Reading over this spell, it makes no sense to me. Essentially, you're using find familiar at 6th level with a 1000gp dagger to gain a familiar that lacks most of the perks of having a familiar. It seems like the focus of the spell is to use the homunculus to lower your HP maximum and transpose the loss to the better of your friend, but I see little to no practical use for something like that. I'd say maybe if you were sending him on a long journey to deliver a message you'd do so to make sure he isn't offed by a wild animal in transit, but that's about it. Does anyone else see why this spell is a thing?
This is probably a better question for the Tips and Tactics section of the forum, since that's where the dissection happens in regards to usefulness and how best to use a trait. I don't know how many experts monitor this side.
At a glance, the most obvious difference I see is that the Homunculus can telepathically communicate with you (and share its senses) from anywhere in the same plane of existence, while your familiar can only do that if it's within 100 ft from you. Plus, it doesn't blind and deafen you when it does. Makes it quite the effective spy or early-warning sentry.
I guess that makes sense, and it'd make the HP swap make sense for going the distance. I guess I just don't see how it'd be more useful or worthwhile than having scry itself. He'd either have to be left somewhere to surveil a place you've been, or travel vast distances to tune his maker into something that scrying would provide instantly. I guess it depends on the campaign, though, I'm probably too used to looking at things as a DM than as a player.
"People, when they first see the Create Homunculus spell and they see how level it is, they're, I think, going to actually be baffled at first, because they're going to think, "Isn't the homunculus just like a familiar? Why is this such a high level spell?"
And the reason is you can have a homunculus in addition to a familiar, but the other reason is when you have this homunculus companion, you can see through its eyes, and you can do so no matter where the homunculus is on your current plane of existence. In other words, it's like an always-on Scry. And so when we made it, at first ... and this was a spell I wrote. At first, I had it much lower level. And then, I suddenly realized, "Oh my God, this is basically an always-on Scry." And so it's like, this needs to at least be as high level as Scrying.
And there's also a neat element with the homunculus that you can feed it some of your health, but then there's danger, because you can beef up its hit points at the cost of your own. And so it also has this kind of classic, folkloric quality to how it works."
Also, rather than send it a long distance send it with the party's rogue when he scouts ahead. No need for him to return and report.
Or have the NPC wizard insist the party take and protect his homunculus while doing a job for him. He knows when its done, and it makes him much harder to trick.
Go the Cloistered Scholar Background. Set up shop for your Homunculus in the library you have free access too. Have it constantly soaking in knowledge, and imparting that knowledge to you, while you are adventuring. The wizard's best friend, knowledge. Allows them to continue to learn even when being busy doing that pesky adventuring stuff to help pay the bills.
The beauty of a homunculus takes a bit of imagination... Imagine you had a servant that could read your mind... You could have it scribe your thoughts, organize them for you and then put them into action. Too often players don't look beyond the initial splash of what the spell does to consider how it could benefit a caster in application. This is in large part to the streamlined systematization of 5e and the elaboration of details like how the homunculus shares a psychic connection to you. As a wizard, it'd be super handy to run your tower as if you were there while you are off adventuring. It is the perfect seneshcal. It is far better to think of it as a productivity and efficiency tool than a beefed up familiar.
Also, 5e homunculi are largely upgraded from prior editions in which there was a range limitation (e.g. 480 yards in 2e.) Homunculi are also great tools for DMs to consider for NPCs.
Perhaps a wizard could leave his/her spell book(s) at home with the homunculus where they are safe and use the homunculus to then prepare spells while the wizard is on the road?
Perhaps a wizard could leave his/her spell book(s) at home with the homunculus where they are safe and use the homunculus to then prepare spells while the wizard is on the road?
That's.... actually an interesting possibility. At first I was going to say that no, you'd need to have your Spellbook on your person to cast your spells, however, that is not the case. And depending on how you evaluate the psychic link between the caster and the Homunculus, you wouldn't need to personally study it to change your prepared spells, either. You could do it through the Homunculus. The only question would be whether or not you could copy new spells you have found, into your Spellbook via your Homunculus.
