A level-1 Druid has access to the ACF Urban Companion:
Urban Companion
The fearsome animal companions who accompany some casters in the wild
are indeed a boon in combat, but a hulking wolf or creeping tiger is
out of place in an urban environment. Some characters believe that
small and subtle is of greater value than massive and mighty.Class: Druid or ranger.
Level: 1st (druid) or 4th (ranger).
Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain an animal
companion.Benefit: The character gains the companionship of a smaller but far
more intelligent creature than she otherwise would have. This is
identical to the sorcerer's ability to summon a familiar (PH 52),
including all benefits granted and gained by the familiar, except as
noted below. Her functional level for determining the abilities of the
companion is equal to her druid level or one-half her ranger level.[…]
The Sorcerer class feature Familiar states:
Familiar: A sorcerer can obtain a familiar. Doing so takes 24 hours
and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp. A familiar is a
magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and
intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant.
Does this mean that the Urban Druid's Urban Companion has the Type Magical Beast, not Animal, when it comes to e.g. Reduce Animal and Speak with Animal?
Best Answer
Magical Beast
Just reading the rules literally makes this clear, as your text indicates.
However, it also makes sense logically: animals can only have intelligence 1 or two, and nothing else can be an animal. To gain a "far more intelligent creature" as a companion, you cannot keep the animal type. I don't recall whether intelligence-boosted animals always become magical beasts, but the overwhelming majority of effects explicitly make that change (example: the awaken spell).