utility of a familiar

[Satsujinki]

As a master, a new player i added took an owl familiar. I am nub at mastering, sure but i dont see much use for a familiar aside rp flavor(always good) and scouting. Abyone can clear this up?

[Southern Cross]

Well the wizard does gain a few special abilities from the familiar..
To take one example, the owl familiar would give the wizard a +3 to his or her
Spot checks in shadows. Plus the wizard gains the Alertness feat while the familiar is within arm's length.
According to the D20 SRD, the master's wizard can deliver touch spells for him at 3rd level, speak with its master at 5th level, and the owl familiar would be able to communicate with other birds at 7th level.
For a full list of the familiar's abilities check out the following link (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#familiars).

[Satsujinki]

I dont want to sound offensive but are we sure this is applied to 5e? I never heard "spot checks" or similar stuff, seems weird
Also the guy calling the familiar is an arcabe trickster

[hymer]

I dont want to sound offensive but are we sure this is applied to 5e? I never heard "spot checks" or similar stuff, seems weird
Also the guy calling the familiar is an arcabe trickster

Southern Cross seems to think he's in the 3.X forum. :smallwink:
Familiars may be able to assist the PC with some skill checks (searching for secret doors is one thing I'd let an owl help with), granting advantage on those checks. For rogues, a familiar can be a useul way to activate sneak attacks, by having the familiar be next to the target.

[Satsujinki]

So: skill checks, count as an unit for the purpose of SA, can deliver touch spells.
I saw some where somethibg regarding the hekp action, i suppose thats the giving advabtage in skills abd SA, right?

[hymer]

So: skill checks, count as an unit for the purpose of SA, can deliver touch spells.
I saw some where somethibg regarding the hekp action, i suppose thats the giving advabtage in skills abd SA, right?

Yes, that's what I was alluding to. :smallsmile:

[Millstone85]

As a master, a new player i added took an owl familiar. I am nub at mastering, sure but i dont see much use for a familiar aside rp flavor(always good) and scouting. Abyone can clear this up?Scouting is also very good. The owl can either do the scouting itself or perch on its master's shoulder to give them its senses of hearing and sight, including darkvision, at the cost of their action.


So: skill checks, count as an unit for the purpose of SA, can deliver touch spells.
I saw some where somethibg regarding the hekp action, i suppose thats the giving advabtage in skills abd SA, right?I have seen this debated a lot and here is the position I agree with: In combat, the Help action lets you give another character advantage on an ability check or an attack roll. If you are helping with an ability check, you need to be able to do the check yourself, as explained in the chapter on abilities. If you are helping with an attack roll, you need only be able to distract the target in some way, as explained in the chapter on combat. Thus, a familiar's own inability to attack doesn't stop it from giving its master (or any other ally) advantage on an attack roll.

The owl is especially good at this, thanks to its Flyby trait.

[Rixitichil]

Some familiars have access to senses or improved skills the caster doesn't. (Bats with Blindsense being able to tell an invisible foe isn't there or "see" through a visual illusion.)
Flight and other movement modes allow being able to places the caster can't without spending resources, can be useful. Tiny size can do similarly.
(Recover the Key atop a pillar without having to climb it. Open a flask of oil where it can be targeted by spell or arrow to set off an impromptu trap etc.)

[Maxilian]

Familiars are so nice in 5e, here some things you can do with them:

-Deliver Touch Spells or cantrips (Your Owl have Flyby so he doesn't provoke OA, so you don't have to put yourself in danger whenever you want to hit with a Touch spell)

-Make the Help action (This will give whoever he is helping adv -but only for that, aka, if he helps someone who is attacking, they will have adv with their first attack)

Note: The Good thing of the Help action, it works on everyone, including you, so whenever you want to hit with a really important AC based spell, you could get adv with the familiar, this is also really helpfull for your party members, you could give the Rogue Adv -letting him use SA- or the Paladin in the group -SMITE ALL THE WAY!-

-Use them to trigger traps (Poor Owl)

-Make them a flying bomb (Get a couple of Oil flask, put it around it, and whenever you wish to trigger it, just cast Shocking Grasp through your Owl and hit one of the flask) -FIREWORKS! :D

