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The Celestial Servant feat changes you familiar's type.
This leaves me with some questions:
1) Does the familiar lose any subtypes?
2) Does it lose any abilities based off of type?
3) Does it gain the Augmented subtype?
4) Do Vermin animal companions gain an intelligence?
5) Does it change their alignment?
#5 imp familiar becomes celestial imp and very confused!
I believe this is one of those "Hey, this is a sweet idea!" abilities that have way too many unintended consequences. You're in GM fiat territory. Ask your GM. The feat clearly is intended to work on creatures that were animals and no longer are. Keep that in mind.
But let's try to make it work as written...
1) No. Unless it makes absolutely no sense on the new type. Then yes.
2) It loses all previous abilities associated with its old type and gains those of magical beast.
3) Yea...that's what augmented says...
4) Not intended to work with vermin. Ask your GM.
5) The template does not change it, however the author probably intended so.
I also find it odd that it changes your creature to the magical beast type, when PF doesn't do that anymore, but 3.5 did.
I think that may have been a mistake on the part of the designer. It happens to all of us :)
Although I guess if it was a mistake, they wouldn't have had to specify the type changing.
So, ask your GM.
a familiar is only an animal: a familiar is not an improved falmiliar.
A familiar can be a vermin, which is not an animal. an improved familiar can be a fiendish viper, which IS an animal.
When choosing a familiar, the creatures listed here are also available to you.
implying that all the feat does is expand the list, it does not change anything about how the familiar is normally treated.
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).
having an improved class feature does not change how the base class feature works unless the improved ability says otherwise.
I would agree with Cheapy, that it is in the realm of GM fiat.
a familiar is only an animal: a familiar is not an improved falmiliar.A familiar can be a vermin, which is not an animal. an improved familiar can be a fiendish viper, which IS an animal.
When choosing a familiar, the creatures listed here are also available to you.implying that all the feat does is expand the list, it does not change anything about how the familiar is normally treated.
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).having an improved class feature does not change how the base class feature works unless the improved ability says otherwise.
I would agree with Cheapy, that it is in the realm of GM fiat.
Effectively i haven't noted that vermin could become familiar (in UM).
Note: you could have spoken of Celestial Hawk instead of Fiendish viper...
But i doesn't change the feat.The feat improved familiar gives you access to new familiars which are not basic familiar: i've never said "how the base class feature works", it's not the problem.
The problem is that a familiar is not an improved familiar. It's another list that you cannot mix. They are "superior", and everybody can see that.You try to play on words, and it seems to me you want abuse of this feat.
The intent of designer is to give a lesser "improved xxxx" for those who have familiar and who would keep them as "improved as celestial" instead of replace them by one in the list of "improved familiar".
Not to "boost" your imp.As i am GM, i will respond: No need of GM fiat, you just have to read the feat. All is very clear.
there is no 'basic familiar' to differentiate it from 'improved familiar'. you try to play on words, even though nothing references 'base' class feature or 'basic' familiar. there is the arcane bond class feature which can be taken as a familiar, then there is the improved familiar feat which makes it better, not completely different.
just like there is a channel energy class feature, and the improved channel energy feat to make it better. it does not make it suddenly a different feature so that other feats/abilities that change the feature will not also work with it.
by your reasoning, you are saying that if you have the feat improved channel energy, you cannot use selective channeling with it because it is no longer 'basic' channel energy so no longer apply selective channel or quick channel to it.
you may be blackbloodtroll's GM, but you aren't mine. i still say it is up to the GM to resolve it as best he/she can for his/her game.
I'm saying nothing like that.
And your ex is bad. The feat Celestial Servant doesn't speak of familiar class feature, but of familiar.How could you change a celestial hawk (or toad or...)? in a celestial celestial hawk?
you could technically do this, but applying the same template twice does not stack. they would all be overlapping abilities, but there is nothing stating you CANNOT do this.
a fiendish viper in a celestial fiendish viper?
it doesn't make sense, but RAW that is possible. they are just templates, with no rules on what you can or cannot put them on. nothing stops you from applying more than one template to a creature.
a resolute owl in a celestial resolute owl?
This actually can make sense as a lawful AND good creature, once again it is just two templates added to a creature.
a pseudo dragon in a magical beast?
why not?
you can have a half-dragon mighty two headed vampiric pseudodragon if you wanted to.
"you may be blackbloodtroll's GM" I don't know what is a "blackbloodtroll's GM", but i don't think it's very kind from you. I hope it's no more...
forgive me if i'm wrong, but i think i can tell english isn't your primary language.
when you said "As i am GM, i will respond" i was assuming you meant that you were the GM of the game of the person who made the original question (at the top of the page, 'blackbloodtroll'). I was just asserting that I disagree with your interpretation of the rules, and that you being a GM does not make your opinion absolute. I meant no offense.
Sorry to rez the thread, but I'm running into this issue now too.
RAW, i see absolutely nothing stopping things from having multiple templates applied, as absurd as they might get.
If an Aasimar wants to have a Celestial Imp, I see nothing RAW preventing that at all.
-The Celestial Servant feat does not require your familiar to be an "animal" (Which, technically it couldn't because aren't familiars All magical beasts already?). The reason it says animals become "magical beasts" is for the benefit of people with animal companions and the like. It absolutely does not require an animal in order to take the feat. Familiars (whether they are from the basic list or the improved list) meet the requirement.
-There is no requirement listed for the celestial template, therefore all familiars are eligible to use it. (Again, as absurd as that can get, its legal RAW)
*Note: The feat itself turns your familiar into a magical beast though, as stated, so things like an imp, which are Outsiders, would then become Magical Beasts instead.
This would cause familiars like imps to lose its Outsider Traits in place of Magical Beast Traits found over here: http://paizo.com/prd/monsters/creaturetypes.html