A few changes I made to familiars for my games: -They're not actually creatures. They're just clumps of magic energy pulled into the material plane, filtered through consciousness and animated in a form. - Familiars are not destroyed, they just discorporate when their physical forms take damage, so when you resummon it, even in a different form, it's still the same one, unless you put effort into creating a new one. - Familiars that are not discorporated can survive the death of their master. One of the PCs in my game rn has a pseudodragon that is a family heirloom - Since they aren't actually creatures, their form is entirely at the whim of the summoner, with only limitations being their size. - When "find familiar" is cast as a ritual, the target need not be "self," meaning that wizards can summon them for anybody. Importantly, that also means non-casters I'm working on ways to level them up, but that's a lot to consider
There's actually a few more familiars available, but players aren't supposed to know about them. Some monsters have little sidebars that specify if they're available as familiar options. These are meant to be offered by th DM via story, not selected by the players. Abyssal Chickens (Don't Ask) Almiraj (Bunny-unicorns) Flying Monkeys Gazers (mini-beholders with punch-rays) Tressym (flying cat) Imps, Quasits, Sprites etc are also available to non-warlocks, via story. Say a Wizard starts casting Find Familiar, but is interrupted halfway through by a small devil or Sprite sent to aid them, and tempt them towards their master's designs. Talk to your DMs about alternate familiar options.
Ooooh is that what the deal is with those? I just found them on the list of familiars and it said "ask your DM" on their entries so I did. As a result I've had stuff like the Tressym as a familiar before.
I think you hit the nail on the head, I would only upgrade a familiar if a player really wanted to focus on it. As I’ve learned through actual play following rules as written, familiars can be a bit broken. They have so much utility all ready as a scout it’s crazy. But you’re absolutely right if a player wants more from this one part of the game and focus on it all the more reason to make it more worthwhile for them.
I had a find steed spell locked into a wooden carved animal. The beast of burden represented by the item. Was a ritual cast and cost a hit dice of the caster. Allowed non casters access to mounts without needing to be spell caster. This could be applied to summons for pets/familiar
These are awesome. Just bought the Zargoth’s Tome and love it. Hopefully going to in corporate the clockwork familiars with my Artificer I play. Also going to add flavour to some of the NPCs my players are going to face. The parasitic ones are going to be especially great to describe and roleplay. Cheers
How I would go about levelling up of familiar is I would have a point system every time the player levels up they get points equal to that of the level for example if they go to level five they would get five points You could spend these points on levelling up any of this stats. You could also give them feats and even spells with the point system
I have been working on a dragon rider build for a couple of years now where I play as a lizard folk pact of the chain warlock with an imp familiar. I want to play dnd on hard mode and role play as the imp familiar and have the player character it's self just act as an intelligent yet silent dragon mount. I think your idea of asking the DM to apply the characters feats to the familiar it's self is the break through ive needed. Thanks again.
Casting find familiar at higher levels gives the caster the ability to add additional attributes. Either chosen by the caster or by the PCs casting habits. That wouldn't get too complicated would it...
Level 8/9 Ultra Sprite Fear and Poison Coffeelock. You get your own poison ranger. Read the stat block for Sprite and really focus on the shortbow attack carrier. A full combat familiar with 3 attacks a turn, a nasty poison carrier to those attacks 100 foot flying speed, and good AC supported by a terror inspiring Form of Dread with a Menacing second attack every turn. 4x Attack rolls, 2x Fear effects, and 3x Poison effects each turn. 3 Warlock/Undead/Chain - Dread Form - Investment of the Chain Masters - gets YOUR save DC and triggered attack - "unarmored sprite" -1AC 5 Sorcerer/Shadows(in case you go to 6) - Menacing feat. - Twinned Haste! - Coffeelock Unarmored Sprite with Mage armor = 17AC Sprite takes reaction attack when you use a bonus action and it uses your spell save DCs. With haste this adds another attack and brings AC to 19. Upto three attacks per round. 16sp worth of short rests(4 hours) provide a full combat of resources. Only 2SP needed in the combat, the rest is through bonus slots. With enough bonus slots built up can repeat this combat 3 times without using any other resources. Precast Mage Armor and Longstrider on Sprite.(4sp) Precast Gift of Alacrity and Longstrider on self.(4sp) Consider precasting Flock of Familiars. 