I haven't played a primary caster class in 3.5, but the last game I was in one of our two wizards had a Celestial-template (if I remember right) pseudo-dragon which ended up being somewhat effective. I do recall there being some debate about halfway through the game when we had two new people join, as to whether he had to cast a touch spell, touch the familiar, and have the familiar deliver it, or whether the familiar could effectively cast touch spells from its owner's pool (which is how it had been played up to that point). But I don't recall it coming up again, and I don't remember if that was because the rules were adjusted for, or just the wizard didn't find more useful opportunities for it.