Sorlock Petmaster Concept...

[werescythe]

Sometimes you like being a spellcaster but also want to have the feeling of having a pet, so how do you do this.

Here is my thoughts on how you can do this. A Shadow Sorcerer/Warlock multiclass.

You will want to have at least 6 levels Shadow Sorcerer so you can have Hound of Ill Omen, the shadow hound (which you can reflavor it's appearance a bit... Like that of your familiar) as a pet.

You will also want to go Warlock and take Pact of the Chain (with the familiar being your pet's true form). Warlock is great as an easy way to get Find Familiar plus the Pact of the Chain unlocks new incantations to improve them. Now the patron of chose for this matter is a bit tricky (feel free to offer feedback on this), but I can think if at least 2 potentially fun options.

First is Genie, because you could roleplay that when you stow away your Chained familiar into a pocket dimension that your putting it in the Genie Vessel.

Second is Celestial, where you can use your Healing Light to heal your allies including your familiar or your shadow hound. However, I'm not sure that's too enticing see as you can summon a new one with SP.

Plus with Sorcerers now having access to Vampiric Touch, you could use it on creatures with your chained familiar (I'm not sure if metamagic can work on spells this way, but if you can then distant spell wouldn't be a bad option as that means your familiar could cast the touch spell from 30ft away).

Well, that's my thoughts on it so far. What do you all think? Do you have any suggestions?

[kazaryu]

Sometimes you like being a spellcaster but also want to have the feeling of having a pet, so how do you do this.

Here is my thoughts on how you can do this. A Shadow Sorcerer/Warlock multiclass.

You will want to have at least 6 levels Shadow Sorcerer so you can have Hound of Ill Omen, the shadow hound (which you can reflavor it's appearance a bit... Like that of your familiar) as a pet.

You will also want to go Warlock and take Pact of the Chain (with the familiar being your pet's true form). Warlock is great as an easy way to get Find Familiar plus the Pact of the Chain unlocks new incantations to improve them. Now the patron of chose for this matter is a bit tricky (feel free to offer feedback on this), but I can think if at least 2 potentially fun options.

First is Genie, because you could roleplay that when you stow away your Chained familiar into a pocket dimension that your putting it in the Genie Vessel.

Second is Celestial, where you can use your Healing Light to heal your allies including your familiar or your shadow hound. However, I'm not sure that's too enticing see as you can summon a new one with SP.

Well, that's my thoughts on it so far. What do you all think? Do you have any suggestions?

just...buy a pet. its literally one of the things you can do. i have a PC that owns a mastiff...he doesn't use it for batter (although he does ride it for overland travel). but outside of that its literally just a pet.


failing that, if you're gonna MC anyway, why not MC beast master ranger? it gets you a pet and a caster level.
or jsut take magic initiate and grab find familiar: its literally a built in pet
lore bard and grab find steed (although i suppose technically that doesnt get you a pet, as the summon is sapient).
wizard

[werescythe]

just...buy a pet. its literally one of the things you can do. i have a PC that owns a mastiff...he doesn't use it for batter (although he does ride it for overland travel). but outside of that its literally just a pet.


failing that, if you're gonna MC anyway, why not MC beast master ranger? it gets you a pet and a caster level.
or jsut take magic initiate and grab find familiar: its literally a built in pet
lore bard and grab find steed (although i suppose technically that doesnt get you a pet, as the summon is sapient).
wizard

Maybe, but that's not quite as fun. Also in the case of the Beast Master your forced to make yourself into a half caster (instead of a full caster) that uses Wisdom.

[DarknessEternal]

Maybe, but that's not quite as fun. Also in the case of the Beast Master your forced to make yourself into a half caster (instead of a full caster) that uses Wisdom.

But you're willing to take non-caster levels with Warlock?

[Khrysaes]

Druid can use wild shapes to summon familiars. And hust have a ton of summon/conjure spells.
1 wizard level, rit caster feat(wizard), or magic initiate feat can get find familiar.
Artificer 2 can get find familiar through a spellwrought tattoo infusion.
Artificer has homunculi infusion
Battlesmith has the steel defender.
Bard can get find steed at 6(lore bard) or greater steed at 10. Heck, they can get find familiar too.
Ranger beastmaster.
Ranger drakewarden.
Warlock chain pact.
Warlock tome pact and ritual book invocation.

