Hey!
So I'm trying to plan ahead for the not to distant future and am hoping to pick up an Imp for my wizard at 7th level using the improved familiar feat. I have some questions though as to how I would go about getting this Imp to have UMD.
I know that they are supposed to innately be capable of doing it (due to the ability to speak and use their tiny little hands and stuff) but familiars can only use the skills that it has or that the Wizard has. Given that the Wizard does not have UMD as a trained skill and it is a trained skill ONLY and that the Imp does not have UMD on it's skill list I'm a little confused. How would I go about getting UMD onto my Imp familiar when the time comes?
As well, would I have to invest skill points into UMD on my wizard in order for him to utilize them or would he be able to allocate skill points to UMD on his own list and use them that way? I'm not 100% sure how skills on a familiar work other than that they have bonuses listed on their familiar page.
Your Imp has skill ranks equal to yours.
Not quite: it can use its master's ranks, but has none of its own.
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I don't think that's quite right.
Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master's skill ranks, whichever is better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar's total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar's ability to use. Familiars treat Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim as class skills.
A Familiar uses whichever is better for it.
Hmmm. So I could buy a headband of vast intelligence, associate UMD with it which will give me 2 ranks in the skill (says ranks not a bonus or anything like that) until I have it on for 24 hours upon which it will give me a total number of ranks equaling my HD (so wear the headband, get +8 ranks in UMD as per my 8 levels of wizard)
Meaning that should I get an Imp at 7th level he would have UMD with 7 ranks and +2 from his CHA score leading to a UMD score of 9. I was hoping to get him to be able to consistently use the magic devices that I give him... is there any way to make his UMD score any higher?
Its not for the PFS n, just a plane jane game. I jusy want to maximize my action economy for my familar and using magic devices seems to be the greatest way of doing this haha. I figure that I could wear the headband of INT get him his 8 or what have you ranks (8th level) give him an ioun stone of CHA +2 and get him to 11 in UMD (for the level). At the 10th level with this setup alone my familar would have +13 to UMD where having him at 15 or higher would be optimal (DC20 to activate wands and rods and such).
I don't think it would be wise for my wizard to take skill focus in UMD due to the need of spell feat through those level (specifically metamagics) so is there anything else that can be done to boost up a wizards familiar UMD? I hear so many people talking about how great they are at doing this but Im finding consistency to be an issue (needing 9+ on the die is basically 50:50).
The Wizard themself taking Skill Focus:UMD doesn't help the Familiar's UMD modifier,
the Familiar only uses the master's RANKS and nothing else, they don't benefit from Feats, Class Skill, Ability Score, etc.
Outsiders are a bit weird since they get 4 bonus "Class Skills" as "appropriate to theme",
I'm not sure for Imps, but if you want you can deconstruct how the normal Imp's skills were built,
in order to figure out how many bonus "Class Skills" were necessary to get those figures,
if there's any bonus "Class Skills" remaining from the 4 allowed, adding UMD seems appropriate to "type" for an Imp Familiar.
If they do have UMD as a Class Skill they should benefit from that even if you (the master) don't have it as a Class Skill,
since they are using your Ranks, not your actual modifier of your particular set of bonuses (besides Ranks).
A Familiar that the UMD/Class Skill thing is clearer for is Dragons like Pseudodragon, as Dragons get UMD as a Class Skill, period.
Imps also have a decent CHA which can be bumped up further via Headband/Ioun Stone of +CHA.
(This also should boost the DCs of any SLAs they have, incidentally)
Otherwise, you yourself getting Headband/Ioun Stone of +INT with UMD as associated skill is the way to go.
(UMD is a great skill for this, because it's not that useful a skill at low levels when it's very unreliable,
you can grab it via Headband/Ioun Stone at the point where, either for you or your Familiar, Ranks+Other Bonuses make it reliable)
Go for faerie dragon instead. They are treated as sorcerers and probably won't ever need UMD as a skill.
If you really want an imp and UMD, then the Dangerously Curious trait makes UMD a class skill and gives you an additional +1.
The Pragmatic Activator trait lets you use your Intelligence modifier instead of Charisma when making UMD checks.
Unfortunately, since these are both magic traits, you can only take one or the other.
Personally, I would go with a faerie dragon.
Go for faerie dragon instead. They are treated as sorcerers and probably won't ever need UMD as a skill.
If they want to use non-Sorc/Wiz wands, such as Cleric wands, they will.
If you really want an imp and UMD, then the Dangerously Curious trait makes UMD a class skill and gives you an additional +1.
The Pragmatic Activator trait lets you use your Intelligence modifier instead of Charisma when making UMD checks.
Unfortunately, since these are both magic traits, you can only take one or the other.
Not to mention that YOU taking a trait giving a bonus and making it a Class Skill only does so for yourself, not your Familiar. Your Familiar would somehow need to gain a Trait in order to benefit from this. (Somebody mentioned a Feat-granting Ioun stone, which could grant Extra Traits Feat, although Skill Focus:UMD might be preferred, unless you're just going for Wands not Scrolls and can reliably hit DC20 without Skill Focus)