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Also, I don't really see Imp Familiar as giving the GM carte blanch authority to screw with you. You are magically bonded to it after all.You have a nice GM who's tolerant of non-evil characters making deals with devils. Not everyone does. It's a faustian bargain and an English speaking GM is probably most familiar with Marlowe's version.
It's not the same thing as a planar binding though. It's a familiar.
My familiar is effectively my b****.
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You need to read more about the tropes involved with making deals with imps, binding imps, etc...
God knows how many manga and animes and fiction have revolved around a evil creature being bound or somehow forced to serve a wizard that wasn't evil and wouldn't let them act out their evil desires....
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Also, I don't really see Imp Familiar as giving the GM carte blanch authority to screw with you. You are magically bonded to it after all.You have a nice GM who's tolerant of non-evil characters making deals with devils. Not everyone does. It's a faustian bargain and an English speaking GM is probably most familiar with Marlowe's version.It's not the same thing as a planar binding though. It's a familiar.
My familiar is effectively my b****.
Not if it has its own non-animal int score. That's why improved familiars can require you to be in an adjacent alignment and will leave you if you drift more than one step away from them.
You've secured the service of an imp somehow. The only ways to do that are to keep it under a spell forever (impossible since such spells have saves and natural 20s happen) or by making a deal with it or its boss.
Your familiar doesn't get to bargain with you for it's services. It serves you unless your alignment shifts. Now an imp may push you towards evil acts, but in that regard he serves as a sort of literal Shoulder Devil.
The only way a GM has authority under the rules to screw with you is if he says that your actions have causes your alignment to shift and your familiar therefore leaves your services.
Personally, I've never had that happen mostly because I play neutral characters straight. I do whatever is in my best interest all the time, be it good or bad, lawful or unlawful. Regardless however, there's nowhere in the rules where it says that your familiar gets to **** with you unless you capitulate to it or bargain for it's services. It's your familiar and you OWN it. It can have thoughts, goals and motives of it's own, but it's subtle in those means. Besides, I'd like to see an imp try to bargain with a 7th level wizard:
Imp: I'm not doing that unless you sacrifice a baby to me!
*Wizard hits the imp with an enervation*
Wizard: Losers says what?
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Honestly, any wizard that I make probably isn't going to have a difficult time keeping an evil familiar around anyway. My last wizard waterboarded someone in an interrogation...This is not a good thing. You may keep your familiar, but not your character. Many GMs ban evil PCs. Even if you don't get turned into a villain NPC you will no longer be able to apply the celestial template to your summons and summon good aligned outsiders, which is kind of a big deal if you're a conjurer fighting against mostly evil enemies.
Keeping company with a devil, even a small one, is ongoing evil that makes it easier for the GM to justify shifting you to an evil alignment. If you have any trouble at all with acting evil you should go for a shoulder angel of some sort instead. Good is a less dangerous alignment to drift into because it's usually easier to be selfish and drop back into neutral without losing an angel than to repent and rise back from evil without losing your imp. After all if you continue to keep company with a devil you obviously aren't repentant.
I view the familiar as more of a slave than a true companion.
I view the familiar as more of a slave than a true companion.
Hmm I always looked at my familiar as my partner in a "Buddy Cop Movie". Just me and my little buddy getting into and out of trouble together. Maybe I better pick a Mephit for my improved familiar.
For a Wizard, strength only matters for carrying capacityTouch attacks?
Getting eaten by shadows?
Not many wizards focus on melee touch attacks (ranged touch attacks use dex). If you are going for a melee focus build, then yes, you may want to avoid dumping strength. Or... take weapon finesse. Or reach spell. Either works. Besides, you're going after touch AC. -1 to hit vs touch doesn't matter that much.
Yes, shadows bite. So does anything that uses ability drains, although shadows are particularly nasty for their CR. But is a strength of 10 vs 8 so much better when you face a pack of shadows? Either way, 2 or 3 hits and you're most likely going down anyway. Similarly, yes, strength does figure into CMD, but again, if someone is going to be grappling you, with your low BAB they're going to auto-succeed if they're at all focused on grappling.
And yes, -1 on climb or swim checks will hurt on the occasions it comes up. Still, it's not like you're wearing armor, so no armor check penalty at least.
But compare those few cases where the -1 of a strength of 8 matters vs an int of 20. Int 20 for a wizard is going to be more useful day in/day out.
All that said, there really isn't anything wrong with an Int of 18 vs 20 for many wizards. Int 18 often is "good enough". Heck, even Int 16 is fine for many concepts, although I'd avoid going lower than that. And if you want to hit things with your staff, then sure, go ahead and take a strength of 14 or even 16. It's your character. Do what you want.
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Which is why I stated "Ask the GM for his thoughts before doing it"
Regardless, we're both talking about the obvious "cheese" done by being a neutral conjurer. I don't think having a familiar that isn't neutral is really any more of a big deal than someone who only constantly summons celestial rather than infernal summons.
Either your GM is going to make a stink about your alignment, or he isn't. My experience is that most GM's don't really give a damn (unless you're a paladin, because for some reason, F*** paladins. Chaotic Monks and Lawful Barbarians are totally fine, but god help you if you're a paladin who makes the most minor infraction).