Once of my players was asking how I run the spell Find Familiar in my games. I quick looked at the spell and options and came to the following rulings.
Find Familiar can call any suitable creature only if ALL of the following are true: The Creature is NOT a Humanoid, it is Small or Tiny, it has 2 or fewer Hit Dice (exceptions made for specific creatures [Anvilwrought Raptor*], It has an Intelligence less than 10, it isn't an Awakened or Animated Object, and it has a CR of 1/2 or less.
If a Warlock is using Find Familiar through Pact of the Chain they may choose to ignore the intelligence prerequisite and can call any suitable creature with up to 3 hit dice, and any creature up to CR 1, but cannot make a named NPC or creature of any kind a familiar.
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger) the creature ceases to be a familiar (magical alteration such as enlarge/reduce do no break the familiar pact, but permanently awakening a familiar does).
Asking other DM's if you feel this is fine from a balance perspective?
The familiar is a spirit creature, so it will not mature.
The creature should have a challenge rating of 1/8. Anything over that and you're going to majorly overpower the creature - I believe the highest CR of all the options in the spell is 1/8 (poisonous snake). A challenge 1/2 creature is a Medium challenge for 2 x Level 1 PCs, or a single level 2 PC, which is grossly overpowered for this spell.
Note that the third level spell animate dead creates an undead minion with CR 1/4. The minion only lasts for 24 hours, and requires a body to animate. You're looking to give a 1st level character a spell that can summon a creature with CR 1/2. This creature will be more powerful than the Level 1 PC that summoned it - a Bear is CR1/2, for example, with 19 hit points and 2 attacks. Familiars are not intended to be combatants.
If you want to vary what's available, then allow the form to be what the player wants but use a stat block from any of the listed creatures to represent it (e.g. it flies? It's a hawk or bat. It swims? It's a fish or an octopus).
Find Familiar is already one of the most game-breaking spells in the game, to the point where some DM's posit that the entirety of society would need to keep trained birds of prey to deal with hostile flying familiars (which is ridiculous). Familiars are ridiculously good at scouting for the party at almost no risk ("Send the cat in first to see if there's a trap"), can prevent most random encounters ("My hawk flies up 100 feet and keeps watch. It will alert me if anything comes near us"), can juke their way through stealth missions at no risk ("I send my rat in to watch the conversation unobserved") and so on. I strongly advise not powering up this spell any more than it already is.
I wouldn't run it that way at my table, but that doesn't mean there is a balance issue specific to what you are suggesting.
I say this from the perspective that there is already a passionate discussion as to the spell's balance and potential for abuse in the current form and then also with Pact of the Chain. So it's already pegged as end-heavy, what you're suggesting only serves to shift more weight to that same heavy end.
At my table, I treat the Pact of the Chain familiar as a sidekick and add them to the mix for encounter balance. It seems to help some, but as always, YMMV.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
It's probably not massively overpowered, but I do think it makes Find Familiar more powerful than it is intended to be. Find Familiar is supposed to only summon beasts (animals). Allowing other creature types, such as Abberations, Plants, or Elementals, might give it some extra powers that one wouldn't expect from a Familiar.
That said, actively looking for an exploit, all I could find that was problematic (in the sources I have) is the Vegepygmy. Having the Vegepygmy would result in a Familiar that will in most situations be basically unkillable, as it can regenerate itself (it requires Cold, Fire or Necrotic damage to actually kill a Vegepigmy). That would make it far superior to any other Familiar for combat or scouting.
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger)
Familiars don't age. They aren't "real" animals -- per RAW, they are "a spirit that takes an animal form you choose"
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger)
Familiars don't age. They aren't "real" animals -- per RAW, they are "a spirit that takes an animal form you choose"
Just a related question. If they are spirits that can take the for of any “animal” you choose, then why does it have to be an animal?
Even accepting that the spirit is limited in size due to the fact that it’s not very powerful in general, why couldn’t it take the form of a small or tiny humanoid - or something like a pixie?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger)
Familiars don't age. They aren't "real" animals -- per RAW, they are "a spirit that takes an animal form you choose"
Just a related question. If they are spirits that can take the for of any “animal” you choose, then why does it have to be an animal?
