Does the diabolist PrC's imp have see in darkness?

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Does it? It's a devil. Don't all devils have it?

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Bump...

[Ipslore the Red]

Go see.

Or if that's blocked somehow:

Imp wrote:

Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect magic, see in darkness; Perception +7

If you're asking if the imp familiar a diabolist gets is an imp... yes, it is an imp. That's the idea.

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Haha, you again. I'm sure you know why I'm asking.

I know an imp FAMILIAR does, but an imp companion that you get from the diabolist PrC is different.

[Archaeik]

Well this appears to be a mess.

The Imp Companion says to use the Animal Companion chart (with changes)

Quote:

An animal companion's abilities are determined by the druid's level and its animal racial traits. Table: Animal Companion Base Statistics determines many of the base statistics of the animal companion. They remain creatures of the animal type for purposes of determining which spells can affect them.

I assume (like you), that this applies, changing all instances of animal to devil. As supported by

Share Spells wrote:

The diabolist may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her imp (as a touch spell) instead of on herself. A diabolist may cast spells on her imp even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the imp's type (outsider).

The problem though, is that none of the Imp's senses are listed under "special" the way the animal stat blocks are organized.

We are left to 2 options.
A) the info under AC blocks is there for convenience only, and they get those abilities from what I quoted above rather than explicitly because it's repeated here
B) the companion imp has been purposely gutted (presumably under the guise of "balance")

The answer therefore depends on the answer to a few other questions.

• Does the companion retain its immunities and resistances?
  
• Why do they not get standard skill points for outsiders (6 +Int)? (when AC's do get standard ranks for animals)(They appear to get 2+Int)
  
• What happened to its fast healing?
  
• Does its poison still receive a +2 DC racial bonus?
  
• And what with the poison entry? 1/round for 5 minutes?! (the base entry is 6 rounds)
  BAB wrote:

  This is the imp's base attack bonus. Imps do not gain additional attacks using their natural weapons for a high base attack bonus.

• I assume this means the imp uses fast BAB as other outsiders??? But that's not what RAW says at all, this statement implies the table is correct. Compare
  
  BAB wrote:

  This is the animal companion's base attack bonus. An animal companion's base attack bonus is the same as that of a druid of a level equal to the animal's HD. Animal companions do not gain additional attacks using their natural weapons for a high base attack bonus.

  All it does is remove the reference to your "druid level" which the PrC does not advance.

All in all, there's a lot of evidence that the imp companion is changed significantly from the base creature.

I think they should retain their senses based on the language about "racial traits" at the top of the chart. But that is only an attempt at RAI, and I can't be certain that's the intention.

[Quandary]

FAQ'd, thanks for clarifying what exactly is in question here, Archaeik.

[The Beard]

The value of that imp companion is called into question if it's missing a lot of what makes an imp an imp. You've got to take a prestige class just to get it -- a prestige class, mind you, that makes getting a rez a huge pain in the backside until after you've taken several levels of it. I imagine this was to prevent people from taking a single level dip and moving on. That being said, I would think a prestige class offering little beyond a slightly more powerful companion would grant more utility than a handful of abilities you will probably never need to use, the imp aside. One would think the imp companion could at least keep its immunities/resistances and its see in darkness.

Now, I can say that I fully understand their choice with regards to limiting its skill points. Between the caster and the imp, they'd have about every skill in the game covered. .. Probably with reasonably high modifiers, to boot.

[TheDailyLunatic]

I FAQ'ed it just for jollies, but this is my ruling:

• The imp retains the Devil subtype (along with Evil, Lawful, Extraplanar as well as the Outsider type), which means that it retains its resistances, immunities and see in darkness ability. Also, it treats its weapons as Lawful and Evil for DR.
  
• Specific overrides general, so it loses full BAB and gains hit dice/bab/skills etc. as per the animal companion.
  
• Since they're unrelated to type, the imp retains only the specifically noted SLA's.
  
• The only question that remains is the fast healing and the poison. The former I'll allow because I don't think it's TOO unbalanced and the latter one I'll allow to function as the original with the +2 racial for the same reason (also... flavor-wise, losing them is gross). This is definitely FAQ material, though.

[hraithe]

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l7ns&page=860?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Qu estions-Here#42970

looks like diabolist imp companions don't retain the devil subtype, nor the other subtypes.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l7ns&page=860?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Qu estions-Here#42979

it only keeps the outsider type, and the appropriate outsider traits.