SSE An idea for more permanent and interactive familiars.

[Taramafor]

Let's think about this for a moment. We have a measly timed conjuration spell of "Summon familiar".

 

But there's one thing the first Neverwinter Nights game did very well that Skyrim doesn't even try with when it comes to proper familiars. What do I mean by "proper" familiar? Well a familiar is a summoned creature that is tied with the spell caster in a more permanent manner then a nor conjured creature is. It's a companion. What's more they tend to come in a variety of forms. Normally one, but I suppose it could be possible to have multiple spells to allow for multiple species. Though only one at once for balance purposes of course (despite not being timed summons it would be possible to unsummon them).

 

Now let's look at Skyrim's familiar. It's... a ghost wolf. Not only is it a lazy copy and paste of a ghost texture, they went with a WOLF. It could have been any number of other things. A very small talking dragon that likes riddles. A hellhound blazing with fire. A badger. Even a spider would have been more outside the box. But nope, we get a wolf. Only when we see the undead horse in it's more solid state do we get to really see what a proper familiar looks like. A summoned animal/creature that does not simply disappear after some time. So I can at least give some credit there. Even if they did kind of go the easy route with picking a horse. The drawback there however is that it is tied into the Soul Cain alone.

 

So we have one decent familiar in the game. That undead horse. I kind of forgot the name (I remember it begins with an A though). Thing is, we can't do much with it. Yes, we can ride it. But how can we interact with it? How can we interact with that ghost wolf? Or any other animal/creature? Well, we have yet another example in Skyrim itself in a way. Balbus, the talking dog. Imagine having a creature follow you around all the time that was like that. But a little less up your butt and able to be told to put in some distance when you're trying to do things like cast a ward spell at the mages school. Balbus is a good example of what a familiar can be like. He talks with you, even if what is said is a little limited. You can tell him to stop following you (the equivilent of unsummoning him) or to follow you around. Until the quest is done at least. Yet here we are also restricted. He provides no positive effects for the player beyond being a distraction and he goes away forevermore once the quest is done. Balbus is flawed then. But can this be improved? Not with Balbus but with animals/creatures on a whole.

 

To this end I got to thinking about the first Neverwinter Night's game. Where you can summon a number of familiars and interact with them in different ways. Though it was all in text form. This becomes more restrictive with Skyrim because it means we need to see how we're interacting with them. Which means more work with animations. But I do remember a talking fairy dragon in Neverwinter Nights and it would talk to me. When it wanted to play a riddle game the riddle was different more often then not. It's a limited number of about 10 riddles chosen at random, but it was different and varied. Another familiar might be a giant spider that might give you a silk robe it made if you play with it enough (this is actually seen in Neverwinter Night's 2. though the spider itself isn't a familiar. You can have a familiar one in NW1 though).

 

Skyrim gets some things right, but I think it also gets some things wrong. Things that Morrowind did. Things that other RPG games did. And that's explaining what is happening through text as much as what is shown on the screen and with spoken words. That doesn't mean I don't want to see and hear what's going on. It simply means some "text description" could go a long way with enhancing the game. The player noticing a heirloom on an NPC for example. Without some way to clue the player in with text, you're limiting yourself to having another NPC tell or show you this. And just being told with a quest marker gets old fast.

 

But first let's go with what we know in the game. The seeing and the hearing. To begin with how can we get a familiar in the game at all that is a more permanent and interactive presence? First we'd need to be able to summon a multiple number of creatures (hopefully more solid and less ghost like) without them fading away after time. Ok, that's done. Now what?

 

Step 1: Make the familiar useful when it's present. Either in fights or useful in some other game mechanic way.

Step 2: Interacting with the familiar itself. What can we do with it? How does it entertain us when we're sitting at a tent and making a campfire?

 

Step 1 is easy enough. Buffs and debuffs. When the familiar is present it has positive and negative effects. Depending on the type it could help us to detect/avoid traps. Make a defensive animation as you near an enemy you have yet to see (better hearing, basically). give higher spell resistance or better spell damage. a debuff can be along the lines of a loss of max health for a while when the familiar dies (like with cold in survival). Or half your health being taken away. With additional magika and stamina effects. Would tie in nicely with survival. This would encourage players to look after their "pets". Which can of course be told to keep back from fights as well as engage at will.

 

so that's step 1 covered. How do we cover step 2 then? well we'd probably need descriptive text in dialogue menus giving us choices as to what to do with them for a start. From here we could tell them to go and find some ingredients for alchemy. Both useful and interactive. If it's a canine (dog, wolf, hellhound. Hellhound could basically be deathhound on fire) or feline (panther, house cat, Sabertooth cat) it could roll over and the as the player rubs it belly. Though in the case of the hellhound maybe instead of rolling over it just snorts some smoke at you half the time if it isn't in the mood. If the familiar talks, like with the fairy dragon from Neverwinter NIghts 1, this opens up some more possibilities. Such as the randomised riddles. Maybe it will circle your head and then land next to you when you click on "Play with" or something. A badger might crawl up your leg, onto your shoulder and then hop off. Hmm, a hellhound could probably curl up in a campfire now that I think about it. That at least is simple enough on its own. This follows the lines of what followers do already with the amazing follower tweaks mod. It would do it naturally on its own. Could be more likely to be near a fire nearby too (say at an inn). If a familiar is an cold/ice type then they could be less likely to be near a fire. All of these things add to the immersion. Sarina herself wears a hood outside. The things each one does should be different and varied. Both outside of combat as well as in it.

 

Basically summon a none timed creature (perhaps change the summon familiar spell to give options as to what type along with unsummon). Have it give buffs when alive and debuffs for a while when it dies (say a day or two. Or otherwise sudden harsh penalties). Have it be interactive when not in combat and able to be both ordered around (distance. Engage at will or keep back and don't fight) and played with. It basically comes down with the playing with them thing. That's probably going to be the tricky part. Having multiple species helps in that regard. A badger would not do the same things as a hellhound for example. More variation.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Taramafor