Even accepting that the spirit is limited in size due to the fact that it’s not very powerful in general, why couldn’t it take the form of a small or tiny humanoid - or something like a pixie?
Because it uses a stat block and so appropriately powerful stat blocks are selected
Also familiars are traditionally animals, that's what the noun familiar means
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger)
Familiars don't age. They aren't "real" animals -- per RAW, they are "a spirit that takes an animal form you choose"
Just a related question. If they are spirits that can take the for of any “animal” you choose, then why does it have to be an animal?
Even accepting that the spirit is limited in size due to the fact that it’s not very powerful in general, why couldn’t it take the form of a small or tiny humanoid - or something like a pixie?
Also, if you want RAW, find familiar only allows a very short list of specific animals to be created as a familiar.
"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."
The summoned familiar spirit isn't any beast - it is one of these specific choices. Most DMs allow additional choices if it fits someone's character concept better. (I let a player summon up their familiar as a sea horse when they were going underwater).
All of these have just a couple of hit points but some do have better senses (bat, owl) or other abilities that can be useful.
"Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal."
I'm not sure why the OP wants to allow much stronger creatures as familiars unless they are changing the rules for the spell entirely. Familiars can't attack so having a bear familiar might be cute but it doesn't really do anything except stand around and growl at folks ... might be useful for intimidation.
Anyway, if the OP wants a way for characters to summon up companions, I would just home brew a companion spell or maybe a magic item rather than changing up find familiar which is already a VERY useful spell even with the short list of creatures already available. Allowing the spell to summon up 2 or 3 hit dice monsters is getting into the range of the Summon spells from Tashas, without a time limit, and is very unbalanced especially if they are allowed to attack (which is really the only reason I can see for needing 2 or 3 hit dice familiars).
I'm not sure why the OP wants to allow much stronger creatures as familiars unless they are changing the rules for the spell entirely. Familiars can't attack so having a bear familiar might be cute but it doesn't really do anything except stand around and growl at folks ... might be useful for intimidation.
Anyway, if the OP wants a way for characters to summon up companions, I would just home brew a companion spell or maybe a magic item rather than changing up find familiar which is already a VERY useful spell even with the short list of creatures already available. Allowing the spell to summon up 2 or 3 hit dice monsters is getting into the range of the Summon spells from Tashas, without a time limit, and is very unbalanced especially if they are allowed to attack (which is really the only reason I can see for needing 2 or 3 hit dice familiars).
Warlock familiars can attack with the Investment of the Chain Master invocation This attack is decent at low levels but quickly becomes useless as you level up and your familiar doesn't, so it kind of makes sense if you are investing your pact and invocation into having a useful familiar that it can still be useful at higher levels. I think having a stronger pact of the chain familiar homebrewed for higher levels is pretty reasonable.
I homebrewed stats used for familiars summoned by the find a familiar spell, and then let my players summon anything they want. This is why I was asking why familiar can't traditionally appear as anything other than animals above.
If something medium or larger is summoned, it appears small, or the player can choose tiny instead.
The exception is pact of the chain warlocks, who can summon stronger familiars as outlined by pact of the chain.
Since the summoned familiars use my home-brewed stats, all familiars, regardless of form, are the same. The only thing that differs is their cosmetic appearance, so it doesn't matter what they are summoned.
My Homebrew
The player generates all stats, including HP, during their first summon using 1d6+2. Once established, these stats don't change regardless of form or a future summons.
2 necrotic damage per attack. The attack can be anything depending on the familiar's form, but it only does 2 damage. All damage dealt by familiars is necrotic damage it doesn't matter how the familiar appears to attack. Anything immune to necrotic damage is immune to attacks from familiars. Anything resistant to necrotic damage only takes 1 damage.
All families are immune to being charmed and psychic attacks. They can not be brainwashed into turning against their masters, and magic can not put them to sleep.
Once summoned, a familiar remains until dismissed or its HP falls to zero. If the familiar's HP drops to zero, it appears again within 1d10+2 hours. If it's dismissed, the player has to summon it again and use a spell slot, or they can spend 1 hour performing a ritual to summon their familiar without using a spell slot, provided they have the right components.
As an action, the player can choose to give up their senses and use their familiar senses instead. If the player decides to do this, they can not use their senses until they use another action to end the effect. Players may choose to give up any or all of their senses to use the corresponding ones of their familiar.
The player can summon their familiar in any form they choose, but familiars appear as small or tiny spirit creatures. If the player attempts to summon something usually medium+ in size, the familiar is summoned in that form, but only as a small spirit creature. The player can choose to have it appear as tiny instead.
I'm not sure why the OP wants to allow much stronger creatures as familiars unless they are changing the rules for the spell entirely. Familiars can't attack so having a bear familiar might be cute but it doesn't really do anything except stand around and growl at folks ... might be useful for intimidation.
Anyway, if the OP wants a way for characters to summon up companions, I would just home brew a companion spell or maybe a magic item rather than changing up find familiar which is already a VERY useful spell even with the short list of creatures already available. Allowing the spell to summon up 2 or 3 hit dice monsters is getting into the range of the Summon spells from Tashas, without a time limit, and is very unbalanced especially if they are allowed to attack (which is really the only reason I can see for needing 2 or 3 hit dice familiars).
Warlock familiars can attack with the Investment of the Chain Master invocation This attack is decent at low levels but quickly becomes useless as you level up and your familiar doesn't, so it kind of makes sense if you are investing your pact and invocation into having a useful familiar that it can still be useful at higher levels. I think having a stronger pact of the chain familiar homebrewed for higher levels is pretty reasonable.
Sure. I'd tend agree that homebrewing an upgrade for a Chain Pact warlock familiar at higher levels as part of the Investment of the Chain Master invocation might makes sense since the character is investing quite a bit in their familiar.
I also took a look at the creatures allowed by the constraints suggested by the OP for the basic and warlock find familiar -
- int less than 10 (except chain pact warlock)
- 1 or 2 hit die (or 3 for chain pact warlock)
- not humanoid
- CR of 1/2 or less (1 for chain pact warlock)
- small or tiny
- this limits the choices substantially and if the constraint on not being able to attack is retained (except the chain pact warlock with investment of the chain master) - it doesn't look like much of a balance issue. Some basic familiars like the bat or owl (or the imp for a chain pact warlock) are likely still preferred choices. A couple of the familiars would give useful additional abilities (like tunneling through solid rock at 5'/6 seconds) but would only be used for specific circumstances.
Not sure what's wrong with Find Familiar as written. I wouldn't draw any of those rulings from a read through of the spell. That being said, it's your game, and the only way you'll know if it's balanced is through playtest.
The spell is very clear on what types of creatures you can conjure with it, and what those creatures can do once conjured.
Okay, I can obviously see the issues everyone is pointing out, BUT I don't honestly see an issue with allowing a player to have a sheep or a fox or a badger as a familiar. I can admit dropping the CR to 1/8 is fair.
I wouldn't rule out the idea for a necromancer to say have a crawling claw as a familiar. I feel several other non-animal creature make suitable familiars just fine without breaking anything. What issue would there really be with a warlock with the chain pact from having a ice mephit for a familiar?
In addition, Gazers can be familiars if a player character can cast 3rd level spells, I don't see the issue with allowing a plyer of similar level to conjure say a magmin. in that fashion.
Arguing that the spell is fairly overpower because of what a familiar can do sounds to me like a lack of planning on a dm's part to account for that possibility, if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies, if a cat is checking for traps, then use a weighted pressure plate to trigger with a weight above what a small creature would weigh, if a mouse is listening to a conversation why not have the conversation be in code? If you know what the players can do work with it or work around it.
In all fairness, I can agree my initial assessment may have been a bit, well wrong, and I'll admit that. I think keeping it to CR 1/8 if fine and scrutinizing options from their forwards isn't a bad idea either though, I can't really believe any DM would tell someone thay couldn't have a sheep for a familiar just because it wasn't listed in the spell RAW.
Arguing that the spell is fairly overpower because of what a familiar can do sounds to me like a lack of planning on a dm's part to account for that possibility, if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies, if a cat is checking for traps, then use a weighted pressure plate to trigger with a weight above what a small creature would weigh, if a mouse is listening to a conversation why not have the conversation be in code? If you know what the players can do work with it or work around it.
