The many uses of an imp familiar

[Greywander]

I've had a trickster build on my mind lately, specifically a GOO chainlock, and I've been thinking of all the wonderful ways one can abuse an imp familiar, particularly with Voice of the Chainmaster. It's better to think of the imp as an extension of yourself rather than as a separate entity (this might actually be literally true if the familiar is actually a genius AKA a personal guardian spirit).

Super Mage Hands Legerdemain
Ah, Mage Hand. A nice spell for the couch potato, and lets be honest, casters don't tend to be the most athletic. A spectral hand that can lift up to 10 pounds, requires an action to control, and is restricted to a 30 foot radius around you. What could be better? How about a pair of hands, that are invisible, can move up to 40 feet without an action, unlimited in range, and can carry up to 45 pounds? Also, you can summon it, and whatever it is carrying, back to you as two actions (one to dismiss to a pocket dimension, another to recall it). Did I mention unlimited range? Steal a valuable item, then recall it instantly back to you 100 miles away.

It's Raining Caltrops
Imps can carry up to 45 pounds. That's 90 healing potions, 45 alchemist's fire or vials of acid, or 22 ball bearing or caltrops. Ball bearings and caltrops only cost 1 gp each, and unlike acid or alchemist's fire unambiguously don't require an Attack action to use. You can also give your imp lots of other useful items to carry. Healing kits (when you can't afford potions), rope (bye bye grappling hook), sacks (self explanatory), a 10-foot pole (also self explanatory), bags of flour (poor man's Detect Invisible), coins (create a distraction, works best in town), or a lantern. Speaking of...

Disco Ball
Get someone to cast Continual Flame on a stone and place it in a lantern. Use a bullseye lantern if you want a spotlight, or a hooded lantern if you want to be able to dim it. Protip, upcast Continual Flame and it will push back the Darkness spell (which you might not want if you use the Darkness spell yourself). Congratulations, you've saved yourself both a cantrip and concentration over Dancing Lights. Don't forget to turn your imp invisible. (https://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda11-twilight-princess-poe-souls.php)

Red Imp is a Spy
This is probably the first thing people notice. It's a flying creature that can turn invisible at-will and has darkvision, and if that's not enough it can also turn into a couple different animals. It's the perfect scout. Or thief (see Super Mage Hands Legerdemain above). Or assassin.

Mild Shape
I wanted to call this at-will shapeshifting, but since it's only for your familiar and not yourself, it's really more at-will summon-one-of-three-types-of-animals. This means you can't use it to escape (you're better off sacrificing your familiar as a distraction), but you get all the utility of having an animal companion. Wait, that's... pretty much a literal description of the Find Familiar spell: "you get all the utility of having an animal companion." Bah, in any case, sometimes you just need a rat or raven, not because of what a rat or raven can do, but because they are specifically a rat or raven. Convince the shopkeep his food stores are infected with plague rats. Deliver an ill omen to a superstitious noble. Scare the bajeezus out of Little Miss Muffet. Etc.

Bilocation
Not a pun, but it's actually a real word. Of course, you can't actually be in two places at once, but with Voice of the Chainmaster this is about as close as you can currently get. If only there was an invocation that let your familiar disguise themselves as you, and allowed you to cast spells (not just touch spells) through them. Like the Trickery cleric's Invoke Duplicity. That would be fun. But at least you can have your awareness in two places at once. Maybe. I'm a little unclear if you're still blinded/deafened while perceiving through your familiar's senses, or if you still need to use an action to do so. So there's a lot of room for DM fiat here, but in any case you can still get a lot of use out of this. At the very least you can switch back and forth.

He's a Ventriloquist, Dummy!
Not only can you perceive through your familiar's senses, but you can speak through it, too. Now, this has obvious implications for things like high fantasy Skype calls (see Bilocation above), but you can also use it as a distraction. Send your invisible, flying familiar, possibly shapeshifted into something innocuous like a rat or spider, and then start calling for help, hurling insults at the monsters, or just talking really loudly. Amaze your party members as you lure away the guards, and then recall your familiar as soon as it is in any danger.

