Telgar/Familiars

Familiar Rules and Examples

Since the Familiar Background at level 5 provides less benefit then a level 3 Artifact and levels 1-2 provide, essentially, nothing at all I have found it necessary to make significant alterations to how Familiar works. Furthermore I find that Exalted suffers from a severe derth of interesting Familiar animal choices. There should be more to take as your Familiar then an omen dog that will die the first time it follows you into battle.

To address the weakness of the Familiar Background overall and the animals currently availible as Familiars, I've decided to come up with decent Familiar rules and several example Familiars.

Example Familiars

• Ghost Raven - ravens born of Shadowlands (level 1)
• Ruit - large ice-dwelling animal with a reputation for meanness (level 1)
• Sunspider - tiny spiders that spin sunlight into silk (level 2)
• Lesser Ghoul - vicious man-eating monsters from the South (level 3)
• Levinarch - small storm-touched spirits (level 3)
• Nimbus Serpent - feathered serpents (level 3)
• Bhella - wind-borne, winged abberations with a genius for langauges(level 3)
• Mind Dragon - crocodile-like creatures with a mental attack (level 4)
• Greater Ghoul - ancient and nearly immortal ancestors of Lesser Ghouls (level 5)
• Geistesser - an undead creature that feeds on souls to gain power (level 5)
• Gedog - small black-skinned rodents that can bring shadows to life (level 5)

Familiar Creation Rules

Familiars are creatures that have, by twist of fate or power of Essence, been bound to an Exalted. Sometimes these creatures bind themselves when they experience a dramatic encounter with their future master and at other times an Exalted will search out a creature he desires and either bind it to him by means of Charms or simply hope to provoke a more 'natural' bond. In any case the Familiar and its Exalted master become fast friends and the Familiar, at least, is loyal and true to its owner. They are not, however, slaves. If mistreated, a Familiar will at the very least depart the relationship and it may even turn against its master violently if provoked to a great enough degree.

All Familiars gain certain powers simply by virtue of being bound by Essence to their owner. These powers are in addition to whatever natural strengths and magical abilities the Familiar has on its own and apply to even a lowly Familiar 1 giant bug.

• Immortality - the Familiar will not die until its master does unless slain by magical means or completely destroyed. Lesser damage will simply put the Familiar out of action until it can revive itself. Like Thachary Binks from Hocus Pocus.
• Essence Pool - Familiars allow their master access to an additional 5 Personal motes.
• Sense-Sharing - As long as the Familiar with within its master's Essence in miles the two may opt to share one sense at a time for as long as they wish.
• Increased Intelligence - Familiars gain some of the qualities of their master, including smarts. Even insectoid or piscine Familiars become as intelligent as a chimpanzee or other primate when the bonding takes place. They can also understand their master well enough to follow simple orders.

• - The Familiar provides some useful service such as transportation, some minor magical ability, scouting or tracking. Wolves, giant rats, most normal snakes, birds of prey and generally any mundane animal no larger or more dangerous then a tiger is acceptable at this level. Magical Familiars generally are less physically dangerous but might be able to speak a human tongue or start fires with their saliva or some other minor power.
•• - Practically any mundane animal, even Tyrant Lizards, Strix and Siaka, are acceptable at this level. Familiars of this strength generally start to offer some use in combat, thus level 1 Familiars with increased combat abilities are appropriate.
••• - At this level a Familiar is on par with summoned First Circle Demons like the Blood Apes or elementals like Wood Spiders. They can be as intelligent as a dull-witted human adult. At this level of Familiar there is generally something unusual about the creature, it may be sorcerous or wyld-touched in nature or a God-Blood.
•••• - A Familiar this strong is very powerful and almost certainly bears magical blood or origin. Dragon-King Stalkers fall into this category as do legendary beings like basilisks, manticores and sphinxes. Creatures this powerful are often fully sentient and intelligent yet are still subservient to their master.
••••• - A weak Behemoth or potent God-Blooded animal is proper at this level. Familiars this strong are worthy companions in combat like He-Man's Battlecat. Cerberus or the Hydra are mythological examples of Familiar 5's. Creatures at this power level may be stronger then a starting character and will almost certainly grow with their master. Never should a Familiar 5 be useless, no matter how strong the character gets.

Comments

Soundes good to me. Brings it closer to to Alchemical Familliar back ground (have you read it BTW), The Imo only decent familliar back groundpublished. I missed the "Weak" behemoth thoing though, so I was a bit shocked -Azurelight

Seems the bottom of this page got lost. I put it back exactly as it was in rev 4, hope that's right. It looks like a really nice scale for familiars in a less crunch-happy way than people usually do. I shall consider using it.
-- Darloth

One question though - you say small gods or elementals at level 5... Yet elementals seem to fit into level 3, and you've provided a couple (neat low-power elementals, btw) as examples. Perhaps you meant powerful (or at least, moderately powerful) Elementals?
-- Darloth

Yeah, no idea how the bottom got lost but that's as it was last time I saw it. I made a small change to be more specific about mid-essence elementals and gods at Familiar 5. Glad you like the system, my overall goal was a simple, easy Familiar scale that works properly. I don't even bother with crunchy Artifact scales so why should I bother with crunchy Familiar systems? - Telgar