There is nothing special about a construct that prevents it from using magic items. The monster manual makes it clear that creature types don’t have any special rules attached to them. Some spells, items, and monsters do have special rules that trigger if a creature is a construct. (Example: mace of smiting or the mending spell). So, it is just as much a creature as an elemental, dragon, or elf and, it can use magic items. I don’t know many parties that are going to get a legendary magic item like a ring of invisibility and decide to give to the wizard’s familiar though. If you have a bag of holding, have your homunculus hide inside during combat, it can survive for up to 10 minutes before the air runs out. More than enough time to end combat or get to safety.
It's actually an amazing spell. Per crawford homunculi can activate magic items such as scrolls. Craft a scroll of Magic Jar and have your homunculus activate it when in range of your preferred target.
You now have that creatures complete loyalty and share senses while on the same plane. Bonus points if you head to Limbo and target a githzerai anarch because they're CR16 humanoids with a +2 charisma save.
Create Homunculus is a quite good spell because it eliminates the risk factor for Magic Jar. Neither spell is amazing on their own but combined they are extremely powerful.
Not to resurface a settled thread, but I really don't see the spell as being as powerful as other people do--Don’t get me wrong, I really like the spell and its concept, I just don’t like the spell slot cost.
Warning for a long post… sorry !! :)
Here are the three main points I've seen people raise when discussing the power of a Homunculus vs. the spell slot cost, and my thoughts on them:
1. Scrying:
Scrying is a 5th level spell, Concentration, lasts 10 minutes, and has a 1000gp buy in for the component. If you target a place, no save required, you just need to be familiar with it. If you target a person, they have a chance to save against it, adjusted for how well you know them and whether you have some physical object linked to them. If they fail, they are unaware that they are being observed unless they (or someone with them) has some sort of truesight or See Invisibility up. Scrying can be done across a plane of existence.
Crawford said specifically that he “suddenly realized, ‘Oh my God, this is basically an always-on Scry.’ And so it's like, this needs to at least be as high level as Scrying.” I understand to some extent where he’s coming from. Yes, you can observe things with no distance limit beyond being on the same plane of existence. Yes, you could have the Homunculus infiltrate an area you want to peek in on. But is it really stronger?
Let’s look at the relevant advantages the Homunculus has:
No time limit
No Concentration
Multiple uses after 1 casting
No saving throw
Can use an invisibility potion
Can get in there and explore and move things around in an area
And onto the downsides:
Takes time to travel to and from places
With only +2 to stealth, easily might be noticed if spying
With base 5 hp, easily might be killed, unless you pump it up with your hit points
If trying to spy has to roll perception or investigation, both with +0
Needs an invisibility potion or scroll to really be stealthy, which is expensive
If invisible, could be spotted by someone with the ability to see invisible things (same as Scrying)
So… it’s kind of like a different method of information gathering, with different strengths, but mostly worse for the things people use Scrying for the most often? I would say it’s definitely worse for peeking in on people and conversations, but perhaps better for investigating a detailed room/area with little to no people present, and maybe hidden items. That leads me to the subject of scouting, and of course...
2. Familiars:
First of all, in terms of scouting, a Rogue--or a player with a rogue-like subclass, or even a Wild Shaped Druid--can scout, and they will do so better than the Homunculus, who has only a +2 to stealth. Again, Homunculi can use an invisibility potion or scroll, but, again, the invested cost both for the casting of Create Homunculus and those magic items is steep… plus, the Rogue could just take the potion or use the scroll and likely be way more effective than the Homunculus.
