Dweomercraft: Familiars

[Messageboard Golem]

They serve yet most often or not they are forgotten, they are part of their master’s lives as much as the air that they breathe. Yet they are often overlooked, they venture deep into danger – bound to the one they serve, some out of loyalty and love. Others are bound by spells to the will of the one that summoned them, but regardless of the manner in which they are linked – they are always there, the Familiar, is always there to provide an extra pair of eyes, to supplement the senses of the owner.
These unique creatures are often glossed over and ignored, until now. The book provides an in-depth look at these marvelous creatures and providing a new slant on some old favorites, adding to the already established facts and figures. There are the rules for the creation of new familiars and a wealth of information on new types, including clockwork and undead creations.

This is the Familiar book that no Wizard or Sorcerer should do without, illustrated lovingly and providing several extra feats and new ideas, this book has all the wielder of the magical arts needs. It is useful for both players and GMs to add a twist to any campaign or as a resource from which to create their own ideas.

Dweomercraft: Familiars offers new insight unto those companions that are often the unseen and bravest of the adventuring party.

 

[Crothian]

Dweomercraft Familiars

The d20 market has seen book specializing on classes, races, weapons, spells, prestige classes, feats and many other broader categories. This book takes a class feature, the acquisition of the familiar and the familiar itself, and greatly expands upon it. I am not sure how many other class features can be broadened and looked this in-depthly. It would be interesting to see animal companions and the paladins mount dealt with like this book. I feel those are the two obvious choices that lend themselves to this type of product that can take a subject and expand upon it greatly. I would very much like to see Steve Creech, the author of this book, take those class abilities and do with them what he has done with familiars.

Dweomercraft Familiars is the latest pdf by Dark Quest Games. They have been a solid company when it comes to pdfs having produced some of very good books like In the Saddle: Horses and Other Mounts and Death: Guardian of the Gate. I imagine those are some titles that people do not know of but they should. However, this review is about one specific book by them. As I said it is written by Steve Creech and a few other people like Michael Hammes, Neal Levin, David Woodrum, Rowan Flowers, James Justice, Shawn Muder, Darren Pearce, and Amanda Woodrum. That is nine people given writing credit on this book and the writing is pretty seamless. I imagine that is not so easy to do to get nine voices to sound as one. That is just the first of the many impressive things about this book.

Familiars is a one hundred and twenty four page pdf. The cost is a cheap six dollars and ninety five cents. It is cheap for the size and cheap for the quality. The book also comes in a print version for people who prefer that. The pdf one though comes in a zip file that is under two and half megs in size. That file unzips to a pdf that is a bit under three and half megs in size. That is a good size for the pdf of this length. The pdf however does not have any bookmarks in it. It does have a very complete three page table of contents though. I would have liked to see them have those as bookmarks though.

The book is presented in an easy to read two column format. The layout is very well done making it easy to read on the computer screen as well as once it is printed out. There are no borders to eat up ink when it is printed and there is not a lot of art that would do that. The art is a mixture of pieces that I like and do not like. It is all down by the same person, Ceredywn. The art is very appropriate to the topics of the chapters it is in and of a good consistent style. Some of the pieces are a little too cute looking and I was rather disappointed that neither of the new oozes presented in the book was pictured.

One of the things that Familiars does very well is show what familiars can do. At the beginning of almost every chapter there are stories about familiars. These are well written little tales that give good examples of a familiar in action. They offer the familiars personality and intelligence so that they become more then a scouting tool. Personally, I am rarely a fan of the use of fiction like this. But this shows us that when it is done well in both writing style and content that it just adds so much to the book giving examples and details in practice. The stories do a good job of breaking up the book and helping it flow together making it easier to read all in one sitting.

