Diabolist and Imp Animal Companion

[Victor Zajic]

I tried posting this in the rules forum and can't get much RAW consensus. I'm hoping for a PFS specific ruling.

Since the Diablolist prestige class mentions nothing about the Imp animal companion's type, does it default to Animal, or is it an Outsider[Lawful, Evil, Devil], or just an Outsider?

[WalterGM]

Victor Zajic wrote:

I tried posting this in the rules forum and can't get much RAW consensus. I'm hoping for a PFS specific ruling.

Since the Diablolist prestige class mentions nothing about the Imp animal companion's type, does it default to Animal, or is it an Outsider[Lawful, Evil, Devil], or just an Outsider?

I imagine its type would remain unchanged. Outsider (Lawful, evil, devil) sounds good to me.

[Victor Zajic]

I would imagine that too, except with animal companions you don't use the stats listed in the beastiary, just the stats listed in the class and animal companion write up. And nothing RAW says anything about what type it is. It's technically a completely different creature than the Beastiary imp. For instance, it doesn't get any DR. That's why I'm hoping for some official clarification.

[Zyria]

Correct, it is different than the bestiary imp. However, nothing suggests it type would change. I don't see in any text in my reading of Animal Companions or the Diabolist class that would suggest it should be anything other than Outsider.

After all, the animal companions listed in the bestiary have a type of animal, do they not?

The imp in the bestiary has the type of Outsider.

Why should it change?

Also, this text:

Quote:

If the imp is slain or the diabolist release it from her service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring a 24-hour ritual to conjure and bind the new imp to herself.

That sounds an awful lot like something you do with evil outsiders to me :P

[Victor Zajic]

I agree that it should, it is definitly the intent of the rules. But I'm not sure the rules actually say that that it does.

While druid does say that animal companions count as animals for spells that affect their type,see the rules forum post

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q0xo?Diabolist-Imp-Animal-Companion-and-Creatu re-Type#9

where I'm fairly confident that I've determined it doesn't count as an animal, since the Imp Companion only uses the actual rules on the table, not all the animal companion rules.

To put the question in full context, Outsiders with the Evil, Lawful, and Devil subtypes get some powerful abilities for free that aren't listed in the Imp Companion Statistics, like Immunity to Fire and Poison, and See in Magical Darkness. The Imp Companion is already fairly powerful, so I wanted to make sure that it gets these other abilities in addition. Obviously it wouldn't get telepathy because it has to spend a trick to get telepathy.

[Zyria]

I see what you're saying now. There is some confusion.

That said, a rules question is better asked on the rules forums.
It looks like you tried that already, and haven't gotten a response.

I'd poke the question into the Ask JJ thread if you're looking for an answer.

Regardless, the PFS forum won't be able to give you a concrete answer.

Sorry :(

[Victor Zajic]

Do the ask JJ responses count for PFS?

[CRobledo]

Victor Zajic wrote:

Do the ask JJ responses count for PFS?

No, but a lot of reasonable GMs will take his answers into consideration if they are ruling on a gray area. I know I do.

[Victor Zajic]

I guess I'll just ask each table GM for a ruling before I play that character with them.

[FLite]

Based on the principle from the improved familiar rules:

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).

I would say they are outsiders, and therefore get the things outsiders get.