To improve familliar or not. IE : Can my pseudodragon craft chocolate.

[Dezea]

So, i'm playing a pathfinder Wizard, with his proud raven familliar, and was seriously wondering about taking improved familliar or not.

Problem is : I don't know wich familiar to pick. My mage is good, so imp is out (Wich is sad, since it looks great and flavorful), and there is just so many possibilities out there with 4 bestiaries. Do you guys have any advice ? If possible something with strong mechanics and flavor : o

Other problem : I don't really know how those familliar works. Do you need to use your own action to manage them ? Do they have a separate initiative ? Do they, at least, craft chocolate ? So many questions.

Thanks !

[Milo v3]

You could get a Cassian Angel, golden helmet with wings that can take a goldfish form yet has perfect memory (as in literally). You can read a story or a non-fiction book to your smart fishie and he can tell you every bit of information in it whenever you want. Another thing is that if it's next to you, it grants you protection against evil.

But most importantly, it has skill points that are useless (like it's diplomacy skill points) which could be moved to Craft (Chocolate).

[Abd al-Azrad]

Some DMs run familiars differently than others, so YMMV. In general, a Familiar (especially an Improved Familiar) is a highly intelligent and capable creature, typically more intelligent and capable than your average 3rd-level expert or swordsman (before "familiar bonuses"). They can manage themselves. In fact, they can carry out complicated tasks on their own initiative without oversight, although many mages don't send their familiars out on dangerous assignments without support due to the risk of losing such a valuable asset.

I agree that Imp is the best Improved Familiar (it's in the name). But that's only by a small margin in a lot of cases. The things the Imp has going for it are myriad: fast and maneuverable flight, at-will invisibility, hands, decent defenses (AC, damage reduction, fast healing, elemental immunities and resistances), nice senses (uber-darkvision, detect good/magic), shapeshifting, an OK charisma (for UMD) and its divination abilities. Overall, a fantastic package. These are the sorts of things to look out for in your non-evil familiar options.

A faerie dragon doesn't have these sorts of offerings, but it can keep up. Better than spell-likes, it casts as a Sorcerer, so it never needs to roll UMD - which means you can deck it out with wands and scrolls and it can act as a backup caster. It also has self-invisibility, awesome flight and pretty solid senses. It's possibly more versatile than an Imp, but far more vulnerable.

A homunculus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/homunculus) is a bit of a weird choice, but you can modify its abilities pretty significantly if you possess Craft Construct and the right materials - for 10 potions, you can give it a 1/day spell-like ability of whichever sort you have potions for. Pretty awesome.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I'm rather fond of the Arbiter Inevitable, if only for the regeneration ensuring its really hard to actually kill it.

[deuxhero]

Arbiter also has hands capable of holding stuff explicitly.

Tidepool Dragon is another good option. Level 4 sorcerer with decent spells known (and you can easily boost its spells known with items) that can fly and swim while also being an endless source of fire (if you can't think of something to do with that, you are NOT trying). As a bonus, if you have a really strict GM and picked up a familiar via Eldritch Heritage it's one of the few improved familiars that requires only a spellcaster level, not an arcane caster level