Disturbed1Smurf's page

How I see it for the Sage Familiar:
Every time you level up you have to check to see if the new Int modifier gives you more skills. If it does your familiar get's its number of RHD in extra skill points that level.

Example 1: A Sage Paracletus(AEON) familiar is taken at 7th level due to Improved Familiar with the Sage Archetype, its Int increases from 11 to 12 so it Automatically gains 3 skill points due to racial hit die(RHD)+14 skill points due to Sages Knowledge skill points. It would then gain +2 SP(Sages knowledge) at every even level, or +5 SP (+2SK, +3RHD) at every odd level.(just ignore Paracletus' Extension of all for this example, no that it applies directly but it does help the Sage quite a bit.)

Example 2: Magus takes an Aether elemental at 11th level due to the untimely death of his previous Familiar. Its base Int mod is 4 and has 2 RHD, its new INT is 16 so we subtract 4(-3) from 16(+3) to get 12, then divide by 2 to see how many skill points we get per RHD, then we multiply that number by the number of RHD to get how many skill points the familiar has to spend. even levels he would get +2 SP, odd levels he would get 4 SP.

Per one of the Bestiary books we see that Outsiders get 6+Intmod per HD in skills, which both Aeons and Elementals are subtypes of. it also lists Bluff, Craft, Knowledge (planes), Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth (plus 4 additional by theme.) as class skills.
the same chart has animals(regular familiars) getting the same skills listed under what normal familiars get.

If you take apart the improved familiars to check how many ranks they have it typically works out based on the chart for monster types. (I cheat when I'm have to deal with this and use http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/creature-types )
This also matches the saves the base Improved familiars have as well as others.

The best way to optimise this archetype is to find a High HD familiar with a super low Int to start. Give you Familiar buddy a Mask of a thousand tomes(10k) for an additional +10 to knowledge checks.

TL;DR: Sage is a pain in the butt to get started, but if you are playing a sorcerer or non-int caster with low skill points It can be really worth it to pick it up (especially if you get a Paracletus AEON for its "Extension of All" racial SQ).

In trying to answer this question I ran into this:
If you look at the upgraded form of the spells II and III, the size change bonus' are listed under the Abilities gained.

(Mwahahahaha lesser thread necro!)

Isn't the whole idea of the Sorcerer that they cast LIKE magical creatures?

When you see a Dragon Sorcerer is he not getting his powers from his draconic ancestors muddied down by his humanoid parents?

So the line in dragon descriptions "like a sorcerer" isn't there to say dragons do things like sorcerers, its to remind you that they are where Sorcerers got their start/power/casting capabilities in the first place. Sorcerers get eschew materials? its because of their Fey/Dragon/Ghoul/Djin/whatever had magic in their BLOOD that passed into your sorcerer to allow them to cast in the first place.

Fluff doesn't always matter for WHAT the rules are, but for sorcerers it matters for WHY the rules are.

(My Input as a GM, and i understand that fluff is not RAW)