I like how Find Familiar works in the 5e PHB, with a celestial, fey, or
fiendish nature according to the nature of the mage who summons the familiar.
However, I’d like to vary things up a little bit more, so here are some
not-so-familiar alternatives to how to “skin” your familiar. Like with the
familiar options in the books, the appearance doesn’t change your familiar’s
abilities or traits; it just gives them a different flavor.
1.
Abstract-
the familiar is an abstract entity, either appearing as a drawing or a living
sentence or equation of such complexity forms the creature.
2.
Blood
creature- the familiar is summoned through perverse blood sacrifice; it
continually dribbles blood to the ground. The caster must slice open his own
flesh (doing no damage) to call the familiar.
3.
Construct-
The familiar seems to have an obvious artificial or mechanical nature.
Clockwork familiars are a favored design here. Another favored alternative is
for the familiar to be made of paper, much as the shikigami.
4.
Corpse
creature- either skeletal, zombie, or ghoulish. The spellcaster doesn’t
conjure the familiar so much as pull its festering form from the ground.
5.
Diseased-
the familiar seems unnaturally diseased. It may be pox-ridden, twitch
unnaturally, molt uncontrollably, etc.
6.
Elemental-
Pick one or a combination of the elements that the familiar is made of.
7.
Fleshwarped-
the familiar’s body has become warped or mutated in some fashion.
8.
Gaunt or
Obese- the creature seems either unnaturally gaunt and frail or unnaturally
bloated and obese.
9.
Gelatinous-
the familiar is made of ooze, slime, or jelly.
10.
Ghostly-
the familiar gives off an eerie glow and appears almost insubstantial or
translucent.
11.
Obnoxious
Hat- The familiar appears normal but wears a gaudy, obnoxious, and/or
unsightly hat. (Roll on an appropriate table or just come up with the most
obnoxious thing you can think of.)
12.
Personal
Avatar- the familiar bears an unnatural resemblance to the spellcaster, going
up to having a tiny freakish human(oid) head instead of a normal animal head
for its species.
13.
Plantform-
the familiar is not so much an animal but a mass of plant or fungal life
emulating an animal.
14.
Pirate-
the familiar appears quite pirate like. It might have a bandana, an eye-patch,
or even a peg-leg. Regardless, it seems pretty rough and tumble. Other variant
“costumes” might be possible, such as ninja, cowboy, Viking, etc.
15.
Pseudonatural-
a hideous, tentacled, slathering mockery of life marked as one of the Far
Realms, the Dungeon Dimensions, or other dimensions better left forgotten.
16.
Runecarved-
glowing, magical sigils or tattoos have been etched into the creature’s flesh,
fur, scales, or feathers.
17.
Shadowform-
ripped from the spellcaster’s own shadow, the familiar appears to be made of
the umbral substance that makes up the Plane of Shadow. The familiar may even
appear flat/2-D like a true shadow.
18.
Swarmform-
The familiar is not made of a single creature but of many tinier creatures that
form a single solid creature. These could be miniature examples of the base
familiar, or of smaller creatures such as bugs, worms, maggots, etc.
19.
Tumor-
the creature is not so much a separate creature but a tumorous growth taken
from the caster’s own body. Each time the familiar is dismissed or recalled, it
joins or splits off of the caster’s body.
20.
Uncanny
Valley- the familiar appears more or less normal, but there’s just
something quite noticeably off.
Perhaps it’s the way it gazes at things or it moves totally unlike a living
thing should. It needn’t be obviously malicious to qualify- perhaps it’s too
sweet or cute to be natural…
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