Fun with imp familiars

[Mandarin]

Alright so please post your best ideas for what an imp can do! (Pact of the chain warlocks)

-Give impy fire breathing potion and go around invisibly breathing fire on people.

-Give your little impy a pyroconverger and let him loose! The worst that will happen is he will take fire damage.... which is to say he will take NO damage... and REMAIN INVISIBLE.

- Give impy a wand of magic missile and have him go nuts

-Build a little harness with slots for potions for your impy. Call him doctor impy as he goes around invisibly reviving downed comrades.

- Hell while we are at it... give him a medicine kit... Doc Impy to your service.

- Give Impy a ring of spell storing and store all manner of fun spells. Kudos to those with devils sight and have impy cast those darkness spells... that way you can concentrate on more important spells like hex! Impy will be visible since it takes his concentration... but he will be in a globe of darkness. (Silence spell works great for those times you send impy to break into the money lenders shop)

-Give impy a satchel with caltrops and ball bearings... he is now an ace bomber dropping them where appropriate.. once again invisible.

-Send impy in to do all manner of theft, if he gets caught, summon him back as an action and send him somewhere else. If he does get the treasure you desire... bring him back with an action with the item! (New errata shows this to be false, the familiar cannot take items with it into the pocket dimension! Better then any rogue! (Give him a set of gloves of thievery and thieves tools for maximum effort)

-While you slept, Impy went and emptied the cash drawer of the brothel down the street, or collected information on that cave you all are heading to tomorrow, or followed Ken the banker home and learned all about him so you can steal his identity later in the week... basically ... the imp DOESNT SLEEP. You now have an intelligent, invisible, wildshaping servant that loves to do ALL manner of things. BTW... getting periodic messages via telepathy (Voice of the chain master). The possibilities are literally endless.

-Impy the helper! Never roll normally... ever. Impy is there to help.. with everything.

Well.. I have a lot more but what kind of tricks do you guys have? Any special items that are particularly useful?

[JackPhoenix]

-Send impy in to do all manner of theft, if he gets caught, summon him back as an action and send him somewhere else. If he does get the treasure you desire... bring him back with an action with the item! Better then any rogue! (Give him a set of gloves of thievery and thieves tools for maximum effort)

The familiar doesn't bring any objects with it when it disappears into the pocket dimension.


the imp DOESNT SLEEP.

It does.

[Greywander]

Here's my own old thread on the subject. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?571635-The-many-uses-of-an-imp-familiar)

A couple of things that have since been clarified since I posted that:

When you dismiss the familiar to its pocket dimension, it doesn't take items with it. Not sure how this works for sprites, which wear clothing and wield weapons, but those might be considered to be "part" of the familiar. As with anything, your DM might rule differently.
Bilocation and Seeing Eye Imp don't quite work. It still requires an action to perceive through the imp's senses, and you are still blinded and deafened to your own senses while doing so. An invocation that lifted these restrictions would be pretty rad, but alas.

But yes, imp familiars are pretty awesome.

[Mandarin]

The familiar doesn't bring any objects with it when it disappears into the pocket dimension.



It does.

Hey Jack, thanks for the feedback... care to give any kind of resource?

Familiars bringing things back from pocket dimension- https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/04/30/familiar-object/

As far as familiars needing sleep, I would argue spirits do not need rest of any kind. Nothing in Sage Advice that I could find on it though so like everything, up to dm discretion. I certainly would not just say "It does" as if it was RAW or something.

[Mandarin]

Here's my own old thread on the subject. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?571635-The-many-uses-of-an-imp-familiar)

A couple of things that have since been clarified since I posted that:

When you dismiss the familiar to its pocket dimension, it doesn't take items with it. Not sure how this works for sprites, which wear clothing and wield weapons, but those might be considered to be "part" of the familiar. As with anything, your DM might rule differently.
Bilocation and Seeing Eye Imp don't quite work. It still requires an action to perceive through the imp's senses, and you are still blinded and deafened to your own senses while doing so. An invocation that lifted these restrictions would be pretty rad, but alas.

But yes, imp familiars are pretty awesome.

Awesome, thanks for the link! Mike Mearls has a sage advice suggesting familiars can in fact take items into the pocket dimension... also says in the next post dm discretion is king but still.. I would argue it does.

