Familiar [Mystara]

These five special familiars look like tiny winged humanoids, but each is actually a god in the form such beings take when visiting the Prime Material Plane on a mission or as penance. While there, it serves a wizard of similar alignment. (This applies only to these five kinds, not to ordinary familiars.) The five kinds match the five spheres of the gods, each linked loosely to an alignment, but a god may pick any form; a god of the sphere of thought wearing a fylgar's shape would be bound to both law (the fylgar's leaning) and good (its sphere), and thus be lawful good.

A willing, bound familiar can speak telepathically with its master up to 1 mile away. Within that range the master can use all its senses, infravision included, and gains +3 on all saves while touching it.

Familiars attack with tail and bite (the ulzaq with claws too), with damage and tricks varying by kind. All are immune to nonmagical weapons and to cold and fire, can turn invisible as the spell, use detect magic and detect evil whenever they wish, and have 60-foot infravision. Each regenerates 1 hit point per round, as the regenerate spell, and extends this to a master within 10 feet. Their powers function at 21st level. If one reaches 0 hit points, its body is destroyed and its spirit returns home; the master permanently loses 1d4+1 hit points from the shattered bond and cannot gain a new familiar for at least a year.

Whether by choice or duty, depending on why they came, these familiars usually let a wizard bind them with find familiar. Unlike typical familiars they often pick their masters, seeking out a summoning wizard of the right alignment or presenting themselves and telling a chosen wizard to cast the spell, which then binds them normally. A few high-level wizards know a risky, costly and dangerous ritual to bind an unwilling one, but the bond is weaker, and an escaped captive devotes everything to punishing its former master. Once a week a familiar can lend divine insight on a major decision, equivalent to commune.

They can speak but rarely talk to anyone except their masters, helping with everything from experiments to epic quests. They excel at spying and scouting, but because their death hurts the master, wizards rarely use them as guards or fighters. They live wherever their masters do, and the two seldom part.

In true form these beings need no sustenance, but on the Prime they must eat, drink and rest like ordinary creatures.

Aryth (good): the plainest familiar, a foot tall, with bright green eyes, translucent black-pearl skin, and a long tail and wings so fine they are almost invisible. It can polymorph self into a sparrow or spider monkey. Its tail tip bristles with hundreds of tiny sleep stingers: a hit deals 1d4 and requires a save vs. spell or sleep for 2d4 rounds. It casts detect lie at will and protection from evil 10-foot radius three times a day, and never willingly serves a master who is not good.

Bogan: sharp-featured, with mottled blue-green skin and four little wings like a dragonfly's, a short scaly blue or green tail, and big blue eyes. Its beauty has lured many mortals into infatuation and betrayal. It can become a garter snake or a macaw. It slashes with its tail, bladed like a knife for most of its length, or sinks in poisoned teeth (save vs. paralyzation or tremble uncontrollably for 1d4 rounds, -2 to attack). It is immune to poison and casts charm person three times a day. It talks with anyone it thinks it can manipulate or harm, sometimes even letting good wizards bind it in hopes of ruining them.

Fylgar (lawful): the loveliest kind, with big bright wings, round childlike features framed in curls, and a long catlike tail with soft, feathery pastel fur; it wears light, gauzy clothes even in bad weather. It turns into a hawk or a black cat, gains +1 on initiative, flies superbly, and gets +4 to hit with its whiplike tail in natural form. It casts invisibility 10-foot radius three times a day and detect invisibility at will. It serves only lawful masters willingly, some sicken nearly to death when forced to serve a chaotic one, and it sends ulzaqs packing to their own plane at every chance.

Gretch (neutral leaning): lumpy and gray, with small pointed horns, oversized hands, a barbed tail, and stubby leathery wings that fly poorly. It turns into a raven or giant rat at will. Unpolymorphed, its poison tail forces a save vs. poison or the loss of 1 Dexterity per hit, regained at 1 point per turn starting a turn after the last loss; at Dexterity 3 the victim passes out until it climbs back to 4. It is immune to mind-affecting spells and can cast slow once a day. It prefers neutral masters but really chooses whoever will ask least of it, and it loves practical jokes; anyone who forces one into service should stay alert lest a joke 'accidentally' kill him.

Ulzaq: the ugliest, with lumpy, deformed features, scaly yellow-brown hide, gnarled horns and useless vestigial wings, always caked in filth from its favorite pastime of diving into dirt and refuse. It can turn into a bat or a frog at will. In natural form it fights with dirty talons and vicious fangs, and in any form its bite drains 1 Strength per hit (save vs. poison negates), regained at 1 point per turn starting a turn after the last loss; at Strength 3 the victim cannot be woken until it reaches 4. It is immune to electricity and can cause confusion once a day. Petty and venal, ulzaqs seek weak masters to manipulate and enjoy tormenting a target for weeks before bringing about its disgrace and violent death. They destroy beauty wherever they find it, attack fylgars on sight, and love plucking the feathers from a captive fylgar's wings.