At the same time, I recognize that in more dangerous scouting missions you may be seriously risking your Rogues life by sending them in, and that a Tiny creature can get places a Medium or even Small one can’t. Here’s the thing, though: if the danger of the mission or size of the scout matters, a run of the mill Familiar is actually better than a Homunculus. Find Familiar is a 1st level, ritual spell that costs 10gp/casting. With the casting time of an hour most ritual casters will just take the extra ten minutes to save the slot. Familiars have several shapes they can take, each with their own strengths, including the weasel (+5 stealth, +5 perception plus advantage on hearing and smell) and owl (flyby, 60ft fly speed, 120ft darkvision, +3 perception plus advantage on sight) which make great scouts. All of these options are normal animals, which depending on the surroundings might not be clocked as out of the ordinary. If your scout gets into a tricky situation, a Familiar, unlike a Homunculus, can be bamfed into its pocket dimension and then back to its master. Additionally, with 1-3 hp, a Familiar is unlikely to survive being hit if it's attacked, but because the cost of conjuring one is so low, it's not that big a blow--except the time it takes to cast, which is equal to that of Create Homunculus. I’ve seen someone argue that a Homunculus’ not needing to breathe or eat is useful, but RAW don’t say whether Familiars have to either, and their ability to be bamfed into a pocket dimension for any amount of time would imply they don’t.
The strengths a Homunculus has, then, over a normal Familiar, is being smart, having hands, no limit on distance for telepathy, being able to do things very independently of their masters, and the fact that when one learns something its master does too instantaneously. And I guess the poisoning bite, but really how often is a creature going to fail the DC 10 Constitution saving throw (and REALLY how often will they get less than 5 and end up unconscious?) especially at the level of play you're at when you have 6th level spell slots.
However almost all of these strengths can be countered by a Chain Warlock’s improved Familiar. Pact of the Chain Warlocks get, in addition to the regular Familiar options, 4 better options:
Imp: 10hp, hands, speech, darkvision even in magical darkness, magic resistance, invisibility, better poisonous sting, bonuses to Insight Stealth & more, plus the ability to polymorph into a rat, raven, & spider
Pseudodragon: 7hp, blindsight, magic resistance, bonus to Stealth and Perception PLUS keen senses, limited telepathy (100ft), and poisonous sting
Quasit: 7hp, hands, speech, invisibility, magic resistance, plus the ability to shapechange into a bat, centipede, or toad
Sprite: 15 AC, 14 Int, hands, speech, invisibility, +8 to stealth, ability to read people’s emotions, and an adorable tiny sword & bow with poisoned arrows
Chain Warlocks also have access to an Eldritch Invocation with no level requirement, Voice of the Chain Master, which changes the telepathy limit from 100ft to the same plane of existence. You can get all this at level 3, and granted it is at the expense of not having as much magic or being melee capable (both just for being a Warlock and for forgoing Pact of the Tome and Pact of the Blade), as well as one of your few invocation slots, but in my opinion these costs, in relation to their benefits, are kind of a steal compared to the costs vs. benefits of the Homunculus, especially at the level you receive them at.
Also note also that besides Sprites these expanded options are beefier than both other Familiars (1-3hp) and Homunculi (5hp). You can increase your Homunculus’ hit points at the end of each long rest at the expense of your own, which, if you are a Wizard, is rarely a good idea. If you are a Bard considering taking this as a Magical Secrets it’s not as big an issue, but giving up your 7th-level-spell Magical Secrets choice for a 6th level spell (IMO a poor 6th level spell) is a little painful. And as one last point for Familiars, Conjuration Wizards get to add 30 temp hit points to their conjured creatures--which includes Familiars, and not Homunculi--at level 14, three levels after Wizards get 6th level spells.
Finally, yes, you can have a Homunculus in addition to having a Familiar, but how powerful is that really? Maybe I’m just not thinking creatively enough in this, or maybe the important part of this spell is the things you can do with these aspects, but I’ve seen a lot of people arguing for the spell’s power by focus on the other aspects and how they relate to other spells, which, as I’ve laid out, largely overlap in unfavorable ways. I will concede that the clever ways to use a Homunculus people have come up with in this thread and elsewhere, including an unsleeping home guard and an at-will information lookup for your personal library, are really good ideas, and which would be great uses for one left at home if you have a Familiar to bring with you. But ultimately my point is that these actual unique uses/abilities are few and minor, and not enough to make this spell cost as much as it does.
