Familiars
A familiar is any creature, magical or otherwise, that augments the personal
powers of a wizard. The familiar is more than a minor servant or hireling: it
can serve as a pet and a confidant for a lonely necromancer, as well. At low
levels, the find familiar spell can be employed to obtain a small animal that will transmit sensory
information back to its owner. Animals such as the crow, raven, serpent, hyena,
vulture, and weasel are most appropriate to the necromancer, who can presumably
summon more powerful familiars than the average wizard by right of his or her
secret knowledge.
Ordinarily, familiars do have a major drawback: because of the spiritual
(necromantic) link with its master, when the familiar dies, the wizard must make a
system shock roll to survive the ordeal while permanently losing a point of
Constitution. Necromancers with familiars will take elaborate precautions to keep
their familiars safe from harm.
Although these are the most common types of familiars available, it is also
possible to attract more powerful, extraplanar creatures into a necromancer’s
service. With the proper sacrifice an evil wizard can summon a creature from the
Lower Planes to serve as a familiar. Most often, the fiendish familiar will
either be an imp or a quasit (as detailed in the Monstrous Manual). A necromancer (or an evil priest with access to the sphere of Summoning)
may call an imp or quasit to him or her, with a 10% chance of success per level
of experience.
Although the fiend often appears like a tiny, wicked creature, it could also
take on a more dangerous or sinister appearance. For instance, instead of
looking like an annoying 2’ tall fiend (something akin to Jabba the Hut’s maniacally
cackling pet in the film The Empire Strikes Back), an imp could appear as a
shadowy, winged creature with glowing red eyes (as illustrated in Captain Omar’s
introductory tale). The DM should feel free to embellish and tailor both the
appearance and powers of the classic imp to suit the personality of its master and
the mood of the campaign. Pizentios’s “shadow imp,” for instance, may have the
ability to hide in natural shadows and darkness (gaining the ability to serve
as an excellent spy), but it also has all the weaknesses of a normal undead
shadow, such as aversion to bright light (see Pizentios’s character description in
Chapter Nine for more details). These essentially minor changes in appearance
and abilities can dramatically change the way a party of adventurers regards
the familiar (and its master as well), especially among experienced players who
have perused the MM.
Depending upon the power of a necromancer, the “common” imp may not suit
either his or her taste or image. Other fiends may serve as more interesting or
appropriate pets. On the other hand, a more practical Archetype may prefer to have
a nightmare as his trusted, magical steed and familiar. A few fiends (imps and
quasits included) will willingly serve a mortal master, on the hopes that they
will be able to collect the wizard’s soul when he or she dies and present it to
their overlords in the Outer Planes, gaining greater prestige (or in the case
of an imp or quasit, a promotion in the infernal hierarchy).
In general, a necromancer may not have an extraplanar creature as a familiar
with more than a third as many hit dice as the wizard’s levels of experience.
Thus, it would take at least an 18th-level necromancer to attract a 6 HD succubus
or nightmare familiar. In addition to the usual telepathic rapport, the fiend
usually confers some of its powers on the master (as noted for the imp in the MM). A succubus, for example, may provide her master with invulnerability to
surprise and resistance against all types of fire, as well as her usual fiendish
immunities (such as half damage from cold and gases, and resistance to
electricity and poison). More importantly, fiendish familiars enable their masters to
memorize and cast spells as if they were one level higher, provided they are
within one mile per level of experience. Finally, the necromancer gains bonus hit
points, equal to the maximum hit points of his or her familiar (regardless of
proximity).
Of course, should anything tragic ever happen to a fiendish familiar, the
penalties are far worse than those suffered when an animal familiar dies. When a
fiendish familiar dies (or more appropriately, has been banished from the
necromancer’s plane of existence), the wizard must roll a save vs. death magic or
perish; even if he or she survives, the necromancer loses four levels of
experience. These lost levels may be regained normally or by powerful magic (such as wishes or restoration spells). Given the harsh penalties involved, a necromancer will not subject
even a fiendish familiar to unnecessary risks.
A more powerful fiendish familiar can be a major nemesis for the party in its
own right. In some of Clark Ashton Smith’s Hyperborean short stories (such as
”The Last Incantation” and the ”Death of Malygris”), the necromancer Malygris
was served by a fiendish viper of tremendous power, that singlehandedly defeated
the most powerful wizards of an entire kingdom when they came to plunder his
master’s tower. Such a creature was clearly more of a trusted ally and advisor
than a pet to the arch-mage, no doubt gated in from the Outer Planes and approached with a suitable bargain to obtain its
willing service. Although these allies are not strictly familiars in the sense
that they do not share a spiritual bond with the necromancer, they do
considerably augment the wizard’s powers and knowledge, simply by working with him or
her. Clearly, a powerful necromancer may have a formal familiar (mundane or
otherwise) and any number of such extraplanar allies who might take on the role of
lesser henchmen.
Please keep in mind that the previous discussion of extraplanar familiars has
implied that the wizard is completely evil in alignment. No fiend will
willingly serve a good master, except perhaps to twist him or her into a servant of
evil. Clearly, powerful necromancers of neutral (or good) alignment will attract
other kinds of pets, messengers, and allies from the Outer Planes. A
pure-hearted Witch may be assisted by an archon or a lesser deva. A powerful Philosopher,
on the other hand, may prefer to recruit familiars from the Elemental Planes,
summoning an elemental, aerial servant, invisible stalker, or even a genie into
service. Necromancers of all alignments can thus gain the powerful benefits
provided by an extraplanar familiar.
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