Seeing Eye Imp
No darkvision? No problem! Have your (invisible) familiar curl up around your shoulders and perceive through its senses all the time. Depending on the DM, this might not be viable if they rule it requires an action to perceive through your familiar's senses. You might also be able to use this to cast spells on creatures in a different room by having your familiar sneak in (while invisible) and act as a spotter for you. There are some spells that only require the target to be within range, or to be able to see a target within range, and don't actually need a line-of-effect to the target. Bane, Blight, and Blindness/Deafness should cast through walls just fine, and I only got as far as the B's before I stopped looking through the spell list.

Coconut Airlines
Do you weigh as much as a coconut? Thankfully, an imp is stronger than a swallow (African or European), and can carry a gnome or halfling, essentially granting you unlimited, concentration free flight at 3rd level. Now, practically speaking you wouldn't actually be able to use this, as you would need to be practically naked in order to be light enough. But... supposing two imps carried you together? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liIlW-ovx0Y) Still, it's an option to keep open, and it's better to ditch your gear and fly off than to get offed and fly into a ditch.

The Man Behind the Imp
Dress your imp up in an impressive robe (impressive enough that it hides its tiny form (https://youtu.be/-ij9RDwyVOw?t=38), not so impressive that it weighs more than 45 pounds (https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Pauldrons)) and convince people that you are the groveling servant of the Dark Lord. Watch as countless would-be heroes completely ignore you while trying to overthrow the Dark Lord, only to be frustrated by his endless stream of resurrections. For bonus points, use your at-will Disguise Self to take on the form of the Dark Lord occasionally so you can actually cast spells n' stuff while passing on the credit to your Dark Lord persona.

Do You Do Poison?
Wot sort?! What's it made of? What's it do? Why do they die?!?!?!? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ9GaYGJEWE) I'm sure someone's going to bring this up if I don't mention it, but yes, you can milk your imp for poison. I'm reasonably sure devil poison is going to be illegal in most civilized places, then again, an imp on your shoulder would probably also land you in jail get you burnt at the stake, so YMMV. If the DM ignores the imp, I doubt they'll give you any trouble over poison. That is, until you try to sell it.

What other creative uses can you come up with?

[Millstone85]

I'm a little unclear if you're still blinded/deafened while perceiving through your familiar's senses, or if you still need to use an action to do so.You are and you do.

link (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/703386258844700677)

Voice of the Chain Master extends the range of the link w/ a familiar, but you still take an action to use it.

[sophontteks]

Great list. Reading it had me thinking of some other uses. Hopefully more people can add uses, because pact of the tome is boring IMO. If I wanted to be a wizard I would have picked a wizard.

Friends in Low Places
Warlocks don't really have a direct line to the abyssal plane. They may serve a dark lord, but good luck calling in any favors. But your summoned Imp probably knows some guys. He could be a great source of information on the happenings of the abyssal creatures He likely knows their weaknesses, their behavior, their goals. He probably knows a few demons and devils quite well and may be able to speak on your behalf. Many imps eager for a promotion could even be tempted into serving a contract outside of the pact of the chain for that sweet sweet magic resist and who knows what other temptations a higher demon could offer in exchange for a favor.

Double Agent
Imps aren't bad talkers, but who would talk to an imp? Your antagonist may. He could offer information about your party, sell you out. But really the whole time he is working for you. Giving you eyes on his plans quite literally if you have voice of the chain master. Even if getting the attention of the big cheese himself isn't plausible, there are plenty of shady characters your party may run into, and the imp may be able to open doors your goodie goodie friends could not.

Boss, he's lying
Imps are a free source of insight checks. With invisibility and telepathy they can be there watching your conversations, pointing out things you may not have noticed.

Subtle Curse
Upon reading the Imp invisibility I noticed something funny. His invisibility only breaks when he attacks or loses concentration. He can deliver a non-attack touch spell while remaining invisible. Warlocks are quite unfortunately in short supply of touch spells, but one comes to mind as an excellent candidate. Bestow curse. It requires an invocation, Sign of Ill Omen, but at 10th level the spell will last 8 hours and won't require concentration either. With the added benefit of you writing your own curses tailor-fit to the situation, you can pull off some pretty cool stunts with this spell. You can curse someone, and take a short rest to regain the spell slot. With maddening hex you could wreck the target in pain= to your charisma bonus and they wouldn't know that you are the source of the damage thanks to your invisible delivery boy. Oh yeah, the kicker for maddening hex is that you must see your target. You can see through your familiars eyes as an action and activate maddening hex as a bonus action. You still gotta be within 30 feet, but still nice to inflict constant damage from another room.

