familiar/companion and XP loss

[ayvango]

How to resolve cases when wizard's familiar, or druid's companion (or both in case of arcane hierophant) should lose XP or level? Like being resurrected with the Raise Dead spell. Or if companion take magic item creation feat and spend XP to craft item. Or if familiar energized with the Animate Familiar spell obtains spell casting from the spell-stitched template and casts spell that requires XP component.

[InvisibleBison]

I don't think that familiars, animal companions, etc, have experience points to lose. Familiars and animal companions both differ from a typical creature of their kind only as described in the relevant tables in the PHB, and the rules for awarding XP only talk about PCs. Thus, if they have 0 XP, they can't do anything that would require them to spend XP. Of course, I don't have any concrete rule citations to back this up, so I might be wrong.

As for raise dead, the spell says what would happen: The creature would permanently lose 2 points of Constitution.

[ayvango]

and the rules for awarding XP only talk about PCs.
But NPC still is capable of creating (and selling to the PC) magic items. NPC cleric could cast resurrection spells as a service.

[InvisibleBison]

But NPC still is capable of creating (and selling to the PC) magic items. NPC cleric could cast resurrection spells as a service.

NPCs have however much XP the DM wants them to have. A DM could use the same XP award rules for NPCs as for PCs, but he doesn't have to. Moreover, familiars and animal companions (and there's a phrase that needs some sort of abbreviation) are an oddity among NPCs in having specific, well-defined rules for advancement. Since those rules don't mention XP, familiars and animal companions don't get XP unless the DM house-rules otherwise. Compare them to cohorts, who are also NPCs that are sort of under the control of a PC and who do gain XP, albeit differently from PCs.