Help creating a Familiar

[CcyRdz]

I am playing a spell caster and am ready to spend points for my familiar.
One of the special abilities I want my familiar to have is that I am able to use it's fatigue points.

I've read about energy reserve with the limitation granted by a familiar, and stuff... But I still am not completely sure about how it works and what is its cost.

Is it an advantage, a skill? how does this work? please help me. ^.^

Oh, by the way, I am new to GURPS, so if you use FP for "Fatigue Points" and stuff like that, I would appreciate if you say what the letters stand for so I can understand better... I'd really appreciate it... thank you!!!

[Armin]

This seems like it was actually meant for the GURPS forum, so. . . moved.

Armin

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by CcyRdz

Is it an advantage, a skill? how does this work? please help me. ^.^

Oh, by the way, I am new to GURPS, so if you use FP for "Fatigue Points" and stuff like that, I would appreciate if you say what the letters stand for so I can understand better... I'd really appreciate it... thank you!!!

A'ight, what you want is to buy an ER (Energy Reserve) Advantage for Magic, which is basically just like Fatigue that can only be used on Magic abilities. This concept is introduced in Powers, so if you don't want to buy that and don't feel comfortable operating off my description here, just call it extra FP (Fatigue Points) because it costs the same and that's good enough for jazz.

The advantages to ER over FP are that you won't be reeling from exhaustion and at 1/2 Move and Dodge if you use up more than 2/3 of it, and also that it recovers independently and concurrently with FP.

You can stick a Limitation on there called Provided by Familiar for -40%, so that if you are separated from your familiar, it is killed, etc you can't draw on its energy, but there's an even better one introduced in DF 5 called Drains Familiar for -50% that works the same way except that using it also reduces your familiar's FP reserve.

So for example, if your familiar provides you with 10 ER that can only be used on magic stuff and drains its FP, it would look like:

Energy Reserve x10 (Magic) (Drains Familiar -50%) [15].

[lexington]

There isn't strictly a way to let you use its FP.

What you can do is take Fatigue Points (FP) or Energy Reserve (ER; an advantage from Powers) with the limitation "Granted by Familiar" so you can only use it when your familiar is around.

edit: ninja'd, also I forgot about Drains Familiar

[Refplace]

There are several ways to do this.

RAW is to buy a regular ER and give it the limitation Accessability Granted by Familiar (-40%) see Allies page 38
That is probably the easiest and most popular way to handle your request.
Another option is to grant the familiar with an ER that has enhancements like Useable by others. Note that many GMs will frown on an Ally granting you abilities and paying for them more then they would you buying your own abilities with a discount for needing them around.

Another option I came up with that has not been approved or seen the light of a published book is to give your familiar the Compartmentalized Mind (Controls) advantage and that lets others use those controls to directly access its powers.
This was designed for Allies bought as vehicles but I use it for bases and came up with it for Fae and Shamans. It can suffer the same balance problems as having your allies pay for things for you so should be used carefully.
I originally made it so that one PC could buy a power that would help another without having to pay a ton of points.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Another option I came up with that has not been approved or seen the light of a published book is to give your familiar the Compartmentalized Mind (Controls) advantage and that lets others use those controls to directly access its powers.

Wouldn't that just let you use your actions to "take over" the familiar and make it use its FP or ER to cast spells that it knows? (Though if it knows Lend Energy, the distinction could get pretty blurry)

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by lexington

There isn't strictly a way to let you use its FP

Actually there is, Give the familiar Fixed Magic access to Share Energy.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Wouldn't that just let you use your actions to "take over" the familiar and make it use its FP or ER to cast spells that it knows? (Though if it knows Lend Energy, the distinction could get pretty blurry)

Depends on interpretation.
I wanted to create beings that could allow others access to their ER and that would be playable as PCs. If you have Controls on a Vehicle you can use all its powers as if you were in control (or just one with dedicated controls).
That lets you drive the vehicle or uses its weapons.
However if it has an ER then you can use that too. The question of will the ER only power its stuff or can be tapped to power yours is a judgement call.
If both use the same power source (say has the magic PM) then I see tapping it the same as tapping a Mana Basin or Powerstone.
So your tapping its power to power your spells.

[munin]

In addition to buying ER (Granted By Familiar, -50%) yourself, you could also have your familiar simply buy ER (Affects Others, 1 person, +50%) -- then they or anyone touching them they wish can draw on the ER. You can add Area Effect to allow use at a distance. Kromm did this in Pyramid #3/1 (p. 16).

[PK]

[QUOTE=CcyRdz;1332283One of the special abilities I want my familiar to have is that I am able to use it's fatigue points.

I've read about energy reserve with the limitation granted by a familiar, and stuff... But I still am not completely sure about how it works and what is its cost.[/QUOTE]

Energy Reserve is an advantage that was introduced in GURPS Powers, but also reproduced in several other books. If you can afford it, I'd strongly recommend picking up GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 5: Allies, as it focuses heavily on the concept of familiars.

If you can't, here's a brief rundown: Energy Reserve (ER) costs 3 points/level. Each level buys you the equivalent of 1 FP (Fatigue Point) that you can spend to power your spells without it draining your natural FP in any way. ER recovers independently from FP (at 1 point/10 minutes) and doesn't care if you're resting or not.

how does this work? please help me.

Specifically, your PC (not your familiar!) has to pay for the following things:

1. Ally (Familiar) with the Special Abilities enhancement. This is the cost of having it a useful companion around that can scout around, crawl through tiny holes, and so on.

2. Energy Reserve [3/level], with the special limitation "Drains Familiar, -50%" (for a final cost of 1.5/level). How many levels? That depends on how much FP you can draw from your familiar. For example, DF5: Allies assume that spellcasters can draw half of their familiar's FP -- so if a rabbit familiar has HT 12, the spellcaster has to buy "Energy Reserve 6 (Drains Familiar, -50%) [9]."

The level of Energy Reserve is the cap on how much FP you can draw from your familiar. You buy it as an ER because it represents an external source of energy -- it's not personal FP, from your perspective. But every point you use drains 1 FP from your familiar, who must recover it normally. The most ER you could possibly buy would be equal to twice your familiar's FP; for example, assuming that HT 12 rabbit, you could theoretically buy ER 24 (Drains Familiar), because GURPS allows that rabbit to go all the way down to FP -12. (Though with most rabbits, that can kill them, so that's probably not a good idea...)

Oh, by the way, I am new to GURPS, so if you use FP for "Fatigue Points" and stuff like that, I would appreciate if you say what the letters stand for so I can understand better... I'd really appreciate it... thank you!!!

There's a sticky thread at the top of this forum listing common abbreviations. But you should definitely know at least the ones used in the Basic Set: ST = Strength, IQ = Intelligence, FP = Fatigue Points, and so on. In addition to those, ER = Energy Reserve.