Clarics and find familiar

[poolio]

So I'm looking to go ether life or war claric and pick up booming blade through magic initate, not sure what other cantrip I'm going to take (any advice here would also be appreciated as well lol) and i see i get one 1st lv spell as well, first i was going to take magic missle, just for some free, no save, damage, but then i see some stuff about find familiar, and being able to cast cure wounds/inflict wounds at a distance sounds pretty good, plus it's a ritual and clerics have ritual casting, granted it specifies only claric spells can be cast as rituals, but i don't think my dm would care,

So anyway, what other advantages would a familiar give a claric? How would you use one creatively? Are there other 1st level spells i should consider?

Thanks in advance for you experience and expertise play grounders :smallsmile:

[Rysto]

Find Familiar is a good one. Shield, even if you can only cast it 1/day, is nice for a front-line cleric. If you take from the Warlock list you could get Hex, although as you're only getting one attack per round it's not as good as it could be for classes with multiple attacks.

For the other cantrip I recommend a utility cantrip like Minor Illusion.

One thing to note about a War Cleric with Booming Blade: you can't use your limited-use bonus action attack in the same round that you cast Booming Blade, because the bonus action attack requires the use of the Attack action to trigger it. That makes Booming Blade less useful on a War Cleric, which is a real shame because it seems tailor-made for the subclass. It's not a terrible option overall but the lack of synergy is unfortunate. It works really well for a Life Cleric, though.

[Arkhios]

I'm not familiar with this claric class. Don't you mean cleric? :smallamused:

[JellyPooga]

One thing to keep in mind about Find Familiar is that you can change its form to tailor its use to the environment. Need a flying scout? Owl form, Go! Need something to swim to the bottom of the well? Newt form, Go! Want to put the screams on a housewife? Mouse form, Go! All it takes is casting the spell again. Nothing locks your familiars form except the preconceived notion that most people have about them.

[Addaran]

So anyway, what other advantages would a familiar give a claric? How would you use one creatively? Are there other 1st level spells i should consider?

Thanks in advance for you experience and expertise play grounders :smallsmile:

I feel Find Familiar is the best lvl one spell, especially if you only have it once per day.

You can get advantage for some skill checks (maybe all depending on the DM) and possibly advantage to attacks (RAW/crawford said it work i think, but not all DM agree).

You get a disposable scout, especially if it's a very dangerous situation and you don't want to risk the rogue/ranger/your life.

You can use the pet's special senses. (darkvision, blindsense, keen smell)

[Grod_The_Giant]

I feel Find Familiar is the best lvl one spell, especially if you only have it once per day.
Agreed-- I think it's hands-down the best choice of a level 1 Magic Initiate spell. For your other cantrip, you might consider Firebolt for a good ranged option, or Minor Illusion or Friends for utility.

[poolio]

Agreed-- I think it's hands-down the best choice of a level 1 Magic Initiate spell. For your other cantrip, you might consider Firebolt for a good ranged option, or Minor Illusion or Friends for utility.

I considered fire bolt, but wouldn't that use my int for hit? Sense it's not counted as a cleric spell.

Trying to avoid being to MAD, especially for a single spell :smalltongue:

[odigity]

I considered fire bolt, but wouldn't that use my int for hit? Sense it's not counted as a cleric spell.

Trying to avoid being to MAD, especially for a single spell :smalltongue:

Correct. Find Familiar is (unfortunately) only on the Wizard spell list, so best to choose cantrips that don't require attack rolls or saves, like minor illusion.

[8wGremlin]

Can I suggest the Arcane Domain Cleric, they can wear medium armour, and have access to two wizard cantrips.
You can pick any wizard cantrips you like, and they are now cleric cantrips keying off Wisdom.
Suggest: Booming blade and Chill touch

You can then use your feat to pick Ritual Caster: Wizard and get access to all the ritual spells from Wizard list, including Find familiar.

1 Alarm
1 Comprehend Languages
1 Detect Magic
1 Find Familiar
1 Identify
1 Illusory Script
1 Tenser's Floating Disk
1 Unseen Servant
1 Gentle Repose
2 Magic Mouth
2 Skywrite
2 Feign Death
3 Leomund's Tiny Hut
3 Phantom Steed
3 Water Breathing
4 Contact Other Plane
5 Rary's Telepathic Bond
6 Drawmij's Instant Summons

You could also pick Magic Initiate: Druid and pick up; Shillelagh, and produce flame (an infinite light source as well as damage) and Absorb elements. If you went this route all your attacks will be keyed off Wis.

Max Wis and make Dex (14) and you should be good to go.

At 8th Level, you get to add your Wis modifier again to all cleric cantrips, including the arcane ones you picked and can take Warcaster to make Opportunity attacks with 'Booming blade'.

