Familiars = Equipment?

[Rel]

I like this approach for animal companions, but familiars are much more intimately bound to their masters. In my understanding, they know the master's thoughts and wishes, unlike animal companions who can only follow the signals or commands that they are given.

It seems to me that only in very extreme cases would a familiar knowingly go against its master's wishes. Unless of course the familiar is out of range, or the master is not giving it any direction at all, by simply ignoring it, or blocking off any empathic signals. In those cases, I think the DM (or another player, if the DM allowed) would take over playing the familiar.

Don't worry, c_c, as a fellow player in Speaks With Stone's game group, I can assure you that this doesn't get abused. It is actually fairly rare that the familiar even bucks his master's wishes slightly. Even then, it is more likely that the player guiding the familiar's point of view will just put on a bit of a surly attitude.

This most often happens when the familiar has been pulling long stints of scouting/guard duty with little in the way of good food. At that point they sometimes tend to pout a bit about being underappreciated.

During our last session, we escaped from a temple guarded by a large number of enemies. We could never have done this without the scouting/intelligence gathering by Speak's familiar. I made sure to thank him on behalf of the rest of the party by giving him one of our Treasure Berries (sort of like natural Goodberries that grow on bushes). We really should buy him a nice present for the holidays, but it is so hard to shop for that Raven familiar on your christmas list. Maybe I'll knit him a nice beak cozy.

 

[bret]

Personally, I think extreme conditions are where the familiar is most likely to follow the master's orders. In my opinion, the familiar should be willing to 'take the bullet' for his or her master.

I would make an exception for non-elemental outsider familiars. Specifically, the fiendish and celestial templates are heavily associated with an alignment, so the familiar should always act in line with that alignment.

A wizard that gets his or her familiar killed is a self-correcting problem. They get to wait a long time or have the familiar raised in order to be able to repeat that mistake.

I like when familiars have distinct personalities from the master. It adds a lot to the game when this happens. I don't think they should be treated the same as a cohort or animal companion though, in my opinion the connection is much greater for a familiar.

 

[Tagnik]

I had a quasit familiar.. boy was he a bastard.

He helped a lot until it was something bad.. the coward!!

 

[Zaruthustran]

A familiar is not a Cohort, is not an npc, and is not an animal companion. It's a magical animal under the complete control of the arcane caster.

That said, it's also not a robot.

It is an intelligent, magical animal bound to the caster.

I agree that familiars should express their opinions and balk at scary or unusual tasks. But the caster has the final say over what a familiar does or does not do.

Example:
Wizard: Go scout out that scary light in the distance.
Owl: That's a pretty scary light. Do I have to?
Wizard: Yes, we need to know what it is.
Owl: Well, you're the boss... (flies toward scary light)

-z

PS: of course, folks are free to do whatever they want in their own games. Personally, I think free-willed familiars are fun.

 

[DarkJester]

Well, I was going to post how we play it, but then it seems Zaruthustran's group does it pretty much the same way.

After all, the only reason the familiar can talk back at all is because it is the spellcasters familiar.