Familiar Replacement

[Purzel]

For a level 5 power, you might as well make it immune to all energy damage. Thats a better trade off for stuff like intelligence.

I was thinking about making a weird power for Level 5 indeed:

There are 5 different kinds of energies: electricity, acid, fire, cold, sound. The wizard chooses one energy. For this energy the staff looses the Elemental Resistance. For all the other energies the staff gets Elemental Immunity.
So this make a staff that's hard to destroy with most energies, but has a real weakness I think this is flavor

What do you all think about this? I think it was too powerful

 

[Purzel]

Does anyone here know a good place and way to publish my idea? Or how to playtest it some more?

And does anyone have any experience in making a publication look more professional? I'd like to give the PDF a semi-official d20 look.

 

[Douane]

BUMP! (for continued interest)

 

[LeifVignirsson]

You know, another place to go is to Mongoose Publishing's Familiars book where they have rules for wizards/sorcerers to NOT have familiars and/or exotic familiars (such as vampires, dragons, etc). I have it myself and I can say itis a valuable resource. If you can borrow it or buy it, it is a tremendous resource.

 

[FoxWander]

Hey Purzel, great idea. This is something I've wanted to get around to making for quite awhile. Thanks for doing the hard work for me.

Of course I have some power suggestions. Animate Object seems like a must have. An ability to make any touch spell into a Ray. Although I haven't looked at all the touch spells to see how abusive this might be. I think the Cantrip Mastery power seems abit weak. How about extra spell slots for Cantrips instead. Or just for the "spiffy mage effect", able to cast Prestidigitation X times a day? Also, I think the ability to "Mage Hand" the staff to you at will could be an 'always built in' abilty. It's not overpowering and it balances a normal familiars built in mobility pretty well. Along the line of 'equivalent familiar abilities', you could add Spell Mastery as an automatic feat as a balance to the Alertness all familiars give.

Another idea I just had (Literally- just now. So I obviously haven't looked into the balance factor) was the ability of the staff to be uber-enchantable. What I mean is- the staff would count as any type of item for the purpose of enchanting it. So the wizard could give it Armor enchantments for defense, scribe runes on it like a Scroll, give it 50 charges of a spell as a Wand- that kind of thing. Of course the wizard would still have to have the appropriate item crafting feats and pay all the usual costs. At the very least I'm sure this would have to be limited to only one enchantment per item category. So you couldn't give the power of 3 different rings and a handful of wonderous items, etc.. Just 1 wand, 1 ring, 1 armor, etc..

 

[melkoriii]

Hey Purzel, great idea. This is something I've wanted to get around to making for quite awhile. Thanks for doing the hard work for me.

Of course I have some power suggestions. Animate Object seems like a must have. An ability to make any touch spell into a Ray. Although I haven't looked at all the touch spells to see how abusive this might be. I think the Cantrip Mastery power seems abit weak. How about extra spell slots for Cantrips instead. Or just for the "spiffy mage effect", able to cast Prestidigitation X times a day? Also, I think the ability to "Mage Hand" the staff to you at will could be an 'always built in' abilty. It's not overpowering and it balances a normal familiars built in mobility pretty well. Along the line of 'equivalent familiar abilities', you could add Spell Mastery as an automatic feat as a balance to the Alertness all familiars give.

Another idea I just had (Literally- just now. So I obviously haven't looked into the balance factor) was the ability of the staff to be uber-enchantable. What I mean is- the staff would count as any type of item for the purpose of enchanting it. So the wizard could give it Armor enchantments for defense, scribe runes on it like a Scroll, give it 50 charges of a spell as a Wand- that kind of thing. Of course the wizard would still have to have the appropriate item crafting feats and pay all the usual costs. At the very least I'm sure this would have to be limited to only one enchantment per item category. So you couldn't give the power of 3 different rings and a handful of wonderous items, etc.. Just 1 wand, 1 ring, 1 armor, etc..

