Familiars, particularly for Wizards

[Segev]

Short of it is: are they worth it? In particular, are they worth the free spell known slot in the spellbook (as opposed to, say, waiting to see if you stumble across the spell later), or worth the 100 gp it costs to cast the spell?

They have some neat powers - delivering touch spells, active use of their senses - but most of them have 1 hp, and the few remaining ones have 2 hp. That's basically 100 gp every time something remotely harmful befalls them. How easy are they to keep safe? Are they worth risking for even their scouting purpose, given how fragile they are? What about for their touch spell purpose?

Are there any really neat tricks that can be performed with them?

(Warlocks get better options through their Invocation; this is about a wizard, specifically, though.)

Thanks for any analysis and advice!

[Temperjoke]

Short of it is: are they worth it? In particular, are they worth the free spell known slot in the spellbook (as opposed to, say, waiting to see if you stumble across the spell later), or worth the 100 gp it costs to cast the spell?

They have some neat powers - delivering touch spells, active use of their senses - but most of them have 1 hp, and the few remaining ones have 2 hp. That's basically 100 gp every time something remotely harmful befalls them. How easy are they to keep safe? Are they worth risking for even their scouting purpose, given how fragile they are? What about for their touch spell purpose?

Are there any really neat tricks that can be performed with them?

(Warlocks get better options through their Invocation; this is about a wizard, specifically, though.)

Thanks for any analysis and advice!

It's a ritual spell, so while it can use up one of your free learned spells, you don't have to prepare it.

Frankly, how worth it depends on your DM. If your DM actively seeks out and kills familiars, then no, it's not worth it.

[gfishfunk]

Worth it. Grab an owl or otherwise flying creature and use it every now and then simply to look around with bird's eye view. That is worth a known spell alone. Being able to deliver touch spells is also nice.

[MaxWilson]

At 100 gp, I'm not sure if they'd be worth it early on, but since they are 10 gp, they are totally worth it.

The classic familiar is your basic white owl, often named "Athena" (I've seen one Athena at my table and heard of two on these boards). Stealth +3 and Darkvision 120' makes her an excellent scout, rivaled only by the Bat with Blindsight depending on how your table/DM rules blindsight interacts with Stealth. (E.g. if blindsight ignores Stealth the bat might be better; if I'm DMing though I would not let the bat's echolocation ignore stealth because it's just replicating sight, although I would let an ooze's blindsight ignore stealth because that's basically a sense of smell.)

Aside from scouting, the other use of a familiar is to Help in combat. Flyby + flight lets Athena Help the Sharpshooter get more hits without risking Athena's pretty little neck. Her top priority is to end her turn out of (jumping) reach of any of the monsters.

There's a good chance that Athena will increase the Sharpshooter's damage by 50% or more. Totally worth it for 10 gp even not counting the Stealth effects.

Yes, there will be times when you tell Athena to go and hide, e.g. against gnolls with longbows. You're not trying to get her killed, you're just taking advantage of when she's useful.

[Markoff Chainey]

Honestly, I think they are rather OP when your DM allows them to take the Help action...

Besides that, they make awesome scouts and one of the really neat combos is to cast darkness on a bat and order it to fly over the guy you want to blind.

[gfishfunk]

Not for wizards:

I really want to make a coward Trickery Domain cleric with magic initiate to grab the find familiar spell. The cleric will hide in combat and heal folks using his familiar.

[Sir cryosin]

Not for wizards:

I really want to make a coward Trickery Domain cleric with magic initiate to grab the find familiar spell. The cleric will hide in combat and heal folks using his familiar.

Wow that's a neat way to use it. I lime the Trickery Domain but I don't like playing clerics I just don't get any appreciation only just get shet when I don't do what they want. So I tend to a dpr roll or face.

[E’Tallitnics]

Honestly, I think they are rather OP when your DM allows them to take the Help action...

Besides that, they make awesome scouts and one of the really neat combos is to cast darkness on a bat and order it to fly over the guy you want to blind.

At my table I don't mind the occasional Help action. However if a player is abusing the heck out of it I'll tell them upon their next Help action that the creature turns and roars at the familiar in a very aggressive manner.

If they don't take the hint and back off then their little buddy is fair game and is going down next round.

[Dalebert]

At 100 gp, I'm not sure if they'd be worth it early on, but since they are 10 gp, they are totally worth it.

Thank you. You beat me to it.

Actually, I think they're the most useful for a brand new low-level wizard who only has two spells a day and this one doesn't use up a slot since it's a ritual. 10gp is just within my buying power and I always spend it. I typically start with an owl for the flyby. You can deliver Shocking Grasp with advantage against armored opponents. You can scout ahead and plan better which you should be doing a lot when you're new and exceptionally weak. I'm more protective of my familiars at that point, of course. I don't have 10gp to replace it. Even then, if it does die, it's often in such a way that it could have been YOUR neck with your 8 starting wizard hp.

Once you're higher level, I'm inclined to switch to a bat for the blindsight. At higher levels, you'll have more things sneaking up on you with invisibility. Having a constant invis monitor on the lookout is extremely useful. Then you can have Faerie Fire ready or Darkness to even the playing field or perhaps have your bat deliver Shocking Grasp to perhaps break concentration on the invis or whatever. If it dies, you're just out 10gp and an hour which is trivial at higher levels.

So yeah, I always take Find Familiar as one of my six starting spells with a wizard.

[darkrose50]

A familiar is also an additional perception check. I like it for this reason. My wizard has one of those little twitchy chihuahua type rodents . . . the meerkat (weasel stats). It constantly peaks out of his backpack and looks around.

