It's a long myth and fantasy tradition that wizards and witches have 'familiars', animal companions which assisted them in a number of ways. I was thinking about how this might be implemented in game terms, and concluded that summoning these companions would be taught by a guild, open to all priests, mages, sorcerers and coven of high enough level.
I'm certainly not talking about giving all casters a 'minion', but had a few ideas in how these critters might help out in non-tank ways.
Before I elaborate on my ideas, what does everyone think?
Idea for new open guild
Moderator: Moderators
Sounds cool
Hi i think that all sound cool! Famillar would be a great aid in a fight and very much with casters and chars that cant take a lot of dmg. In case the famillars would take part of the dmg
Really couldn't answer that, although I can see how that would work well with a druid theme.klarh wrote:This was part of my ideas(TM) for druids if I ever got any input to making guilds etc at least... Wasn't it also in Bela's druid ideas?
What I was thinking was that, instead of a battle-oriented 'minion', these things would instead have an increasing number of other abilities, an additional one being granted each time the player levels in the guild. In effect, when the player levels (only in the 'familiar' guild), the familiar does too. The abilities I was thinking of were sort of along the following lines...
Level 1: PC can access familiar's inventory, and use it as a small beast of burden. Like a small floating disc, which can be killed, but lasts until dismissed.
Level 2: Can be equipped with armour.
Level 3: Can cast a low-level healing spell, like Mend Flesh to a modest %. Will automatically cast if its master is below hp max, until its sp is depleted. And no, it won't have huge sp reserves.
Level 4: Caster can make use of familiar's sp if his / her own are depleted, making it a kind of 'mana battery'.
Level 5: Can cast 'arrow of something', will automatically target first hostile in the room. Again, it won't be to a high %.
Higher levels: general improvements in existing abilities.
To balance this, The familiar is physically weak, and must be protected at pretty much any cost - since it's death automatically stuns the caster severely, and brings on general stat reductions (similar to netherworld effects, but without df loss - this is a creature of the caster's own magic, not divine). The familiar may be summoned by sucessful casting of a spell, and dismissed at will. It occupies a party slot, but does not earn exp - it levels as explained above.
My concern is that this might be a little good for lowbies, but useless to highbies. Any thoughts on how to balance this?
Yes, with the exception of the abilities that go up with level in guild, this is EXACTLY how falconers was explained to me (except that it would not be a creature in a party slot, but act like a player who rides a mount. AKA it might take damage, but would essencialy be considered part of the player.)
Falcons would provide bonuses depending on the type of bird (not all are actually falcons) such as some would provide hunting bonues, some would give extra damage during combat (like a mount's attack), some would provide protection benifits, etc. For newbies this would be a minor pet that would help out, while highbies could go on quests to gain one of the (suggested 5) mythical "falcons" that would provide much greater bonuses to the player (example: Phoenix Nestling that provides healing spells and cast fire arrows).
If Bel continues with the line of thinking he was using at that point, the diffrent types of "falcons" would have skill trees where the player would "level" the bird up in specific ways so that diffrent birds would be specilized in diffrent things, and with higher levels in the guild would be able to keep more birds, which they could switch out when needed.
In other words, the familiar idea is such a good one, it is already being worked on... for rangers and as an open subguild.
Falcons would provide bonuses depending on the type of bird (not all are actually falcons) such as some would provide hunting bonues, some would give extra damage during combat (like a mount's attack), some would provide protection benifits, etc. For newbies this would be a minor pet that would help out, while highbies could go on quests to gain one of the (suggested 5) mythical "falcons" that would provide much greater bonuses to the player (example: Phoenix Nestling that provides healing spells and cast fire arrows).
If Bel continues with the line of thinking he was using at that point, the diffrent types of "falcons" would have skill trees where the player would "level" the bird up in specific ways so that diffrent birds would be specilized in diffrent things, and with higher levels in the guild would be able to keep more birds, which they could switch out when needed.
In other words, the familiar idea is such a good one, it is already being worked on... for rangers and as an open subguild.