Would you allow: Warlock Familiars Perception

[Orbis Orboros]

Just curious how many of you would allow warlocks to use their familiar's perception in place of their own, in either or both circumstances:

1) Chainlock familiars can communicate telepathically. Whatever they perceive, they could instantly inform the warlock of. So, a warlock with their familiar riding on their shoulder or walking next to them or whatever spots traps or ambushes for the Warlock.

2) Chainlocks can use an action to use their familiar's senses in place of their own. The familiar could ride on the warlock's shoulders and the warlock could simply not use their own senses / perception when outside of combat.

I know it's DM fiat, but I wanted to know what the typical response is.

In case I got something wrong / misremembered / you need details, my character idea would be of a warlock with pact of the chain taking a pseudodragon* and no relevant invocations or feats. This would be a class feature allowing me to dump wisdom, provided perception is the only thing in wisdom I care about.

*Note that pseudodragons have a limited form of telepathy to begin with.

[Easy_Lee]

Absolutely. This kind of thing displays creativity and synergy on the part if the player, in my opinion.

[calebrus]

Just curious how many of you would allow warlocks to use their familiar's perception in place of their own, in either or both circumstances:

1) Chainlock familiars can communicate telepathically. Whatever they perceive, they could instantly inform the warlock of. So, a warlock with their familiar riding on their shoulder or walking next to them or whatever spots traps or ambushes for the Warlock.

2) Chainlocks can use an action to use their familiar's senses in place of their own. The familiar could ride on the warlock's shoulders and the warlock could simply not use their own senses / perception when outside of combat.

I know it's DM fiat, but I wanted to know what the typical response is.

In case I got something wrong / misremembered / you need details, my character idea would be of a warlock with pact of the chain taking a pseudodragon* and no relevant invocations or feats. This would be a class feature allowing me to dump wisdom, provided perception is the only thing in wisdom I care about.

*Note that pseudodragons have a limited form of telepathy to begin with.

The intention (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/06/warlock-telepathy/) is that Warlock telepathy is one way, not two way, so the way it was intended you'd need to use a familiar that also has telepathy.
If you're using the pseudodragon that you listed in the *Note, then it would be DM fiat.
If you were using a familiar without telepathy, then the answer would be No by the RAI.

But in all honesty, it doesn't really matter much either way. Your pseudodragon's perception is a whopping +3, and it's never going to improve. So it's not like it breaks anything to allow it.

[Broken Twin]

The intention (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/06/warlock-telepathy/) is that Warlock telepathy is one way, not two way, so the way it was intended you'd need to use a familiar that also has telepathy.
If you're using the pseudodragon that you listed in the *Note, then it would be DM fiat.
If you were using a familiar without telepathy, then the answer would be No by the RAI.

But in all honesty, it doesn't really matter much either way. Your pseudodragon's perception is a whopping +3, and it's never going to improve. So it's not like it breaks anything to allow it.

You're thinking of The Old One pact, which is a different telepathy than Pact of the Chain. Pact of the Chain telepathy is solely between you and your familiar, and is entirely intended to be two way.

[Chronos]

For the first, I'd argue that you gain the same benefit as if any other party member had seen something and yelled "Look out!" or whatever. Sometimes that's enough, and sometimes it isn't. There's a reason why every character has a Perception score.

For the second, I'd give you the benefit of any special abilities the creature has, like Blindsight, Darkvision, or "advantage on Perception checks using vision", but you'd still use your own skill modifier. Perception is about noticing things, not just sensing them, and something like "hey, that shadow shouldn't be there" is a function of your own wisdom and training.

[Kane0]

1) yep, though i'd always use its passive perception to speed up play

2) the warlock in my game has done this before, its a neat trick. You could theoretically play in 3rd person as it hovers behind you.

[calebrus]

1) yep, though i'd always use its passive perception to speed up play

We've used passive rolls for perception and insight for years. Now investigation has been added to that as well.
Everything is versus passive scores. If you ever want to actively use those three skills, you need to say so and roll it, otherwise it's against passive. DMs at our table don't tell you to roll perception/insight/investigation at all, ever.
And our passive has always been 8+mod rather than the 10+mod listed.