Crgaston
2019-10-01, 12:10 AM
From another thread...
Speaking as a DM, owl familiars are...tricky. They're extremely fragile, so if they're being effective, they're glass cannons. And you have to either play tactically smart, and take them out, or permit a high-mobility artillary turret to go wherever. (The wizard in my campaign likes to cast dragon's breath on it; it is highly effective.) Without efforts to hide, there's nothing in the rules that says a small creature goes unnoticed, so if I let it be "unnoticed" because it's "so small," after it's done a 15 ft. cone of screw-you damage, I'm giving it powers it doesn't have.
Honestly, if there's advice for my player as to how to make the owl harder to hit with ranged attacks (last fight, my cannibal took it out with a thrown spear), that'd be welcome, so I can pass it along. I imagine anything devoted to that would also have opportunity costs, so I don't mind giving him tactical options.
The way we decided to handle the owl is that it gets it's own initiative, and on its turn does a flyby on the designated target, typically ending it's turn 40-50 feet from its target, and taking cover if possible. The next attack on that target gets advantage, which may or may not be made by the character whose familiar it is, depending on Initiative order. This gives a way for the familiar-controller to influence tactics, but it also spreads the benefit around to the whole party, which goes a long way towards creating good will and table support for owl shenanigans (Dragon's Breath is a whole 'nother can of worms).
It also improves the durability of the owl by having it end its turn behind cover or concealment of some sort. To target the owl, an enemy has to devote its Action and Reaction to readying an attack for the owl, which may or may not happen, since the owl can harass a different enemy each round. So for even a tactically smart DM, you have to weigh taking out the owl against wasting an Action and Reaction if he owl targets someone else next round. The player needs to be aware of this and select targets accordingly.
How do other tables handle owls and Chain Pact familiars?
Speaking as a DM, owl familiars are...tricky. They're extremely fragile, so if they're being effective, they're glass cannons. And you have to either play tactically smart, and take them out, or permit a high-mobility artillary turret to go wherever. (The wizard in my campaign likes to cast dragon's breath on it; it is highly effective.) Without efforts to hide, there's nothing in the rules that says a small creature goes unnoticed, so if I let it be "unnoticed" because it's "so small," after it's done a 15 ft. cone of screw-you damage, I'm giving it powers it doesn't have.
Honestly, if there's advice for my player as to how to make the owl harder to hit with ranged attacks (last fight, my cannibal took it out with a thrown spear), that'd be welcome, so I can pass it along. I imagine anything devoted to that would also have opportunity costs, so I don't mind giving him tactical options.
The way we decided to handle the owl is that it gets it's own initiative, and on its turn does a flyby on the designated target, typically ending it's turn 40-50 feet from its target, and taking cover if possible. The next attack on that target gets advantage, which may or may not be made by the character whose familiar it is, depending on Initiative order. This gives a way for the familiar-controller to influence tactics, but it also spreads the benefit around to the whole party, which goes a long way towards creating good will and table support for owl shenanigans (Dragon's Breath is a whole 'nother can of worms).
It also improves the durability of the owl by having it end its turn behind cover or concealment of some sort. To target the owl, an enemy has to devote its Action and Reaction to readying an attack for the owl, which may or may not happen, since the owl can harass a different enemy each round. So for even a tactically smart DM, you have to weigh taking out the owl against wasting an Action and Reaction if he owl targets someone else next round. The player needs to be aware of this and select targets accordingly.
How do other tables handle owls and Chain Pact familiars?