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Question Lifeline / Maggie Finson

7 years 10 months ago - 7 years 10 months ago #1 by Malady
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    • So, she takes a familiars class, without a familiar, according to the wiki, and her page only got into the Wizard Category category after I added her...

    So, her magical abilities are not very emphasized?

    The Familiars clasd is the most interesting, I find, as She Has No Familiar. Anyone wanna offer up an explanation? ... Could be writer error, meaning Foxfire instead...

    But, might she have been learning how to get a familiar? ... Did she have the class with Clover? That might have caused some tensions, especially if the class also had Foxfire...
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    Last Edit: 7 years 10 months ago by Malady.
    7 years 10 months ago #2 by E. E. Nalley
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    • She could have been thinking about getting a familiar; there are lots of good reasons. The Familiar can serve as an essence battery, can preform complex tasks for the wizard far above what an ordinary specimen of the animal can and is an excellent guard.

    The down side is a familiar is a material link to the mage if captured you can attack the mage, through the familiar. And there are other downsides as well, Maggie probably just decided it wasn't worth the risk.
    I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
    Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791
    7 years 10 months ago #3 by Astrodragon
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    • Not all mages have familiars, and especially when going to Whateley - neither Glyph or Dragonsfyre has one, for example.
    While its likely one gets aquired at some point during their stay at Whateley, its by no means an automatic thing.
    I love watching their innocent little faces smiling happily as they trip gaily down the garden path, before finding the pit with the rusty spikes.
    7 years 10 months ago #4 by Valentine
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    • Astrodragon wrote: Not all mages have familiars, and especially when going to Whateley - neither Glyph or Dragonsfyre has one, for example.
    While its likely one gets aquired at some point during their stay at Whateley, its by no means an automatic thing.


    I don't believe Mrs. Horton has one, nor does Mrs. Carson.
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    7 years 10 months ago #5 by Schol-R-LEA
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    • Or she could have been taking it to learn more about how other wizards operate. She seems to have a pretty broad interest in magic in general, despite mostly focusing on healing magic.
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    7 years 10 months ago #6 by null0trooper
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    • E. E. Nalley wrote: The down side is a familiar is a material link to the mage if captured you can attack the mage, through the familiar. And there are other downsides as well, Maggie probably just decided it wasn't worth the risk.


    A downside for the School, with regard to keeping the paperwork tidy and flowing smoothly, is that there may some confusion as to which one is the familiar.
    Forum-posted ideas are freely adoptable.

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    7 years 10 months ago #7 by Malady
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    • ^ That does raise the question of "How smart can a familiar be?"


    Bekky does say that Slyboots helps her when she's making a fool of herself...
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    7 years 10 months ago #8 by Kristin Darken
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    • Anywhere from regular animal intelligence to well above human intelligence. MOST probably weigh in at above the normal intelligence for their natural breed, but below that of a human being. Familiars are often bonded very early in a mage's career and that has some obvious effects on things, after all. The complexity and power involved in the spell that draws and enhances the creature that is to become the familiar, has to be within the capability of the caster calling the familiar. Testing your skills to their absolute limits and committing a huge 'sacrifice' by putting large Essence stores into the casting of the spell, despite how that slows your growth in other ways (instead of keeping that Essence in investments), could result in a far more empowered and capable familiar.

    Or not.

    It could also just mean you lose more when the spell fails because the 'right' creature wasn't available and the Essence grounds out without having found its target.

    But its also not likely that you'll use the simplest call familiar spell you can find, burn a bare minimum of Essence, and get a familiar that has much capability beyond a pet. Sure, you'll be able to draw some Essence from it... but you can do THAT with a wand, enchanted to be a storage device. If you want a pet that can hold Essence, function as a third (or even fourth) hand in casting, communicate more than basic commands and emotions... and so on... then you wait to get a familiar until you are older, more experienced, and can summon a familiar with all the skill and power at your command.

    A lot of Mages are likely to have a 'generic' familiar with the lifetime of their first familiar... and only get an especially good one, when that familiar has perished from age. Assuming you don't get a familiar like a tortoise that will live as long as you do.
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    7 years 10 months ago #9 by JG
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    • Look on the bright side, if your tortoise is a mediocre familiar you can steal some chemical waste from TCRI and transform your familiar into an intelligent humanoid with a love for pizza!

    Or watch in horror as your shellbacked buddy dissolves horrifically.
    7 years 10 months ago #10 by DanZilla
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    • I'm picturing a giant Tortoise with a hut on its back for some reason... or maybe just a mushroom circle or some other sort of portal set-up... though an inscribed magical circle could be handy too... or maybe a hobbiton-style door to an extraplanar area...
    7 years 10 months ago - 7 years 10 months ago #11 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • We all know if Jade was a mage, her familiar would be a giant tortoise swimming through space with four great elephants standing on it and a spinning disk carried on their backs upon which all the world turns.

    She'd call him 'Sammy' and have him crunch on the remains of the worlds Billie destroys.
    Last Edit: 7 years 10 months ago by Phoenix Spiritus.
    7 years 10 months ago #12 by Mister D
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    • It may come from a different narrative universe, but have a look at the "Jhereg" stories by Steven Brust, for a good description of how an effective familiar can enhance the mage's spell-casting.
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    7 years 10 months ago #13 by Valentine
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    • Phoenix Spiritus wrote: We all know if Jade was a mage, her familiar would be a giant tortoise swimming through space with four great elephants standing on it and a spinning disk carried on their backs upon which all the world turns.

    She'd call him 'Sammy' and have him crunch on the remains of the worlds Billie destroys.


    Silly, if Jade were a mage it wouldn't take her long to figure out how to be her own familiar.

    I'll add to MisterD's recommendation of the Brust series for best done familiar magic I have seen.
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    6 years 4 months ago #14 by Rose Bunny
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    • In light of Maggie's issues with GSD and spirits, Were her feelings towards Arachne mentioned? I don't remember. But given that both were in the Lit Chix, and Arachne's spirit can cause her to become spidery, how would that have resolved? If she had not Oops'ed and killed Murphy, would Simone have been next on her list, as Maggie was clearly going off the rails by then?
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    6 years 4 months ago #15 by Malady
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    • There aren't many mentions of Arachne, and from what I can see, none that cover Maggie's feelings about her.

    Then again, I've just been looking at Lit Chix stories. Maybe the Murphy series is more informative.
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    6 years 4 months ago #16 by Cryptic
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    • I was wondering that myself Rose. I'd think part drooling spider trumps bear in the Ick! department.
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    6 years 4 months ago #17 by Rose Bunny
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    • Cryptic wrote: I was wondering that myself Rose. I'd think part drooling spider trumps bear in the Ick! department.


    Well, maybe now that the deed is done, when they do a search of Maggie's room, they can find her manifesto diary, and we can see some more of the creepy that was festering in her brain and growing... E.E. Please make this happen.
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    6 years 4 months ago #18 by E. E. Nalley
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    • Rose Bunny wrote: E.E. Please make this happen.


    I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
    Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791
    6 years 3 months ago #19 by Malady
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    • Wait... How many people has Lifeline inadvertently killed now?

    Aunghadhail was killed because she didn't do the Truth Spell to Stronghold's specs.

    Murphy was killed because she screwed up.

    ----

    If I stretch, I could say something like "Heyoka was killed because she was so focused on killing Grizzly, that she missed the signs that could've allowed her to stop Quickdraw."

    ----

    Lifeline is sorta an ironic codename. Deathline, is more like it? :lol: :groan:
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