Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:43 am
There are some optional familiars in Rifter 21, if you can find a copy. Most are original others are old supernatural favorites, like Worms of Taut. As always, subject to GM aproval. 
Bloodspray wrote:I know in the book it says "no supernatural" for the types of creatures that can be made into a familiar, and obviously, humanoid-level intelligence is right out, and many supernatural creatures have that, but....
Who in their right mind would get a familiar that is
1. A weak SDC squishy in a chaotic, violent MD/Magic world
&
2. Very short lived compared to the caster
...when the death of the familiar has negative effects on the mage? (loss of 10 HP permenantly plus a 50% chance of going into shock)
Now take a D-Bee shifter from a race that is MUCH longer lived than the typical Rifts human, and a campaign that pretty violent in it's own right, and well, the cool aspect of a familiar seems a pipe dream (or insanity).
Is there some way around the supernatural thing so that something like a Drakin Bird (PFR Monsters and Animals p38), or for some normal animal to be modified to be tougher _and_ long enough lived to be worth the trouble (and risk)?
I know that it says no supernatural creatures, as it does for all descriptions of familiars. Ignore it. Palladium has, in fact one of the Nightbane sourcebooks has a section on familairs from the Nightlands, and all of them are supernatural creatures (a few of them even have human intelligence).
The only rules for my games I would stick with would be the animal intelligence, and not creatures of magic (supernatural would be o.k., but magic is a whole different class of creatures).
)