1st Round Action - Twin Haste(2+5sp) Bonus - Dread Form Haste Action - Attack w fear effect -or- replace with Menacing Sprite - 2x Attacks w poison 2nd through 10th Round Bonus - command sprite Action - Attack w Fear Haste - Replace with Menacing Sprite - 3x attacks with poison *4 attacks, 2 fear, 3 poison* +2 poison attacks Flock of Familiars. One more level of Sorcerer adds the ability to summon Hounds of Ill Omen with their chance to knock people prone, also via your spell save DC. If entering battle with spell slots to burn these are cheap to summon, have pact tactics advantage, and are self controlling once summoned, adding as many trip attacks to your fights as you want. Thier save is vs Str, so great for weak caster and sneaky types. Giving the Sprite items with which it can cast Hex adds damage and helps lower enemy saving throws. Flock of Familiars says the familiars follow the rules and options of Find Familiar spell, which for you allows the summoning of Sprite, Quasit, Imp and Psuedodragon with other bonuses. It also costs the same SP to store a slot for as summoning a hound and lasts way longer. Can be precast so even as a base level spell you enter combat with two more sprites, so two more poison attacks each turn vs Con. You have 5 slots of that level. Take to Warlock 6 and Sorcerer 14 for flavorful compliments to the build(120ft teleports and an escape death feature) or you can combine it with...(literally anything or...) Bugbear Knight of Solamnia 11 Fighter Cavalier/Tunnel Fighter Weilding a pike Polearm Master Piercer Do first level as a fighter, then the 9 levels of horror inspired villainy above before returning to fighter. Will sacrifice occasional bonus attack from Sprite for tunnel fighter whirling dervish. Any party will quickly recognize buffing the Sprite as the equivalent to buffing a party member, certainly in terms of temp HP and such. Addition feats through training should include Great Weapon Master, Inspiring Leader, Defensive Fighting Style, Med/Heavy Armor Master. There are so many others that would just add to the character at this point. You are a Lu Bu on horse back, with an insane toxic satelite, and you'll be siccing the hounds or sprites on those who run.
One of the.most fun and darkest characters I made was an orc celestial warlock that was a tribal shamen that went threw the right of one sight which was sacrificing one eye to grumph to get divine power most are vengeance paladin. I was used to seal a deal with the an elder beholder which made my eye the central eye of the gazzer I got as pack of the chain
Oh man, I paused the video to see what we're working with at that CR level for full access and there's certainly a lot of... *interesting* options at that range. 😅 You're probably going to want to ban any that can petrify an enemy like undead cockatrice or young basilisk though.
Now all I want is a Chiwinga familiar for a flying spearman to remake Kaladin Stormblessed from the Stormlight Archive, as Chiwingas are the closest thing to Sphren that we can get in DnD
I am big on families. I have reskined monkey 🐒to be an animated doll. A DM let me touse a pot of awakening to grow a good berry bush which could use the spell once per long rest. He was also aware while in the pot growing so being an Arcane trickster the DM let him grow a larger fruit that let him project what I saw then scouting to the party.
Geezer here..... For my table... Find familiar is a feat. Not a spell summoning a new best friend. It is a quasi-beast. It barely qualifies as an entity at level one. Players may choose to expend experience points to effectively raise the familiars level. As a bingo bonus... It can look like almost anything. Does not need to eat, breath or sleep. It is not some toad the wizard adopts. Also they move, "swim" and "fly"... Invaluable at low level for those willing to expend a feat. Gaming on.
D&D 5e is already almost league of legends. Everyone is a superhero now and everyone has access to everything. It’s getting really bad. Video gamers are honestly ruining this game. I hate this. It breaks the game further. Familiars are already quite powerful. Completely over the top and unnecessary. Might as well just not have rules at all…
A few changes I made to familiars for my games:
-They're not actually creatures. They're just clumps of magic energy pulled into the material plane, filtered through consciousness and animated in a form.
- Familiars are not destroyed, they just discorporate when their physical forms take damage, so when you resummon it, even in a different form, it's still the same one, unless you put effort into creating a new one.
- Familiars that are not discorporated can survive the death of their master. One of the PCs in my game rn has a pseudodragon that is a family heirloom
- Since they aren't actually creatures, their form is entirely at the whim of the summoner, with only limitations being their size.
- When "find familiar" is cast as a ritual, the target need not be "self," meaning that wizards can summon them for anybody. Importantly, that also means non-casters
I'm working on ways to level them up, but that's a lot to consider
One thing I’d keep in mind is the Sidekick rules listed in Tasha’s. They seem pretty perfect for boosting a familiar!
That's very true!! Great add!
Hey, that's a really good idea
There's actually a few more familiars available, but players aren't supposed to know about them. Some monsters have little sidebars that specify if they're available as familiar options. These are meant to be offered by th DM via story, not selected by the players.
