bite in this case, get a -5.

The feat multiattack that some monster possess would reduce this penalty to only -2 but the PD doesn't have it.

You can read all about this on p.7 of the MM under the Natural weapons paragraph.