And yes, I am sad about the imp thing but my DM allows it to work thanksfully... well sort of... I cannot use it for attacks or I roll disadvantage.

[Bobthewizard]

Imps are immune to fire, so we gave ours a fire starter and a 3 gallon waterskin of oil, catapulted him onto an enemy ship, and let him burn the whole thing down. Still invisible, he landed on the deck, poured the oil over himself, and set himself and the deck on fire. He then became visible in the flames, gave a speech on how the crew was going to spend eternity in hell after they burned to death, and then flew around setting the sails on fire while the crew tried to put out the fire on the deck.

[Warlush]

Have someone cast Enhance Ability on them granting bull's strength. This will double their carrying capacity and give them advantage on strength checks. Now if you have a Gnome or Halfling in the party your imp can carry them around while invisible, making the PC invisible also.
I used this trick with a Halfling Warlock a few years ago. It was awesome.

I also lie awake at night imagining that I can see through the eyes of my quasit while it murders all my enemies.

[JackPhoenix]

As far as familiars needing sleep, I would argue spirits do not need rest of any kind. Nothing in Sage Advice that I could find on it though so like everything, up to dm discretion. I certainly would not just say "It does" as if it was RAW or something.

Imps need to sleep... or rather, don't have their needs explicitly waved off in it's MM description like some creatures do. Find Familiar doesn't remove those needs either.


Now if you have a Gnome or Halfling in the party your imp can carry them around while invisible, making the PC invisible also.

Only if the PCs kill themselves first, to count as equipment instead of being creatures.

[CTurbo]

Imps are fun. Once, my character barricaded all of the town's city council in the town hall building and burned it down while the imp looted the burning building.

Can't shoot Firebolts around corners or behind total cover? Smother your imp in oil and have it fly over near the enemy while invisible and then shoot your Firebolt at it, it bursts into flames, and then it can fly straight into the enemy.

I haven't done this one, but you can carry a halfling while flying, turn invisible and the Halfling turns invisible too, then the Halfling can shoot arrows while staying invisible the whole time.

[Mandarin]

Imps need to sleep... or rather, don't have their needs explicitly waved off in it's MM description like some creatures do. Find Familiar doesn't remove those needs either.

Jack- Imp Familiars are not imps they are spirits taking a form you choose.

"You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, Lizard, Octopus, owl, Poisonous Snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, Sea Horse, Spider, or Weasel. 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."

Can you show me where it says spirits need rest? Also, if a dm DOES rule that your familiar needs sleep (Which, once again... is DM discretion but DEFINITELY not RAW, I would say that opens up milking them for poison... which I always landed on saying that would not work... I would accept either ruling.

[JackPhoenix]

Jack- Imp Familiars are not imps they are spirits taking a form you choose.

"Spirit" doesn't mean anything in itself. Most of fiends (and celestials, and other extraplanar creatures) would qualify as "spirits".


Can you show me where it says spirits need rest? Also, if a dm DOES rule that your familiar needs sleep (Which, once again... is DM discretion but DEFINITELY not RAW, I would say that opens up milking them for poison... which I always landed on saying that would not work... I would accept either ruling.

It is the default assumption that all creatures need rest (and air and food). If they don't, such exception is explicitly listed in their descripion. There's no description of "spirit" that say they don't need to eat, sleep or breathe, neither does the spell say the familiar lack those needs.

[Mandarin]

"Spirit" doesn't mean anything in itself. Most of fiends (and celestials, and other extraplanar creatures) would qualify as "spirits".



It is the default assumption that all creatures need rest (and air and food). If they don't, such exception is explicitly listed in their descripion. There's no description of "spirit" that say they don't need to eat, sleep or breathe, neither does the spell say the familiar lack those needs.

Spirit does mean something, otherwise it wouldn't have it in the text. That is why you get to choose it's form, if it is celestial, fey or fiend, and change it's form, and dismiss it into a pocket dimension... where I suppose you would argue it will die of dehydration if not pulled out in 3 days... which it won't... because it is a spirit. Now, I am fine with a DM ruling that is the case... but once again.. it is not RAW... nor unfortunately is there clarification from the developers that I have found.