3. Spell Shenanigans & Magic Items:
I see a lot of people talking about all the weird innovative uses for magic items & spells and Homunculi, but here’s the thing: All of them, at least that I’ve seen so far, are based on the same rationalization as people use for similar shenanigans involving Familiars, meaning they are not that different from Familiars. At the end of the day a DM will probably have to examine and OK it, and some of these combos are overpowered in a way that no sane DM would allow, so they only exist in theory. Similarly, the interactions between the magic items and Homunculi seem to follow the same rules as those for Familiars. See the Adventurers’ League ruling on the question “Can My Familiar Attune to a Magic Item?”:
“Any item attuned to a creature under your control (familiars, beast companions, etc.) counts against both your character’s limit of three attuned items and the character’s permanent magic item count. This rule doesn’t imply that such creatures have the ability to attune to magic items. Whether or not a mindless undead creature—for example—can attune to something is subject to DM discretion.”
Imps, Quasits, and Sprites have little hands, and sort-of humanoid shaped bodies--as do Homunculi--which on a case-by-case basis and from DM to DM might allow them to use magic items, but according to AL rules attunement slots are shared between you are your creatures, which feels fair to me. I can’t find a ruling on how Familiars and Homunculi interact with Spell Scrolls, but RAW imply that they don’t because the spell must be on your class’s spell list in order for you to be able to read the scroll and cast its spell, and your Homunculi doesn't actually have class levels. An argument has been made that because Homunculi share your knowledge, a DM might make an exception to this, and I can see either way. If a DM makes this exception for Homunculi and leaves Familiars out of it, then yes, that can be a very powerful boon, but spell scrolls are super expensive to make (e.g. copying a 3rd level spell takes a week and 500gp of materials), so it probably won't be a go-to strategy.
In Conclusion, I know OP spells/abilities can be a real headache for every DM that has to nerf them with houserules to their player’s dismay. But WoTC made Homunculi expensive (both in terms of casting time and material cost), hard to keep alive, and with abilities that largely overlap lower-level spells. In my opinion Create Homunculus should not be a higher spell level than Scrying / 5 spell levels higher than Find Familiar. I would make the spell level 5th level (or maybe even 4th...), and/or make Homunculi more powerful. Honestly I would probably do both to make them actually viable. I know I can always homebrew or tweak things in my games, but I guess I just feel out of the loop. Maybe it just comes down to how your DM rules, but I really don’t get why people think it’s such a powerful spell! I’m interested to hear why people feel this way in spite of the points I’ve raised, and maybe you can change my mind.
Reading over this spell, it makes no sense to me. Essentially, you're using find familiar at 6th level with a 1000gp dagger to gain a familiar that lacks most of the perks of having a familiar. It seems like the focus of the spell is to use the homunculus to lower your HP maximum and transpose the loss to the better of your friend, but I see little to no practical use for something like that. I'd say maybe if you were sending him on a long journey to deliver a message you'd do so to make sure he isn't offed by a wild animal in transit, but that's about it. Does anyone else see why this spell is a thing?
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
This is probably a better question for the Tips and Tactics section of the forum, since that's where the dissection happens in regards to usefulness and how best to use a trait. I don't know how many experts monitor this side.
At a glance, the most obvious difference I see is that the Homunculus can telepathically communicate with you (and share its senses) from anywhere in the same plane of existence, while your familiar can only do that if it's within 100 ft from you. Plus, it doesn't blind and deafen you when it does. Makes it quite the effective spy or early-warning sentry.
According to the designers, it's "basically at-will scrying."
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I guess that makes sense, and it'd make the HP swap make sense for going the distance. I guess I just don't see how it'd be more useful or worthwhile than having scry itself. He'd either have to be left somewhere to surveil a place you've been, or travel vast distances to tune his maker into something that scrying would provide instantly. I guess it depends on the campaign, though, I'm probably too used to looking at things as a DM than as a player.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
Straight from the horse's mouth:
"People, when they first see the Create Homunculus spell and they see how level it is, they're, I think, going to actually be baffled at first, because they're going to think, "Isn't the homunculus just like a familiar? Why is this such a high level spell?"
