First post, everyone. Longtime D&D gamer (since 1981!) but relatively new to 5E: I've only been playing the newest edition for just over a year, and I have only DMed it three times.
As someone who has a decidedly old school mindset, though, I'm bumping up against abilities and spells that seem geared toward giving the player characters advantages that permanently shift the game in their favor. In my current campaign, two characters have familiars, thanks to the find familiar spell. My difficulty with the spell is that it seems to grant the PC incredible tactical advantage over almost any situation. In non-combat situations, the PC can see and hear through the familiar's senses - and there doesn't seem to be any distance limit on this ability, as long as the familiar is on the same plane.
Meaning: the familiar can scout just about any location, at any distance, with the PC seeing it all in real time. With no real downside or cost.
Obviously, an owl (for instance) can't open doors in a dungeon, and a fish can't get up on land to scout terrain or the dry parts of an underground cavern, But these seem like minor inconveniences, rather than true limitations or costs.
I've thought about ways to mitigate or limit the power of the spell, and I've come down to two: either houserule that the seeing/hearing feature is only available when the familiar is within 100 feet OR regularly take the familiar out with mundane and magical means. (A large bird of prey; an enemy caster who's discovered or crafted a spell that disables familiars inside a certain boundary, etc.)
Has anyone else felt frustrated by this nearly unlimited recon ability? How have you dealt with it?
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Distance for the vision/senses is 100 ft, as well is the telepathy, unless they are a Warlock and take the invocation that alters this. During the time they are using the familiar's senses their body is blind and deaf. That is the rule for familiars, not homebrew.
As to how to deal with the recon abilities, I use red herrings, and rewards both. In one game I had a player who had an owl familiar he used to make sure nothing would ever sneak up on them. Ambushes were impossible, it would scout about 30-50 feet from the party, while he was riding horse back, he'd tie down to the saddle and watch through the owl's eyes.
In one instance I had a caravan which was ransacked, small billows of smoke rising from it, and it was on the side of the main road. The owl spotted it, the player told his party they should go around. When they reached the town further down the road, they were surprised when they were ridiculed for not helping the merchant train that was supposed to bring the winters supplies to them. Now the town would be in dire straits as the winter bars them from any travel in the deep snows.
In another instance the owl spotted some bodies moving through a forest where they were supposed to hunt down some lizardfolk. The owl tracked two humanoids running, and the group kept moving onward. Getting to the Lizardfolk hovels they found them all already dead, they then followed the owl's directions to the running humanoids. They found that it was 2 remaining lizard folk. They were running from the people who massacred their people. The group found out through conversation that they had been double crossed.
Finally there was a moment where the owl spotted what looked like a suspicious setup in the road in the direction they were traveling. They decided to go around. They avoided what they thought was an ambush. They were right, they avoided the ambush, everyone was happy, and we moved on.
I wanted to fight against my player's decision, he was taking away something I put in the game. He was making certain things I wanted to do in game invalidated. I was upset because of this. However, after much thought, I realized that he simply made a very brilliant tactical choice and I couldn't fault him for it. It's a tough pill to swallow, but 5e IS geared toward making the players win. (I did sometimes target the owl and kill it out of spite, but that wasn't very often.)
While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.
In short, outside that 100ft range, the character cannot be in contact with their chosen familiar (though this is mitigated somewhat with certain warlock invocations). also, while using their familiar's senses, they are effectively blind and deaf to their own surroundings, making them much easier to prey on.
On top of all of that, familiars tend to be not very strong animals, statistically, making them very easy to kill in combat and with Find Familiar's 1 hour casting time, not easy to replace in a timely manner.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
That's the point of contention. The wording of the spell is a bit ambiguous:
While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any Special senses that the familiar has.During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.
Is the emphasized part limited to that 100 feet? The other people at the table say no, that's separate, and not limited to the 100 feet.
It doesn't make sense that a telepathic communication, and a telepathic link to vision and senses would have separate distances. They are both bound to the same distance limits.
inside 100ft speak telepathically +(additionally) See/senses as an action
That's the point of contention. The wording of the spell is a bit ambiguous:
While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any Special senses that the familiar has.During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.
Is the emphasized part limited to that 100 feet? The other people at the table say no, that's separate, and not limited to the 100 feet.
