Improved Familiar Usage

[Sunny Sihota]

Which Improved Familiar would you recommend as a backline wizard?

I have very little experience with improved familiar use. I hope to use my improved familiar by having it casting ill oman before me on my turn.

Any recommendations on the best ways to use an improved familiar?

thanks

[Ryze Kuja]

Faerie Dragon is a decent spellcaster with at will Ghost Sound and Mage Hand. Greater Invis 3/day and 16Cha for UMD, so this is an awesome wand/scroll or Page of Spell Knowledge user.

Lyrakian Azata is great. Perpetual Freedom of Movement (so no slow effects or grapple/pin effects), 20Cha for UMD, 80ft fly speed (perfect), Cure Light Wounds as a backup Cure spell every day. The Starlight Blast ability kinda sucks because the save is low, but you really just want them for the flying, unslowable wand-wielder.

Cassisian Angel has good scouting/flying, perfect memory, and a decent protective aura vs evil.

Imp is very survivable. Permanent invisibility and fast healing, and it has a 12 Cha, so it does well with wands/scrolls and UMD.

Earth Elementals are good for the ol' rough n tumble guardian. Also, they have Earth Glide, so they can basically "wisp" themselves through dirt and earth. That has endless possibilities in just about any dungeon.

[deuxhero]

Arbiter is fantastic: Ever want your entire party to take half as much damage from everything? Give it a wand of Shield Other. Even better if you can get something like a custom staff without many spells (so it isn't worth a castle) or 3.5's Eternal Wand (Wands that last forever, but can only be used twice a day). Even beyond that asking a lawful deity six questions once a week (Commune), Truespeech, near unkillable, Flyby Attack (for deliver touch spells, paired with the previous) is pretty nice.

Tidepool Dragon is like Faerie Dragon, but more obscure with better casting, though in many ways worse spells known. Unlike the Faerie Dragon it can cast level 2 spells which has a lot of uses with page of spell knowledge.

Aether Elementals are also great. Always invisible, always telekinetic. Remember effects based on the familiar's HD use your HD, so its abilities scale. The damage on throwing creatures isn't much, but that just means you can move the big stupid fighter next to the monster without really hurting him too much. You could even have it throw you or anyone else that wants to get 480 feet away from danger. You could also throw an enemy straight up (or into a pit/a bunch of angry summoned monsters/a sphere of annihilation/ect.) if they fail their save, though that's unlikely as it doesn't scale by HD. A shame Telekinesis doesn't allow dirty trick, but Grapple is pretty good (talk to your GM though. Dirty Trick post-dates Telekinesis and Telekinesis spell let you use every combat maneuver in existence at the time except Overrun, which would make no sense.).

A fire or air wysp can be paired with Versatile Summon Monster for some fun options, but that's something reserved for specialists who focus on exploiting it.