warlock Familiar

[Xaryo]

i was looking at the stats of the pseudo dragon and the other special familiar available for the warlock.

my thought is, that pseudodragon is weak (CR 1/4 )compared to the imp or quasit (cr1)

why not a faery dragon instead?

[ProsecutorGodot]

It doesn't look too weak by comparison.

It has blindsight, darkvision and advantage on all perception checks. Couple that with the fact that it's a flying creature with telepathy and it makes a fairly useful scouting familiar.

Even a younger faerie dragon is quite a leap in power, however. It gets greater invisibility and spellcasting, I wouldn't recommend allowing it as a familiar.

[Man_Over_Game]

i was looking at the stats of the pseudo dragon and the other special familiar available for the warlock.

my thought is, that pseudodragon is weak (CR 1/4 )compared to the imp or quasit (cr1)

why not a faery dragon instead?

I think a better example might be to consider the Pseudodragon as the baseline, and coming up with CR 1/4 alternatives for dark or chaotic familiars.

Personally, I think that familiars are too darn good for how accessible they are, and Warlock familiars are twice as good as that. If trying to balance the level 3 familiar boon to Pact of the Blade, the Pseudodragon fits a lot better than the Imp. Likely, they wanted CR 1/4 to be the standard, but couldn't find good enough alternatives to the Pseudodragon at that level, since most CR 1/2-1 creatures are psychotic or far too big/stupid to be a familiar.

[Treantmonk]

The main diffference between a pseudodragon and an imp in power appears to be the invisibility at will and the shapechanging ability. If you were concerned about that, I would say houseruling pseudodragons to gain those 2 abilities would likely not cause any balance issues.

Allowing a Faerie Dragon might actually have balance consequences though, it can turn invisible as a bonus action, then use a breath weapon or color spray spell. This could create consequences with the action economy, particularly at lower levels.

[BarneyBent]

If you’re going to houserule that a Faerie Dragon can be a familiar, you can also houserule that they lose their spellcasting/breath weapon when they take on the role of familiar.

[sophontteks]

Imps have a higher CR because they turn invisible. But pseudodragons have blindsight, and advantage on perception checks. They aren't bad, but I think invisibility is what competes with tomelocks.


I think a better example might be to consider the Pseudodragon as the baseline, and coming up with CR 1/4 alternatives for dark or chaotic familiars.

Personally, I think that familiars are too darn good for how accessible they are, and Warlock familiars are twice as good as that. If trying to balance the level 3 familiar boon to Pact of the Blade, the Pseudodragon fits a lot better than the Imp. Likely, they wanted CR 1/4 to be the standard, but couldn't find good enough alternatives to the Pseudodragon at that level, since most CR 1/2-1 creatures are psychotic or far too big/stupid to be a familiar.
Everyone would just take tome over chain and pick find familiar as a ritual spell.

[Falcon X]

As a DM, I created a new set of 4 creatures one of our elven warlocks could change into that were more thematic for her (pact with Imix, I think)
If I remember, they were: Fire Mephit, Quasit, Faerie Dragon, and a custom built Owl Guardinal (reflavored a sprite mostly).
She loved them, they had a disparity of alignments, and all connected to who she was as a character in some way.

If the DM is okay with it, I am all for coming up with a new set of 4 familiars. Just make sure none exceed the usefulness of the Imp.

[Misterwhisper]

I played a warforged warlock who had a duodrone as a familiar,

Worked great thematically.

Cr is lower than the others but it worked very well.

It flew around me and tinkered on things.

[Trustypeaches]

Imps have:
- Invisibility
- High stealth
- Useful skills like Persuasion, Insight, and Deception
- Much better survivability than the Pseudodragon with their resistances
- Opposable thumbs and high Dexterity; perfect for manipulating objects, or even using objects and magic items (or potions, caltrops, etc). You could argue Pseudodragons are capable of this too though.
- Devil sight to see through magical darkness. This makes them ideal carriers for spells of Darkness (give them a bullseye lantern with a darkness spell cast inside) that can move around enemies to give you advantage without impeding your allies).

Imps are easily the gold standard of familiars and any other familiar you use should just reskin it tbh.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Important to note that your familiar can switch all Willy nilly between the forms, just do the ritual again and bam, you get an imp now.

Most people forget that and have only one form active forever, which greatly reduces the feature imo.

I prefer sprites personally and switch out to imps when needed or other animal forms as necessary for variety of reasons.