Familiar advancement?

[Legendairy]

How do familiars gain feats and such? Is there a way to advance them hd wise and such?

I mean what good is a bat that can deliver touch attacks without fly by attack?

[tyckspoon]

They don't, normally, and no. The only way to get a tougher familiar is to take the Improved Familiar feat, or to multiclass into a different pet-class and use one of the methods that lets you make your Animal Companion/Special Mount also serve as your familiar.

[Flickerdart]

How do familiars gain feats and such? Is there a way to advance them hd wise and such?
Familiars gain no hit dice beyond what the creatures normally have. If you want a familiar with more HD, get Improved Familiar.

[tyckspoon]

..well, ok, being a Familiar does give them a decent Intelligence score, which means they could theoretically take class levels like any other intelligent creature. But there's no actual rules for giving them an ECL and thus determining how much XP they need/receive from encounters, so you'd have to work the entire thing out with your DM anyway just as much as if you just went up to him and asked "hey, I really like my Raven, but I'd like it to be tougher. Can I use Improved Familiar to give it Animal Companion progression instead of replacing it with something bigger?"

[Treblain]

If your familiar comes with feats already, you can get a Psion to cast Psychic Reformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicReformation.htm) to change them to other feats.

[Piggy Knowles]

The homonculus can be advanced in hit die, if you've got Improved Familiar and the bucks for it.

[noparlpf]

I always assumed familiars gained feats at 1 HD and then at 3, 6, 9, etc., just like anything else. Seeing as how a familiar's HD are equal to its master's level, that means a familiar gains a feat when its master reaches level 1, level 3, level 6, and so on.

[Piggy Knowles]

I always assumed familiars gained feats at 1 HD and then at 3, 6, 9, etc., just like anything else. Seeing as how a familiar's HD are equal to its master's level, that means a familiar gains a feat when its master reaches level 1, level 3, level 6, and so on.

Unfortunately, the familiar's hit die are NOT equal to the master's total. The relevant rule, pulled from the SRD, is:


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.

This makes it pretty explicit that the familiar still keeps its normal hit dice, but for effects that are based on the number of HD, you use the character level of the master. But it never actually gains any hit die (which is why it is a VERY good thing that its actual hit points are based off of the master's).

[Coidzor]

And now you know why the Psicrystal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/psicrystal.htm) is superior to the familiar for feat shenanigans.