Game: Dweomercraft: Familiars
Publisher: Dark Quest
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 2nd, August 2004
Reviewer’s Rating: 7/10 [ Good ]
Total Score: 7
Average Score: 7.00
Dweomercraft: Familiars is one of multi-branded PDF products that are occasionally born from the primal soup of third party d20 publishers. The most recognisable logo here is, perhaps, the ENWorld one. This is a Dark Quest game though. Think of Dark Quest as the writer and ENWorld as the publisher. The concept design and (by way of alphabetical order) the first named author is Steve Creech (who we might associate with d20 Magazine Rack and Bastion Press). We’re blessed with a good collection of authors, including Dark Quest’s Neal Levin as well as Michael Hammes and David Woodrum.
Dweomercraft: Familiars is a lengthy 124-pages. It represents the sort of price-per-page value that is just impossible to get in paper and (since I’m so far behind in up-to-date reviews) the current cost of $5 (reduced from $8) at RPGNow) it’s hard to imagine anyone saying “too expensive”. I like having lots of room in supplements. There are 10 pages before you see anything that looks like a stat block or number crunch. This is what I’d expect from a Dark Quest product and one of the reasons why among the number of PDF publishers I’d encourage people to keep an eye on.
After these opening ten pages of flavour, concept introduction and lead in come some pretty brazen ideas. Here’s a brazen idea – give the familiar a personality! If it’s too weird to consider Dark Quest try and shoulder some of the responsibility and list some possible personality traits. I like the idea of an exploitative familiar. There’s a turn around. Before we even consider what sort of personality the familiar might have the PDF looks at what sort of familiar – just by race – might suit which spell caster. The point here is that elves will tend to have different familiars from dwarves and dwarves will have different familiars from medusas. Ah yes, in typical Dark Quest thoroughness we look through more than just the vanilla fantasy player races. After all; NPCs can have familiars too. What we don’t see here and what I feel is missing is more help on /who/ plays the familiar; the GM or the player? Is the familiar and NPC or an extension of the PC?
In many ways the familiar is an extension of the spell caster. I suspect it’s not unheard of for player characters to kill off their current familiar in order to get a newer, better and more powerful one. It should be an icky thing to do – in roleplaying terms, but what of the rollplaying? I like systems which bundle the two seamlessly. Curses are just the thing to smite familiar-murdering mages – and they’re easy to roleplay and hard to ignore even through rollplay. When supplements like Dweomercraft: Familiars come out players often (and understandably) want to partake in the new offerings. There are new offerings here in this RPG supplement so it’s wise to include rules for shipping out the old and bringing in the new.
There are new origins for familiars too. Would you use one of your feat slots for a familiar? No. Would you use one of your feat slots for a really powerful familiar? A wolf familiar? A skeleton familiar? A satyr familiar? Getting more powerful, aren’t we? Tempted by that feat slot yet? A mephit familiar? Or what about a tiny golem familiar? That’s just a type of familiar too – not really the “origin”. Fear not; there are actually suggested origins; an avatar of a wizard, a former construct, planar being or even reincarnated wizard.
I know. That’s an impressive range of familiars there – far (far, far, far) beyond the usual scope. The bulk of the PDF is dedicated to detailing (normally at least half a dozen) familiars in each category. We’ve categories for other planar creatures, elemental familiars, undead familiars, constructed familiars, avian familiars, reptile familiars, rodent familiars, vermin familiars, exceptional beasts for familiars (including aquatic), monstrous humanoid familiars and even ooze familiars. Yeah, I know, ooze familiars are too silly. I don’t mind elemental familiars though – a dancing flame or puff of soot could well be that alien touch I want to give some of my spell casters. Constructed familiars are small and I can deal with that – once again I quite like the alien feel of a dagger familiar (a cursed/blessed weapon) or animated rune even! Even with the undead familiars Dark Quest is able to win me around – what about a flying skull for a familiar? (Don’t trust the skull!) I’m not so sure about the monstrous familiars though – a kobold as a familiar? Hmm. A kobold familiar could have – as a suggested quirk elsewhere in the PDF – a quirky but strong sexual attraction from the opposite gender not of its race. Human women could find the kobold cute. Hmm.
For each chapter there are two important discussions – reasons to have such a familiar and reasons not to have such a familiar. I can think of lots of reasons why I wouldn’t have an aquatic familiar – so appreciate some insight into why I might want to reconsider. I can think of lots of reasons why I’d want a snazzy constructed owl as a familiar – so appreciate the insight as to why that might not always work out for the best. At the very least (and we don’t need to hunt for the silver lining here) these sections provide GMs with ideas.
I do think familiars are awfully fragile. I would think twice about taking one into a dungeon. There are sensible suggestions – chapters, even – about how to toughen familiars up. I think the chapter on equipment is handy. I’d let the wizard or sorcerer find a Bowl of Staple Rations just to avoid the plot distractions of mundane feeding problems! Taking things to the next level wheels out the (required) Prestige Class. The Magebound can’t sample from full range of the newly expanded familiar range as they can’t have unliving (undead and constructs) familiars. This isn’t too much of a hurdle for a class which enjoys a plump selection of new, familiar enhancing, spells.
Dweomercraft: Familiar is a classic example of a good PDF for the d20 market. It picks a niche and thoroughly and completely explores it. We’ve the mix of comprehensive coverage and professional quality.
Oh, dweomercraft is one of those words which is going to bug your players isn’t it. Most gamers will have the default understanding that it’s a synonym for magic (is gaming genetic?) I looked it up; it can also be used to describe the act of juggling! The word dwarf comes from the olde English “Dweorg” (Forgotten Realms players will be able to take that further) and as a point of gaming geekness, Tolkien coins the phrase “Dwimmerlaik” as an insulting title for the Witch King.
