Fammiliars

[druke]

will there be any kind of famliliar support or animal companion type support?

if anyone has any ideas on how this would work please post a message

[hook]

there was some talk about it on the tree-castle (in the roleplaying subforum) thread. we thought it might be great if you could get an animal/creature to follow and help you, but you\'d have to prove yourself worthy to that same animal and the relationship would base more on trust and friendship then on power over the animal/creature
so, if you\'d misbehave towards the creature, it could leave or even attack (and kill if it\'s powerful enough) you
...the pure familiars idea is a bit cliche, so i\'d go for that one (trust-based) :]

[Isgrimnur]

That would open up a whole new range of possibilities. Cant afford to hire npc guards then buy some guard dogs (or similar creatures). You could even have pets!!

[dorbian]

right and next you can have a cat ( there goes the enkidukai race ) as a pet.

but the familiars is a good idea but if they come i want a snake ( i like snakes specially when they are poisenous )

[Fanomatic2000]

Heh, yes, instead of fighting yourself you could let creatures fight for you.
If you have choosen to become an innocent healer-type character you will get problems defending yourself, so you could either get an animal companion who follows you, or you could summon creatures who under a short time fights under your command (or individually) against foes (like the Aeons from ffX).
These would protect you, and in return you give them your love, friendship and care.
The summoned creatures doesn\'t have their own will since they are created by you, and can as well be unsummoned by you.

I like the idea about creatures who shares a bond with you. The closer they are to you the less is the chance they flee when hurted. The creature could have a meter that shows how strong the bond between you and your companion is.
A full bond means they protects you with their life.

There should be some things that strengthens your bond, like if you heal your companion a lot, gives it food, protects it when it\'s defenceless, plays with it a lot etc.

The creature could also be able gain levels so it becomes stronger and gets special abilities, like if your companion is a bird-like creature it could be so strong it can lift you and give you a ride.

Permanent death of creatures could bring some drama into the game

[druke]

well i wasn\'t meaning this as combat related, a familliar is a creature of pure magic, it strengthens it masters mind and helps his magical abilites. (ie:faster mp restore or faster spells, or some such)

animal companions are purely animals that have been befriened by a person, it follows by it own will.
(limited advancement)

domestcated, this would be like guard dogs etc. they wold be weaker than other types of \"pets\"
(no advancement)

[shangralah]

Sounds a little too much like pokemon to me      

[druke]

hmm.. i see a faint connection.. but that would be with anything that invloved any kind of animal/creature

[Xalthar]

It sounds to me like a very good idea druke.. That is also how  companions function in other mmorpgs, and having those are fun, and quite powerful.. (if there is a functional AI system, that is)

I would personally love to see familiars implemented, for such  are a very nice thing to have for wizards.. especially if going solo, since they could both heal the caster and take some of the damage away from him, when he is up against a powerful adversary..

[Waylander]

I like the companion idea more, id like too have a giant tiger that I could ride on.  Make all the other creatures look like rats.  The familiar thats like ur special creature right??

[Xandria]

Great post Fanomatic!  

BTW, as far as I know, familiars will be implemented in PS.  From the main site:

Empathy is used to communicate with your \"familiar\".
A familiar is usually a little pet; it can be a bird, a snake, a cat or any other small creature (even monsters). During the creation process, the owner of the pet must use some of his blood and perform a special magical rite. In this way he will create a magical link between him and his familiar.
The familiar usually follows you all the time and he gets experience performing things with you. He has his own hit points and mana points. He can increase his abilities and even cast spells when he reaches high experience values. The familiar can be used in many situations as a scout.

So it will probably be more of a magical type ability.  In some RPG\'s, I know you have to play a magical class (like wizard or sorceror) to be able to summon a familiar, but since PS doesn\'t have classes (yay!   ) then it will probably be at some basic level of magic ability that you will be able to summon a familiar.  Of course, the more magically inclined you are, the more potential bonuses your familiar could get...or something like that.

I\'m really hoping for a bird-like familar, since I\'ll be needing to do a lot of scavaging, and getting to inaccesible places.  Well, as far as I can imagine anyway.  

[lynx_lupo]

Yes, companions and familiars would nicely balance \"specialized\" mages/clerics/druids (specialized in the way that they suck at combat). I would love to have an animal companion! It would also make things much more complicated(adding new depths), thus more interesting.

I agree with someone(sry), familiars are magical and should somehow advance with the player. Companions are just normal animals, so they should be enhaced/\"crippled\" only by their natural progression(i mean growth and the like.)

[Harwen]

I don\'t believe that familiars should be all that adept to battle at all. I imagine them being some sort of little cute creature, like a dragon pup, robin, blue jay, eagle, falcon, crow, bat, GOLEM, snake, spider...well you get it. I suggest that there should be all kinds of familiars, from cool-looking to cutesy as not to have all the jerks scoffing at the bunny trailing you.

Usually familiars are mediums to the spiritual plane, so they would very well be magical enhancers of some skill of some sort.

I would love to have a unique familiar though.

[Xandria]

In most cases, familiars would probably only use spells in combat.  Although, you might have a rouge-type familiar that is adept at sneaking up behind people and making a critical hit when they don\'t expect it.  But probably not a melee combat oriented familiar like wolves or something; that\'s more reserved for pets.

Although familars can be useful for many more things besides combat.  A small familiar would likely not be good at combat, but would be adept at sneaking through small places, and perhaps opening locked doors from the other side.  They may also possess special skills, like lockpicking, or just be useful to have around in general, say, your familiar has particularly good eyesight and can spot enemies from farther away than you could.

[Drachion]

i have my familiars allready, only you don\'t know i yet.

you will all be my slaves.



slaves = familiars