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Old 01-03-2020, 01:32 PM   #1
hcobb
 
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Default Bring out your familiar rules

Here's my stab at making familiars work in familiar TFT ways...

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/new_spells.html#Spells

What's yours?
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Old 01-03-2020, 05:31 PM   #2
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Leash laws…?
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Old 01-31-2020, 01:00 PM   #3
KevinJ
 
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Modified version from another game.

Summon Familiar IQ10 (S) [10 or 20]: This spell is used to summon an animal to be used as a familiar. The wizard is psychically bound to the animal, and gains advantages from it.

A wizard does not HAVE to have a familiar. If he or she wants one, they must know the Summon Familiar spell to get one. The Adept DOES NOT summon the familiar during game play, he or she STARTS the game with a familiar, without expending any ST to gain it. [Or, in the case of learning the spell during campaign play, they would complete the summoning while not adventuring]

To summon and bind a familiar to him, the wizard specifies what kind of animal he or she is summoning, and then rolls 3/IQ. A successful roll gives the wizard the desired familiar. A failure gets the wizard nothing–and he or she must wait a year to try again. A critical success may, as the GM's discretion, reward the wizard a special familiar. A critical failure gets the wizard something unintended, possibly an imp or other demon, and the familiar will not be helpful. The wizard must go to a location where the desired type of familiar might reasonably be considered to exist.

A wizard with a familiar gains the ability to share the familiar’s senses – sight, hearing, smell, etc as with Creations, but only when he or she wished to. The wizard also can communicate telepathically with the familiar, and direct it to perform various tasks. If the familiar is asked to risk injury or death, the wizard must roll 3/IQ to force the familiar to perform that action. A Mage does not gain any ST benefit from the familiar, but will take 1d damage if the familiar is killed, and PERMANENTLY LOSE 1 IQ.

Any small animal (bat, raven, cat, rat, snake, ferret, rabbit, crow) is suitable for a familiar. ST cost is 10 for any small animal.

Larger familiars are possible, up to wolf or big cat sized animals. The ST cost 10 for an animal the size of a wolf.

The Summoning takes 1 week to complete. At the end of the week, on a successful roll the wizard will have his or her familiar.

A Familiar can be released from service, but the Warlock cannot gain a new familiar for one year -1 month for each IQ over 10; thus a Sorcerer with IQ15 could summon a new familiar in 7 months.

You could increase the D/IQ or apply penalties to IQ if you want to make the acquisition more difficult. having the animals improved in any way [smarter, strong, faster, $6,000,000 Ferret], is also up to the GM.
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Old 01-31-2020, 01:01 PM   #4
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Now I'm thinking of haveing more familiar spells that summon improved familiars, similar to the Staff Spell.
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Old 03-09-2021, 11:03 AM   #5
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

A blog post in which I muse about familiars for TFT.
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Old 03-16-2021, 09:51 PM   #6
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shostak View Post
Here's a link that doesn't ask for a login:

https://myriangia.wordpress.com/2021...-fantasy-trip/
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Old 08-19-2022, 08:08 AM   #7
dmgrafton
 
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Like many, I have been mapping out talents and skills for classes using many people's suggestions. I started with Ranger and am moving to Druid, and the Familiar is a key aspect for me for a Druid, but could be used of course by wizards. So having a really "true to life" Familiar spell would be cool. I really like a progressive Familiar spell similar to the Staff spell as described. I like all the aspects but it seems like it some how should include animal handling talent abilities like performing tasks via commands based on IQ, or is that implied? Also I wonder if there should be Speak With Animals spell that could stand on its own and some aspects apply to the Familiar at diffent Levels of the Spell.
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Old 08-19-2022, 09:00 AM   #8
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Perhaps Familiar is an enchantment, like Staff of Power used to be?
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Old 08-19-2022, 11:07 AM   #9
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by dmgrafton View Post
I really like a progressive Familiar spell similar to the Staff spell as described. I like all the aspects but it seems like it some how should include animal handling talent abilities like performing tasks via commands based on IQ, or is that implied?
Add the familiar's IQ to the wizard's and roll 4d against the total to determine the familiar understands the command. Wizards can invest XP in their familiar to raise its IQ so as to be more useful in this way.

Quote:
Also I wonder if there should be Speak With Animals spell that could stand on its own and some aspects apply to the Familiar at diffent Levels of the Spell.
Speak with Animals would be a neat spell! As for for familiars as outlined in my blog post, though, the ability to communicate is predicated on the animal's intelligence. Just raise it to 8 and let it talk. I've recently edited the post to clarify how this works.
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Old 08-19-2022, 05:01 PM   #10
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Default Re: Bring out your familiar rules

I will check out the updated post. That is a great add on!
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