11-02-2022, 05:35 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-02-2022, 05:36 AM by Flashlight237.)
Section 12: Familiars
The term "familiar" is usually used as a fancy term for pets, but I think it's more of an umbrella term used for both pets and summons. While DnD defines familiars as spirits based around animals, when you dig deeper than DnD, you would notice that only summons follow the original definition from DnD. Pets, on the other hand, are more physical beings. Oddly enough, I've only seen the concept of familiars get used once in this entire forum's history, and that was in Stalker1599's RP where I got a spider pig. Before you get a familiar, you will need to tame a creature first.
Taming
Taming a creature isn't as clear cut as you might think it is. The deal with taming creatures is, the more dangerous they are to fight, the harder it is to tame them. The Harry Potter has its own system for rating how easy or how difficult it is to tame a monster, ranging from X for creatures that really aren't gonna do anything to XXXXX for creatures that are impossible to tame.: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Mini...sification
Generally, you're gonna have an easier time taming something easy to deal with like a slime or a spider than you will with formidable beasts like dragons, demons and hippopotamuses. Speaking of hippopotamuses, one of the factors that may make a creature more difficult to tame is aggression. While a demon usually keeps its cool when bargaining with unwitting souls, hippopotamuses really don't give a damn about what you think. Chances are the moment you approach a hippopotamus, it's gonna have you for lunch without seconds thoughts.
Another factor that adjusts the difficulty factor to taming a creature is intelligence. Which would you rather tame?
A Lindsay?:
![[Image: dptbh7u97h181.png?width=300&format=png&a...1ccf6a07e9]](https://preview.redd.it/dptbh7u97h181.png?width=300&format=png&auto=webp&s=3bf914e0a53259d4d6005bc33300f51ccf6a07e9)
Or a Tanuki?:
![[Image: tanuki-transparent-found-on-web.jpg]](https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/slideshows/tanuki-transparent-found-on-web.jpg)
If you picked the Lindsay, congratulations. You got yourself a significantly easier-to-tame pet!
Of course while there are rules to taming a beast, there are some exceptions. For example, you seriously do NOT want to try taming Rimiru Tempest; he'll mess you up good even though he's just a slime! On the other hand, Tohru was swift to serve as Kobayashi's maid despite being a dragon. Also, even though Debby from the Debby the Corsifa manga series is a demon, handling Debby is generally as easy as keeping an eye on your neighbor's dog for an hour. Of course these are only exceptions. Dragons normally don't trust humans all that well, let alone enough to want to bang a person, plus demons aren't normally so dangerously stupid they'll nearly kill themselves by eating fly agaric mushrooms if you so much as take your eye off them for ten minutes. It is advisable to approach any creature with caution.
That being said, here are a few ways on taming a creature to become a familiar.
Capturing - About the most popular way to tame a creature is by capturing it. This method is popularized by the Pokémon series, where a Pokémon is captured just by tossing a Poké Ball at it and hoping for the best. Once the ball clicks shut, congratulations! You got yourself a new creature! Catching a creature is perhaps the easiest way to go about taming one, mainly because you're essentially putting the creature in a fairly helpless position where it'll have to lend you a hand. Even gods like Ho-Oh and Arceus will have to help you out! I wouldn't say it's exactly the most morally correct method; in fact, I'm sure outside of Pokémon, most creatures wouldn't appreciate you capturing them. It just wouldn't be fair to them if you stuffed them into a cage or a box, or even went out of your way to tie them up if they so happen to be one of those monster girl things people are all uppity about.
Feeding - This is perhaps the closest thing to how taming would work in real life, although while it takes some skill to tame an animal in real life. I say this because every creature wants one thing: food. And if you give it food, of course it would slowly gain your trust. In fiction, this couldn't be more apparent than in Minecraft where you can tame wolves into becoming your pet dog by feeding them bones. To me, this is about the most morally correct way of taming a creature despite the fact that it most likely would only work well for more harmless creatures like slimes and bats depending on the source material.
