I ask because of how Hero Lab is doing it, I think it is wrong
If you are an arcanist, and you choose the bloodline exploit, choose arcana and choose a familiar:
Does your familiar still level with you, specifically for powers?
Your familiar does not level with you.
Bloodline Development: The arcanist selects one sorcerer bloodline upon taking this exploit. The arcanist gains that bloodline's 1st-level bloodline power as though she were a 1st-level sorcerer. The arcanist must select an ordinary bloodline with this ability, not one altered by an archetype. As a swift action, the arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to bolster her latent nature, allowing her to treat her arcanist level as her sorcerer level for the purpose of using this ability, which lasts for a number of rounds equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
She does not gain any other abilities when using this exploit in this way, such as bloodline arcana or bloodline powers gained at 3rd level or higher. If this ability is used to gain an arcane bond and a bonded item is selected, the arcanist can use that item only to cast spells that a sorcerer of that level could cast (limiting her to 1st-level spells unless she spends a point from her arcane reservoir).
Emphasis mine. If you spend a point from your reservoir, your familiar would gain its full abilities according to your level. We see evidence further supporting this with the example of the arcane bond item, which, if anything, should have scaled if anything were to.
I am mildly curious as to why you would choose the Bloodline Development (Arcane) exploit to gain a familiar, rather than simply choosing the Familiar exploit.
I was playing with Hero Lab and noted something odd. My read actually matches yours. Why I did it has to do with the language about the bond, it seemed to be kind of odd, and like I said, was just playing around.
To answer your question about why I would choose bloodline, a bit of RP. I liked the idea of having "the blood" as such...
You could always RP it either way. But if you're in for the RP hardcore, you can always take a 1-level dip into an Arcane-blood Sorcerer to get an advancing familiar that way, but I wouldn't recommend it for multiple reasons.
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I don't think dipping a class with a familiar would help. You're still only a 1st level sorcerer. The only part of a familiar that's based on character level is hitpoints. Everything else is based on class level, and you'd only have 1 level in a familiar gaining class. I guess skills would technically advance as well, since the familiar is considered to have ranks equal to its master, regardless of class level.
Of course, there's the Familiar Arcane Exploit, so you could just take that and then all of your Arcanist levels would count for it. You lose the arcane bloodline flavor, i suppose.
want to emphasis, not really planning on it, just saw something odd and thought would double check
I don't think dipping a class with a familiar would help. You're still only a 1st level sorcerer.
It's because of the design of the exploit. If you have a level of a class with the bloodline, then your arcanist levels stack with that class for that bloodline.
Yeah, taking a dip on the arcanist is hard. Waiting till level 4 to get a spell level is already a long time, and a dip just makes it worse. But getting almost full access to the sorcerer class features for the cost of one level and one exploit isn't a terrible thing. It probably feels like a better idea at later levels, when you have plenty of spells to get your through an adventuring day.
My favorite use of that exploit is for a dragon disciple. You can basically bootstrap yourself into the bloodline without actually needing to take a level in sorcerer. An arcanist does need the spell specialist archetype to qualify for DD though.
Ok, I see. So it's a dip into sorcerer and taking the Bloodline Exploit. That still seems like a bit much to get something that a single exploit would grant. But if the flavor or background fits, then I could see doing it.
or take two feats (Skill focus Arcana and Eldritch Heritage...which is what I am likely to do)