I just ran this by my DM and his main thing is that it is quite a bit more powerful than a Familiar.

How do you justify the differance in power?

 

[FoxWander]

I just ran this by my DM and his main thing is that it is quite a bit more powerful than a Familiar.

How do you justify the differance in power?

Are you asking me or the guy who started the thread/came up with the idea?

As for my ideas specifically, the power suggestions at the start are probably ok- just have to find where they would fit into Purzel's Power ranking. I'd say Animate Object is probably a level 4 ability, giving touch spells the "Ray" descriptor (isn't that a Feat somewhere?) is probably lvl 3, extra Cantrips would be lvl 1- maybe 2 if you have players that would 'sting' things to death with Rays of Frost, and the ability to Mage Hand the staff to you at will could probably be an automatic/always on ability- it's basically only a special effect and would only be really useful on rare occasions. And besides, familiars have inherent mobility anyway and can always come to you when called also (as well as fetch, play spy, keep watch, etc.), so it shouldn't overpower anything. The uber-enchantable thing at the end though, is probably a bit much at any Power level. Maybe a Level 4/5 Power that would allow it to be enchantable as one other category, in addition to what a staff can already be enchanted as.

As for the idea of a Wizard Staff in the first place- yeah, altogether it's better than a regular animal familiar. Essentially it gives wizard's a cheap low-power magic item at 1st level that evolves into a quite useful magic item as they advance. Definitely not the equal of a Familiar, even a high level familiar. I still think the Staff is a cool idea and I'd like to figure out how to add it to my campaign, but as a simple replacement for a Familiar- it does seem just way too spiffy so it's not an equal replacement. Maybe if it required a Feat with a level prerequisite (and still took the place of Familiar, so you couldn't have both). Or if the consequences of the Staff being destoyed were harsher- like level or stat loss. Have any of the original developers of the idea considered this problem? Or do you think it's even a problem in the first place?

Or here's another option- keep the idea of a staff/object familiar with just the "Always built in" powers of Purzel's original idea (maybe add my Mage Hand bit ) and advancement just like, or very similar to, a regular familiar, and modify the "Power" add-ons as rituals/enchantments (costing $$ and XP) that could be added to any familiar! What do people think of that idea? Obviously some of the specific Powers in Purzel's idea don't translate to living familiars but similar Powers could be developed. This would give you a cool option that could be used by either animal or staff familiar wizard's but it doesn't make the staff familiar, unenhanced, inherently "better" than an animal familiar. Anybody have any comments on this idea? Of course, I'm sure things like this are covered in some of the Familiar books being published too.

 

[Gez]

Although it's not strictly comparable to this one (mine is an addenda, not a replacement) you may look at my own wizard's staff thread. It's in the link in the sig.

 

[melkoriii]

This is how I would do it by taking the normal familiar and adapting it to a Staff.
First off all Familiars give +3 to some skill.

For the staff I would say +3 to Spellcraft or Concentration.

Next by looking at the lvl table I would swap out things of equal lvl.
Hit Points of the staff is ½ the Wizards/Sorcerers Hit Points
Hardness is what ever the Staffs normal Hardness is PLUS the listed amount below.

I would allow the Staff to be enchanted as a Weapon or item as normal and retain its Familiar status and powers.

Levels________Hardness______Special (replacing)
1-2_________+2_____________Detect Magic at will(Alertness), Mage Hand on Staff only at will (Improved evasion), Store Spell lvl 0(Share spell), Empathic link.
3-4_________+4____________Deliver Touch Spells
5-6_________+6____________Store Spell lvl 1(Speak with Master)
7-8_________+8____________Telekinesis on Staff only at will (Speak with Animals of its kind)
9-10________+10___________-
11-12_______+12___________Store Spell lvl 2 (Spell resistance)
13-14_______+14___________Scry on Staff (Scry on Familiar)
15-16_______+16___________-
17-18_______+18___________-
19-20_______+20___________-

Store Spell (x) lvl: Allows you to store up to your Int(wizards) or Chr(sorcerers) bonus in spells of that lvl in the staff as if they were scrolls. To replenish the spells, one must cast them into the staff.

