Familiars in the campaign

[Treebore]

I have recently, in the last couple of months, found/bought two books with a lot of neat familiars ideas. They are Dweomercraft:Familiars and Troll Lord Games book on familiars and animal companions.

However none of my players see how fun/cool focusing on your familiar can be. So i was wonderinng of any other DM's out there have come up with ways to "hook" your players into trying these, or similiar, ideas out. Or did you do it with how you set up your campain world? If so, how?

All ideas, suggestions, sharing of experiences appreciated.

 

[Ferret]

Have a recurring Wizard keep being prepared for the Pc, because his thrush familiar is spying on them.

NPC's with familiars that exploit use some tricks like sharing polymorphing spells etc.

Try and make it subtle, and in the end it's there game.

 

[CronoDekar]

Nice timing on this post: something I've actually been considering lately is to house rule that characters with familiars don't lose exp when their familiar dies. I get the feeling a lot of the time by lurking around various boards (and even talking to the people I play with) that many players often find having a familiar to be more of a weakness than a strength because of the fear of exp loss. And I'm like you too, I like players actually using that Summon Familiar ability instead of not using it or keeping the familiar protected in their robes while simply mooching off the bonus they get.

So personally, I think I'm going to reduce the "penalty" of losing a familiar to something like simply not being able to summon it again for a week. Hopefully that'd make it so those who really want to use familiars as part of their character or combat options actually don't have any fear of using them.

 

[Raduin711]

For one of my campaign concepts, Familiars would be necessary for any mage; instead of a companion or servant, the familiar would be, essentially, the wizard's spellbook.

A familiar is the embodiment of an immortal otherworldly being, who can posess many forms, but only certain creatures/things can be mystically imbued with the Familiar's spirit. (cats, bats, rats, owls). The familiar serves as a (perhaps temporary) conduit to the otherworld, and without it, the wizard has no access to magic.

if the familiar dies, the spirit is thrown off, and must find a new host, and returns anywhere from a week to a day later, to continue to tutor the wizard.

There would have to be rules for when a wizard needs a familiar's help to cast the spell, or gather energy. perhaps:

-the wizard's highest level spells must be cast while the wizard and familiar are able to speak to one another (must be directly coached)

-the three highest levels must be cast with the familiar within close range, so the familiar can serve as a magical conduit.

-all other spells the wizard can channel and cast without the help of his familiar.

A familiar who dies is ejected into the otherworld, and must return to the real world and find a new acceptable host; only the familiar can decipher an appropriate host from an inappropriate host.

While the familiar is linked with the wizard, the familiar can leave at any time, and begin tutoring another wizard. Thus, the wizard must treat the familiar with respect, or risk losing his familiar forever. Later, another familiar could choose the wizard as his acolyte, but, unfortunately, the familiar finds the wizard, not the other way around. A wizard can continue his studies (and gain experience) without a familiar as normal. A familiar who leaves brings all his knowlege of his highest spell level with him. He does not have the power to channel the magical energy of the 2 levels below that alone.

As the wizard gains levels, and the link between wizard and familiar grows, the familiar can adopt stronger forms, moving up from bats, lizards, owls and snakes and up to smaller magical creatures, eventually leading up to small dragons, and the ability to shapechange, perhaps even into human form.

Most familiars have other concerns, and spend at least 8 hours a day away from the wizard.

 

[Treebore]

Hmmm. That could draw them into doing it. Unfortunately that would require me to restart my campaign. Maybe I could "introduce" such a familiar when they next dismiss or lose their current one.

As for the xp loss I only make that happen when the familiar dies due to neglectful actions on the part of the familiars master. A "bad karma" kind of punishment from the gods of magic.

 

[Wonred]

In my experience, familiars have been rather a nuisance during play and tend to be forgotten except for when the players are needing a scout or flyer type to do recon or to carry a message.

I adapted familiars in 2nd Ed. D&D to give wizards a bonus to various spell related checks. If a mage had one, I used to give them bonuses on the chance to learn spells check and and depending on the familiar, cetain increased abilities of spells. These would range from an additional question on speak with dead to an increase in effective casting level in regards to spell effect. Certain familiars gave certain bonuses depending on the school and type of spell being cast.

I have yet to update my 3rd Ed. campaign with these rules, but to date no one has wanted a familiar. I suppose when it comes up I'll get around to it.

 

[Talon5]

Results

Have a couple of familiars running through our campaigns, they seemed never to get used for more then their special abilites, not even recon.

So I get the idea to send Harmon forward- do a little recon, Harmon steps onto a bridge and it sets off a traps that kills him (he was a weasel).

The result of that- those familars that didn't get used before are really not getting used after that.

Alran- the wiz who's familar died, got him reincarnated when Alran got Improved Fam into a P Dragon, which makes him a cooler familar, but still the familars are seldom used and when it comes up the other characters proclaim- "I don't want her getting killed."

 

[tensen]

Considering you mentioned one of my products I know I can point to various things in it to utilize. First of all, you'll want to consider which aspect of a familiar you will want to use in your campaign.

To introduce a familiar into the game without necessarily forcing it upon the spellcaster (okay, you could railroad it to a point) is to introduce the concept before the physical form. Now and again have the spellcaster have conversations in their head... suggesting better alternatives to things. Get the wizard used to consulting with the voice in their head. When they seem like they are comfortable with it, talk with them about the physical form of the familiar, and make them do a ritual for it. Of course there is always the possibility that the mage might want a non-physical familiar after having dealt with it this way for a while, so don't take too long in the process.

 

[yoodle]

Make Familiars Fun

However none of my players see how fun/cool focusing on your familiar can be. So i was wonderinng of any other DM's out there have come up with ways to "hook" your players into trying these, or similiar, ideas out. Or did you do it with how you set up your campain world? If so, how?

Well, I'm not sure how to hook the players into it as a DM, but as a player, I started out by taking the Improved Familiar feat. Then, my DM setup a little adventure where I went out and met my Psuedo-Dragon familiar. I had to convince him that it would be to his benefit to join me.

Now, I have a small stuffed dragon that I use to role-play the Psuedo-Dragon. We had quite a bit of fun with him on a couple of occasions. In one instance, we ran into a Fey King, and he would only speak to the Psuedo-Dragon, so he had to do all of our negotiating.

Other than that though, I've really been at a loss for how to use them effectively for anything other than scouts. If you put them into dangerous situations, they're going to get killed.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I too own TLG: Book of Familiars

In my campaign the familiars are there to stroke the mage's ego and constantly remind them that any conflict can be solved through the use of arcane power.

With the TLG book the familiars are similar to a druid's animal companion and the spellcaster becomes a little more dangerous especially with a supreme familiar.