Bargaining - Some creatures are intelligent enough to negotiate with, most often demons, but this could also apply to more mundane things like driders and tanuki. While bargaining usually means you gotta do some arduous task or shell out something important like your soul in exchange for their alliance, at the same time, it's fairly easy to tame more intelligent entities by bargaining with them.
Taking Them On - Usually, the most powerful creatures that are willing to fight by your side will challenge you to a duel to see if you are worthy of their support. This can never be more apparent than Bahamut, a summon that can usually only be gotten if you defeat him in battle. Bahamut is usually the most powerful summon you can get, even giving some bosses trouble, so getting him to join you is well worth the arduous task of battling him.
I'm sure there are other ways, but I couldn't readily think of them as I hadn't spread out as far as Polyedit2000 had when it comes to fictional media. As such, I'll move on to the two key types of familiars.
Pets
Pets are creatures that you usually have physically by your side. They can either serve as a partner in battle or as a mere companion that's giving you a stat boost. In the former's case, this couldn't be more apparent than in Pokemon where the only way to fight is by having your pets go toe-to-toe against each other.
While sometimes pets in video games need little or no maintenance, in other times, you basically have to feed your pet in order for them to keep their trust in you. Otherwise, you're probably gonna be ditched or turned into a meal. Usually whenever you need to feed pets, pets are omnivorous and likely wouldn't care if you give them a can of 7-Up since they'll probably eat both the soda and the can at the same time.
Summons
Summons are usually used only in battle. In their case, you never have to do any form of maintenance in order to keep them around; however, you can only bring them out in battle. They typically only use one attack, whether it be a buff or an offensive spell, although in the case of Final Fantasy X, they'll basically fight your fights for you, even if they're up against the almighty Deer Tick at the end of the game.
Summons aren't normally entities you find laying out in the open like you would in Epic Battle Fantasy where summon are gotten as soon as you stuff a creature into a box. Rather, you have to either get some training from a wizard, learn about their existence from a scroll, or find them in special areas. In the case of training in order to master the art of summoning, summons can get gradually more powerful as time goes on, and once you master them, even the most unassuming of summons can be forces to be reckoned with.
So yeah, there's that. Once again, feel free to note anything that I've missed.
The term "familiar" is usually used as a fancy term for pets, but I think it's more of an umbrella term used for both pets and summons. While DnD defines familiars as spirits based around animals, when you dig deeper than DnD, you would notice that only summons follow the original definition from DnD. Pets, on the other hand, are more physical beings. Oddly enough, I've only seen the concept of familiars get used once in this entire forum's history, and that was in Stalker1599's RP where I got a spider pig. Before you get a familiar, you will need to tame a creature first.
Taming
Taming a creature isn't as clear cut as you might think it is. The deal with taming creatures is, the more dangerous they are to fight, the harder it is to tame them. The Harry Potter has its own system for rating how easy or how difficult it is to tame a monster, ranging from X for creatures that really aren't gonna do anything to XXXXX for creatures that are impossible to tame.: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Mini...sification
Generally, you're gonna have an easier time taming something easy to deal with like a slime or a spider than you will with formidable beasts like dragons, demons and hippopotamuses. Speaking of hippopotamuses, one of the factors that may make a creature more difficult to tame is aggression. While a demon usually keeps its cool when bargaining with unwitting souls, hippopotamuses really don't give a damn about what you think. Chances are the moment you approach a hippopotamus, it's gonna have you for lunch without seconds thoughts.
Another factor that adjusts the difficulty factor to taming a creature is intelligence. Which would you rather tame?
A Lindsay?:
Or a Tanuki?:
If you picked the Lindsay, congratulations. You got yourself a significantly easier-to-tame pet!