Send a raven, I mean imp
In a pickle? You could send the imp out to get help. He can relay messages, coordinate with battle tactics from afar, and speak on your behalf while your locked away in some prison. Voice of the chain master could come in handy here.

[Callak_Remier]

You Realize the Imp wants you to become dependant on it so it can influence events in such a manner so it can acquire your soul.

[sambojin]

Not really warlock only, but there's plenty of Conjure X spells that say they follow your commands if they can hear you. It's your voice coming through your familiar with VotCM.

Need to tell your flock of Giant Owls exactly who to kill? Have your Imp fly along invisibly with them, keeping you updated on your current long-range bombing raid and allowing you to alter targets and tactics as the situation demands.

Turns Conjure Animals into an aerial drone swarm with about 4-8 miles or more range (60mins of flight time) for when you just want to sit in your tower while conquering small villages. Needs 5-6 levels of druid, yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a warlock to have anyway. Be the big bad. Send your minions. Screw adventuring. That would require walking somewhere.

Send the infernal horses/fey wolves/celestial dolphins to do it. Imps have hands anyway, so they fill in any blank spots that might stop your little war and from harassing stuff to death.

[CTurbo]

I played an evil character with an Imp and it was an extremely powerful tool. I liked to take advantage of it's fire immunity. Once I barricaded a building and burned it down. The Imp looted the building WHILE it was burning. On more than one occasion, I covered the Imp in oil and sent it into a room of bad guys(invisible of course) and shot a firebolt at it igniting it and it went around the room like a mobile fireball burning people up.

[ImproperJustice]

Combine with Beast Speech to interview the local animal residents at a faster and far ranging pace.

Combine with eyes of the rune keeper to read from a safe distance.

People have mentioned before how you can use your familiar along with Keen Mind and Silent Image to create a perfect map of an environment or visual descriptions of its inhabitants.
Combine with the Disguise Self ability and / or minor illusion to recreate auido conversations in their original voice.

[sambojin]

Do weird stuff with Eagle Totem Barb's mile=100' sight.

[Malphegor]

Depending on the appearance of an imp, you can probably do something with a bound succubus to parody a certain religious messiah and its maternal saintly figure, should that religion exist in your world. Baby Jebus Imp being held by Mary Malevolent!

More seriously, the main utility of an imp for me is another humanoid shape to put magic items on-


Plus they tend to sound like Danny DeVito if my DM's involved, and anything that involves Danny Devilto in a game I'm in is rad.

[sophontteks]

You Realize the Imp wants you to become dependant on it so it can influence events in such a manner so it can acquire your soul.
That would be a concern if fiendlocks didn't already enter a similar contract to become a warlock in the first place. Fiendlocks are essentially doomed souls. All the power in the world but nothing they are granted evades their own mortality. Its not a good deal. I sure wouldn't take it, but my power-hungry warlock is certain he will cheat this somehow. Otherwise, well, he wouldn't be a warlock.

That said, being a soul doomed to be sent to the abyssal plane isn't the end. If you check out devils in the MM they have a heirarchy of promotion. At the bottom are Lemures. That's probably what happens to us poor warlocks. And when the higher ups need more hands on deck they promote lemors to lessor devils, most often imps. Once the warlock's soul becomes an imp, well, we've gone full circle. The imp will trick other mortals into losing their souls in order to be promoted by their master.

[Keravath]

Cool ideas.

However, one misconception about the warlock familiars ... they aren't actually imps, sprites, pseudodragons or quasits.

Warlock Pact of the Chain text:
"You learn the find familiar spell and can cast it as a ritual. The spell doesn't count against your number of spells known. When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite."

Find familiar spell:
"You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose:"
"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."

The familiar has the statistics of the chosen form and the statistics for these forms are in the back of the players handbook. Notably the imp familiar from the spell does NOT provide magic resistance which a real imp, found in the monster manual, which makes an agreement to be a familiar using the alternate familiar rules in the DMG can do.

In addition, the familiar can be any of the three spirit types and can take any of the forms. A fey spirit can take an imp form, so could a celestial for that matter. You can designate the type of spirit for the purposes of susceptibility to spells and other effects that can target fey, celestial or fiend creature types.

So, imp familiars conjured by the spell do not have an agenda, they aren't trying to subvert you, they aren't actually an imp ... just a spirit taking that form.

