How to have: an animal companion, a witch's familiar, or something more exotic like an elemental spirit.

These questions arise in the style and settings of the games I play and run. And I'm not satisfied with how the Core book addresses it for Savage Worlds. Now to be fair, I don't think the Core book could have gone into the level of customization and detail that Companions & Familiars does. I think there would still be a market for a 'Companions & Familiars' book even if the Core book had an acceptable (to me) way of handling animal companions. But in the end the Core book Beast Master Edge is not how I want to address the questions at the beginning of this review.

I am very satisfied with how this book addresses those questions though.

You build a companion that matches your character and the costs and justifications for the various abilities are laid out clearly. I've built elemental companions, griffon mounts, and skeletal horses. I've yet to find a companion archetype that can't be built.

Keep in mind that your Storyteller needs to be aware of what your companion can do and you need to have built your companion ahead of time before you play, to keep things Fast, Furious, and Fun.

Well written, with a wealth of options for a variety of fantasy characters & settings.

Most of the SWAG pdfs are very simple, which is fine for what they do. This one stands out as a very thorough document on the subject of companions and familiars. I consider this a must-buy and Pinnacle might consider acquring it and integrating it into the SWADE version of the Fantasy Companion. Even though it is geated towards the assumption of fantasy characters it will be easy to use for other campaigns. I am thinking about using it for drones and robots in a more futuristic setting. The sample characters and Companions are full of good ideas.

One more thing that I would add is that you could easily use it to make buddies, being like normal characters that are built on 28 points instead of the 32 for animal companions. These buddies would be created like normal charactrers except they pay for their Race and their Attribute points are not preallocated to 5 and their Skill points are not preallocated to 15. The 4 fewer points is that they would not have the three default disadvantages of an amimal companion. This way you could have your primary character have an Extra buddy that can go on adventures with them, and not hve to wait until Legendary to take a Sidekick.

This pdf addresses the concerns that have come up over the years when players want to have an animal companioon, a familiar, or (with my suggestion above) a second character.

This is a very robust supplement! And one of my players was very excited to be able to make his character's familiar more than just a "stock" wolf. A simple, but detailed way to build and advance familiars so they can grow alongside the characters as they advance. This is a fantastic product and definitely worth the purchase!

A very nice addition to SW rules. A well thought-out subsystem for creating all kinds of beings that help characters. It is aimed at fantasy but is ceratainly usable for other genres as well. The sample characters and companions are cool.

This book is really well done. Not only does it give some great ideas of how to build the companions and familiars. But it also goes on to the next step by offering several examples of companions, many of which I can simply drop into a game as NPCs.

If you are a Savage Worlds player this is an excellent resource.