[RPG] Can a Homunculus be given as a gift

dnd-4efamiliars

One of my players, at the start of our campaign, wants to have a companion. A Homunculus to be specific. As far as I have read, only a Wizard can create the familiar which I am happy to stick with since those are the basic rules in the source books. However, my player is an Elf Warlock, meaning she herself cannot complete the ritual to create the creature.

I was wondering if it was plausible to have (When she was a child) the Wizard bestowed the gift upon the Lady of the Elves. My theory after reading the process of creating a Homunculus is that as long as it is the blood of the master – the Elf – used in the ritual, the familiar will imprint on them, rather than the one speaking the spell.

Is this a plausible creation of a Familiar?

Best Answer

Do note that the 'Homunculus' you seem to be referring to is the D&D 3.5E or 5E homunculus. That particular form of Homunculus does not exist in the 4E ruleset.

So, to start off looking at the Homunculus you're talking about...

RAW

Wizards are the only ones who can create homunculi because they are the only ones who use magic in the 'right way' to be able to perform the ritual. As mentioned by you, this does not necessarily explicitly prohibit them from using someone else's blood in the ritual.

As Intended

Almost certainly 'No.' If a Wizard could make Homunculi for others....well....they aren't all that expensive to make. Why wouldn't a Wizard make a homunculus for absolutely everyone in the party?

Solution

Ultimately, this is your table. The DM adjudicates the rules and has full leeway to interpret them, ignore them, or add to them however they feel is necessary for the betterment of the game. If you want to say that a Powerful Wizard discovered an advanced form of the ritual that allows him to bequeath the creation on someone else by using their blood, and that he did so to gift such a creature to your player's character, then you can. You're the DM.

Since you are using the 4E ruleset, might I point you to the Arcane Familiar feat? This is the 4E way of getting a familiar, and is allowed to any Arcane Class, of which a Warlock certainly is one. All you have to do is take one of the options for familiars, reskin it into a Homunculus, and voila. Then you just make up some fluff about a Wizard, and you have a nice balanced addition.

Related Solutions

[RPG] formula to calculate level given experience

We'll start with this post:

"After 2nd level, the amount of experience you need to gain a level goes up by 250 points (i.e., you need +1,000 to reach level 2, +1,250 to reach level 3, etc.). After four levels of this, the 'additional' amount increases to 500. About the point you'd expect this to continue, it gets extremely erratic on levels 11 (+1,500) and 12 (+500), then reverts back to +1,000 at 13th and 14th. Levels 15-18 add +2,000 each, and 19-20 start at +4,000 -- this implies the amount added doubles every four levels.

Except that level 21 adds +8,000, and 22 adds +3,000. After that little bit of weirdness, it does +10,000 for four levels, and +25,000 for the last four."

Here's a rough chart of the results; the first column is from the RAW, the second removes the 'jagged' parts, and the third assumes a simple doubling every time. The numbers on the latter two look funny, but the progression itself is easier to predict.
 RAW    Smooth   Doubler
 1          0         0         0
 2      1,000     1,000     1,000
 3      2,250     2,250     2,250
 4      3,750     3,750     3,750
 5      5,500     5,500     5,500
 6      7,500     7,500     7,500
 7     10,000    10,000    10,000
 8     13,000    13,000    13,000
 9     16,500    16,500    16,500
10     20,500    20,500    20,500
11     26,000    25,500    25,500 <- 500 XP difference
12     32,000    31,500    31,500
13     39,000    38,500    38,500
14     47,000    46,500    46,500
15     57,000    56,500    56,500
16     69,000    68,500    68,500
17     83,000    82,500    82,500
18     99,000    98,500    98,500
19    119,000   118,500   118,500
20    143,000   142,500   142,500
21    175,000   170,500   170,500 <- 4,500 XP difference
22    210,000   202,500   202,500 <- 7,500 XP difference
23    255,000   244,500   242,500 <- 10,500/12,500
24    310,000   296,500   290,500 <- 13,500/19,500
25    375,000   358,500   346,500 <- 16,500/28,500
26    450,000   430,500   410,500 <- 19,500/39,500
27    550,000   527,500   490,500 <- 22,500/59,500
28    675,000   649,500   586,500 <- 25,500/88,500
29    825,000   796,500   698,500 <- 28,500/126,500
30  1,000,000   968,500   826,500 <- 31,500/176,500

There are no clean mathematical formulas to approximate this, according to the curve-fitting service ZunZun.com. While my prior equation did serve to ... output the rates of increase, a lookup table or your own XP chart should serve better.

Curiously, this does highlight some interesting questions about the relative time per level, suggesting that a custom XP chart may provide a more consistent levelling experience for your players.

Edit. Here's a quick and dirty reverse lookup that worked in excel 2008. =VLOOKUP(A1,{0,1;1000,2;2250,3;3750,4;5500,5;6500,6;10000,7;13000,8;16500,9;20500,10;26000,11;32000,12;39000,13;47000,14;57000,15;69000,16;83000,17;99000,18;119000,19;143000,20;175000,21;210000,22;225000,23;310000,24;375000,25;450000,26;550000,27;675000,28;825000,29;1000000,30},2)

[RPG] What class features or items can be given to a fighter in Dungeons and Dragons 4e to allow him to parry as his mark punishment

There are several ways to achieve that. The following lists are drawn from a quick browsing of the Compendium, including heroic/paragon tier feats and non-essentials Fighter powers up to and including level 20. I'm sure I've been missing some powers and feats, but it should still get you started with ideas.

Powers:

Feats:

And don't forget that the marked penalty against adjacent enemies can easily be described as the Fighter trying to parry/deflect their attacks.