I maintain it is perfectly reasonable to expect familiars do not need sleep, food, or water.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Spirit does mean something, otherwise it wouldn't have it in the text. That is why you get to choose it's form, if it is celestial, fey or fiend, and change it's form, and dismiss it into a pocket dimension... where I suppose you would argue it will die of dehydration if not pulled out in 3 days... which it won't... because it is a spirit. Now, I am fine with a DM ruling that is the case... but once again.. it is not RAW... nor unfortunately is there clarification from the developers that I have found.


I maintain it is perfectly reasonable to expect familiars do not need sleep, food, or water.

It does say it has the statistics of the chosen form as far as Find Familiar is concerned, and features that state whether a creature needs to sleep/eat/hydrate are found in those statistics.

Did you know that before Xanathar's added optional rules there was no penalty for a player character not sleeping other than not recovering their long rest resources? If we followed your logic here, any player character that retires from their life of adventure into running a business in a safe environment could devote as much time as possible until their death to that because their is zero mechanical penalty for not sleeping. Heck, any creature lacking a feature saying otherwise has no reason to sleep. I suppose Elemental's, Undead and Warforged (among other things) having a special mention of such is more a formality than actually necessary.

It's not a good idea to assume that a lack of listing for these requirements is evidence that you don't need them. It's much safer to assume that you do need them unless given reason to believe otherwise.

By the way, going back to the "can imp bring items along" you're using both outdated and non relevant sourcing. Mike Mearls has never historically been accepted as a source of definitive rulings, though he is correct that your DM is the final arbiter in rulings. However the most recent sage advice compendium (https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf) update makes clear that your familiar cannot take items with them.

When you dismiss the familiar you conjure with the find familiar spell to its pocket dimension, can it take any objects it’s wearing or carrying with it? No, the intent of find familiar is that any objects are left behind when the familiar vanishes. This intent will be reflected in future printings of the Player’s Handbook
Funnily enough, unlike a huge majority of SAC entries, this one will actually be put into an errata to function this way in print.

[Mandarin]

It does say it has the statistics of the chosen form as far as Find Familiar is concerned, and features that state whether a creature needs to sleep/eat/hydrate are found in those statistics.

Did you know that before Xanathar's added optional rules there was no penalty for a player character not sleeping other than not recovering their long rest resources? If we followed your logic here, any player character that retires from their life of adventure into running a business in a safe environment could devote as much time as possible until their death to that because their is zero mechanical penalty for not sleeping. Heck, any creature lacking a feature saying otherwise has no reason to sleep. I suppose Elemental's, Undead and Warforged (among other things) having a special mention of such is more a formality than actually necessary.

It's not a good idea to assume that a lack of listing for these requirements is evidence that you don't need them. It's much safer to assume that you do need them unless given reason to believe otherwise.

By the way, going back to the "can imp bring items along" you're using both outdated and non relevant sourcing. Mike Mearls has never historically been accepted as a source of definitive rulings, though he is correct that your DM is the final arbiter in rulings. However the most recent sage advice compendium (https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf) update makes clear that your familiar cannot take items with them.

Funnily enough, unlike a huge majority of SAC entries, this one will actually be put into an errata to function this way in print.

On familiars sleeping/eating/drinking... are you saying that the familiar will need to be brought back every few days for food and drink? Also, their stat block does not mention anything about them popping out of and into existence/telepathy/following orders/etc. I think they worded it specifically, instead of "You call an imp into service" you call a spirit to take the form you choose. What that means to me is that it has the stat block of the creature but it still remains a spirit in essence.

On the pocket dimension... that is really interesting can you link it so I can check that out? EDIT: You did already, thanks!

Edit follow up: I have edited the pocket dimension portion of the OP, thanks for linking the source!

[ProsecutorGodot]

On familiars sleeping/eating/drinking... are you saying that the familiar will need to be brought back every few days for food and drink? Also, their stat block does not mention anything about them popping out of and into existence/telepathy/following orders/etc. I think they worded it specifically, instead of "You call an imp into service" you call a spirit to take the form you choose. What that means to me is that it has the stat block of the creature but it still remains a spirit in essence.
I assume they say "spirit" because a familiar is... well, very likely to die. If you're required to summon an actual version of that creature, there's going to be a threat of extinction involved. A spirit that poofs away when it dies isn't going to run the risk of running out or taking someone elses. Could you imagine summoning an Imp with Find Familiar and you get an Archdevil's favorite? Bad times friend, bad times.

