Exalted Companion Question

[isotunknown]

When a 5th level, neutral good, druid who has the Exalted Companion feat gains (calls) a new animal companion, say a fleshraker, can he apply the benefits of the Exalted Companion feat to that companion? The feat says something about the AC having the same alignment as the druid or ranger. IF it turns out that this druid's animal companion could get the benefits of the feat, would that druid still be able to summon a fleshraker, as that fleshraker would be improved in ways that might suggest having to wait until the druid was at a higher level?

Thanks.

(I'm not sure these questions make sense as I've written them, but I gotta go now so I'll see where this takes us and I'll try to rephrase when I get back.)

[isotunknown]

What I want to know is:

Can only a neutral character apply the benefits of Exalted Companion to an animal (which is by necessity neutral)?

If so, how does he get the exalted feat? Don't you need to be good to get access to exalted feats?

That is, the description of the feat says "You must choose a companion who's alignment is the same as yours". And the footnote associated with the Celestial Animal option says "Apply the celestial creature template to a potential animal companion listed in the Player’s Handbook."

It just isn't making sense to me. I can't see how it is possible for a druid or ranger to get the benefits of this feat and apply it to an animal.

[phlidwsn]

What's confusing you is the order of the steps I think:
It's not take an animal and make it celestial, its call a Celestial X as an animal companion. Since its already celestial, its already Good not Neutral (as required by the celestial template.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Celestial_Creature for reference

Edit: as for the alignment of the char, Exalted companion is a [Exalted] feat, thus requires the character to be of Good alignment(BoED39). Since the the Celestial animal line lists Any Good rather than lawful/chaotic/neutral good, if you can take the feat, you can get a celestial animal.

[isotunknown]

That's very helpful. Thanks. I think I now understand. Let me ask you, how does the +2 level adjustment affect when you can call that animal companion, how it progresses, etc.?

[Urpriest]

That's very helpful. Thanks. I think I now understand. Let me ask you, how does the +2 level adjustment affect when you can call that animal companion, how it progresses, etc.?

It doesn't. Level adjustment is only relevant to players and cohorts and the like. What affects when you can call the animal companion is given in the table in the feat, in the case of a celestial animal you count as being one level lower.

[isotunknown]

What affects when you can call the animal companion is given in the table in the feat, in the case of a celestial animal you count as being one level lower.

I'm not sure what you mean by this last bit.

[Urpriest]

I'm not sure what you mean by this last bit.

Ok, look at the table next to the Exalted Companion feat. You should see an entry for Celestial Animal, with a superscript 4. If you look down at the bottom of the table you'll find a footnote. That footnote tells you how you calculate what abilities your celestial companion gets. Makes sense?

[ShriekingDrake]

+1. If you apply the benefits of this feat to your AC, you're treated as being one level lower on the druid table. So, where your AC would get some benefits when your druid reached 6th level, you'd have to wait until you were 7th level.