Hey there. I'm preparing a warlock for an upcoming campaign that I'm in that's gonna be streamed, and I wanna make sure I create an interesting character who I'll have fun playing. I've decided to play an anxious warlock who was forced into a pact with her patron and wants to rid herself of her warlock powers, but will later come to accept her warlock powers and grow more confident. For context, the patron my DM and I narrowed down for my warlock is a Great Old One known as the Black Hood. The Black Hood is a mysterious shadowy being who takes the form of a blacked cloaked figure made of shadows and is eagerly seeking a mysterious ancient book said to hold untold secrets and power that could even make one a god. A big step for her growth will come from her familiar who will act something like a support animal for her. However, I'm having a hard time deciding which form her familiar should take. I initially thought of making them a pseudodragon, but I couldn't come up with a design that I liked and it just became more and more frustrating for me to the point that I considered changing her to a Pact of the Tome warlock instead. However, that would take away her biggest support for her story and growth, so I tried again. I finally managed to find a list of different kinds of familiars a warlock can have and narrowed my choices down to two possibilities: a cat and an owl.
The cat makes a lot of sense to me on a more personal level in terms of dealing with anxiety. I myself have some pretty crippling anxiety that get especially worse in social situations. I've even had episodes where I become so overwhelmed with my anxiety when in large, busy crowds to the point of becoming physically ill and once even fainted. Over time, I found that animals greatly help calm me during my episodes and ease my nerves. Of all the animals who have helped me regain control over my anxiety, I've found cats to be the most effective. Their soft fur, warm bodies, and the vibration of their purrs greatly reduce my stress and help to calm me almost instantly. So giving my warlock a cat familiar makes a lot of sense in terms of a supportive companion who can help her control her anxiety.
The owl also makes a lot of sense in regards to my warlock's patron the Black Hood. Owls are stealthy nocturnal creatures with excellent night vision and are symbols of knowledge, reflect the Black Hood's shadowy nature and lust for knowledge. I don't know how well owls make good support companions, hence why I'm on the fence about choosing an owl companion. I will do some research to see how well owls make for support animals, but I do really love the symbolism an owl familiar would have for the Black Hood.
What do you think I should choose with all this in mind? Should I pick a cat or owl familiar? Just to be clear, I'm not looking for the most broken or balance build. My first concerns in terms of creating characters to play D&D with are if I'll enjoy them and how well I can roleplay with them. So please keep that in mind when helping me decide which familiar I should choose.
How about a Tressym? They're winged cats from the Storm King's Thunder adventure and they can be added to the list of possible familiars with DM's permission. Totally adorable and they have some useful abilities. I think one would be a perfect comfort pet.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Oh, right! I forgot about those! Sorry, I'm still new to playing D&D and this is only my second time playing a warlock. First time I played a warlock, I instantly knew I wanted a raven familiar for her. My party actually fell so in love with raven that, when my warlock switched classes to become a cleric and lost her warlock powers, the DM decided to keep my familiar around since we all loved him so much. It actually became a running gag in our group that my raven was the heaviest drinker among all of us, and we've got a barbarian and dragonborn in our party!
As a slight aside, you can get a regular familiar with pact of the tome if you take the ritual caster invocation (book of ancient secrets). Your DM might not allow a tressym outside of pact of the chain but a cat or an owl are fine. Plus pact of the tome might fit with your patron's wishes regarding the book. Maybe they forced it on your warlock?
Tressym are definitely better than normal familiars. Detect Invisibility and Poison Sense are significant powers, . So I agree with Amunsol, you need the Pact of the Chain.
In addition, given the extensive background you have, combined with choosing the Great Old One, you need more backstory for your familiar. Basically, if you are worshiping a lovecraftian "Cosmic Horror" then either your familiar will be secretly working for the Great Old One, or be a stronger ally who was sent there to help you avoid being sucked into the cult of worship of your insanity inducity patron.
Familiars are technically spirits that take the form of animals. So I would suggest that your familiar be the spirit of some holy person that has devoted themselves to defeating the Great Old One. As such, consider giving them a personality that is reminiscent of either a kindly old priest or a valiant Paladin that died fighting the Great Old One.
