Goetic Familiar

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Latest revision as of 14:57, 30 April 2016

Banned Retainer

Grimoire of Grimoires p. 96
Preq's	Successful casting of the Goetic Manifestation spell
Level(s)	●●●● (20XP) ●●●●● (30XP)
Venue	Mage
Possessed By
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Your character has a bond with a spirit drawn, in part, from within his own consciousness; specifically, from within the part of himself driven by wickedness and iniquity. This familiar, like an ordinary familiar, may exist in either Twilight (for ●●●● Merit dots, making it a goetic fetch) or in the physical plane (for ●●●●● Merit dots, making it an embodied goetic familiar).

Except as noted below, the demonic familiar is created using the base familiar creation rules given^[1], and the caster may build her demon in any way she likes (Attributes, Skills, Numina, etc.), save for the entity’s Influence, which is automatically set to correspond to the character’s Vice, and its Ban, which is never to pass up any opportunity to guide the mage (and anyone else it can) toward indulging in the willworker’s particular Vice.

Because some part of the character’s baser nature is drawn out of him and incarnated in an external form, the mage benefits from a +2 modifier to all rolls to shrug off mundane or supernatural manipulation through appeals to his Vice. If a power used to attack the character through his Vice is resisted rather than contested, then the +2 bonus to contesting the effect instead becomes a -2 penalty to the aggressor’s dice pool to use said power against the character.

Note that, unlike other familiars of its type, an embodied goetic familiar may take on a wholly human shape or one only subtly different from human. No self-proclaimed scholar of the Key knows why this is, but speculation is that the small quantity of human spiritual essence within the familiar grants it the ability to incarnate in a human shape. Small deviations tend to be archetypically “demonic” in nature: red (or otherwise abnormally-colored) eyes, nubs of horns upon the brow, too-sharp canine teeth, reddish or slightly metallic skin tone, the faint smell of brimstone or burning incense, etc. A familiar marked with these characteristics is (at any time other than Halloween or a costume party, anyway), naturally, a threat to the Veil, unless disguised through other means.

Similarly, as a creation of Vice, even an embodied goetic familiar may take on a genuinely demonic appearance, such as that of a twisted little imp, a hellhound, or another such clearly unnatural shape (to a maximum Size of 5). Wise goeticists are advised to keep these entities well out of the sight of Sleepers (and, if they don’t wish to be branded as Scelesti, probably out of the sight of other willworkers, as well), lest the Guardians of the Veil come calling. While subject to the limitations of its form (a scaled and tusked mastiff, though certainly intimidating, cannot use a pen to write, for instance), a goetic familiar in the shape of a human or a demon does not enjoy any especial benefits on account of its shape beyond those normally possessed by an embodied familiar.

The same as normal familiars, goetic familiars may be improved with Experience points (subject to the normal limitations and trait caps of rank 1 spirits, unless otherwise noted):

Note that changes to a spirit’s Attributes may alter other characteristics, such as Health or Speed, and adjust those traits accordingly. Goetic familiars may not have their Influences increased.

A mage who already has a familiar (Twilight or embodied) may still acquire a goetic familiar of either sort, but may only ever have one goetic familiar, regardless of type.