Literally so many ways to get a pet.
That said. Sorc warlock is a common combo. 3 levels isnt the worst.

[strangebloke]

This isn't a bad route, though IMO your pet is a bit weak here. A combo you might consider would be

Inspiring Leader: great for boosting your familiar's resilience.
+
Aid: Need to go Divine Soul for this, but it's pretty easy to increase the familiar's bulk further
+
Dragon's breath: Lets your familiar deal big damage as an action.

This in combination with invisibility actually makes the familiar very annoying to deal with, since it will have 17 hp and all attacks against it will have disadvantage. (Vampiric touch on the familiar doesn't work because technically its a buff with range: self, but many DMs would allow you to rework this.)

Personally, the Hound of Ill Omen is a way to do this, but I think polymorph works just as well. Better, if anything because you're not completely making a new creature from scratch.

[werescythe]

But you're willing to take non-caster levels with Warlock?

Warlock is technically a caster.

Personally, the Hound of Ill Omen is a way to do this, but I think polymorph works just as well. Better, if anything because you're not completely making a new creature from scratch.

Do you mean polymorphing the familiar? Because admittedly I hadn't thought of that. That could be interesting.

If you polymorphed the chained familiar, would the incantations affecting it temporarily be negated while it's polymorphed?

Edit:

One question I should ask is are there magic items that enhance familiars? Now to clarify I'm not talking about giving magic items to your familiar to use, but items that you wear/use that can make your familiar more powerful.

[Khrysaes]

Warlock is technically a caster.



Do you mean polymorphing the familiar? Because admittedly I hadn't thought of that. That could be interesting.

If you polymorphed the chained familiar, would the incantations affecting it temporarily be negated while it's polymorphed?

Edit:

One question I should ask is are there magic items that enhance familiars? Now to clarify I'm not talking about giving magic items to your familiar to use, but items that you wear/use that can make your familiar more powerful.

Incantations?

Polymorph limits it to beast forms of the same CR as the targeted creature. I believe it was mentioned in another thread that familairs are CR 0, and thus can't be polymorphed. That said, I would allow it. Both quasit and imp have self shape changing, though I don't remember the specific phrasing.

As far as magic items, I am thinking that you mean items such as "Wear this item and your summons gain +x hp" or something? I am not aware of any like that in official 5e content, doesn't mean there aren't any, and homebrew is an option.

[strangebloke]

Warlock is technically a caster.



Do you mean polymorphing the familiar? Because admittedly I hadn't thought of that. That could be interesting.

If you polymorphed the chained familiar, would the incantations affecting it temporarily be negated while it's polymorphed?

Edit:

One question I should ask is are there magic items that enhance familiars? Now to clarify I'm not talking about giving magic items to your familiar to use, but items that you wear/use that can make your familiar more powerful.

Polymorph doesn't work quite normally here, you'd have to work it out with your DM.

Generally the new stat block completely replaces the old one, but the incantations are on your stat block, so I'd argue they still apply.

[DarknessEternal]

Warlock is technically a caster.

Not when it comes to multiclassing.

[Gtdead]

First things first, a suggestion about the concept from a roleplaying perspective because the majority of the options aren't permanent. Sorcerer is an inherently magical class, so my idea would be that as a kid, you could draw animals (normal or monstrous) and have them come to life for a limited time. This fits a lot to the concentration concept of 5e and allows you to get really creative with refluffing your pets.

From the top of my head, these are the Sorcerer's options for minion spells.

