Magic Item Questions

[arma]

1) on the next page
2) Yes.

This is too easy. We need more complicated questions! ;D

[Runemaster]

You're right arma, it would have been really very simple . But I can not find that Table even on the next page. In my Players Companion there is no such a Table in the whole Spells- or Enchanting-chapter. (but perhaps I once again overread something in the book )

There are some hints about the Key Knowledge in the Dispelling Named Spells - passage, so the Table is not that important, but would be interesting.

[arma]

Darn, you're right.
I had checked the first version of the PDF, and that had it, but didn't check the first printing, which doesn't. So that probably got caught before it went to drivethru even, which is unusual...
Anyway:
it's 1 per equivalent Discipline status level (1-4: 1, 5-8: 2, 9-12: 3, 13-15: 4).

[Neverbourne]

[arma]

1) NO! Don't let the item foll you! It calls itself puppet familiar, but that doesn't make it a familiar. And "puppet familiar" isn't even its real Name (it's just the "class" of treasure it belongs to), which it keeps secret from you! Once, in another forum, I called myself Kerkzon the Magnificent. I didn't feel any different, though. So that's how I found out it doesn't work that way.

2) Yes, and this works as follows:
You enact a magic ritual which turns it from an item into a living creature. In the process, it looses its magic. You then go through the familiar thingy as normal.
There are alternatives, though. For example, you could simply enhance the item's magic, adding another rank. And if that rank says "Effect: Can be used like a familiar." then it can be made into a familiar.
However, given the insidiousness of the puppet and its strange display of emotions, I don't know why you'd want to have a familiar like that.

3) Yes, by definition, any characteristic required derives from Attributes. I see how you'd need Defenses and all, since these things practically scream "punch me in the face". Note that it _shares_ the owners Recovery Tests rather than just having the same number, as with the Death etc. Rating. This is the puppet familiar for you. You give it life, and it runs around and gets punched in the face and then it leeches off YOUR Recovery Tests to heal itself...

4) No, because it can't play tricks on people and trolls generally display no ill will towards it.

5) No. Puppet familiars are generally lazy (if they weren't, they'd walk around on their own instead of requiring you to animate them), so they are not willing to be bothered with learning things.

6) Probably, but I really don't know what you'd want with 14 Circles' worth full of shared matrices when Armored Matrices offer you a "free" thread. Must be the familiar exerting its evil influence on you, making you take Blood Magic Damage...

7) You got to keep it on your person. That's the lazyness again. You animate it, and it still wants to be carried around all the time (I now see where you got your windling idea from, since its the same thing with these flying pests -- they can fly, for Mynbruje's sake, why do they insist on sitting on peoples' shoulders?).

8) No. To cast a spell, you need the Thread Weaving variant the spell uses to attune. Surprisingly, not the puppet's fault. It doesn't net additional matrices either, and this clearly is the puppet's fault, simply because it is to fault for so many things.

9) It IS communal matrices, but that doesn't mean you can cast from them. Two magicians of the same Discipline (or a human having learned the right stuff with Versatility) can. Two magicians of different Disciplines can use the two matrices, but can't cast each other's spells, and if attuning a new spell, dislodging the one that was already in there.
Now, here's the one thing good I have to say about the puppet familiar: Normally, you can only use an item up to the thread rank you've woven. To be able to use a matrix as an Enhanced Matrix, you got to go to Rank 3. You had the matrix all along, but only at Rank 3 can you attune it as Enhanced. But: You gain access to the matrix at Rank 1. So, someone who wove to Rank 3 could attune an Enhanced Matrix that a Rank 1 weaver then gains access to (but only for casting, if he reattunes it, he can re-attune it as a normal matrix only)! You'll only have to look out because the Rank 1 weaver only has access to one of the two matrices. That problem goes away at Rank 2, in any case.

This is the puppet familiar for you.
I'd advise to get a dog, honestly. ;D

[Neverbourne]

Touche' good sir. I see I must try harder to stump you. Challenge Accepted!!

[Anunnaki]

I approve of this competition... Let the games continue!

[crzydevil]

Thank you, Arma, for one of the most entertaining reads I've had in a while. This thread has made me quite certain that I will be introducing puppets into my game soon.

Apparently, we need a "Stump Arma" thread.

[arma]

Great, now people will expect me to be funny when answering rules questions. I knew is was a bad idea when I typed it...