Well, the Black Hood doesn't appear to be that kind of Great Old One. Yes, it is a Great Old One. But it doesn't exactly have a cult. To our knowledge so far, I'm the Black Hood's only warlock, and I'm not exactly worshipping it. The DM has informed me that my familiar will actually try to push me towards accepting my patron and powers and will have secret motives that I will not be aware of. This doesn't mean that my familiar is going to be against me or anything like that. They'll still be very supportive of me and comfort me when needed. So, basically like the common house cat that loves to curl up with you and give you affection one minute and then be hissing at you for apparently no reason the next.
Great Old Ones are based on the the Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors. Some have cults, some don't. Lovecraft wrote just about the time Science kicked into high gear. They were created in part out of feat that a loving God does not exist and mankind is subject to huge forces man does not understand. The defining characteristics of Great Old Ones are:
1) They are immensely powerful to the point of being unbeatable. No god will save you, nothing you can do will stop their inevitable rule.
2) They are alien on a level beyond understanding, to even attempt to do it drives you mad.
Only some of the G.O.O. in HP Lovecraft's work created cults, but all of them were unbeatable, alien, insanity inducing creatures.
If your DM wants to stray from this traditional view, OK. But do not be surprised if he plays the Black Hood like this.
But take heart! You work for a creature that can crush anything in it's path! You victiory is inevitable. Just don't ask what that food you are eating is made of, or what creature has such soft skin to make those cool Black Hood approved clothing.
Well, my character's goal at the to start of her adventure is to find a way to break her pact with the Black Hood without getting herself killed. She blames it for being the one who destroyed her life has driven her to the brink of insanity.
And yes, I'm very much aware of the basis of Lovecraft's horrors. Although, you have left out a major factor of them: the racism. There are so many instances in his stories where the greatest horrors are just Lovecraft's racist viewpoints. Seriously, even by his day's standard his sense of racism was unsettling. I'm just glad that D&D took the route of separating the art from the artist and just focused on the eldritch horror of Lovecraft's stories and not the racism when they incorporated those themes into the game.
Isn’t the whole point of the Pact of the Chain that you can swap your familiar’s form out to fit mission needs? Like, when a cat is helpful you have a cat, when an owl is better you have an owl, when a quasit is better, you can have a quasit. Why settle for just one when you can essentially have them all, just one at a time?
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Hey there. I'm preparing a warlock for an upcoming campaign that I'm in that's gonna be streamed, and I wanna make sure I create an interesting character who I'll have fun playing. I've decided to play an anxious warlock who was forced into a pact with her patron and wants to rid herself of her warlock powers, but will later come to accept her warlock powers and grow more confident. For context, the patron my DM and I narrowed down for my warlock is a Great Old One known as the Black Hood. The Black Hood is a mysterious shadowy being who takes the form of a blacked cloaked figure made of shadows and is eagerly seeking a mysterious ancient book said to hold untold secrets and power that could even make one a god. A big step for her growth will come from her familiar who will act something like a support animal for her. However, I'm having a hard time deciding which form her familiar should take. I initially thought of making them a pseudodragon, but I couldn't come up with a design that I liked and it just became more and more frustrating for me to the point that I considered changing her to a Pact of the Tome warlock instead. However, that would take away her biggest support for her story and growth, so I tried again. I finally managed to find a list of different kinds of familiars a warlock can have and narrowed my choices down to two possibilities: a cat and an owl.
The cat makes a lot of sense to me on a more personal level in terms of dealing with anxiety. I myself have some pretty crippling anxiety that get especially worse in social situations. I've even had episodes where I become so overwhelmed with my anxiety when in large, busy crowds to the point of becoming physically ill and once even fainted. Over time, I found that animals greatly help calm me during my episodes and ease my nerves. Of all the animals who have helped me regain control over my anxiety, I've found cats to be the most effective. Their soft fur, warm bodies, and the vibration of their purrs greatly reduce my stress and help to calm me almost instantly. So giving my warlock a cat familiar makes a lot of sense in terms of a supportive companion who can help her control her anxiety.
The owl also makes a lot of sense in regards to my warlock's patron the Black Hood. Owls are stealthy nocturnal creatures with excellent night vision and are symbols of knowledge, reflect the Black Hood's shadowy nature and lust for knowledge. I don't know how well owls make good support companions, hence why I'm on the fence about choosing an owl companion. I will do some research to see how well owls make for support animals, but I do really love the symbolism an owl familiar would have for the Black Hood.
