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Hey all,
So there was some discussion in a recent Witch thread about familiars and what they are lacking from some people's perspective.
One of the things that I think held the most weight was that Specific Familiars, while they may have powerful abilities, are not always appropriate for a character concept, or might not be powerful for certain builds/styles/etc.
And I thought some more options on the Specific Familiar front, and even just Familiars in general could not only allow people more options to get the most out of their familiars (something that actually works with your concept) but maybe also some rules about how GMs can let familiars participate/interact with the game without putting the rest of the players in "timeout" during those scenarios.
Anyways, I've been working on putting together a list of specific familiars that are not currently available that I think should be (Heck, the quasit literally mentions being used as a Familiar and didn't have a stat block for one!).
I put together a list of Familiars that I converted from the Bestiary in a similar capacity as the Faerie Dragon, Dweomercat Cub, and Imp.
For SoS, I modeled power off Faeria, for Damage I modeled off Dweomercat Cub's damage, and for buffs/utility and general Outsider based implementations, I went with Imp.
The following are my first list of Specific Familiars that are not currently in the game (at least to my knowledge). They are all tiny creatures, equal or below CL 2 (same power range as Faerie/Imp).
Goal - The goal was simple. Measure the abilities appropriately, try to incorporate enough of the original creature to make for a meaningful Familiar, and apply ability cost accordingly. There were a few occasions where I could have included "more" of the based Bestiary creature, but like the Imp/Faerie Dragon do not carry all of the original power/abilities of their Bestiary version, so is true for most of these (as should be expected).
TL;DR Here you go
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The next thing I am going to add to this are "Familiar Archetypes", since all of these require more abilities than a standard familiar master will have without additional feat investment.
Familiar Archetypes are effectively going to be packages of Familiar abilities that cost 2 ability points but grant an added benefit as a bonus (similar to specific familiars, but on a smaller scale). There will also be additional Familiar ability in an Archetype that can be taken as the Familiar gains more abilities (either by Witch class progression, Wizard Thesis, or Enhanced Familiar).
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- Air Wisp - 5
- Brownie - 6
- Cacodaemon - 8
- Cassisian - 8
- Clockwork Spy - 3
- Crawling Hand - 3
- Earth Wisp - 5
- Fire Wisp - 5
- Hellcrown - 6
- Quasit - 8
- Shadowdrake - 6
- Silvanshee - 8
- Sprite - 8
- Vexgit - 6
- Water Wisp - 5
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As always, this community is generally great with feedback, and that's why I posted it here first.
Happy Gaming and thanks if you took the time!
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They look fine, but the Brownie one I would reduce the range or change the frequency, specially because 1 action of the master of the familiar confusion is very powerful.
Hellcrown one is my favorite btw, love how you it incentivizes to combo with your familiar to activate it.
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They look fine, but the Brownie one I would reduce the range or change the frequency, specially because 1 action of the master of the familiar confusion is very powerful.
Hellcrown one is my favorite btw, love how you it incentivizes to combo with your familiar to activate it.
I was tempted to add incapacitation but it's not super far off from Faerie Dragon in terms of power, in fact I'd argue it's a bit weaker.
1 Round of confusion per hour seemed reasonable considering the following:
Each time you take damage from an attack or spell, you can attempt a DC 11 flat check to recover from your confusion and end the condition.
On frequency, I feel "once per day" is just too weak to justify six abilities (especially since Brownie only gets 3 default abilities), but I can see how once per hour might be too often.
I could reduce the range to 20 feet.
Another direction to take it would be to simply apply the Flatfooted condition on Success (as per the failure of the original Brownie) and then make the Critical Success Confused for 1d4 rounds with the chance to end as per normal.
I think it's close considering its Emotion, Enchantment, Mental (decent chunk of immunities against those), but I'd be willing to hear what of the above seems most suited.
Hellcrown one is my favorite btw, love how you it incentivizes to combo with your familiar to activate it.
I also loved the idea of just having a Hellcrown as a Familiar.
I'd say that one, Sprite, and Crawling Hand were my most favorite to do in terms of converting them.
I tried to leave about 90% of the original mechanics/flavor intact, and Hellcrown felt pretty easy to convert.
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Thanks for the feedback :)
EDIT:
I'm really leaning to this change to the Flatfooted condition on Success (as per the failure of the original Brownie) and then Critical Success Confused for 1d4 rounds with the chance to end the confusion condition at the end of each turn. I think that's as close to the original ability and being able to grant blanket Flatfooted is solid in its ownright. Curious if that sounds better to you.
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Maybe only flatfooted might be too little, so I think that could add that the target also can't use reactions while flatfooted by the ability?
And now looking at your Silvanshee, they have 4 granted and 3 unique (total 7 abilities) for 8 abilities cost, maybe add one or two granted abilities to break even (as the specific ones are stronger) or give a +1 for the package deal, maybe damage avoidance reflex as it is a cat.
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Maybe only flatfooted might be too little, so I think that could add that the target also can't use reactions while flatfooted by the ability?
That's not bad. I dig it.
And now looking at your Silvanshee, they have 4 granted and 3 unique (total 7 abilities) for 8 abilities cost, maybe add one or two granted abilities to break even (as the specific ones are stronger) or give a +1 for the package deal, maybe damage avoidance reflex as it is a cat.
I was worried about their special abilities kinda being too much then because they do get Gaseous Form x3 per day on self.
That said not only is Damage Avoidance (reflex) perfect thematically, it's also a slight diminishing return + combo with Gaseous Form, so I think I will do that.
That said I think Cat's Curiosity is definitely strong considering it opens up Feint, Disable Device, and even technically Treat Wounds, so my thought was it may be a bit too strong. I think I'll add a line "Your silvanshee cannot perform actions that normally require hands or tools unless your silvanshee also possesses the manual dexterity ability and are holding the tools needed to perform the action."
But then I could just tune down Cat's Curiosity a bit.
I am working on the first "Familiar Focus", which is basically Familiar Archetypes, so I'll post the change to Brownie and presumably Silvanshee with that update.
EDIT: Went ahead and posted the Focused Familiar and the first attempt at a "Familiar Focus" with the "Umbral Familiar"
I also posted the balance updates discussed above :)
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Updates
- Modified Crawling Hand to receive Manual Dexterity since it only receives skilled in Survival (one of the weaker options)
- Brownie was updated as mentioned before where the initial ability procs Flat-footed and no reactions on failure and then Confused 1d4 rounds on critical failure
- Silvanshee Cat's Curiosity touched up for clearer wording on skills that require appendages/tools and damage avoidance (Reflex) added as Granted Ability
New
Focused Familiars - The rules for these were added so that a Familiar can have a chosen focus. The base goal is that each "Focus" costs 2 abilities (so a base familiar can select them) that grants a slightly better "budget" than a normal ability, but you cannot swap Focus abilities and removing/changing a Familiar's Focus uses the dying rules ala Specific Familiars
In addition, Focused Familiars have abilities that can be selected at higher levels that cost either 1 or 2 abilities and provide much more specialization in that regard.
You cannot select more than one Focus until you have selected at least two more familiar abilities in addition to the familiar focus to select another focus (ala archetypes/dedications).
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Focused Familiars
Assistant Familiar - The abilities currently present are close, but I felt like a true "assistant" has trouble existing in the current space in terms of Skills. Medicine, Crafting, or Thievery with further abilities that help facilitate that role.
Umbral Familiar - These abilities revolve around your familiar's shadow properties and start with simple darkvision/dim light effects and then progress to more powerful darkness based abilities.
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I'm anxious to get feedback on the first two attempts at "Focused Familiars", but I'll continue to add a few more (Charming, Elemental, Haunting so far planned).
Open to suggestions on what Focuses I might be overlooking, but also on what "Hatchling/Cub/Baby" options for Specific Familiars might be of interest. I already have intentions to do a Phoenix Hatchling, but others are certainly welcome.
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I admit that at first I thought that the focused familiars were OP, then I got a shower and it dawned on me that is "specific familiars" but you can apply to any familiar.
The umbral one looks decent, the assistant one if it was not limited to medicine, crafting or thievery it would probably be broken (diplomacy with bon mots, free actions trips with titan wrestler against large creatures using second operator and so on). But because is limited to those 3 skills and medic archetype exists, I think that is fine with the skill feats that we have now for those skills.
