Special Companions

When it first arrives to serve you, your mount has the following special powers.

Courage. Your mount does not fear battle and remains obedient and courageous even when badly wounded. It is immune to fear effects.

Empathic Link (magic). Your mount can detect your condition, location, and emotional state from up to one mile away. If it senses you are in danger, it rushes to your side unless physically prevented from doing so.

Improved Evasion. When the mount makes a Reflex save for half damage, it takes half damage on a failure and no damage on a success. While you are riding it, you gain the same benefit based on your mount’s saving throw (so you do not roll your own Reflex save).

Intelligence. Your mount is far more intelligent than a normal animal of its kind. It can understand the same languages you do, though it cannot speak.

Share Saving Throws (magic). If your mount makes a saving throw while you are riding it, it can use its own total modifier or yours, whichever is higher.

Sure-Footed. Your mount is exceptionally nimble and sure-footed. It can enter dungeons and even handle stairs, though not without some trepidation.

A familiar is a magical servant in the form of a tiny animal. A witch or wizard cannot have more than one familiar at the same time.

A familiar starts off as a normal animal, but it gains new powers when it bonds with a witch or wizard. To bond with a familiar, you must complete a special ritual which takes 8 hours and consumes magical materials that cost 100 sp. The selected animal must be present throughout the ritual. As soon as the ritual is complete, the animal changes to a magical beast and becomes your familiar.

Natural Armor. Add this bonus to the normal AC for a creature of the familiar’s type.

Intelligence. The familiar’s intelligence is increased to the level shown. Your familiar can understand all the same languages as you, but cannot speak them (except a raven, which can learn to speak one of your languages to the extent its intelligence permits).

Hit points. A familiar’s maximum hit points are equal to half those of its master. For effects based on Hit Dice, the familiar’s Hit Dice are equal to its master’s.

Empathic Link (magic). You and your familiar share an empathic link while within one mile of one another. This link transmits basic emotions, such as fear, hunger, happiness, or curiosity. You can detect your familiar’s emotions, and the strength of these emotions, but not their cause. You can also tell when your familiar is asleep or unconscious. Your familiar can tell all the same information about you.

Share Spells (magic). If you wish, you may have any spell you cast on yourself also affect your familiar, for as long as it remains within 5 feet of you.

Improved Evasion. When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, the familiar takes no damage on a successful saving throw, or half damage on a failure.

Share Saving Throws (magic). When your familiar makes a saving throw, it uses its own total modifier or yours, whichever is higher.

Deliver Touch Spells (level 3, magic). The familiar can deliver touch spells for you. When you cast a spell with a range of touch, you can transfer the spell to the familiar if it is within your reach. The familiar can then deliver the touch spell as a standard action, using your own mêlée attack bonus if a touch attack is required.

Speak with Master (level 5, magic). You and your familiar can converse using a private language that other creatures cannot understand (except perhaps by magic).

Speak with Animals of its Type (level 7, magic). The familiar can communicate with animals of approximately the same type as itself, including giant or dire variants. For example, a cat can talk to any kind of cat, from a housecat to a dire tiger.

If your familiar dies, or you choose to dismiss it, you immediately gain a negative level (see Energy Drain). You cannot bond with a new familiar until this negative level has been removed.

A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be. Unlike a character, a familiar can be raised from the dead multiple times, and does not suffer any permanent penalty to its Constitution. Restoring your familiar to life removes the negative level caused by its death.

A dismissed familiar immediately loses all special abilities and returns to being a normal creature of its kind. The same happens to a familiar whose master is killed. If the master is later returned from the dead, the familiar regains abilities appropriate to the master’s level.

A fairy guardian is a tiny winged fairy that serves as a friend and companion to a fairy knight (a variant of the ranger class). The fairy resembles a tiny glowing person with insect wings. Usually, a fairy guardian is the opposite sex from the knight who is its ward.

Hit points. Your fairy’s maximum hit points are equal to half your own. For effects based on Hit Dice, its Hit Dice are equal to yours.

Fairy Dust (magic). A fairy guardian has a limited amount of fairy dust (as shown in the table above) that it can use to produce magical effects. It regains all its fairy dust when it takes an eight-hour rest. Unless otherwise specified, using fairy dust in combat requires a standard action.

Blink (magic). Using fairy dust, the fairy can shift itself onto the ethereal plane, though only for a few seconds. The fairy can use this ability as a reaction in combat when it would otherwise be hit by an attack. It reappears at the start of its next turn.

Empathic Link (magic). You and your fairy share an empathic link while within one mile of one another. This link transmits basic emotions, such as fear, hunger, happiness, or curiosity. You can detect your fairy’s emotions, and the strength of these emotions, but not their cause. You can also tell when your fairy is asleep or unconscious. Your fairy can tell all the same information about you.

Guide attacks. Your guardian fairy can help you in battle by distracting your enemies and pointing out their weak spots. To do so, your fairy must be within 10 feet of the creature you attack, and must use its standard action. If your attack succeeds, you do extra damage equivalent to the Favoured Enemy damage for a normal ranger of your level.

Healing (magic). With a sprinkle of fairy dust, your fairy can heal you or another creature of 1d8 + 1 damage.

Improved Evasion. When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, the fairy takes no damage on a successful saving throw, or half damage on a failure.

Share Saving Throws (magic). When your fairy makes a saving throw, it uses its own total modifier or yours, whichever is higher.

Shed Light (magic). Your fairy can shed pale light in a 10-foot radius. It can also suppress this ability if desired.

Invisibility (level 3, magic). Your fairy can turn itself invisible as a standard action. This invisibility ends if the fairy attacks or uses its fairy dust.

Light flash (level 3, magic). Using fairy dust, the fairy can produce a bright flash of light that blinds any creature within 15 feet for one round (DC 20 Reflex negates).

Bestow invisibility (level 5, magic). Using fairy dust, the fairy can bestow invisibility on you or another creature. The affected creature remains invisible for 1 hour or until it attacks or casts a spell. One dose of dust is required to affect a creature of size medium or smaller; the amount required is doubled for each size category above medium.

Bestow flight (level 7, magic). Using fairy dust, the fairy can bestow flight on you or another creature. The affected creature can fly for 1 hour with a speed of 50 feet and good manoeuvrability. Multiple doses of dust are needed for large creatures, as with invisibility.

Fairy circle (level 9, magic). Using fairy dust, the fairy can create a magical ring that lasts for 1 hour. By stepping into the ring, creatures can pass from the material plane into the ethereal planes, or back again. Creatures native to the ethereal plane can also use the ring to enter the material world. It is possible for creatures to become stranded on the wrong plane if they fail to return to the ring before the hour is up.