Pact of the Chain

[Thialfi]

My play group of over 30 years has remained loyal to our 1e/2e campaign. I have never played 3rd or 4th edition, but my first trip through the 5e Player's Handbook has me intrigued enough to create a character and look for a game. I've never been overly concerned with character optimization. My favorite characters are rarely my most powerful, but I was wondering about the practicality of my first pass at a character concept. I want to play something completely different from anything I've played before so I chose warlock.

I was thinking of a half elven fey pact warlock that went the chain route and had an exceedingly dysfunctional relationship with his female sprite familiar. Tinkerbell and Peter Pan to the extreme. She would be jealous and controlling and would try to undermine any friendly relations he might have with other people, especially women. The first invocations I would grab would be the charisma boost to eldritch blast and the telepathic link with his sprite familiar.

Is there any benefit to this path other than mining the poor sap who responds out loud to a tiny invisible woman henpecking him telepathically for comedy gold? From what I'm looking at, he'd just have an invisible AC: 15, HP: 2 frenemy that may do a little scouting for him if he is sufficiently obsequious. Since she is so fragile, I'm seeing a lot of feeling obligated to resummon her since the great lady Titania saw fit to bestow her on him as a special gift.

[Yorrin]

Sounds like a fun character. Chain Pact is certainly more of a roleplaying option than a mechanics options, but as you said your Pixie can be an invisible scout for you, which will come in extremely handy. And you've already figured out that a Warlock's best offense is Eldritch Blast, so you should be fine in a fight. Just be sure not to slouch on your AC. My only concern is that your love-hate relationship with your familiar might begin to grate on the other players if the Pixie is roleplayed with equal facetime to the other party members, but it sounds like you've got some experience under your belt so as long as you're conscious of it you should be fine.

[BW022]

Anything is possible. Nothing says you can't have a familiar with personality and it would likely be a memorable character. I once had a rat familiar who was a womanizer/voyeur and I've seen a lazy weasel which needed to be bribed to do anything.

However, you have to remember that your familiar is an NPC, and your DM has to be ok with playing this -- or allowing you to roleplay them when appropriate. You also don't want to setup any situation where the familiar is going to sabotage you or the party, nor do you want a familiar to take center stage or waste a lot of table time. Many players have a fine line between amusing and annoying. Telepathic communication also leaves out the other players, so they'll miss out on the gag/fun/interplay between you and the familiar. They may not understand what is going on.

[Naanomi]

Playing with the familiar/master relationship can be a lot of fun. I've played the somewhat classic 'sorcerer whose familiar is much more intelligent than he is'; my raven helping me make good choices and pointing my blasting magic towards the right targets. Another fun twist is giving a lot of power to the familiar: for example an imp/quasit who reports the Warlock's actions to a very temperamental Patron and needs to be bribed/placated to avoid tattling on your heroics

[Thialfi]

Thanks, I guess I really haven't given a whole lot of thought to how different groups can be. I've only really had one role playing group and we enjoy quite a bit of roleplaying. I guess there are groups out there that are more hack and slash. Even in my group I'd be careful to limit how much time goes to their interaction. The squishiness worries me. Any AOE damage at all and he would be bugging the group to spend the hour and 10 minutes he would need to resummons her. I guess that could be fun too with the party wondering "are you absolutely sure that you want to bring her back? I know she spotted those ogres for us, but you could probably use a break."

[Yorrin]

A good way to keep your pixie pal out of the fray is to tell her "turn invisible and fly straight upwards as soon as any combat starts." Unless that AoE comes before she acts (and with a Dex of +4 she's got a decent chance to act early) she'll hopefully be clear of it. Combine with the fact that AoEs are not that common and I think you'll be alright.

[D1ng]

If you're looking for a benefit to the pact - and I may be totally wrong here - I always thought that Pact of the Chain was the MOST mechanically strong of the pacts.

Reason being that find familiar states "the familiar can take any action except the attack action" - this includes the help action, which grants you advantage on your next attack against a target. Help also does not break invisibility (which is only broken by attacking) - so at lvl 3 you end up with an invisible helper who continually grants you advantage without taking up any of your actions.

Great from an RP perspective too, as there are all sorts of fun ways that a tiny invisible sprite could "help" you to hit an enemy (tying up their shoe-laces, whispering things in their ear, pulling their trousers down etc).

[Thialfi]

If you're looking for a benefit to the pact - and I may be totally wrong here - I always thought that Pact of the Chain was the MOST mechanically strong of the pacts.

Reason being that find familiar states "the familiar can take any action except the attack action" - this includes the help action, which grants you advantage on your next attack against a target. Help also does not break invisibility (which is only broken by attacking) - so at lvl 3 you end up with an invisible helper who continually grants you advantage without taking up any of your actions.

Great from an RP perspective too, as there are all sorts of fun ways that a tiny invisible sprite could "help" you to hit an enemy (tying up their shoe-laces, whispering things in their ear, pulling their trousers down etc).

That actually makes sense and would definitely fit in with the typical personality of the mischievous fey. Thanks for the help.

[TheOOB]

Also you can give your familiar magic items. Find a wand that doesn't have class prerequisites.

Find Familiar is a great spell. Pact of the Chain is even better.

I see it like the Ranger, it takes more effort to get it to work well than the other pacts, but it's very effective when it does work.