[DizzyWood]

The option to use the familiar to cast healing spells is amazingly useful. Your owl can flit around the battle healing downed companions while you keep putting the hurt on the bad guy.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I considered fire bolt, but wouldn't that use my int for hit? Sense it's not counted as a cleric spell.

Trying to avoid being to MAD, especially for a single spell :smalltongue:
Ack, you're right, my bad.

[poolio]

Can I suggest the Arcane Domain Cleric, they can wear medium armour, and have access to two wizard cantrips.
You can pick any wizard cantrips you like, and they are now cleric cantrips keying off Wisdom.
Suggest: Booming blade and Chill touch

You can then use your feat to pick Ritual Caster: Wizard and get access to all the ritual spells from Wizard list, including Find familiar.

1 Alarm
1 Comprehend Languages
1 Detect Magic
1 Find Familiar
1 Identify
1 Illusory Script
1 Tenser's Floating Disk
1 Unseen Servant
1 Gentle Repose
2 Magic Mouth
2 Skywrite
2 Feign Death
3 Leomund's Tiny Hut
3 Phantom Steed
3 Water Breathing
4 Contact Other Plane
5 Rary's Telepathic Bond
6 Drawmij's Instant Summons

You could also pick Magic Initiate: Druid and pick up; Shillelagh, and produce flame (an infinite light source as well as damage) and Absorb elements. If you went this route all your attacks will be keyed off Wis.

Max Wis and make Dex (14) and you should be good to go.

At 8th Level, you get to add your Wis modifier again to all cleric cantrips, including the arcane ones you picked and can take Warcaster to make Opportunity attacks with 'Booming blade'.

Thought about that one, but i really like the healing bonuses life gets, war was just for the +10 to hit and GWM combo, but I'm kinda over that :smalltongue: lol

But i was thinking about arcane for a blaster type cleric, unfortunately I'm having trouble locating my book with all his details after moving recently, maybe I'll have found my book by the time i can make another character and give him a shot :smallwink:

[poolio]

The option to use the familiar to cast healing spells is amazingly useful. Your owl can flit around the battle healing downed companions while you keep putting the hurt on the bad guy.

That's something i wasn't to clear about actually, so sense the familiar gets its own turn, does the touch spell it'll use take up my turns action? Or would it be a reaction for me to cast it while it swoops in to deliver the touch? Or does it just take one of my spell slots and I'm free to use my regular action/reaction as normal?

[poolio]

Ack, you're right, my bad.

S'all good amigo, at the very least, one idea can always lead to another :smallwink:

[DizzyWood]

That's something i wasn't to clear about actually, so sense the familiar gets its own turn, does the touch spell it'll use take up my turns action? Or would it be a reaction for me to cast it while it swoops in to deliver the touch? Or does it just take one of my spell slots and I'm free to use my regular action/reaction as normal?

Crud I am not sure. I am just starting to look at cleric myself for my next character and have not actually played it OR used a familiar. Hopefully someone else can answer that for both of us.

[Biggstick]

You spend your turn casting the spell, using up your action for your turn.

Your familiar uses it's reaction to deliver the spell on it's turn. I can't recall if this acts as it's action, but a familiar isn't doing much else with it's action on the turn imo.

[Herobizkit]

Healing word heals d4 instead of d8 hp, but can be cast up to 30' away and only uses your bonus action.

Just sayin'. :)

[poolio]

Crud I am not sure. I am just starting to look at cleric myself for my next character and have not actually played it OR used a familiar. Hopefully someone else can answer that for both of us.

They're a lot of fun, not just the designated heal bot some people make them out to be,

Plus with all the different domain options they have a lot of play styles and flavor possibilities :smallwink:

In fact I'm looking at a knowledge cleric who is trying to create a creature compendium of all the strange and wonderful animals and monsters, very similar to a pokedex lol :smalltongue:

[poolio]

Healing word heals d4 instead of d8 hp, but can be cast up to 30' away and only uses your bonus action.

Just sayin'. :)

I am well familiar with that most useful of healing spells lol

But if my familiar could cure wounds as well as myself plus the healing word bonus action then i could lift my whole team after a particularly viscous fireball :smalltongue:

[Herobizkit]

But if my familiar could cure wounds as well as myself plus the healing word bonus action then i could lift my whole team after a particularly viscous fireball :smalltongue:When you cast a spell as a bonus action, the only other spell you can cast is a cantrip. Sorry. ^_^

[kenposan]

Nothing locks your familiars form except the preconceived notion that most people have about them.

"You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast."

I guess I read this as "it appears in a form you choose and keeps that form" not "it appears in a form you choose and can take any form you choose whenever you want it to thereafter"

[Addaran]

"You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast."

