My New Succubus Familiar...Ideas to Tone it Down?

[gfishfunk]

Last night I sort of RPed my way into a Succubus familiar. Sort of. It came out of left field. At the end of the session, the DM said, 'Well, you now have a familiar.' We are level 5. A succubus companion would be OPed, of course. Also, we are a one-two encounter per long rest player group due to the DM's playstyle. Right or wrong, that is how things stand at the moment. This DM gives stuff like this away without a second thought, and his encounters are usually pretty hard. Someone else got his fingers on one hand cut off and is now working on a mechanical hand.

A powerful figure in the city is controlled by the matron of a brothel of succubi. The matron is also a succubus. Our party decided to try and free him by overturning the leadership of the brothel and getting a new succubus in charge of the brothel. We pool money and, errr, send a request for several ladies from the brothel as we tried to get one in particular to try and reach an arrangement.

They arrived: the one we were after and this horrible drunk of a succubus named Kate. We tried to separate them so that we could make the offer, and my character got 'charmed' by Kate.

My character is a vicious Dragonborn Barbarian / Bladelock that lacks social graces and is somewhere around true neutral -- wavering between lawful with some ideals and chaotic, and wavering between good with the protection of children a huge priority and evil with a cruel streak. Also, he is a local celebrity after he soloed a boxing encounter and won, and getting into a contract to box every few nights to entertain others. He is a passionate idiot with horrible ideas.

Well....I proceed to do the following things while charmed:
- I played her an ode on my bagpipes while we were both wasted on alcohol. I am proficient in bagpipes due to my Outlander background.
- She rode on my back as I ran around the room
- We discussed getting matching tattoos. We are definitely doing this next session.
- I entertained her by creating a little flame dragon that terrorized a little flame village using prestidigitation (its a stretch for the spell, but its a harmless entertaining effect), tearing apart little flame people and demolishing little flame buildings as we both laughed.

Then, several Incubi from the brothel showed up (having figured out our game) to retrieve the succubi. The first succubus had decided to side with us. Kate was simply smashed and was all like 'F--- off!' So we fought them. The DM was originally going to have Kate switch sides, but felt that I won her over so thoroughly (I was just trying to play being charmed to the full degree) that she was going to stick with me...as a familiar.

So, I am looking at refluffing.

Find Familiar grants a telepathic bond, the ability to look through that creature's eyes (and senses), the ability to re-summon the creature if it is reduced to 0 hp, and the ability to deliver 'touch' spell attacks. Succubi have their own features that should definitely NOT carry over.

I was going to refluff (without changing the mechanical properties of 'find familiar') to include succubi properties as follows:


- Telepathic Bond / Look Through Senses: Kate is awful. She keeps recasting Charm Person on my character every day, which reestablishes the psychic bond. Additionally, she is not-at-all ambitious. No grand scheme. She is very possessive of my character (as her patsy and meal ticket). If she were a modern day woman, she would be living off of disability checks from three dead relatives.

- Ability to Resummon: Succubi can hang out in the Ethereal Plane. When she takes a little bit of damage (using the stats of one of the normal familiars), she runs away to the Ethereal plane. Rather than casting the spell 'find familiar' as a ritual over ten minutes to resummon, My character must take 10 minutes of coaxing to get her to return, pleading and comforting and all that.

- Touch attack spells: I currently do not have any. When I do get some of them, I'll go ahead and cast them through her as 'her spells', though still using my own spell slots, casting power, etc. Notably, I am looking at getting Vamperic Touch next level, which would really fit Kate.

I was thinking of using the stats for a commoner with higher charisma (like 14?), low wisdom (6 or 8, super unwise), and low intelligence (Maybe 8); no attack (as is usual for familiars).

Any thoughts? I'm pretty sure my DM will go with this if I propose it. Since I run a game on off-weeks, he trusts me not to power-gamer-gank the game with stuff like this.

[smcmike]

This is really fun.

[Freelance GM]

I was going to refluff (without changing the mechanical properties of 'find familiar') to include succubi properties as follows:


- Telepathic Bond / Look Through Senses: Kate is awful. She keeps recasting Charm Person on my character every day, which reestablishes the psychic bond. Additionally, she is not-at-all ambitious. No grand scheme. She is very possessive of my character (as her patsy and meal ticket). If she were a modern day woman, she would be living off of disability checks from three dead relatives.

- Ability to Resummon: Succubi can hang out in the Ethereal Plane. When she takes a little bit of damage (using the stats of one of the normal familiars), she runs away to the Ethereal plane. Rather than casting the spell 'find familiar' as a ritual over ten minutes to resummon, My character must take 10 minutes of coaxing to get her to return, pleading and comforting and all that.

- Touch attack spells: I currently do not have any. When I do get some of them, I'll go ahead and cast them through her as 'her spells', though still using my own spell slots, casting power, etc. Notably, I am looking at getting Vamperic Touch next level, which would really fit Kate.

I was thinking of using the stats for a commoner with higher charisma (like 14?), low wisdom (6 or 8, super unwise), and low intelligence (Maybe 8); no attack (as is usual for familiars).

Any thoughts? I'm pretty sure my DM will go with this if I propose it. Since I run a game on off-weeks, he trusts me not to power-gamer-gank the game with stuff like this.

First, pretty funny story. I've got an alternate interpretation, though: your character becomes her familiar.

"A familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands." Your character is charmed by Kate anyways, so a compulsion to obey her isn't a stretch. Unlike a normal familiar, you can attack. She can communicate with you telepathically, see through your eyes and senses (because she's too lazy to tag along with the party), and you can deliver her touch spells while she's within range.