Of course while there are rules to taming a beast, there are some exceptions. For example, you seriously do NOT want to try taming Rimiru Tempest; he'll mess you up good even though he's just a slime! On the other hand, Tohru was swift to serve as Kobayashi's maid despite being a dragon. Also, even though Debby from the Debby the Corsifa manga series is a demon, handling Debby is generally as easy as keeping an eye on your neighbor's dog for an hour. Of course these are only exceptions. Dragons normally don't trust humans all that well, let alone enough to want to bang a person, plus demons aren't normally so dangerously stupid they'll nearly kill themselves by eating fly agaric mushrooms if you so much as take your eye off them for ten minutes. It is advisable to approach any creature with caution.
That being said, here are a few ways on taming a creature to become a familiar.
Capturing - About the most popular way to tame a creature is by capturing it. This method is popularized by the Pokémon series, where a Pokémon is captured just by tossing a Poké Ball at it and hoping for the best. Once the ball clicks shut, congratulations! You got yourself a new creature! Catching a creature is perhaps the easiest way to go about taming one, mainly because you're essentially putting the creature in a fairly helpless position where it'll have to lend you a hand. Even gods like Ho-Oh and Arceus will have to help you out! I wouldn't say it's exactly the most morally correct method; in fact, I'm sure outside of Pokémon, most creatures wouldn't appreciate you capturing them. It just wouldn't be fair to them if you stuffed them into a cage or a box, or even went out of your way to tie them up if they so happen to be one of those monster girl things people are all uppity about.
Feeding - This is perhaps the closest thing to how taming would work in real life, although while it takes some skill to tame an animal in real life. I say this because every creature wants one thing: food. And if you give it food, of course it would slowly gain your trust. In fiction, this couldn't be more apparent than in Minecraft where you can tame wolves into becoming your pet dog by feeding them bones. To me, this is about the most morally correct way of taming a creature despite the fact that it most likely would only work well for more harmless creatures like slimes and bats depending on the source material.
Bargaining - Some creatures are intelligent enough to negotiate with, most often demons, but this could also apply to more mundane things like driders and tanuki. While bargaining usually means you gotta do some arduous task or shell out something important like your soul in exchange for their alliance, at the same time, it's fairly easy to tame more intelligent entities by bargaining with them.
Taking Them On - Usually, the most powerful creatures that are willing to fight by your side will challenge you to a duel to see if you are worthy of their support. This can never be more apparent than Bahamut, a summon that can usually only be gotten if you defeat him in battle. Bahamut is usually the most powerful summon you can get, even giving some bosses trouble, so getting him to join you is well worth the arduous task of battling him.
I'm sure there are other ways, but I couldn't readily think of them as I hadn't spread out as far as Polyedit2000 had when it comes to fictional media. As such, I'll move on to the two key types of familiars.
Pets
Pets are creatures that you usually have physically by your side. They can either serve as a partner in battle or as a mere companion that's giving you a stat boost. In the former's case, this couldn't be more apparent than in Pokemon where the only way to fight is by having your pets go toe-to-toe against each other.
While sometimes pets in video games need little or no maintenance, in other times, you basically have to feed your pet in order for them to keep their trust in you. Otherwise, you're probably gonna be ditched or turned into a meal. Usually whenever you need to feed pets, pets are omnivorous and likely wouldn't care if you give them a can of 7-Up since they'll probably eat both the soda and the can at the same time.
Summons
Summons are usually used only in battle. In their case, you never have to do any form of maintenance in order to keep them around; however, you can only bring them out in battle. They typically only use one attack, whether it be a buff or an offensive spell, although in the case of Final Fantasy X, they'll basically fight your fights for you, even if they're up against the almighty Deer Tick at the end of the game.
Summons aren't normally entities you find laying out in the open like you would in Epic Battle Fantasy where summon are gotten as soon as you stuff a creature into a box. Rather, you have to either get some training from a wizard, learn about their existence from a scroll, or find them in special areas. In the case of training in order to master the art of summoning, summons can get gradually more powerful as time goes on, and once you master them, even the most unassuming of summons can be forces to be reckoned with.
So yeah, there's that. Once again, feel free to note anything that I've missed.