Why do special mounts, animal companions and psicrystals get feats but not familiars?

[danzibr]

Topic.

For that matter, how about other minions/companions?

[Kylarra]

familiars have a base hit dice that gets overwritten by the caster's hp/character level after level 2 pretty much, but they don't actually gain those hit dice. Psicrystals and animal companions actually gain hit dice.

[Veyr]

As for why they chose to make it this way, I believe they felt Familiars were supposed to be more of a "pet" than "companion" the way Animal Companions or Special Mounts are. For Psicrystals, it seems they decided that Familiars were a bit too useless, plus you needed to spend a feat on Psicrystal Affinity, so they made Psicrystals a bit better.

That's my take, anyway.

[danzibr]

[...] plus you needed to spend a feat on Psicrystal Affinity, so they made Psicrystals a bit better.

That's my take, anyway.

Ahh, I never thought about it that way. To be honest I was kind of fishing for, "Well, I think psicrystals shouldn't get feats blah blah." Good point.

[Prime32]

Familiars get one feat. More if you have an Improved Familiar with 3+ HD. Your DM might let them take flaws.

[Rickshaw]

Familiars get one feat. More if you have an Improved Familiar with 3+ HD. Your DM might let them take flaws.

they get alertness, but I wasn't aware Improved familiar granted feats.

[faceroll]

they get alertness, but I wasn't aware Improved familiar granted feats.

If your improved familiar has a multiple of 3 hit die, it has multiple feats.

[HalfDragonCube]

As for why they chose to make it this way, I believe they felt Familiars were supposed to be more of a "pet" than "companion" the way Animal Companions or Special Mounts are. For Psicrystals, it seems they decided that Familiars were a bit too useless, plus you needed to spend a feat on Psicrystal Affinity, so they made Psicrystals a bit better.

That's my take, anyway.

Pets cause you to lose xp if they die, while a companion leaves people relatively unaffected if it passes away?

If you are going to play a wizard, don't bother with familiars, just get something like abrupt jaunt or some other variant rule. Much more awesome.

[faceroll]

A pet which cause you to lose xp if dies, while a companion leaves people relatively unaffected?

If you are going to play a wizard, don't bother with familiars, just get something like abrupt jaunt or some other variant rule. Much more awesome.

A familiar can potentially use tools, so for a skillmonkey, they're quite useful. They're also totally loyal, and quite intelligent.

[Coidzor]

All about proper utilization of the tools you have in front of you.

Or a +4 to initiative.

[Prime32]

they get alertness, but I wasn't aware Improved familiar granted feats.

You get Alertness, not your familiar.

All creatures get 1 feat, +1 per three levels. Thus a 1HD familiar has one feat, and a 3HD familiar has two. The only way to get a familiar with 3+ HD is Improved Familiar or a similar feat.

[Urpriest]

Familiars don't gain feats because they don't gain HD because they weren't designed as primary combatants. Animal Companions gain HD because they are primary combatants, and thus are required to gain feats.

Psicrystals, like familiars, are treated as having the hit dice of their master for various effects. Unlike familiars, psicrystals don't make sense without a manifester attached, so they don't have the "base animal" statblocks that familiars do. Since they don't have a base number of hit dice, their statblock simply lists them as having hit dice equal to their master's, in order to be consistent with familiars. In this case, however, this actually gives them real hit dice, since there is no independent way to find how many hit dice they have. And anything that gains hit dice gains feats.

[Greenish]

Psicrystals, like familiars, are treated as having the hit dice of their master for various effects. Unlike familiars, psicrystals don't make sense without a manifester attached, so they don't have the "base animal" statblocks that familiars do. Since they don't have a base number of hit dice, their statblock simply lists them as having hit dice equal to their master's, in order to be consistent with familiars. In this case, however, this actually gives them real hit dice, since there is no independent way to find how many hit dice they have. And anything that gains hit dice gains feats.

Was this intended? Maybe not.

Is this too strong? Well, there's no rule saying no one can have nicer toys than full casters.

[Godskook]

Is this too strong? Well, there's no rule saying no one can have nicer toys than full casters.

Only the toymaker gets nicer toys than the full casters.

Artificers are the toymaker.