JohnBiles/Familiars

Familiars

The familiars system from the Core is rather underpowered; it's kind of disappointing to realize how much you have to invest to get something better than using your resources to buy a pet cat.

Here's my system.

All Familiars begin with 1 point in each Quality:

• Communications
• Essence Storage
• Essence Use
• Sense Sharing
• Size

Familiars begin with the base Abilities and Attributes of that creature type, but receive 5 virtue points to add to 1 base point in each virtue, and start with Willpower equal to the sum of their two highest virtues.

These can be raised by spending Familiar Points.

You get 5 Familiar points for every level of Familiar you take. Familiar points let you augment various of the familiar's base capacities.

• Communications: 1 FP per point added to 3, 2 FP per point over 3
• Essence Storage: 2 FP per point added to 3, 4 FP per point over 3
• Essence Use: 3 FP per point added to 3, 6 FP per point over 3
• Sense Sharing: 1 FP per point added to 3, 2 FP per point over 3
• Size: 1 FP to buy up to 2, 3 FP to buy it up to 3, 6 FP to buy it up to 4, 10 FP to buy up to 5.
• Attributes: 2 FP per point to raise an attribute up to 3, 4 FP per point of attributes above 3.
• Abilities: 1 FP per point to raise up to 3, 2 FP per point above 3.
• Virtues: 3 FP per point of Virtues
• Willpower: 2 FP per point of WP
• Damage: 2 FP per point of damage added to natural weaponry, 4 FP per point added above 3 points extra.

Qualities

Communications

1. Tiny: Your familiar tries to act in your interest and can learn to recognize hand signals or verbal commands to do simple tricks, but cannot otherwise communicate.
2. Small: Your familiar now understands any spoken commands phrased in his terms of refernce. (He doesn't know what a 'farmer' is, but can be told to follow some specific group of humans he is looking at.) He can only reply with whatever vocal capacities his species has.
3. Medium: You and your familiar can communicate freely in the language of his species or in your own native tongue. He will not understand the speech of others.
4. Large: You and your familiar may now converse freely with each other in any language you or he knows, and he can speak to others as well in those languages.
5. Huge: You may silently communicate with your familiar telepathically; he can do so with others if he chooses.

Essence Sharing

1. Tiny: Your familiar can store a single mote of Essence for you. You can reflexively draw out this single point without requiring an action.
2. Small: Your familiar can store up to your Permanent Essence in Essence for you. You can draw your Essence in points or add your Essence in points in one round; this requires an action.
3. Medium: Your familiar can store up to your Permanent Essence + your Highest Virtue in Essence for you. You can draw your Essence in points or add your Essence in points in one round; this requires an action.
4. Large: Your familiar can store as much Essence as your Personal pool. You can draw your Essence in points or add your Essence in points in one round; this requires an action.
5. Huge: Your familiar can store as much Essence as your Personal pool. You can reflexively draw as many points from the pool without expending an action as you like.

Essence Use

1. Tiny: Your familiar has no capacity to use Essence on his own; however, you may use charms on his behalf as if he was using them. (Such as using athletics charms to let your familiar Monkey Leap.)
2. Small: With your consent, your familiar can activate one of your charms each round for his own benefit, drawing upon whatever essence you have stored in him. If he is empty, then he is out of luck. Treat him as 'Essence 2' for situations where his Permanent Essence rating is relevant.
3. Medium: With your consent, your familiar can activate one of your charms each round for his own benefit, drawing upon whatever essence you have stored in him. If he is empty, then he can draw from your Personal Essence. If that is empty, he is out of luck. Treat him as 'Essence 2' for situations where his Permanent Essence rating is relevant.
4. Large: With your consent, your familiar can activate one of your charms each round for his own benefit, drawing upon whatever essence you have stored in him. If he is empty, then he can draw from your Personal Essence. If that is empty, he is out of luck. Your familiar now regenerates two Essence an hour and can be attuned to hearthstones. He can also use artifacts. Treat him as Essence 3 when relevant.
5. Huge: With your consent, your familiar can activate one of your charms each round for his own benefit, drawing upon whatever essence you have stored in him. He can also activate combos with his own willpower, for his own benefit. If he is empty of Essence, then he can draw from your Personal Essence. If that is empty, he can draw on your Peripheral Essence. Your familiar now regenerates four Essence an hour and can be attuned to hearthstones. He can also use artifacts. Treat him as Essence 3 when relevant.

