Summon Familiar, a spell

[KevinJ]

Familiiars are an ancient trope for magic users. Witches and wizards from many ancient cultures had animal companions and servants. This spell is used to gain an animal familiar and the benefits and detriments of having one.

Summon Familiar (S) [5 or 10]: 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 during a break in the game if the player learns the spell during play.

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 gets the wizard a special familiar (GM’s discretion). 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 5 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 15 IQ Sorcerer could summon a new familiar in 7 months.

[KevinJ]

IQ 10 spell.