What do you think I should choose with all this in mind? Should I pick a cat or owl familiar? Just to be clear, I'm not looking for the most broken or balance build. My first concerns in terms of creating characters to play D&D with are if I'll enjoy them and how well I can roleplay with them. So please keep that in mind when helping me decide which familiar I should choose.
How about a Tressym? They're winged cats from the Storm King's Thunder adventure and they can be added to the list of possible familiars with DM's permission. Totally adorable and they have some useful abilities. I think one would be a perfect comfort pet.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Oh, right! I forgot about those! Sorry, I'm still new to playing D&D and this is only my second time playing a warlock. First time I played a warlock, I instantly knew I wanted a raven familiar for her. My party actually fell so in love with raven that, when my warlock switched classes to become a cleric and lost her warlock powers, the DM decided to keep my familiar around since we all loved him so much. It actually became a running gag in our group that my raven was the heaviest drinker among all of us, and we've got a barbarian and dragonborn in our party!
With a Tressym you can have both and owl and a cat!
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
As a slight aside, you can get a regular familiar with pact of the tome if you take the ritual caster invocation (book of ancient secrets). Your DM might not allow a tressym outside of pact of the chain but a cat or an owl are fine. Plus pact of the tome might fit with your patron's wishes regarding the book. Maybe they forced it on your warlock?
Tressym are definitely better than normal familiars. Detect Invisibility and Poison Sense are significant powers, . So I agree with Amunsol, you need the Pact of the Chain.
In addition, given the extensive background you have, combined with choosing the Great Old One, you need more backstory for your familiar. Basically, if you are worshiping a lovecraftian "Cosmic Horror" then either your familiar will be secretly working for the Great Old One, or be a stronger ally who was sent there to help you avoid being sucked into the cult of worship of your insanity inducity patron.
Familiars are technically spirits that take the form of animals. So I would suggest that your familiar be the spirit of some holy person that has devoted themselves to defeating the Great Old One. As such, consider giving them a personality that is reminiscent of either a kindly old priest or a valiant Paladin that died fighting the Great Old One.
Okay
Oh, I see. Thanks for the heads up on that.
Well, the Black Hood doesn't appear to be that kind of Great Old One. Yes, it is a Great Old One. But it doesn't exactly have a cult. To our knowledge so far, I'm the Black Hood's only warlock, and I'm not exactly worshipping it. The DM has informed me that my familiar will actually try to push me towards accepting my patron and powers and will have secret motives that I will not be aware of. This doesn't mean that my familiar is going to be against me or anything like that. They'll still be very supportive of me and comfort me when needed. So, basically like the common house cat that loves to curl up with you and give you affection one minute and then be hissing at you for apparently no reason the next.
Great Old Ones are based on the the Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors. Some have cults, some don't. Lovecraft wrote just about the time Science kicked into high gear. They were created in part out of feat that a loving God does not exist and mankind is subject to huge forces man does not understand. The defining characteristics of Great Old Ones are:
1) They are immensely powerful to the point of being unbeatable. No god will save you, nothing you can do will stop their inevitable rule.
2) They are alien on a level beyond understanding, to even attempt to do it drives you mad.
Only some of the G.O.O. in HP Lovecraft's work created cults, but all of them were unbeatable, alien, insanity inducing creatures.
If your DM wants to stray from this traditional view, OK. But do not be surprised if he plays the Black Hood like this.
But take heart! You work for a creature that can crush anything in it's path! You victiory is inevitable. Just don't ask what that food you are eating is made of, or what creature has such soft skin to make those cool Black Hood approved clothing.
Well, my character's goal at the to start of her adventure is to find a way to break her pact with the Black Hood without getting herself killed. She blames it for being the one who destroyed her life has driven her to the brink of insanity.
And yes, I'm very much aware of the basis of Lovecraft's horrors. Although, you have left out a major factor of them: the racism. There are so many instances in his stories where the greatest horrors are just Lovecraft's racist viewpoints. Seriously, even by his day's standard his sense of racism was unsettling. I'm just glad that D&D took the route of separating the art from the artist and just focused on the eldritch horror of Lovecraft's stories and not the racism when they incorporated those themes into the game.
Isn’t the whole point of the Pact of the Chain that you can swap your familiar’s form out to fit mission needs? Like, when a cat is helpful you have a cat, when an owl is better you have an owl, when a quasit is better, you can have a quasit. Why settle for just one when you can essentially have them all, just one at a time?