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With Improved Familiar I get some nifty choices at Level 7. However, many of these (Pseudodragon, Arbiter, Silvanshee, Lyrakien, Brownie, Cythnigot, Quasit, Imp, and probably others) have Intelligence scores that exceed what a Familiar has at level 7 (Int 9). The Lyrakien is the most stunted of all, and won't hit intellectual parity with the non-Familiar version until its master is Level 17! Please tell me that there is a rule somewhere that Familiars use their base Int until the value on the Familiar table exceeds it.
Nope. Looks like the creatures of average racial intelligence avoid being familiars.
Huh? I've always assumed that familiars used the better of the two numbers.
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The Wizards version of the Improved Familiar feat had that note about using the higher of the two intelligence values. Paizo either forgot about that line or deliberately chose to exclude it -- I have no idea which.
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Has this ever been answered? I'm starting a lvl 7 witch with a ratling familiar, who has an int of 12 base. According to the familiar chart it would take until lvl 15 for the int to ever improve.
So how does this work?
A. Is the naturally smart familiar dumbed down?
B. Does the naturally smart familiar gain intelligence above its starting value at a rate of 1 per master caster level?
C. Does the naturally smart familiar retain its natural intelligence until the chart says it goes higher? Better of the two.
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Has this ever been answered? I'm starting a lvl 7 witch with a ratling familiar, who has an int of 12 base. According to the familiar chart it would take until lvl 15 for the int to ever improve.
So how does this work?
A. Is the naturally smart familiar dumbed down?
B. Does the naturally smart familiar gain intelligence above its starting value at a rate of 1 per master caster level?
C. Does the naturally smart familiar retain its natural intelligence until the chart says it goes higher? Better of the two.
When you choose an improved familiar, it gains a lot of different abilities that a normal familiar wouldn't have. Though it isn't stated in the rules, it only makes sense that they'd keep the base intelligence of the creature. However, it wouldn't increase unless the intelligence in the chart says it goes higher than their natural Int. (so it won't increase til you get to a fairly high Wizard level)
The Wizards version of the Improved Familiar feat had that note about using the higher of the two intelligence values. Paizo either forgot about that line or deliberately chose to exclude it -- I have no idea which.
I havn't found that note...
But i found:
Improved familiars otherwise use the rules for regular familiars, with two exceptions: If the creature’s type is something other than animal, its type does not change; and improved familiars do not gain the ability to speak with other creatures of their kind (although many of them already have the ability to communicate).
So if i understand this right you do not treat your spellcaster level as any lower with an improved familiar, but instead advance the familiar in the same way as a normal familiar including raising it's INT. The level noted in the improved familiar table is just a prerequisite to choose that kind of familiar.
EDIT: Ah now I get what if the base creature is already smarter? Well this should be in a 3.5 FAQ somewhere...
...and here we go:
A familiar uses its own Intelligence score if it is higher than what its master's level allows.
I believe RAI is to use the normal INT (if higher than list),
but that is definitely not clear per RAW, so should be Errata'd if that's the case...
The Familiar ability directly states an explicit list of what you DO keep from the 'original' creature stats,
and INT is not on that list, so on a RAW basis you should just use the Familiar INT table...
which would imply that most Improved Familiars are dumber than their non-Familiar brethren.
It would also require re-calculating their own base skill ranks, which is hardly straight-forward,
and so merely on that count I think adding wording to use their normal INT is 'recommended'.
I didn't think familiars had base skill ranks - thought they used the caster's, but defaulting to their own ability modifiers instead of the casters ability modifiers. No?
Beej67:
Familiars have ranks on their own. Those ranks never advance as the caster advances. Take the ranks which are superior (the familiar's or the caster's).
Example: if you have a familiar with 1 rank in fly and the wizard has zero ranks in fly then familiar has 1 rank in fly.
Example 2: If you have a familiar with 1 rank in fly and the wizard has 10 ranks in fly then familiar has 10 ranks in fly.
In either case, apply the ability score modifier of the familiar.
- Gauss