A sidekick can be any type of creature with a stat block in the Monster Manualor another D&D book, but the challenge rating in its stat block must be 1/2 or lower. You take that stat block and add to it, as explained in the “Gaining a Sidekick Class” section.
To join the adventurers, the sidekick must be the friend of at least one of them. This friendship might be connected to a character’s backstory or to events that have transpired in play. For example, a sidekick could be a childhood friend or pet, or it might be a creature the adventurers saved. As DM, you determine whether there is sufficient trust established for the creature to join the group.
You decide who plays the sidekick. Here are some options:
A player plays the sidekick as their second character—ideal when you have only one or two players.
A player plays the sidekick as their only character—ideal for a player who wants a character who’s simpler than a typical player character.
The players jointly play the sidekick.
You play the sidekick.
There’s no limit on the number of sidekicks in a group, but having more than one per player character can noticeably slow down the game. And when estimating the difficulty of an upcoming encounter, count each sidekick as a character.
If you select a pet you may be limited in selecting a class: expert, spellcaster, or warrior depending on how your DM rules. Those 3 options seem tailored to NPC humanoids with several examples of who they might be.
Expert & Spellcaster says the creature needs to have at least one language in it's stat block that it can speak. But Warrior doesn't have any such prerequisites.
If your familiar had a language in it's stat block it would not be limited to Warrior. An Expert or Spellcaster sidekick familiar could be possible.
I can see many DMs not allowing this because it makes the already powerful familiar even more so.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
I think it is ultimately up to your DM, as many things are. Since Familiars can't attack, it would not be as good as a normal Sidekick, but it would be better than a normal Familiar.
I certainly can't find any reason why a Familiar could not be a Sidekick, and they would make a great one. They get more hit points, they get a bonus to attack (for that weird, can't attack but can deliver Touch spells with their can't-attack, and they can even do it multiple times!), they get an improved Help action to give both advantage to their owner and disadvantage to the attacker at the same time, they can heal themselves, they get an improved critical range, though it is debatable if this can be used with their not-attack Touch spell attack, they get ASI's, (and presumably can trade those in for Feats) advantage on Initiative rolls, better armor class, and the ability to reroll a failed save.
If this is allowed, expect all characters who can have a Familiar to want one. That's everyone, given the Magic Initiate Feat, and some can have that at first level. You can even have multiple Sidekicks if that becomes relevant.
The language here is important. The term "familiar" can refer to the very specific rules from find familiar, or it can just be referring to a bestial companion which can be represented in any number of ways.
You can call a sidekick a familiar or a beast companion or a guardian spirit or whatever else you want to call it. So long as you don't try to apply any game mechanics that go along with familiars or beast companions to them, because they are not actually those things.
Roleplay wise there doesn't need to be much difference, although I would play a sidekick as much more autonomous with its own goals and motivations as opposed to the creatures granted to a character through spells or features which are a pure extension of a character's will and do whatever they say.
I was using "familiar" in the sense of the spell. It would never occur to me that anything else would be meant with that particular word, but I suppose it could be. I don't imagine summoned creatures of the temporary sort could be Sidekicks. A Bestial Companion probably shouldn't be, as that would be double stacking many of their abilities, and I can find no reference to a "guardian spirit" that could be a Sidekick at all. Perhaps you meant the Druid's Wildfire Spirit? Those are a temporary summon and wouldn't be eligible in my opinion.
The Familiar, as in the one summoned by a spell, is a somewhat special case. It is summoned, but it's not a *temporary* summoned creature. It remains until killed, and if killed, the same one will come back each time you summon it unless you specifically dismiss it. I don't see why that one couldn't be a Sidekick, though I think it makes Familiars a bit too powerful.
The Find Familiar spell has a lot of upsides, and few downsides. It makes scouting type Rogues or Rangers largely superfluous outside of combat, and *anyone* can have one. I have seen many complaints on the forums about Familiars. The ability to see through it's eyes and direct its actions makes for interesting shenanigans. For example spotting secret doors, flitching small objects, and finding traps. They may even be able to disable a trap or at least set it off, and if you're willing to spend an hour and 10 gold pieces for the material components you can keep right on letting them die as many times as you can afford. It can be cast as a Ritual, so you don't even need to use up your spell slots. Near as I can figure, you can summon one while taking a Short Rest. If they can have Feats you could have a Telekinetic Familiar. Just imagine a Mage Hand with a 100 foot range that can be on the other side of walls. Eat your hearts out Arcane Tricksters, almost all you get now is opening locks and combat.
