Faerie Dragon 5e Stat Block
Tommye Hope
The Faerie Dragon bestiary entry is unusual among monsters eligible to be Improved Familiars. Notably, it's unusual because unlike all of the other available options, the Faerie Dragon has a list of Spells in addition to it's Spell-Like Ability.
To me, this implies that the Faerie Dragon's list of spells known is capable of being determined at the time of 'creation', and isn't fixed across all creatures of the type. Thus, if I wanted my Faerie Dragon Familiar to know Color Spray instead of Grease, or Detect Magic instead of Open/Close, that ought to be possible.
Either way, it seems very clear that this spell casting does not scale with hit dice/character level as most SLA's do. That said, I also find myself wondering how this affects the Faerie Dragon's access to magic items. Can it use Wands and Scrolls as a 3rd level sorcerer (i.e. without a UMD check if the spell is on the proper list)? Could it use a Page of Spell Knowledge to learn an additional spell?
Another issue is who gets to control the companion's advancement. Animal companions, eidolons, and cohorts all advance much like PCs, making choices about feats, skills, special abilities, and (in the case of cohorts) class levels. Whoever controls the companion's actions also makes decisions about its advancement, but there is more of a shared role between you and the GM for some types of companions.
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Cohort: A cohort is generally considered a player-controlled companion, and therefore you get to decide how the cohort advances. The GM might step in if you make choices that are inappropriate for the cohort, use the cohort as a mechanism for pushing the boundaries of the game rules, or treat the cohort unfairly.
Sentient Companions: a sentient companion (a creature that can understand language and has an Intelligence score of at least 3) is considered your ally and obeys your suggestions and orders to the best of its ability. It won't necessarily blindly follow a suicidal order, but it has your interests at heart and does what it can to keep you alive. Paladin bonded mounts, familiars, and cohorts fall into this category, and are usually player-controlled companions.
Adding Racial Hit Dice: Adding racial Hit Dice to a monster is a similar process to building a monster from scratch. As additional Hit Dice are added, other abilities increase in power as well. Additional Hit Dice usually results in better attack bonuses, saves, hit points, and skills, as well as more feats. It can also include additional spellcasting capability and other powers.
Since what spells a faerie dragon knows are a decision it makes as it advances in racial HD, and since you, not the GM, control such advancement, and, in fact, determine all aspects of your familiar with only minor oversight (as shown above), you can certainly swap out a faerie dragon's spells known as you generate it, just like you can its skill points, feats, and all other decision-based aspects of its character.
As for item usage, the dragon casts spells "like a sorcerer", so for items which benefit from or require sorcerer spell ability (like a wand of Fireball or a Staff of Meteor Swarm or, like you mention, Pages of Spell Knowledge) the dragon qualifies as a sorcerer. However, it is not a sorcerer and so items that rely on it being one (class requirement items) or possessing other class powers (Robe of Arcane Heritage) would not function.
You are right that the spellcasting does not increase as you (the master) level up, but if the familiar were a wild faerie dragon it would increase with additional racial Hit Dice, as per the normal rules for advancing monsters with spellcasting ability.
Faerie dragons grow in power as spellcasters as they age (typically gaining levels in sorcerer), learning more powerful spells to complement their innate abilities. The spells of faerie dragons tend to focus on tools that can be used to create or enhance pranks, and illusion and enchantment spells are particularly popular. - (ECOLOGY, -listings/dragons/dragon-faerie)
The above quotes imply that you do not create the familiar, but instead get an existing creature to bond to you. Therefore you were not with it when it leveled its Sorcerer class (unless you somehow bonded to a baby). So what spells it has would logically be up to your DM.
All of the above is dependent on your DM. They can and should determine if ruling that the Faerie dragon has three levels in sorcerer makes them unbalanced for their game or not. And also are perfectly able to allow you pick your familiar's spells, if they so choose.
Since it has a language, it can use spell trigger / completion items such as scrolls, wands, and staves. No need to make UMD checks for spells on the class list, which is... everything arcane. It just may not know them.
Actually, I don't see anywhere it says the caster level ever goes up at all, from what I see, it casts 3rd level Sorcerer's spells known/spells per day at 3rd caster level regardless of your level. In fact I don't think it even gets that, as that would imply you get to pick its spell list. I think it gets the spells listed at caster level 3 period.
