Campaign Chronicles

F amiliars are spirits that assist in all forms of magery, from research to potion brewing to spellcasting and the creation of powerfully enchanted items.   A familiar most commonly takes the form of an animal although experienced wizards can acquire more powerful creatures as servitors.   But, if you look at the Player’s Handbook, this is not what familars actually do and it has bothered me for a long time.   As presented, the familiar is a poor combatant (in 3e and 3.5e with a staggering number of hip points) that provides bonuses to non-magical skills, saving throws, or maybe some bonus health for its master.   With that in mind, I sat down and began working on something that I felt was a little more in keeping with the lore associated with the mythological version of the familiar. ”Familiar” is an acquired template that can be added to any Small or smaller Animal or Vermin with 1 HD or less (hereafter referred to as the base creature).   A familiar us...

Our home has recently become home to a Guinea Pig. He (at least we think it is a "he" - I respect his privacy too much to confirm this) is named Gimli (and Fred before that but my father-in-law and I both refer to it as "the Rat"). I walked past the Rat this morning as it was chewing on some hay and started thinking about ways to include the varmint in a game. This is the result... AD&D 2nd ed Climate/Terrain: Any Temperate to Subtropical Organization: as above Activity Cycle: Day (Crespucular) Diet: Herbivore Intelligence: Animal (1) Treasure: Nil No. Appearing: 1, 2, or 4-40 THAC0: 20 No. of Attacks: 1 Dmg/Att: 1 SA: Nil SD: Nil MR: Nil Size: T (8" long) Morale: Unreliable (2-4) Xp Value: 7 Guinea Pig (3.5e) CR: 1/8     Tiny Animal     HD: 1/4d8     Hp: 2 Init: +2     Spd: 15' AC: 14 (+2 size, +...

A pair of pigeons had built a nest for themselves on the ductwork above the back door at my new job. Something (or maybe someone) had dragged the nest out and destroyed the eggs within. The pigeons were understandably upset by this turn of events and took to divebombing passersby in an ultimately futile act of defiance and/or revenge. This reminded me of this dude I used to work with. He was Obsessed with pigeons...well, maybe not Obsessed but he certainly spent a lot of time talking about them and would, on occasion, wax philosophical about them and posit that perhaps pigeons were secretly super-intelligent and only pretend to be dumb to further whatever incomprehensible yet nefarious schemes they have in motion. And all of THAT got me to thinking about Bobby, Pesto, and Squit - the Goodfeathers and the topic of today's post. (Bobby, Squit, and Pesto; left to right) Pigeon (3.5e) Neutral Tiny Animal HD: 1/4d8 (1 hp) Spd: 10', fly 40...