And the reason is you can have a homunculus in addition to a familiar, but the other reason is when you have this homunculus companion, you can see through its eyes, and you can do so no matter where the homunculus is on your current plane of existence. In other words, it's like an always-on Scry. And so when we made it, at first ... and this was a spell I wrote. At first, I had it much lower level. And then, I suddenly realized, "Oh my God, this is basically an always-on Scry." And so it's like, this needs to at least be as high level as Scrying.
And there's also a neat element with the homunculus that you can feed it some of your health, but then there's danger, because you can beef up its hit points at the cost of your own. And so it also has this kind of classic, folkloric quality to how it works."
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Sending it to scry is one way to use it. I'd use it in a quite different way.
Leave it at home.
Have it patrol my tower or whatever, while I'm out adventuring. Instant knowledge of intruders.
Also useful for situations such as "This ancient text in this tomb reminds me of something. Give me a moment to look through my library."
Also, rather than send it a long distance send it with the party's rogue when he scouts ahead. No need for him to return and report.
Or have the NPC wizard insist the party take and protect his homunculus while doing a job for him. He knows when its done, and it makes him much harder to trick.
Also, can’t the Homunculus attune to its own magic items as well? A Ring Of Invisibility makes for some incredible remote espionage, for a start
Go the Cloistered Scholar Background. Set up shop for your Homunculus in the library you have free access too. Have it constantly soaking in knowledge, and imparting that knowledge to you, while you are adventuring. The wizard's best friend, knowledge. Allows them to continue to learn even when being busy doing that pesky adventuring stuff to help pay the bills.
The beauty of a homunculus takes a bit of imagination... Imagine you had a servant that could read your mind... You could have it scribe your thoughts, organize them for you and then put them into action. Too often players don't look beyond the initial splash of what the spell does to consider how it could benefit a caster in application. This is in large part to the streamlined systematization of 5e and the elaboration of details like how the homunculus shares a psychic connection to you. As a wizard, it'd be super handy to run your tower as if you were there while you are off adventuring. It is the perfect seneshcal. It is far better to think of it as a productivity and efficiency tool than a beefed up familiar.
Also, 5e homunculi are largely upgraded from prior editions in which there was a range limitation (e.g. 480 yards in 2e.) Homunculi are also great tools for DMs to consider for NPCs.
Perhaps a wizard could leave his/her spell book(s) at home with the homunculus where they are safe and use the homunculus to then prepare spells while the wizard is on the road?
You guys have completely convinced me of the power of this spell. Awesome.
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
but your hitpoints come back at the end of a long rest right, can be op and have a homunculus with 3x health of a tarasque
That's.... actually an interesting possibility. At first I was going to say that no, you'd need to have your Spellbook on your person to cast your spells, however, that is not the case. And depending on how you evaluate the psychic link between the caster and the Homunculus, you wouldn't need to personally study it to change your prepared spells, either. You could do it through the Homunculus. The only question would be whether or not you could copy new spells you have found, into your Spellbook via your Homunculus.
I don't think a construct can use magic items.
There is nothing special about a construct that prevents it from using magic items. The monster manual makes it clear that creature types don’t have any special rules attached to them. Some spells, items, and monsters do have special rules that trigger if a creature is a construct. (Example: mace of smiting or the mending spell). So, it is just as much a creature as an elemental, dragon, or elf and, it can use magic items. I don’t know many parties that are going to get a legendary magic item like a ring of invisibility and decide to give to the wizard’s familiar though. If you have a bag of holding, have your homunculus hide inside during combat, it can survive for up to 10 minutes before the air runs out. More than enough time to end combat or get to safety.
Well, when you do that it lowers your HP max until next long rest when your Homunculus' HP max goes back to normal as well.
I'll keep watch. Happy now?
It's actually an amazing spell. Per crawford homunculi can activate magic items such as scrolls. Craft a scroll of Magic Jar and have your homunculus activate it when in range of your preferred target.
You now have that creatures complete loyalty and share senses while on the same plane. Bonus points if you head to Limbo and target a githzerai anarch because they're CR16 humanoids with a +2 charisma save.
Create Homunculus is a quite good spell because it eliminates the risk factor for Magic Jar. Neither spell is amazing on their own but combined they are extremely powerful.
