Szilard/Familiars

familiars

Testing this out as a new plug-in to replace the published familiar system...

Start with a Base Familiar and add Qualities according to your background rating.

Base Familiar:

Attributes: Str 1/ Dex 1/ Sta 1/ Per 2/ Int 1/ Wits 3

• (+4 attribute points, Int costs double)

Athletics 2 / Awareness 2 / Brawl 2 / Dodge 2 / Presence 1 / Stealth 2 / Survival 2

• (+2 ability points)

Virtues: Conviction 1 / Compassion 1(+3) / Temperance 1 / Valor 1

• Compassion is +3 with respect to the Exalt (treat as a Virtue specialty)
• (+2 virtue points)

Willpower: 3

Attacks have 3 points to distribute between accuracy and damage (or 5 points if the attack is Bashing rather than Lethal)
Soak at 1/2 Stamina L and Stamina B
Longevity
Normal mortal health levels
Extra Incapacitated Health levels equal to Exalt's Essence + Exalt's Compassion
Heals as an Exalt

Familiar Background Rating

• - A Familiar with two Familiar Qualities
•• - A Familiar with four Familiar Qualities
••• - A Familiar with seven Familiar Qualities
•••• - A Familiar with nine Familiar Qualities
••••• - A Familiar with twelve Familiar Qualities

Familiar Qualities:

• Increased Attributes: +3 Attribute points, may be taken (Familiar Rating x 2) times
• Talented: +5 Ability points (The first dot in an ability costs double. One ability point may buy two specialties.) May be taken multiple times.
• Strong-Willed: +2 Willpower, may be taken up to three times
• Increased Virtues: +3 virtue points to distribute, may be taken multiple times
• Tough hide: +2L/+3B soak, may be taken multiple times
• Increased Fortitude (prereq: Sta 3): As per Solar Ox Body. May be taken a number of times equal to Familiar's Stamina.
• Flight:
• Ridable (prereq: Str 3/ Sta 3):
• Capable of Speech (prereq: Int 2, Familiar rating 2):
• Increased Essence (prereq: Familiar rating 3): +1 Essence, may be taken twice, may not exceed Exalt's Essence
• Empathic Link (prereq: Int 2, Familiar rating 2): Improved communication, shared awareness of danger
• Sensory Link (prereq: Empathic Link, Per 3, Awareness 3): Exalt can share one of the Familiars senses
• Essence Battery (prereq: Empathic Link, Essence 2): Familiar can loan Exalt Essence when touching
• Reincarnated Familiar (prereq: Essence Battery): Gains the Savant background at one dot, and has memories of the Exalt's former incarnation.
• Esence User (prereq: Essence Battery, Increased Virtues, Familiar Rating 4): Gains Essence pool as a God-Blood.
• Charm (prereq: Esence User): Gains one spirit charm (may be taken multiple times)

Familiar Qualities may also be purchased by the Exalt with experience. These cost a number of xp equal to the number of Familiar Qualities currently possessed. (Note: should probably require buying points of the Familiar Background?)

comments

I can't believe you haven't got any comments on this! It's great! I'm using it. Thank you! - Morpheus

Actually, I'm thinking of tweaking a few things, Health Levels, number of qualities, some of the qualities, and I think only Sidereals should get spirits. So, would you mind if I reposted this on my page with props to Szilard to mess around with? - Morpheus

Knock yourself out. I'm still thinking of tweaking a few things myself, so feel free to toss ideas out here, too. I don't particularly see why only Sidereals should get spirits as Familiars. They are certainly the most likely to do so... and have Charms that allow them to essentially raise their Familiars to god-hood. For others, I see it being rare... and even rarer for those spirit-familiars to gain an actual place in the Celestial Bureaucracy. -szilard