Abyssal Chickens (Don't Ask)
Almiraj (Bunny-unicorns)
Flying Monkeys
Gazers (mini-beholders with punch-rays)
Tressym (flying cat)
Imps, Quasits, Sprites etc are also available to non-warlocks, via story. Say a Wizard starts casting Find Familiar, but is interrupted halfway through by a small devil or Sprite sent to aid them, and tempt them towards their master's designs.
Talk to your DMs about alternate familiar options.
Ooooh is that what the deal is with those? I just found them on the list of familiars and it said "ask your DM" on their entries so I did. As a result I've had stuff like the Tressym as a familiar before.
I know someone who spent 40 dollars on kickstarter towards “Zargoth's Tome of Familiars”, and she never got the book.
I think you hit the nail on the head, I would only upgrade a familiar if a player really wanted to focus on it. As I’ve learned through actual play following rules as written, familiars can be a bit broken. They have so much utility all ready as a scout it’s crazy. But you’re absolutely right if a player wants more from this one part of the game and focus on it all the more reason to make it more worthwhile for them.
Heck yeah!! **Christian approved** 😎
I had a find steed spell locked into a wooden carved animal. The beast of burden represented by the item. Was a ritual cast and cost a hit dice of the caster. Allowed non casters access to mounts without needing to be spell caster. This could be applied to summons for pets/familiar
I ran a hobgoblin rogue/ wizard with an animated gauntlet familiar, just a reflavoured spider but it worked well.
Props for the creativity! Way to make it happen!
These are awesome. Just bought the Zargoth’s Tome and love it. Hopefully going to in corporate the clockwork familiars with my Artificer I play. Also going to add flavour to some of the NPCs my players are going to face. The parasitic ones are going to be especially great to describe and roleplay. Cheers
Oh yeah! Those ones I was especially excited about!
How I would go about levelling up of familiar is I would have a point system every time the player levels up they get points equal to that of the level for example if they go to level five they would get five points
You could spend these points on levelling up any of this stats. You could also give them feats and even spells with the point system
Bad dnd character idea: a Druid with a familiar. Except the familiar is actually their child which they had when they were wild shaped.
Now THAT is interesting!! 🧐
You can also get find familar from the pact of the tome warlock feature.
A+! Lol forgot about that
The rabbit already has the lucky feet
I’d definitely consider buying these supplements, but since I own Stibble’s codex of companions I’m worried on how much common ground would be tread.
Turns out many people think we need better familiars 😂
I have been working on a dragon rider build for a couple of years now where I play as a lizard folk pact of the chain warlock with an imp familiar.
I want to play dnd on hard mode and role play as the imp familiar and have the player character it's self just act as an intelligent yet silent dragon mount.
I think your idea of asking the DM to apply the characters feats to the familiar it's self is the break through ive needed.
Thanks again.
Casting find familiar at higher levels gives the caster the ability to add additional attributes. Either chosen by the caster or by the PCs casting habits. That wouldn't get too complicated would it...
Oooh, I like that!
A group of flying monkeys with necklaces of fireball is what I want
Don't forget to include SpellWrought Tattoos and Ring of Spell Storing for ways to cast Find Familiar.
And the feat ritual caster that gives you a spellbook.
I allowed a player to summon a Flying Snake, which fit his Yuan-Ti character better and essentially had the same stats as an Owl.
Level 8/9 Ultra Sprite Fear and Poison Coffeelock. You get your own poison ranger. Read the stat block for Sprite and really focus on the shortbow attack carrier.
A full combat familiar with 3 attacks a turn, a nasty poison carrier to those attacks 100 foot flying speed, and good AC supported by a terror inspiring Form of Dread with a Menacing second attack every turn.
4x Attack rolls, 2x Fear effects, and 3x Poison effects each turn.
3 Warlock/Undead/Chain
- Dread Form
- Investment of the Chain Masters
- gets YOUR save DC and triggered attack
- "unarmored sprite" -1AC
5 Sorcerer/Shadows(in case you go to 6)
- Menacing feat.
- Twinned Haste!
- Coffeelock
Unarmored Sprite with Mage armor = 17AC
Sprite takes reaction attack when you use a bonus action and it uses your spell save DCs. With haste this adds another attack and brings AC to 19. Upto three attacks per round.
16sp worth of short rests(4 hours) provide a full combat of resources. Only 2SP needed in the combat, the rest is through bonus slots. With enough bonus slots built up can repeat this combat 3 times without using any other resources.
Precast Mage Armor and Longstrider on Sprite.(4sp)
Precast Gift of Alacrity and Longstrider on self.(4sp) Consider precasting Flock of Familiars.