The others at the table are wrong. The sharing of information between the spell's caster and the familiar is 100 feet whether that information is telepathic or visual/auditory. The only way around that is the Warlock's voice of the Chain Master invocation feature.
Voice of the Chain Master
Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain feature
You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar’s senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar’s senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.
They wouldn't have this feature if it were possible to just do all of that normally.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I appreciate the responses. When we discussed this during Saturday's game, I was also of the opinion, based on context, that the audio/visual components were also limited to 100 feet but they all insisted that no, that was separate.
Being new to this version and the newcomer to the table, I wasn't super comfortable putting my foot down.
I'd just point out that there is a Warlock feature that does what they want to do and if they are not that class with that feature then they cannot do that thing.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Hey and Welcome to posting in the forums! I'd recommend using this Search for other posts about Familiars
I think you and your players are misreading the spell Find Familiar, a little bit. The shared senses only has a range of 100' as is the telepathic communication. A 3rd level Warlock with Pact of the Chains also has 100' telepathic communication, but Voice of the Chain Master ups that to unlimited, as plane. The cost here is the face that the Warlock is investing 2 class features into the power, first her Pact and then an Invocation.
Remember the player character is blind/deaf while using their familiar's senses. While 99% of the time this isn't a down side because it's scouting, it is a technical draw back. They don't constantly share senses at all times.
I would avoid trying to kill the familiar, especially with something like a large bird of prey. That's a "rock fall" kind of thing and is going to feel very petty to the player. They have already invested 10g and the spell slot into the familiar.
It is legit to have an enemy target the familiar. Their ACs are in the low 10s and they have 1hp (except the Warlock one has up to around 10), but those are often invisible! That said unless it was hit with an AoO that's taking an action away from the NPC to target a "helper" instead of a "damage dealer". I've SEEN this math going through my GM a few times against my familiar, and 9 times out of 10, it's not deemed worth it. That said when using my Owl familiar in combat, it's in danger and it is free to be targeted.
This I've consistently use familiars for and expected them to be used as a GM: Watches. Especially once the PCs have 3rd lvl spells and the Wizard has Tiny Hut. The whole party sleeps in the bubble and the familiar stays up. Travel: Help Action: Perception. If the party is marching I expect the familiar is also watching, giving the Help Action to someone so they always have Advantage on the Perception check. Scouting. This is when the Wizard is using the familiar's senses and information is often dependent on the familiar's form. Keep in mind the 100' limit! Bats are great in caves or dark places with Blind Sense. If you want to role play it, due to echolocation you could be more vague about description. Since it can't see color. It could detect texture, material (wood, metal, stone, flesh, etc...) There really isn't a RAW on this especially since most humans have no real way of knowing how to perceive echolocation except as "dare devil" vision from the Ben Affleck movie or like radar/sonar on a sub. Spiders have sub-par vision range 30' and movement, but can Spider Climb. It can fit under doorways. Owls have great vision, duh, and fly, and give Help Action in combat better then anyone else because of Fly By. Thievery: stealing small valuable things off of NPC's desks or home or planting evidence. I've had my owl carry a grappling hook up and drop it, so the party can climb the rope after. We don't have to "throw" it up.
Warlock familiar's totally up the ante, because they can do all of the above while invisible and have opposable thumbs. Never under estimate the power of the opposable thumb. It can carry items, use items, climb, open doors.
As a player and GM I've not found familiars to be problematic as much as they reward out of box thinking. They are great scouts, but unless the gwhole party is good at Stealth, can they really use that information to get an ambush? They help the party not go into situations blind and take their time, but I encourage thoughtfulness over "kick in the door". They can be very good at getting Adv in combat, but it's only for a single attack for 1 person, so it's not that powerful. When I was playing a Wizard I almost never used that Adv for myself, I gave it to the Rogue or the Paladin since they would do more damage with it. As fighters get Extra Attack then it "counters" for less. IF it's being used in combat, it's a viable target... but also is it "worth" targeting? Probably not.
I wanted to fight against my player's decision, he was taking away something I put in the game. He was making certain things I wanted to do in game invalidated. I was upset because of this. However, after much thought, I realized that he simply made a very brilliant tactical choice and I couldn't fault him for it. It's a tough pill to swallow, but 5e IS geared toward making the players win.(I did sometimes target the owl and kill it out of spite, but that wasn't very often.)