Okay, on the meat of this book. The first chapter deals with the master and the familiar. What sorts of races choose what sort of familiar? What kind of personality does my familiar have? Why should I curse a player who kills off his familiar? And what sort of curses can I use? These are just a few of the fun questions this first chapter answers. It does start out with what races prefer which familiars it includes many of the common races and even minotaurs and medusa plus many more obscure races. However, it does not include dwarves. I guess this is just an oversight as I cannot imagine how one could purposely include what familiars and Ettin likes but not the ones a dwarf does. The personality of the familiars is done through a table of traits. A player can roll randomly for a few of these traits to help define the familiar. There are thirty two options here but a few of the options are just broad categories like phobias. However the text directs us to appendix five for a list of phobias and there is no appendix five, list of phobias, or even a single appendix. The curses are an optional rule to pester the player who looses his familiar. I really like the idea of having the death of a familiar be just a penalty in experience. It can really add something to a character to try to overcome the death of a familiar and the curse he his left with.

The Players Handbook has a very limited list of familiars available to the Sorcerer and the Wizard. There have been a few books that have feats and options to expand upon this list, but they all pale in comparison to the new familiar types this book offers. In the new origins chapter there are feats for the summoning of vermin familiars to undead familiars to inner planar familiars. Each costs a feat and requires a certain caster level to have such a familiar. Some though seem a little difficult for what one can get with it. From there the chapter goes into detail on what a familiar is. It covers a lot of area even the poltergeist of a former familiar. A lot of thought and intelligence was placed into this section. It defines a familiar and answers many of the questions that the Players Handbook does not. I will consider this a must read for any character that decides to get a familiar.

What type of familiar should a character take? Why some types of familiars are better then others and what can one expect from familiars of a particular type? The next few chapters cover’s these questions and many more. Each familiar type gets its own chapter devoted to it and in that chapter things are fully detailed. There might be new spells, new feats, and new creatures for each familiar type. There are chapters on each of the following: Outer Planar Creatures, Undead, Constructs, Avian and flying creatures, Reptiles, Rodents, Vermin, Exceptional Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids, and Oozes. And yes, my eyes do sparkle when I see a chapter on Ooze familiars.

Each chapter begins with reasons why to choose a familiar of this type and why not to choose a familiar of this type. These sections go into the reasons for and against with a thorough understanding of familiars. It also discusses a bit the types of people that most commonly will have familiars of these types. These are an NPC and a PC concept goldmine. Obviously, that is not the intention of this section but I am always on the look out for good starting ideas for characters. I consider it a good bonus in a book.

There are many, many new types of familiars presented here. Each is also listed with a bonus the wizard or sorcerer gets from having this type of familiar. The division of familiars per chapter though is uneven. As one might expect there are more familiars presented for the Rodent and Exceptional Beasts chapters then the Undead and Ooze chapters. In each chapter there are also ways to upgrade ones familiar. This involves spending experience from the caster and seems like a good way to balance the new powers and abilities of the familiar. Spending experience for things other then item creation seems to be a touchy subject for some gamers. I am of the opinion it is a good thing and enjoy seeing new options one can use their experience for. These chapters cover a lot of information and make choosing the right familiar a pleasant chore.

Magical items are the backbone of many campaigns and characters and a familiar has his needs as well. There are not that many items presented here for the familiar but the ones that are here are solid examples of the possibilities for a familiar. There are even a few cursed items here as well. Then the book goes into class levels for familiars, the possibilities of any class acquire a familiar, and some familiar based prestige classes for a character.

One of my favorite things to do first when I read a d20 book is look at the Open Game License. It might seem like an odd thing to do, but one of the great things the OGL allows is the building and using of other people’s materials. In the OGL it will list any sources that were used in this book. Familiars includes over thirty such sources. As I read through the book I did recognize some of the material from the other books, but the inclusion of them was pretty seamless and not obvious. It would be nice to see a page included that said what specifically was used from each source so that people can then see what they liked and possible seek out the original source for more similar ideas.

Overall this is a great resource for Familiars. I do like it much better then the Mongoose book Familiars: Crouch Monkey, Hidden Toad. Though that book does offer some options that will work well with what is presented here. Troll Lords also has a book on Familiars coming out and I can only hope that that one is a as good as this one. If so, there will be no excuse for a flatly played familiar ever again.