Now remember that the Staff cant attack like a Familiar can and cant spy like a Familiar can nor can it move on its own.

 

[FoxWander]

This is how I would do it by taking the normal familiar and adapting it to a Staff.
First off all Familiars give +3 to some skill.

For the staff I would say +3 to Spellcraft or Concentration.

Next by looking at the lvl table I would swap out things of equal lvl.
Hit Points of the staff is ½ the Wizards/Sorcerers Hit Points
Hardness is what ever the Staffs normal Hardness is PLUS the listed amount below.

I would allow the Staff to be enchanted as a Weapon or item as normal and retain its Familiar status and powers.

Store Spell (x) lvl: Allows you to store up to your Int(wizards) or Chr(sorcerers) bonus in spells of that lvl in the staff as if they were scrolls. To replenish the spells, one must cast them into the staff.

Now remember that the Staff cant attack like a Familiar can and cant spy like a Familiar can nor can it move on its own.

I like this quite a bit. This seems like an equal replacement for an animal familiar, I'd make some small changes though- see below.

I'd make the +3 bonus apply to Concentration. The idea that a wizard is more intense and focused because of the Staff feels better than that he knows more about spells. And I agree that the Staff should be just as enchantable as any other staff. I think it balances the fact that the Staff, with out the wizard's influence, is just an inanimate object; whereas an animal familiar can do all the useful things that an intelligent animal ally could do (move on it's own, attack, spy, fetch, etc.)

Now for the adjustments I would make to your table (and why after)...
Levels_____Special (replacing)
1-2_______Spell Mastery(Alertness), Mage Hand-Staff only at will (Improved evasion), "Scribe" Spell to Staff-XP cost only (Share spell), Locate Object-Staff at will (Empathic link.)
3-4_______Deliver Touch Spells
5-6_______Detect Magic at will (Speak with Master)
7-8_______Identify at will (Speak with Animals of its kind)
9-10______-
11-12_____Telekinesis on Staff at will (Spell resistance)
13-14_____Scry on Staff (Scry on Familiar)
15-16_____-
17-18_____-
19-20_____-

Spell Mastery for Alertness so that it's a Feat for a Feat. Plus the idea that a Wizard with just his Staff is partially self-sufficient makes sense to me. I'd allow the spells "mastered" with this feat to be changed out whenever the Wizard gains a new spell level he can cast.

I prefer "Scribe" spells to Store Spells because Scribing is something all Wizards can do anyway, this just gives them a new medium to do it with. Simply "Storing Spells" at will and without cost seems too useful. Scribing them would have a small XP cost at least. I'd consider changing this to be either the XP cost OR the full base price cost, I'm not sure though. Also this gives a reason for the typical "rune covered staff" of fantasy.

Locate Object rather than Empathic Link because the Staff isn't sentient so empathy doesn't really apply. I might make the range for Locate Object 1 mile. Playing that a Staff familiar becomes sentient would change all the things I decided for the various "communication" swap outs.

I put Detect Magic for Speak with Master because that's what I picture the Staff could "communicate"- the presence of magic. This would function exactly like the spell, so school ID would be possible also. I might give this the special effect of the Staff's crystal glowing when touched to magic and with a different color based on the school. Identify at will is just an improvement on this kind of "communication".

I delayed the TK at will for 2 reasons- to make room for the other swap outs I made, and so it's more in line with the level a Wizard might get that spell anyway. That way it's not so powerful since TK can be used very effectively if your creative.

I think this would make a quite balanced and interesting replacement option for a standard familiar. Does anybody have any comments about either version? And if you adapted Purzel's Power level abilities into rituals that could be applied to any familiar then familiars of any kind would be really spiffy.