Wheel of Time RPG Warders and D&D FI wish amiliars

[Durzan]

okay so those of you familiar with wheel of time are familiar with Warders... which for those of you who don't know, are basically human familiars to the settings caster. They are created via a spell called Bond Warder. This spell is in the WoT RPG sourcebook.

Because my WoT setting currently does not have a way for you to get familiars, I was planning on creating a spell that allows you to Bond an animal as a familiar. But the. it occurred to me that the spell would function similarly to Bond Warder... and I thought... aww what the heck, why not create this spell and merge Bond Warder into it... to avoid redundancy.

The trouble with this is that I don't really know what the mechanical differences between a Warder and a familiar are. they function similarly, yet different. should I merge the two spells, it could have... interesting or unbalancing side effects.

[Gildedragon]

Well for one: one can only have one familiar
Two: you could port the "acquire familiar" feat from 3.5
Three: making them the same spell, with it producing a Warder when applied to a being with int 3+ and a familiar otherwise isn't bad, though familiars grant bonuses (bonus to skills, initiative, bonus feats, etc...) so being able to bond a menagerie might be very very good. Note that most familiars are tiny or smaller creatures. Perhaps what one would get would be closer to a ranger's or druid's animal companion

[MisterKaws]

Well, I know a LOT of ways to get humanoid familiars, although most of them require a lot of investment and ubermount cheese. That being said, I think the benefits of having a tiny pet with some bonuses and having a medium humanoid who can use all of the humanoid-only options balance out pretty well.

[One Step Two]

Did you know that there was an officially created DnD 3.0 Wheel of Time RPG book created? Don't take that as any form of discouragement for making your own setting, just a fun and awesome fact for any WoT fan! But more importantly, it has the Bond Warder Weave (spell). Just to give you some lines of comparison, here's how it works:

It's a 5th level weave, with a Will save to negate, the same weave can also be used to turn the bond off.
It has the following benefits:
Slow aging: while not as slow as Aes Sedai, it allows the warder to lead a longer life.
Compel to Obey: the Aes Sedai may use the bond to issue orders to the Warder, the warder is given a will save to resist, this part of the bond is frowned upon.
Connection: The bonded pair have a sense of direction, (very) approximate distance, and emotional and physical state of each other. The Awareness dims over great distances, but if concentrated on is otherwise unlimited.
Energy: The connected pair may share life energy, transferring HP between each other as needed, but it must be willing, both in giving and receiving, usable at up to 300ft.
Proximity: If the Aes Sedai wants the warder nearby, the warder knows and must draw closer. A will save allows the Warder to resist. Greater distances give the warder bonuses to resist, but a failed save means the Warder must travel towards them at the fastest reasonable means.
Resistance: The Warder can use the Aes Sedai's will save if it's higher than his own, and the Aes Sedai can use the Warders fort save if higher if they are within 5 miles.

Finally, if either party of the bond dies, the survivor takes 1d4 points of damage per level of their partner, fort halves.

You may not want to copy the spell exactly, but I hope it gives you good inspiration, as I think it nails it from the books pretty well.

[animewatcha]

Closest thing to familiar from the sourcebook is Wolfbrother, and that is more animal companion of wolves.

[Diarmuid]

Another thing to note is that all Warders are not created equal. The Bond Warder spell conveys the benefits mentioned earlier, but most Warders (notable ones in the books) were decently leveled NPC's of various martial classes. There was also a Prestige Class called Warder, one of the requirements for entry having been targeted by the Bond Warder spell.

Per the WoT book, Lan specifically was a 16th level Armsman/Warder/Blademaster.

The mechanical benefits of the Warder and a typical D&D familiar are not terrible similar, so simply combining them may not work out too well.

[Ashtagon]

Did you know that there was an officially created DnD 3.0 Wheel of Time RPG book created? Don't take that as any form of discouragement for making your own setting, just a fun and awesome fact for any WoT fan! But more importantly, it has the Bond Warder Weave (spell). Just to give you some lines of comparison, here's how it works:

Pretty sure the OP mentioned both the WoT book and that spell from that book in particular.

[Psyren]

The trouble with this is that I don't really know what the mechanical differences between a Warder and a familiar are. they function similarly, yet different. should I merge the two spells, it could have... interesting or unbalancing side effects.

Well most familiars aren't designed for combat, while Warders are... the opposite of that. So I'm not totally sure what the end goal is here. Are you trying to make a familiar that's more like a Warder, or a Warder that's more like a familiar?

As mentioned via the Lan example, Warders have class levels of their own. If anything they'd be more like a cohort to the AS than a class feature.