If a familiar fails both the fort and will save vs baleful polymorph, is it still a familiar and what is its intelligence?
In our group my arcane archer went through a trap which cast baleful polymorph on every creature in the area. My character made the save, but his familiar did not. None of us knew what should have happened in regards to its intelligence score nor the familiar bond.
Baleful Polymorph
Duration permanent
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates, Will partial, see text; Spell Resistance: yes
DESCRIPTION
If the spell succeeds, the subject must also make a Will save. If this second save fails, the creature loses its extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities, loses its ability to cast spells (if it had the ability), and gains the alignment, special abilities, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores of its new form in place of its own. It still retains its class and level (or HD), as well as all benefits deriving therefrom (such as base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points). It retains any class features (other than spellcasting) that aren't extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like abilities.Familiar
All familiars have special abilities (or impart abilities to their masters) depending on the master's combined level in classes that grant familiars, as shown on the table below. The abilities are cumulative.I think the central point is that the intelligence of the target is to be changed to an animal intelligence, but the familiar's intelligence is a special ability which does not seem to be affected by the spell. Lets say a raven familiar was turned into a hamster. A hamster could very well be a familiar, in which case its intelligence would be set by the master's caster level. So yea... thats kind of where we were stuck. DM made a call and the game moved on, but it left that lingering curiosity.
Yeah I agree it would not be the same personality unless it kept it's mind. Even then I think it might not be able to function as a familiar with a permanent change to it's body. I seem to recall that from somewhere because long ago a similar thing happened except the wizard wanted to keep it that way... and research pointed to new needing a new familiar. Rulings may be different now.
Edit: These two together might rule it out. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An animal companion cannot also function as a familiar.