Shade
Monster Junkie
This thread is intended to deal with the supernatural familiars from Dragon Magazine #86.
Much of this may be simplified with the Improved Familiar feat.
The article intro text follows...
Supernatural familiars
The extraplanar special familiar differs completely from its cousins of the material plane. It is actually a lesser devil, demon, deva, or other such being from the outer planes. A magic-user who summons such a familiar enters into a pact far more grave and important than one who acceptsanother sort of animal. When he summons a supernatural familiar, the spellcaster has actually captured the notice of his deity, or at any rate, a deity with the same alignment. This deity sends one of its least minions to guard and guide its summoner, to see that the magic-user champions the cause of the appropriate alignment. Beyond these worldly duties, the familiar may actually
bring or guide the spellcaster’s spirit to the appropriate plane after death. In return, the magic-user gains much power on the material plane during his life, and he gains a useful servant and companion. Evil magicusers are best known for making pacts with supernatural familiars, but this is mainly because ill repute spreads faster than other kinds of fame.
The magic-user and his supernatural familiar have a complex relationship. Although the familiar has come to serve, it also has come to give advice, either directly or through contact with its plane of origin. They may be among the least of beings on their respective planes, but the supernatural familiars are of purer and more unswerving alignment than most residents of the material plane. In this sense, they are superior to their masters. All supernatural familiars are fully aware that in the end they must bring their master to his final home; no matter how the familiar feels about this, he.ll never forget it. Thus, in some ways, the supernatural familiars are more like henchmen than servants, if they don.t become full associates. On occasion, they may refuse orders; in fact, the familiar may attempt to give them, particularly in matters concerning alignment. Supernatural familiars use whatever methods they can to keep their masters on the right path, including subtle (or perhaps not so subtle) persuasion.
If the magic-user changes alignment, the familiar has the option of leaving. The master.s unwillingness to reform is equivalent to sending the familiar away. Whenever this happens, the results are as described on page 44 of the Dungeon Masters Guide. Supernatural familiars fight when they have to, but they probably won.t risk their lives to do it. They observe their duty to provide aid and advice, but they won.t fill in as general bodyguards. Supernatural familiars are 90% unlikely to risk their lives for their masters (as stipulated in the spell description for imps and quasits) . and it is rare that their masters would want them to, considering the penalties the master would have to pay in such an event. A good familiar who watches its master approach destruction often consoles itself with the thought that at least its master will go to a deserved reward, beyond the reach of the material plane.s temptations. A neutral familiar tends to feel the same way, and doesn.t forget that it may gain something if it brings another soul to its home plane. An evil familiar, of course, cares nothing about the welfare of its master. But it stands a good chance of being promoted if it brings its master to the proper lower plane. Furthermore, it enjoys the thought of this temporary superior undergoing torment on that plane.
A magic-user who has died and been taken to the appropriate plane might be difficult to raise or resurrect. A god or demigod that has gone to so much trouble to secure a soul may not wish to risk losing it again to the unpredictable material plane. The being may have some reason for wanting the magic-user to stay on the material plane, but it will not take such a risk if the spellcaster shows signs of wavering in alignment. Evil powers are particularly reluctant to relinquish a soul, since the magic-user has seen what lies in store for him, and may repent once he returns to the material plane.
If by chance a cleric receives a supernatural familiar, the comments above still apply. However, the cleric.s deity rarely grants such companionship; after all, the deity already has the cleric.s devotion, and he already spends a great deal of effort on the cleric.s behalf by sending spells. Supernatural familiars have a number of common characteristics, and they bestow similar powers upon their masters. Perhaps these characteristics come from some unspoken agreement among the powers of the outer planes, or perhaps the different familiars have similar origins. Whatever the case, they do share several traits:
All supernatural familiars
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 2
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Q(x3) or X
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
SIZE: S
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Certain of these statistics apply only on the material plane. The creatures that serve as familiars may be found with greater frequency and in greater numbers else where. Likewise, on the home plane they may have a “lair”.
While on the material plane, a supernatural familiar may acquire treasure, either when serving as a familiar or when on some other mission. Motives for gathering treasure vary widely among familiars, but when treasure is taken, it is portable and useful. This applies to magical treasure as well (though supernatural familiars have only a 25% chance of having type X treasure). The magical treasure could be something saleable, but it could also be a wand, for instance. Supernatural familiars can employ any wands usable by all character classes: wands of enemy detection, illumination, magic detection, metal & mineral detection, magic missiles, negation, secret door & trap location, and a wand of wonder.
