Familiar Ritual and Feats

[+|3eowulf+]

To my much displeasure I found the familiars gone from 4th edition so i swiftly browsed the forum in search of an house rule to implement them.
Unfortunately all I found wasn't really satisfying so i took some time to write down my own take on the familiar.

The concept is based on summoning a familiar through a ritual using your own magical power. Then, you give your familiar (and yourself) abilities by the means of feats. This way you don't imbalance the game granting permanent abilities with a ritual, and have a modular approach to adapt and balance more easily the whole thing.

Summon Familiar
You give substance to your magic powers, shaping into existence
a magical being with the semblance of a common, small animal.
Level: 1
Category: Creation
Time: 1 hour
Duration: Permanent
Component Cost: 20 gp
Market Price: 100 gp
Key Skill: Arcana (no check)
You give up the use of one of your At-Will powers with the
arcane or divine keywords to conjure a Tiny animal of your
choice that becomes your familiar.
If you posses no At-Will powers with the arcane or divine
keywords the ritual fails, but no components are expended.
You can perform again the ritual with slight alterations to dismiss
the familiar and regain the At-Will power whose use you gave up.
The familiar is an extension of yourself, cannot leave your square
and does not act in any way.
Anyone making an Arcana check with DC 15 recognises the familiar
for what it really is.

Heroic Tier Feats
Familiar Awarness (Familiar)
Benefit: You grant a limited awarness to your familiar.
You and your familiar also become mentally linked so that
you can partly experience your familiar’s emotion.
You gain low-light vision.
You gain a +1 bonus to Perception checks.
Special: You must have summoned a familiar to gain this feat's bonuses.

Familiar Link (Familiar)
Prerequisite: Familiar Awarness
Benefit: You strenghten yout mental bond with your familiar.
You and your familiar can communicate telepatically.
The Perception bonus granted by Familiar Awarness
increases to +3.
You also gain a +1 bonus to your Reflex defense.
Special: You must have summoned a familiar to gain this feat's bonuses.

Paragon Tier Feats
Familiar Awakening (Familiar)
Prerequisite: Familiar Awarness, Familiar Link
Benefit: You grant a greater awarness to your familiar.
He gains mental ability scores equal to 10 + your modifier
in that ability.
He becomes trained in skills you are trained and can make
skill checks.
He can speak your languages.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

How about the wizard loses all cantrips, and replaces them with a sentient creature that CAN do cantrip-like tasks?
Then you can still take the feats you provided as well

 

[+|3eowulf+]

I thought about it and then discarded the option since it would restrict the familiar to the wizard. Obviously the problem does not arise if you want just wizards to have familiars.

Also, when I chose to replace the At-Will power I still toyed with the chance of the familiar casting said power on command (maybe as an encounter power, standard action), but that would have been conceptually hard if the power was a melee one.

Still I feel there's a lot of improvement to be made, and that's the reason why I posted here, other than just sharing my idea with whoever likes it

 

[Zephyrus]

The Familiar Ritual should 'Do' Something for the character other than indicate that "I've got a familiar". granting perception check bonuses is one thing, perhaps simple allowing the user to roll perception checks twice and take the better of the two.

Additionally you could allow the familiar to move up to X/squares away and allow the user to make a single perception check (maybe at a penalty since the senses are that of the familiar). Bonus abilities I don't think should be feats but rather simple be 'add-on' abilities you impart upon the familiar via the ritual.

I'd suggest maybe using the Phantom Steed Ritual as a reference except that maybe have it so that any damage that the the familiar take instead is transfered to the master. Then make it so that you can Summon/Dismiss the familiar like it was a At-Will Conjuration Power (the familiar appearing within 5 squares).

Have it set so that the familiar has a 'basic' set of abilities determined by the skill check (perhaps this determines the range the familiar can move from master and provides the number of abilities the familiar can have from a list of abilities such as with a check of 9 or less it grants 0 special abilities and a max range of say 1 (5ft). a check of 10-19 1 ability and 6 (30ft) squares, 20-29 = 2 abilities and 20 (100ft) squares, 30-39 = 4 abilities and 50 (250ft) squares, 40 or higher 6 abilities and a range of 200 squares (1000ft).

..... the more I think about this the more I am thinking of trying to write something up.... I'll see about writing up something and posting it here for review. (I wonder if WotC plans to do a Familiar of their own eventually in one of the power books).

 

[+|3eowulf+]

Familiar Awakening now has also Familiar Link as a prerequisite and has become a paragon feat (granting two skill checks on many skill seems a bit too powerful).

@ Zephyrus:
I wouldn't allow a 1st level permanent ritual to grant any substancial bonus to a pc (while I'll probably make a higher level ritual that allows the summoning of a "combat/support" familiar or animal companion).

Having the ritual grant an at-will power to summon/dismiss the familiar looks like a great idea!

The moving-away-thing as arisen also in my playgroup, but it arises some problem about familiar movement, survivability and abilities. Also, under the current house rule, the master can't communicate with the familiar until he gets the Familiar Link feat.

Probably the familiar abilities thing can be resolved with the skill check during the ritual casting, so that the result of the check determines what familiar you can chose from a list (ie: 14= tiny non-flying animal, 15-24= tiny flying animal, 25-35= tiny magical beast).
Unfortunately the Monster Manual seems to be lacking about useable familiars.

 

[Khaalis]

How much do you actually want the familiar to do? How much of a liability do you want them to be? I am personally considering using familiars as an Implement, since classically speaking a familiar aids a practitioner of the art in the ease of using their magic (which is what an implement does). I think its much cleaner and more simple as well. JMHO.

PS: I am also thinking of then adding feats that allow you to tap into other benefits from the Familiar similar to a wizard's Implement Mastery, such as a heroic feat that grants you a Perception bonus from your familiar. A paragon feat that lets you link in some way for scrying, etc.

 

[+|3eowulf+]

Well, I'd just like the familiar to be a companion and an helping hand to the wizard (or any other spellcasting class)... something like the owl in disney's movie about king Arthur

But as I already stated, granting the familiar by the means of a ritual, I don't want it to come with many features*, while instead I'm willing to have a talent chain that rewards the master and improves the familiar. Pretty much the same idea as yours, if you look at the first (and surely not the only) talents posted.

*Still it will be nice to have rituals that empower the familiar, but they should be of higher level and strictly have a limited duration.

 

[Zephyrus]

Okay, i've done some work and would like to propose the following (see attachment).

I made it a level 2 Ritual but if its considered too powerful it could be raised to level 3 (their are not many level 3 rituals at present anyways). I tried to add in a lot of flexibility's and potential flavor for players who would like to have a familiar even apparently exotic appearing one.

I am envisioning these familiars being more a being of energy than of actual biology. Its a step away from what familiars were like before but I think this potentially fits the new 'feel' of 4e better and will function better in the system.

The only thing I think I really missed is defining actions for the familiar. Most will only be able to move. But are they able to move once a round or twice using a standard action as an extra move?. If the familiar can manipulate objects does it gain a standard and minor action to handle objects? I might be over thinking this but I am trying to not be sloppy in its design.

I figure that the abilities this version of the ritual grants are on par with the abilities of the level of the character. Only higher level characters will be able to hit the the highest check DC's to get the most familiar traits and the traits are typically things to help give the familiar character, personality and flavor (movement modes, special senses or a minor skill bonus to master).

Its able to communicate but in a very limited manner so as to hopefully not be abused. its not intended to function as one of the scrying based rituals. I think I did a fair job. I look forward to hearing your oppinions.