I'll admit that this aspect of the game is the one I'm having the toughest time adjusting to. I'm not a DM who views it as his goal or mission to kill the PCs, and I try to reward clever and smart playing. But being old school by experience, it's very strange to have the rules of the game itself bending towards helping the players survive and increase in power.
Again, I don't have an issue with the spell as it is. If the PC takes an owl, for instance, he/she effectively gains an extra 220 feet of vision during the night and more during the day. They should use that advantage to foil ambushes, prepare for incoming enemies, etc. It's the idea that there's no distance limit to the audio/visual components that I found really discouraging as a DM.
A couple of things. An owl would have trouble flying through 5’ or even 10’ wide dungeon corridors and would be quite noisy “fluttering” about. They would also be considered “food” by anything living there so wouldn’t last very long.
When scouting in forest I always ask players whether their flying familiar is flying above the trees or among the trees. If they are above the trees they can see distant features and any airborn creatures but have limited vision amongst and below the trees. The opposite applies if the are flying under or amongst the trees. Again they are an obvious target for any forest creature that may want a snack. I won’t always have something automatically attack a familiar, but if they constantly use it for scouting I will roll a D100 and have a creature attack it on what I think is a reasonable % for the area. Low for flying above or below the trees and higher if it is among the trees.
Don’t punish players for smart use of their abilities. But set reasonable limits on what a familiar can actually do. Using the help action is another thing that I set reasonable limits on. If you are going to help in combat then you are immediately a valid target.
I appreciate the responses. When we discussed this during Saturday's game, I was also of the opinion, based on context, that the audio/visual components were also limited to 100 feet but they all insisted that no, that was separate.
Being new to this version and the newcomer to the table, I wasn't super comfortable putting my foot down.
Or you could say fine OK. You can only communicate with your familiar out to 100 feet, so when he goes farther you cannot tell him what to do, or what to look for, or at.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Don’t punish players for smart use of their abilities. But set reasonable limits on what a familiar can actually do. Using the help action is another thing that I set reasonable limits on. If you are going to help in combat then you are immediately a valid target.
I absolutely do not want to punish them for smart tactics. Reasonable limits is what I'm aiming at - and some harder to pin down aesthetics for the campaign as well.
I'm going with what posters upthread have said (and what my initial interpretation was): telepathy and audio/visual shared senses are limited to 100 feet. Beyond that, the familiar can follow simple orders and come back and share (with limited "vocabulary") what it saw/heard.
Don’t punish players for smart use of their abilities. But set reasonable limits on what a familiar can actually do. Using the help action is another thing that I set reasonable limits on. If you are going to help in combat then you are immediately a valid target.
I'm a DM for a party with an Arcane Trickster who makes ample use of his owl familiar and I remind myself of this a lot. It can be a little frustrating when I build an encounter and the clever use of an ability skews the balance in a way I never considered. But I also have to appreciate the fact that my encounter prompted the players to approach a situation creatively. With the familiar's help action, the rogue is pretty much going to always have advantage (sneak attack) each round and that's just how it is. The most recent trick is to have the sorcerer cast Dragon's Breath on the familiar, have it fly in, breathe fire, then fly away safely.
As was said earlier, familiars have low hp and easy enough to kill, but that also means that I go into my encounter building knowing that I have to include some type of ranged attack in every encounter I build from now on or else the party can sit back and have the owl torch/freeze/shock/etc the target into submission while the party stays safely back. It also means that I as a DM have to choose between going a little bit meta and offing the owl familiar right away or else deciding that the enemy doesn't prioritize the owl or is too dumb to worry about it until it's gotten one or two free shots on them.
The thing about owls is that they have flyby: they can fly in, take the Help action (my players usually describe what this is), and fly out without provoking opportunity attacks. The exception is if they're staying in one place in order to deliver a touch spell, but in that case the tactical tradeoff is obvious and the player makes that calculation.
I don't find them overpowered, though: advantage on one attack per turn doesn't scale very well, and once you get past the first couple of levels it's almost just flavor anyway.
Thanks again, to everyone. BigKahuna, that was especially helpful. I'll read those links you provided.