None of the supernatural familiars exceed 2¼ feet in height, but it is still difficult to harm them. All supernatural familiars can regenerate 1 hit point per round, so only the total destruction of their tissues can kill them. Given time, they can even replace lost organs, as well as entire limbs. They are immune to both cold and electricity, and have varying degrees of immunity to other forces. Ordinary weapons are worthless against these familiars, though magical (+1 or better) weapons harm them, and special weapons may also be effective. In addition to their magic resistance, supernatural familiars save vs. all spell attacks as 7 hit dice creatures. Of course, an opponent must locate the familiar before he can try to harm it; these animals can all become invisible at will.
Supernatural familiars have several offensive powers to complement the defenses listed above. They can perform some spelllike actions at the 7th level of proficiency, including detect magic (as a magic-user) and detect evil/good (depending on alignment; as a cleric) both at will. These familiars can also polymorph themselves into a limited number of shapes. When one assumes a new shape, it has the senses, movement rate, attack forms, and armor class of the creature whose shape it has taken. However, the familiar retains its normal number of hit dice and hit points, as well as all magical abilities and immunities. In some cases, the familiar must choose its alternate shape from a limited selection when it arrives on the material plane. Once it has made this choice, it can assume no other shapes unless the powers of its home plane intervene. The familiar retains the same appearance for any given shape; if one becomes a little brown dog, then that.s the only dog-shape it can ever assume. In polymorphed form, a familiar can speak only if the animal it mimics can do so (e.g., a raven). In their unaltered form, all supernatural familiars can speak. Each knows its alignment language and the common tongue, as well as any other languages it may have learned during its life on the material plane.
As .aliens. of a sort, supernatural familiars are vulnerable to otherwise harmless products of the material plane. Evil ones are harmed by holy water, good ones by unholy water. A cleric of 8th level or higher can turn away a supernatural familiar, using the .special. line on the .Matrix for Clerics Affecting Undead, et al.. (DMG, p. 75), and note that this applies to good familiars as well as evil ones. Magical diagrams can trap supernatural familiars within certain areas or exclude them from others. Certain spells affect them, particularly those designed to harm or drive away extraplanar creatures. A holy word spell or its reverse can drive them off the material plane completely. (Note: familiars of neither good nor evil alignment aren’t affected by the spell as written.) Fortunately, they each have a personal name that the hostile spellcaster may have to know to make his spell work.
A familiar’s extraplanar nature is of course not a complete liability on the material plane. A supernatural familiar is useful for negating the effect of ahold portal spell. The familiar can attack and damage creatures that normally withstand all but magical weapons, provided that the familiar attacks with its body, whether in natural or polymorphed form. (The familiar cannot harm such creatures by wielding a nonmagical weapon.) And, supernatural familiars do not age, so they are immune to a number of unpleasant effects with that phenomenon.
A supernatural familiar offers a number of benefits to its master. Once a week, it can contact its plane of origin for advice; treat this as a commune spell allowing six questions. Under the right conditions (which aren.t difficult to achieve), a supernatural familiar endows its master with the same 25% magic resistance it possesses, plus an additional level of experience and the ability to regenerate 1 lost hit point per round. A supernatural familiar can convey all it senses to its master via a telepathic link, and this link also serves as a conduit for the special powers. However, the link grows weaker with distance; if master and familiar are more than 1" distant from each other, the familiar cannot bestow magic resistance or regenerative abilities; if the two are more than 1 mile apart, the familiar cannot send sensory information, and the spellcaster loses the level he had previously gained.
If a supernatural familiar is killed, its master loses four levels from his current level, as if he were drained by an undead creature. This may mean the death of the master, but if he survives the level loss, then perhaps he can bring back the familiar with a wish spell. Otherwise, the familiar is forever lost to its master, even if it is not utterly destroyed but merely returned to its home plane. If the master does not survive the level loss but is later resurrected and/or restored back to health, he can ultimately obtain a different familiar (perhaps even another one of the same type, die roll permitting), but cannot regain the original familiar, even by means of a wish.
