Do awakened familiars have souls?

[Falcon X]

It has come up in my group the question of if a creature has a soul if it was born without sentience and has gained sentience. We have a fiend traveling with the party who can detect souls, and I don't know how to answer the question of if it detects one in an awakened familiar or other awakened creature.

[Almagesto]

I believe they DO gain a soul. However, reading the Pathfinder SRD I guess that could be just one of the conclusions. You see, there's a bigger dilemma in here: Does sentience evidence a soul? Or is it just the result of augmented physical characteristics (i.e. increased intelligence and charisma)? As a Catholic, I believe the first proposition to be true. Regarding your own world... it's your decision, your cosmology. Maybe sentience actually brings forth a connection with the etheral plane in syphon sort of way - thus "syphoning" a soul into the creature. An even better way to approach this would be to literally tell your character the spell gives him mixed signals: "there is and there isn't a soul nearby". Maybe souls syphoned from the etheral plane are not real souls, or maybe it's a different kind of soul. Leave the theological debate for your party's wizard and cleric. They'll have a hoot.

[Psyren]

They're legal targets for Magic Jar, Trap The Soul and even Raise Dead, so I'd say yes.

[Keral]

They're legal targets for Magic Jar, Trap The Soul and even Raise Dead, so I'd say yes.

Indeed. Since resurrection spells work on it i'd wager they do. After all even true resurrection only tells us what happens if the soul is unwilling to return, not if it's not present. Implyin, in my opinion, that all creatures do have one and that sentience has norhing to do with it...

[Zanos]

Almost all living creatures (other than ones that have had their souls ripped out) and even some nonliving creatures have souls. This includes all animals. So yes you would detect a soul in a familiar, but you also would in a normal bat, rat, or cat.


I believe they DO gain a soul. However, reading the Pathfinder SRD I guess that could be just one of the conclusions. You see, there's a bigger dilemma in here: Does sentience evidence a soul? Or is it just the result of augmented physical characteristics (i.e. increased intelligence and charisma)? As a Catholic, I believe the first proposition to be true. Regarding your own world... it's your decision, your cosmology. Maybe sentience actually brings forth a connection with the etheral plane in syphon sort of way - thus "syphoning" a soul into the creature. An even better way to approach this would be to literally tell your character the spell gives him mixed signals: "there is and there isn't a soul nearby". Maybe souls syphoned from the etheral plane are not real souls, or maybe it's a different kind of soul. Leave the theological debate for your party's wizard and cleric. They'll have a hoot.
That's a pretty short debate. Pathfinder makes souls very clear in the rules for the daemon soul trade. 3.5 also makes what does and doesn't have a soul pretty clear via the rules for certain spells.

[Lazymancer]

It has come up in my group the question of if a creature has a soul if it was born without sentience and has gained sentience. We have a fiend traveling with the party who can detect souls, and I don't know how to answer the question of if it detects one in an awakened familiar or other awakened creature.
How does awakened (assuming you mean spell Awaken) familiar even happen? It's a magical beast, not animal.

If you mean regular familiar - fluff-wise it's "imbued" with a piece of master's soul.

[Florian]

For PF, the basic cosmology (and spell interaction) means that nearly anything has a soul, starting with vermin and animals. That´s just how the positive energy plane works.

[Coidzor]

An animal spirit would be detectable. A sapient creature would be detectable.

An intelligent construct is more debateable, I think.

[Almagesto]

That's a pretty short debate. Pathfinder makes souls very clear in the rules for the daemon soul trade. 3.5 also makes what does and doesn't have a soul pretty clear via the rules for certain spells.

The debate may be quite short indeed, if performed OOC. The PCs would have to rely on their Knowledge - planes, religion, arcane even. If they are good character-focused roleplayers, this debate might even extend to everytime they reach a new level and gain more ranks in those skills.

[Florian]

An animal spirit would be detectable. A sapient creature would be detectable.

An intelligent construct is more debateable, I think.

Actually no, it must be a living construct, like Wyrwood or Androids.