-They are great scouts or great distractions

-They could help evade getting surprised

Note2: If you happen to not have Darkvision and your familiar does, it could be a way to deliver spells without disadvantage (or maybe even advantage) in an area that you would normally have disadvantage

Note3: You can change your familiar by casting Find Familiar again, this may not be needed most of the time, but sometimes having another familiar (like a Bat with Blindsight) may help you around -For example, when fighting an invisible enemy-

[Hrugner]

Until recently, my group had been greatly underestimating the perception advantage of being able to use eyes 100ft above your position. Visual distance to the horizon at 6 feet is 3 miles, at 100 feet it's 12 miles, so you can see someone half a day's travel away from you. You can't really beat that level of tactical information in overland maneuvering. The owl's fly in and out help action is pretty impressive, but not without its counters. The ability to have short term access to blindsight through the bat familiar is also potentially quite useful. Leaving your familiar in a friendly warrior's pocket can also give you some ranged healing abilities as well as allowing other touch spells to have some distance. And of course, you may be able to harvest poison from a snake familiar if needed.

They're very versatile, but also very susceptible to being killed off with little chance of survival. And if your DM targets familiars normally, then you're better off without.

[DizzyWood]

I am glad this has been asked. I am planing on playing with my first familiar soonish and this gave me some great ideas for use.

[Tanarii]

-Use them to trigger traps (Poor Owl)

-Make them a flying bomb (Get a couple of Oil flask, put it around it, and whenever you wish to trigger it, just cast Shocking Grasp through your Owl and hit one of the flask) -FIREWORKS! :D
As usual, I like the cut of your jib. I need to send some of my players to get proper CaW training under your tutelage. :smallbiggrin:

[Saggo]

As usual, I like the cut of your jib. I need to send some of my players to get proper CaW training under your tutelage. :smallbiggrin:

I made badger bombs with an old 3.5 Ranger out of a conjure spell and some explosives we found (after a successful Dex check to portion it out). The DM basically gave me Evil points every time we did it, as in his words we were ripping some poor victim from their home dimension and ordering them to suicide bomb.

[Bohandas]

you could stick party members in a portable hole and use the owl to carry the portable hole to transport them to places inaccessable by walking

[tkuremento]

The best utility of a familiar that I can think of is when you go UA Theurgy Wizard and pick Life domain, you can stick your familiar under the hat of someone likely to take a lot of damage and use your cure wounds on them in truly dire situations via the familiar and otherwise have them help for some good damage~ or good checks~

[BW022]

My list (which includes most of Maxilians)...

1. Extra perception rolls. As long as your familiar is out... it gets checks (often at advantage and as a good distance). This can alert you to danger.

2. Deliver touch spells. I'll also add, that this can be used outside of offensive spells (although fly-by is nice for these). Spells like invisibility or such on allies -- which can keep you away from the melee front-line folks. There are also lots of spells which affect objects -- arcane lock for example. If you dual-class, cure spells, buffs, etc. can also be delivered by touch. Park a familiar on a front-line fighter and deliver cure wound spells from a distance.

3. Scouting. A flying creature is great for wilderness travel. A few hundred yards away... it can see ambushes, folks moving, etc. long before the party is in danger. Flying they can often scout miles ahead. Rats and bats can scout in dungeons, sewers, etc. Knowing what is ahead can help you prepare weapons, spells, and tactics; avoid being surprised, etc. Often you can avoid entire encounters. Unlike a rogue or ranger, familiars can scout ahead, their stealth is often higher, and... even if spotted, they may not trigger any attack.

4. Spying. A raven outside a window or a rat in a castle may be able to watch or people or minutes, hours, or even days. They could go to windows of a building and count the number of folks, types of weapons, etc. If you are close enough you can see through its eye or listen. This means you can watch folks or even listen to conversations. A familiar is a cheap scry spell at low levels.