It definitely gets spells, since there is a default set of spells known in the stat block. I think that CL goes up since it is by definition linked to HD for a spellcaster. It does not get extra spells since the text says that it casts as a 3rd level sorcerer.
What it does get you though, is the ability to use wands without UMD, since "casts as a 3rd level sorcerer" means that they have the sorcerer's spell list. it is not linked to HD, it is linked to class level, a creature can have 17HD, 23 HD or 16 HD and get the ability to cast spells as a 20th level cleric regardless of it's actual HD neither is a multi-class character. AUC.register('auc_MessageboardPostRowDisplay'); AjaxBusy.register('masked', 'busy', 'auc_MessageboardPostRowDisplay', null, null) spalding Jun 1, 2012, 02:05 pm I can find text stating that if you add levels in a class that has a class feature that the monster already has you advance that class feature, but nothing specifically linking caster level (or spell casting) to hit dice specifically.
Hey, I just posted a similar question. What a coincidence. Under hit dice, the familiar rules say, "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."
It is not at all clear that spell like ability casting level, or sorcerer level (for a fairie dragon), or paladin level (for a silvanshee) are related to hit dice, though if I was a DM advancing one, I certainly would use their new hit dice for the level of these abilities.
The fairie dragon's Bestiary abilities don't change as the master advances as the Familliar is not gaining Hit Dice. The only way that the familliar changes is what's specfically granted by the familliar rules text.. The hit points grow at half the rate of the master's and the familliar abilities accrue as per the table, and of course the benefit of the master's base skill ranks and saving throws where they exceed those of the bestiary entries.
As a DM I would never let a fairie dragon cast spells as a sorcerer equal to its master's level, regardless of the rules. But what about the caster level for a familiars normal spell like abilities? What about the effective level of other abilities, like the silvanshee's lay on hands?
However things like the DC of abilities a familiar has does increase and the silvanshee gains more (and better) uses of its lay on hands ability. AUC.register('auc_MessageboardPostRowDisplay'); AjaxBusy.register('masked', 'busy', 'auc_MessageboardPostRowDisplay', null, null) Remco Sommeling Jun 2, 2012, 01:01 pm Abraham spalding wrote: LazarX wrote: The fairie dragon's Bestiary abilities don't change as the master advances as the Familliar is not gaining Hit Dice. The only way that the familliar changes is what's specfically granted by the familliar rules text.. The hit points grow at half the rate of the master's and the familliar abilities accrue as per the table, and of course the benefit of the master's base skill ranks and saving throws where they exceed those of the bestiary entries. However things like the DC of abilities a familiar has does increase and the silvanshee gains more (and better) uses of its lay on hands ability. arguably that too goes beyond the RAI of the silvanashee though, it is certainly more powerful than other similarly powered familiars, might get a party full with silvanshee familiars through eldritch heritage just for that.I'd probably allow the increase of the ability but not give it multiple uses.
arguably that too goes beyond the RAI of the silvanashee though, it is certainly more powerful than other similarly powered familiars, might get a party full with silvanshee familiars through eldritch heritage just for that.I'd probably allow the increase of the ability but not give it multiple uses. I won't argue Read as Interpreted with you, however I would say RAW is what it is, and it states that the silvanshee gets lay on hands as a paladin of level equal to its hit dice and as a familiar all effects determined by hit dice are covered by your character level.Which does mean silvanshee can be a very strong option, but it's costing you at least 3 feats (if you don't get an arcane bond from some other source) and you still have to figure out how to get the arcane caster level requirement (arcane caster level 7th for silvanshee) as well.
No it does not. because the Silvanshee does not gain any hit dice, there is no avenue for progression of these abilities.Remember this mantra Familliars DO NOT GAIN HIT DICE. They do not advance as their creature type.
RAW, it seems that most improved familiar's spell like abilities don't improve in caster level, and the silvanshee does not increase its lay on hands ability. RAW, I would say that the monster description for the familiar must explicitly say 'at a level equal to the familiar's hit dice' which will never be the case. But its OK. Improved familiar is still good enough as a feat.
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