All the other cool things you can do with these enhanced familiars still work but they aren't the actual creatures.

[Unoriginal]

That would be a concern if fiendlocks didn't already enter a similar contract to become a warlock in the first place. Fiendlocks are essentially doomed souls. All the power in the world but nothing they are granted evades their own mortality. Its not a good deal. I sure wouldn't take it, but my power-hungry warlock is certain he will cheat this somehow. Otherwise, well, he wouldn't be a warlock.

That said, being a soul doomed to be sent to the abyssal plane isn't the end. If you check out devils in the MM they have a heirarchy of promotion. At the bottom are Lemures. That's probably what happens to us poor warlocks. And when the higher ups need more hands on deck they promote lemors to lessor devils, most often imps. Once the warlock's soul becomes an imp, well, we've gone full circle. The imp will trick other mortals into losing their souls in order to be promoted by their master.

Fiend Pact Warlocks don't sell their souls by default, and they're not always doomed.

Anyone who make a Warlock Pact for their soul got conned hard. You can get a Fiendish Pact in exchange of one magic item. A soul can be exchanged against a ton of gold or enough power to turn a Commoner into a CR 3 threat.

Also the Abyss and demons don't care about souls in general. Exceptions, the most notable being Orcus, do exist, however.

[Callak_Remier]

That would be a concern if fiendlocks didn't already enter a similar contract to become a warlock in the first place. Fiendlocks are essentially doomed souls. All the power in the world but nothing they are granted evades their own mortality. Its not a good deal. I sure wouldn't take it, but my power-hungry warlock is certain he will cheat this somehow. Otherwise, well, he wouldn't be a warlock.

That said, being a soul doomed to be sent to the abyssal plane isn't the end. If you check out devils in the MM they have a heirarchy of promotion. At the bottom are Lemures. That's probably what happens to us poor warlocks. And when the higher ups need more hands on deck they promote lemors to lessor devils, most often imps. Once the warlock's soul becomes an imp, well, we've gone full circle. The imp will trick other mortals into losing their souls in order to be promoted by their master.

Lemures are actually anyone who dies who has an Evil alignment and have not declared servitude to any particular god.

Warlocks can become Deathlocks, or other lesser devils*

[Unoriginal]

Lemures are actually anyone who dies who has an Evil alignment and have not declared servitude to any particular god.

A LAWFUL evil alignment, to be precise.



Warlocks can become Deathlocks, or other lesser demons

Mortals don't become demons.

[Callak_Remier]

Fiend Pact Warlocks don't sell their souls by default.



Ummmm what?
The default pact with a Devil is for your soul.

So unless you talk it out with your DM beforehand about it not being your soul.

I would assume you bargained away your Soul for Power. You know that thing that makes them Thematically a warlock and not just another Spell caster.

[Callak_Remier]

A LAWFUL evil alignment, to be precise.

Yes your correct NE people end up in hades although it has been known that they barter for all souls with other powerful beings.

Mortals don't become demons.

My apologizes devils

[sophontteks]

Fiend Pact Warlocks don't sell their souls by default, and they're not always doomed.

Anyone who make a Warlock Pact for their soul got conned hard. You can get a Fiendish Pact in exchange of one magic item. A soul can be exchanged against a ton of gold or enough power to turn a Commoner into a CR 3 threat.

Also the Abyss and demons don't care about souls in general. Exceptions, the most notable being Orcus, do exist, however.
All roads lead to hell. I mean to say. The fiendish patrons do not have the warlocks interests in mind and will ultimately seek to be the warlock's inevitable destruction.
As it says in the PHB: "Such beings desire the corruption or destruction of all things, ultimately including you."
Entering into a contract of servitude for a fiend tends to have consequences in the long run and they hold quite a lot of power over you. I'm not sure what you offered of value for your contract, but they are giving an awful lot for it not to be something significant.

[Millstone85]

Mortals don't become demons.
My apologizes devilsMortals don't become devils either.

All devils, and some demons, are made from souls, but the soul is either wholly consumed in the process or trapped inside the fiend as not much more than a battery.

Or so did Unoriginal, others and I conclude the last time we discussed this aspect of the lore.

