How hard-coded is the Find Familiar spell/opcode?

[subtledoctor]

I'd like to make an ability for a character to have a familiar, but limit the possible familiar to one of the neutral ones - rabbit, ferret, or cat. Looking through the IESDP and NI, I can't figure out how it might be done.

 

Is this possible?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Is this for Bhallspawn's kit, or a NPC ?

Not possible for NPC(to have a permanent familiar), unless the NPC is the "familiar", bear attack... summons it as it wasn't an actual familiar, plah plah plah. And so forth. Not likely the best option to use.

[argent77]

I don't think you can change the behavior of the "Find Familiar" opcode without access to the game's source code. You could instead try to simulate the "Find Familiar" spell by using a Summon Creature opcode in conjunction with some scripting magic. However, it would still be possible to mess up the familiar owner mechanism. Even IWD:EE, where you can officially find familiars for any of your party members, can be messed up if you kick out or invite party members.

It would probably work better if it's for a specific NPC, you can refer to by a script name in the familiar's scripts.

[lynx]

if the player has no choice, you can just overwrite the other fam*.cre files with copies of the ones you want.

[subtledoctor]

I want, for instance, a Charname Beastmaster to be able to have a cat/rabbit//ferret familiar, instead of fairy dragon or pseudodragon. But it seems like, the only way to do that is to overwrite the dragon .CREs... which would of course also affect the normal spell. Correct? I'd prefer to not mess with the normal spell. (Although frankly, that might be a change for the better.)

 

Separately I'd like to make a cleric of Baervan Wildwanderer kit that has a ferret companion. But that can probably be done with an item, like the golden lion or moon dog. Just use the ferret familiar .BAM for the inventory icon, and add a dialogue or an ability to the .CRE that dismisses it and re-creates the item. A bit of work, but doable.

 

Actually now that I think about it, I guess this would work for Beastmasters too.

[K4thos]

For EE games there is a file called "familiar.2da" where you can change the creature associated with alignment. In vanilla engine it probably can be changed directly in BALDUR.GAM file - try to open it with Near Infinity, go to "Familiar Info" and adjust CRE files for each alignment. If this works than you will see the effect of this change after starting new game (unless you write a code to update existing save files which comes with copy of BALDUR.GAN).

[Avenger]

Find familiar summons alignment based creatures and attaches 3 opcodes:

1. owner hp bonus

2. owner con penalty if familiar is dead

3. disable summoning of new familiars