I have been the DM for a couple of Warlocks and I was wondering if anyone is willing to share their thoughts on how best to role play familiars. I have created a list of questions, any thoughts or opinions are very much appreciated.
Imps Quasits and Pixies all speak and quite probably have goals outside of those of their masters but how independent are they really? Is the creature ultimately loyal to the warlock or the patron?
How should the warlock acquire the familiar originally and is this development large enough to warrant a side quest?
Should the warlock be allowed to personally select the personality of their familiar or should the creature be assigned to them.
Hey Elvish! Unfortunately I've never actually been part of a group that's made serious use of familiars, but I have a few thoughts that will hopefully help.
Independence and Loyalty All familiars are independent - their goals and intelligence will vary, but they are spirits/creatures you 'gain the service' of. They've existed before they become familiars, usually. Consider what it may have been doing before then, what goals and intentions it might carry, how it might act. Keep that in mind once its bound to the warlock.
As to the loyalty? The PHB doesn't detail anything special that suggests they're bound to the patron more than the warlock - it says a pact boon is a gift from the patron to the warlock for their loyalty. It states you gain the 'Find Familiar' spell, and that specifies 'but it always obeys your commands.'. So, as far as I can tell, they're typically loyal to the warlock if played regularly.
Still, I love the idea it might be ultimately loyal to the patron. If you want that to be the case, then let it be the case. D&D, to me, is a tool for making stories. And isn't that an awesome story point? The familiar is a 'gift', says your patron - no, it's a spy, to make sure you're doing the patron's bidding, and every word you say is being relayed to the fiend you've made a pact with. It's been listening to you for three levels, and spoiler alert - you are in serious trouble.
Acquisition Simply put, following the PHB, your familiar is a gift from your patron. How its given is up to you - a vision could come to the character, and they awake with the knowledge of summoning it - or the poor critter is directly delivered, subsequently flung through the planes to land their feet. But as I said above, stories are my swag, and your title is specific to role playing - so let's play with roles. Specifically the patron's role. What if the patron offers it in reward for some particular service? Cue the side-quest. Potentially offer extra, more material rewards that may make it worth the rest of the party's time to assist.
Just keep in mind that it's not always practical. The player levels up, picks Pact of the Chain - is the group in a good place in the story for a side-quest? Do they have a hundred out-standing side-quests already lined up? It's not always fun as a player to have to wait a long time to have gained what your level up has said you would have.
At the end of the day, I wouldn't ask if the gaining of a familiar is enough to be worth a side-quest, but would that side-quest be fun enough for the party? If people enjoy it, if you've no time constraints, go for it. Familiars are great for roleplay, hilarity, and creative play. If your group is inclined towards one or many of these then you'll get a lot of worth. If it takes effort to gain, it's more appreciated. If it has a great story associated with it, it will be better liked.
Personality Choice I'd say no, they can't choose a personality. If the patron gives it to them, then the patron has chosen. That is, unless the patron gives the warlock a choice of personalities. Personally I like the idea of the player having no say in it - and you as the DM play the familiar. They have to interact with it like the proper, separate entity it is. And like a separate entity, its not their character to decide. The spell Find Familiar does say the caster can choose the form, though, if you roll with a conventional familiar.
In my current campaign, our Warlock's familiar has quite the personality. Pete the Psuedodragon. The fun thing is that everyone gets into how they think Pete should act and have come to a group consensus on his personality. It just happened naturally and over time, but it's definitely fun.
He "argues" with players, takes scouting seriously and quite often is a great help to the group. He's even quite the foodie, though his choice of food isn't always appetizing to the players. It's almost like having another player. He's the most fleshed out NPC that I've ever had the pleasure to have in my game.
First, it is the player's responsibility to pick familiar that matches its play style. The very nature of a "pact" should mean that the lock and the familiar are already similar in views. If this does not happen, talk to the character and find a way to work it out, even if that means changes are made.
Second, understand the familiar. Take your average imp. Life before the call was pretty fricking ugly. Living a poisoned land, used poorly by everyone around you that was a bit more powerful. Summoned to a life on the Prime with a Tiefling/human/etc, that thinks it might be evil is a walk in the park against every day at home. It won't be suicidal, but it will have a heavy interest in making this current gig never end. The binding is also its way to literally get out of hell AND protect it from other beings that might want to bind it to worse service.
DM"s goal is to create a fun story. You need controls so the lock does not inhibit the fun of other players, but when they are simply adding to the party, I grant latitude and don't worry about it. Give the Familiar a good personality, but use that to make it memorable AND add to the story. Like the pseudodragon above!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
It's been a long time since these comments, but this is a pretty misunderstood area. Firstly, you don't get a creature like an Imp or Sprite. You get a being that can take a number of those forms. Regular familiars can take the form of a list of animals, where Pact Familiars get the added forms of Sprite, Imp, Quasit, and Pseudodragon. The familiar isn't actually any of these creatures. For a Pact familiar they are a form that depends on the Patron. Celestial, Fey, Fiend...etc. That entity then is able to take various forms.
