I’m working on an old Celestial Warlock build for the Gift of the Ever Living Ones healing combo. I know Investment of the Chain Master starts out great, but should I switch it out by the time i reach a certain level? This is my endgame build of it:
i mean, my main class is currently a Divine Soul 10/Hexblade 2 Sorlock, but besides spiritual weapon all i did was eldritch blast and protection from good and evil, both of which I can do with a level 12 Celesteal Warlock. Is it worth multiclassing?
I do not think there is a set level where it falls off as it kind of depends on campaign styles like how common is poison resistance, what kind of AC is normal at various levels etc. I'd basically say when the +4 to hit means you miss more often that it makes it fun to use. What specific level that is depends on how your DM crafts encounters.
I again largely agree with dude, but will say for the tables I have been apart of it is around levels 5-7. It is at this level where the imp largely just dies if it draws an attack and it is more likely to draw one while attacking than not at my games. The cost of an hour +10 gold of decently bulky items compared to the utility my familiar brings makes the value of drawing an attack for me not worth it. If encumbrance isn't an issue or they determine 10 gold worth of the items needed are of negligible bulk and the party is slightly more generous with the hour than my table than it can last a lot longer.
The playtest version would extend the life tremendously thanks to the loss of costed materials.
Ok, that’s kind of what i was thinking, at least compared to what else I could be doing with my invocations. I went ahead and dumped it for Mask of Many Faces and switched Fey Touched with Actor since the Fey Touched spells don’t level up. I felt pretty useless at my tables last oneshot, so I’m hoping Actor and Mask of Many Faces will make me the disguiser instead of the cleric with disguise self and no actor feat who has invisibility anyway. I’m hoping taking Crown of Stars will help better maximize my damage output to compete with the four times attacking Warlock/Paladin or the elemental summoning druid.
On crown of stars i'd say it depends on if multiple encounters worth dpr is worth it when compared to just ending an encounter. It is a good spell but it is up against forcecage which just ends fights in one cast. If you have enough encounters in a hour crown can look good. But lets say you only have 2, is 4d12 each round in those fights better than just ending one of the fights and not having the 4d12 each round in another fight.
So far their one shots have been an encounter per long rest and against just one enemy, so you’re probably right. I probably should have went for Guiding Bolt instead of Hex + Agonizing Blast.
Then again, i might even consider going back to my Sorlock and use Quicken Spell to cast two Guiding Bolts in one round. With a two level dip I can still get both agonizing blast as a backup and mask of many faces with the actor feat for out of combat, as well as medium armor and a shield via Hexblade (I’m really gonna miss that in 5.5, but at least then i won’t have to change to custom race to get war caster.)
If they are only doing one combat per long rest have you at all suggested utilizing the "gritty realism" rest rules. Making an 8 hour rest into a short rest instead of a long rest and make a long rest into a 2 or 3 day rest. This way your warlock's short rest abilities can shine a bit more, the rest of the party can feel the pressure of the adventure more and, if the DM is interested in having them, there can be more incentive for downtime activities like crafting and social interactions and other downtime activities in the DMG as the 2 or 3 days of a long rest are great times to squeeze in downtime activities.
Edit: it should be noted that you can't cast 2 guiding bolts in the same round. If you cast a leveled spell like guiding bolt as a bonus action you can not cast another leveled spell that turn so that means you can only cast a cantrip with your action after quickening guiding bolt.
Hu. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ll have to ask him about that. Thanks!
Oh. Ok, thank you for clarifying that about quickened spell.
It is one of the optional rules in the dungeon master's guide. It is alternate rest rules to better fit the tone and pace of different games. A game with 1 encounter per day is typically better balanced with the game utilizing gritty realism rules for rests while ones in mega dungeons where you are always on the move and the run may be better served with the epic heroism or what ever it is called shorter rest variant rule.
Hu. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ll have to ask him about that. Thanks!
Oh. Ok, thank you for clarifying that about quickened spell.
It is one of the optional rules in the dungeon master's guide. It is alternate rest rules to better fit the tone and pace of different games. A game with 1 encounter per day is typically better balanced with the game utilizing gritty realism rules for rests while ones in mega dungeons where you are always on the move and the run may be better served with the epic heroism or what ever it is called shorter rest variant rule.
Cool. I’ll see if they are interested.
I know last time they kind of abused the short rest feature to use enough spell slots to cure all 5 poisons in someone’s system. I’m still not entirely sure how they did it. Perhaps the one kept casting spare the dying over and over too? I’m really not sure, but everyone at the table was happy they “beat” such a smilingly impossible scenario.
