[Request] Familiars improve with levels

HeroicSpur

Hey everyone,

I'm aware Trent has already indicated this one wont be happening, but it's still useful to gauge how important it is for the community, either to compel Trent to change his mind, or to introduce it later as a DLC or somesuch.

As I'm sure you guys are aware, being able to summon a familiar at the start of BG1 grants a creature which is much more powerful than any of your party members.

Equally however, familiars (for their abilities beside boosting HP) rapidly become obsolete as the game progress, the risk of loosing them too great (so they spend all their time in your backpack).

My request is that both of these problems be dealt with in one swoop, namely by allowing/adjusting familiars so they improve in power with your mage, i.e. each level the familiar improves slightly, but starts weaker.

lansounet

I totally agree with that, familiar is a nice feature but as soon as you hit level 3-4 the familiar just becomes a hp buff and fulltime -1 inventory slot. I wouldn't mind if they start weaker but grow in power as you level up, just some ThAC0/AC/HP so they can survive at last 1 fireball from a level 4+ mage. Even leave the special abilities as they are without improvement, I just want my dragon out of my pack.

Tanthalas

Yeah, I think that's a real problem with Familiars, they're so weak and there's barely any benefit for having them outside of your inventory.

I'm not sure how I would like them to address this. To make them strong enough to survive a fight would probably require them to be almost as strong as a party member, so that's probably a big no no. But it would be nice if having them outside of your pack gave the mage some kind of buff. Not really sure how Familiars are handled in DnD.

Dee

In AD&D, your familiar started as an ordinary animal; to improve it, you had to cast unique "Enhance Familiar" spells, I through VII, which made your familiar more powerful.

I suggested this kind of improvement a while back - the main problem is that familiars were incorporated into BG2, but not balanced for BG1. So if the spell is to be included in BG1, it needs to be reexamined - and possibly even removed from BG:EE until it can be fixed.

My personal preference would be a series of familiar-centric quests that each improve your familiar, available at certain chapters in the game, so that an intrepid wizard can make his familiar more powerful, but the familiar doesn't start out being a silly powerhouse at level 1.

Tanthalas

Yeah, I remember that suggestion from reddit (I think). I think that's a great idea.

This reminds me of something (that's more for BG2EE I guess). Stronghold quests could use a "buff", at least for some classes. Its kind of off-putting that you have one big quest to get your stronghold, but after that you only get some minor quests for most of the classes. A familiar quest line for Mages would be a nice way to buff their stronghold quest line.

EpitomyofShyness

I would love to take my familiar out of my pack. I fifth this!

Greel

@Aosaw's comment.. I'd love to see that too. Frankly, anything that brings depth to the game is good in my book!

Kore

Not much else to say other than I agree. Keeping my little baby in my pack all day makes familiars uninteresting.

Lunever

Why not use the familiar advancement of 3e?

ElectricMonk

I like the idea of them starting out weaker and improving over time, it does seem kind of silly as-is, but as @Tanthalas said making them as strong as a party member would be ridiculous. Would be nice if someone could think of a way to increase their survivability without making them too powerful (higher resistances, higher hp, or something along these lines maybe?), and then have some buffing for them being outside the pack.

sepotter

It might be alright if you could resurrect your familiar and regain your lost constitution,
but that would probably kill the risk factor involved with having a familiar in the first place.

HeroicSpur

@sepotter: I think the only risk factor in having a familiar, for practical purposes, is an inventory place permanately occupied.

sepotter

@sepotter: I think the only risk factor in having a familiar, for practical purposes, is an inventory place permanately occupied.

That's fair, but my biggest concern for getting a familiar (other than inventory space) is the risk of loosing a point of constitution if it dies.

Spite

Yeah they die just too easily and the penalty for it dying is too great for me to risk using the familiar in battles. Maybe add some way to resurrect them? You can resurrect your companions, so why not your magically summoned pet?

Also something that bothered me was that only the protagonist could have a familiar, though this is probably a limitation in the infinite engine, am I right? BGEE should keep familiars saved to the character so that it remains if you enter a multiplayer game or a new game etc.

HeroicSpur

@Spite: possibly, or it may be a balance issue. A party with several mages with several familiars might be construed as being significantly more powerful, even with just the hitpoint bonus. Although I have to say I agree with you about allowing other party members to have them.

Salk

I tried to find a coder for this for a long time but had no luck. I was hoping to make a revised Find Familiar spell based mostly on the AD&D 2nd Ed. PnP. Here: http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=23874