Sidekicks get ASI's. You might have to wait some levels, but you should be able to make them smart enough to speak languages. At that point any of the types of Sidekicks becomes available to your Familiar.
I would have liked to see a guide in Tasha's or something about how to balance making a real creature "serve as" a substitute Familiar or Animal Companion or Paladin Steed. Those abilities/spells are all very much presented from the perspective of creating the creature out of thin air, not finding a living NPC creature and building that relationship. But I can imagine an optional system where you can form a relationship with a dog, or a unicorn, or a baby dragon, or a sidekick-empowered creature, and it picks up abilities like limited Telepathic communication, sense sharing, spell sharing, etc. As is, it's hard to see how you'd expand abilities and levels of something that only really exists as defined within a spell block or level-defined feature, rather than the MM.
TLDR.... there's probably some homebrewing/houseruling involved any way you look at it.
In the sense Find Familiar of spell? I'd rule no. BUT, if a character had an animal companion, and the player wanted that companion to actually be competent in battle, THEN I'd allow them to take sidekick levels.
The warlock gets special familiars that can speak so that opens up Expert and Spellcaster for them.
Imagine the Spellcaster familiar sidekick... WOW!
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
And with the new Invocation from Tasha's: Investment of the Chain Master the special familiars can use the player's DC for their spells instead of their own.
UNLIMITED POWER!!!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
I would be very wary about messing around with a familiar in my games, especially if it was summoned by a chainlock. I would rather the creature that becomes a sidekick be one that the party has befriended.
I would be very wary about messing around with a familiar in my games, especially if it was summoned by a chainlock. I would rather the creature that becomes a sidekick be one that the party has befriended.
Imagine this scenario: A Chainlock Imp, which has cast A of A on itself, flying around in a zone of Darkness, chucking EB's at Advantage with the Potent Cantrip bonus. Or math this one out. Same Imp, but the Warlock cast the Darkness Spell, and the Imp cast Spirit Shroud, and is adding that plus Potent Cantrips.
Sorry, no. As a DM, I may incorporate such nonsense into my game for the NPC's and bad guys, but no way the players will ever have these kind of abilities and features. Yet another reason why the abomination that shall not be named was a terrible addition to the game's sourcebooks.
I would be very wary about messing around with a familiar in my games, especially if it was summoned by a chainlock. I would rather the creature that becomes a sidekick be one that the party has befriended.
Imagine this scenario: A Chainlock Imp, which has cast A of A on itself, flying around in a zone of Darkness, chucking EB's at Advantage with the Potent Cantrip bonus. Or math this one out. Same Imp, but the Warlock cast the Darkness Spell, and the Imp cast Spirit Shroud, and is adding that plus Potent Cantrips.
Sorry, no. As a DM, I may incorporate such nonsense into my game for the NPC's and bad guys, but no way the players will ever have these kind of abilities and features. Yet another reason why the abomination that shall not be named was a terrible addition to the game's sourcebooks.
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
I would be very wary about messing around with a familiar in my games, especially if it was summoned by a chainlock. I would rather the creature that becomes a sidekick be one that the party has befriended.
Imagine this scenario: A Chainlock Imp, which has cast A of A on itself, flying around in a zone of Darkness, chucking EB's at Advantage with the Potent Cantrip bonus. Or math this one out. Same Imp, but the Warlock cast the Darkness Spell, and the Imp cast Spirit Shroud, and is adding that plus Potent Cantrips.
Sorry, no. As a DM, I may incorporate such nonsense into my game for the NPC's and bad guys, but no way the players will ever have these kind of abilities and features. Yet another reason why the abomination that shall not be named was a terrible addition to the game's sourcebooks.
Your familiar can be a sidekick, because the only limitations on sidekicks are their CR, and find familiar copies the entire statblock except for type (and then it adds abilities). As with all sidekicks, it's up to your DM to allow it or not, and in general, it will nerf your party.
Specific subrulings:
Expert: No. Experts must be able to speak a language; any creature which cannot speak a language cannot be an Expert.
Spellcaster: See Expert.