 

[GameWyrd]

Dweomercraft: Familiars is one of multi-branded PDF products that are occasionally born from the primal soup of third party d20 publishers. The most recognisable logo here is, perhaps, the ENWorld one. This is a Dark Quest game though. Think of Dark Quest as the writer and ENWorld as the publisher. The concept design and (by way of alphabetical order) the first named author is Steve Creech (who we might associate with d20 Magazine Rack and Bastion Press). We're blessed with a good collection of authors, including Dark Quest's Neal Levin as well as Michael Hammes and David Woodrum.

Dweomercraft: Familiars is a lengthy 124-pages. It represents the sort of price-per-page value that is just impossible to get in paper and (since I'm so far behind in up-to-date reviews) the current cost of $5 (reduced from $8) at RPGNow) it's hard to imagine anyone saying "too expensive". I like having lots of room in supplements. There are 10 pages before you see anything that looks like a stat block or number crunch. This is what I'd expect from a Dark Quest product and one of the reasons why among the number of PDF publishers I'd encourage people to keep an eye on.

After these opening ten pages of flavour, concept introduction and lead in come some pretty brazen ideas. Here's a brazen idea - give the familiar a personality! If it's too weird to consider Dark Quest try and shoulder some of the responsibility and list some possible personality traits. I like the idea of an exploitative familiar. There's a turn around. Before we even consider what sort of personality the familiar might have the PDF looks at what sort of familiar - just by race - might suit which spell caster. The point here is that elves will tend to have different familiars from dwarves and dwarves will have different familiars from medusas. Ah yes, in typical Dark Quest thoroughness we look through more than just the vanilla fantasy player races. After all; NPCs can have familiars too. What we don't see here and what I feel is missing is more help on /who/ plays the familiar; the GM or the player? Is the familiar and NPC or an extension of the PC?

In many ways the familiar is an extension of the spell caster. I suspect it's not unheard of for player characters to kill off their current familiar in order to get a newer, better and more powerful one. It should be an icky thing to do - in roleplaying terms, but what of the rollplaying? I like systems which bundle the two seamlessly. Curses are just the thing to smite familiar-murdering mages - and they're easy to roleplay and hard to ignore even through rollplay. When supplements like Dweomercraft: Familiars come out players often (and understandably) want to partake in the new offerings. There are new offerings here in this RPG supplement so it's wise to include rules for shipping out the old and bringing in the new.

There are new origins for familiars too. Would you use one of your feat slots for a familiar? No. Would you use one of your feat slots for a really powerful familiar? A wolf familiar? A skeleton familiar? A satyr familiar? Getting more powerful, aren't we? Tempted by that feat slot yet? A mephit familiar? Or what about a tiny golem familiar? That's just a type of familiar too - not really the "origin". Fear not; there are actually suggested origins; an avatar of a wizard, a former construct, planar being or even reincarnated wizard.

I know. That's an impressive range of familiars there - far (far, far, far) beyond the usual scope. The bulk of the PDF is dedicated to detailing (normally at least half a dozen) familiars in each category. We've categories for other planar creatures, elemental familiars, undead familiars, constructed familiars, avian familiars, reptile familiars, rodent familiars, vermin familiars, exceptional beasts for familiars (including aquatic), monstrous humanoid familiars and even ooze familiars. Yeah, I know, ooze familiars are too silly. I don't mind elemental familiars though - a dancing flame or puff of soot could well be that alien touch I want to give some of my spell casters. Constructed familiars are small and I can deal with that - once again I quite like the alien feel of a dagger familiar (a cursed/blessed weapon) or animated rune even! Even with the undead familiars Dark Quest is able to win me around - what about a flying skull for a familiar? (Don't trust the skull!) I'm not so sure about the monstrous familiars though - a kobold as a familiar? Hmm. A kobold familiar could have - as a suggested quirk elsewhere in the PDF - a quirky but strong sexual attraction from the opposite gender not of its race. Human women could find the kobold cute. Hmm.

