Topic: Meta: How did everyone get those familiars?

[jdale]

Dark Summons is Evil Essence. Nothing to do with demons (the Investiture spells explicitly enhance the familiar with additions of the caster's own life force). Demonic Summons does not include Familiar. Demonic Pacts does offer Familiar Spirit spells, and these do provide demonic familiars, but the differences between this and the Familiar spell mean that you'd have to be completely magically naive to not notice the difference well before the familiar spirit showed up.
[All of this assuming no changes since Beta, of course.]

I mixed those up. That said, personally I would still say if it's an evil spell list, there needs to be something evil about it.

[nash]

They may just be… pets, you know? …like, absolutely normal pets.

Actually we can rule that one out:
https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?topic=20870.msg242782#msg242782
Officially they are all familiars.  ;-)

Practically, it would not be weird for a couple to be non-familiars.  But a group of people, who all have very loyal, very well behaved, kinda weird selection of pets is also unusual.  One or two (hello animist/druid/ranger) does not stand out, but when they all have it... we are back to pretty much the same question: "how did everyone get their loyal unusual creature". 

Familiar as some sort of TP/prosaic/RMU-equiv list, or just the utility being well known and hence commonly enchanted makes a lot of sense.

Casting 7 times makes the ritual way a bit risky, but I wonder if that could be another way.

[jdale]

Meh, I'm not the artist, I didn't even commission the art. They look like familiars to me, that's as far as that goes.

That said, I listed a lot of ways it could happen in RMSS. Many of those ways are not in the core so it wasn't until the expansion material came out that there was the full suite of options. For RMU, the expansion material isn't out yet.

[nash]

Meh, I'm not the artist, I didn't even commission the art. They look like familiars to me, that's as far as that goes.

Never let context get in the way of proving the point on the internet ;-)

FWIW; way back when I first played RM2, the person who first introduced me to the game; pointed it it was weird they all had familiars, because it is closed essence, and only pure essence and essence hybrids could cast closed lists.  So this question has literally been in the back of my head for three freaking decades.  But the point was even in the McBride covers we all assumed they were familiars back then.

That said, I listed a lot of ways it could happen in RMSS. Many of those ways are not in the core so it wasn't until the expansion material came out that there was the full suite of options.

Don't get me wrong; I really like this neat detail that everyone picked up a Closed Essence list at some point or got an item to get a Familiar.   It's so Rolemaster that you customise your character to get something "out of class" because it's cool/fun/interesting.

For RMU, the expansion material isn't out yet.

Fixed that for you ;-).

[nash]

So another thing.. for some reason I had always assumed you were limited to one familiar?  But there is no restriction like that presented in the spell (although the grammar implies it).

So this question slipped through: There is nothing in the spell description that says you can only have one Familiar. 

Aside from the fact -50 for two weeks pretty much knocks you out of the game for a fortnight, can you have multiple familiars?

[rdanhenry]

So this question slipped through: There is nothing in the spell description that says you can only have one Familiar. 

Crazy cat lady Illusionist?
Actually, two Familiars seems like the most that would be practical, and you'd need to double concentrate to control both at once (and otherwise, they're just somewhat brighter and more loyal pets). You could get a little more flexibility with a menagerie, but with increasing vulnerability. I don't really think it needs to be restricted to one familiar at a time. Enhanced familiars from the Evil list Dark Summons are more useful, but the vulnerability is greater. Given the generally OP nature of Evil lists, I again don't think this is a problem. The same applies to familiar spirits. And the more grotesque evil familiars become harder to keep secret or excuse as "the ugly one in the litter" as they multiply.

[Hurin]

Crazy cat lady Illusionist?

Haha, that would be awesome.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

So another thing.. for some reason I had always assumed you were limited to one familiar?  But there is no restriction like that presented in the spell (although the grammar implies it).

I'd say that the existence in the "Familiar's Law" spell list, a spell list specialised and dedicated to the management of familiars, of a "Second familiar" and a "Third familiar" spell in order to get more than one familiar strongly suggests one may only have one familiar…
That being said, indeed, nothing about the matter is explicitly written in the spell's description so it's up to GM to decide, IMO. As far as I'm concerned, I allow one familiar per such spell, meaning a character may have as many familiars as he actually knows (different) familiar spells.

[nash]

I'd say that the existence in the "Familiar's Law" spell list, a spell list specialised and dedicated to the management of familiars...

What book is Familiar's Law in? 

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

RoCo. I

[pantsorama]

I'd say that the existence in the "Familiar's Law" spell list, a spell list specialised and dedicated to the management of familiars...

What book is Familiar's Law in?

Unfamiliar Familiar's Law?