Core Rulebook | Feats | Improved Familiar

Improved Familiar

Description: This feat allows you to acquire a powerful familiar, but only when you could normally acquire a new familiar.

Prerequisites

Description: Ability to acquire a new familiar, compatible alignment, sufficiently high level (see below).

Benefits

When choosing a familiar, the creatures listed below are also available to you. You may choose a familiar with an alignment up to one step away on each alignment axis (lawful through chaotic, good through evil).

Familiar

FamiliarAlignmentArcane Spellcaster Level
Celestial hawk1Neutral good3rd
Dire ratNeutral3rd
Fiendish viper2Neutral evil3rd
Elemental, Small (any type)Neutral5th
StirgeNeutral5th
Homunculus3Any7th
ImpLawful evil7th
Mephit (any type)Neutral7th
PseudodragonNeutral good7th
QuasitChaotic evil7th
1 Or other celestial animal from the standard familiar list.
2 Or other fiendish animal from the standard familiar list.
3 The master must first create the homunculus.

Improved familiars otherwise use the rules for regular familiars, with two exceptions: if the creature's type is something other than animal, its type does not change; and improved familiars do not gain the ability to speak with other creatures of their kind (although many of them already have the ability to communicate).