For each chapter there are two important discussions - reasons to have such a familiar and reasons not to have such a familiar. I can think of lots of reasons why I wouldn't have an aquatic familiar - so appreciate some insight into why I might want to reconsider. I can think of lots of reasons why I'd want a snazzy constructed owl as a familiar - so appreciate the insight as to why that might not always work out for the best. At the very least (and we don't need to hunt for the silver lining here) these sections provide GMs with ideas.

I do think familiars are awfully fragile. I would think twice about taking one into a dungeon. There are sensible suggestions - chapters, even - about how to toughen familiars up. I think the chapter on equipment is handy. I'd let the wizard or sorcerer find a Bowl of Staple Rations just to avoid the plot distractions of mundane feeding problems! Taking things to the next level wheels out the (required) Prestige Class. The Magebound can't sample from full range of the newly expanded familiar range as they can't have unliving (undead and constructs) familiars. This isn't too much of a hurdle for a class which enjoys a plump selection of new, familiar enhancing, spells.

Dweomercraft: Familiar is a classic example of a good PDF for the d20 market. It picks a niche and thoroughly and completely explores it. We've the mix of comprehensive coverage and professional quality.

Oh, dweomercraft is one of those words which is going to bug your players isn't it. Most gamers will have the default understanding that it's a synonym for magic (is gaming genetic?) I looked it up; it can also be used to describe the act of juggling! The word dwarf comes from the olde English "Dweorg" (Forgotten Realms players will be able to take that further) and as a point of gaming geekness, Tolkien coins the phrase "Dwimmerlaik" as an insulting title for the Witch King.

* This Dweomercraft: Familiars review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Moulin Rogue]

In the interest of full disclosure I will state up front that I received this product free.

Familiars are a prime candidate for coverage by third-party d20 publishers, given that less than a dozen animals are available in the core rules, without much in the way of options for augmenting them. Over the past year there have been several publishers to step into this void, the one at hand being Dark Quest with Dweomercraft: Familiars. The version at hand is in PDF format, released under the EN Publishing banner.

This PDF runs 124 pages and weighs in at about two-and-a-quarter megs in size in a zip. There's a lengthy Section 15 at the end with many third-party sources cited. Dweomercraft: Familiars was evidently an ensemble effort with Steve Creech, Michael Hammes, Neal Levin and David Woodrum all sharing the writing credit, and five others credited for additional writing. Art is handled by Ceredwyn - I liked a few pieces such as the chapter headings and the mechanical owl on p. 47, but not others like the inhabitants of pages 74 and 117, which had personality but were just too sketchy and flat for my taste. Only the opening pages have borders, and the table of contents is hyperlinked for easy hopping.

I caught a few errors - "it's" when "its" should have used on p. 103, and the 3.0 skills of Alchemy and Scry appeared in the Magebond's skill list even though this is a 3.5 product. Definitely most troublesome for me are some elusive entries for our feathered friends that have left me very confused: duck, ostrich, swan and turkey are alluded to in Tables 6-1 and 10-2, but I can't find stat information for them anywhere in the product. The mocking bird and vulture are listed in Table 6-1, but I found no actual stat info for them either. The goose and hummingbird from Table 10-2 also seem to have flown the coop.

Much of the opening pages' content is given over to flavour text. There's quite a bit of flavour text running through the book and overall it's pretty good, fortunately. In Chapter One, The Relationship Between Master and Familiar, familiar preferences among the PC races are discussed, though dwarves appear to be missing. Other races such as drow, kobolds, orcs and so on are covered as well. The chapter goes further by outlining familiar traits - mostly undesirable traits like being stubborn, envious and so on. There's a clear effort in this chapter to attempt to get players thinking about their familiars as unique beings with personality, instead of a bucket of stats carrying a bonus to the master around. There are even minor curses as an option to impose upon masters who intentionally mistreat their familiar.