[Dudewithknives]

I bought mine a hat of disguise and it was my, "Fiesty halfling girlfriend"

[Segev]

This is more a generic familiar trick, except for the fact that there's an Invocation to increase the sense-connection to "anywhere on the same plane," but a number of Illusion spells are place-able anywhere you can see. This gets especially enjoyable with the Malleable Illusions power of the Illusionist, since you can then have a pre-cast spell up that you relocate as an action to wherever your familiar happens to be looking.

[sophontteks]

On imp invisibility again. If you cast dragon breath on the Imp he can technically use it while remaining invisibile. Its not a warlock spell but maybe your friend can pick it up for some really silly shenannagans.

[Tanarii]

There are some spells that only require the target to be within range, or to be able to see a target within range, and don't actually need a line-of-effect to the target. Bane, Blight, and Blindness/Deafness should cast through walls just fine, and I only got as far as the B's before I stopped looking through the spell lisTAll of these spells still require a Clear Path to the Target. They don't remove that rule. They just add to it that also need to be able to see the target.

But Find Familar overrides that ... for touch spells. Any touch spells cast through the Familar count as if the Familar cast the spells.

If you're casting a non-touch spell yourself, using the Familar as your eyes but not to channel the spell, you can cast on targets you have a clear path to, you cannot see, but the Familar can. Of course, you still need to use your action to see through its eyes (see Sage Advice). So you're limited to bonus action (including Quickened), or Action Surged for an extra Action, spells. So there's still some utility there. It's just very limited.

[1Pirate]

Surprised this one didn't come up yet(probably leads to DM's being the fun police I suppose):

Guidance Shmidance
Normally you can't take the Help action on skill checks you wouldn't be able to make yourself. For your beast familiars, that leaves out quite a bit. But with your imp's intelligence and opposable thumbs, the number of skills it can make goes up dramatically, and therefore it can grant advantage whenever you need it. And why confine it to yourself when other party members are doing their thing? The Rogue searching for traps can always use another set of eyes and a little tail that can get into some of those hard-to-reach places. When the Barbarian is trying to force open that one door, your familiar can loosen the screws on those stubborn hinges. And it's hard for that orc warrior to keep the Wizard grappled when those invisible fingers are always tickling him. No need for your Clerics and Druid to spend their concentration spamming Guidance.

[MrBig]

1) Help action in-combat for advantage on your next attack
2) carry a shield and get +2 AC

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542454-Introducing-the-Demonic-Goalie!-a-Chain-pact-Warlock-with-a-flying-shield-bearer&p=22587960H

[Dalebert]

2) carry a shield and get +2 AC

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542454-Introducing-the-Demonic-Goalie!-a-Chain-pact-Warlock-with-a-flying-shield-bearer&p=22587960H

The reasoning is sound. Would allow.

[KOLE]

Eye for an Eye

Don't forget your Imp has Devil's sight! If you also take that invocation, one casting of darkness can get you a lot of mileage. Cast darkness, go gangbusters on that poor suckers. Between you whaling on it with advantage and your Imp stinging the crap out of it and poisoning it, again with advantage, it's most likely going to go down quick.

[Segev]

Surprised this one didn't come up yet(probably leads to DM's being the fun police I suppose):

Guidance Shmidance
Normally you can't take the Help action on skill checks you wouldn't be able to make yourself. For your beast familiars, that leaves out quite a bit. But with your imp's intelligence and opposable thumbs, the number of skills it can make goes up dramatically, and therefore it can grant advantage whenever you need it. And why confine it to yourself when other party members are doing their thing? The Rogue searching for traps can always use another set of eyes and a little tail that can get into some of those hard-to-reach places. When the Barbarian is trying to force open that one door, your familiar can loosen the screws on those stubborn hinges. And it's hard for that orc warrior to keep the Wizard grappled when those invisible fingers are always tickling him. No need for your Clerics and Druid to spend their concentration spamming Guidance.

Why not both? Guidance stacks just fine with Advantage.

[Trustypeaches]

Eye for an Eye

Don't forget your Imp has Devil's sight! If you also take that invocation, one casting of darkness can get you a lot of mileage. Cast darkness, go gangbusters on that poor suckers. Between you whaling on it with advantage and your Imp stinging the crap out of it and poisoning it, again with advantage, it's most likely going to go down quick.
You couldn’t do both. You must sacrifice your own attack for your familiar to attack.

[Dalebert]

You couldn’t do both. You must sacrifice your own attack for your familiar to attack.

A blade lock can use one of his attacks and let the imp attack.

