Undead warband - using familiar

Hey everyone,
I've just stumbled across a find in the shadow warrior rooster - the familiar.

Do you guys play it, that the familiar can be summoned by any wizard? Or do you rule the familiar out?

The reason to my question, is that my Necromancer is drooling for a familiar atm. My gaming group has accepted the use of familiars for wizards other than the shadow weaver from the shadow warrior warband, but I just wanted to ask you guys how you play it?

Thanks in advance!

I don't think they are limited to shadow elves. They were in the Mordheim Annual in 2002, I believe, after originally appearing in a Town Cryer. Remember you do have to pay the cost of the familiar before rolling to see if you can find one. Also, it will not stack with the Mind Focus skill, which lets you reroll one of your casting dice. In some cases Mind Focus is better - if you need an 8 and roll a 6 and a 1, it is better to reroll the 1 than both dice. One the other hand, if you roll snake eyes the familiar is much better!

Quote :

A wizard with a familiar is allowed to re-roll
one failed roll to cast a spell each turn. The
result of this re-roll must be accepted, even if
it fails, and remember that you may never reroll
a re-roll. Spell-users only (does not
include users of Prayers). Note that unlike
many of the items above, this item is
equipment that any warband with a spell-user
may use, if he can summon it successfully.

It is from shadow warriors "new equipment" section. So definitely yes, you can by your necromancer a pet

I agree with mweaver and catachanfrog that any wizard can use the familiar. Plus think about the modelling opportunity!

Awesome! That's great news! I'm using the mordheim warlock model as necromancer, and he happens to have a frog on his shoulder

Actually I prefer having an "item" instead of a skill. In this way I could allocate my skills else where.

how do you guys skill your necromancers? mine already has the spell of doom and the raise dead spell, so I think the next skill will be sorcery..

Thanks again!

catachanfrog wrote:

It is from shadow warriors "new equipment" section. So definitely yes, you can by your necromancer a pet

Yay! Orky shaman with familiar

*Resurrection alert!*

Assume your necromancer (or any other spellcaster with a familiar) is robbed, does this include the robbery of a familiar, or does it vaporize when the spellcaster is ooa?

I would think that since a familiar is categorized as equipment, the familiar is indeed lost along with any other equipment the wizard may carry.

How do you guys play it?

For the matter of balance I'd say yes, the familiar departs with any other equipment if the wizard is robbed (just imagine the familiar is tied to some kind of fetish that links it to the spell caster).

However, in a RPG I'd say no, the familiar disappear or hide himself until the wizard summon it back.

I agree with Goglutin. For RAW the familiar is lost if the 'Robbed' result is rolled. Maybe it is stolen, maybe it is killed, maybe something else but according to the rules the familiar is just an item like everything else and would be lost.

Now a different question along the same lines is this... can an enemy warband use / sell a familiar if a spellcaster with a familiar rolls the 'Captured' result. Again following RAW the answer would be yes.

These don't fit with fluff perhaps but are valid according to rules. If you or your gaming group doesn't like it then there is always the option to house rule something that makes more sense in regards to fluff.

Ohhh...

You got something here lemming ...
Can you ''capture'' a familiar ?
The answer through the rules is clear : YES.

Still... I'd personnaly argue that ist should only be ''killed'' or ''vanished''....

Hmmm... I don't like to think of that dog familiar belongs now to a necromancer.. tough it can be an undead dog, or a resurrected dog, or a spirit dog...???

Or a direwolf. they were once living wolves, so how about the familiar was a puppy?

It'd actually be pretty sweet to have a warband with 5 direwolves, and a necromancer with a dog familiar.

the last campaign I played my necro had a familiar,it was a skeleton cat from a reaper kit, i think. had its own base, but it was explained to ppl that its really just an item, has no actual gameplay presence. wasnt any confusion really.

my take on robbed is that the familiar is taken as well but only a wizard can use it. This means if they have a wizard the familiar is now attached to them. If they have no wizard the familiar is just gone as the cost to "buy" one is actually the materials to summon one so there is no value to the familiar in the market.

Maybe some ritual need a familiar as sacrifice or a collector like to get a real familiar from a wizard. The black market can sell anything, so i would say you could sell it for half the fix price.