Chapter Two: New Origins quantifies new ways for masters to find their familiar. Spells requiring expensive material components or feats are suggested for those who want a more powerful familiar than can be attained at 1st level. Suggestions for origins of the familiar include being an essence of the wizard's mind brought to life, a former construct given the spark of life, or the reincarnation of a wizard.

Now it gets good. Chapters Three through Twelve are the real calling card of the book and more or less the same format, so I'll just make general observations here. Each chapter begins with some flavour text and then devotes a page or so to reasons you would and wouldn't want a familiar of this type, what kind of person would take such a familiar, and what kind of care this kind of familiar needs (more roleplaying considerations). Any relevant spells and rituals you'll need to get the higher-powered familiars are provided, and in a few cases there are diseases that familiars of that type are vulnerable to. When a creature's stats are already available in the SRD its benefit is simply listed in the appropriate table. When new familiars are introduced they're statted out in full monster blocks complete with with CRs, climate/terrain, the whole deal. Some creatures are what you'd expect to see and others are quite creative. The chapters are:

Chapter Three: Other Planar Creatures. Familiars with origins from other planes, and elemental familiars as well. Hellhounds and mephits are among the recognizable creatures here, while new creatures include the Phenix (a tiny bird with the fire subtype) and the Prismatic Archon for righteous characters who are willing to save up for a CR 5 familiar. The basic four elemental types are here, as are the composite subtypes like dust, ooze, lava, etc. There are yet more elements on top of that; if you ever wanted a rust or vapor elemental, here's your ticket.

Chapter Four: Undead Familiars. A necromancer with an undead familiar makes for a classic evil NPC, but its appropriateness for a PC in a typical campaign is more questionable. That could be why this chapter is fairly short with just a few new familiars like the flying skull. There are a couple of warnings on how a PC's undead familiar could unbalance the game in a campaign.

Chapter Five: Constructs. Animated constructs are among the most powerful familiars you'll find, and the magic required to obtain them is hefty, even for a little one. Not only are constructs low-maintenance and packed with immunities, but these construct familiars can be very intelligent as well. The expected golems and animated objects are here, together with a couple of new golem materials (amber and straw) and a couple of completely new concepts like the Living Rune (basically a floating, living spell).

Chapter Six: Avian And Other Flying Familiars. With the more fantastical familiars out of the way, the next few chapters are of the more mundane "animal kingdom" variety. Fine by me, I always like having more animals for characters to polymorph into, or starting points to create enlarged or monstrous templated versions of critters from. Here in Chapter Six you'll find your blue jay, kiwi, seagull and so on. Starting with this chapter, there are a list of upgrades the master can obtain for a familiar of this type by spending XP for enhancements such as increased movement speed, a spot bonus, extra attack bonus, and so on.

Chapter Seven: Reptiles. There's a generic "lizard" presented to encompass a wide variety of standard lizards, but among new specific reptiles here are chameleon, gila monster, komodo dragon and a couple of turtles.

Chapter Eight: Rodents. Here you'll find the chipmunk, ferret, mouse, shrew, gray squirrel and the like. If you want people to leave you alone you could get a skunk familiar, and a mole would make a cool familiar for a gnome.

Chapter Nine: Vermin. This is a brief chapter as vermin are another kind of familiar that are not likely to be too popular. There are only a few new animals like cockroach, crab and snail.

Chapter Ten: Exceptional Beasts. Here's a large catch-all for animals that don't fit into any of the previous four animal chapters. So there's a badger, chicken, fox, penguin, pot-bellied pig, rabbit, seal, and much, much more. I was glad to see the chicken made it in; there's actually a bit of historical record from centuries ago noting the claim of dark-coloured chickens being familiars for witches. Canadian mages could have a beaver, while Australians may opt for the koala bear. The tasmanian devil is here too, with a suggested geography-neutral name, the rage devil. At the end of the chapter is the horrible ritual of sacrificing a familiar to raise a blighted familiar, which kills plants and spreads disease.

