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From: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Familiars in FRP
Message-ID: <5284@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 8-May-85 22:12:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.5284
Posted: Wed May  8 22:12:31 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 12-May-85 01:25:19 EDT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 47

*** REPLACE THIS PALADIN WITH YOUR AVERAGE BEAR ***

Ever wonder why that evil baddie wizard has a familiar?  Aside from
the gross and noxous imps and quasits that can do real stuff for them;
I'm referring to the toads and ferrets.  What good are they?  Why do
magicians get familiars when they know the odds on getting one of the
interesting ones are so long?

In AD&D, having a familiar grants certain limited powers, chief among
them being the addition of some sensory inputs and some meta-hit-points.
Considering this also adds the vulnerability of the familiar, which might
GET RUBBED OUT, this is not really a great boon.

Proposal:  having a familiar is a really spiffy thing for a magician.
Not only is it the in thing this season, but the magicial derives some
relatively major benefits from the existence of the familiar.  The old
temporary level increase idea is sort of appealing, but in view of the
fact most magicians have a dearth of spells, this isn't all that wonderful.
I should think that the benefit to the magician for the existence of the
familiar must be something really earth-shaking, like being able to
memorize more spells of a level, or something really major like that.

What concept do people nowadays associate with the magician's familiar?
Mostly, associations with Nether powers, for advice, instruction, power,
and so forth.  So it seems rational that those magicians who go in for
metaphysical influences would have angelic/demonic familiars.  (Question:
is there such a thing as a magician of paladin-like motivations/powers?)

But for the magician, are all familiars divinely/diabolically inspired?
Are there "neutral" familiars?  (non-aligned, etc)  Is a familiar
necessarily a creature of divine origin, or can it be merely a convenient
kindred spirit?  And if so, what does the magician expect to gain?
Increased spells, spell-power, spell-like abilities that the familiar
performs, sources of arcane knowledge (who would know better how the
cosmos worked than a magical spirit?), or just a real good permanent
"Wizard Eye" spell and some hit points?

No referee I have ever gamed with (including me) has ever produced a
set of rules for familiars that I found satisfying.  I would appreciate
your comments, as I am at a loss to improve on the ideas of mana
batteries and cross-planar spies.
-fini-
-finissimo-
*the lack of opinions expressed is solely mine...*
Eric McColm
UCLA (oo'-kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless
...!{ucbvax,ihnp4,sdcrdcf,cepu,trwspp}!ucla-cs!mccolm