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From: west@cs.reading.UUCP (Jeremy West @ Reading Unversity)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Familiars in FRP
Message-ID: <1000@cs.reading.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-May-85 18:30:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: cs.1000
Posted: Tue May 21 18:30:22 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 20:25:22 EDT
References: <5284@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: west@reading.UUCP (Jeremy West @ Reading Unversity)
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Reading Univ., UK.
Lines: 65
Xpath: reading cs gateway.cs


In article <5284@ucla-cs.ARPA> mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP writes:
>
>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?

        Throw out the spell as given and bring in more
interesting monsters (eg the Hell Cat (FF?) or is it the Shadow
Cat?) with powers similar to those of the imp etc.
Further, key the familiar to the MUs level, first level guys
get the feret (eyes and nose) or owl (eyes and ears) and a
chance to honourably "trade it in" for a better model at (say)
fifth level.

        The higher level guys can start researching their own
homonculii spells to build themselves a familiar with more
powers than your average imp(!) or of different alignment etc.

>.. having a familiar is a really spiffy thing for a magician.

        Absolutely, hence the major disadvantage (HP loss)!

>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.

        Hmmm, maybe. I prefer to let my MUs make pacts with the
supernatural world (ie summon a few off-plane beings) to get
the really big goodies. Of course, you could argue that
summoning a familiar does just that. But familiars don't argue
with you, or fight back...
        The bigger the risk, the higher the reward.

>(Question:
>is there such a thing as a magician of paladin-like motivations/powers?)

        Motivation: yes; powers: see the discussion currently
raging for the answer to that! But there's no reason why a LG
guy shouldn't make a pact with his god to have the use of a
servant (for the correct price, of course).

>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?

        Well, off the top of my head (a dangerous place to
start talking from)...
        Why not allow all suitable monsters (esp animals for
the lower levels and 'spirits' (dryads, pixies) for the medium
levels) to be familiars. The intelligent ones could be treated
as henchmen (cos they've been asked by the powers that be to
help you out for a while) and, properly played, will be an
advantage in their own right. Thus familiars from the Prime
Material might not provide the 'special' powers expected from
a Being of the Planes, but will be just as useful and probably
a darn sight more enthusiastic in their service.

        Perhaps Lee Gold's C&S in Japan has rules for all sorts of
Spirits, since the mythos/background there has spirits living
in/on/around EVERYTHING.

        -- Jerry West   ..ukc!reading!cs.reading!west