Chapter Eleven: Monstrous Humanoid. This one gets further "out there" with sentient creatures like blink dog and goblin. Earlier editions of D&D did allow pseudodragons and brownies as familiars, so the pseudodragon is here, as are the grig and pixie. A seneschal is a template that allows any humanoid or monstrous humanoid to be bound to a master, although the flavour text strongly signals that it's not considered something that good folk do.

Chapter Twelve: Oozes. A very short chapter which pretty much concedes that ooze is a very odd choice of familiar, but the requirements to get one aren't steep. There are two new tiny oozes, the goozaling and taffinymph. This is the last chapter covering specific familiars.

Chapter Thirteen: Equipping The Master And Familiar looks at familiar equipment, starting with basic feed. Familiars need to eat too, after all. It's easy to just lump it in with a general upkeep payment but in a roleplay-intensive campaign, it's reasonable that masters should at least make a token effort now and then to show they're looking after the familiar's needs. Following that are some special items such as the sizzlerock, a warm rock that will ensure the comfort of familiars who want or need warm places to curl up to while travelling. A few magical items are also listed, from the mundane but useful Bowl of Staple Rations to the flashier Collar of Flying. Three cursed items complete this chapter.

Chapter Fourteen: Making Familiars Tougher explores the option of giving familiars character classes, and abilities that augment their power. The only prestige class in the whole book is here; the Magebond is a character who has a very strong bond with her familiar allowing them to share magical energies. There are 11 familiar-themed spells, and there's a little bit of attention to the notion of familiars being used for core classes beyond just the sorcerer and wizard. The product ends with prestige familiar options, in which a master can sacrifice XP to let a familiar gain a certain feat or other benefit, such as growing wings.

Dweomercraft: Familiars is a good product for anyone looking to bring some life to the often-neglected field of familiars. Newer gamers, or gamers who just haven't given much thought to their familiar, could benefit from the ideas in the first couple chapters of the book. I wasn't all that interested in those parts myself; the prime attraction for me was the new familiars and augmentations for familiars, which makes up most of the product. The obvious comparison for me is to Mongoose's Encyclopedia Arcane: Familiars since I also have that one. While Dweomercraft: Familiars is twice as long and more comprehensive I'm still glad to have both, as the Mongoose book has different ideas about similar things and has more support for powerful SRD monsters like unicorns and dragons, plus a little more in the feats/prestige classes vein. So to me, Dweomercraft:Familiars isn't quite the complete and final word on the subject. But it's good. Those who are interested in brand-new familiars or familiar augmentations should be quite happy indeed with Dweomercraft: Familiars.

 

[trancejeremy]

Good review. I loved this line

"The goose and hummingbird from Table 10-2 also seem to have flown the coop."


I've really gotten a lot of use out of this book, all the stats for normal animals.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I've always had a soft spot for familiars. I remember having a mouse familiar that saved me in the thick of battle by biting on an orc, inflicting that last point of damage just before it could cleav me into half with a rusty battleaxe. (Yes, those 1st ed days)

Well Familiars have come a long way, but not far enough. I picked up Dark Quest's Games Dweomercraft: Familiars from RPGNow.com, intending to see what they've come up with, and the bottom line is.. A LOT. This PDF is a monstrous 124 pages long, presenting a myriad variety of familiars. Even better, you get a lot of individual statistics. You have to be impressed when even a Kiwi is listed, and even a Koala bear. (I thought they were constantly stoned on eucalyptus and not sure if that effect passes onto their 'master'!)

Familiars is divided into 14 chapters . The first chapter helps you flesh out the familiar, giving them more traits and benefits. Chapter two gives more origins and feats for summoning and using familiars. Chapter 3 to 12 is where the meat of the book is, dedicated to various new types of familiars including Constructs (perfect fit for Eberron), Undead, Oozes(!!), as well as the more conventional sort, such as Rodents, vermin and reptiles. Chapter 13 gives items for equipping the master and the familiar, while Chapter 14 gives optional rules to make your familiar tougher, including giving them your experience points. There are also suggestions for using familiars with other characters, as well as Prestige Familiars, who gain abilities by spending a certain amount of XP.