Under these grittier rules however such a thing might not have been possible. If it was, that meant they kept someone on the brink of life and death for 8 hours instead of just one for a short rest. Like I said, I’m still pretty nee and not really sure how they did it.
To be honest, except for combat or when the DM directly asked me what I was doing, I was only really asked what i thought we should do once. Everyone was just instantly saying what they were doing and not conferring with the group. Ultimately, there wasn’t anything I really could do at the time, but i get the feeling even if there was things were going so fast pace I’m not sure i could have even gotten a word in.
if i could do it all over again with my updates, I’d ask our Cleric to let me disguise self instead to interrogate since I have the actor feat and mask of many faces.
The second might be at least express my discomfort when the druid of all people covered two people with the evil affinity in cooking oil because they wouldn’t say under the zone of truth that they didn’t have anything to do with the poisoning. My character is still lawful good from my Sorlock campaign (he was that way to get bless, but i didn’t mind playing into it.) Oh, and no, he wasn't a wildfire druid.
I guess the other thing might be doing something creative with my imp familiar. The others were pulling pranks on the ship with control flames and just being annoying and I couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe my main could use telepathy to mess with people, but that just seems out of character. The party seemed more excited about my familiar than me!
I love my imp familiar. It allows me to do a lot of different things, and honestly I could do more. For example, we have a rogue and my imp is a far better scout. However, I don't send it out to do that because...that would be a jerk move to the rogue who wants to do that role. I do send her out for scouting missions the rogue doesn't want, and she carries around some heal potions for my teammates in emergencies. She's carried ropes and hooks to places so we could climb. I tend to use my familiar to solve odd problems.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I love my imp familiar. It allows me to do a lot of different things, and honestly I could do more. For example, we have a rogue and my imp is a far better scout. However, I don't send it out to do that because...that would be a jerk move to the rogue who wants to do that role. I do send her out for scouting missions the rogue doesn't want, and she carries around some heal potions for my teammates in emergencies. She's carried ropes and hooks to places so we could climb. I tend to use my familiar to solve odd problems.
Oh yeah pact of the chain remains relevant the entire campaign, but its ability to fight drops off fast. Still can be useful in a fight, but it probably wont get much use attacking people once the enemies scale enough past it.
I almost never use my familiar to launch attacks. only if I cannot get line of sight any other way, and once when I felt the familiar would have been enraged for story reasons. Generally, I prefer to make my own attacks to using the familiar for that.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Although it upgrades all of the familiars, it is really strong on the sprite which has a ranged attack and poison damage. Every other familiar has to be in melee and can draw an attack which will kill it. A sprite can fly invisibly to cover and riddle the enemy with arrows doing:
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: 40/160 ft., 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a CON saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. If its saving throw result is 5 or lower, the poisoned target falls unconscious for the same duration, or until it takes damage or another creature takes an action to shake it awake.
It has a lower chance of the unconscious effect, but still applies the poisoned condition as a BA. Heartsight has situational uses in social encounters, especially when sneaking and invisible. Also knows Elvish and Sylvan, can speak normally, has hands for potions and carrying.
With my play style, imp is the superior scout with shapechange and devil's sight, but the sprite is a better BA aid in combat due to range and applying the poison condition with less chance of getting smacked in the face.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
Interesting. I hadn’t considered the sprite before. It probably makes more sense than a Celestial Warlock having an imp. I always said he was there out of some service agreement to get time out of hell. …even though it is a familiar and bot a real imp.
Anyway… i realize the ability can do more than just let them attack, but I’m not sure it’s necessary for what I plan to do with it.
My eldritch invocations in order are agonizing blast, mask of many faces, eldritch mind, repelling blast, Gift of the ever-living ones, voice of the chain master, shroud of shadow, and chains of Caceri. Do these seem to work? I know they are rated highly but still would like to hear from other players. Thanks!
Although it upgrades all of the familiars, it is really strong on the sprite which has a ranged attack and poison damage. Every other familiar has to be in melee and can draw an attack which will kill it. A sprite can fly invisibly to cover and riddle the enemy with arrows doing:
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: 40/160 ft., 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a CON saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. If its saving throw result is 5 or lower, the poisoned target falls unconscious for the same duration, or until it takes damage or another creature takes an action to shake it awake.
