Do Familiars and their Wizard Share Spells?


Rules Questions


Or is it only the other way around (Wizards share spells with their familar.) This will come into play with a witch in my game who now has a Fairy Dragon Familiar. The Fairy Dragon can cast Shield (not on the witch's spell list). Can the Familiar share it with the witch? Rules as written I would say no. As the description for for "Share Spells" only mentions the wizard as the caster, not the familiar (granted most familiars do not cast spells). What is the consensus?

BONUS QUESTION: when we added the Familiar (witch is level 8 with improved familiar) in Hero Labs, the Fairy Dragon ended up with an INT of 23? This seems wrong. By all accounts it looks like it should be 16. Did we make a mistake adding it, or did Hero Labs reveal some bonus to INT that we missed (which happens some times).

I like telling players "Yes! that is awesome", so before I tell the player that his Dragon can't cast shield on him and actually has an INT of 16...I thought I would double check.

Liberty's Edge

The Share Spells feature of the familiar, as written, only allows the caster to share with its familiar so, unless the Faerie Dragon has an ability to share spells listed in its stat block (it doesn't,) it can't cast Shield on the witch. If you want to grant it as GM, go for it. Just bear in mind, making Share Spells a two-way street could quickly prove to be too good. The Faerie Dragon could have Mage Armor instead of Shield if the player just wants to get a free +4 AC bonus out of his improved familiar. They aren't the same, but they're similar.

As far the INT thing goes, I can't see any reason for the faerie dragon to have a 23. Improved Familiars use their normal stats aside from special familiar abilities, possible skill and save bumps from their master and an HP change. They don't get ability score bonuses from extra HD since those never actually change. The intelligence block in the familiar advancement table isn't an INT bonus, it's an INT score. It won't stack with the dragon's 16. Unless the witch finds a 4HD faerie dragon with a 17 INT and buys it a tiny +6 headband of intelligence, it's stuck with a quite good 16 INT.

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