Not only that, Familars will give lots of ideas to both the DM and Player. I'm even considering a one-shot campaign where one player takes on the role of a regular character with the other playiing his familiar.

Artwork-wise, the book is decent too, with lots of almost portrait-like images of wizards and their familiars. It's servicable, but nothing to shout about.

Seriously, I'm blown away. At $5 for 124 pages, there are few better bargains right now on RPGNow.com. Before your next sorcerer/wizard chooses a familiar, he/she should flip through this book for ideas and inspiration. The only caveat is that DMs might want to take a look at the stats and make sure the familiar is not too powerful, but other than that, this is a great buy and an excellent release that I consider one of the best PDFs I've spent money on.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Time for another dreaded Ennie review. This time around, we’ve got Dweomercraft: Familiars. This book clocks in at 124 black and white pages and I believe it runs for $19.95. Published by Dark Quest Games and written by Steeve Creech, Michael Hammes, Neal Levin, and David Woodrum, the authors bring together a ton of OGC material and make it a nearly seamless whole.

Now I know, we’ve already got a book on familiars out there by Troll Lords. Well, this one takes a different route. While the Troll Lord book focused on providing some type of companion to each character class, this one works on each type of familiar. That’s not to say that it doesn’t go over races and their favored familiars and special abilities for familiars, but rather, that the focus on the book is on those different types of familiars. I’m also not saying that it doesn’t provide familiar options for the spellcasting classes, as it does, including special abilities for the familiar in levels, it’s just that’s not the focus of the book.

We have other planar creatures, undead familiars, constructs, flying familiars, reptiles, rodents, vermin, exceptional beasts, monstrous humanoids, and oozes. These sections include details on the types of familiars to be found in that realm. For example, under rodents, we have everything from a mongoose to a flying squirrel. It provides a little fiction of the familiar and master, reasons to choose that type of familiar, reasons not to choose it, how to handle and care for your familiar, different notes for your familiar, and special abilities your can buy, with experience points, for your familiar.

For example, let’s say that you take an avian familiar and want to give it a little boost. You look at the avian upgrades and see, hey, Pious Beak and Sharp Beak. They sound interesting. You look it up and see that the first is 1000 experience points and the second 250, the first providing a +1 to attack and damage rolls against Evil aligned creatures and a +4 bonus against Evil domain spells. The Sharp Beak just gives a +1 to attack.

Now what stops you from just loading up on your familiar? Well, you can only add so many powers at once, two powers at bonding and one power per caster level that the master gains.

It’s a nice book that provides a lot of options for familiars. For those who are interested in the unusual familiar, the construct familiar might be up your ally. It has rules for how much gold and experience pints you have to spend and how long it takes to craft the familiar. Perhaps you’re more interested in a normal familiar, just not one from the Player’s Handbook. Well, they have everything from Snowshoe Hares and Penguins to Potbellied Pigs and Sloths. The best part for those fans of everything with a stat, is that these familiars also come with full game stats as well as caster benefits.

One of the things that helps the book move beyond being just about familiars and boosting their power, is that they include other things like the care and feeding of them. For those looking to add a touch of worry to the master’s mind, they have different diseases for familiars. Perhaps your mouse gets Red Mange or Festering Laughter. How about dry rations for the familiar? How about alchemical items for the familiar like bug powder? The authors have you covered. Heck, they’ve even included magic items to help your familiar survive. Missing is caster cost in gold and experience points.

For those arcane spellcasters looking to get the most out of the familiar, there is a Magebond PrC. This 0 level PrC doesn’t get spells at every level, but they gain numerous special abilities including bonus feats, as well as granting his familiar special abilities far ahead of what the familiar would receive per standard advancement.

The best thing is that because there is so little overlap between the concepts of this book and Troll Lord’s book, is that both can be used in a campaign without a lot of overlap and indeed, both are probably stronger if used together.

If you’re looking for more options for your familiar, Dweomercraft Familiars is a good bet for you.