Familiar Familiars

[Primitive Screwhead]

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION], I know.. but its soo hard to not tweak!

I was looking over the OLD careers and noticed that the Mage III gets a familiar that can, at Mage V, be used to deliver a touch spell. Quite underwhelming. The Diabolist III gets an Imp, that does even less. I figured that the expansion to this would be caught up eventually and was mainly due to the Elements of Magic: Revised rules pointing off to DnD 3x rules for more details.

So, I wrote up the attached bases on EoM:R, the 3x SRD, and some other sources. I would love to have this fine-tuned and become part of the finished document.

 

[Morrus]

I'd hang on for the next update. The version you're commenting on is months behind the version I'm looking at! I can't even match stuff up!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Hanging... but my grip is slipping!



I suppose that means I shouldn't post the expanded list of familiars that I just worked up based on 3x monsters that fit the criteria?

 

[Morrus]

Hanging... but my grip is slipping!



I suppose that means I shouldn't post the expanded list of familiars that I just worked up based on 3x monsters that fit the criteria?

I don't think I've done anything with familiars, so you're fairly safe playing around with that. It's the page numbers and organizations and the like that are all completely different. Makes it difficult to find errata mainly, when folks report it!

 

[GlassEye]

Primitive Screwhead, I think you've done good work with the familiars but I hope for a more radical departure from 3e/PF-styled familiars. I like the exploits you've come up with but I don't like the idea that the mage loses them if the familiar dies. I feel it might discourage investment in familiar abilities and nothing else that I can find results in a class totally losing purchased exploits.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

[MENTION=40413]GlassEye[/MENTION], as mentioned in the document I basically ported the 3x rules and expanded some options. The idea of losing the Familiar Boons comes from both the 3X loss of XP if your familiar dies as well as a rules based encouragement to both invest in the abilities of the familiar and protect the familiar.

I would be glad to brainstorm ideas with you on how to break the 3x paradigm, and am interested in expanded the 4e paradigm in which the familiar was more of a friendly spirit that could manifest physically, yet had a boon granted while 'inactive'

The Man-Myth-Magic has a nice encapsulation of the real world history of magical familiars.

Mechanically, I have a habit of falling into the 'skills and feats' breakdown as it provides the most flexibility while keeping the rules simple to implement. In the Case of 'Old that would be 'Skills and Exploits'

It would be interesting to adapt considerations based more on the myths, but those myths seem to be pretty buried. Witches Lore has some interesting points on familiars, about half-way down:

• Spiders assist in the casting of spells
• Snakes assist in connecting to the underworld and in transformation skills
• Ravens assist in travel and information gathering/spreading
• Imps, elves, and pixies 'assist on many levels..
• Cats assist with perception and night sight
• Toads assist with healing magic
• Bone constructs assist with fire
• Crystal constructs aids with invisibility

Then towards the end the article states "...helps intensify the witches rituals and gives the the witch more clarity when making decisions."

There is alot of vague things about familiars, and the 3x material is the most codified..

What were you thinking?

 

[Morrus]

I do like the idea of those traditional associations. As mentioned, O.L.D. isn't D&D, and I like the idea of drawing on real world myths free of D&D's historical constraints. Those who want to play 3.x can play 3.x. This needs to be different.

 

[GlassEye]

Those are both interesting pages on witches and familiars. I, too, like the traditional associations and can see how D&D familiars developed from those kinds of ideas. I never played 4e but the familiar-spirit sounds like it played into the traditional familiars a little more closely.

There is also the familiar-like daemons from The Golden Compass and its sequels. But those are probably more like totem animal spirits and a little farther from that traditional familiar concept. Shadowfax isn't a familiar but seems to be around whenever Gandalf needs a horse.

I think I would like to see something closely linked to the wizard's magic but the extent that I'm thinking probably makes it more a shaman than a wizard.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Well, taking this a completely different way I have my first draft at a 'definitely not 3e' approach..

it needs the most help in the spirit form arena, and probably clarifying exactly what I was headed towards

{edit}
Speaking of where I am headed..
My concept is that the plane the spirit comes from has a stat-block that includes the mental stats, a selection of skills and spell lists.
Then a stat-block for the form that includes the physical stats and more skills and spell lists.

A familiar then would be 'built' by putting these layers together similar to:

=========================
Fey Bat familiar (Base: gains 1 ability in each form):
master gains enhanced listening and darkvision
- Totem form, Guardian
- Talisman form, Enhanced Spell list Create Darkness
- Familiar Form, Scry: Reporter
Fly speed 8,
Statblock [stuff]
skills: Stealth 3, Listen 3
=========================

Still a fair amount of work to get to that point tho!

{Edit - 9/15} Updated the attached file to version 0.5!
{edit - 9/18} Updated version 0.9!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

So, I updated the last file with my second draft. Note, I did a fair amount of copy/paste so many of the creature forms are exactly alike right now.

But here is how this should pan out.. lets say my Mage wants to get himself a Superior Familiar, after getting the material for the ritual and buying myself a nice black kitty-cat:

Fred the Freaky Familiar:
- Superior ShadowFell Cat
Str 2, Agi 8, End 5, Int 4, Log 4, Will 8, Cha 2, Mag 5, Luck 4

Talisman, Fred transmutes into a brooch shaped like a cat. In this form he grants Soft Landing and the Magical Skill: Illusion

Totem, Fred is insubstantial. In this form he shares his Life Sense, protects me while I sleep {Guardian} and provides access to Summon Shadow.

Familiar, Fred is a slim black cat who likes to rub against peoples ankles {and then bite them}. In this form he shares his Stealth Skill and his Mana pool {at a 2 for 1 trade-in}

Through Fred's Gate ability, I can transport him and me into the Shadowfell and back.


So, before I get to cleaning up all the copy/paste issues and putting different abilities into each block.. what do y'all think?
[MENTION=40413]GlassEye[/MENTION], A Shaman tradition could be set up to summon these sorts of spirits on an adhoc basis and have multiples of them running around {or have a set of 'signature summons'} whereas for the mage this would be a one-at-a-time scenario.
[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION], I know this is supposed to be game world agnostic. Of all the planar configurations I prefer the Eberron/4e cosmology which has the two parallel worlds and then a number of planes that migrate in and out of phased, nearby, and distant states. There are a number of cool plot hooks that can be built around rituals having to be timed with a planar alignment.