Familiarity Feat- Rules question for Familiars

[Godofallu]

Hello everyone,

So I will be playing with a familiar for the first time fairly soon. Working up a lvl 6 Stalwart Battle Sorcerer. My question is do familiars gain feats as they advance in HD? How about skills?

In addition there is a feat called "Familiarity" in Dragon magazine 325. Benefit: Your familiar gains abilities as if your class level in the arcane spellcasting class that granted you access to this feat were 2 levels higher.

My understanding is this would increase natural armor by 1 and increase intelligence and maybe give me an extra passive ability. But would it increase HP or Bab or HD as well? If it does increase HD would that come with skill points and possibly feats?

Any help understanding familiar rules would be great. Currently planning on nabbing a Sewerm and playing at lvl 6. Probably going to use Enspell familiar feat as well (You are always considered to be in contact with your familiar for the purposes of sharing spells. Any spell you cast on yourself also affects your familiar as long as it is within 1 mile of you.) but that feat raises other rules questions.

Share Spells: At the master’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit.

If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the familiar again even if it returns to the master before the duration expires. Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself.

A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).

So can I share spells like enlarge person with my familiar if I cast them on myself and have enspell familiar feat and familiar is 90' away? If the effect does count on familiar does it actually work to increase size? How about Mighty Wallop on a natural attack which is bludgeoning on the familiar or displacement ect?

Thanks to anyone with some advice.

[liquidformat]

The first question, familiars do not gain any HD by being familiars. So their skills and feats are static. They 'gain' HP, saves, bab, and abilities based on the master's level as described in the familiar entry in the PHB.

For the second question enlarge person + enspell familiar would work according to the spell and ignoring the creature type. Mighty Wallop specifically calls out weapon touched as target enspell familiar wouldn't let you cast it on your familiar from 90' away. Displacement if you cast it on yourself with enspell familiar it would also affect your familiar.

[Darg]

Hello everyone,

So I will be playing with a familiar for the first time fairly soon. Working up a lvl 6 Stalwart Battle Sorcerer. My question is do familiars gain feats as they advance in HD? How about skills?

In addition there is a feat called "Familiarity" in Dragon magazine 325. Benefit: Your familiar gains abilities as if your class level in the arcane spellcasting class that granted you access to this feat were 2 levels higher.

My understanding is this would increase natural armor by 1 and increase intelligence and maybe give me an extra passive ability. But would it increase HP or Bab or HD as well? If it does increase HD would that come with skill points and possibly feats?

Any help understanding familiar rules would be great. Currently planning on nabbing a Sewerm and playing at lvl 6. Probably going to use Enspell familiar feat as well (You are always considered to be in contact with your familiar for the purposes of sharing spells. Any spell you cast on yourself also affects your familiar as long as it is within 1 mile of you.) but that feat raises other rules questions.

Share Spells: At the master’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit.

If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the familiar again even if it returns to the master before the duration expires. Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself.

A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).

So can I share spells like enlarge person with my familiar if I cast them on myself and have enspell familiar feat and familiar is 90' away? If the effect does count on familiar does it actually work to increase size? How about Mighty Wallop on a natural attack which is bludgeoning on the familiar or displacement ect?

Thanks to anyone with some advice.

Familiars do not get bonus HD. So no extra feats. They get half your health and can use some of your statistics if higher. Basically that feat is +1 ac and +1 int that gives no skill points. Higher int is an excuse to allow the familiar to do player like things.

Enspell familiar does indeed allow you to have both you and the familiar benefit like that. It does increase size.

[liquidformat]

Enspell familiar does indeed allow you to have both you and the familiar benefit like that. It does increase size. The issue is that the familiar still needs to be a valid target for the spell. So enlarge person could work if you polymorph the familiar first into a humanoid.

I have seen this one argued both ways on the board, there is just as reasonable RAW argument that 'A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).' allows the spell to ignore the familiar's type as only if the familiar is polymorphed. I lean more toward the share spell ability gives you permission to do so side of this but in the end it is up to DM.

[Darg]

I have seen this one argued both ways on the board, there is just as reasonable RAW argument that 'A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).' allows the spell to ignore the familiar's type as only if the familiar is polymorphed. I lean more toward the share spell ability gives you permission to do so side of this but in the end it is up to DM.

Nope, I agree with you. I typed that response out while distracted + I don't play with familiars all too often myself. Share spells bypasses type restrictions as long as it is cast on the caster.