I am making an effort to read and re-read the 5 rules. On one hand, they're exceptionally easy; there are a few core mechanics which can be grasped and mastered quickly. OTOH, despite overall being better organized and more clearly written than, say, the 1E books, there are still tons of rules and "guidelines" tucked away all over the PHB and DMG that it can be tough to truly know them all. I'm pushing 50, and I doubt I'll ever know a gaming system as well as I do the 1E version. Just a matter of time and focus - 14 year old me had far more discretionary time and energy to burn on reading RPG rules books. :)
Those shifts - I'm essentially aware of all of them, but you articulated them in a way that's really helpful. For the most part, I really like 5E, including the scaling up of power (especially at lower levels) for characters. I don't blindly like/agree with everything, but MOST of my dislikes are fairly minor. And one reason I really dig 5E is that it seems very, very adaptable to different styles of play (and I don't just mean genre [horror, mythic fantasy, etc.]).
Another thing to factor in, if the familiar is proving too effective, is that the familiar doesn't have to be competent and is under the command of the DM. "Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands." The familiar might have fundamental misunderstandings about what information is valuable to the party. In the campaign I'm playing, we make heavy use of an invisible recon Sprite, which sounds REALLY powerful. Outside of the 100 foot range, the Sprite can be sent on its own to then return within range and report back. Except that the Sprite frequently reports back "I saw a tree and then some deer and then a rock and it was a big rock with a crack in it and inside the crack was a little spider and I saw a puddle!" which quickly results in the warlock dismissing the Sprite to its room for a time out.
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First post, everyone. Longtime D&D gamer (since 1981!) but relatively new to 5E: I've only been playing the newest edition for just over a year, and I have only DMed it three times.
As someone who has a decidedly old school mindset, though, I'm bumping up against abilities and spells that seem geared toward giving the player characters advantages that permanently shift the game in their favor. In my current campaign, two characters have familiars, thanks to the find familiar spell. My difficulty with the spell is that it seems to grant the PC incredible tactical advantage over almost any situation. In non-combat situations, the PC can see and hear through the familiar's senses - and there doesn't seem to be any distance limit on this ability, as long as the familiar is on the same plane.
Meaning: the familiar can scout just about any location, at any distance, with the PC seeing it all in real time. With no real downside or cost.
Obviously, an owl (for instance) can't open doors in a dungeon, and a fish can't get up on land to scout terrain or the dry parts of an underground cavern, But these seem like minor inconveniences, rather than true limitations or costs.
I've thought about ways to mitigate or limit the power of the spell, and I've come down to two: either houserule that the seeing/hearing feature is only available when the familiar is within 100 feet OR regularly take the familiar out with mundane and magical means. (A large bird of prey; an enemy caster who's discovered or crafted a spell that disables familiars inside a certain boundary, etc.)
Has anyone else felt frustrated by this nearly unlimited recon ability? How have you dealt with it?
There is a distance limit to find familiar; 100 feet.
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"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Distance for the vision/senses is 100 ft, as well is the telepathy, unless they are a Warlock and take the invocation that alters this. During the time they are using the familiar's senses their body is blind and deaf. That is the rule for familiars, not homebrew.
As to how to deal with the recon abilities, I use red herrings, and rewards both. In one game I had a player who had an owl familiar he used to make sure nothing would ever sneak up on them. Ambushes were impossible, it would scout about 30-50 feet from the party, while he was riding horse back, he'd tie down to the saddle and watch through the owl's eyes.
In one instance I had a caravan which was ransacked, small billows of smoke rising from it, and it was on the side of the main road. The owl spotted it, the player told his party they should go around. When they reached the town further down the road, they were surprised when they were ridiculed for not helping the merchant train that was supposed to bring the winters supplies to them. Now the town would be in dire straits as the winter bars them from any travel in the deep snows.
In another instance the owl spotted some bodies moving through a forest where they were supposed to hunt down some lizardfolk. The owl tracked two humanoids running, and the group kept moving onward. Getting to the Lizardfolk hovels they found them all already dead, they then followed the owl's directions to the running humanoids. They found that it was 2 remaining lizard folk. They were running from the people who massacred their people. The group found out through conversation that they had been double crossed.
Finally there was a moment where the owl spotted what looked like a suspicious setup in the road in the direction they were traveling. They decided to go around. They avoided what they thought was an ambush. They were right, they avoided the ambush, everyone was happy, and we moved on.