1st Round
Action - Twin Haste(2+5sp)
Bonus - Dread Form
Haste Action - Attack w fear effect -or- replace with Menacing
Sprite - 2x Attacks w poison
2nd through 10th Round
Bonus - command sprite
Action - Attack w Fear
Haste - Replace with Menacing
Sprite - 3x attacks with poison
*4 attacks, 2 fear, 3 poison*
+2 poison attacks Flock of Familiars.
One more level of Sorcerer adds the ability to summon Hounds of Ill Omen with their chance to knock people prone, also via your spell save DC. If entering battle with spell slots to burn these are cheap to summon, have pact tactics advantage, and are self controlling once summoned, adding as many trip attacks to your fights as you want. Thier save is vs Str, so great for weak caster and sneaky types.
Giving the Sprite items with which it can cast Hex adds damage and helps lower enemy saving throws.
Flock of Familiars says the familiars follow the rules and options of Find Familiar spell, which for you allows the summoning of Sprite, Quasit, Imp and Psuedodragon with other bonuses. It also costs the same SP to store a slot for as summoning a hound and lasts way longer. Can be precast so even as a base level spell you enter combat with two more sprites, so two more poison attacks each turn vs Con. You have 5 slots of that level.
Take to Warlock 6 and Sorcerer 14 for flavorful compliments to the build(120ft teleports and an escape death feature) or you can combine it with...(literally anything or...)
Bugbear
Knight of Solamnia
11 Fighter Cavalier/Tunnel Fighter
Weilding a pike
Polearm Master
Piercer
Do first level as a fighter, then the 9 levels of horror inspired villainy above before returning to fighter.
Will sacrifice occasional bonus attack from Sprite for tunnel fighter whirling dervish.
Any party will quickly recognize buffing the Sprite as the equivalent to buffing a party member, certainly in terms of temp HP and such.
Addition feats through training should include Great Weapon Master, Inspiring Leader, Defensive Fighting Style, Med/Heavy Armor Master. There are so many others that would just add to the character at this point.
You are a Lu Bu on horse back, with an insane toxic satelite, and you'll be siccing the hounds or sprites on those who run.
Obviously we Faerie Dragons are the best option for familiars.
One of the.most fun and darkest characters I made was an orc celestial warlock that was a tribal shamen that went threw the right of one sight which was sacrificing one eye to grumph to get divine power most are vengeance paladin. I was used to seal a deal with the an elder beholder which made my eye the central eye of the gazzer I got as pack of the chain
Oh man, I paused the video to see what we're working with at that CR level for full access and there's certainly a lot of... *interesting* options at that range. 😅
You're probably going to want to ban any that can petrify an enemy like undead cockatrice or young basilisk though.
Now all I want is a Chiwinga familiar for a flying spearman to remake Kaladin Stormblessed from the Stormlight Archive, as Chiwingas are the closest thing to Sphren that we can get in DnD
There you have it!!
Stibles codex of companons
my robotic rhino, Jibbi killed an ice king when he was on 3 hp. Jibbi is about the size of my real life shin and he can deal d4 damage and has 10 hp
Yes! Yes! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!
I'm glad someone agrees! 😂
I am clicked here, because i wanted to see how someone fixed Beastmaster Ranger(
You can definitely use these tips for that!
I'm playing as a death druid, my raven is a fiend named dick. He likes to critique everyone.
Fam... Did you dead ass have Agumon on the wcreen talkin about pokemon?! Oh man! The nerds must be FURIOUS in the chat
OMG I LOVE THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
HECK YEAH!! 🙌
Use the tables in dcc rpg
I am big on families. I have reskined monkey 🐒to be an animated doll.
A DM let me touse a pot of awakening to grow a good berry bush which could use the spell once per long rest. He was also aware while in the pot growing so being an Arcane trickster the DM let him grow a larger fruit that let him project what I saw then scouting to the party.
🥰
Geezer here.....
For my table... Find familiar is a feat. Not a spell summoning a new best friend. It is a quasi-beast. It barely qualifies as an entity at level one.
Players may choose to expend experience points to effectively raise the familiars level.
As a bingo bonus... It can look like almost anything.
Does not need to eat, breath or sleep. It is not some toad the wizard adopts.
Also they move, "swim" and "fly"...
Invaluable at low level for those willing to expend a feat.
Gaming on.
D&D 5e is already almost league of legends. Everyone is a superhero now and everyone has access to everything. It’s getting really bad. Video gamers are honestly ruining this game. I hate this. It breaks the game further. Familiars are already quite powerful. Completely over the top and unnecessary. Might as well just not have rules at all…