Druid Familiar

[Chalkarts]

I'm making a druid and am considering giving it Magic initiate so it can have a couple extra cantrips and a familiar.

I wanted the aerial surveillance that a raven would provide.

Is the familiar worth the feat?

[Keltest]

It partly depends on your party composition. Familiars are great tools in general, and its thematically appropriate for a druid, however you also just straight up get wild shape which at 8th level allows you to turn into a flying creature yourself. Depending on the level you start off at, it could have serious long term payoffs, or become redundant pretty quickly.

My understanding though is that besides scouting, the biggest advantage of a familiar is that it can use the Help action, both in and out of combat, and so is a free source of advantage for a just about any physical task that you can sell the DM on them participating in, and not necessarily just for you.

[nickl_2000]

Druids get a fair amount of utility cantrips and you won't have the Int or Cha to make the cantrips worth it for damaging spells

Were it me, I would look at ritual caster Wizard to give a crazy utility class even more utility, plus you wouldn't need to prepare the overlapping rituals and could give yourself more options for in combat casting. Is it worth it? Probably not when you can turn into a raven yourself to scout, is it fun and helpful absolutely.



If you have someone else with a familiar (or a Wizard in the party) it probably isn't worth it though.

[RogueJK]

Druids get a fair amount of utility cantrips and you won't have the Int or Cha to make the cantrips worth it for damaging spells

Were it me, I would look at ritual caster Wizard to give a crazy utility class even more utility, plus you wouldn't need to prepare the overlapping rituals and could give yourself more options for in combat casting. Is it worth it? Probably not when you can turn into a raven yourself to scout, is it fun and helpful absolutely.



If you have someone else with a familiar (or a Wizard in the party) it probably isn't worth it though.

Well said. I agree on all three point: Wizard cantrips won't be as useful to this character, Ritual Caster is a better option for this character to get access to Find Familiar and other utility spells, and duplicate Familiars are usually redundant.

Also, consider the Owl instead of the Raven, if you're wanting an aerial surveillance familiar. Owls gets Advantage on their Perception checks, don't provoke opportunity attacks (which is handy when doing a flyby Help action), and also have a slightly faster flying speed than the Raven.

Another not necessarily optimized but potentially fun option in lieu of spending a feat is to multiclass a level or two of Wizard. This would get you access to 1st level Wizard Ritual spells like Find Familiar and others, plus a few other 1st level Wizard spells like Shield, Feather Fall, or Mage Armor (which is handy for some Wildshape forms). And if you were to go 2 levels then you could grab some Wizard School benefits like Divination's Portent or War Magic's Initiative and AC/Saving Throw benefits. The downsides are the INT 13+ requirement for multiclassing, and the delay to your Druid levels (although your spells slots at least would keep up), plus the fact that unlike Ritual Caster you'd be limited to only 1st level Wizard Rituals.

[x3n0n]

FWIW, the Class Feature Variants UA lets Druid use up a Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar, with the familiar disappearing after the normal number of hours.

[Chalkarts]

Druids get a fair amount of utility cantrips and you won't have the Int or Cha to make the cantrips worth it for damaging spells

True, my primary melee combat attack was going to be primal savagery. And Druids have a solid cantrip base.



Were it me, I would look at ritual caster Wizard to give a crazy utility class even more utility, plus you wouldn't need to prepare the overlapping rituals and could give yourself more options for in combat casting. Is it worth it? Probably not when you can turn into a raven yourself to scout, is it fun and helpful absolutely.


I'd not considered ritual caster but that actually fits the character concept better.

[RogueJK]

I'd not considered ritual caster but that actually fits the character concept better.

Ritual Caster (Wizard) is a great fit for a more scholarly-minded caster character, like a studious older Druid, or a Cleric of the god of Magic or Knowledge.

[Chalkarts]

Ritual Caster (Wizard) is a great fit for a more scholarly-minded caster character, like a studious older Druid, or a Cleric of the god of Magic or Knowledge.

My druid lives on urban streets caring for the strays and such. She saw a young wizardly type drop the book in an alleyway while running to or from something. She could return it, but nah, Now it's hers.

[Fable Wright]

Is a familiar worth a feat?

Yes.

I'd advise for the feat being Ritual Caster, though. Tenser's Floating Disk and Unseen Servant are both majorly powerful additions to the Druid toolkit. You want to transport your party? Make a couple Floating Disks and turn into a Giant Eagle to go fast. Unseen Servant gives you stuff to do with a bonus action, which can be surprisingly handy (like feeding potions to downed party members). Further rituals include Tiny Hut, Water Breathing, Phantom Steed, and more.

The value is so much greater than a few cantrips.

[Bardon]

Ritual Caster (Wizard) is a great fit for a more scholarly-minded caster character, like a studious older Druid, or a Cleric of the god of Magic or Knowledge.

My Arcana Cleric has taken Ritual Caster (Wizard) and it's a fantastic fit. His familiar is a huge advantage, and Tensers disk + Unseen servant are a big help.

Mind, he's also taken Magic Initiate (Druid) because he's obsessed with magic but not smart enough to be a wizard. It also coincidentally helps with Thorn Whip to drag reluctant people into his Spirit Guardians... :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

[Chugger]

It could easily be worth it once you understand what you're giving up.

Druids rely heavily on concentration spells. I would have trouble playing a druid who isn't var. human and doesn't start w/ resiliant con or warcaster feat. The advantage of either feat is that your chances of keeping concentration spells going after taking damage is good.

The advantage of the familiar as a scout is good, although if you're not a moon druid, you can turn yourself into a bird via wildshape fairly often after lvl 8 or so and scout yourself. Do you need a flying scout lvls 1 to 7 that badly? If so get find familiar.

If you're a moon druid or a meleeing spore druid maybe, you could use a familiar to get help (advantage) on your attacks. This is really good because many things druids can wildshape into have only one attack - that damages a lot often - but can miss - doesn't have a good plus to hit.

But you lose resiliant con or warcaster...

...unless you're going moon druid, and you don't really care much about wisdom. You can go variant human and get the familiar, then at lvl 4 take resil con feat or warcaster. Wis doesn't affect spike growth, plant growth (iirc), conjure animals and many other concentration spells you're likely to cast before wildshaping. It does affect some - like flaming sphere.

I'd get a familiar mostly for the help action, if a moon druid. And go owl, it gets flyby and has great perception.