Help with Arcane Trickster and Owl Familiar

[TheHutz]

Hello!

I’m currently playing a level 3 arcane trickster on roll20 and I have a few questions about utilizing my owl familiar in combat.

First, does the owl require its own square or can it ride on the rogues shoulder etc during combat?

Second, the vaunted AT move is booming blade on a lone melee target and then disengaging out of there. I know it would be easy for the owl to provide advantage in this situation, as long as the owl goes first it flies in, uses help, flies out. What if I also want to use the owl to provide a sneak attack opportunity? Is there any way to hold the initiative of either the owl or rogue so they can take concurrent turns effectively allowing both to move in, owl help, rogue attack with advantage and sneak attack, and then have both disengage?

Last, what are my options for keeping the owl alive? I’m thinking I’ll only use these tactics if there are no bowmen around but if the owl does start getting shot at the obvious is moving him behind cover or a wall. Can the rogue provide the owl cover? Are there any other options?

Thanks all!

[DerficusRex]

First, does the owl require its own square or can it ride on the rogues shoulder etc during combat?
I would expect it could ride on your shoulder if it's not flying around, but you can always ask your DM if you're worried about it. The owl is Tiny, so if you do care about how much space it takes up when it's moving around on its own, it would be a quarter of a 5 foot square (2.5x2.5 feet).


Second, the vaunted AT move is booming blade on a lone melee target and then disengaging out of there. I know it would be easy for the owl to provide advantage in this situation, as long as the owl goes first it flies in, uses help, flies out. What if I also want to use the owl to provide a sneak attack opportunity? Is there any way to hold the initiative of either the owl or rogue so they can take concurrent turns effectively allowing both to move in, owl help, rogue attack with advantage and sneak attack, and then have both disengage?
Familiars can't attack, but they can use other actions as normal, so I guess it would be possible for a familiar to Ready an action. You don't need to for the case you're describing though - if the familiar takes the Help action the fact that you have advantage on your attack will let you use Sneak Attack without an ally being within 5 feet.


Last, what are my options for keeping the owl alive? I’m thinking I’ll only use these tactics if there are no bowmen around but if the owl does start getting shot at the obvious is moving him behind cover or a wall. Can the rogue provide the owl cover? Are there any other options?
If you have Minor Illusion, you could create illusory cover.

[Rhaegar14]

Last, what are my options for keeping the owl alive? I’m thinking I’ll only use these tactics if there are no bowmen around but if the owl does start getting shot at the obvious is moving him behind cover or a wall. Can the rogue provide the owl cover? Are there any other options?

Thanks all!

I'm doing a similar thing with my Bladesinger Wizard character right now. The big thing is just to have situational awareness and make sure the owl isn't making itself enough of a nuisance to be worth attacking, but remember that as part of Find Familiar you can dismiss it to a pocket dimension where nothing can hurt it as an action (iirc, it's an action).

Also, as a side thing, Dragon's Breath is a good 2nd-level spell pick if you want to incorporate your familiar heavily into your combat style, though as an Arcane Trickster that takes up one of your precious not-illusion-or-enchantment spells known.

[Theodoxus]

I'm doing this with a 1st level vhuman rogue with MI: wizard (grabbing BB and Prestidigitation, because why not?) - planning on going Swashbuckler at 3rd.

Generally, the rogue's initiative is better than the owls', so I have a couple options. At the start of combat, if no one goes into melee with a baddie before I go, I'll just take a shot with my short bow, then when my owl comes up, determine if there's a better PC coming up who could use the advantage. If not, I'll have the owl Help me into the next round.

So far, the DM hasn't purposefully targeted the owl, but I try to make sure I have enough room to fly it out of LOS to anything with a bow...

Starting at 2nd level, I'll probably use BB and disengage, hopefully triggering the Boom.

[Saggo]

Last, what are my options for keeping the owl alive? I’m thinking I’ll only use these tactics if there are no bowmen around but if the owl does start getting shot at the obvious is moving him behind cover or a wall. Can the rogue provide the owl cover? Are there any other options?

Creatures will give Half Cover (+2 AC and +2 Dex Saves) to each other (regardless of friendly or hostile). You can give your owl familiar Half Cover by having him sit behind you.

You can easily keep at least 20' height and 20' lateral distance against melee attackers with Owl flying speed (30' down and in and 30' up and out), or more depending on how your DM treats diagonal squares/hexes.

As mentioned, use an action to dismiss the familiar and an action to resummon later. Can't hurt what isn't there.

Beyond that, you just need to be aware of the terrain and find any cover you can.

[DMThac0]

I had to deal with a player who used an owl familiar in a previous campaign and I can tell you from experience; once you figure out how to use the owl properly, your DM will get very frustrated. I don't mean that in a negative or nay-saying sense, it's just to put it out there.


I would expect it could ride on your shoulder if it's not flying around, but you can always ask your DM if you're worried about it. The owl is Tiny, so if you do care about how much space it takes up when it's moving around on its own, it would be a quarter of a 5 foot square (2.5x2.5 feet).

If your DM is familiar with native species of birds and their natural habitats then this answer is "Ask your DM". A Pigmy Owl could sit on your shoulder and never be a problem, however if you wanted to use a Barn Owl instead, well that bird has a very large wing span and weights quite a bit.

The action of the bird are summed up by the rest of the posters pretty well. I'll add, again from my style of DMing, that if you were to use the bird in constructive ways, such as messing with the environment to make distractions, it could help with giving advantage beyond just using Help/Flyby.

Keeping the bird alive is going to be a balancing act: currently the bird is not a threat, the DM doesn't have cause to focus on it or remove it as an asset to your party. Once you become more familiar with your familiar that will change. The DM will find reasons to dislike the bird and will find ways to remove it from combat. The fact that you can re-summon the bird makes losing it less of a hindrance, the fact that you can choose to dismiss the bird makes it harder for the DM to kill or capture it, and the freedom of movement it has from flight makes it easier for you to remove it from harms way. If you can find a balance on how useful it is to you, and keep it off the DM's radar, you'll go far with this.

[Strangways]

Hello!

I’m currently playing a level 3 arcane trickster on roll20 and I have a few questions about utilizing my owl familiar in combat.

First, does the owl require its own square or can it ride on the rogues shoulder etc during combat?

Second, the vaunted AT move is booming blade on a lone melee target and then disengaging out of there. I know it would be easy for the owl to provide advantage in this situation, as long as the owl goes first it flies in, uses help, flies out. What if I also want to use the owl to provide a sneak attack opportunity? Is there any way to hold the initiative of either the owl or rogue so they can take concurrent turns effectively allowing both to move in, owl help, rogue attack with advantage and sneak attack, and then have both disengage?

Last, what are my options for keeping the owl alive? I’m thinking I’ll only use these tactics if there are no bowmen around but if the owl does start getting shot at the obvious is moving him behind cover or a wall. Can the rogue provide the owl cover? Are there any other options?

Thanks all!

You get your sneak attack damage bonus if you attack with advantage, regardless of positioning. You need positioning to get your sneak attack damage bonus only if you're not attacking with advantage. So your owl can fly in, execute a help action, then fly away (with no opportunity attack because of fly-by) and you can then attack with advantage and get your sneak attack damage bonus.