Warrior: Extremely legal, but as familiars can't attack, you'll pay the standard price for the sidekick (the party's expected CR goes up) without some of the standard benefits centered around contributing to the party's DPR.
Subsubruling: The above is based on the Languages stat in the creature's statblock. Ravens can physically speak, but they don't know any languages, and being a familiar doesn't grant them any - they gain telepathy with you instead. A DM who subverts the meaning of "speaks a language" can shoehorn in Raven experts and spellcasters, which means you need to remember ravens don't have hands, making things like tool use challenging (real-world ravens use tools, but in their beaks, which is much clumsier than even a human hand in a full metal mitten), and most likely S components for spells are right out. Point is, all of that is firmly house rule territory anyway.
So, supposing you choose an owl, one of the most popular familiar shapes, and supposing the party is 4 level 5 PCs, you get this:
Every encounter the party faces is supposed to be rendered 25% more difficult by the DM (may be different if the familiar takes you from 2 party members to 3 or 5 party members to 6).
So for example, the budget for Deadly goes from 4400 to 5500 XP.
These features do nothing:
Improved Critical.
Extra Attack.
At level 20, for an example, the owl goes from 1 hit point to 30-31 (the rules on Sidekicks are written poorly enough that different DMs will interpret how the first Sidekick level works differently) - a big jump, but not that much of a game-changer. At level 2, it jumps from 1 hit point to 3-4. You get the idea - it's never a huge amount of hit points, because Sidekick hit dice is based on their size category, and all familiars are Tiny (1d4).
I think that determining if this works or not also depends on how you interpret the find familiar spell. The sidekick rules state that it must be a creature of CR 1/2 or lower with a stat block in a D&D book. Find Familiar says that you summon a fey/celestial/fiend spirit that takes the form of an animal that uses the statistics of that form besides its creature type. I would interpret that to mean the familiar itself does not have its own stat block, it just uses another creature's while it is in its physical form, so I would not allow a summoned familiar to become a sidekick based on that ruling. Now if the party comes across a pseudodragon in the wild and it starts tagging along, then it absolutely can become a sidekick. It just can't benefit from warlock invocations, be dismissed into a pocket dimension, or have spells cast through it.
Warlocks that go pact of the chain can have special familiars, the Sprite is the only one listed that has a language in it's stat block, so the only listed one that can be an Expert or Spellcaster familiar. The DM may allow other special familiars but this is up to each DM what other things may qualify.
The CR of 1/2 or lower still has to be followed but other than that there are invocations that give other benefits, even an attack as a bonus action. Nevermind that the pact of the chain allows familiars to attack if the warlock gives up one of their attacks.
Even if you don't pick a familiar (or beast companion, or steed from find steed etc.) the sidekick scales in levels as the party does and gains abilities and features that keep it relevant to the party as they advance. This could a way to have a familiar, beast companion, or steed from find steed improve their hp, AC, and other stuff as the party levels up to level 20 and the sidekick mirrors their progress.
Always check with your DM to be sure what is allowed as a sidekick. Clearing it with the other players might also be a good idea. Something to bring up during a session 0 maybe.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
— A basic prayer.
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Creating a Sidekick
A sidekick can be any type of creature with a stat block in the Monster Manual or another D&D book, but the challenge rating in its stat block must be 1/2 or lower. You take that stat block and add to it, as explained in the “Gaining a Sidekick Class” section.
To join the adventurers, the sidekick must be the friend of at least one of them. This friendship might be connected to a character’s backstory or to events that have transpired in play. For example, a sidekick could be a childhood friend or pet, or it might be a creature the adventurers saved. As DM, you determine whether there is sufficient trust established for the creature to join the group.
You decide who plays the sidekick. Here are some options:
There’s no limit on the number of sidekicks in a group, but having more than one per player character can noticeably slow down the game. And when estimating the difficulty of an upcoming encounter, count each sidekick as a character.
If you select a pet you may be limited in selecting a class: expert, spellcaster, or warrior depending on how your DM rules. Those 3 options seem tailored to NPC humanoids with several examples of who they might be.
Expert & Spellcaster says the creature needs to have at least one language in it's stat block that it can speak. But Warrior doesn't have any such prerequisites.
If your familiar had a language in it's stat block it would not be limited to Warrior. An Expert or Spellcaster sidekick familiar could be possible.