I agree with Morpheus here -- I think Sidereals get those Charms because you can't do it without Charms. I also don't see why an already-sentient being would be drawn to an Exalt as a Familiar; after all, you can't take a human as a Familiar, can you? I don't see spirits taking that kind of subordinate role to the Exalt, either, unless they were already in it and they were Charmed into a spirit afterwards. Familiars always struck me as being kind of just ... beasts who were drawn and overpowered by the Exalt's amazing Essence, and I just don't see a spirit being affected that way -- they're too old, powerful, used to Essence, and again, sentient. And they have domains, which servicing an Exalt in that way would kind of interfere with -- and a spirit, as far as I know, will never (or rarely) do anything that would interfere with / take it away from its domain.
Just a couple things -- firstly, when you say Familiars get a base of "normal mortal" health levels, is that extra HLs, or heroic mortal HLs (that is, 3 or 7)?
Secondly, I think a God-Blood option would be good -- taking a god-blooded Familiar makes sense to me, particularly because there's already canonical backup for it (CasteBook: Eclipse).
~ Shataina
PS: I should note that Morpheus is totally right, this is a really good idea and a great base system. So, mad props. :)

Thanks. I'm fine with the god-blood thing. I was thinking that the spirit-familiars wouldn't have started out as spirits, but be elevated to that level by their bond to the Exalt (and their domain would be that Exalt). I changed it to a generic 'Essence-User' quality, so that the Players and Storytellers can define it to their liking. As far as HLs go, I was thinking Heroic Mortal HLs - but I have been feeling wishy-washy on how many HLs they ought to get (and there probably ought to be qualities for increasing them). - szilard

Huh. Now that's interesting; a spirit whose domain was the Exalt ... hmm. Personally, I would prefer that a Charm would be required for a Familiar to be elevated to that level, but I guess there's no canonical evidence saying it can't happen on the strength of a level 5 bond.
As to the health levels thing, I would grant a familiar a base number of health levels based on what animal it was rather than anything else -- but I like the idea that the Exalt's power can grant them more, maybe to a max of what you mentioned earlier, Essence + Compassion?
~ Shataina

Well, the Essence+Compassion thing is for Incapacitated HLs. The idea is that Familiars, even relatively powerful ones, are usually going to be pretty fragile compared to Exalts... so give them a pile of extra HLs that will keep them alive, but not functional. As for basing the number of HLs on the animal... well... that sort of goes against the basic philosophy behind this subsystem - the animal you pick should have no automatic bonuses connected with it and there ought not to be an optimal animal choice. Someone can have a really effective rabbit Familiar under this system if they want one. On the other hand, I would like to see more variability. Maybe make the default animal size "small" and have size increases be qualities (with size minimums for enhanced fortitude and high strength)? I'd probably up the qualities/familiar rating a bit if I did that. What do you think? -szilard

What about this? Base HLs=(-0x1,-2x1,-4x1) (with extra Incap levels as above). Base size of a Familiar is dog sized or smaller. The Size Increase Quality is added which gives an extra HL at each category, along with an increase in size. One size increase would give you a Familiar the size of a large dog to great cat, two would give you something roughly horse or grizzly sized, three would give you something rhino to small mammoth sized, four would give you a mammoth or tyrant lizard sized thing. A Familiar would need a minimum Stamina equal to twice its size increase, and size increase cannot exceed Familiar Rating. -szilard

I was actually going to suggest something along those lines. :) It might help for there to be a smaller size option, though ... which would come with fewer health levels, but would still be worth the same as the base size level because smaller familiars are more useful (a mouse / nightingale / spider can get places that a dog can't, but I'd give them only 2 HLs overall).
~ Shataina

Why does Familiar at 4 only give +2 qualities? It costs more than the 3rd dot, and yet is less effective. Perhaps it should go 7, 10, 13?
-- Darloth

My reasoning, I think, was that Familiar 4 allows your Familiar to have the Essence User quality, which makes is potentially much more effective than the third dot... That said, I do need to revisit and revise this stuff. Any other suggestions? -szilard

Why not make Essence User require two qualities, so if someone didn't take it, they aren't handicapped by that bump? -cordelia

I just realized I never had any samples of familiars made with this system up here. I tossed up some very straightforward ones atSzilard/FamiliarSamples -szilard