On the "spirit in essence part" technically true, although I'd only push for that disqualifying them from needing to maintain basic necessities for bodily function in the case that you're playing Curse of Strahd and can choose an Undead familiar, where they explicitly don't need Air, Food or Drink.


On the pocket dimension... that is really interesting can you link it so I can check that out?

I thought I did, if that link doesn't work all you've got to do is google Sage Advice Compendium and find the 2020 entry. Try this link (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/sage-advice/sage-advice-compendium), should take you straight to the page that links you to the pdf.

Fair warning, I quoted it word for word already so you're not going to really find anything more on that other than "you're free to ignore this if you want" at the beginning of the SAC.

[Mandarin]

I assume they say "spirit" because a familiar is... well, very likely to die. If you're required to summon an actual version of that creature, there's going to be a threat of extinction involved. A spirit that poofs away when it dies isn't going to run the risk of running out or taking someone elses. Could you imagine summoning an Imp with Find Familiar and you get an Archdevil's favorite? Bad times friend, bad times.

On the "spirit in essence part" technically true, although I'd only push for that disqualifying them from needing to maintain basic necessities for bodily function in the case that you're playing Curse of Strahd and can choose an Undead familiar, where they explicitly don't need Air, Food or Drink.



I thought I did, if that link doesn't work all you've got to do is google Sage Advice Compendium and find the 2020 entry. Try this link (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/sage-advice/sage-advice-compendium), should take you straight to the page that links you to the pdf.

Fair warning, I quoted it word for word already so you're not going to really find anything more on that other than "you're free to ignore this if you want" at the beginning of the SAC.

lol I found it and edited both posts to reflect. Good catch there... and very sad for my ultimate warlock thief build. I had been depending on that Mike Mearls post for a bit.

[Greywander]

Spirit does mean something, otherwise it wouldn't have it in the text.
It's flavor text, "spirit" isn't even a legitimate creature type (as evidenced by the familiar being a fey, fiend, or celestial). I believe in older editions of D&D, each creature type came with their own set of abilities, including things such as not needing to eat or sleep for certain types of creatures. 5e lacks this entirely, instead replicating "shared" abilities across every example of that creature type. You'll notice that a lot of undead specifically don't require air, food, drink, or sleep (but not all, see vampires for a lot of exceptions to common undead traits). It explicitly says so in their monster entries. It does not say so for imps. Find Familiar indicates that you use the statistics of the creature whose form the familiar takes, and makes no mention of not needing things such as food or sleep.

TL;DR, nothing says an imp familiar needs food or sleep, but nothing says they don't, either. Some creatures, such as many undead, do specifically say that they don't require such things. The obvious inference is that a creature requires these things unless something says otherwise.

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense to remove these needs from fiends or from familiar spirits. I'm just saying that that's not what the rules say. Your DM might rule otherwise, and you're free to create your own homebrew/houserule. In an online discussion, you can't assume anyone else is using the same houserules as you, or any houserules for that matter, unless they specifically say so, so it's usually more productive to stick with whatever RAW says. RAW is the "default ruleset", if you will. If you want to discuss something you're actually playing (as opposed to theorycrafting) and there are houserules in play, that's a different story, but you'd need to let the thread know what those houserules are.

[Mandarin]

It's flavor text, "spirit" isn't even a legitimate creature type (as evidenced by the familiar being a fey, fiend, or celestial). I believe in older editions of D&D, each creature type came with their own set of abilities, including things such as not needing to eat or sleep for certain types of creatures. 5e lacks this entirely, instead replicating "shared" abilities across every example of that creature type. You'll notice that a lot of undead specifically don't require air, food, drink, or sleep (but not all, see vampires for a lot of exceptions to common undead traits). It explicitly says so in their monster entries. It does not say so for imps. Find Familiar indicates that you use the statistics of the creature whose form the familiar takes, and makes no mention of not needing things such as food or sleep.

TL;DR, nothing says an imp familiar needs food or sleep, but nothing says they don't, either. Some creatures, such as many undead, do specifically say that they don't require such things. The obvious inference is that a creature requires these things unless something says otherwise.

