Is There a Term for...

[the Jester]

...someone with a familiar?

Assuming that familiars are not tied to class or whatnot, that is.

I'm working on my homebrewed system and realized that I haven't included familiars yet; I'm going to include them via a prestige class.

 

[Gentlegamer]

In the real world, witch.

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, that's all I could come up with too. I was hoping for something with less of a religious denotation (most of my group is actually a bunch of neo-pagans, so at least there isn't much of an implied gender to the term 'witch' for us).

 

[steeldragons]

Yeah, the only term relating to a "familiar" is witch. Depending on who's writing about them, it is either the "magical connection" of the creature to the witch or that it is an animal imbued with an extraplanar spirit, some might say a "demon" or "devil" <rolls eyes>, by (and under the control of) the witch that makes it a "familiar" versus simply a pet.

I don't really know what you could call it or how you could make familiars non-class specific...as, imo, unless it is with some kind of spellcaster...it wouldn't really be a "familiar."

Sounds like you might have to be making up some term of your own for just any person who has a familiar.

Look forward to how you resolve/what you come up with though.

--Steel Dragons

 

[the Jester]

Well, the system in question breaks options into small packages, so if you want to be especially good at (say) fighting with a sword, there's a specific prestige class for that.

So this is a prestige class for pcs that want a familiar; generally, this will be a cleric or wizard, but it's possible that a fighter or rogue could get into it with the right multiclassing path, but without spells or prayers, they wouldn't get much from it.

There's a separate option for having a beast companion; the familiar is a spirit in the form of an animal while a beast companion is a creature that you've defeated, subdued and subsequently taken in and trained as your companion.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, I think this will have to be a setting-specific term.

I don't own it, but I seem to recall that Blue Rose has characters with magical animal companions. Maybe find someone with the book and see what term it uses?

 

[Mark CMG]

Pet owner?




Agreed that it is setting-specific but witch will do in many cases, as said. And, of course, Beastmaster, though that gets jeers when it is a toad.

 

[tuxgeo]

A generic term for someone who has a familiar . . .

Master? (As in the master of the familiar?)
Owner? (As in pet owner?)
Familiarizer? (Or is that too easy to misunderstand?)
Bonder? (Someone who forms a bond with another?)
Pairer? (Someone who forms a pair with another?)
Unleasher? (. . . obvious . . .)
Anchorite? (for being the spiritual familiar's anchor to this world?) (Yes, I know that word already has a different meaning.)
Docent? (Just to confuse people.)
Franchise? (On the death of this person, the team disintegrates?)
Fascinator? (Has to do with attracting and spellbinding; so if the word isn't already used in that system, this might work.)

 

[Janx]

according to this site:
familiar - definition of familiar by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

1. A close friend or associate.
2. An attendant spirit, often taking animal form.
3. One who performs domestic service in the household of a high official.
4. A person who frequents a place.

#3 is interesting and was unknown to me. I reckon you could find the latin word for "high official" and call the guy with the familiar that.

 

[TarionzCousin]

"Hallucinator"

Everybody else: "We don't see any raven."