Adding a ghost template to a cat familiar for a 6th lvl Shaman

[J. Hunter]

I know it's not RAW but I'm thinking of allowing my player to take the improved familiar feat to get the ghost template for his cat. I'm having some trouble making sense of how the final build would be with all the additives and changes from animal to undead type etc. The biggest thing I can"t figure is the skills. Any thoughts?

[Meirril]

So how is the shaman going to 'convert' his familiar? poison? stab the cat? the classic put them in a sack and throw them in the river?

More seriously, isn't it a bit early? This is going to be a very powerful familiar so shouldn't it be a 7th or 8th level minimum? A familiar that can pass through walls is going to be annoying. Also its going to have a special attack that is far better than other improved familiars.

As for skills replace climb with fly and I think you're done. The ghost doesn't gain any extra skill ranks.

I mean, this is a fairly standard conversion from a cat[/url and adding [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/ghost/] ghost template. No change in HP since its based on the master, saves are based on the master and no adjustments for the new template. AC -natural +charisma mod. I think the only attack the cat should have is corrupting touch.

[J. Hunter]

I hadn't really thought of the how but it brings up some funny ideas. The player is anything but mechanically minded and I'm not scared of abuse. I'm blessed with a group that doesn't try and bludgeon me with the rules.
I'm probably overthinking it but when the cat changes from an animal type to undead it's skill ranks and class skills change (right? also it gains +8 racial to stealth) and I also was trying to 'deconstruct' the skill bonuses listed to get an idea how they came up with them and was unable to.
Example: Stealth +14 (+1 rank)+(+3 class skill)+(+4 racial)+(2 dex)+(+2 size)+(+2 ???)= 14
It's all academic really as I'll prolly just do what you suggest, I was just curious what I was missing.

[Dave Justus]

Usually familiars don't have much skills of their own, but rather share their masters skill ranks. They would get some additional class skills:

"Skills: Ghosts have a +8 racial bonus on Perception and Stealth skill checks. A ghost always treats Climb, Disguise, Fly, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Stealth as class skills. Otherwise, skills are the same as the base creature."

I think you are underestimating how powerful this creature will probably be compared to other improved familiars. Just a 2d6 corrupting touch is a better attack than most familiars are going to be able to get. Given that it ignores DR and hits with a touch attack against some foes that might outshine your other PCs. Incorporeal and Rejuvenation are powerful abilities that are probably going to make the familiar a more effective scout than any of the PCs (a problem if one of the PCs as built toward that.) I would expect a Ghost Cat (even without familiar/spirit animal benefits) to be able to solo most dungeons that a 6th level party would find as an appropriate CR, simply because so few things can really deal with those powers, and if goes wrong, they can just try again.

Personally, if it was me, I'd prefer to use the Figment Familiar archetype rules and flavor it as a corporeal manifestation of a spiritual cat (not nearly as cool, but no extra feat needed either.)