I wanted to fight against my player's decision, he was taking away something I put in the game. He was making certain things I wanted to do in game invalidated. I was upset because of this. However, after much thought, I realized that he simply made a very brilliant tactical choice and I couldn't fault him for it. It's a tough pill to swallow, but 5e IS geared toward making the players win. (I did sometimes target the owl and kill it out of spite, but that wasn't very often.)
Generally it helps to read the spell.
In short, outside that 100ft range, the character cannot be in contact with their chosen familiar (though this is mitigated somewhat with certain warlock invocations). also, while using their familiar's senses, they are effectively blind and deaf to their own surroundings, making them much easier to prey on.
On top of all of that, familiars tend to be not very strong animals, statistically, making them very easy to kill in combat and with Find Familiar's 1 hour casting time, not easy to replace in a timely manner.
That's the point of contention. The wording of the spell is a bit ambiguous:
Is the emphasized part limited to that 100 feet? The other people at the table say no, that's separate, and not limited to the 100 feet.
It doesn't make sense that a telepathic communication, and a telepathic link to vision and senses would have separate distances. They are both bound to the same distance limits.
inside 100ft speak telepathically +(additionally) See/senses as an action
They wouldn't have this feature if it were possible to just do all of that normally.
I appreciate the responses. When we discussed this during Saturday's game, I was also of the opinion, based on context, that the audio/visual components were also limited to 100 feet but they all insisted that no, that was separate.
Being new to this version and the newcomer to the table, I wasn't super comfortable putting my foot down.
I'd just point out that there is a Warlock feature that does what they want to do and if they are not that class with that feature then they cannot do that thing.
My favorite response: We'll rule it this way and I'll look into it after the game.
You're the DM, you're going to have to put your foot down if, for no other reason, than to keep the game moving.
Hey and Welcome to posting in the forums!
I'd recommend using this Search for other posts about Familiars
I think you and your players are misreading the spell Find Familiar, a little bit.
The shared senses only has a range of 100' as is the telepathic communication.
A 3rd level Warlock with Pact of the Chains also has 100' telepathic communication, but Voice of the Chain Master ups that to unlimited, as plane. The cost here is the face that the Warlock is investing 2 class features into the power, first her Pact and then an Invocation.
Remember the player character is blind/deaf while using their familiar's senses. While 99% of the time this isn't a down side because it's scouting, it is a technical draw back. They don't constantly share senses at all times.
I would avoid trying to kill the familiar, especially with something like a large bird of prey. That's a "rock fall" kind of thing and is going to feel very petty to the player. They have already invested 10g and the spell slot into the familiar.
It is legit to have an enemy target the familiar. Their ACs are in the low 10s and they have 1hp (except the Warlock one has up to around 10), but those are often invisible! That said unless it was hit with an AoO that's taking an action away from the NPC to target a "helper" instead of a "damage dealer". I've SEEN this math going through my GM a few times against my familiar, and 9 times out of 10, it's not deemed worth it.
That said when using my Owl familiar in combat, it's in danger and it is free to be targeted.
This I've consistently use familiars for and expected them to be used as a GM:
Watches. Especially once the PCs have 3rd lvl spells and the Wizard has Tiny Hut. The whole party sleeps in the bubble and the familiar stays up.
Travel: Help Action: Perception. If the party is marching I expect the familiar is also watching, giving the Help Action to someone so they always have Advantage on the Perception check.
Scouting. This is when the Wizard is using the familiar's senses and information is often dependent on the familiar's form. Keep in mind the 100' limit!
Bats are great in caves or dark places with Blind Sense. If you want to role play it, due to echolocation you could be more vague about description. Since it can't see color. It could detect texture, material (wood, metal, stone, flesh, etc...) There really isn't a RAW on this especially since most humans have no real way of knowing how to perceive echolocation except as "dare devil" vision from the Ben Affleck movie or like radar/sonar on a sub.
Spiders have sub-par vision range 30' and movement, but can Spider Climb. It can fit under doorways.
Owls have great vision, duh, and fly, and give Help Action in combat better then anyone else because of Fly By.
Thievery: stealing small valuable things off of NPC's desks or home or planting evidence.
I've had my owl carry a grappling hook up and drop it, so the party can climb the rope after. We don't have to "throw" it up.