I can see many DMs not allowing this because it makes the already powerful familiar even more so.
I think it is ultimately up to your DM, as many things are. Since Familiars can't attack, it would not be as good as a normal Sidekick, but it would be better than a normal Familiar.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I certainly can't find any reason why a Familiar could not be a Sidekick, and they would make a great one. They get more hit points, they get a bonus to attack (for that weird, can't attack but can deliver Touch spells with their can't-attack, and they can even do it multiple times!), they get an improved Help action to give both advantage to their owner and disadvantage to the attacker at the same time, they can heal themselves, they get an improved critical range, though it is debatable if this can be used with their not-attack Touch spell attack, they get ASI's, (and presumably can trade those in for Feats) advantage on Initiative rolls, better armor class, and the ability to reroll a failed save.
If this is allowed, expect all characters who can have a Familiar to want one. That's everyone, given the Magic Initiate Feat, and some can have that at first level. You can even have multiple Sidekicks if that becomes relevant.
<Insert clever signature here>
The language here is important. The term "familiar" can refer to the very specific rules from find familiar, or it can just be referring to a bestial companion which can be represented in any number of ways.
You can call a sidekick a familiar or a beast companion or a guardian spirit or whatever else you want to call it. So long as you don't try to apply any game mechanics that go along with familiars or beast companions to them, because they are not actually those things.
Roleplay wise there doesn't need to be much difference, although I would play a sidekick as much more autonomous with its own goals and motivations as opposed to the creatures granted to a character through spells or features which are a pure extension of a character's will and do whatever they say.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I wouldn't allow any summoned creatures to gain sidekick levels, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
I was using "familiar" in the sense of the spell. It would never occur to me that anything else would be meant with that particular word, but I suppose it could be. I don't imagine summoned creatures of the temporary sort could be Sidekicks. A Bestial Companion probably shouldn't be, as that would be double stacking many of their abilities, and I can find no reference to a "guardian spirit" that could be a Sidekick at all. Perhaps you meant the Druid's Wildfire Spirit? Those are a temporary summon and wouldn't be eligible in my opinion.
The Familiar, as in the one summoned by a spell, is a somewhat special case. It is summoned, but it's not a *temporary* summoned creature. It remains until killed, and if killed, the same one will come back each time you summon it unless you specifically dismiss it. I don't see why that one couldn't be a Sidekick, though I think it makes Familiars a bit too powerful.
The Find Familiar spell has a lot of upsides, and few downsides. It makes scouting type Rogues or Rangers largely superfluous outside of combat, and *anyone* can have one. I have seen many complaints on the forums about Familiars. The ability to see through it's eyes and direct its actions makes for interesting shenanigans. For example spotting secret doors, flitching small objects, and finding traps. They may even be able to disable a trap or at least set it off, and if you're willing to spend an hour and 10 gold pieces for the material components you can keep right on letting them die as many times as you can afford. It can be cast as a Ritual, so you don't even need to use up your spell slots. Near as I can figure, you can summon one while taking a Short Rest. If they can have Feats you could have a Telekinetic Familiar. Just imagine a Mage Hand with a 100 foot range that can be on the other side of walls. Eat your hearts out Arcane Tricksters, almost all you get now is opening locks and combat.
Sidekicks get ASI's. You might have to wait some levels, but you should be able to make them smart enough to speak languages. At that point any of the types of Sidekicks becomes available to your Familiar.
<Insert clever signature here>
I would have liked to see a guide in Tasha's or something about how to balance making a real creature "serve as" a substitute Familiar or Animal Companion or Paladin Steed. Those abilities/spells are all very much presented from the perspective of creating the creature out of thin air, not finding a living NPC creature and building that relationship. But I can imagine an optional system where you can form a relationship with a dog, or a unicorn, or a baby dragon, or a sidekick-empowered creature, and it picks up abilities like limited Telepathic communication, sense sharing, spell sharing, etc. As is, it's hard to see how you'd expand abilities and levels of something that only really exists as defined within a spell block or level-defined feature, rather than the MM.
TLDR.... there's probably some homebrewing/houseruling involved any way you look at it.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
In the sense Find Familiar of spell? I'd rule no. BUT, if a character had an animal companion, and the player wanted that companion to actually be competent in battle, THEN I'd allow them to take sidekick levels.
The warlock gets special familiars that can speak so that opens up Expert and Spellcaster for them.
Imagine the Spellcaster familiar sidekick... WOW!
I have. And no, it should never ever happen.
I would let a pet become a sidekick before I would let an actual familiar (as in find familiar) become a sidekick.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
And with the new Invocation from Tasha's: Investment of the Chain Master the special familiars can use the player's DC for their spells instead of their own.
UNLIMITED POWER!!!
I would be very wary about messing around with a familiar in my games, especially if it was summoned by a chainlock. I would rather the creature that becomes a sidekick be one that the party has befriended.
Imagine this scenario: A Chainlock Imp, which has cast A of A on itself, flying around in a zone of Darkness, chucking EB's at Advantage with the Potent Cantrip bonus. Or math this one out. Same Imp, but the Warlock cast the Darkness Spell, and the Imp cast Spirit Shroud, and is adding that plus Potent Cantrips.
Sorry, no. As a DM, I may incorporate such nonsense into my game for the NPC's and bad guys, but no way the players will ever have these kind of abilities and features. Yet another reason why the abomination that shall not be named was a terrible addition to the game's sourcebooks.
An imp's CR is too high to become a sidekick.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
The only special familiar that still fits the bill is the Sprite... and it has a Stealth of +8 which is the highest among the special familiars.
(edit): I mean the Sprite is the only one capable of being a Spellcaster sidekick.
I agree, but if the OP is planning on breaking one rule, why not break another?
Your familiar can be a sidekick, because the only limitations on sidekicks are their CR, and find familiar copies the entire statblock except for type (and then it adds abilities). As with all sidekicks, it's up to your DM to allow it or not, and in general, it will nerf your party.
Specific subrulings:
Expert: No. Experts must be able to speak a language; any creature which cannot speak a language cannot be an Expert.
Spellcaster: See Expert.
Warrior: Extremely legal, but as familiars can't attack, you'll pay the standard price for the sidekick (the party's expected CR goes up) without some of the standard benefits centered around contributing to the party's DPR.
Subsubruling: The above is based on the Languages stat in the creature's statblock. Ravens can physically speak, but they don't know any languages, and being a familiar doesn't grant them any - they gain telepathy with you instead. A DM who subverts the meaning of "speaks a language" can shoehorn in Raven experts and spellcasters, which means you need to remember ravens don't have hands, making things like tool use challenging (real-world ravens use tools, but in their beaks, which is much clumsier than even a human hand in a full metal mitten), and most likely S components for spells are right out. Point is, all of that is firmly house rule territory anyway.
So, supposing you choose an owl, one of the most popular familiar shapes, and supposing the party is 4 level 5 PCs, you get this:
I think that determining if this works or not also depends on how you interpret the find familiar spell. The sidekick rules state that it must be a creature of CR 1/2 or lower with a stat block in a D&D book. Find Familiar says that you summon a fey/celestial/fiend spirit that takes the form of an animal that uses the statistics of that form besides its creature type. I would interpret that to mean the familiar itself does not have its own stat block, it just uses another creature's while it is in its physical form, so I would not allow a summoned familiar to become a sidekick based on that ruling. Now if the party comes across a pseudodragon in the wild and it starts tagging along, then it absolutely can become a sidekick. It just can't benefit from warlock invocations, be dismissed into a pocket dimension, or have spells cast through it.
Warlocks that go pact of the chain can have special familiars, the Sprite is the only one listed that has a language in it's stat block, so the only listed one that can be an Expert or Spellcaster familiar. The DM may allow other special familiars but this is up to each DM what other things may qualify.
The CR of 1/2 or lower still has to be followed but other than that there are invocations that give other benefits, even an attack as a bonus action. Nevermind that the pact of the chain allows familiars to attack if the warlock gives up one of their attacks.
Even if you don't pick a familiar (or beast companion, or steed from find steed etc.) the sidekick scales in levels as the party does and gains abilities and features that keep it relevant to the party as they advance. This could a way to have a familiar, beast companion, or steed from find steed improve their hp, AC, and other stuff as the party levels up to level 20 and the sidekick mirrors their progress.
Always check with your DM to be sure what is allowed as a sidekick. Clearing it with the other players might also be a good idea. Something to bring up during a session 0 maybe.