Spirit Binder and Improved Familiar?

[Bendicott]

If you start off with a Wizard (Spirit Binder) and later take Improved Familiar, is there any way to transfer your familiar's soul to the new body, short of some extremely high level spell like Soul Trap or Major Mind Swap? This seems like a kind~of important point, but I can't find mention of it anywhere.

[Hazrond]

Bendicott wrote:

If you start off with a Wizard (Spirit Binder) and later take Improved Familiar, is there any way to transfer your familiar's soul to the new body, short of some extremely high level spell like Soul Trap or Major Mind Swap? This seems like a kind~of important point, but I can't find mention of it anywhere.

Any familiar you ever have will automatically have the soul of your relative or whatever, which also is pretty messed up because in the case of a Faerie Dragon or Pseudodragon you are effectively killing them by destroying their soul to replace with your relative or whatever, and its also kind of messed up if you put them into an aligned outsider that is opposed to their alignment like putting an evil uncle into an Agathion which would likely forcibly change their alignment as a result of their body being made completely OUT OF good or evil or whatever

[Bendicott]

Yeah, what I have in mind would definitely be considered evil, but there aren't really any non-evil options (except maybe clone, but it's a level 8 spell...). Guess it's just something my character will have to deal with. More RP is always a bonus, anyway. Thanks!

[Tursic]

The spirit's alignment overrides the body of the creature. I would use an imp, as my improved familiar, you are making your familiar more powerful and killing off an evil being in the process. I call that a win all around.

[Bendicott]

Do you have a source for that? I wasn't able to find anything saying that the spirit could keep it's original alignment, so I've been looking for ways to force it to revert back to neutral. I was considering the Azata Lyrakien, but a chaotic good familiar would be problematic... if there's some provision for overriding the body's typical alignment, that would be awesome.

[Tursic]

I am get it base off this section of text "A soulbound familiar’s personality is that of the lost loved one, rather than a servant of the spirit binder. It can have any alignment, even one that is diametrically opposed to the spirit binder’s." "Familiar page 9"

It is like a caster using "soul jar" spell. The soul determines the alignment not the body. Remember that the alignments give in the Bestiary are the norm or the most common, not the only ones possible. You could have a Law Good Red Dragon, that is not the norm, but it is possible. There is no reason to change the alignment based on the body, and the text says the spirit keeps its alignment.

[Bendicott]

So based on this section "A soulbound familiar has the base attack bonus and base saving throws of the loved one's favored class (using the spirit binder's level as its level)." would you say that the Spirit does or does not have caster levels, for the purpose of qualifying for feats? The fluff makes it sound as if you're picking up feats they would have used while alive as their original class, but I'm not sure if the rules support that.

[Bendicott]

Looks like it could be accomplished with Improved Familiar - Faerie Dragon (counts as a level 3 sorcerer), but that's a bit awkward since the spirit's prior class is Witch...

[Bendicott]

Actually, no... It looks like they just *count as* sorcerers.

Edit: Now I'm really confused. Do they actually get caster levels? Looking through the forums, it seems like most people are treating them as such.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

From what I understand there is only 2 Familiar archetypes that work on Improved Familiars.

Improved Familiar wrote:

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).

You might want to think about an archetype.

I've heard a Mauler Crab Spirit binder with a paladin's Soul is pretty strong. Use Share spell and your feats correctly you can have you a pretty awesome tank.