It has a lower chance of the unconscious effect, but still applies the poisoned condition as a BA. Heartsight has situational uses in social encounters, especially when sneaking and invisible. Also knows Elvish and Sylvan, can speak normally, has hands for potions and carrying.
With my play style, imp is the superior scout with shapechange and devil's sight, but the sprite is a better BA aid in combat due to range and applying the poison condition with less chance of getting smacked in the face.
I think it is unclear how the sprite and investment work together. There are 3 potential readings on it imo.
1. To be poisoned it uses your spell DC, and a roll of 5 or less they fall unconscious.
2. The 5 or less is 5 less than a sprites base DC so it is following the same model as the pseudo dragon and a few other effects and its 5 less than 10 which just happens to be 5 so it ends up being 5 less than your spell Dc.
3. they both are poisoned and fall unconscious if they fail a save against your spell DC. As it is forcing them to make a save it now just uses their spell Dc, not 6 not 10 their dc.
The problem with natural language based rules is people can very easily interpret the same line in multiple ways. As a DM I have used interpretation 2, and people still generally picked the imp.
As an aside your signature is very correct. Earthdawn/shdowrun/dark sun top settings.
This is a tricky bit of personal feelings over what was edited and published considering:
The Pseudodragon has the exact same poison except for on word difference which is more vs. lower. If you think it is an unintentional mistake on the editing team then the poison becomes way more powerful, but if you think the RAW is the final word then the range attack is meant to just be lower while the melee attack has better value potential. So, a roll of 1-5 with the sprite is unconscious while the pseudodragon is failing by 5, 6, 7, etc... I personally think it is an editing mistake by multiple eyes working at different times, so it should be the exact same wording.
As to your confusion, YES...use the casters DC/attack for everything it states which means the new DC is way more and the effectiveness goes way up. Your little bonus action could drop a minion/big bad each round in addition to your normal action. I had a character that made this their focus and went all in on the Investment just like a Blade would go all in on their weapon and Tome goes all in on their spellbook. I would cast Mind Sliver and BA command my sprite to target that individual. Then the target was having to make a DC 16 check with an additional d4 loss to their roll. It was a very good combo. It gave my warlock a much better option than just Eldritch Blast.
Thanks for the kudos on the signature, remembering when the big storytelling systems focused on a lot of compelling lore with great mechanics instead of just rehashing old lore with simplified mechanics. I guess that is why they went out of business, haha...sad.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
Interesting. I hadn’t considered the sprite before. It probably makes more sense than a Celestial Warlock having an imp. I always said he was there out of some service agreement to get time out of hell. …even though it is a familiar and bot a real imp.
Anyway… i realize the ability can do more than just let them attack, but I’m not sure it’s necessary for what I plan to do with it.
My eldritch invocations in order are agonizing blast, mask of many faces, eldritch mind, repelling blast, Gift of the ever-living ones, voice of the chain master, shroud of shadow, and chains of Caceri. Do these seem to work? I know they are rated highly but still would like to hear from other players. Thanks!
I tend to reskin the imps on my celestials. Hell, I often reskin the imps on my fiends. My current fiendlock's imp is reskinned, and taken over by his patron.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Agonizing Blast - must have, as your primary position in a group during combat is as an archer, JK, but seriously
Mask of Many Faces - this is great if it fills your concept and playstyle of being a humanoid shapeshifter with a strong insight, performance, and comprehend languages spell
Eldritch Mind - Fine choice if you cannot figure out how to fit Warcaster into your feat pick up, which I have not found to be very useful as you should not be in melee to take advantage of the AoO
Repelling Blast - good if you are coupling it with a crowd control ability and a GM that rewards battlefield positioning and creative play
Gift of the Ever-Living Ones - turns lackluster healing potions into your favorite beverage, I made fantastic use of this ability throughout my game play
Voice of the Chain Master - the Message cantrip usually covers what you need here, but long range scouting benefits because 100ft runs out real fast during exploration.
Shroud of shadow - excellent stealth scouting option, but it is casting a spell that uses concentration and drops the second you do anything interactive
Chains of Caceri - this is a VERY subjective choice depending on your campaign and coordinating with you DM to know the enemies you will be facing throughout. Also, at level 15 I prefer Visions of Distant Realms
RESKIN those familiars to fit your style and concept and change their statblock to meet your needs. Remember it is a spirit, not the actual creture, so visually it could look like anything that fits.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
I’m working on an old Celestial Warlock build for the Gift of the Ever Living Ones healing combo. I know Investment of the Chain Master starts out great, but should I switch it out by the time i reach a certain level? This is my endgame build of it:
www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/Actionsparda_127094857.pdf
i mean, my main class is currently a Divine Soul 10/Hexblade 2 Sorlock, but besides spiritual weapon all i did was eldritch blast and protection from good and evil, both of which I can do with a level 12 Celesteal Warlock. Is it worth multiclassing?