Instead of shunting you into a pocket dimension when you aren't needed, Kate can spontaneously summon you to her location. This is a fun mechanic in case the DM needs a filler session where you and the party have to bail her out of trouble or something.

At your DM's discretion, whenever you drop to 0 HP, she can plane shift/teleport you to a safe location and stabilize you. Maybe each time this happens, you get just a tiny, cumulative bit of Abyssal taint or something. Or you register as a CE Fiend for the purposes of Abjuration/Divination magic for 1 hour, or 1 day. That could lead to some problems.

This way, since you're the Familiar, it's a story-driving inconvenience with some situational perks instead of a Succubus more or less permanently joining the party as an ally.

Just an idea.

[Segev]

One possibility would be to use Imp stats and have one of its forms be "Succubus." Make her "imp" form be a sexy female imp.

[gfishfunk]

Good feedback.

As a DM (though I am a player in this campaign), I like the idea of the reverse familiar. As a player in this campaign, I do not think it would work. The succubus is truly incompetent (determined by a series of horribly failed rolls and the resulting spontaneous drunk behavior). That level of mastermind is beyond her.

I will look at the Imp stats and see if that will work.

[poolio]

Doesn't sound op to me at all, seems like it'll be a lot of fun :smallsmile:

[bookkeeping guy]

So I saw this thread because I had this come up in a campaign too. It's a popular RPG and Lit RPG theme now. There are specific questions that need answering and I'd like to know what you think. Please :)

Having ONLY CHA doesn't seem like the succubus familiar would be able to survive. It should have 1 stat also good like Con maybe but I thought maybe the other stats being low is good. It also would be helpful to not be too dependent on this familiar if many of the other stats are low.

Also the idea of her thinking this is a reverse familiar situation where she thinks she is in control is totally to character for this type of beast! It would be interesting play.

But couple of things to iron out.

Would this essentially be like you are married to a nympho? How demanding would she be for 'meals'? What # of times per day is realistic for a succubus?

Would she even where clothes? If she's a true succubus she might not like clothes. And if so what would happen if you are going around town? (probably get arrested...for one or both of you. and if not they might figure out what she is.)

Also succubi feed of sex ... and I don't think you would want to share her. ( if it were me I wouldn't. ). So does that mean you die if you have sex with her? How dangerous is it for you to have this as a familiar? Many myths portray the succubus victims as dying or high risk to have any type of relationship with? How would this work out?

Would there be love rivalries to keep a familiar like this? ( I would think there would be either from humans, incubus, or even other succubi like sisters perhaps?

(CORRECTION: this love rivalry thing could be really a problem now that I think of it. Nobody wants to share their girlfriend. How would you prevent NTR situations on this??? Serious potential issue in a sex demon or not?)

She would be useful as a lie detector...

Also should a familiar like this only have one face or still have alter self? It would seem confusing if there is a new face everyday. I wonder if nerfing the alter self would be best.

And I think at least one of the monster manuals had this monster listed at 6HD. So...is there a cost to pay in feats or something to have a higher HD familiar? How do you work that out?

[gfishfunk]

So I saw this thread because I had this come up in a campaign too. It's a popular RPG and Lit RPG theme now. There are specific questions that need answering and I'd like to know what you think. Please :)

Having ONLY CHA doesn't seem like the succubus familiar would be able to survive. It should have 1 stat also good like Con maybe but I thought maybe the other stats being low is good. It also would be helpful to not be too dependent on this familiar if many of the other stats are low.

Also the idea of her thinking this is a reverse familiar situation where she thinks she is in control is totally to character for this type of beast! It would be interesting play.

But couple of things to iron out.

Would this essentially be like you are married to a nympho? How demanding would she be for 'meals'? What # of times per day is realistic for a succubus?

Would she even where clothes? If she's a true succubus she might not like clothes. And if so what would happen if you are going around town? (probably get arrested...for one or both of you. and if not they might figure out what she is.)

Also succubi feed of sex ... and I don't think you would want to share her. ( if it were me I wouldn't. ). So does that mean you die if you have sex with her? How dangerous is it for you to have this as a familiar? Many myths portray the succubus victims as dying or high risk to have any type of relationship with? How would this work out?

Would there be love rivalries to keep a familiar like this? ( I would think there would be either from humans, incubus, or even other succubi like sisters perhaps? That could make for some interesting material. )

She would be useful as a lie detector...

Also should a familiar like this only have one face or still have alter self? It would seem confusing if there is a new face everyday. I wonder if nerfing the alter self would be best.

And I think at least one of the monster manuals had this monster listed at 6HD. So...is there a cost to pay in feats or something to have a higher HD familiar? How do you work that out?

How it works practically for me is that she basically has the familiar stats (just pick one off of the list), but tinkered to have a bonus on Cha, and 8-ish Wis / Int. She can do anything that a familiar can do. I think I picked an Owl's stats (none of the abilities) and adjusted them somewhat. I lowered her flight speed and made her reluctant to fly around. As for low hit die, she basically runs off after getting hit -- disappearing into the ethereal plane. I used none of the actual succubus stats or abilities for her.

As a player, I make sure that she provides no tangible benefit than what a normal familiar would provide. When people try to talk to her to get information that she should know, she gives vague, unhelpful, and obviously misleading information that shows she is largely ignorant and is making up stuff to sound smart.

I am not playing her as a vicious, evil, sex-crazed succubus. I'm playing her as a mooching, self-centered, not-the-brightest succubus. As for the rest of the lore, you can throw it out or adapt it to your table as you see fit.