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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Need help! Homebrew Familiar



Foxydono
2016-10-16, 06:47 PM
My warlock will have a Great Old One as otherworldly patron. Namely The Great Mother, this is the creator of the beholder and some philosophers say that the Great Mother is the Evil Eye of the Fragmented God. Which body parts float around the universe. In any case she lays eggs which become beholders, see for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mother_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

A personal swing I give to the story, is that the Fragmented God wanted his eyes and ears around the universe and therefore dispersed his body parts. My character is an astronomer and wants to learn more about the universe. Having an 'all seeing' eye as otherworldly being seems fitting.

I would like to create a unique familiar given the patron. I looked at the other warlock familiars (Imp, Quasit, Sprite and Pseudodragon) as well as the beholder itself (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_SRD:Beholder) and came up with the following concept:

Appearance: the familiar looks like an egg with an eye in it.
Size: Tiny
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Stats: Strength 3 (-4), Dexterity 14 (+2), Constitution 17 (+3), Intelligence 15 (+2), Wisdom 14 (+2), Charisma 10 (0).
AC: 14 (natural armor class)
HP: 8 (2d4+3)
Speed: 20 ft. (hover)
Passive perception: 17
Skills: Perception +5, Stealth +5
Conditions: immune to being prone and permantly deafened as it can't hear anything.
Language: Deep Speech
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet (even magical darkness)

Invisibility: As an action, the familiar magically turns invisible until it attacks, or until its Concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell).
Keen Sight. The Familiar has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Alert: The eye can't be surprised.

Fear Ray: The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

While the familiar is withing 10 feet of the character, he or she gains advantage on perception checks that rely on sight and can't be surprised.

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Please let me know whether you think this is too weak/powerful or if I should change something. If you simple like this familiar and think it's perfect the way it is, you can say that as well of course :p

Edited: Made some change as proposed by Sicarius Victis.

Sicarius Victis
2016-10-16, 09:12 PM
Alignment: Why is it LE? In the link you posted, the Great Mother is written as CE.

HP: Unless my math is off, the average of 2d4+3 is 8, not 9.

Perception: If its Perception modifier is +5, its passive Perception should be 15.

Senses: I get the idea, but 120 feet feels like too much. Particularly since it can give a warlock the equivalent of Devil's Sight without having to take the invocation.

Skills: It should probably also get a bonus to Stealth. Even if it's invisible, it still needs Stealth to entirely avoid being noticed.

Stats: Given what it is, it should probably have a somewhat higher Dex. 12 is only barely above the average for a human.

Condition Immunities: It should probably also be immune to the "deafened" condition, if it's just an eye. Either that, or always suffer from it. It should also get additional penalties when suffering from the "grappled" and "restrained" conditions as well, given that it's, again, just an eye.

Invisibility: What kind of equipment would it be wearing or carrying anyways? That part of the description feels redundant.

That's all I have for it at the moment.

Foxydono
2016-10-17, 05:07 AM
Alignment: Why is it LE? In the link you posted, the Great Mother is written as CE.
Because of the alignment of beholders, but CE does make more sense since it's a familiar from the Great Mother. I will change it.


HP: Unless my math is off, the average of 2d4+3 is 8, not 9.
I don't understand how those hp calculations work :(. 2d4 is considered 1d8 with an average of 5+3? Anyway I'll change it to 8.


Perception: If its Perception modifier is +5, its passive Perception should be 15.
I also added the +2 bonus from Wisdom. Was that wrong to do? Same question goes for AC, don't they benefit from their dex bonus to AC?


Senses: I get the idea, but 120 feet feels like too much. Particularly since it can give a warlock the equivalent of Devil's Sight without having to take the invocation.
Well as it is an eye I wanted it to have great visual senses. I did consider giving it normal darkvision without magical darkness and truesight within 10 feet (like the blindsight of the pseudodragon), but that felt really powerful. As another option, I could scale it down to 60 feet or I could say it's just an immature egg without an eye and give it blindsight 30 feet. What do you think?


Skills: It should probably also get a bonus to Stealth. Even if it's invisible, it still needs Stealth to entirely avoid being noticed.
Well a stealth bonus is definitly handy I admit. Although how does that work exactly? Because they eye doesn't really makes a sound (can only talk through deep speech and doesn't have a mouth to begin with) and since it hovers I assume it moves silent. With a flying creature it flaps its wings so you could detect this, but how would an invisible eye be detected if it floats and can't make a sound (assuming it doesn't bump into another object or attack with its eye).

Edit: maybe allow stealth as a bonus action since stealthing should be very easy for a creature that doesn't make sound?


Stats: Given what it is, it should probably have a somewhat higher Dex. 12 is only barely above the average for a human. I could make it 14, an egg should be hard to hit due to its size I guess. And I will improve the AC to 14.


Condition Immunities: It should probably also be immune to the "deafened" condition, if it's just an eye. Either that, or always suffer from it. It should also get additional penalties when suffering from the "grappled" and "restrained" conditions as well, given that it's, again, just an eye.
Would make sense to make it always 'suffer` from being deafened as it can't hear anything. What kind of penalties would you give a grappled or restrained eye other then the normal penalties given for these conditions?


Invisibility: What kind of equipment would it be wearing or carrying anyways? That part of the description feels redundant.
Yea, I don't think it can wear many items, but players can be inventive. Maybe they craft a goggle for the eye :). I could leave the part out, but I thought better save then sorry.

Sicarius Victis
2016-10-17, 12:35 PM
I don't understand how those hp calculations work :(. 2d4 is considered 1d8 with an average of 5+3? Anyway I'll change it to 8. Average of 2d4 is 5, 5+3=8.
I also added the +2 bonus from Wisdom. Was that wrong to do? Same question goes for AC, don't they benefit from their dex bonus to AC? The Wisdom bonus is already part of its standard Perception modifier, it's not added again.
Well as it is an eye I wanted it to have great visual senses. I did consider giving it normal darkvision without magical darkness and truesight within 10 feet (like the blindsight of the pseudodragon), but that felt really powerful. As another option, I could scale it down to 60 feet or I could say it's just an immature egg without an eye and give it blindsight 30 feet. What do you think? 90 feet, maybe?
Well a stealth bonus is definitly handy I admit. Although how does that work exactly? Because they eye doesn't really makes a sound (can only talk through deep speech and doesn't have a mouth to begin with) and since it hovers I assume it moves silent. With a flying creature it flaps its wings so you could detect this, but how would an invisible eye be detected if it floats and can't make a sound (assuming it doesn't bump into another object or attack with its eye). Scent is one way, but there likely are other ways to notice it. Even if it's not touching the floor, it could still be making noise.
I could make it 14, an egg should be hard to hit due to its size I guess. And I will improve the AC to 14. Sure, that should work.
Would make sense to make it always 'suffer` from being deafened as it can't hear anything. What kind of penalties would you give a grappled or restrained eye other then the normal penalties given for these conditions? If it's permanently deafened, that could balance out the Devil's Sight. And when it comes to the grappled/restrained, I'm not sure what it should be, but it feels like a floating eye would be easier to hold and such.
Yea, I don't think it can wear many items, but players can be inventive. Maybe they craft a goggle for the eye :). I could leave the part out, but I thought better save then sorry. I guess it really all depends on the player's creativity.