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense to remove these needs from fiends or from familiar spirits. I'm just saying that that's not what the rules say. Your DM might rule otherwise, and you're free to create your own homebrew/houserule. In an online discussion, you can't assume anyone else is using the same houserules as you, or any houserules for that matter, unless they specifically say so, so it's usually more productive to stick with whatever RAW says. RAW is the "default ruleset", if you will. If you want to discuss something you're actually playing (as opposed to theorycrafting) and there are houserules in play, that's a different story, but you'd need to let the thread know what those houserules are.


I get that every creature needs rest, food, etc.... but familiars are an entirely different thing. As you said, it doesn't say they do, or they don't. Either way, you assume. There is no rule stating they do, and I would argue RAI is that they don't need sleep. I agree it is up to dm discretion... but I think either way a table should discuss it because I do not believe it is clear either way.

Also... and be honest... have you ever asked a magic user if their familiar has been pulled out of their pocket dimension and given something to drink today? I haven't... because I assumed they were different... and I think most people are the same way. I cannot think of another creature that can pop out of existence on one side of the material plane and back into existence on the other with the snap of my fingers... that would normally take a very high level spell and not a level 1 ritual.

[Greywander]

I get that every creature needs rest, food, etc.... but familiars are an entirely different thing. As you said, it doesn't say they do, or they don't. Either way, you assume. There is no rule stating they do, and I would argue RAI is that they don't need sleep. I agree it is up to dm discretion... but I think either way a table should discuss it because I do not believe it is clear either way.
If we both have different interpretations of the rules, then it makes it difficult to have a productive discussion on the subject, for much of the same reasons as bringing houserules into the discussion does. What makes sense to me is that a creature needs food, sleep, etc. unless something specifically says they don't. The familiar may be a spirit, but it has taken on a bodily form. It can be killed, at which point it returns to being a formless spirit (or not, depending on how familiars work lore-wise). But while in bodily form, it has all the same needs as that form normally does. This is what makes sense to me, and it aligns with what I see to be the RAW. I actually think it's probably fine to say familiars don't require food, sleep, etc., but I also think that that's a houserule, not RAW.


Also... and be honest... have you ever asked a magic user if their familiar has been pulled out of their pocket dimension and given something to drink today? I haven't... because I assumed they were different... and I think most people are the same way. I cannot think of another creature that can pop out of existence on one side of the material plane and back into existence on the other with the snap of my fingers... that would normally take a very high level spell and not a level 1 ritual.
Do you keep track of when your character goes to the bathroom? Some things are better to just assume that they're taken care of as a normal part of your day instead of needing to RP it out. Now, if you find yourself starving in the desert, then it becomes important who's eating what food, and you might decide that you need to get rid of your familiar to conserve food. It's kind of the same principle that says you don't need to roll for every little thing you do, only for the things where failure is both possible and interesting.

Also, I kind of assumed that the familiar's biological needs were "suspended" while in the pocket dimension. I know, I know, I just said that we shouldn't assume things like that, but I think there are a few other planes or dimensional spaces that work like that.

Honestly, this is probably something that isn't going to be an issue 99% of the time, so it just never comes up at the table. Your familiar sleeps when you do, or whenever you're not using it, and either hunts/scavenges for food or nibbles on your rations. Most people already handwave these for their PCs, let alone familiars and animal companions.

[micahaphone]

I swear there's a rule or description somewhere that pocket dimensions/demiplanes are a "pause" button on eating/drinking needs, you can't get hurt in them, stuff like that. For a Familiar, you're effectively putting it into a pokeball. Like how if you cast Banishment on someone in their native plane, they get put into a safety time out zone where they can't get hurt.



And as a DM, I have done a tpk because none of my players every said they bothered to defecate, so clearly they all died from toxic shock. And the sniper had disadvantage on aiming because he never specified that he blinked, so his eyes must have been incredibly dry.

[Mandarin]

If we both have different interpretations of the rules, then it makes it difficult to have a productive discussion on the subject, for much of the same reasons as bringing houserules into the discussion does. What makes sense to me is that a creature needs food, sleep, etc. unless something specifically says they don't. The familiar may be a spirit, but it has taken on a bodily form. It can be killed, at which point it returns to being a formless spirit (or not, depending on how familiars work lore-wise). But while in bodily form, it has all the same needs as that form normally does. This is what makes sense to me, and it aligns with what I see to be the RAW. I actually think it's probably fine to say familiars don't require food, sleep, etc., but I also think that that's a houserule, not RAW.