I guess I read this as "it appears in a form you choose and keeps that form" not "it appears in a form you choose and can take any form you choose whenever you want it to thereafter"

The familiar can't change form by itself (only the imp and quasit for a chain warlock can). However, if you recast Find Familiar, you can assign a new form from the list.

[poolio]

When you cast a spell as a bonus action, the only other spell you can cast is a cantrip. Sorry. ^_^

Biscuits! You're right, guess i always have the life clerics channel to res a group :smallwink:

[JellyPooga]

I guess I read this as "it appears in a form you choose and keeps that form" not "it appears in a form you choose and can take any form you choose whenever you want it to thereafter"

The familiar can't change form by itself (only the imp and quasit for a chain warlock can). However, if you recast Find Familiar, you can assign a new form from the list.

Yeah, I probably should have iterated that a bit more clearly in my post. As Addaran says, to change the form of your familiar you have to cast Find Familiar again (along with its requisite 10gp material component, but hey, what else are you going to do with your money?). The important point, however, is that it's the same familiar, not a new one. That means it will retain whatever knowledge, personality, etc. it had before and after the transformation, allowing you to (for example) have it go scout as a weasel and discover an open window on the second floor, change its form once it "reports back" into that of an owl and tell it to "go see what's in that window you found". Not a huge advantage, but it can make things easier than trying to describe things anew. It depends on how you play familiars at your table, I suppose.

[DizzyWood]

They're a lot of fun, not just the designated heal bot some people make them out to be,

Plus with all the different domain options they have a lot of play styles and flavor possibilities :smallwink:

In fact I'm looking at a knowledge cleric who is trying to create a creature compendium of all the strange and wonderful animals and monsters, very similar to a pokedex lol :smalltongue:

I am thinking about an V. Human Arcana cleric scribe background with Magic Iniate Druid for goodberry and shillelagh plus swapping out one of the domain spells for Find Famliar. He will be researching the difference behind various sources of power. Divine, Arcane, pacts ect.

Good berry should let me cast it first thing each day and have my familiar deliver one of the three to a downed player since I do not plan on using to many healing spells. We will have a Lore bard and a pally as well to help with healing.

[Biggstick]

I am well familiar with that most useful of healing spells lol

But if my familiar could cure wounds as well as myself plus the healing word bonus action then i could lift my whole team after a particularly viscous fireball :smalltongue:

As Herobizkit said, you can't cast both of those spells on the same turn.

As a Life Cleric though, what you can do is use your Channel Divinity (25 hp pool to distribute at level 5, 30' range to as many or as few targets below half hp as you like) as an action and Mass Healing Word (1d4+Wis mod +5 (Life Cleric Healing Bonus) for up to 6 allies, 60' range) as a bonus action. The higher level you get as a Life Cleric, the larger Channel Divinity hp pool gets. You also get two of these per short rest once you're level 6 (and 3 at level 18).

You don't need the Familiar to deliver healing spells imo. The bigger strength of the Familiar is going to be delivering spells that remove debuffs from allies (Lesser Restoration, Freedom of Movement, Greater Restoration, etc.) Those spells require touch, and if they're suffering one of those effects, you yourself might not want to walk over to them for some reason or another.

[Herobizkit]

Still, if you're the type who doesn't mind spending an action for that Cure Wounds, D8+Wis+whatever Life Cleric gives you is a hella efficient single-target heal.

Of course, d4+Wis+whatever Life Cleric gives you is also great.

Options > Restrictions. :)

[poolio]

As Herobizkit said, you can't cast both of those spells on the same turn.

As a Life Cleric though, what you can do is use your Channel Divinity (25 hp pool to distribute at level 5, 30' range to as many or as few targets below half hp as you like) as an action and Mass Healing Word (1d4+Wis mod +5 (Life Cleric Healing Bonus) for up to 6 allies, 60' range) as a bonus action. The higher level you get as a Life Cleric, the larger Channel Divinity hp pool gets. You also get two of these per short rest once you're level 6 (and 3 at level 18).

You don't need the Familiar to deliver healing spells imo. The bigger strength of the Familiar is going to be delivering spells that remove debuffs from allies (Lesser Restoration, Freedom of Movement, Greater Restoration, etc.) Those spells require touch, and if they're suffering one of those effects, you yourself might not want to walk over to them for some reason or another.

Yes, i have gone over and acknowledged all this to Herobizkit, but thanks for taking the time to remind me i was wrong :smallwink: lol but really, thanks for responding, i didn't think about using lesser restoration and the other spells, debuff spells and tactics have never really been deployed by my dm :smalltongue: I'll have to keep all that in mind though :smallsmile: