Heya folks, new UA gives us Sidekicks with levels! My Fey Pact of the Chain Warlock has a sprite familiar and am wondering if these rules for Sidekicks would be appropriate? I was thinking of making the characters familiar an outdoors "Expert" sidekick. The rules in this UA seem to have good synergy to me as long as the hitdie doesn't change. Thoughts and suggestions welcome! (Yeah I know, a warrior sidekick Sprite build could be great, but that's not how my character rolls.)
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(Stormknight):
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Warrior Familiar sidekicks would not work, as a familiar can't attack. This feature does not change. That said, I think it's not the intent that creatures such as familiars or ranger beast companions can be sidekicks. Mainly because their power relies on the level of the character they're linked to already. This would kind of be a double whammy on that. I think it would make sense for a sprite that you'd befriend some other way (by RP or other story reasons for example) they would be suitable for the Sidekick rules. This all depends on your DM however, especially since it's Unearthed Arcana rules an not "official" yet.
I'm pretty sure Sidekicks are intended to help with NPCs the party collects on their adventure. My group loves to recruit goblins and orcs to help them with the next task... I showed them sidekicks and I think they'll stop using the poor creatures as just cannon fodder. Pact of the chain familiars are already plenty powerful imo. Your DM might let you though! Talk to them about it well before the next game... Don't spring it on them in the first five minutes of next session. lol Your Pact of the Chain Warlock might be able to recruit some kind of fey as a separate expert sidekick in addition to the POC familiar... Then you basically have two little helpers!
Heya folks, new UA gives us Sidekicks with levels! My Fey Pact of the Chain Warlock has a sprite familiar and am wondering if these rules for Sidekicks would be appropriate? I was thinking of making the characters familiar an outdoors "Expert" sidekick. The rules in this UA seem to have good synergy to me as long as the hitdie doesn't change. Thoughts and suggestions welcome! (Yeah I know, a warrior sidekick Sprite build could be great, but that's not how my character rolls.)
Well since you are a Pact of the Chain warlock and you basically have the only familiar that can attack do to the Chain Pact I could see it working but since it is unofficial rules your DM is final call on it.
Pact of the Chain means that the Familiar can use the attack action, but as I intended to use the "Expert" class from the Sidekicks article... Making my little helper much much better at that is the intent. Thanks for the input, I had also considered the fact that I the familiar would be two levels behind constantly (since I didn't get to choose my pact till third level obviously). Actually, it's one of the reasons I thought my DM might let it fly; since the Sprite hasn't been around that long and would constantly be behind the party level. (I kind of feel that a sidekick the same level as the PC's is too powerful.) We have used UA material in our home game before however, we're not talking Adventure League for this particular character.
Pact of the Chain familiars still can't use the Attack action. They can, however, attack in place of one of the Warlock's attacks when the Warlock uses the Attack action.
That said, familiars don't get more powerful as the character does - with the minor exception of channeled touch-range spells. Even Chainlock familiars stay the same strength over time, though they can get other random abilities from their invocations that boost the warlock-familiar bond in some ways.
If I were DMing this and I were allowing Sidekicks at all, I'd probably allow a Familiar to become a Sidekick - but either make it more difficult to resurrect or make it lose its class levels when it dies or something similar, as otherwise it could get out of hand fast. But as a DM I wouldn't allow Sidekicks unless I was GMing a party of between one and three players.
I still might use the Sidekick rules for creating more powerful NPCs, but adding a Sidekick to the party is very similar to adding another full character, which is rather dangerous for game balance - and, more importantly, for keeping the game moving smoothly.
Heya folks, new UA gives us Sidekicks with levels! My Fey Pact of the Chain Warlock has a sprite familiar and am wondering if these rules for Sidekicks would be appropriate? I was thinking of making the characters familiar an outdoors "Expert" sidekick. The rules in this UA seem to have good synergy to me as long as the hitdie doesn't change. Thoughts and suggestions welcome! (Yeah I know, a warrior sidekick Sprite build could be great, but that's not how my character rolls.)
Why can't we all just get along?
Warrior Familiar sidekicks would not work, as a familiar can't attack. This feature does not change. That said, I think it's not the intent that creatures such as familiars or ranger beast companions can be sidekicks. Mainly because their power relies on the level of the character they're linked to already. This would kind of be a double whammy on that. I think it would make sense for a sprite that you'd befriend some other way (by RP or other story reasons for example) they would be suitable for the Sidekick rules. This all depends on your DM however, especially since it's Unearthed Arcana rules an not "official" yet.
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
I'm pretty sure Sidekicks are intended to help with NPCs the party collects on their adventure. My group loves to recruit goblins and orcs to help them with the next task... I showed them sidekicks and I think they'll stop using the poor creatures as just cannon fodder. Pact of the chain familiars are already plenty powerful imo. Your DM might let you though! Talk to them about it well before the next game... Don't spring it on them in the first five minutes of next session. lol Your Pact of the Chain Warlock might be able to recruit some kind of fey as a separate expert sidekick in addition to the POC familiar... Then you basically have two little helpers!
Well since you are a Pact of the Chain warlock and you basically have the only familiar that can attack do to the Chain Pact I could see it working but since it is unofficial rules your DM is final call on it.
What are you talking about?
Pact of the Chain means that the Familiar can use the attack action, but as I intended to use the "Expert" class from the Sidekicks article... Making my little helper much much better at that is the intent. Thanks for the input, I had also considered the fact that I the familiar would be two levels behind constantly (since I didn't get to choose my pact till third level obviously). Actually, it's one of the reasons I thought my DM might let it fly; since the Sprite hasn't been around that long and would constantly be behind the party level. (I kind of feel that a sidekick the same level as the PC's is too powerful.) We have used UA material in our home game before however, we're not talking Adventure League for this particular character.
Why can't we all just get along?
Pact of the Chain familiars still can't use the Attack action. They can, however, attack in place of one of the Warlock's attacks when the Warlock uses the Attack action.
That said, familiars don't get more powerful as the character does - with the minor exception of channeled touch-range spells. Even Chainlock familiars stay the same strength over time, though they can get other random abilities from their invocations that boost the warlock-familiar bond in some ways.
If I were DMing this and I were allowing Sidekicks at all, I'd probably allow a Familiar to become a Sidekick - but either make it more difficult to resurrect or make it lose its class levels when it dies or something similar, as otherwise it could get out of hand fast. But as a DM I wouldn't allow Sidekicks unless I was GMing a party of between one and three players.
I still might use the Sidekick rules for creating more powerful NPCs, but adding a Sidekick to the party is very similar to adding another full character, which is rather dangerous for game balance - and, more importantly, for keeping the game moving smoothly.