It's been a long time since these comments, but this is a pretty misunderstood area. Firstly, you don't get a creature like an Imp or Sprite. You get a being that can take a number of those forms. Regular familiars can take the form of a list of animals, where Pact Familiars get the added forms of Sprite, Imp, Quasit, and Pseudodragon. The familiar isn't actually any of these creatures. For a Pact familiar they are a form that depends on the Patron. Celestial, Fey, Fiend...etc. That entity then is able to take various forms.
That's an interesting interpretation - you never choose the option to have your familiar spirit take a different form if it gets destroyed? And since you can choose, you could even have a celestial spirit that calls itself an imp, huh? Considering that the find familiar spell states "the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast", as well as "If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature." Classic familiar appearance has most masters having a preferred form, a holdover from animal companions and the time when they were real animals granted magical abilities as opposed to a magical being granted animal form (plus it being expensive at lower levels to constantly recast the spell and change your familiar's form), but it's not a hard-and-fast rule. Unless, you decided to talk to your DM and make it so?
Or are you playing that your character thinks their familiar is actually an imp, instead of a familiar spirit, and the spirit has decided to go along with that? Maybe the familiar spirit likes the form of the Imp, and doesn't want to be resummoned in a new shape, like you'd have the power to do with a recast of the spell (while it's currently "alive" or not) and so it convinces your Warlock that it's really a real Imp and so couldn't possibly be made another shape, like a sprite or a pseudodragon. A familiar trying to trick the warlock it's bound to is a very interesting RP opportunity, if that's what you were going for.
In an old campaign that was on Epic scale and quite bonkers (mix of Eve-online, WH40k, Cyberpunk, and Planeshift), my Hexblade Warlock who allready had the pact of the Blade, came to also have the Pact of the Chain because of Plot reasons.
So i choose an Imp, and decided to RP him as a mix of Yago from Aladdin and Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the galaxy ( we also used Kobold press material, so our Wizard who was a Clockwork Wizard, so basically Tony Stark, had made magical devices of all sorts, and they could use and cast spells up to 3rd lvl, so my Imp got a Rail cannon (device that cast Bolt of Ligthning).
He was for the most of the time in his Raven form, always perched somewhere in the Plane Ship, and would make dark and creepy jokes, and even mock my character when he did something.
I acquired him because somewhere in the campaign, we ended up in a Layer of Hell, with no clue on the way out, so my character made a deal with the Imp, this little bugger had an obssession with Eyes ( he would fly around the ship telling the others that they should sleep with only one eye open, cause else he would come and eat their eyes...), so he asked for my character to give him one of his eyes, and he tell us the info we needed.
I Bargained well enough that instead of just giving my eye, i would exchange my eye with one of his, he found it amusing and decided to tag along, and he collects all the eyes of the peoples and creatures my character killed.
So my character ended with two-colored eyes, and the same for Seth( the Imp), wich also explains why i can see through his eyes( and he could also see through mines)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
It's really interesting how so many people seem to enjoy the idea that Pact of the Chain gives a particular creature. I appreciate the roleplay reasons for sure. I must say, as far as RPing my familiar, I'm finding it more challenging to relate to it by playing it RAW. This is a celestial spirit, sent by my patron to serve and assist me and can take various forms. He's been in the sprite form since I got him and I'm starting to identify with him as one. We are about to enter Avernus and I'm sure he'll end up as an imp or quasit at some point. I'm not sure how that's going to go, especially considering he is a celestial spirit. We'll see.
I think part of it is, as warlocks, people seem to be leaning more into the "real being that I made a deal with" concept of a familiar than the RAW "summoned spirit in the shape of another existence". From what I've seen on here, wizards tend to play it as a spirit (with a number of exceptions - those making arrangements with gazers, for example). I can see why the idea of Find Familiar becoming a "deal made" fits in very well thematically with the Warlock's established history of making deals via their pact. The fact that this is in the Warlock forum might be swaying the impression.
(I'm running a warlock with a familiar right now, a spirit-sprite named Mushroom [fungus fitting with the Undying and death-but-not]. The other party members seem to enjoy the little sprite, but the DM and I have discussed having the warlock separated from the group via capture or somewhat, and the rest of the group running into an imp or pseudodragon that "seems to know them" and is wearing the ring-hat one of them gave to Mushroom. Playing with the idea of resummoning the sprite as something else in order to cause party intrigue and using Voice of the Chain Master to let the familiar lead the way to further the story was something the DM was very excited about.)
Also, one minor detail - the nature of the spirit (fey, celestial, fiend) is RAW your choice, not your patron's. The implication of this is that you could "resummon" your familiar spirit but change its nature, which is strange (probably RAI as a new spirit, but I haven't seen a ruling on it), but might come in handy if you're trying to get around a barrier that blocks, or only allows, beings of a certain type.
I have been the DM for a couple of Warlocks and I was wondering if anyone is willing to share their thoughts on how best to role play familiars. I have created a list of questions, any thoughts or opinions are very much appreciated.
Hey Elvish! Unfortunately I've never actually been part of a group that's made serious use of familiars, but I have a few thoughts that will hopefully help.
Independence and Loyalty
All familiars are independent - their goals and intelligence will vary, but they are spirits/creatures you 'gain the service' of. They've existed before they become familiars, usually. Consider what it may have been doing before then, what goals and intentions it might carry, how it might act. Keep that in mind once its bound to the warlock.
As to the loyalty? The PHB doesn't detail anything special that suggests they're bound to the patron more than the warlock - it says a pact boon is a gift from the patron to the warlock for their loyalty. It states you gain the 'Find Familiar' spell, and that specifies 'but it always obeys your commands.'. So, as far as I can tell, they're typically loyal to the warlock if played regularly.
Still, I love the idea it might be ultimately loyal to the patron. If you want that to be the case, then let it be the case. D&D, to me, is a tool for making stories. And isn't that an awesome story point? The familiar is a 'gift', says your patron - no, it's a spy, to make sure you're doing the patron's bidding, and every word you say is being relayed to the fiend you've made a pact with. It's been listening to you for three levels, and spoiler alert - you are in serious trouble.
Acquisition
Simply put, following the PHB, your familiar is a gift from your patron. How its given is up to you - a vision could come to the character, and they awake with the knowledge of summoning it - or the poor critter is directly delivered, subsequently flung through the planes to land their feet. But as I said above, stories are my swag, and your title is specific to role playing - so let's play with roles. Specifically the patron's role. What if the patron offers it in reward for some particular service? Cue the side-quest. Potentially offer extra, more material rewards that may make it worth the rest of the party's time to assist.
Just keep in mind that it's not always practical. The player levels up, picks Pact of the Chain - is the group in a good place in the story for a side-quest? Do they have a hundred out-standing side-quests already lined up? It's not always fun as a player to have to wait a long time to have gained what your level up has said you would have.
At the end of the day, I wouldn't ask if the gaining of a familiar is enough to be worth a side-quest, but would that side-quest be fun enough for the party? If people enjoy it, if you've no time constraints, go for it. Familiars are great for roleplay, hilarity, and creative play. If your group is inclined towards one or many of these then you'll get a lot of worth. If it takes effort to gain, it's more appreciated. If it has a great story associated with it, it will be better liked.
Personality Choice
I'd say no, they can't choose a personality. If the patron gives it to them, then the patron has chosen. That is, unless the patron gives the warlock a choice of personalities. Personally I like the idea of the player having no say in it - and you as the DM play the familiar. They have to interact with it like the proper, separate entity it is. And like a separate entity, its not their character to decide. The spell Find Familiar does say the caster can choose the form, though, if you roll with a conventional familiar.
---
Good luck and have fun with it!
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My homebrew: [Subclasses] [Races] [Feats] [Discussion Thread]
In my current campaign, our Warlock's familiar has quite the personality. Pete the Psuedodragon. The fun thing is that everyone gets into how they think Pete should act and have come to a group consensus on his personality. It just happened naturally and over time, but it's definitely fun.
He "argues" with players, takes scouting seriously and quite often is a great help to the group. He's even quite the foodie, though his choice of food isn't always appetizing to the players. It's almost like having another player. He's the most fleshed out NPC that I've ever had the pleasure to have in my game.
First, it is the player's responsibility to pick familiar that matches its play style. The very nature of a "pact" should mean that the lock and the familiar are already similar in views. If this does not happen, talk to the character and find a way to work it out, even if that means changes are made.
Second, understand the familiar. Take your average imp. Life before the call was pretty fricking ugly. Living a poisoned land, used poorly by everyone around you that was a bit more powerful. Summoned to a life on the Prime with a Tiefling/human/etc, that thinks it might be evil is a walk in the park against every day at home. It won't be suicidal, but it will have a heavy interest in making this current gig never end. The binding is also its way to literally get out of hell AND protect it from other beings that might want to bind it to worse service.
DM"s goal is to create a fun story. You need controls so the lock does not inhibit the fun of other players, but when they are simply adding to the party, I grant latitude and don't worry about it. Give the Familiar a good personality, but use that to make it memorable AND add to the story. Like the pseudodragon above!
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Bran -- Human Wizard - RoT
Making D&D mistakes and having fun since 1977!
