One step alignment and Improved Familiars (Magical Child confusion)

[thaX]

So, I have three pips before third level and my magical child is at a quandry. What to choose as a second form for my Animal Guide.

The Improved familiar has it so that the chosen familiar needs to be one step away from the PC's alignment. Being Chaotic Good, that would be NG and CN. (Neutral is two steps away at a diagonal).

In the Core list, that would mean a Celistrial creature at third (no choice at 5th) and a Pseododragon or Homonculus at 7th.

Is that right?

Right now, Herolab has a Beheaded, Pyrausta and a Dire Rat as the choices at third, and no Celestrial creatures at all.

[Daw]

thaX, you aren't quite right on this.

Improved Familiar wrote:

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 127 (Amazon)

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).

You can find the full list of available Improved Familiars here.

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).

Your CG wizard could then have a CG, NG, CN or NN familiar, were you true nuetral you could have any allignment familiar. However, some specific improved familiars appear to require different, often more restrictive allignment matches, such as the Faerie Dragon which requires the wizard to be within 1 step from CG, Tidepool Dragon=1 step from CN, or Isitoq=Any evil. Some, such as the homunculus have no allignment restrictions.

[thaX]

Ok, so I can have the alignment that I start out as (CG), but some of the choices that Herolab gives are not right. It leaves out the Celestial templated creature choices at third level at this point, and has evil creatures in the lists (like the Beheaded at Third)

I will have to stat out a Celestial Monkey by hand at this point and ignore the given choice from the program.

[thaX]

looking at this further, I am trying to use the chart to gage which alignments are available to me.

So, would diagonal square be just one step, representing using each alignment axis instead of the normal use?

So neutral spellcasters have more of a choice than lawful/chaotic ones?

[Daw]

Neutral has more choices, true nuetral can choose all improved familiars that don't have specific, more restrictive, allignment requirements.

A Diagonal "Move" is one step horizontal and one step verticle, so two steps in total.
So that means that the true nuetral cannot take a faerie dragon as a familiar, as he is two steps away from its allignment, and it has a special requirement of only allowing one allignment step difference.