Warlock familiar's totally up the ante, because they can do all of the above while invisible and have opposable thumbs. Never under estimate the power of the opposable thumb. It can carry items, use items, climb, open doors.
As a player and GM I've not found familiars to be problematic as much as they reward out of box thinking. They are great scouts, but unless the gwhole party is good at Stealth, can they really use that information to get an ambush? They help the party not go into situations blind and take their time, but I encourage thoughtfulness over "kick in the door". They can be very good at getting Adv in combat, but it's only for a single attack for 1 person, so it's not that powerful. When I was playing a Wizard I almost never used that Adv for myself, I gave it to the Rogue or the Paladin since they would do more damage with it. As fighters get Extra Attack then it "counters" for less.
IF it's being used in combat, it's a viable target... but also is it "worth" targeting? Probably not.
A couple of things. An owl would have trouble flying through 5’ or even 10’ wide dungeon corridors and would be quite noisy “fluttering” about. They would also be considered “food” by anything living there so wouldn’t last very long.
When scouting in forest I always ask players whether their flying familiar is flying above the trees or among the trees. If they are above the trees they can see distant features and any airborn creatures but have limited vision amongst and below the trees. The opposite applies if the are flying under or amongst the trees. Again they are an obvious target for any forest creature that may want a snack. I won’t always have something automatically attack a familiar, but if they constantly use it for scouting I will roll a D100 and have a creature attack it on what I think is a reasonable % for the area. Low for flying above or below the trees and higher if it is among the trees.
Don’t punish players for smart use of their abilities. But set reasonable limits on what a familiar can actually do. Using the help action is another thing that I set reasonable limits on. If you are going to help in combat then you are immediately a valid target.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I'm a DM for a party with an Arcane Trickster who makes ample use of his owl familiar and I remind myself of this a lot. It can be a little frustrating when I build an encounter and the clever use of an ability skews the balance in a way I never considered. But I also have to appreciate the fact that my encounter prompted the players to approach a situation creatively. With the familiar's help action, the rogue is pretty much going to always have advantage (sneak attack) each round and that's just how it is. The most recent trick is to have the sorcerer cast Dragon's Breath on the familiar, have it fly in, breathe fire, then fly away safely.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
The thing about owls is that they have flyby: they can fly in, take the Help action (my players usually describe what this is), and fly out without provoking opportunity attacks. The exception is if they're staying in one place in order to deliver a touch spell, but in that case the tactical tradeoff is obvious and the player makes that calculation.
I don't find them overpowered, though: advantage on one attack per turn doesn't scale very well, and once you get past the first couple of levels it's almost just flavor anyway.
Thanks again, to everyone. BigKahuna, that was especially helpful. I'll read those links you provided.
I am making an effort to read and re-read the 5 rules. On one hand, they're exceptionally easy; there are a few core mechanics which can be grasped and mastered quickly. OTOH, despite overall being better organized and more clearly written than, say, the 1E books, there are still tons of rules and "guidelines" tucked away all over the PHB and DMG that it can be tough to truly know them all. I'm pushing 50, and I doubt I'll ever know a gaming system as well as I do the 1E version. Just a matter of time and focus - 14 year old me had far more discretionary time and energy to burn on reading RPG rules books. :)
Those shifts - I'm essentially aware of all of them, but you articulated them in a way that's really helpful. For the most part, I really like 5E, including the scaling up of power (especially at lower levels) for characters. I don't blindly like/agree with everything, but MOST of my dislikes are fairly minor. And one reason I really dig 5E is that it seems very, very adaptable to different styles of play (and I don't just mean genre [horror, mythic fantasy, etc.]).
Another thing to factor in, if the familiar is proving too effective, is that the familiar doesn't have to be competent and is under the command of the DM. "Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands." The familiar might have fundamental misunderstandings about what information is valuable to the party. In the campaign I'm playing, we make heavy use of an invisible recon Sprite, which sounds REALLY powerful. Outside of the 100 foot range, the Sprite can be sent on its own to then return within range and report back. Except that the Sprite frequently reports back "I saw a tree and then some deer and then a rock and it was a big rock with a crack in it and inside the crack was a little spider and I saw a puddle!" which quickly results in the warlock dismissing the Sprite to its room for a time out.