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I admit that at first I thought that the focused familiars were OP, then I got a shower and it dawned on me that is "specific familiars" but you can apply to any familiar.
That was my thinking as well. Because Specific Familiars get "bonuses", all this really does is allow you to keep your Raven and make them an "Umbral Raven" or keep your Rat and make them an "Assistant Rat".
Basically letting you flavor your familiars a little more to your tastes without having to go with something on power alone (like an Imp or Faerie Dragon).
The umbral one looks decent, the assistant one if it was not limited to medicine, crafting or thievery it would probably be broken (diplomacy with bon mots, free actions trips with titan wrestler against large creatures using second operator and so on).But because is limited to those 3 skills and medic archetype exists, I think that is fine with the skill feats that we have now for those skills.
I was careful to apply the acquisitions for a Skill Feat, Assurance "light", and Secondary Operator with that in mind. It would be way off for other skill actions for sure.
That said, potentially a level 1 skill feat could be introduced that unbalances it for these. Battle Medicine, Pickpocket, and Quick Repair are all technically on the table already though, and I consider all 3 of those solid choices (it does cost 2 abilities to select that Familiar Ability but it's debatable I'm sure).
Had I gone for a more generic application to "Skills" instead of doing one that sort of took 3 manipulate/tools based skills, I would have had to approach it a lot differently and the "Skill Feat" option would have been a no go.
With that said, I think I'd be okay with trying other like-minded adjacent skills and doing abilities for those.
That was going to be my approach with the "Charming" Focus, although if Skill Feats come into play for that it will be specific ones and not a "blanket" choice. The only reason I avoided that for Assistant because it would have been a bit unwieldy to cover all three Skilled choices with specific corresponding skill feats(and medicine has a few that are reasonable options).
These were very rough, but glad to hear the power-level (even if initially perceived too much!) might have made it out okay. Definitely open to adjusting them.
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Once again thanks for your feedback Kyrone :). It is greatly appreciated.
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Hey there all!
The latest version of "Fabled Familiars"
Long story short I sort of fell in love with this project and got a lot of positive feedback from my circles on it. I've contacted an artist about potentially doing some art for this, and I think I'm just going to go ahead and build a full supplement for others to use in terms of not only making Familiars a little more interesting, but also offering additional rules and guidance on how GMs can add them to the game.
Updates
Specialty Familiars - Renamed from Focused Familiars
For obvious reasons, I renamed the mechanic entirely because "Focused" is too close to other mechanics in the game.
New Specialty Familiars
- Charming Familiar - Diplomacy/Deception Specialty
- Flame Familiar - Flame and smoke themed specialty
- Frost Familiar - Frost and ice themed specialty
- Menacing Familiar - Intimidate/Fear focused specialty
- Radiant Familiar - Light themed specialty (foil to Umbral)
- Scholarly Familiar - Knowledge/magic focused specialty
Familiar Relationships - New
I decided there could be a cool way to apply some unique mechanical changes to familiars based on their relationships with those they are bound to. These types of relationships are meant to be an overall "wash", at least a reasonably close to one. It is an optional rule, and basically involves the familiar gaining a bonus ability with conditions on when/how it can act. There is of course a "default" option simply called "companion" where your familiar offers a normal familiar relationship.
The relationships I have so far are:
- Caretaker
- Child
- Director
- Instructor
- Hireling
- Patron
- Ward
These relationships are meant to be fostered in and out of game, but the mechanical elements that involve commanding familiars adds what I hope to be a layer of depth to how people approach talking, representing, and acting with their familiars.
On the Horizon
I plan to add just a few more Specialty Familiars (Corrosive and Shocking are likely).
I plan to add Specialty Familiars or potentially even "Advanced Abilities" that are Class or Ancestry restricted that may require certain abilities and cost more points.
The plan is to do one for each Wizard School, Witch Patron, Leshy Familiar Druids, Alchemical Familiar Alchemists, Gnome Familiars, Kitsune Familiars, and of course the famous Sprite Corgi Familiars.
Part of me wants to go full-blown Specialty, but then I feel that makes it feel a little to "I must take this" than just going with an ability that requires qualification.
In addition, I'm going to add rules for how to handle familiars in exploration mode and during downtime. An optional ruleset where Animal Companions and Familiars are combined (all players gain Familiar Master and Beast Master as free archetypes) to effectively create a "Monster master" type game (Aka pokemon/digimon-ish vibes).
I am still feeling a few things out, but I hope to push to have another update in a bit.
Balance Changes
These are all noted in the back of the change sets and any future changes until the document is finalized will be logged there.
- Quasit frequency altered to once per hour on abyssal knowledge
- Does not breathe added to all Elementals (Air/Earth/Fire/Water Wisps)
- Speech (aklo) removed from Umbral Familiar and Shadow Blending and Greater Shadow Magic altered for additional Hide action benefits
- Heightened level requirement for Skilled Operator to 6 and removed the ability to select more than once
- Secondary Operator added clarifying language that familiars are still considered only trained for the purposes of what checks they are allowed to make
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If you took the time to read this, I appreciate your time. If you care to share your thoughts, I would love to hear them even if Familiars do not or would not normally interest you. The goal is to make them more appealing and engaging for players after all.
Balance is of course still in consideration in a few places and I am tweaking periodically as I go. If you have thoughts on things being too weak or too strong, particularly the newer stuff, I would love to know what you think there.
Happy gaming!
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The relationships session is some nice customization touch, basically gain a negative trait to gain a boon.
I do like the elemental familiars speciaties, the fire one being able to light stuff up is my favorite part, some abilities might be really up there in power but I guess not really problematic.
Balance wise, I think that Magic Item Adept is really problematic, it is basically an once per combat quickened spell (command the familiar with one action for them to gain 2 to use the item) if the familiar begins the combat holding the wand/scroll or every other turn if they are independent as well. At 6th lvl when you pick it, lvl 1 scrolls of like Fear/Grease per example are already pretty cheap.
The relationships session is some nice customization touch, basically gain a negative trait to gain a boon.
I do like the elemental familiars speciaties, the fire one being able to light stuff up is my favorite part, some abilities might be really up there in power but I guess not really problematic.
Balance wise, I think that Magic Item Adept is really problematic, it is basically an once per combat quickened spell (command the familiar with one action for them to gain 2 to use the item) if the familiar begins the combat holding the wand/scroll or every other turn if they are independent as well. At 6th lvl when you pick it, lvl 1 scrolls of like Fear/Grease per example are already pretty cheap.
My thought on the magic item adept was that because it is exclusive to Scrolls and Wands and the item must be of your level or lower that it wouldn't be as problematic.
I was trying to make that the "powerful" feature of the their list, as most of them are relatively narrative focused, and it is 6th level ability.
If we compare the ability to say "Familiar Focus" in terms of value, where you gain an on level ability, it produces an effect of similar power, but you might be right on the action economy.
It's not quite on the level of Quickened Casting since Quickened Casting can be used on 3 action spells, and the familiar cannot cast a 3-action spell since it doesn't possess the actions to do so.
Well, that and spells of course aren't finite like scrolls and wands.
That said it does operate nearly effectively as "Reduce the actions required to cast a spells from Scrolls and Wands by 1 if they take 2 actions or less to cast".
That said, I could add the stipulation that it requires you to spend 2 actions when you command the familiar, which would probably be a reasonable tweak.
I think limiting it to once per hour with a stipulation that you must spend the same number of actions commanding your familiar that it takes to cast the spell is where I might be leaning. Then at that point it only functions as effectively "Reach Spell" or slightly modified Spell Delivery.
Good points for sure.
On the elemental familiars, I am curious which ones you might find overtuned. I think they are definitely close when you compare them to power equivalence of other options in the Specific Familiars, but I could see one or two options being a bit too heavy. My main way to restrict them was to lock them behind needing other abilities (for instance require the immunities before selecting the offensive options).
I'd like to get the power level on those right before I do Corrosive and Shocking for sure.
Thanks again for the feedback :)
This is an expansion that familiars really need and also makes the witch a much stronger option. I will be very intrigued in how you handle the advanced abilities.
That's pretty much exactly what I was going for.
I think even with just what's in here so far this is a big help not only for the Witch but for anyone that wants to focus on Familiars if only for the fact that they have more options to flavor their character companion. The biggest issue for me on familiars isn't that the options are necessarily weak (I think Faerie Dragon, Dweomercat Cub, and Imp are really good) it's that those concepts shouldn't be mandatory to have a meaningful familiar (heck Dweomercat Cub is 4 abilities and is really cool and flavorful).