This is a thought-process error that comes from not having experienced the impact the spell has on the game. It also negates the familiar's usefulness entirely if you do it every time. It's a bit like saying "Fireball is useless, just have enemies that Counterspell it." Every fight, that's what you plan to include? You need to think about its impact over the course of a campaign, not just over the course of a single encounter.
Let's break it down:
if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies
So at level 1, the PC gets their hawk familiar. The familiar will be doing this from the beginning of the first level 1 adventure until the death of the PC, or the campaign ends. Are you going to run every random encounter with burrowing or invisible enemies? The existence of the hawk means that random encounters can never occur in anything but heavily concealed areas. Planned encounters will always be fully scouted from afar. Just how often are you going to throw in an airborne predator to keep it bay?
If a cat is checking for traps, then use a weighted pressure plate to trigger with a weight above what a small creature would weigh
Good luck watching the expression on your players' faces the second time you pull this. The first time? Fine. The second? Hah. And all traps now have to be triggered only by pressure plates, that's fun.
if a mouse is listening to a conversation why not have the conversation be in code
Because having villainous NPCs speaking in code when there's nobody else around to hear it is metagaming to deny the PC the power to use their fairly acquired abilities. It doesn't make sense. Once? Ok. Twice? Errrrm. Three times? Reeeeaaaaally?
And then remember as well: All familiars can do ALL OF THESE THINGS since you can change them into something else by resummoning. So now you've designed your world so that there are only invisible/burrowing creatures, traps only work on specific pressure plates, and everyone speaks in code.
All because of one spell.
So you see why it's a pretty powerful spell, right? :)
Ok maybe I'm out of line here but let's be real for a second. Familiars are fun and useful. If the player wants to invest their resources into that great let them have their fun, because that's what this is all about. But what OP is suggesting does not break the game, nor does it give any extra power to the spell. The familiars on the spell list can do everything that the extended list can do. Do you know how I know this, adventure League has the extended familiars on their list. If you were a DM during season 8 guess what you have a gazer. Crawling hand? DM reward, mini fire elemental? Extra life benefit. Hell their is an awakened shrub on the list. None of these break the games. To you OP, reduce the challenge rating to 1/8 and keep everything else and your good. Don't worry about "hOw It BrEaKs tHe GaMe." Run good combat, let your player have their fun and be happy. Done. And if anyone else tells you otherwise, well they are not in your game now are they?
I mean, the question to ask here is, what are you trying to accomplish with your house rules? Are you trying to extrapolate out to everything that "makes sense"? Are you trying to give players more manners of creative expression? Are you trying to make familiars more combat effective?
Without knowing your intent, it's impossible to give meaningful feedback.
Myself, I find the two biggest irritants about the spell are that the concept of a magical spirit that takes the form of an animal is weird and confusing, and that it gives the Wizard an additional character to control, which lengthens his already overlong turns in combat and makes him nearly twice as useful outside it. If I was going to modify it, I'd make it so the animal is a real animal, and requires an action to directly control.
Myself, I find the two biggest irritants about the spell are that the concept of a magical spirit that takes the form of an animal is weird and confusing, and that it gives the Wizard an additional character to control, which lengthens his already overlong turns in combat and makes him nearly twice as useful outside it. If I was going to modify it, I'd make it so the animal is a real animal, and requires an action to directly control.
The advantage of it being a spirit is that it means spells with special effect vs celestials, fey, and fiends apply to familiars, which makes them significantly more convenient to block at higher levels.
Myself, I find the two biggest irritants about the spell are that the concept of a magical spirit that takes the form of an animal is weird and confusing, and that it gives the Wizard an additional character to control, which lengthens his already overlong turns in combat and makes him nearly twice as useful outside it. If I was going to modify it, I'd make it so the animal is a real animal, and requires an action to directly control.
The advantage of it being a spirit is that it means spells with special effect vs celestials, fey, and fiends apply to familiars, which makes them significantly more convenient to block at higher levels.
That's never come up for me. What has come up, though are discussions about whether it needs to or can eat, whether it poops, how it behaves when not given instructions, what types of objects it can and can't interact with properly, how other creatures perceive it, whether it's afraid of death or resents being killed, whether it's the same one each time, and on and on.
And all that could be answered by saying, it's a real bird, it's your friend, and you can bring it back to life if it dies.
So that brings up a good point. Creatures with out hands can not administer heading potions by raw. That is a limiting factor when determining what familiars you allow. But I don't think it matters allot.
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Once of my players was asking how I run the spell Find Familiar in my games. I quick looked at the spell and options and came to the following rulings.
Find Familiar can call any suitable creature only if ALL of the following are true: The Creature is NOT a Humanoid, it is Small or Tiny, it has 2 or fewer Hit Dice (exceptions made for specific creatures [Anvilwrought Raptor*], It has an Intelligence less than 10, it isn't an Awakened or Animated Object, and it has a CR of 1/2 or less.
If a Warlock is using Find Familiar through Pact of the Chain they may choose to ignore the intelligence prerequisite and can call any suitable creature with up to 3 hit dice, and any creature up to CR 1, but cannot make a named NPC or creature of any kind a familiar.
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger) the creature ceases to be a familiar (magical alteration such as enlarge/reduce do no break the familiar pact, but permanently awakening a familiar does).
Asking other DM's if you feel this is fine from a balance perspective?
The familiar is a spirit creature, so it will not mature.
The creature should have a challenge rating of 1/8. Anything over that and you're going to majorly overpower the creature - I believe the highest CR of all the options in the spell is 1/8 (poisonous snake). A challenge 1/2 creature is a Medium challenge for 2 x Level 1 PCs, or a single level 2 PC, which is grossly overpowered for this spell.
Note that the third level spell animate dead creates an undead minion with CR 1/4. The minion only lasts for 24 hours, and requires a body to animate. You're looking to give a 1st level character a spell that can summon a creature with CR 1/2. This creature will be more powerful than the Level 1 PC that summoned it - a Bear is CR1/2, for example, with 19 hit points and 2 attacks. Familiars are not intended to be combatants.
If you want to vary what's available, then allow the form to be what the player wants but use a stat block from any of the listed creatures to represent it (e.g. it flies? It's a hawk or bat. It swims? It's a fish or an octopus).
Find Familiar is already one of the most game-breaking spells in the game, to the point where some DM's posit that the entirety of society would need to keep trained birds of prey to deal with hostile flying familiars (which is ridiculous). Familiars are ridiculously good at scouting for the party at almost no risk ("Send the cat in first to see if there's a trap"), can prevent most random encounters ("My hawk flies up 100 feet and keeps watch. It will alert me if anything comes near us"), can juke their way through stealth missions at no risk ("I send my rat in to watch the conversation unobserved") and so on. I strongly advise not powering up this spell any more than it already is.
I wouldn't run it that way at my table, but that doesn't mean there is a balance issue specific to what you are suggesting.
I say this from the perspective that there is already a passionate discussion as to the spell's balance and potential for abuse in the current form and then also with Pact of the Chain. So it's already pegged as end-heavy, what you're suggesting only serves to shift more weight to that same heavy end.
At my table, I treat the Pact of the Chain familiar as a sidekick and add them to the mix for encounter balance. It seems to help some, but as always, YMMV.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
It's probably not massively overpowered, but I do think it makes Find Familiar more powerful than it is intended to be. Find Familiar is supposed to only summon beasts (animals). Allowing other creature types, such as Abberations, Plants, or Elementals, might give it some extra powers that one wouldn't expect from a Familiar.
That said, actively looking for an exploit, all I could find that was problematic (in the sources I have) is the Vegepygmy. Having the Vegepygmy would result in a Familiar that will in most situations be basically unkillable, as it can regenerate itself (it requires Cold, Fire or Necrotic damage to actually kill a Vegepigmy). That would make it far superior to any other Familiar for combat or scouting.
Familiars don't age. They aren't "real" animals -- per RAW, they are "a spirit that takes an animal form you choose"
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Just a related question. If they are spirits that can take the for of any “animal” you choose, then why does it have to be an animal?
Even accepting that the spirit is limited in size due to the fact that it’s not very powerful in general, why couldn’t it take the form of a small or tiny humanoid - or something like a pixie?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Because it uses a stat block and so appropriately powerful stat blocks are selected
Also familiars are traditionally animals, that's what the noun familiar means
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Also, if you want RAW, find familiar only allows a very short list of specific animals to be created as a familiar.
"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."
The summoned familiar spirit isn't any beast - it is one of these specific choices. Most DMs allow additional choices if it fits someone's character concept better. (I let a player summon up their familiar as a sea horse when they were going underwater).
All of these have just a couple of hit points but some do have better senses (bat, owl) or other abilities that can be useful.
"Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal."
I'm not sure why the OP wants to allow much stronger creatures as familiars unless they are changing the rules for the spell entirely. Familiars can't attack so having a bear familiar might be cute but it doesn't really do anything except stand around and growl at folks ... might be useful for intimidation.
Anyway, if the OP wants a way for characters to summon up companions, I would just home brew a companion spell or maybe a magic item rather than changing up find familiar which is already a VERY useful spell even with the short list of creatures already available. Allowing the spell to summon up 2 or 3 hit dice monsters is getting into the range of the Summon spells from Tashas, without a time limit, and is very unbalanced especially if they are allowed to attack (which is really the only reason I can see for needing 2 or 3 hit dice familiars).
If you want your players to have a permanent companion, there's also the Sidekick rules from Tasha's.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Warlock familiars can attack with the Investment of the Chain Master invocation
This attack is decent at low levels but quickly becomes useless as you level up and your familiar doesn't, so it kind of makes sense if you are investing your pact and invocation into having a useful familiar that it can still be useful at higher levels. I think having a stronger pact of the chain familiar homebrewed for higher levels is pretty reasonable.
I homebrewed stats used for familiars summoned by the find a familiar spell, and then let my players summon anything they want. This is why I was asking why familiar can't traditionally appear as anything other than animals above.
If something medium or larger is summoned, it appears small, or the player can choose tiny instead.
The exception is pact of the chain warlocks, who can summon stronger familiars as outlined by pact of the chain.
Since the summoned familiars use my home-brewed stats, all familiars, regardless of form, are the same. The only thing that differs is their cosmetic appearance, so it doesn't matter what they are summoned.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Sure. I'd tend agree that homebrewing an upgrade for a Chain Pact warlock familiar at higher levels as part of the Investment of the Chain Master invocation might makes sense since the character is investing quite a bit in their familiar.
I also took a look at the creatures allowed by the constraints suggested by the OP for the basic and warlock find familiar -
- int less than 10 (except chain pact warlock)
- 1 or 2 hit die (or 3 for chain pact warlock)
- not humanoid
- CR of 1/2 or less (1 for chain pact warlock)
- small or tiny
- this limits the choices substantially and if the constraint on not being able to attack is retained (except the chain pact warlock with investment of the chain master) - it doesn't look like much of a balance issue. Some basic familiars like the bat or owl (or the imp for a chain pact warlock) are likely still preferred choices. A couple of the familiars would give useful additional abilities (like tunneling through solid rock at 5'/6 seconds) but would only be used for specific circumstances.
Not sure what's wrong with Find Familiar as written. I wouldn't draw any of those rulings from a read through of the spell. That being said, it's your game, and the only way you'll know if it's balanced is through playtest.
The spell is very clear on what types of creatures you can conjure with it, and what those creatures can do once conjured.
Okay, I can obviously see the issues everyone is pointing out, BUT I don't honestly see an issue with allowing a player to have a sheep or a fox or a badger as a familiar. I can admit dropping the CR to 1/8 is fair.
I wouldn't rule out the idea for a necromancer to say have a crawling claw as a familiar. I feel several other non-animal creature make suitable familiars just fine without breaking anything. What issue would there really be with a warlock with the chain pact from having a ice mephit for a familiar?
In addition, Gazers can be familiars if a player character can cast 3rd level spells, I don't see the issue with allowing a plyer of similar level to conjure say a magmin. in that fashion.