All potential familiars are allowed a saving throw to escape the effects of the find familiar spell. Special creatures are even more likely to avoid the spell, because all of the supernatural familiars and most of the natural familiars (see the section following this one) have innate magic resistance that must be overcome before the saving-throw roll can even be attempted. The potential supernatural familiar is especially resistant to being summoned by the find familiar spell because it may not want to take up hazardous duty on the material plane, no matter how greedy, dutiful, kindly, or ambitious it may be. These lesser representatives of their planes may well be more steadfast in their alignments than the masters they would serve, but at the same time they are less steadfast than their superiors from their home plane might be; they are relatively less devoted to their cause and more vulnerable to fears and uncertainties. Most of all, potential supernatural familiars will fear that the summoner is only weakly aligned and might even change alignment at some later date.
The supernatural familiars tend to prefer older and more powerful masters, confirmed in alignment and more likely to accomplish great things for which their familiars may take some credit. Since the power of the spellcaster’s magic is reflected in its ability to offset the creature’s magic resistance, this resistance (over and above the saving-throw odds) serves to help the potential supernatural familiar screen out the summons of some hopeful prestidigitator destined for a short or (even worse) mediocre life. In terms of game mechanics: Even if a chaotic evil 1st-level magic-user makes the necessary roll to qualify for a special familiar, his chance of getting a quasit to heed the call is less than 14%) considering the creature.s magic resistance followed by a saving throw, if its magic resistance (75% vs. a 1st-level caster) happens to fail. Even if an 11th-level caster is involved, the chance of getting a quasit to come when it.s called is still only about 40% . again, not counting the slim chance of rolling a 15 during the casting of the spell. Clearly, a special familiar will be readily inclined to “allow itself" to be pressed into service only if the summoning caster is of exceptionally high level.
The supernatural familiar’s plane of origin corresponds exactly to the magicuser’s alignment. The new supernatural familiars described below come in three classifications depending on their degree of good or evil, although law and chaos are just as important to them. The galadur come from the upper planes, the lomendur from the middle planes, and the burzugdur from the lower planes. Within each of these groups, the lawful, neutral, and chaotic members share certain characteristics. They are first described collectively, then as individual creatures.
From Dragon Magazine #86 (1984).
Much of this may be simplified with the Improved Familiar feat.
The article intro text follows...
Supernatural familiars
The extraplanar special familiar differs completely from its cousins of the material plane. It is actually a lesser devil, demon, deva, or other such being from the outer planes. A magic-user who summons such a familiar enters into a pact far more grave and important than one who acceptsanother sort of animal. When he summons a supernatural familiar, the spellcaster has actually captured the notice of his deity, or at any rate, a deity with the same alignment. This deity sends one of its least minions to guard and guide its summoner, to see that the magic-user champions the cause of the appropriate alignment. Beyond these worldly duties, the familiar may actually
bring or guide the spellcaster’s spirit to the appropriate plane after death. In return, the magic-user gains much power on the material plane during his life, and he gains a useful servant and companion. Evil magicusers are best known for making pacts with supernatural familiars, but this is mainly because ill repute spreads faster than other kinds of fame.
The magic-user and his supernatural familiar have a complex relationship. Although the familiar has come to serve, it also has come to give advice, either directly or through contact with its plane of origin. They may be among the least of beings on their respective planes, but the supernatural familiars are of purer and more unswerving alignment than most residents of the material plane. In this sense, they are superior to their masters. All supernatural familiars are fully aware that in the end they must bring their master to his final home; no matter how the familiar feels about this, he.ll never forget it. Thus, in some ways, the supernatural familiars are more like henchmen than servants, if they don.t become full associates. On occasion, they may refuse orders; in fact, the familiar may attempt to give them, particularly in matters concerning alignment. Supernatural familiars use whatever methods they can to keep their masters on the right path, including subtle (or perhaps not so subtle) persuasion.
