Familiar
Many mages have Familiars, spirits in material bodies that have bonded themselves to the individuals they find promising, polite, or merely amusing. Sometimes Familiars follow a "line" of mages, moving from mentor to student when the older mage is ready to retire. Sometimes they simply follow the mage home from an Umbral sojourn, and sometimes they are bound into service against their will. It all depends on the Familiar in question.
A Familiar can take nearly any shape, but most are no bigger than a large dog. Mages of all Fellowships keep and treasure Familiars, from the cats and ravens of the Old Faith to the white doves of the Messianic Voices.
Each Familiar is bonded to its mage by a Pact. The player should detail exactly what the Pact states - length of time it is in effect, what the Familiar is obligated to do for the mage (and vice versa) and what both are prohibited from doing. Some Familiars genuinely 1ike their mages, but some only want to be free and work to find loopholes in their contracts.
Familiars are thaumivores; that is, they feed on Quintessence. In general, a Familiar must consume a number of Quintessence points per week equal to its rating or it starts weakening and will eventually die. Some Familiars can draw power from other sources; gold, human flesh, goat's hair, or any number of other exotic and bizarre foodstuffs. Generally, a mage must provide for his Familiar (and this is usually part of the Pact).
A Familiar can be a lot of work, but they have their benefits. When creating a Familiar, a mage must spend points on these various boons. They include:
• Backlash Negation: Once per dot per story, the Familiar can negate one Backlash (particularly nasty Backlashes may count as two).
• Communication: For one dot, the Familiar can speak any language the mage knows. For two, it can communicate mentally with anyone in line of sight. (The mage and the Familiar can always communicate telepathically, no matter their distance.)
• Knowledge: For each dot spent, the Familiar has three dots in a Knowledge that the mage doesn't possess (Cosmology and Enigmas are common choices). This allows the Familiar to act as a mentor to the mage. Alternatively, the Familiar might simply have connections to very knowledgeable spirits; this allows the Familiar to answer one question per dot spent per story (especially tough or specialized questions may count as two, and the Storyteller can always rule that no spirit who knows the answer can be found).
• Protection: The Familiar can lend its mage aid in dire situations. For one dot, the Familiar can grant the mage an e x t r a die to soak, dodge, or cast any spell that would take him out of harm's way. For two dots, the Familiar grants the mage an extra action in combat, provided it is used for self-protection only (putting distance between the mage and an attacker, parrying and dodging, etc). For three dots, the Familiar can, once per story, transport the mage to safety provided that they are in physical contact and that the mage spends a point of Quintessence.
Familiars may have other powers and benefits as well, at the Storyteller's discretion. Some Familiars have magic of their own, and are even willing to use it on their mages' behalf.
● -- A minor and moderately useful Familiar.
●● -- A notable magical creature.
●●● -- An impressive and somewhat loyal companion.
●●●● -- A being who undoubtedly has its own reasons for associating with the mage.
●●●●● -- Who's really the Familiar, anyway?
