Followers and Familiars: appropriate limitations

[CorpCommander]

ok, here is the problem. There is a player in my game that wants a follower/familiar. Basic cost is 15 points. What, if any, are appopriate limitations for such? In my opinion a follower/familiar is immensely cheap and useful. I am inclined to not give any access to limitations for perks.

 

Am I being to harsh here? What do other GMs do?

[caris]

Re: Followers and Familiars: appropriate limitations

 

Originally posted by CorpCommander

ok, here is the problem. There is a player in my game that wants a follower/familiar. Basic cost is 15 points. What, if any, are appopriate limitations for such? In my opinion a follower/familiar is immensely cheap and useful. I am inclined to not give any access to limitations for perks.

 

Am I being to harsh here? What do other GMs do?

 

I don't allow the application of Limitations on Perks. Particularly not on followers. You want to reduce the cost of a follower, you give it more Disads, assuming that you haven't maxed out the Disads on the follower already.

[Guest Kolava]

You could go with the summon rules, where the subcharacters have limitations but get no points for them. This way, the players will understand that their follower or familiar has 75 points, and thats that. (unless they pay more)

[Derek Hiemforth]

Generally, I'd agree with caris that the way to reduce the cost of a Follower is to give the Follower more Disadvantages, rather than applying a Limitation to the Perk. However, I can't say whether a reasonable argument exists for making an exception in this case without knowing what the player is trying to accomplish and why they want a Limitation on it.

[CorpCommander]

Munchkin

 

The player is a munchkin.

 

I generally have to put the breaks on most of what he comes up with as unreasonable. In this case I wanted to see what others were doing. Just because Hero Designer allows for limitations on Perks doesn't mean I have to allow them, which is what I was getting at orginally anyway.

 

My campagin rules are slowly developing. I didn't get back into Hero until last summer after a 10 year hiatus so its taken me a long time to figure out what I should and should not allow.

 

In this case I am going to treat the familiar as a follower and instead of having the character pay a lot of character points I am going to send them on a dangerous side mission and if the follower dies then whatever points I charge them are lost. That will satisfy me and help push the campaign forward and the player will like it too.

[Dust Raven]

That's one masochistic munchkin if he'll stretch the rules to get a Follower only to have it killed.

 

I've never allowed Limitations, or any other modifier on Perks. Perks aren't even stuff the character can do or use, they are just perks. They are either very useful or useful in only very limited circumstances.

 

15 points for a familiar is a good cost though. Familiar animals are generally small in cost (a raven actually only costs 1 point if you add 6 points to the animals total points) leaving lots of room for increased stats and familiar specific abilities.

[CorpCommander]

Solution found

 

Ok came up with the final solution with help from Killer Shrike. Here is what I proposed and the player agreed was good.

 

This is simplified from a lot of campaign specific rules but basically it goes like this:

 

To take on a familiar you have to have been in the campaign and have earned at least 20 experience points. When you decide to take on the familiar you have to go on a quest. You'll face 3 opponents you must defeat singlehandedly.

 

Once that quest is complete your familiar comes to you and you gain the following disadvantage that pays for the first 15 points of the familiar.

 

Physical Limitation: STUN Feedback with Familiar (Frequently, Greatly Impairing)

 

If the familiar is killed the players character loses 15 STUN permanently, recoverable only when the character survives and succeeds at a quest for a replacement familiar.

 

Its great because the player takes an interest in the well-being of the familiar instead of looking at them as something to sponge up attacks against them. Consequences lead to good role playing I think.

[ghost-angel]

That is an awesome solution. I'm taking it, well most of it. I like the Physical Limitation applied to connect the Familiar and the Character.

[Dust Raven]

Excellent solution!

 

To be honest, I would have put the Disad as a Susceptibility to the Familiar taking damage (listed as uncommon with LOTS of damage for a small one, or if you use things like tigers possibly common or very common with only a little damage).

 

A Physical Lim works just as fine though.

[CorpCommander]

Originally posted by Dust Raven

Excellent solution!

 

Heh, wish I could claim it but it was a group brainstorming effort. It makes the most sense though. Plus I like the quest part as well. Lets me design opponents tailored to be a challenge to the MIQ (Mage in Question!)