Familiars and Quality of Life

[Grenwyn]

Proposal: I think that familiars would see more use for RP if they could be dismissed and resummoned, like a paladin's mount.

One of the persistent problems with familiars is you can't take them outside, for fear that a passing bandit will casually murder them; this leaves them stuck in whatever town you tend to hang out in most, waiting to be pulled out of the stables if there are other people around. But when you have some RP downtime in the field, or while traveling, your poor familiar has to stay locked away.

Thoughts? Difficulties?

[Areia]

I didn't think we had familiars anymore? True familiars, that is. I was always under the impression that wizards' pets are just pets, nothing more. I'd love to see something like that happen, though.

[Grenwyn]

That is true, and I love the variety of familiars the pet system allows.

[Yemin]

I was never really fond of familiars myself. Unless there is goign to be a more intuitive way of handling them here I'd rather avoid the managing of them.

[Grenwyn]

What issues have you run into in the past, Yemin?

I'd like to see the familiar as a wizard-specific extension to pets. In its simplest form, a cantrip or 1st-level spell to dismiss or summon a familiar pet; perhaps also a bonding ritual, performed by an NPC, to limit the spell to a single pet at a time (for those who like to have a menagerie).

Code: Select all

Call Familiar
-------------
Divination (or None)
Range: Touch
Target: Defensive
Syntax: cast 'call familiar' <target>

This spell allows you to dismiss your familiar to a pocket
dimension, where it awaits your summons. If your familiar
is already in the pocket dimension, it instead summons
your familiar.

A familiar must be small (or smaller). This spell will not
function on larger or more powerful pets.

Familiars are not supposed to be used for storage, but it might be necessary to force them to drop items held when dismissing them to avoid that tendency.

[Yemin]

In table top, I find that they originally were just one more weakness other than the spell pouch that you kind of had to guard against. Their minor bonuses to a skill here or there werent' really attractive enough for me to want to deal with them. Plus It was unclear why a wizard was forced to have one there.

Here, I don't really like using pets myself because its like playing 2 characters at once, which I personally find taxing. Storage would infact be a perfect use for a familiar if you were going to get one. Spell pouches and components weigh more than their supposed to, as do wands, it would be a perfect way to address the issue if your familiar was your pocket dismissable inventory. As long as you don't have to carry them around for the convenience I'm all for it.