[ZenBear]

A point about bats being invisibility detectors: I think I would go crazy having a bat constantly screeching overhead day-in/day-out, ruining any chance at stealth.

[Dalebert]

A point about bats being invisibility detectors: I think I would go crazy having a bat constantly screeching overhead day-in/day-out, ruining any chance at stealth.

They don't have to screech. They can simply use their hearing as a targeting sense.

Oh, and regarding an earlier statement, blindsight isn't supposed to make stealth impossible. However, bats have advantage on hearing things so that's excellent for when an invisible creature is trying to sneak up on you. Then once they know of its presence, they know it's exact location and can target it for things like touch spells.

[SharkForce]

They don't have to screech. They can simply use their hearing as a targeting sense.

Oh, and regarding an earlier statement, blindsight isn't supposed to make stealth impossible. However, bats have advantage on hearing things so that's excellent for when an invisible creature is trying to sneak up on you. Then once they know of its presence, they know it's exact location and can target it for things like touch spells.

better yet, while i don't believe it is in the rules blindsight should mean that invisibility doesn't count as concealment for the purposes of hiding like it normally does

(on a side note, most things shouldn't be able to hear the bat's noise).

[Segev]

Interesting stuff, here. Much of it quite helpful. Thanks in particular for some of the suggested tricks and uses - I will have to look up the owl's flyby ability and familiarize myself with how it works, because that sounds very effective.

Also, I appreciate the correction on the cost; I misremembered it, obviously, having the 3.5 cost from memory overwrite what I had read more recently in 5e.

[Segev]

So, new question: can you use the ability to see through a familiar's senses to negate the penalties from being immersed in darkness or fog when trying to target out of it with a bow? I'm thinking of, specifically, a Halfling or gnome with longbow proficiency who hides in such an obscuring thing to gain advantage, counteracting his disadvantage for it being a heavy weapon, and using his familiar as a "spotter" outside of it.

Alternatively, could you use a shortbow in the same circumstances to fire with advantage?

(Just thinking about Dumb Familiar Tricks)

[E’Tallitnics]

So, new question: can you use the ability to see through a familiar's senses to negate the penalties from being immersed in darkness or fog when trying to target out of it with a bow? I'm thinking of, specifically, a Halfling or gnome with longbow proficiency who hides in such an obscuring thing to gain advantage, counteracting his disadvantage for it being a heavy weapon, and using his familiar as a "spotter" outside of it.

Alternatively, could you use a shortbow in the same circumstances to fire with advantage?

(Just thinking about Dumb Familiar Tricks)

While their using the familiar's senses they're blind to their own. That alone tells me as a DM that what you're suggesting, while possible, would result in Disadvantage to the attack to account for the "offset viewing angle".

Therefore they'd have Disadvantage x2, and no source of Advantage.

Same thing would be present if it's sitting on your human head as you walk through a dungeon using the familiar's Darkvision to "see" the environment.

[MaxWilson]

So, new question: can you use the ability to see through a familiar's senses to negate the penalties from being immersed in darkness or fog when trying to target out of it with a bow? I'm thinking of, specifically, a Halfling or gnome with longbow proficiency who hides in such an obscuring thing to gain advantage, counteracting his disadvantage for it being a heavy weapon, and using his familiar as a "spotter" outside of it.

Alternatively, could you use a shortbow in the same circumstances to fire with advantage?

(Just thinking about Dumb Familiar Tricks)

No for two reasons:

The spatial perspective is wrong (familiar is not looking down your arrow while you're aiming).

Seeing through your familiar's eyes costs your action, so you generally couldn't attack anyway, sans Action Surge or Quicken Spell.

[Dalebert]

No, and for a couple of reasons (probably). Firstly, it uses your action to perceive through your familiar's senses. That pretty much makes it nigh impossible to use it for targeting anything. Also, I imagine most DMs would impose at least disadvantage for trying to target something from a vantage point different from your own. EVen if the familiar is right on your shoulder, imagine trying to aim with your eyes six inches to the left of where they really are.

That said, you can deliver touch attacks through your familiar so most DMs won't impose any disadvantage from obscurement if it's not impacting your familiar, e.g. darkness and you have a bat familiar delivering a touch attack.

Another way to deal with darkness and obscurement if you're a caster is to just use save-based attacks that don't require you to see the target, e.g. Acid Splash. One of my strategies is to cast Darkness on a collar that my bat wears and have him move strategically, or just move myself. YOur bat can fly 15 ft above the ground so that only 4 squares (10 diameter) are in darkness at ground level. Technically your familiar is supposed to have its own initiative but I find most DMs just have it go on your initiative because it's a pain. You can step out of that small area of darkness, attack, and then step back in to gain the defensive benefit. You can even use your familiar to move the darkness and grow or shrink it by raising or lowering its elevation and sometimes immerse the enemy in it (like a medusa).

[Segev]

While their using the familiar's senses they're blind to their own. That alone tells me as a DM that what you're suggesting, while possible, would result in Disadvantage to the attack to account for the "offset viewing angle".

Therefore they'd have Disadvantage x2, and no source of Advantage.

Same thing would be present if it's sitting on your human head as you walk through a dungeon using the familiar's Darkvision to "see" the environment.The Advantage source is the fact that the enemy can't see them. Wouldn't that counter the Disadvantage (even with x2, since it doesn't stack)?


No for two reasons:

The spatial perspective is wrong (familiar is not looking down your arrow while you're aiming).

Seeing through your familiar's eyes costs your action, so you generally couldn't attack anyway, sans Action Surge or Quicken Spell.
That, however, is a good reason I should have caught.