Improved Familiar

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

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

Benefit: 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	Alignment	Arcane Spellcaster Level
Celestial hawk¹	Neutral good	3rd
Dire rat	Neutral	3rd
Fiendish viper²	Neutral evil	3rd
Elemental, Small (any type)	Neutral	5th
Stirge	Neutral	5th
Homunculus³	Any	7th
Imp	Lawful evil	7th
Mephit (any type)	Neutral	7th
Pseudodragon	Neutral good	7th
Quasit	Chaotic evil	7th
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).

Attributes

Benefit

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). See Compendium entry for full table.

Feat Name

Improved Familiar

Feat Type

General

Prerequisites

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