If the magic-user changes alignment, the familiar has the option of leaving. The master.s unwillingness to reform is equivalent to sending the familiar away. Whenever this happens, the results are as described on page 44 of the Dungeon Masters Guide. Supernatural familiars fight when they have to, but they probably won.t risk their lives to do it. They observe their duty to provide aid and advice, but they won.t fill in as general bodyguards. Supernatural familiars are 90% unlikely to risk their lives for their masters (as stipulated in the spell description for imps and quasits) . and it is rare that their masters would want them to, considering the penalties the master would have to pay in such an event. A good familiar who watches its master approach destruction often consoles itself with the thought that at least its master will go to a deserved reward, beyond the reach of the material plane.s temptations. A neutral familiar tends to feel the same way, and doesn.t forget that it may gain something if it brings another soul to its home plane. An evil familiar, of course, cares nothing about the welfare of its master. But it stands a good chance of being promoted if it brings its master to the proper lower plane. Furthermore, it enjoys the thought of this temporary superior undergoing torment on that plane.
A magic-user who has died and been taken to the appropriate plane might be difficult to raise or resurrect. A god or demigod that has gone to so much trouble to secure a soul may not wish to risk losing it again to the unpredictable material plane. The being may have some reason for wanting the magic-user to stay on the material plane, but it will not take such a risk if the spellcaster shows signs of wavering in alignment. Evil powers are particularly reluctant to relinquish a soul, since the magic-user has seen what lies in store for him, and may repent once he returns to the material plane.
If by chance a cleric receives a supernatural familiar, the comments above still apply. However, the cleric.s deity rarely grants such companionship; after all, the deity already has the cleric.s devotion, and he already spends a great deal of effort on the cleric.s behalf by sending spells. Supernatural familiars have a number of common characteristics, and they bestow similar powers upon their masters. Perhaps these characteristics come from some unspoken agreement among the powers of the outer planes, or perhaps the different familiars have similar origins. Whatever the case, they do share several traits:
All supernatural familiars
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 2
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Q(x3) or X
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
SIZE: S
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Certain of these statistics apply only on the material plane. The creatures that serve as familiars may be found with greater frequency and in greater numbers else where. Likewise, on the home plane they may have a “lair”.
While on the material plane, a supernatural familiar may acquire treasure, either when serving as a familiar or when on some other mission. Motives for gathering treasure vary widely among familiars, but when treasure is taken, it is portable and useful. This applies to magical treasure as well (though supernatural familiars have only a 25% chance of having type X treasure). The magical treasure could be something saleable, but it could also be a wand, for instance. Supernatural familiars can employ any wands usable by all character classes: wands of enemy detection, illumination, magic detection, metal & mineral detection, magic missiles, negation, secret door & trap location, and a wand of wonder.
None of the supernatural familiars exceed 2¼ feet in height, but it is still difficult to harm them. All supernatural familiars can regenerate 1 hit point per round, so only the total destruction of their tissues can kill them. Given time, they can even replace lost organs, as well as entire limbs. They are immune to both cold and electricity, and have varying degrees of immunity to other forces. Ordinary weapons are worthless against these familiars, though magical (+1 or better) weapons harm them, and special weapons may also be effective. In addition to their magic resistance, supernatural familiars save vs. all spell attacks as 7 hit dice creatures. Of course, an opponent must locate the familiar before he can try to harm it; these animals can all become invisible at will.
Supernatural familiars have several offensive powers to complement the defenses listed above. They can perform some spelllike actions at the 7th level of proficiency, including detect magic (as a magic-user) and detect evil/good (depending on alignment; as a cleric) both at will. These familiars can also polymorph themselves into a limited number of shapes. When one assumes a new shape, it has the senses, movement rate, attack forms, and armor class of the creature whose shape it has taken. However, the familiar retains its normal number of hit dice and hit points, as well as all magical abilities and immunities. In some cases, the familiar must choose its alternate shape from a limited selection when it arrives on the material plane. Once it has made this choice, it can assume no other shapes unless the powers of its home plane intervene. The familiar retains the same appearance for any given shape; if one becomes a little brown dog, then that.s the only dog-shape it can ever assume. In polymorphed form, a familiar can speak only if the animal it mimics can do so (e.g., a raven). In their unaltered form, all supernatural familiars can speak. Each knows its alignment language and the common tongue, as well as any other languages it may have learned during its life on the material plane.
