A guide to Familiar creation:

Familiars can be complicated because there are so many options. They are a spirit that has joined the
mage in their work, but why and how are they doing this? A common why is that the spirit is primitive
or part of a hive mind. By being a familiar they gain skills, individuality, and a name. Names are worth
a lot to spirits. On higher level familiars will be working with the mage to get something more
complicated. Maybe it is a quid-pro-quo relationship, but if that is so it has to be more than
quintessence. A mage might trade tasks with their familiar for instance. The familiar’s why can be as
simple as they work well together or they are friends. Any reason two people would work closely are
good reasons for an advanced familiar. This relationship changes them and they have more abilities
because of that, the what should be based on the why. This means a familiar can be any spirit with an
appropriate why from dead racoons to dead gods.

Familiars are complex because of their forms and their relationships, but what they do as a familiar is
usually simple. Racoon familiars might use their senses and pickpocket. A ghost familiar might hide
and get information. I have given two creation formats to get this idea across: dice pool and point buy.

• Dice pool is simple, the character gets a pool of 5 dice for a number of abilities with a point for
an action they can do automatically. They also get any abilities that just make sense for their
form. This is great for getting what the familiar does and the role-play aspects can be worked
out quickly. It is flexible because function follows form and can be nudged. This works well to
create a familiar that is an extension of the Mage.

• Point buy is more complex, involving buying skills for a familiar. Per dot of background in
familiar there are 10 freebie points for various functions with some additional from flaws. This
is great for a thorough knowledge of the character’s background, but it can set very specific
parameters for an otherwise fluid character. I like this because it can make playing a familiar
with autonomy easier.

Dice Pool:
1. Choose a number of abilities equal to your background in familiar
2. The Spirit gets 5 dice pools for the abilities in question. So for stealth, they would roll 5 d10.
3. List things they can do by their form, keeping in mind that 1 dot familiars are radically simple
and move up in complexity to 5 dot familiars that are like mages in a few of their abilities.
4. Create 1 ability of convenience for the Familiar’s work. Common examples:
• A human form for social familiars
• A digital avatar to access the web
• A testing function or search engine

Point Buy:

o dot familiar:
o dot familiars are primitively simple. They are usually a very limited construct or the simplest of
gafflings. It is a critter. They become familiars because they have the opportunity to become more
complex by doing so.
1. Attributes: all abilities start at 0 and you have 5 dots to share between all physical, social and
mental attributes. If the creature can move it must have some in a phycial attribute, if it can
speak it must have some in social, and if it can do independent actions, it must have some points
in mental.
2. Abilities: 1 point familiars get 1,2,4 each category of ability. They are good at one task and have
the supporting features to make that task functional
3. Familiar gets the one dot mentor background
4. The familiar gets 10 freebie points of which 2 points are for paradox nullification and 4 points
are for bond sharing. The remaining four can be used for the spirit’s practical functions.
5. Willpower is set to 2 and essence to 2.
6. Up to 3 flaw points, usually used for the familiar not being human.

oo dot familiar:
oo dot familiars, now we are talking. These are about an animal level of intelligence. Gafflings will
take a mage as their patron to gain individuality and distinguish themselves from the collective.
Constructs will begin to become something more than a personified talisman.

1. Attributes: These familiars start with a dot in all attributes. You then have four dots to expend
across those attributes up to a max of two per slot. So you could have a creature with strength 3,
dexterity 3, and stamina 2, but you can’t have a familiar with a perception 5.
2. Abilities: this creature can do some complex tasks, but not too many. Select one ability category
to get 1,4, and 7 points.
3. Familiars get 5 background points of which 1 must be in the mentor background
4. oo dots gets 15 freebie points of which 2 must be paradox nullification and 4 must be bond-
sharing.
9 freebie points is a lot and much of that should be spent on obvious attributes of the creature.
Does it see spirits? Does it crawl on walls? Does it fly? Apply the charms to this. If this creature
has a human appearance it should have 4 in the human form merit, as it is likely too far from
human form to compensate otherwise.
5. Willpower is set to 3 and essence to 3.
6. Up to 3 flaw points

ooo and oooo dot familiar.

These are familiar partners with ooo dots being nearly human in intelligence and oooo dots being
humanoid equivalent. Familiars of this level often have a role in the character’s life, and it is important
to note what that is. At oooo dots, familiars can become very noticeable to other night folk, so be
advised

1. In attributes (6,4,3)
In your attributes (Physical, social, Mental) you start with 1 dot in every score score under these
categories. You may then add 6 to any one group, 4 to any other group, and 3 to the final group.
 Example: under physical you have one in each of the categories: strength 1, dexterity 1, and stamina
1. You decide to add 4 to the physical group, so you end up with strength 2, dexterity 3, stamina 3.
You would then apply 6 to either the social or mental groups and four to the remaining group, as you
did with physical.

2. In Abilities (11,7,4)
In Abilities (talents, skills, knowledge) you do the same process, except all abilities start at zero and
instead of pools of 6,4, and 3, the pools are 11,7, and 4 to any group of abilities.

3. The familiar has 5 willpower and 5 essence to begin.

4. The Familiar has 5 background points, at least one of these is spent on the mentor background for the
character who has the familiar, if not more.

5. The familiar gets 10 freebie points per dot the character has in familiar. So 5 dots in familiar is 50
points. 2-6 of these points must be spent on the paradox nullification merit. 4-6 points must also be
spent on the bond-sharing merit.
Remember to use freebie points on things the character can do naturally. If they fly, crawl on walls,
have sharp teeth, see other spirits, or can jump across the gauntlet, there needs to be some points spent
on it.

ooooo dot familiar- This familiar is crucial to that mage’s life in some way. They have autonomy and
will make their own decisions, sometimes against the will of their mage. Strongly consider flaws that
include this dynamic.
If the paradox nullification and Bond-sharing are not at their max 6 points each, freebie points must be
used to maximize these first. At this point other points spent may be rearranged.

A combination of flaws, merits, and charms may be taken from both Forged in Dragons Fire and Gods
and Monsters. Forged has a complete system, but Gods and Monsters has more sensible charms.