Native access:
Aberrant Mind: Summon Aberration (conceptually I think this is perfect and you can cast it with sorcery points)
Clockwork: Summon Construct (needs heavy refluffing, along with the whole subclass)
Divine Soul: Animate Dead (refluff as spectral pets, use zombie statistics), Spirit Guardians (refluff as swarm), Conjure/Summon Celestial, Create Undead, Planar Ally, Planar Binding, (lots of options, not lots of spells known..)
Shadow: Hound (although not really a minion, it's flavorful and fits the concept)
All Sorcerers: Animate Objects (refluff as animating your drawings)

Secondary Access:

Ravnica Backgrounds:
Golgari Agent: Animate Dead
Gruul Anarch: Conjure Animals (refluff, perfect spell for the occasion)
Izzet Engineer: Conjure Minor Elementals, Conjure Elemental (similar to Conjure Animals)
Orzhov Representative: Spirit Guardians

Dragon Marks:
Mark of Storm: Conjure Minor Elementals, Conjure Elemental
Mark of Handling: Conjure Animals, Awaken (refluff it as always, work with the DM to allow it to be cast on your art)

Feats:
Ritual Caster: Find Familiar, Phantom Steed, Unseen Servant
MI:Wizard: Find Familiar

I probably have missed a few things.

You will face the standard problem of having too few spells known so if you want to be effective, you will have to choose one per level at most just to have a sense of progression.
A Mark of Handling Aberrant Sorcerer gets Conjure Animals, Summon Aberration and Awaken/Animate Objects for example, which gives you at least one concept spell per level. ​

Mechanics and build consideration:

On warlock dips:

My opinion is that it will slow you down so be smart about when to get it. I would get at least 7 sorcerer levels before dipping. The first possible summon you can get is at lvl 5, and 3 more levels for Chain familiar, it will come online at lvl 8. From a power level, Warlock is a good dip for all summoners because your action economy and playstyle allow you to kite and use eldritch blast while your summons do the dirty work.

On general playstyle:

A very effective playstyle would be to be a main summoner, with Agonizing Eldritch Spear. You won't be the best summoner, but you will be the best Eldritch Blaster. Load up on mobility and general protection spells like Misty Step and Dimension Door so you can protect yourself and force the enemies to deal with your summons. My suggestion would be to go for hexblade due to armor, use a bait and switch tactic because you will have enough AC to stay relatively safe. Whenever a melee enemy tries to chase you, you can facetank him for a turn while summoning your pets and then misty step away.

You could augment the playstyle with some revenge killing potential. I mean spells like Hellish Rebuke and Armor of Agathys. You also may want to do some obscurement trickery, like getting alert and possibly an eversmoking bottle to combine with summons that have blindsight like animate objects. Ask your DM if such items are a possibility before you commit because Sorcerer doesn't have pyrotechnics and you can't use Fog Cloud since it's concentration.

Final Considerations:

My suggestion would be either a Warlock 2/Sorcerer X split, or a Tomelock 3/Sorcerer X. I wouldn't dip warlock early. In fact I'd rather get lvl 9 Sorcerer first before dipping but mechanically the playstyle will come online at Sorc 5 if you go the Conjure Animals route. Both Clockwork and Aberrant Sorcerers get strong options at lvl 9 (Wall of Force and Subtle Modify Memory (for a more social campaign), along with Animate Objects).

I wish you could get Tiny Servants and Summon Greater Demon somehow. It would help both the build and the concept tremendously, but this is a common problem with the Sorcerer lacking the Wizard's spell list..
I haven't analyzed the options so I can't really give you a recommendation, but the first thing I would check out would be an Izzet Mark of Handling Clockwork Sorcerer with Ritual caster at lvl 4 and then spend the rest of ASIs to increase your CHA.

Clockwork has the best class features and the whole package gives access to Conjure Animals/Minor Elementals/Elemental, Summon Construct and Animate Objects. Izzet also has rope trick which is an amazing spell, especially for a summoner.

[Sherlockpwns]

If you want a more caster than half caster, I suggest BIRDMAN - Beast Master 5 / any full caster X (Druid most likely, though bard would get FGS at level 15).

By taking a spirit of air and using the new Tasha beast summon (flying) you end up with two powerful pets for 1 or more combats and one pet around all the time. The summons scale very well with caster levels and you could even grab find familiar if you wanted to add a third bird.

You may be worried about your pets low HP, but with flyby it should never be in danger that long and by going full caster after 5, you should have plenty of spells to resummon.

It’s probably viable to get only ranger 3 also, but then you are forced to go Druid and won’t get summon beast until lvl 6.