More than likely, most of the advanced abilities are going to be tied to the Focus abilities of the corresponding Class with maybe a few higher-level "general" type abilities.
I also want to write up some rules that help give GMs an idea of how much players should be able to do with their familiars in the narrative modes, more than likely tied slightly to how many abilities the familiar has (Feat investment or Class investment should correspond to narrative influence in my opinion).
Thanks for the kind words! I will update here of course when I do my next pass :)
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This is really well thought out and awesome. Hard to pick, but the Hellcrown is my favorite. I immediately want to roll up a witch with a hell down familiar that is her own grandmother. As I’d been fairly disappointed with the witch class so far, that is a pretty strong statement from me, so good job.
Some other missing familiars: Kami, Mirror.
I’ll have to take a deeper dive into this to see if I have any feedback, but my first glance is just “yes please.”
This is really well thought out and awesome. Hard to pick, but the Hellcrown is my favorite. I immediately want to roll up a witch with a hell down familiar that is her own grandmother. As I’d been fairly disappointed with the witch class so far, that is a pretty strong statement from me, so good job.
Mission Accomplished
<3
Some other missing familiars: Kami, Mirror.
I have no idea how I missed Shikigami, absolutely going to add it.
When you say Mirror, I can't seem to find that creature. Link would help very much :)
I’ll have to take a deeper dive into this to see if I have any feedback, but my first glance is just “yes please.”
Can't wait to hear your thoughts!
EDIT: Perhaps you meant Melixie? it's the only tiny creature that starts with M that I can find :(. Or maybe you just meant like a literal Mirror ala "mirror mirror on the wall", in which case, I could create some kind of "inanimate object" familiar to suit a few needs (the Hocus Pocus tome comes to mind as well).
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The "Specialty Familiars" is a stroke of genius. I absolutely love having a single familiar I start the game with that I carry through all of my adventures. I never use them for combat, and never want to have them change significantly or trade them out for the newest model. The standard familiar rules were okay at this, but encouraged switching out abilities each day to maximize their utility, while sacrificing the feeling of a consistent familiar. Specific Familiars always felt too focused on combat, and also felt like abandoning your old familiar.
Specialty Familiars gives me a way to "lock-in" my familiar that gives some mechanical benefit for doing so, and you can do it at level 1 (if I'm understanding correctly) and upgrade as you go in a thematically appropriate way (not randomly sprouting wings, for example). It has options for enhancing out-of-combat capabilities, which I find crucial.
It really feels like the system Familiars should have started with!
The relationship mechanic is also an incredibly useful tool for helping people roleplay what their familiar means to them. I find that new players don't really think too much about having a familiar, kind of just treating it like a packet of extra stuff with no personality. Having mechanical expressions of how they interact with the master and the world seems like it will be super handy to get them more in the headspace of "this is a creature tied to me in X manner, I should roleplay accordingly".
To be honest, the whole Specific Familiar section is a bit "take it or leave it" for me. Not excited about any of them except maybe Clockwork Spy and Quasit, but I'm probably not the target audience.
I'll have to take another pass later to check on balance, but overall my first impression is that it seems well paced.
The "Specialty Familiars" is a stroke of genius. I absolutely love having a single familiar I start the game with that I carry through all of my adventures. I never use them for combat, and never want to have them change significantly or trade them out for the newest model. The standard familiar rules were okay at this, but encouraged switching out abilities each day to maximize their utility, while sacrificing the feeling of a consistent familiar. Specific Familiars always felt too focused on combat, and also felt like abandoning your old familiar.
Specialty Familiars gives me a way to "lock-in" my familiar that gives some mechanical benefit for doing so, and you can do it at level 1 (if I'm understanding correctly) and upgrade as you go in a thematically appropriate way (not randomly sprouting wings, for example). It has options for enhancing out-of-combat capabilities, which I find crucial.
It really feels like the system Familiars should have started with!
These are exactly the reasons I ended up going with the system I did for Specialty Familiars.
I do like the ala carte portions of the system, but these feel like the "entree" you can pair those with if you will.
Really appreciate the kind words!
The relationship mechanic is also an incredibly useful tool for helping people roleplay what their familiar means to them. I find that new players don't really think too much about having a familiar, kind of just treating it like a packet of extra stuff with no personality. Having mechanical expressions of how they interact with the master and the world seems like it will be super handy to get them more in the headspace of "this is a creature tied to me in X manner, I should roleplay accordingly".
Absolutely. The idea behind it was less about providing more power to familiars, but more of a way to provide a stronger foundation for how players interact with their familiars and then having mechanics come into play once in a while that help foster that same "feeling".
If this is how these two sets of things are making you feel, that makes me feel like I hit the mark, and I couldn't be happier to hear that's the case.
To be honest, the whole Specific Familiar section is a bit "take it or leave it" for me. Not excited about any of them except maybe Clockwork Spy and Quasit, but I'm probably not the target audience.
Yeah, the goal with those was to merely widen the bucket for those that prefer Specific Familiars, especially since some of these are a bit too specific to work as Specialty Familiars, but definitely add a cool feel.
Like a Ranger with Crawling Hand, a Druid with a Brownie, or a Witch with a Hellcrown all have their own distinct "feel" just based on the pairing.
I'll have to take another pass later to check on balance, but overall my first impression is that it seems well paced.
Absolutely appreciate any feedback.
Thanks again :)
EDIT: Perhaps you meant Melixie? it's the only tiny creature that starts with M that I can find :(. Or maybe you just meant like a literal Mirror ala "mirror mirror on the wall", in which case, I could create some kind of "inanimate object" familiar to suit a few needs (the Hocus Pocus tome comes to mind as well).
Literal mirror. There was a mirror witch archetype from the Villain Codex that I immediately latched onto, as it narratively worked well with a certain campaign trait in Strange Aeons (can’t recall which off the top of my head).
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Literal mirror. There was a mirror witch archetype from the Villain Codex that I immediately latched onto, as it narratively worked well with a certain campaign trait in Strange Aeons (can’t recall which off the top of my head).
EDIT: Perhaps you meant Melixie? it's the only tiny creature that starts with M that I can find :(. Or maybe you just meant like a literal Mirror ala "mirror mirror on the wall", in which case, I could create some kind of "inanimate object" familiar to suit a few needs (the Hocus Pocus tome comes to mind as well).
I think I will probably approach that with an Animated Object specific familiar then.
I might have to come up with something pretty flexible to accomodate enough options to make it feel like you're actually using the object, but I don't want to go too far and step on Baba Yaga's toes (though those witches get it at level 1, so probably less of an issue).
Thanks :)
EDIT: Hmmm after looking at the archetype, this seems like it deserves to be a Class archetype for Witch, but I might try to reflect some of the concepts in it as Familiar Abilities for the Advanced Witch portions I mentioned prior. Food for thought.
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Holy Updates Batman!
Link is here or in the OP for the deeper dive on this stuff.
New Specific Familiars
Per a few requests I've had, there were two new Specific familiars:
[u]Animated Object[/u] - 4 cost to choose an object of L bulk as your familiar, grants benefits based on the skilled selection that applies to that object.
[u]Shikigami[/u] - not sure how I missed this one, but a 6 kami that protects an object you choose as its ward worth a certain value.
New Specialty Familiars
There were quite a few specialty familiars that I still wanted to have added, surprisingly, I did not do the ones for "Corrosive" and "Shocking". I am sure there might be a demand for those at some point, but there were other concepts I felt needed a chance to exist before those could come into play.
The new four specialties I have are for familiars that exude certain creature types that were currently unavailable: celestials, fiends, abberations, and undead. Each of these has an initial physical characteristic choice that determine starting familiar abilities as well as what abilities they can pick up later.
These may be my last 4 unless I feel froggy, but the only other 4 I would consider adding were Shocking, Corrosive, Construct, and maybe a nature one.
Here are the new four:
[u]Corrupted[/u] - A fiendish familiar that requires the master be evil and has various other of course relevant to fiends and fiendish alignments. Virtuous Familiars are the inverse and their powers are unique, but heavily correlated.
[u]Eldritch[/u] - An abberative style familiar that gains abilities that you would expect for an abberative type.
[u]Revenant[/u] - An undead style familiar that gains abilities that you would expect for an undead type.
