Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
DMs: how do you integrate familiars into the game?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 100645" data-attributes="member: 67"><p>Man, you are soooo right about that. The monkey familiar in my campaign (see the sig) is great. I also run the familiars as NPCs, but I do pay attention to the player's interests. For example, the halfling monk (/Sorceror) with the monkey familiar is always trying to teach his monkey (which is the size of a cat) martial arts. He also has a tendency to solve big, life-threatening problems with fire. The monkey does not ever perform specific actions where the players can see it (like fighting, or whatnot), but occassionally the players will round a corner and see the monkey sitting triumphantly atop the unconscious form of, say, a ratling that they have been pursuing. The chances of that monkey actually using martial arts to knock out the bad guy are very slim, but nobody actually <em>saw</em> anything, so who knows? Also, the monkey may be a bit of a pyromaniac. Monkey see, monkey do, and all that.</p><p></p><p>The other familiar in my game is run quite differently. It happens to have an alignment that often conflicts with the alignment/interest of its bonded companion and acts as a conscience, of sorts (like Fras, from (Contact)'s games). There is a good reason for this, but I'll not spoil the suspense, just in case there are readers of the story hour on this thread.</p><p></p><p>But, man, monkeys sure are funny.</p><p></p><p>[edit]One more thing about the monkey familiar that was fun was how it was summoned. It had been hanging around the character for a while (I knew what the character wanted for a familiar) and when the time came, I decided that the material cost for the summoning would be paid for in the following manner: the monkey ran off with the halfling's (caster's) money. When it came back, sans money, it was a familiar.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rune, post: 100645, member: 67"] Man, you are soooo right about that. The monkey familiar in my campaign (see the sig) is great. I also run the familiars as NPCs, but I do pay attention to the player's interests. For example, the halfling monk (/Sorceror) with the monkey familiar is always trying to teach his monkey (which is the size of a cat) martial arts. He also has a tendency to solve big, life-threatening problems with fire. The monkey does not ever perform specific actions where the players can see it (like fighting, or whatnot), but occassionally the players will round a corner and see the monkey sitting triumphantly atop the unconscious form of, say, a ratling that they have been pursuing. The chances of that monkey actually using martial arts to knock out the bad guy are very slim, but nobody actually [i]saw[/i] anything, so who knows? Also, the monkey may be a bit of a pyromaniac. Monkey see, monkey do, and all that. The other familiar in my game is run quite differently. It happens to have an alignment that often conflicts with the alignment/interest of its bonded companion and acts as a conscience, of sorts (like Fras, from (Contact)'s games). There is a good reason for this, but I'll not spoil the suspense, just in case there are readers of the story hour on this thread. But, man, monkeys sure are funny. [edit]One more thing about the monkey familiar that was fun was how it was summoned. It had been hanging around the character for a while (I knew what the character wanted for a familiar) and when the time came, I decided that the material cost for the summoning would be paid for in the following manner: the monkey ran off with the halfling's (caster's) money. When it came back, sans money, it was a familiar. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
DMs: how do you integrate familiars into the game?
Top