Familiars for non sorcerers

[Scotty]

What if I had a non sorcerer character, but I wanted to take a sorcerer gift. Specifically a familiar. The ability to actually inhabit your familiars body greatly increases the usefulness of them, even to non sorcererous characters.

I was thinking along the lines of the Old Blood or Witted from the Robin Hobb books, or Wargs from the Song of Ice and Fire by GRR Martin.

I had a couple of thoughts on this. One, allow characters that are fey or partially fey, such as halflings, to take the familiar gift. Or if a human wants to take this gift, make them take a level C or D in race to denote the magic in their blood that allows them to bond with an animal. Bonding to a small animal- such as cats, rats, or birds as a minor gift. But if the character wished to bond to something larger, say a wolf, great cat or horse they would have to take familiar as a major gift.

[Brian Leybourne]

Actually, I like the idea of that.. make a differential between D,E and F for race. Maybe D allows you to buy the familiar gift (you still have to buy a good enough priority in gifts to be able to buy one of course) because your blood is minorly gifted, just not enough to learn magic.

E... well, I don't know, maybe it's slightly gifted, not even enough to buy that merit but it's something the seneschal can take into account as the game goes on, in terms of slightly odd and/or beneficial things happening.

[Jake Norwood]

Sounds peachy to me.

Jake

[Mokkurkalfe]

E... well, I don't know, maybe it's slightly gifted, not even enough to buy that merit but it's something the seneschal can take into account as the game goes on, in terms of slightly odd and/or beneficial things happening.

How about being able to sense sorcery?

[Brian Leybourne]

E... well, I don't know, maybe it's slightly gifted, not even enough to buy that merit but it's something the seneschal can take into account as the game goes on, in terms of slightly odd and/or beneficial things happening.

How about being able to sense sorcery?

Yeah, that's not bad actually. The other thing I was thinking was maybe a really mild tingly danger sense (given that the character is fractionally gifted, the power in the blood has to be doing *something*).

The Seneschal could roll Per/12 in certain situations for the character to "get the tingle". Something like that.

Brian.

[Mokkurkalfe]

Yeah.
Or what if the E priority would give the bad, tingling sensation, while the D priority makes you sense that sorcery is at work AND the possibility of a familiar.

[Brian Leybourne]

Yeah, I like this a lot, I think I'm going to use it. I envision that most players will still just throw F into race given that it's the only usage of F that doesn't bollock you up somehow, but it'll make them think about it for a moment or two longer.

So:

D - Mildly gifted human. You get a chance to detect that "something is not right here" when sorcery is being used nearby, a tingly danger sense sometimes, and if you want to buy a familiar and have a free gift to buy it then you can.

E - Fractionally gifted human. The tingly danger sense is all you get (but that's still damn useful).

F - Ungifted Human.

Brian.

[Thirsty Viking]

D - Mildly gifted human. You get a chance to detect that "something is not right here" when sorcery is being used nearby, a tingly danger sense sometimes, and if you want to buy a familiar and have a free gift to buy it then you can.

E - Fractionally gifted human. The tingly danger sense is all you get (but that's still damn useful).

F - Ungifted Human.
Brian.

I like it as well and will use it,  I've been debating a piece of flavoring since my post on ambidexterity.  Remembering the superstition and stigma of being left handed....

I have considering  making racial groups making racial above E Left handed.   At D you could maybe bond with a familiar but you would also be at +1d on your attacks.  Swordslingers would then be tempted in the racial category,  short of being a mage...  

Of course with the mage persecution they would be suspected of being a mage or carrying mage blood....  This will be the basis for the stigma against  lefties in my game (weather i decide to make it true or not)  This concept intrigues me and i would love to hear some thoughts on this. hmmm -1d social if they know?  
a PER/9 check to pick up on it maybe?  
with modifiers for how weapons are worn?
of course  watching some one fight left handed would be easier check...

This could also be a PRE-Requisite for Ambidexterity...

Ambidexterity still being a major gift because it allows them to pass as a righthanded....   perhaps a very valuable thing for a mage......  

Anyway, i'm still playing with this idea,  it has been nibbling at me all night though.

[Jake Norwood]

Man, John, now you've got me rubbing my hands together and going "oooh..."

That is pretty cool.

Jake