Arguing that the spell is fairly overpower because of what a familiar can do sounds to me like a lack of planning on a dm's part to account for that possibility, if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies, if a cat is checking for traps, then use a weighted pressure plate to trigger with a weight above what a small creature would weigh, if a mouse is listening to a conversation why not have the conversation be in code? If you know what the players can do work with it or work around it.
In all fairness, I can agree my initial assessment may have been a bit, well wrong, and I'll admit that. I think keeping it to CR 1/8 if fine and scrutinizing options from their forwards isn't a bad idea either though, I can't really believe any DM would tell someone thay couldn't have a sheep for a familiar just because it wasn't listed in the spell RAW.
This is a thought-process error that comes from not having experienced the impact the spell has on the game. It also negates the familiar's usefulness entirely if you do it every time. It's a bit like saying "Fireball is useless, just have enemies that Counterspell it." Every fight, that's what you plan to include? You need to think about its impact over the course of a campaign, not just over the course of a single encounter.
Let's break it down:
if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies
So at level 1, the PC gets their hawk familiar. The familiar will be doing this from the beginning of the first level 1 adventure until the death of the PC, or the campaign ends. Are you going to run every random encounter with burrowing or invisible enemies? The existence of the hawk means that random encounters can never occur in anything but heavily concealed areas. Planned encounters will always be fully scouted from afar. Just how often are you going to throw in an airborne predator to keep it bay?
If a cat is checking for traps, then use a weighted pressure plate to trigger with a weight above what a small creature would weigh
Good luck watching the expression on your players' faces the second time you pull this. The first time? Fine. The second? Hah. And all traps now have to be triggered only by pressure plates, that's fun.
if a mouse is listening to a conversation why not have the conversation be in code
Because having villainous NPCs speaking in code when there's nobody else around to hear it is metagaming to deny the PC the power to use their fairly acquired abilities. It doesn't make sense. Once? Ok. Twice? Errrrm. Three times? Reeeeaaaaally?
And then remember as well: All familiars can do ALL OF THESE THINGS since you can change them into something else by resummoning. So now you've designed your world so that there are only invisible/burrowing creatures, traps only work on specific pressure plates, and everyone speaks in code.
All because of one spell.
So you see why it's a pretty powerful spell, right? :)
Ok maybe I'm out of line here but let's be real for a second. Familiars are fun and useful. If the player wants to invest their resources into that great let them have their fun, because that's what this is all about. But what OP is suggesting does not break the game, nor does it give any extra power to the spell. The familiars on the spell list can do everything that the extended list can do. Do you know how I know this, adventure League has the extended familiars on their list. If you were a DM during season 8 guess what you have a gazer. Crawling hand? DM reward, mini fire elemental? Extra life benefit. Hell their is an awakened shrub on the list. None of these break the games. To you OP, reduce the challenge rating to 1/8 and keep everything else and your good. Don't worry about "hOw It BrEaKs tHe GaMe." Run good combat, let your player have their fun and be happy. Done. And if anyone else tells you otherwise, well they are not in your game now are they?
I mean, the question to ask here is, what are you trying to accomplish with your house rules? Are you trying to extrapolate out to everything that "makes sense"? Are you trying to give players more manners of creative expression? Are you trying to make familiars more combat effective?
Without knowing your intent, it's impossible to give meaningful feedback.
Myself, I find the two biggest irritants about the spell are that the concept of a magical spirit that takes the form of an animal is weird and confusing, and that it gives the Wizard an additional character to control, which lengthens his already overlong turns in combat and makes him nearly twice as useful outside it. If I was going to modify it, I'd make it so the animal is a real animal, and requires an action to directly control.
The advantage of it being a spirit is that it means spells with special effect vs celestials, fey, and fiends apply to familiars, which makes them significantly more convenient to block at higher levels.
That's never come up for me. What has come up, though are discussions about whether it needs to or can eat, whether it poops, how it behaves when not given instructions, what types of objects it can and can't interact with properly, how other creatures perceive it, whether it's afraid of death or resents being killed, whether it's the same one each time, and on and on.
And all that could be answered by saying, it's a real bird, it's your friend, and you can bring it back to life if it dies.
So that brings up a good point. Creatures with out hands can not administer heading potions by raw. That is a limiting factor when determining what familiars you allow. But I don't think it matters allot.