Do you keep track of when your character goes to the bathroom? Some things are better to just assume that they're taken care of as a normal part of your day instead of needing to RP it out. Now, if you find yourself starving in the desert, then it becomes important who's eating what food, and you might decide that you need to get rid of your familiar to conserve food. It's kind of the same principle that says you don't need to roll for every little thing you do, only for the things where failure is both possible and interesting.

Also, I kind of assumed that the familiar's biological needs were "suspended" while in the pocket dimension. I know, I know, I just said that we shouldn't assume things like that, but I think there are a few other planes or dimensional spaces that work like that.

Honestly, this is probably something that isn't going to be an issue 99% of the time, so it just never comes up at the table. Your familiar sleeps when you do, or whenever you're not using it, and either hunts/scavenges for food or nibbles on your rations. Most people already handwave these for their PCs, let alone familiars and animal companions.

I appreciate the insight, and just disagree with your premise that a familiar is the same as the beast. I think the fact that it can survive in the pocket dimension indefinitely proves it. You cannot breathe in a pocket dimension according to the bag of holding... and familiars can stay there indefinitely... therefore... familiars don't breathe.. therefore, familiars also don't sleep or eat either... therefore... the familiar is not the same as an imp... it is something different.

Also, angels, constructs, etc that do not require food, drink, and sleep... do not have that information in their stat block... but it is in their description above the stat block.... so I do not think the fact that it uses the imps stat block means it takes on anything else from the imp... it is just a shell hiding the spirit has chosen to look like.

Bottom line: I understand your argument, and appreciate the feedback... but to claim that ruling is according to RAW, let alone RAI, is incorrect IMO.

Also, if you find some concrete evidence, I am willing to change my mind!

[Warlush]

Is this forum supposed to be just ruining other's fun and peeing on parades?
I'd hate to have some of you at my table.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Is this forum supposed to be just ruining other's fun and peeing on parades?
I'd hate to have some of you at my table.

You don't have to, but when something is presented to the public, expect criticism.

There's no reason someone can't continue to play at their own table allowing familiars to exist without any needs and the ability to teleport items around at the snap of a fingers but it should be clear when this isn't an intended interaction. No one is telling anybody it must be played this way, just that this is the way it works.

[Keravath]

Hey Jack, thanks for the feedback... care to give any kind of resource?

Familiars bringing things back from pocket dimension- https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/04/30/familiar-object/

As far as familiars needing sleep, I would argue spirits do not need rest of any kind. Nothing in Sage Advice that I could find on it though so like everything, up to dm discretion. I certainly would not just say "It does" as if it was RAW or something.

From the latest version of the Sage Advice Compendium which constitutes official rulings (according to the description).

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf

"Official rulings on how to interpret rules are made here in the Sage Advice Compendium. The public statements of the D&D team, or anyone else at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; they are advice."

"[NEW] When you dismiss the familiar you conjure with the find familiar spell to its pocket dimension, can it take any objects it’s wearing or carrying with it? No, the intent of find familiar is that any objects are left behind when the familiar vanishes. This intent will be reflected in future printings of the Player’s Handbook."

Also note that the clarification that a familiar can not take objects with it is slated to become actual errata rather than just a ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium.

[Mandarin]

From the latest version of the Sage Advice Compendium which constitutes official rulings (according to the description).

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf

"Official rulings on how to interpret rules are made here in the Sage Advice Compendium. The public statements of the D&D team, or anyone else at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; they are advice."

"[NEW] When you dismiss the familiar you conjure with the find familiar spell to its pocket dimension, can it take any objects it’s wearing or carrying with it? No, the intent of find familiar is that any objects are left behind when the familiar vanishes. This intent will be reflected in future printings of the Player’s Handbook."

Also note that the clarification that a familiar can not take objects with it is slated to become actual errata rather than just a ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium.

Thanks Keravath! Someone else pointed out the same in the comments and I have already edited the OP.

I know and welcome criticism or correction. I want to be accurate in what I am suggesting.. but it would be nice if for every person wanting to point out a rule... there was another with an awesome idea on how to use the imps in clever ways. I have spent most of this time debating if familiars sleep lol.