Sense Sharing

1. Tiny: Your familiar and you have completely seperate senses
2. Small: When in physical contact, you may share one sense.
3. Medium: When your familiar is within Essence * 10 yards of you, you can share one sense
4. Large: When your familiar is within Essence miles of you, you can share one sense.
5. Huge: You can share a single sense with your familiar at any range, and can share all senses when within Essence * 10 yards of each other.

Size

1. Tiny: This is a familiar the size of a mouse or rat. Small birds fall into this category.
2. Small: This is a familiar the size of a cat. Middling sized birds fall into this category.
3. Medium: This is a familiar the size of a dog or wolf or tiger.
4. Large: This is a familiar the size of a horse, zebra, gazelle, etc.
5. Huge: This is a familiar the size of an elephant.

Example Familiars

Level One Familiar: Pinky

Pinky is a mouse familiar of a junior sorceror at the Heptagram.

He has five Familiar Points. 2 were spent on Communications (raising to 3), 2 were spent on Essence Storage (raising to 2), and 1 was spent on Sense Sharing (raising to 2)

• Communications: 3. He speaks all his master's languages, but can only speak to his master.
• Essence Storage: 2. Pinky can store up to his master's Essence rating in Essence.
• Essence Use: 1. Pinky cannot use charms, but his master can use charms on his behalf.
• Sense Sharing: 2. He can share one sense with his master when they are in contact, usually smell.
• Size: 1. He is tiny.

Pinky is not much smarter than an average mouse, since his intelligence was not raised, making him not the most sparkling of conversationalists.

Level Two Familiar: Redclaw

Redclaw is the falcon familiar of a bird Lunar in the east.

He has ten familiar points. 4 points were spent to raise Communications to 4. 4 points were spent to raise Sense Sharing to 4. 2 were spent to raise Size to 2.

• Communications: 4. Redclaw can talk to anyone in any language known by him or his master.
• Essence Storage: 1. He stores one point of Essence for his master.
• Essence Use: 1. He cannot use any charms, but his master can use them for him.
• Sense Sharing: 4. He can share senses with his master at a range of up to Essence miles.
• Size: 2. He is small, normal sized for a falcon.

Level Three Familiar: Quickfang

Quickfang is the wolf familiar of a northern Solar.

He has 15 familiar points. 6 points were spent to raise Communications to 5. 3 were spent to raise Size to 3. 6 points were spent to buy 3 extra Lethal damage to his claws and bite.

• Communications: 5. Quickfang can communicate telepathically with his master.
• Essence Storage: 1. He stores one point of Essence for his master.
• Essence Use: 1. He cannot use any charms, but his master can use them for him.
• Sense Sharing: 1. He does not share senses with his master
• Size: 3. He is medium, normal sized for a wolf.
• Damage: +3 Lethal added to his claws and Bite.

Level Four Familiar: Drinker

Drinker is the Bat familiar of an Abyssal.

He has 20 familiar points. 2 points were spent to raise Communications to 3. 8 FP were spent raising Essence Storage to 4. 6 FP were spent raising Essence Usage to 3. 2 FP were spent on raising Sense Sharing to 3. 1 was spent to raise Size to 2. 1 FP was spent to raise Drinker's Dodge by 1 point

• Communications: 3. Drinker can communicate with his master in all his master's languages.
• Essence Storage: 4. Drinker stores Essence equal to his master's Personal Pool of Essence.
• Essence Use: 3. Drinker can, with his master's consent, use one of his master's charms each round, drawing from his own Essence or his master's.
• Sense Sharing: 3. He can share one sense when within Essence * 10 yards of his master.
• Size: 2. He is medium, normal sized for a bat.
• Abilities: He has one extra pip of Dodge.

Comments

Haha, everyone makes one of these systems eventually, I swear. I think there's more than one lying around the wiki (I'd suggest searching for "familiars") but the only one I can recall by name is Szilard/Familiars. (That is, if you care about anyone else's opinion. ;)
~ Shataina
PS: this is a pretty good system. I'd venture to note that I've generally found that having a small-sized familiar is often more useful than having a medium-sized one -- maybe a medium-sized one should be the lowest level, then small, then start scaling up? Also, qualities like "flying", "poison", etc might be worth points.

I should add special qualities eventually. I made tiny familiars the base because bigger familiars tend to add durability and combat capacity proportional to siz. And to make progression smooth. Though in some cases, smaller ones can be more useful (spies, for example)

Right, that was my thinking. A mouse is way more useful as a spy than, say, a cat is in a fight.
~ Shataina