[1Pirate]

Why not both? Guidance stacks just fine with Advantage.

As stated, it frees up concentration. Not always necessary admittedly.

[The Jack]

Most informative. Ehats the difference between pg and mm imps? Any uses for the other familiars? Is the imp the best?

[Tanarii]

Ehats the difference between pg and mm imps? MM imps are Devils. PHB imps are spirits that are celestial, fey or fiend, your choice.

MM Imps, as a variant rule, grant their master magic resistance when within 10ft, and their master can sense what they sense within 1 mile. PHB imps do not grant magic resistance, and sensing what they sense is 100 ft.

MM imps are gained by negotiating a contract with an actual Devil, an NPC monster. PHB imps are gained by having the Warlock class and selecting Pact of the Chain, a class feature.

Edit: Replace all "PHB Imp" references in my post with "Warlock Pact of the Chain Find Familar based class feature". (See sophontteks correction in below.)

[sophontteks]

MM imps are Devils. PHB imps are spirits that are celestial, fey or fiend, your choice.

MM Imps, as a variant rule, grant their master magic resistance when within 10ft, and their master can sense what they sense within 1 mile. PHB imps do not grant magic resistance, and sensing what they sense is 100 ft.

MM imps are gained by negotiating a contract with an actual Devil, an NPC monster. PHB imps are gained by having the Warlock class and selecting Pact of the Chain, a class feature.
I think you are getting the full warlock selection of familiars mixed up with the imp from phb, which is a fiend and a devil.

[Tanarii]

I think you are getting the full warlock selection of familiars, mixed up with the imp from phb, which is a fiend and a devil.
Sorry, you are correct.

Replace all "PHB Imp" references in my post with "Warlock Pact of the Chain Find Familar based class feature".

I assumed that's what the question was in regard to in terms of PHB Imp, since that's what the thread is about.

[sophontteks]

You had me goin there. I thought I was gonna get me a celestial fiend :smallbiggrin:

I never got to play a warlock yet and I haven't found any conclusive discussion on which familiar is best. I'd want one that turns invisible and flight would certainly be nice. The only 2 that can both fly and turn invisibile are the imp and the sprite. Between them the sprite has only 1d4 hp making it maybe too delicate for my taste. I like the additional skills an imp has, but it is kind of cool for a sprite to run around using heart sight while invisible.

EDIT: Oh this is interesting. The Imps and quasits use different rules for invisibility then the sprite. The sprite's concentration ends if it casts a spell, while the imp and quasit only end if they attack. Depending on your DM this could hurt the sprites ability to deliver touch spells. A dangerous thing for a sprite, since it can't shapeshift either and can die to a heavy sneeze.

[Xihirli]

A blade lock can use one of his attacks and let the imp attack.

Yes, but to be a bladelock you have to not be a chainlock.

[Tanarii]

You had me goin there. I thought I was gonna get me a celestial fiend :smallbiggrin:
.You still might be able to. Depends on if your DM rules that Find Familiar replaces the creature type of adds to it. (Comment made without checking spell text.)

[Xetheral]

The Actor feat combines with Voice of the Chain Master, dramatically increasing the chaos you can cause with an imp.

For example, I was once playing in a game where we cleared out an enemy fortress and got to overhear the local orc commander in conversation before we killed him. Reinforcements were on their way, so we departed quickly, but I left my imp familiar behind, invisible next to the corpse. When the reinforcements found the dead commander, they got treated to fading whispers in the commander's voice of him begging the big bad to spare his soldiers and asking why they were being betrayed. The reinforcements promptly abandoned the fortress and deserted from the big bad's service.

[Dalebert]

Yes, but to be a bladelock you have to not be a chainlock.

Oh... yeah. I guess you'd have to multiclass.

[Warlush]

My absolute favorite characters have been Halfling Chain Pact Warlocks. One Fiend and one GOO. The GOO's telepathy give you the three voice hat trick. You're talking to someone, speaking telepathically to them, while your invisible imp whispers in their ear. My favorite use of an invisible familiar with thumbs was stealing. Picking pockets, cleaning out registers, tip jars, treasure behind bars, treasure being protected by nasty monsters, blah blah blah. Worst case scenario you send them to their pocket dimension after they grab some goods.

[Ventruenox]

Mödley Crüe: Imps may be familiar with being familiars, but thread necromancy is an unfamiliar pact boon.