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Do familiars who have special abilities, whose DCs depend on hit die, increase in power when the master levels up?
For example would a 10th level wizard with an imp familiar, would that imp's sting have a poison with the normal DC 13 or it would be DC 17?
HD related ability will indeed increase.
If you search on the boards, you will find that the consensus is no, but not conclusively so. It's a DM call.
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I know that James Jacobs' unofficial opinion was that abilities didn't scale, but Sean K. Reynolds' unofficial opinion was the opposite. That the Paizo design team subsequently did decide to errata the silvanshee's lay on hands ability so that it would not increase, strongly suggests to me that they agree with SKR that the RAW do allow some HD based abilities to scale. If they believed otherwise then I don't see any reason for the errata.
That said, I note that the universal monster rules for poison DC's are based on the "creature's racial hit dice" rather than simply the "creature's hit dice." That wording suggests to me that its poison effectiveness is fixed at the same level as all other members of its race, regardless of any extra HD (or HD equivalences) that it might personally gain. This is different from the silvanshee situation where the Agathion subtype states that they have: "lay on hands as a paladin whose level equals the agathion's Hit Dice."
So, in my opinion, this particular ability would not scale.
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.
Special abilities are not effects, so they don't evove when the master gains levels.
I know that James Jacobs' unofficial opinion was that abilities didn't scale, but Sean K. Reynolds' unofficial opinion was the opposite. That the Paizo design team subsequently did decide to errata the silvanshee's lay on hands ability so that it would not increase, strongly suggests to me that they agree with SKR that the RAW do allow some HD based abilities to scale. If they believed otherwise then I don't see any reason for the errata.
That said, I note that the universal monster rules for poison DC's are based on the "creature's racial hit dice" rather than simply the "creature's hit dice." That wording suggests to me that its poison effectiveness is fixed at the same level as all other members of its race, regardless of any extra HD (or HD equivalences) that it might personally gain. This is different from the silvanshee situation where the Agathion subtype states that they have: "lay on hands as a paladin whose level equals the agathion's Hit Dice."
So, in my opinion, this particular ability would not scale.
What errata is that?
What errata is that?
The change was made in the second printing of Bestiary 2 (7/16/12). Originally silvanshee had the standard agathion power to lay on hands as a paladin whose level equals the agathion's Hit Dice. If you check now, you will see a note stating that this ability is always as a 2nd-level paladin. There is no practical difference to most silvanshee; the amount of curing, and the number of cures per day remain unchanged. As far as I can tell, it only affects silvanshee which are familiars - preventing their effective paladin level from increasing.
Thank you.
Then you are right, this does lead to the thinking that while yes familiars get increased abilities when the master level up but those abilities shouldn't be too powerful.
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.Special abilities are not effects, so they don't evove when the master gains levels.
That's a straightforward interpretation, and I would probably agree with you if not for the PDT action that I mentioned earlier.