[u]Virtuous[/u] - A celestial familiar that requires the master be good and has various other of course relevant to celestials. Corrupted Familiars are the inverse and their powers are unique, but heavily correlated.
Relationships
Advanced Relationships - New
Advanced relationships were what I decided had to happen for relationships to remain relatively balanced as your familiar acquires more abilities. If a character invest 3 feats (or 2 feats and a Class Feature) into something, losing the ability to use it can be a pretty harsh penalty when all you get back in a lot of the relationships is a single specific ability.
All Relationships thus got an Advanced Relationship, where if your familiar's total ability cost is at least 6, you gain a slightly easier time dealing with their action lock outs (for instance Director's DC for a Request drops from hard to standard and Caretaker allows them to act if you are only wounded 1).
On top of the mechanical change, though slight, I made sure the flavor text provides a little context as to the growth of the relationship, which in my personal opinion really makes it "pop" in terms of narrative flavor.
New Relationships
After talking with my circles the following additional relationships were added to the original group:
[u]Ancestor[/u] - Your familiar is your ancestor of some kind. Asks you a familiar history question every morning.
[u]Arbitrator[/u] - Your familiar is your conscience or guidance, requires you to have a deity or anathema of some kind.
[u]Child[/u] - Your familiar is considered your child.
[u]Idol[/u] - Your familiar is your idol or muse and it inspires you.
[u]Rival[/u] - Your familiar and yourself compete against each other.
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Balance Updates to Previous Work
- Restricted Magic Item Adept to once per hour and added the stipulation that you must spend the same number of actions to command your familiar as it requires to cast the given spell
- Reduced the lockout duration for Radiant Flier extended trails to one hour and changed the duration you create extended trails to 1 minute
- Reworked Obscure Recollection to work more like Accompanist instead of Partner in Crime, as sometimes Recall Knowledge checks are unprompted
- Abyssal Knowledge for Quasit reworked entirely to not have a frequency but comes with the caveat of going to the Abyss if you fail a Recall Knowledge check and die in the same hour
- Renamed "Patron" to "Sponsor" so there is no overlap with the term Patron
- Renamed Instructor to "Teacher". Altered to grant skilled as well, but requiring that the check be the same as the initial skilled selection
- Removed skilled (Survival) from Crawling Hand as it is not needed for Mark Quarry and thematically doesn't fit outside tracking individuals as well as needing a slight reduction in ability count as an undead 3 cost specific familiar
- Buffed the Bully reaction to include a +2 circumstance bonus to the check since Independent would actually be a stronger ability choice than Bully given the restrictions of the trigger
- Nerfed Critical Failure on Frightful Presence to Frightened 3 but added fleeing
Class Familiar Abilities
This has been started, but I do not have enough of the work in a "concrete" place to make it part of the actual document.
Here is a teaser one though:
Foliage Forging
Ability Cost 1
Required Level 2nd
Prerequisites Leshy Familiar or Wortwitch
Your familiar gains the ability to generate large amounts of foliage. When your familiar uses Plant Form it generates foliage that conceals all creatures inside the square. This concealment is dispursed if any fire damage is done to your familiar or a creature occupying the square. You may still use this concealment to Hide, but a GM might determine that it would be detrimental to going unnoticed or unobserved (such as seeing a bush in a desert or on the top of a castle). You must have plant form to select this.
Exploration Rules
Still working on these as well, but this is more or less going to be broken down into a few categories based on engagement agreed upon between players and GMs.
The main thing so far is allowing your familiar to basically "play" in terms of overall Player agency.
AKA if you do not have Detect Magic, but your familiar does you can use the Exploration Activity to Detect Magic as your activity, but using your familiar's rolls.
And while that may seem "obvious" to some, I think explicitly pointing out when a few of these open up narratively to others, creates a lot of incentive to pick some of these abilities or to take advantage of them in ways narratively that can add to the storytelling possible with familiars. Others might find the above too strong, as Familiars technically cannot participate in Exploration Mode/Downtime Mode most of the time at all (exceptions being Accompanist and a few others), but hey that's why these would of course be "optional" rules.
The main ones that will get this treatment though are going to be the movement abilities, skilled, speech, and sense-related ones. And to me, that's for good reason, because all of those things really only have value in the narrative space and thus deserve to have some kind of factor into the player's activities when occupying that space.
If we consider how much Familiar Abilities cost (they cost Class Feats after all), we can start to parse out why things like darkvision, scent, climber, burrower, amphibious, and skilled (Craft) deserve to have some kind of affect outside of combat to compete against the likes of Vallet, Lab Assistant, Manual Dexterity, Familiar Focus, Extra Reagents, and Cantrip Connection, which arguably already all do those things and have in combat benefits.
This will be the same approach in Downtime mode as well.
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To all those following this and those that have given feedback so far, I greatly appreciate you.
Once again, always looking for feedback. At this point, I've put out a lot of content (22 pages and at least a few to go, might end up 30 or 35 pages in total before art) and I really want to hone some of the concepts both for balance and narrative. Some of the ideas mentioned above and in my other circles have really helped expand a lot of these ideas to some really cool places. I am looking for "harsher" and more "critical" feedback as well, so don't be shy if you don't like something. I will of course give my original "thought/intent" on why something landed where it did, but I certainly don't think of everything as a solo person (most abilities I measured against something else, but like Kyrone pointed out with Wands/Scrolls on Scholarly, tightening is expected).
I will post next time there is an update of substance (hopefully with the highly requested Class Familiar Abilities, as they are next on the chopping block).
Til next time, Happy Gaming!
1. I think there should be a more unified design structure to the specialty familiars. The level access to abilities is a bit all over the place where certain familiars top out at level 12 while others at level 8.
The structure right now is slightly disjointed in terms of level but also in terms of how many abilities each Specialty gets.
The goal was to have 5 each, but I ran into this issue I was having where certain Specialty options offer a "choice" of sorts (several do this) with an exclusivity option for the respective choice (for Charming familiars Deception vs Diplomacy yields Doppleganger vs Charm Kin).
I think the normalized level should indeed be lower than 12, Umbral was just my first Specialty familiar and I think it came out a little higher level because I was using Shadowdancer for a lot of inspiration, and some of their abilities do not come online til pretty late in level (though they are much stronger).
Another issue was straight-up page space (Dear Paizo, how do you deal with this problem....)
I will do a pass for this to try to normalize things a bit. As a general rule the structure would hopefully be something akin to the following:
1 - 2nd
2 - 4th
1/2 - 6th (depending on 'split' choices)
1/2 - 8th (depending on 'split' choices)
I will say if I normalize the structure, that more than likely means some Specialties are going to have abilities cut entirely (Frost and Flaming both have 6 for instance, so they're likely to see a cut).
2. I feel the nerf to magic item adept is too much and making it cost the same amount of actions for you to cast makes it a "well what's the point" feat. Maybe make it the capstone feat and more like the spellcasting ability where they can only use low level wands and scrolls.
I think you're right. I'll probably reduce it back to the 1 action but limit it to spells of 3 levels lower than you can cast. Will probably still leave the once per hour restriction so it can be kept to "once per combat".
Might bump it to 8th and drop Timely Advice to 6th, as the latter is not as problematic IMO.
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Thank you! The criticism/negatives are at least as important as the good stuff.
I appreciate it a lot and you have really good points here :)
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EDIT: Well it wasn't as bad outta wack as originally thought, there were 4 candidates that were pretty off the mark in terms of level assignments so here are the changes that are likely to go out in the next update:
- Umbral Familiar: reduced shadow evade from 4th to 2nd, shadow stride from 6th to 4th, shadow magic from 8th to 6th, and greater shadow magic from 12th to 8th to be more consistent with other specialty familiars
- Scholarly Familiar: reduced Studied Tongue to 4th level, reduced Timely Advice to 6th level, raised Magic Item Adept to 8th level and rewrote to provide better action economy and limited to spells of 3 levels lower than half your level
- Radiant Familiar: reduced Radiant Flight to 2nd, reduced Light Magic to 4th, reduced greater glow to 6th, and greater light magic to 8th
- Menacing Familiar: reduced Imposing to level 2, reduced bully to level 6, and reduced frightful presence to level 8
- Charming Familiar: reduced Masterful Form to level 2
I did not see a reason to cut any abilities on Frost/Flaming (Virtuous and Corrupted also have 6) so for now they live with six.
