Silverline's Improved Familiar rule question extravaganza

[Silverline]

Alright, after trawling the forums for answers to a bunch of different questions I had about how Improved Familiars work and either coming up squat or simply unclear, I thought I'd put together a single thread to cover them all. For the purposes of examples, I'll be using a Lyrakien familiar, because why not. I'll also be pulling all quotes from the SRD, because it is WAY easier to simply copy + paste. So, here we go:

1) BAB.

Spoiler:

This one actually technically covers normal familiars as well, which line takes precedence?

Quote:

A familiar is an animal chosen by a spellcaster to aid him in his study of magic. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was

Or

Quote:

Attacks: Use the master's base attack bonus, as calculated from all his classes.

Now, a Lyrakien has a full BAB, but does not actually level in a normal sense. However, the line;

Quote:

Hit Dice: 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.

Is not particularly clear on WHAT effects that covers. Is it just spell effects, or does it encompass things such as BAB, skill ranks, etc?

2)Skills.

Spoiler:

Now, this one is a bit more hazy than the BAB question. Now, the way I read this;

Quote:

Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master's skill ranks, whichever is better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar's total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar's ability to use. Familiars treat Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim as class skills.

Means that I basically use a "whichever is better" rule of thumb when it comes to skill ranks, gaining bonuses for both the standard familiar class skills and the lyrakien's own class skills. Easy enough. However, how does a familiar GAIN new skill ranks? Does it pick new ones up whenever its master gains a level, or does it only gain them through increases to its Intelligence?

3)Intelligence.

Spoiler:

Now this one is a doozy. RAW, it appears that becoming a familiar actually makes most of the Improved Familiars DUMBER, as there is no rule explicitly stating that they don't use that part of the familiar progression table. However, I believe in 3.5 there WAS a rule that basically said "use whichever is higher", and a precedent for this can be seen in how the skill ranks work. However, as far as I know this has never been addressed in an errata, so which interpretation is RAI? Personally I would support the "whichever is better" camp, but I have no idea if that is correct.

4)Saving Throws.

Spoiler:

Quote:

Saving Throws: For each saving throw, use either the familiar's base save bonus (Fortitude +2, Reflex +2, Will +0) or the master's (as calculated from all his classes), whichever is better. The familiar uses its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn't share any of the other bonuses that the master might have on saves.

Now, this seems to work the same as skill ranks (use whichever is higher for each one), but a Lyrakien has Reflex and Will as its high saves. Do we use those, or do they change over to Fort and Ref?

5) Caster Level.

Spoiler:

This is a smaller one that ties into the "what effects from higher HD does a familiar get"; does the CL - and thus effects from SLAs - increase as the master gains levels?

I'm hoping to get enough community feedback so to understand how most people use these rules - it is hard to go wrong by following the general consensus, after all.

[Nefreet]

1a) it's definitely the BAB of the master, calculated from all classes. It simply doesn't make sense that a 20th level Wizard's Raven Familiar would still have a BAB of +0. If the creature's BAB is higher, somehow, I'd go with that until the master's surpassed it, but I can't think of any circumstances where that would occur.

1b) it's not clear on what effects this covers because there are so many. The Sleep spell, for example, would have no effect on the Familiar of a 5th level Wizard. Color Spray may have a diminished effect as well. Basically, if an effect calls for HD, use the master's level instead. Skill ranks and BAB are not an "effect".

[Nefreet]

2) Familiars don't usually gain new skill ranks, though a high level Familiar with a sufficient Intelligence may. In that case it gains a number of skill ranks equal to its actual Hit Dice.

I've seen some players give their Familiar a Headband of Vast Intelligence and claim that the Familiar gains a # of bonus skill ranks equal to the master's level, but I've also encountered GMs that rule it's only equal to the # of actual HD the critter has, so YMMV.

[Nefreet]

3) there is no official answer for this that I am aware of, so yes, some creatures may actually lose Intelligence by becoming a Familiar.

[Nefreet]

4) use the Lyrakien's. The section you quoted assumes a default animal as a Familiar.

[Nefreet]

5) use the CL of the Lyrakien. Like skill points and BAB, Caster Level is not an "effect".

[Silverline]

Alright, cheers. I rather doubted that BAB, skill ranks or CL would rise in that way, but I wasn't really certain. With that in mind, I would assume that the headband idea would probably work in the latter manner - based on actual HD.

However, I think I'd house-rule the Int score rule in favour of simply using whatever is better, since there is already a precedent set for such things in the skill ranks. And really, why would becoming a familiar suddenly make something dumber? Either way, it would be nice for this particular issue to get errata'd.

[FLite]

It's not that becoming a familiar makes them dumber, it is just that members of that race with normal or above intelligence are smart enough not to become familiars, or at least smart enough to only become familiars for high level casters...

:)