As .aliens. of a sort, supernatural familiars are vulnerable to otherwise harmless products of the material plane. Evil ones are harmed by holy water, good ones by unholy water. A cleric of 8th level or higher can turn away a supernatural familiar, using the .special. line on the .Matrix for Clerics Affecting Undead, et al.. (DMG, p. 75), and note that this applies to good familiars as well as evil ones. Magical diagrams can trap supernatural familiars within certain areas or exclude them from others. Certain spells affect them, particularly those designed to harm or drive away extraplanar creatures. A holy word spell or its reverse can drive them off the material plane completely. (Note: familiars of neither good nor evil alignment aren’t affected by the spell as written.) Fortunately, they each have a personal name that the hostile spellcaster may have to know to make his spell work.
A familiar’s extraplanar nature is of course not a complete liability on the material plane. A supernatural familiar is useful for negating the effect of ahold portal spell. The familiar can attack and damage creatures that normally withstand all but magical weapons, provided that the familiar attacks with its body, whether in natural or polymorphed form. (The familiar cannot harm such creatures by wielding a nonmagical weapon.) And, supernatural familiars do not age, so they are immune to a number of unpleasant effects with that phenomenon.
A supernatural familiar offers a number of benefits to its master. Once a week, it can contact its plane of origin for advice; treat this as a commune spell allowing six questions. Under the right conditions (which aren.t difficult to achieve), a supernatural familiar endows its master with the same 25% magic resistance it possesses, plus an additional level of experience and the ability to regenerate 1 lost hit point per round. A supernatural familiar can convey all it senses to its master via a telepathic link, and this link also serves as a conduit for the special powers. However, the link grows weaker with distance; if master and familiar are more than 1" distant from each other, the familiar cannot bestow magic resistance or regenerative abilities; if the two are more than 1 mile apart, the familiar cannot send sensory information, and the spellcaster loses the level he had previously gained.
If a supernatural familiar is killed, its master loses four levels from his current level, as if he were drained by an undead creature. This may mean the death of the master, but if he survives the level loss, then perhaps he can bring back the familiar with a wish spell. Otherwise, the familiar is forever lost to its master, even if it is not utterly destroyed but merely returned to its home plane. If the master does not survive the level loss but is later resurrected and/or restored back to health, he can ultimately obtain a different familiar (perhaps even another one of the same type, die roll permitting), but cannot regain the original familiar, even by means of a wish.
All potential familiars are allowed a saving throw to escape the effects of the find familiar spell. Special creatures are even more likely to avoid the spell, because all of the supernatural familiars and most of the natural familiars (see the section following this one) have innate magic resistance that must be overcome before the saving-throw roll can even be attempted. The potential supernatural familiar is especially resistant to being summoned by the find familiar spell because it may not want to take up hazardous duty on the material plane, no matter how greedy, dutiful, kindly, or ambitious it may be. These lesser representatives of their planes may well be more steadfast in their alignments than the masters they would serve, but at the same time they are less steadfast than their superiors from their home plane might be; they are relatively less devoted to their cause and more vulnerable to fears and uncertainties. Most of all, potential supernatural familiars will fear that the summoner is only weakly aligned and might even change alignment at some later date.
The supernatural familiars tend to prefer older and more powerful masters, confirmed in alignment and more likely to accomplish great things for which their familiars may take some credit. Since the power of the spellcaster’s magic is reflected in its ability to offset the creature’s magic resistance, this resistance (over and above the saving-throw odds) serves to help the potential supernatural familiar screen out the summons of some hopeful prestidigitator destined for a short or (even worse) mediocre life. In terms of game mechanics: Even if a chaotic evil 1st-level magic-user makes the necessary roll to qualify for a special familiar, his chance of getting a quasit to heed the call is less than 14%) considering the creature.s magic resistance followed by a saving throw, if its magic resistance (75% vs. a 1st-level caster) happens to fail. Even if an 11th-level caster is involved, the chance of getting a quasit to come when it.s called is still only about 40% . again, not counting the slim chance of rolling a 15 during the casting of the spell. Clearly, a special familiar will be readily inclined to “allow itself" to be pressed into service only if the summoning caster is of exceptionally high level.
The supernatural familiar’s plane of origin corresponds exactly to the magicuser’s alignment. The new supernatural familiars described below come in three classifications depending on their degree of good or evil, although law and chaos are just as important to them. The galadur come from the upper planes, the lomendur from the middle planes, and the burzugdur from the lower planes. Within each of these groups, the lawful, neutral, and chaotic members share certain characteristics. They are first described collectively, then as individual creatures.
From Dragon Magazine #86 (1984).