And of course, if you're a Necromancer level 10...
"you have resistance to necrotic damage, and your hit point maximum can’t be reduced."
So you can pump up the Homonculus but not lose any HP yourself...
Not to resurface a settled thread, but I really don't see the spell as being as powerful as other people do--Don’t get me wrong, I really like the spell and its concept, I just don’t like the spell slot cost.
Warning for a long post… sorry !! :)
Here are the three main points I've seen people raise when discussing the power of a Homunculus vs. the spell slot cost, and my thoughts on them:
1. Scrying:
Scrying is a 5th level spell, Concentration, lasts 10 minutes, and has a 1000gp buy in for the component. If you target a place, no save required, you just need to be familiar with it. If you target a person, they have a chance to save against it, adjusted for how well you know them and whether you have some physical object linked to them. If they fail, they are unaware that they are being observed unless they (or someone with them) has some sort of truesight or See Invisibility up. Scrying can be done across a plane of existence.
Crawford said specifically that he “suddenly realized, ‘Oh my God, this is basically an always-on Scry.’ And so it's like, this needs to at least be as high level as Scrying.” I understand to some extent where he’s coming from. Yes, you can observe things with no distance limit beyond being on the same plane of existence. Yes, you could have the Homunculus infiltrate an area you want to peek in on. But is it really stronger?
Let’s look at the relevant advantages the Homunculus has:
And onto the downsides:
So… it’s kind of like a different method of information gathering, with different strengths, but mostly worse for the things people use Scrying for the most often? I would say it’s definitely worse for peeking in on people and conversations, but perhaps better for investigating a detailed room/area with little to no people present, and maybe hidden items. That leads me to the subject of scouting, and of course...
2. Familiars:
First of all, in terms of scouting, a Rogue--or a player with a rogue-like subclass, or even a Wild Shaped Druid--can scout, and they will do so better than the Homunculus, who has only a +2 to stealth. Again, Homunculi can use an invisibility potion or scroll, but, again, the invested cost both for the casting of Create Homunculus and those magic items is steep… plus, the Rogue could just take the potion or use the scroll and likely be way more effective than the Homunculus.
At the same time, I recognize that in more dangerous scouting missions you may be seriously risking your Rogues life by sending them in, and that a Tiny creature can get places a Medium or even Small one can’t. Here’s the thing, though: if the danger of the mission or size of the scout matters, a run of the mill Familiar is actually better than a Homunculus. Find Familiar is a 1st level, ritual spell that costs 10gp/casting. With the casting time of an hour most ritual casters will just take the extra ten minutes to save the slot. Familiars have several shapes they can take, each with their own strengths, including the weasel (+5 stealth, +5 perception plus advantage on hearing and smell) and owl (flyby, 60ft fly speed, 120ft darkvision, +3 perception plus advantage on sight) which make great scouts. All of these options are normal animals, which depending on the surroundings might not be clocked as out of the ordinary. If your scout gets into a tricky situation, a Familiar, unlike a Homunculus, can be bamfed into its pocket dimension and then back to its master. Additionally, with 1-3 hp, a Familiar is unlikely to survive being hit if it's attacked, but because the cost of conjuring one is so low, it's not that big a blow--except the time it takes to cast, which is equal to that of Create Homunculus. I’ve seen someone argue that a Homunculus’ not needing to breathe or eat is useful, but RAW don’t say whether Familiars have to either, and their ability to be bamfed into a pocket dimension for any amount of time would imply they don’t.
The strengths a Homunculus has, then, over a normal Familiar, is being smart, having hands, no limit on distance for telepathy, being able to do things very independently of their masters, and the fact that when one learns something its master does too instantaneously. And I guess the poisoning bite, but really how often is a creature going to fail the DC 10 Constitution saving throw (and REALLY how often will they get less than 5 and end up unconscious?) especially at the level of play you're at when you have 6th level spell slots.