It's been a long time since these comments, but this is a pretty misunderstood area. Firstly, you don't get a creature like an Imp or Sprite. You get a being that can take a number of those forms. Regular familiars can take the form of a list of animals, where Pact Familiars get the added forms of Sprite, Imp, Quasit, and Pseudodragon. The familiar isn't actually any of these creatures. For a Pact familiar they are a form that depends on the Patron. Celestial, Fey, Fiend...etc. That entity then is able to take various forms.
Nope, I got an Imp.
Abide.
Then your DM used house rules. ;)
Nope, I asked my familiar and they are an Imp, I think they would know better than the GM.
Abide.
If you say so. :)
That's an interesting interpretation - you never choose the option to have your familiar spirit take a different form if it gets destroyed? And since you can choose, you could even have a celestial spirit that calls itself an imp, huh? Considering that the find familiar spell states
"the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast",
as well as
"If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature."
Classic familiar appearance has most masters having a preferred form, a holdover from animal companions and the time when they were real animals granted magical abilities as opposed to a magical being granted animal form (plus it being expensive at lower levels to constantly recast the spell and change your familiar's form), but it's not a hard-and-fast rule. Unless, you decided to talk to your DM and make it so?
Or are you playing that your character thinks their familiar is actually an imp, instead of a familiar spirit, and the spirit has decided to go along with that? Maybe the familiar spirit likes the form of the Imp, and doesn't want to be resummoned in a new shape, like you'd have the power to do with a recast of the spell (while it's currently "alive" or not) and so it convinces your Warlock that it's really a real Imp and so couldn't possibly be made another shape, like a sprite or a pseudodragon. A familiar trying to trick the warlock it's bound to is a very interesting RP opportunity, if that's what you were going for.
In an old campaign that was on Epic scale and quite bonkers (mix of Eve-online, WH40k, Cyberpunk, and Planeshift), my Hexblade Warlock who allready had the pact of the Blade, came to also have the Pact of the Chain because of Plot reasons.
So i choose an Imp, and decided to RP him as a mix of Yago from Aladdin and Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the galaxy ( we also used Kobold press material, so our Wizard who was a Clockwork Wizard, so basically Tony Stark, had made magical devices of all sorts, and they could use and cast spells up to 3rd lvl, so my Imp got a Rail cannon (device that cast Bolt of Ligthning).
He was for the most of the time in his Raven form, always perched somewhere in the Plane Ship, and would make dark and creepy jokes, and even mock my character when he did something.
I acquired him because somewhere in the campaign, we ended up in a Layer of Hell, with no clue on the way out, so my character made a deal with the Imp, this little bugger had an obssession with Eyes ( he would fly around the ship telling the others that they should sleep with only one eye open, cause else he would come and eat their eyes...), so he asked for my character to give him one of his eyes, and he tell us the info we needed.
I Bargained well enough that instead of just giving my eye, i would exchange my eye with one of his, he found it amusing and decided to tag along, and he collects all the eyes of the peoples and creatures my character killed.
So my character ended with two-colored eyes, and the same for Seth( the Imp), wich also explains why i can see through his eyes( and he could also see through mines)
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
It's really interesting how so many people seem to enjoy the idea that Pact of the Chain gives a particular creature. I appreciate the roleplay reasons for sure. I must say, as far as RPing my familiar, I'm finding it more challenging to relate to it by playing it RAW. This is a celestial spirit, sent by my patron to serve and assist me and can take various forms. He's been in the sprite form since I got him and I'm starting to identify with him as one. We are about to enter Avernus and I'm sure he'll end up as an imp or quasit at some point. I'm not sure how that's going to go, especially considering he is a celestial spirit. We'll see.
(I'm running a warlock with a familiar right now, a spirit-sprite named Mushroom [fungus fitting with the Undying and death-but-not]. The other party members seem to enjoy the little sprite, but the DM and I have discussed having the warlock separated from the group via capture or somewhat, and the rest of the group running into an imp or pseudodragon that "seems to know them" and is wearing the ring-hat one of them gave to Mushroom. Playing with the idea of resummoning the sprite as something else in order to cause party intrigue and using Voice of the Chain Master to let the familiar lead the way to further the story was something the DM was very excited about.)
Also, one minor detail - the nature of the spirit (fey, celestial, fiend) is RAW your choice, not your patron's. The implication of this is that you could "resummon" your familiar spirit but change its nature, which is strange (probably RAI as a new spirit, but I haven't seen a ruling on it), but might come in handy if you're trying to get around a barrier that blocks, or only allows, beings of a certain type.
One of the optional rules in Avernus straight up says if the DM wants, "The familiar is an Imp."
And from running Season 8, I had the option to have a Gazer as a familiar, but I rarely play spellcasters.