Summon Greater Familiar vs Summon Lesser Being

[TheYell]

I've seen this topic debated on the forums and I don't think the correct answer has been put forward.

Summon Lesser Being is a ritual that provides you with one totally obedient being for a limited period of time, a matter of days. If you haven't sent the creature back before the time runs out, it stops being obedient. You either fight it, enlist it, or watch it run amok.

Summon Greater Familiar produces a lesser demon or supernatural being. You either bind the being with a pact, or fight it in a contest of wills. If you win, it becomes your familiar.

Now what I haven't seen elsewhere, and think true, is that the RIFTS spell Greater Summon Familiar refers you out to the Palladium Fantasy Main Book, specifically pg. 115, the part of the Witch chapter that deals with the Demon Familiar.

Checking that section, you see 8 subsections, which matches the "nos 1-8" referred to in SGF.

So a RIFTS greater familiar should be--
a one-time commodity
with speech
having a rapport with the master caster
and a spiritual bond with the caster sharing PPE
totally obedient, so long as the caster stays evil
granted Psionic powers off the Table on pg 116
sharing all the spells of the master caster
with 3 psionic or physical attacks per round, or one magic attack per round.

So I do not agree that the only difference between SGF and SLB is the temporary nature of SLB. You're missing a lot if you don't give your Greater Familiar all your spells and some Psionic powers.

I'm having fun at present using the monster generator in Dimension Book 14 to make my own lesser supernatural creatures for use as Greater Familiars. Its canon and the PPE of a lesser supernatural creature created with those tables is 1D4x100!!

[Axelmania]

SGF if you can manage to cast it seems to emulate the Summoner/Shifter OCC abilities in terms of mental battle (closer to shifter since it uses MA rather than ME) but possibly even stronger since you it matches the buffs/bonds that demons get when becoming witch familiars.

Back in RMB prior to Shifters getting OCC abilities like shifters (minions per level) they started off with Summon Lesser Being and I think were expected to use that to build their minion army. It wasn't that attractive since it was hard to get PPE back then and it didn't last long.

RUE version no longer starts with spell which is a shame because they could really rock it now that ley lines leak PPE like no tomorrow and you could easily amass 330 PPE by lurking there 33 melees (9 minutes). Although I guess with "PE in hours" shrunk to "PE in minutes" for storing extra PPE (triple or quadruple?) for the really high spells you might not be able to drain PPE from lines fast enough to reach the limit (that's where ley line walkers would excel since they do it twice as fast)

[TheYell]

Yes I'm in a high-powered game and took the Shifter's Supernatural Link with a God of Magic specifically to get SGF out the door.

[Axelmania]

Yes I'm in a high-powered game and took the Shifter's Supernatural Link with a God of Magic specifically to get SGF out the door.

The neat thing about how RUE's high PPE (just get hundreds of talismans made at a nexus to fill your needs on the road bro) is you can probably have dozens of SLBs or SGFs on the go simultaneously, so at moments of vulnerability when either the duration of SLB expires or you lose a Battle of Wills for SGF, when that minion turns on you, you probably have lots of other minions to fight them off.

I think SLB is a bit lower risk. While the PPE is more and the duration is usually shorter, at least the duration is FIXED so you know when something will leave your control and to re-assert your minions.

SGF can last longer but it could make you too comfortable or complacent. With a variable time for contests, you might have minions slipping free and instead of overtly rebelling (1 vs dozens) biding their time to team up and plot against you until the rebelling minions outnumber the loyal ones.