Moving forward if I had any more, the goal will always be to have 1 at 2nd and at least 1/2 at 4th, 6th, and 8th.
BUT, this looks a lot cleaner already :) Greatly appreciated.
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It seems like we need permission to view the document now.
It seems like we need permission to view the document now.
I am actually in the process of potentially negotiating a formal release of some kind with a 3PP and I was essentially given the advice "don't give out your work for free", so I made the document private.
That said, I am still looking for playtesters/feedback, so if you PM me I can give you rights to view/use the rules or send you a private copy of the PDF (I actually have added a bunch more to this since its last update, so if people want the "latest" I can get them that too!)
I may just self-publish these rules for free anyways, but while things were in limbo, I decided to make it private.
Apologies for any inconvenience I may have caused!
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I definitely think it deserves a formal publication. It's in a good niche too, focusing on Familiars which are mechanically relatively minor and better able to soak any potential rough points of balance.
I definitely think it deserves a formal publication. It's in a good niche too, focusing on Familiars which are mechanically relatively minor and better able to soak any potential rough points of balance.
The funny part is the more I work on it, the more I fall in love with new ideas.
I am currently working on Autonomy Rules, which are basically types of checks that involve "Complex commands" outside of combat based on chosen familiar abilities :). It and the exploration and downtime rules are IMO vital for some groups so they can have clear markers/ideas of when a familiar can do that "Lassie moment" without letting it stifle play or making characters without familiars feel like they are being left out in the cold.
I juggling a lot at once right now, but anyone here is welcome to message me for a copy at any iteration :) Thanks for being awesome
Oh man thats amazing news! i will be waiting to see this released. Do you have a release schedule or is it too early days yet?
I have nothing at this point, no guarantee it'll even get picked up by another party, just in talking stages.
But the plan for self publish was first to get the art completed by about October/November and then offer a free copy without art and a pay what you want copy for the art filled one on drive thru rpg.
I may just keep going that route. I don't really care if I make money, I just want to do it to do it and if I can break even great.
I'm going to get it in players hands somehow, and if that's with a 3PP then thats just gravy.
Hey all,
Updates
Exploration Rules
Exploration rules are fully done (at least I'm good with them), but they basically boil down to similar status as if a character were performing a task and requiring an equal amount of effort from the player in commanding the familiar to perform the task. Almost all of these require at least one familiar ability (usually of the skilled type) and several require manual dexterity.
Downtime rules are also included in the Exploration section and follow a similar paradigm.
Your familiar is only treated as trained for the purposes of checks it can complete and what proficiency it has, it uses its modifiers/abilities when determining the results of the check, etc.
Autonomous Exploration
I created a new action called "Complex Command" which essentially works as a longer version of a command that allows your familiar to perform an exploration activity or series of actions. This takes at least 1 minute or longer as determined by the GM but never takes more time than the actual activity would take to perform. Your familiar rolls an "Autonomy Check" against an Autonomy DC as determined by your GM (typically a standard DC of your level but can be adjusted as per normal for DCs). Your familiar's autonomy check modifier is determined by its selected familiar abilities and whether those abilities would be helpful in performing a given action (GM determination), its total familiar ability cost, and your level.
Once you give a complex command, the next complex command in the same day is increased by 5 (unless your familiar critically succeeds the autonomy check). On a failure, your familiar refuses the complex command, and on a critical failure, your familiar refuses all commands until your next daily preparations.
Now, the system I used was built with the intent that GMs can help decide when to let familiar's have "Lassie" moments, but also so that Familiars with exceptional amounts of investment into them can maybe do this more often but within reason. Essentially you have a reasonable chance at accomplishing a Complex Command if your familiar picked the right familiar abilities, but little to no chance without them and it scales with your level.
The complex command of course still requires your familiar to succeed at all of the tasks it is asked to do (subject to the same rules in the prior Exploration section), this only enables your familiar to act without your constant commands or within your line of sight under explicit circumstances that I think make sense.
There is no way you can reasonably remove the GM from this type of interaction without telling people how to play the game, but I feel these rules give GMs the right tools to manage those "can my familiar do X?" questions that have become really common at my tables.
Class Abilities
I have 3 for you right now.
Bomb Voyage - 4th level requires Bomber alchemist, fly speed and lab assistant. It's a 1 cost ability that allows the familiar to move up to its fly speed and drop a bomb directly down on to a square. No attack roll, only does splash damage as if you had thrown the bomb at the square and missed.
Foliage Forger - same as mentioned before.
Produce Sustenance - level 6, 1 cost, druid/wortwitch, requires familiar remain in plant form for 2 hours to produce the effects of 1st-level goodberry for a number of fruits up to your spellcasting modifier. I mostly just fell in love with this idea, but I don't think it's too unbalanced.
Changes/Nerfs/Buffs
- Umbral Familiar: reduced shadow evade from 4th to 2nd, shadow stride from 6th to 4th, shadow magic from 8th to 6th, and greater shadow magic from 12th to 8th to be more consistent with other specialty familiars
- Scholarly Familiar: reduced Studied Tongue to 4th level, reduced Timely Advice to 6th level, raised Magic Item Adept to 8th level and rewrote to provide better action economy and limited to spells of 3 levels lower than half your level
- Radiant Familiar: reduced Radiant Flight to 2nd, reduced Light Magic to 4th, reduced greater glow to 6th, and greater light lagic to 8th
- Menacing Familiar: reduced Imposing to level 2, reduced bully to level 6, and reduced frightful presence to level 8
- Charming Familiar: reduced Masterful Form to level 2
- Altered Doppleganger for Charming Familiars to one form change per day
- Assistant Familiar Helping Hands reduced from constant to once per hour and Assured added benefit for reducing the lockout period to 10 minutes.
Document now private - Requesting Access
If you PM me, I will grant you access to the document and highly encourage all current playtesters (or future playtesters) to do so.
And don't hesitate to give me your thoughts, I promise I will take everything you say to heart and listen intently to how these affect your games. I have already had some fantastic actual playtest feedback so far that resulted in what I think are some really positive changes.
Special thanks to Pyrurge for their recent playtest feedback as well!
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I am not able to PM you for whatever reason - can't find it on your profile. Would you be able to PM me? Got a Witch who's been interested in trying stuff out.
I am not able to PM you for whatever reason - can't find it on your profile. Would you be able to PM me? Got a Witch who's been interested in trying stuff out.
Bizarre! It will not let me send you a PM either!
That does put a damper on how I planned to handle this....
If you have reddit you can try me on there, username is xXTheFacelessMan or you can simply request access to the document with a Google Account and I will email you there to confirm its you :)
Sorry for the trouble everyone
EDIT: You might check your account settings, there is a check mark that allows people to PM you. If you feel uncomfortable leaving it on permanently, feel free to turn it off once you've got access :)
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Hello All!
It's been a few weeks since I've pushed an update and I've picked up a few more playtesters (thank you!).
Here is a quick breakdown of what's new this time:
New Specific Familiars
I have two new Specific Familiars as they were requested and I learned about the Pathfinder Infinite program (which would allow me to use IP monsters, such as the Cassisian, Hellcrown, Silvanshee). This gave me enough incentive to add two more Specific Familiars since they were IP related:
- Voidworm (8 cost)
- Lyrakien (8 cost)
Table of Contents, Spell Linkage, and Special thanks section added
These are just things I think the document needed.
As far as I can tell, scribe doesn't allow inner page linking, but rest assured as a person that works with ADA Compliance regularly (and simply for ease of use) I do plan to eventually hyperlink the Table of Contents to the appropriate sections on the PDF. I have not at this juncture, but hopefully the page number helps for using the Page jump options.
Class Familiar Abilities
There are a few new Class Familiar Abilities.
These are not in order, because I still have a long way to go adding options to this section and I'm not married to any names yet. More than likely, considering how fast this section is growing, I will seperate these out by Class (the reason I hesitated was due to Druid/Wortwitch overlap and not wanting to list twice).
Anyways here's the new batch:
- Hex Substitute - Witch only level 2 required
- Cursed Knowledge - Curse Patron Witch only
- Fate's Hand - Fate Patron Witch only
- Fear Fighter - Fervor Patron Witch Only
- Runic Impression - Rune Witch only
- Rune Swap - Rune Witch only level 6 required
- Wild Adaptation - Wild Witch only
- Call of the Wild - Familiar's Language required (4th level Class Feat)
- Creature of the Night - Night Patron Witch only
- Icy Veins - Winter Patron Witch only
- School Adept - Wizard only
On the Horizon
More Class Familiar abilities. The plan right now is to sort of have a new Witch/Wizard option at 1/6/12/18(?) to mirror their "extra" they get from their native Class. Basically giving them an option only they can take at each of those levels.