5. Following. Familiars can often follow creatures a lot easier than a party. A hawk can follow a rider virtually any distance and report where he/she is going. A raven or rat might be able to easily tail someone in a city. A bat can follow some orcs in the dark. Parties tend not to want to split up and non-stealthy characters often find it hard to tail someone.

6. Delivering messages. Easy enough to attach a note to a familiar and have them deliver it to some known location. Sending a note for help, informing other party members when you split the party, etc. This may be helpful if you are captured.

7. Stealing small objects. A raven familiar might be able to get through a window and grab a scroll on someone's desk and a rat familiar might be able to grab a ring off a table. You might be able to put poison in someone's drink, plant phony evidence in someone's room, etc.

8. Guard Duty. Either an extra set of eyes (perception checks) during your duty, or able to take a shift while you sleep (assuming a small part). Also note that familiar can often setup guard duty posts away from your area -- in a tree, further down the road, outside the cave you are in, etc. Many have low-light (or even blind sense) and again, even if spotted, folks often don't think twice about them.

9. Distractions. Familiars can make noise, drop items, or deliver touch spells (for example light). These often make good distractions. A light spell on a nearby tree, dropping a glass in the kitchen, or just squawking outside a window can easily get a guard looking the wrong way or folks searching in the wrong place.

10. Aid another, flanking, etc. I don't typically use familiars in combat but for 10gp, they might be useful.

11. Setting off traps/scouting. Sometimes 10gp might be worth setting off something. This said, I typically don't do this with familiars. If you can spot a trap and know it is there... often easier to set it off with mundane abilities -- throw a rock, roll a log across it, etc.

12. Reading, touching. Scrolls, runes, etc. sometimes are safer reading these through your familiar. If it lays a curse, explosive runes, etc. at least you aren't killed.

13. Remote 'meetings'. If you are meeting someplace dangerous... sometimes using the familiar as a 'go between' is fine. If you are within 100 feet, you can hear through it. Send a note and then get the response via hearing through it. "Tell the owl where the orcs are hiding and he'll give you a gem."

14. Escaping capture. If you are captured, familiars can often help you escape. This could be chewing through ropes or bindings, getting a key (or lock picks) to you, or going for help.

15. Helping with ropes/climbing. A familiar might be able to loop a small cord over a tree branch, around a rock, etc. in order to help you pull a larger rope over.

[rigolgm]

Does anyone know how intelligent familiars are?

Their stats tend of be Intelligence 2 or 3 (for 'animal' familiars anyway).

If that's the whole story, then why are people here saying they'd be good guards, scouts, object manipulators, message carriers etc? Surely they'd be too stupid, except when under direct telepathic control at that time (so maybe no good to protect my wizard while he's asleep etc)? If I send my raven familair one mile ahead to scout for 'cavalier horsemen with purple banners', is he going to understand and come back to me with telepathic info about them?

If their Intelligence stat does make a difference, could I expect more cleverness from an INT3 cat compared to an INT2 owl?

Thanks for any thoughts. I'm just surprised the rules don't include something from older D&D games, where I hear familairs got INT6 as a minimum.

[nickl_2000]

Does anyone know how intelligent familiars are?

Their stats tend of be Intelligence 2 or 3 (for 'animal' familiars anyway).

If that's the whole story, then why are people here saying they'd be good guards, scouts, object manipulators etc? Surely they'd be too stupid, except when under direct telepathic control at that time (so maybe no good to protect my wizard while he's asleep etc)?

If their Intelligence stat does make a difference, could I expect more cleverness from an INT3 cat compared to an INT2 owl?

Thanks for any thoughts. I'm just surprised the rules don't include something from older D&D games, where I hear familairs got INT6 as a minimum.

They are not particularly intelligent as stock, but the find familiar spell gives you some options that make them good scouts/spyies. (see the bolded parts)


Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal. When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses

[rigolgm]

They are not particularly intelligent as stock, but the find familiar spell gives you some options that make them good scouts/spyies. (see the bolded parts)

Yeah. The rules as written basically makes them work like a 100ft-range radio-controlled drone with a camera on it (which can deliver touch spells, give advantage through a help action etc). People just seem to be treating them as better than that, even talking about whether to run them as an extra character etc.