However almost all of these strengths can be countered by a Chain Warlock’s improved Familiar. Pact of the Chain Warlocks get, in addition to the regular Familiar options, 4 better options:
Chain Warlocks also have access to an Eldritch Invocation with no level requirement, Voice of the Chain Master, which changes the telepathy limit from 100ft to the same plane of existence. You can get all this at level 3, and granted it is at the expense of not having as much magic or being melee capable (both just for being a Warlock and for forgoing Pact of the Tome and Pact of the Blade), as well as one of your few invocation slots, but in my opinion these costs, in relation to their benefits, are kind of a steal compared to the costs vs. benefits of the Homunculus, especially at the level you receive them at.
Also note also that besides Sprites these expanded options are beefier than both other Familiars (1-3hp) and Homunculi (5hp). You can increase your Homunculus’ hit points at the end of each long rest at the expense of your own, which, if you are a Wizard, is rarely a good idea. If you are a Bard considering taking this as a Magical Secrets it’s not as big an issue, but giving up your 7th-level-spell Magical Secrets choice for a 6th level spell (IMO a poor 6th level spell) is a little painful. And as one last point for Familiars, Conjuration Wizards get to add 30 temp hit points to their conjured creatures--which includes Familiars, and not Homunculi--at level 14, three levels after Wizards get 6th level spells.
Finally, yes, you can have a Homunculus in addition to having a Familiar, but how powerful is that really? Maybe I’m just not thinking creatively enough in this, or maybe the important part of this spell is the things you can do with these aspects, but I’ve seen a lot of people arguing for the spell’s power by focus on the other aspects and how they relate to other spells, which, as I’ve laid out, largely overlap in unfavorable ways. I will concede that the clever ways to use a Homunculus people have come up with in this thread and elsewhere, including an unsleeping home guard and an at-will information lookup for your personal library, are really good ideas, and which would be great uses for one left at home if you have a Familiar to bring with you. But ultimately my point is that these actual unique uses/abilities are few and minor, and not enough to make this spell cost as much as it does.
3. Spell Shenanigans & Magic Items:
I see a lot of people talking about all the weird innovative uses for magic items & spells and Homunculi, but here’s the thing: All of them, at least that I’ve seen so far, are based on the same rationalization as people use for similar shenanigans involving Familiars, meaning they are not that different from Familiars. At the end of the day a DM will probably have to examine and OK it, and some of these combos are overpowered in a way that no sane DM would allow, so they only exist in theory. Similarly, the interactions between the magic items and Homunculi seem to follow the same rules as those for Familiars. See the Adventurers’ League ruling on the question “Can My Familiar Attune to a Magic Item?”:
Imps, Quasits, and Sprites have little hands, and sort-of humanoid shaped bodies--as do Homunculi--which on a case-by-case basis and from DM to DM might allow them to use magic items, but according to AL rules attunement slots are shared between you are your creatures, which feels fair to me. I can’t find a ruling on how Familiars and Homunculi interact with Spell Scrolls, but RAW imply that they don’t because the spell must be on your class’s spell list in order for you to be able to read the scroll and cast its spell, and your Homunculi doesn't actually have class levels. An argument has been made that because Homunculi share your knowledge, a DM might make an exception to this, and I can see either way. If a DM makes this exception for Homunculi and leaves Familiars out of it, then yes, that can be a very powerful boon, but spell scrolls are super expensive to make (e.g. copying a 3rd level spell takes a week and 500gp of materials), so it probably won't be a go-to strategy.
In Conclusion, I know OP spells/abilities can be a real headache for every DM that has to nerf them with houserules to their player’s dismay. But WoTC made Homunculi expensive (both in terms of casting time and material cost), hard to keep alive, and with abilities that largely overlap lower-level spells. In my opinion Create Homunculus should not be a higher spell level than Scrying / 5 spell levels higher than Find Familiar. I would make the spell level 5th level (or maybe even 4th...), and/or make Homunculi more powerful. Honestly I would probably do both to make them actually viable. I know I can always homebrew or tweak things in my games, but I guess I just feel out of the loop. Maybe it just comes down to how your DM rules, but I really don’t get why people think it’s such a powerful spell! I’m interested to hear why people feel this way in spite of the points I’ve raised, and maybe you can change my mind.