In my experience with 5e, almost every player with access to the the Find Familiar spell chooses to summon an owl. The reason is quite simple: an owl can use its Flyby Attack ability to swoop in until it is adjacent to an enemy, use the Help action to grant an ally advantage on their next attack, and then swoop out again without incurring an opportunity attack. None of the other animals that can be summoned with the Find Familiar spell have access to this Flyby Attack ability. This makes an owl the obvious standout choice for anyone with a familiar playing in a combat-heavy game.
For my forest gnome arcane trickster, I decided that a weasel was a far better fit than an owl from a flavor perspective. After a couple of sessions, I discovered a way for my weasel to at least approximate what an owl can do in terms of granting me mechanical advantage with its Flyby Attack. Here is how it works:
Since the weasel is a Tiny creature, it can treat your rogue as an independent mount, riding on the rogue's shoulder.
On each of its turns, the weasel Readies an Action to use the Help Action in order to grant the rogue advantage on his next attack. The readied action is set to trigger as soon as the weasel comes within 5 feet of the rogue's target.
The rogue darts in with his rapier, gains advantage on his Booming Blade attack due to the weasel's Help Action, does Sneak Attack damage as well because of advantage and the fact that the weasel counts as an adjacent ally, and then darts back out of range again, taking the weasel with him.
The rules for mounted combat state that "if the mount provokes an opportunity attack while you're on it, the attacker can target you or the mount." Also by RAW, "you don't provoke an opportunity attack when ... someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction". In this case, the rogue is the weasel's mount and he is moving the weasel without using its movement, action, or reaction. The rogue does not provoke an opportunity attack for moving away thanks to Fancy Footwork, therefore neither does the weasel on his shoulder. This ruling is confirmed by the following Jeremy Crawford tweet: https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/604494644559216640
Using this approach, you are able to achieve the same benefits as the owl's Flyby ability, though it only works for melee combat. If you plan to make ranged attacks as well, you can use Steady Aim or bonus action Hide in order to gain Advantage reliably. Cheers!
I mean, I don't normally take owl. I change it almost every time I make a new character, as they don't all fit the theme. I think that the raven is way better for a rogue, as the mimicry trait is so useful. I currently have bard with find familiar, and they started with a parrot (raven), now they have a powder monkey, as it just seems fun.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
My DM is great for allowing 'different' things in, if you can add some color to it. I had to compromise on certain aspects, like if it died he could be healed like a normal PC, but if he passes that line, gone forever, no summoning can bring Senna back. Senna is my rogue's familiar, and Senna is also a fully grown mimic 0.0 A gift from the winter Goddess, Auril.
So...I want to create a GOOlock of the Chain with a tiny mimic familiar. It shapechanges into tiny gnomish constructs allowing some crazy versatility. It could act like a sticky grenade/embedded crossbow bolt if needed for stealthily delivering touch spells. You could have the best jewelry in town that morphs into whatever fashion is uber-posh.
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IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
omg, i never considered the possibility of viewing my character as a a mount. this is absolutely amazing. My DM has homebrewed a few extra rules for us since all but one person is 100% new to playing and runs 1shots with our main campaign characters every so often to give us experience as players and at certain points granting us feats for us as she sees us improve overall. I've been allowed to take Ritual Caster feat at level 2 and am getting to try Find Familiar early (limiting how often i use it so things dont get too imbalanced for her). So this is a game changer in what options i have now <3
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In my experience with 5e, almost every player with access to the the Find Familiar spell chooses to summon an owl. The reason is quite simple: an owl can use its Flyby Attack ability to swoop in until it is adjacent to an enemy, use the Help action to grant an ally advantage on their next attack, and then swoop out again without incurring an opportunity attack. None of the other animals that can be summoned with the Find Familiar spell have access to this Flyby Attack ability. This makes an owl the obvious standout choice for anyone with a familiar playing in a combat-heavy game.
For my forest gnome arcane trickster, I decided that a weasel was a far better fit than an owl from a flavor perspective. After a couple of sessions, I discovered a way for my weasel to at least approximate what an owl can do in terms of granting me mechanical advantage with its Flyby Attack. Here is how it works:
Using this approach, you are able to achieve the same benefits as the owl's Flyby ability, though it only works for melee combat. If you plan to make ranged attacks as well, you can use Steady Aim or bonus action Hide in order to gain Advantage reliably. Cheers!
I mean, I don't normally take owl. I change it almost every time I make a new character, as they don't all fit the theme. I think that the raven is way better for a rogue, as the mimicry trait is so useful. I currently have bard with find familiar, and they started with a parrot (raven), now they have a powder monkey, as it just seems fun.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
My human Arcane Trickster has a spider as familiar. I'm using her as night vision goggles during exploration (doesn't work RAW in combat).
I was looking for a viable option to use her in combat, as well, and now you have presented one :)
Thank you!
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
You are quite welcome! Anything to encourage familiar diversity!
My personal #1 use for familiars is a second "person" on watch for the whole night.
My DM is great for allowing 'different' things in, if you can add some color to it. I had to compromise on certain aspects, like if it died he could be healed like a normal PC, but if he passes that line, gone forever, no summoning can bring Senna back. Senna is my rogue's familiar, and Senna is also a fully grown mimic 0.0 A gift from the winter Goddess, Auril.
So...I want to create a GOOlock of the Chain with a tiny mimic familiar. It shapechanges into tiny gnomish constructs allowing some crazy versatility. It could act like a sticky grenade/embedded crossbow bolt if needed for stealthily delivering touch spells. You could have the best jewelry in town that morphs into whatever fashion is uber-posh.
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
omg, i never considered the possibility of viewing my character as a a mount. this is absolutely amazing.
My DM has homebrewed a few extra rules for us since all but one person is 100% new to playing and runs 1shots with our main campaign characters every so often to give us experience as players and at certain points granting us feats for us as she sees us improve overall. I've been allowed to take Ritual Caster feat at level 2 and am getting to try Find Familiar early (limiting how often i use it so things dont get too imbalanced for her). So this is a game changer in what options i have now <3