All patrons have their level 1 done (simmering on some), but only one has their level 6. I may or may not take it all the way to 18, but I do plan to do a 12.
Decided to separate out a section for Ancestry-specific Class abilities. These will come after Class Familiar Abilities are finished.
I still need to tackle free archetype optional rules sections, but I figure these are probably the lowest priority due to them requiring a GM to want to a game alternative to the standard.
Til next time, Happy Gaming.
ive been away for awhile and this all looks really cool. Ive asked for access.
Welcome back!
I am in my last round of rules publishing right now, so nothing since my last update. I am trying to make this my last last update before I start partitioning portions of the document for Art and then sending to an editor for proofing before I publish with Pathfinder Infinite!
I have all the Witch Class Familiar Abilities done, most of the Wizard and Druid, so about all that's left is the Alchemist. In a year, I might do an "update" with Thaumaturge stuff since they managed to get some pretty high level Familiar feats baked right in (no idea what I'll do with them yet, but I'll stew it over).
After the next update, I'll probably poll everyone who's been playtesting this for final reviews/feedback and then give them time to pull the document for personal use before I take it down entirely and move to Pathfinder Infinite (I think the plan is still free rules only version, paid art version).
Please, if you have been provided any feedback or help, reach out to me privately and let me know under what name you would like to be credited in the section at the beginning of the book :)
But the good news is because of Pathfinder Infinite, Hellcrown, Caesisian, etc. all get to stay statted up!
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I'm currently at the hospital with my newborn :) and she's the greatest Tiny creature I've ever created so she's going to take all my focus for a bit. That said, hoping to knock majority of the rules out during my sleepless spells over the next few weeks.
To all of you, I would just like to say, much love and Happy Gaming.
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Hello all,
It's been a long journey writing this monster, and I have finally put a lid on the content.
That's right! Nothing more to write (at least until the Thaumaturge forces my hand in a year).
Updates
Specific Familiars
Due to the inclusions from Grand Bazaar, I have cut all the Wisps as they are duplicates with the ones I wrote (albeit slightly different from my implementation, but close enough that the themes were spoken for).
That said, I added 3 more Specific Familiars to fill things out a bit more:
House Drake
Arbiter
Scalliwing
Unique Familiars
I added a section on Unique Familiars, which are basically just Specific Familiars that replace certain abilities that the GM can present in an adventure as an option for players or players might petition GMs for if something in the Specific selection is close but not quite on the money.
I have two examples of Unique Familiars, a Unique Sprite named Scarlet Avery and a unique Shadow Drake named Shadow of Artemis.
New Specialty Familiars
I have added Corrosive and Shocking as options to the list, they work similarly to the Flaming/Frost counterparts but are adjusted to mirror each other and be slightly different.
Ancestry Familiar Abilities
Azarketi, Gnolls, Gnomes, Kitsune, and Sprites oh my!.
Each ancestry that gains an animal companion got their own touch with a two abilities a piece and then 2 general abiltiies available to all ancestry gained familiars.
Class Specific Familiar Abilities
Alchemists, Druid (Wortwitch), Sorcerer, Witch, and Wizard all got their own sets of familiar abilities.
Witch easily got the most with 3 per patron (1st, 6th, 12th) and a couple general options, Wizard got second most with a few generals and a 6th level ability for each school of magic. Alchemist got a few generals and one for each research field (thankfully bringing back some of that utility that was lost with recent rules clarifications), and Sorcerer and Druid each got a handful a piece.
New Sections - Masters of the Familiar and Evolved Familiars
For those looking to run Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Hunter, or Dragon Quest style adventures, I have these two sections for you. They are meant to help drive those styles of gameplay and offer a new way to play with pets. With all the rules in this book, it basically hashes out having the Beastmaster Archetype and Familiar Master Archetypes as Free archetypes and rules for handling encounters and running adventures with Animal Companions that gain familiar (and Specialty Familiar) abilities as you level.
There are three different game modes for these, Side-by-Side, To Each Their Own, and I Choose You! which divide up game mode responsibility accordingly.
Polish
Lot of polish added. Page numbers, titles, accurate table of contents, links to spells, etc. The goal is to be as readable and usable as possible.
Before it gets published, I will also be doing a pass for Accessibility so the document can be easily consumed by everyone.
On the Horizon
I can't say too much since things are too early, but I am very excited to potentially be working with a prominent editor who will likely help take this supplement to the absolute next level. I am hopeful that is the case, but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself.
The artist and I have some cool ideas about how to present things (she's thinking maybe an "snapshot adventurer's guide steve irwin-esqe approach to the art, which would be really cool I think). That will likely come after the PI launch, but we will see.
But because of those two parties, this will likely be my last update of the free document here.
To all of you
I have already placed one individual (as well as my wife and child) in the Special thanks section for playtesting/rules feedback. I highly recommend anyone that's been using these rules to hit me up with your thoughts on what it was like to use them and if you'd like a name to be thanked under.
Once I get this on to Pathfinder Infinite, I will update here with a link to it.
Happy Gaming!
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Looking forward to getting this! Likely going to be my first Pathfinder Infinite purchase!
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Good luck with publication! Sorry I haven't given much playtest feedback, we've managed to do next to zero encounters that involve anything other than scouting...
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I like this even more now! An excellent addition to the game.
Good luck with publication! Sorry I haven't given much playtest feedback, we've managed to do next to zero encounters that involve anything other than scouting...
Don't sweat that at all :) I'm glad they seemed good enough to use.
I like this even more now! An excellent addition to the game.
:) hopefully the final result works for your group even better!
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Sorry it took so long to get back with the feedback but here is my points even if its too late!
No worries, nothing is ever too late until things hit print.
1. Electrical Burst for arbiters seems a little mean to lose your familiar for the rest of the day. Just make it a once a day power.
Electrical Burst is actually one of the stronger damaging abilities, as it gains d6 as the die instead of the typical d4 I give damaging abilities. Arbiter also only costs 7 and has effectively 8 abilities total with the immunities and such. The actual monster Arbiter becomes Stunned for 24 hours after they use electrical burst, so this follows the main monster pretty closely. In essence, I've sort of allowed the Arbiter to still be used in non-combat scenarios based on GM discretion. Unlikely to change.
2. I think Helpful item would be a more interesting ability if it gave an item bonus when using the item for a specific task or increase the item bonus if it already has one. This will differentiate it from all the aid abilities and the thought of a rogue with an intelligent set of lockpicks that helps him with unlocking doors just sounds so fun.
While I can understand that, Item bonuses already stack with the circumstance bonus and theoretically you could still use the item in most circumstances you would be able to use an Invested item.
For instance, if you chose a cauldron as your animated object and choose the Crafting activity, then you would still benefit from Crafter's Eye piece. Remember, it's with a specific exploration activity, which is a bit different.
3. Cassisian Lore is far too vague an ability. does it gain a Lore skill that its skilled in? It could be really strong or really weak dependant on the GM.
That is how the default ability works, so this was mostly just passing along the same ability. As far as it being vague, I could clean up the language, but it's more of a ribbon considering it has one of the strongest impactful abilities (wearing the cassissian is quite good).
4. Record Audio for the clockwork spy is neat but 1gp is pretty expensive at low levels and i think craft should also be used to remove the crystal. Maybe have a 1sp variant for a 1 minute recording.
Considering its a 3 cost Familiar the only level 1 character with access to this are Witch/Wizard and even they would likely be able to afford the 1 GP due to not needing armor. Also, another situation where the monster this is based on was directly converted over.
The 1 SP for 1 minute is an interesting proposal, but probably one I would feel comfortable letting GMs decide at their own tables instead of changing how the original ability worked. I'll think on it.
5. House Drake has the shadow drake bio.
Good catch. I'll get this updated. I remember already writing this but there was an update I lost some work I did so that's probably what happened here. Thanks!
6. Abyssal Knowledge for the quasit feels like a far weaker ability than the Imp Infernal temptation. It should be very similar but with knowledge rolls gaining fortune but maybe limit it to twice a day.
I've changed this ability like 3 times, and the most recent change was due to the introduction of Second Opinion in Grand Bazaar.
That said, Quasit has 1 more ability than Imp and it can use Second Opinion once per hour instead of the imp's once per day ability.
And as far as Familiar's that can grant others Aid for actions, that doesn't really exist so I was pretty hesitant to go much further than where it is currently.
Now I might be open to giving them Abyssal Healing as well, but I probably won't touch Abyssal Knowledge because it's already in unprecedented territory.
7. I think the Shinigami should be able to communicate with their master if the master has the ward in its hand and maybe its because i just watched Shaman King but i want it to have a "assist on an attack roll with a weapon that its ward. Im picturing a Magus with his familiar in his sword.
The latter is probably not something I'll do to the default Shikigami. Unique Familiars are probably a good place to scratch that itch as I think it could be reasonable at a higher cost than the 6.
That said, I'll consider Touch Telepathy while merged with the Ward. I think that fits pretty well and considering you lose Speech while merged, is probably a fair trade and allows a lot of the themes of the shikigami to come through.
Ill continue on with Specialty familiars next.
Sounds good!
Have you tested any of the rules or are these just your initial thoughts?
Thanks again for the feedback!
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Part 2 Specialty Familiars
1. Just as a whole, a lot of the initial abilities for several of the specialties are treading on the toes of abilities such as ambassador, Partner in crime, Second Opinion and Snoop.
More than likely that's due to the fact that I wrote all those before Grand Bazaar was even released. I will do my best to address your points, because I did do a pass on these after the fact, but perhaps they could be refined.
2. Helping hands is ok for medicine and crafting but thievery is already covered by partner in crime and it doesnt have a 1 hour timer. I would remove the 1 hour timer and maybe remove Thievery and have it as its own roguish specialty?
You make a fair point. This was actually nerfed after playtest feedback because Helping Hands with Medicine in particular can be quite good.
I'm not sure if a Roguish specialty is in the cards, but it's not completely out of the realm of reason. I'll have to think what would combine best with Thievery, more than like Stealth or Acrobatics, but both of those don't have a great amount of overlap with the former.
This may be a case of just cutting Thievery and letting Medicine/Crafting stand on their own (which is reasonable considering Charming only has two skills as well).
3. Endearing again is another one that steps on another abilities toes. That being ambassador and snoop. My players much preferred taking two separate but more powerful abilities than this one. Maybe make it a passive visual status bonus so it can work in tandem with the other 2 abilities.
I'm not sure I understand what your player means. Endearing works with both Gather Information AND Make an Impression and it does not require you to command your familiar to do so.
In fact, it's not clear how Snoop works at all given that Gather Information is an Exploration activity and it requires you to command your familiar to gain the benefits of the Aid reaction.
Now I think any GM worth their salt would absolutely allow Aid in Exploration mode under the circumstances, but it certainly precludes you from using them at the same time or in tandem (they can't spend 2 reactions).
And it is a passive status as it applies when you perform the action, not the familiar. The familiar only has to be in your square and visible.
Consideration for upping the bonus from +1 to +2 once the master reaches Master in the appropriate skill (mirroring the Critical Successes of each of those abilities) might make sense but I see this as an option for a person to avoid having to buy Ambassador and Snoop separately by adding a visual restriction and due to permanent selection status of Specialty Familiars. Remember it also gives the ability for the familiar to lie, make an impression, and snoop in scenarios where they don't speak the language of the person but you do.
The only issue I can see with the above is that if there were a future ability that required Ambassador/Snoop that Endearing should allow you to qualify as well, but as of now no such abilities exist.
4. Masterful Form is a little too good as it gives you two really nice abilities and a circumstantial social benefit. Maybe make it so it can only take your form and thus social attitudes to you good or bad.
It costs 2 abilities to select and only gives the manual dexterity while you are in masterful form (and thus not in your normal familiar form). Adding into that the selection being permanent (a regular familiar can reselect Manual Dexterity and Masters Form every day, familiars that select this cannot) I think it's fine where it is.
5. Assured works for the Assistant familiar with crafting and medicine because it has set DCs that it can work with such as crafting items or making battle medicine checks but diplomacy and deception are usually going to be level appropriate so i dont how useful this would be unless you send them out to talk to peasants.
The idea was indeed that you would use this on peasants in cities, its meant to allow Familiars to operate reliably without their masters. In addition, once you get Secondary Operator, 12 + your level is effectively being Trained with Assurance as a familiar.
Whether or not people want to select this is up to them, but for a single cost ability, I find that pretty good.
6. Smooth things over seems ok at first glance but again familiar skills really taper off at higher levels when your expected to at least be expert or master to realistically make level appropriate checks. Maybe make it a once a day reroll for the master?
I'm torn here.
While I can see what you mean, this is a matter of ceilings and floors in terms of power.
Now on the floor side, a non-CHA based character who has a familiar (Witches/Wizard) it's actually almost exactly the same for the person to just use the familiar (plus spellcasting ability score is actually quite good if you're bad at CHA). A Wizard/Witch could realistically achieve Master with maybe (hard maybe) +2 CHA at level 7.
That puts the reroll for them at +8, which means their familiar is basically a reroll at -4 (not that bad honestly).
And that's with the Wizard/Witch spending 2 of their 3 skill increases (and their first master increase) on the skill as well as 2 ability boosts on CHA.
If we assume a trained Wizard/Witch with 10 CHA, it's actually better for the Familiar to be the one that rerolls (assuming 18 INT) at +2 better.
In the case of a Sorcerer, a flat reroll for the Sorcerer is exceptionally good, honestly way too good for a 1 cost ability.
If I made it a Caster reroll, it would almost certainly have to be elevated from a 1 cost to a 2 cost.
I'm leaning towards no change, because I think it puts the power on the familiar and not the master and a 1 cost ability that offers a reroll after a failure is going to be pretty good when the familiar is invested.
7. All the elemental familiars are solid and have cool combat potential.
Glad to hear these hit the mark. They were just nerfed a tad (immunity got bumped to 2 cost) but I like the flavor that came through. Thanks!
8. Imposing should in my opinion just be ambassador but for intimidate.
Reasonable suggestion, but that would mean it would be changed to Demoralize only and no longer allow working with Coerce or other Intimidate actions.
From a combat perspective, that also requires you to command your familiar, taking the turn cost of your Demoralize to 2 actions (one to use it and one to command your familiar to aid).
That's more or less why I think it didn't appear as such in Grand Bazaar and instead they made "Threat Display".
It could probably use some tuning. I'll have to think.
9. I love Jump Scare. But some of the fluff at the end is pointless as the familiar has to be hidden or unobserved to use the ability anyway. I would also make it a -2 penalty to will as it takes some set up and it feels right that it has the same penalty as being caught flatfooted.
I agree. I might have to drop the Step but a -2 seems fitting considering the setup as you mention.
10. I also love Bully. But i would make the range 10-15 feet instead of adjacent. Familiars do not want to be in melee even with tough.
That is meant to be part of the opportunity cost of the ability, as a +2 circumstance bonus free demoralize on a reaction from a familiar is really good for a 1 cost ability.
Honestly, it's borderline too good now.
So if I add the range, it will likely go from a +2 to a +1. That said, that's probably more fitting and less abbrassive to GMs who would feel bad punishing the tactic by clobbering a familiar.
11. Frightful Presence is a bit too big an area. 30 feet seems more reasonable
Fair assessment. 30 feet makes sense to me.
12. Does Glowing counteract darkness effects?
It has the Light trait, so that's covered. I could explicitly state it, but it would be redundant I think.
13. Radiant flight has some confusing wording about extending its duration.
I'll do a pass for language here. I agree.
14. I feel the Radiant familiar should have a reaction to counteract darkness and shadow effects and spells as a once a day power.
Here I probably won't do that because Darkness and darkness traited spells typically take a long time to cast (3 actions for Darkness). A single reaction to counteract would probably be too much.
Since they get Light Magic and Greater Light Magic, they do have this ability, just not quite that expedient.
It's not out of the question though. I'll have to think about it.
15. From the Grave in my mind should work the same as jump scare but instead its a grapple ability that lasts until the start of the master's next turn unless they escape.
Probably won't go with a Grapple, best I can offer is flat-footed (at least close) but if I go flat-footed it will likely be only to your attacks, where as Frightened allows everyone to benefit from your attack.
Mirroring Jump Scare language makes a lot of sense. I'll do that for sure.
16. Inhabit object is kinda lame in comparison to "from the grave". I would allow it to possess the item and actually move while inside it like a true poltergeist!
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
On one hand, they gain Flier and the inhabit object ability, so it's not nothing in terms of a 2 cost.
On the other hand, that's a cool AF idea.
I think I'm constrained on budgeting cost. I'd have to think of how to make the budget work.
17. Second Opinion makes Well read less desirable and Obscure Recollection somewhat redundant.
Maybe well read can assist with rolls when doing the Research Subsystem or if the gm doesnt use it a +1 item bonus to recall knowledge checks when in a library as it finds the perfect book for the subject?
Obscure recollection could be the Second opinion for all Lore checks the Master has?
On Well Read, it grants the ability to Decipher Writing on languages you speak and your familiar will only speak 1 language so at minimum double the number of standard languages it could do this with.
That said a better approach might be to just grant Second Opinion and add the ribbon "It can use Decipher writing with any languages you speak".
That is 3 abilities though, which is more than any other initial specialty grants (typically you get 2.5). Because speech is one of the abilities, it might be reasonable though.
More than likely I'll go that route.
18. Im so glad you took my advice about magic item adept as this is such a nice ability
I think it was a good compromise between yours and Kyrones takes on the ability.
19. Repelling field should only effect creatures who have metal objects on them or are made of metal. The status penalty should be for creatures made of metal in my view
Originally I had written it that way, but it does mean that in a lot of scenarios that ability won't function, and as a 2 cost ability, that's a pretty harsh penalty.
Thus I changed it to the circumstance penalty. I'll consider reverting it to its original form. Perhaps I can add a ribbon to moving unattended metal objects of light/negligible bulk to the edge of the radius as well.
20. Umbral Familiar should have a counteract light effect or magic as a reaction similar to Radiant.
This is covered by the Darkness trait.
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Thanks for the deep dive you and your player did. Some pretty solid feedback here even if I don't whole-handidly agree in a few places.
I've sent you a PM :)
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Alright, some quick updates:
- Helping Hands lost Theivery as an option.
- Endearing got the bump to +2 at master.
- Jump Scare removed unnecessary text and got the -2 circumstance penalty to the save
- Bully dropped to +1 but gained 15 feet range to person struck
- Frightful presence dropped to 30 feet
- Radiant Flight language cleaned up
- modified From the Grave to Flat-footed and Reflex save instead. Couldn't mirror Jump Scare due to it gaining a movement ability as part, but mirrored as close as possible
- gave half fly speed while Inhabit Object is happening because it's cool and I like it.
- Altered well-read to be Second Opinion and read any language you speak with Decipher Writing. Also allows you to use Second Opinion with non-skilled selections when in a place with written materials (aka a library).
- Obscure Recollection now allows Second Opinion with any Lore skill in which you are trained
Also added two new people to the credits area :)
Happy Gaming!
Ok im back again for Part 3 Ancestral Familiars
1. Kin connections' wording could be cleaned up abit and made more precise. it took me a couple of reads to figure out all the things it actually does. This may be me being a dumdum.
This is written to mirror the Skill Feat connections. It might need some clean up though, but I was luckily able to get that prominent editor a part of the project after all! So I will see if she has thoughts on how to word this one.
2. i feel some of the options for the Heritage feats need to be more inline with each other power wise. Mistbreath Azarketi compared to Inured is a standout.
I'm not sure I agree. Resistance typically gives you two resistances when you select the ability. To me getting skilled in a Lore is about equal to "half an ability", so thus poison resistance is also by definition half (and it's a specific resistance).
All of these are swappable unlike Specialty familiars, so theoretically you would only pick the Azarketi options when you either know you're going to encounter poison or you know you're going to encounter Azarketi, and in both cases you also want Gills.
That said, I did realize that Poison shouldn' tbe capitalized!
3. Heckle is nice but as i mentioned before familiars really dont want to be in melee so maybe increase the range? Also i see no reason why it has to be flatfooted to only melee attacks. Give spell attacks some love.
It would be a significant buff to grant both.
That said, if we compare this to Feint, which is much weaker, it looks pretty good.
The argument to buff it is one that it's limited to once per hour and feint is not, and theoretically high investment in Deception can outpace Will Saves.
If both get added, it's more than likely going to get knocked to once per day, but I'll see how that feels.
4. Spy tunnel is alot of fun and i love it.
My wife actually came up with the idea for this one, but when she said it I was like "okay that's happening".
1. Bomb Voyage should just use the alchemists attack modifier. All the other familiar abilities use a spellcasters full dc and i dont see a once a day bomb outside of MAP being too ridiculous.
Fair enough, consistency sake.
2. Foliage Forger needs a spell check.
Not sure if you're seeing the most recent version, disbursed was misspelled prior, but there are no spelling errors in the current document I don't think.
4. Does Bloodline magic allow you to choose a bloodline spell at will or is it chosen at the start of the day? i also noticed similar wording in patron magic and familiar school magic.
These are all worded the same as the Spellcasting familiar ability, but effectively grant higher-level versions in specific spells. For consistency sake, I'm going to leave them worded the same.
5. Patron Magic is ok but i feel it would be better if it got access to spells granted from lessons also.
Well... a patron granted spell is always level 1.
I can't for instance in good conscious give out Baleful Polymorph to a familiar under any circumstances.
I'm not sure how I'd change this to include lessons, I'd have to explicitly state the spell needs to be 4 levels lower, which could work but is a lot more language for little gain in this case.
6. The Witch abilities are very strong which is understandable as it is the supposed draw of the class.
Yep that was the intent.
Witch also gets the highest level option for Class-specific abilities, as they get a 6 and a 12 (Wizard gets a single 12 and it's also quite good).
The level 6s are on par with other level 6s, but since Witches get level 12 selection options, those are going to look strong considering what they need to bring to the table at that point in the game.
They might need tuning, but that was the thinking behind the level 12 options.
7. I think rune swap should be permanent. This gives at a niche little money and time saver ability.
I probably won't make it a money saver and force the witch to provide materials equal to the cost to transfer to make the swap permanent, but that's a nice little time-saver ribbon that might be worth the budget.
It's pushing its power budget as is IMO, as being able to do a midday swap on your Fighter can be exceptionally good.
8. Wild adaptation should last the entire day.
Unfortunately, Mutable Familiar Feat has kinda set the precedent that it's not in the power budget to do that.
It might be tweakable, but a level 1 ability that effectively plays as "you get one of 6 abilities" that lasts all day is too good. I might be able to swing 2 selections in the allotted time. I'll see what the editor thinks.
9. Moon guard seems niche enough that you don't need the 1 hour timer. i would make it always on or just make it an activatable ability while in the moonlight.
Would be way too strong in open field campaigns at night IMO. +1 status bonus to AC is insanely good, and realistically, a person is only going to select this ability when they are outside at night
The budget for these abilities is not going to be the same as Specialty/Specific familiars because they can be swapped every day.
The truth is that Night Witches will only be picking Moonguard when they are out at night, and a 1 hour +1 status bonus to AC is flirting with too good as it is.
10. Rising Icicles should have a bigger radius or make it a multiple times a day ability.
I'm not sure I agree. The rules for uneven ground are honestly crazy hard to deal with as is. The burst radius was my way to justify the power behind the ability.
Like if that ability were a spell, it would realistically be an insane spell (single action 10 foot square of difficult terrain that you have to roll acrobatics or fall prone and take damage is BIG yikes).
So respectfully, even for a level 12, it's power budget is pushing the boundary as is.
11. Could Beguiling attendant be pushed to a 10-15 feet range?
I'll add the linguistic and audible traits and boost it to 15. Should be a fair compromise.
12. Circumventing attendant has a lot of unneeded writing at the end. it should just finish at the "takes no damage from your evocation spells" part.
Well maybe its not clear, but along with taking no damage from your evocation spells, it also effectively gains Damage Avoidance to all Evocation spells (not just yours).
That's what the latter language indicates.
13. I would be nice and say second hand attendant lets you keep the MAP of the first shot.
It's effectively instantaneous version of the Focus Point familiar ability.
BUT, it's with a specific spell and must be against the exact same target.
It's a consideration since we're talking a level 6 ability. Food for thought.
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Thanks again David for going through these. Some good catches :)