Here’s the Sorlock for comparison:
www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/Actionsparda_126661750.pdf
Anyway, sorry for the tangent.
I do not think there is a set level where it falls off as it kind of depends on campaign styles like how common is poison resistance, what kind of AC is normal at various levels etc. I'd basically say when the +4 to hit means you miss more often that it makes it fun to use. What specific level that is depends on how your DM crafts encounters.
I again largely agree with dude, but will say for the tables I have been apart of it is around levels 5-7. It is at this level where the imp largely just dies if it draws an attack and it is more likely to draw one while attacking than not at my games. The cost of an hour +10 gold of decently bulky items compared to the utility my familiar brings makes the value of drawing an attack for me not worth it. If encumbrance isn't an issue or they determine 10 gold worth of the items needed are of negligible bulk and the party is slightly more generous with the hour than my table than it can last a lot longer.
The playtest version would extend the life tremendously thanks to the loss of costed materials.
Ok, that’s kind of what i was thinking, at least compared to what else I could be doing with my invocations. I went ahead and dumped it for Mask of Many Faces and switched Fey Touched with Actor since the Fey Touched spells don’t level up. I felt pretty useless at my tables last oneshot, so I’m hoping Actor and Mask of Many Faces will make me the disguiser instead of the cleric with disguise self and no actor feat who has invisibility anyway. I’m hoping taking Crown of Stars will help better maximize my damage output to compete with the four times attacking Warlock/Paladin or the elemental summoning druid.
Thank you for your replies!
On crown of stars i'd say it depends on if multiple encounters worth dpr is worth it when compared to just ending an encounter. It is a good spell but it is up against forcecage which just ends fights in one cast. If you have enough encounters in a hour crown can look good. But lets say you only have 2, is 4d12 each round in those fights better than just ending one of the fights and not having the 4d12 each round in another fight.
So far their one shots have been an encounter per long rest and against just one enemy, so you’re probably right. I probably should have went for Guiding Bolt instead of Hex + Agonizing Blast.
My Warlock:
www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/Actionsparda_127094857.pdf
Then again, i might even consider going back to my Sorlock and use Quicken Spell to cast two Guiding Bolts in one round. With a two level dip I can still get both agonizing blast as a backup and mask of many faces with the actor feat for out of combat, as well as medium armor and a shield via Hexblade (I’m really gonna miss that in 5.5, but at least then i won’t have to change to custom race to get war caster.)
My Sorlock:
www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/Actionsparda_126661750.pdf
Sorry to change subjects on everyone, but does going this route seem like a better option for what the campaigns seem to be like?
If they are only doing one combat per long rest have you at all suggested utilizing the "gritty realism" rest rules. Making an 8 hour rest into a short rest instead of a long rest and make a long rest into a 2 or 3 day rest. This way your warlock's short rest abilities can shine a bit more, the rest of the party can feel the pressure of the adventure more and, if the DM is interested in having them, there can be more incentive for downtime activities like crafting and social interactions and other downtime activities in the DMG as the 2 or 3 days of a long rest are great times to squeeze in downtime activities.
Edit: it should be noted that you can't cast 2 guiding bolts in the same round. If you cast a leveled spell like guiding bolt as a bonus action you can not cast another leveled spell that turn so that means you can only cast a cantrip with your action after quickening guiding bolt.
Hu. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ll have to ask him about that. Thanks!
Oh. Ok, thank you for clarifying that about quickened spell.
It is one of the optional rules in the dungeon master's guide. It is alternate rest rules to better fit the tone and pace of different games. A game with 1 encounter per day is typically better balanced with the game utilizing gritty realism rules for rests while ones in mega dungeons where you are always on the move and the run may be better served with the epic heroism or what ever it is called shorter rest variant rule.
Cool. I’ll see if they are interested.
I know last time they kind of abused the short rest feature to use enough spell slots to cure all 5 poisons in someone’s system. I’m still not entirely sure how they did it. Perhaps the one kept casting spare the dying over and over too? I’m really not sure, but everyone at the table was happy they “beat” such a smilingly impossible scenario.
Under these grittier rules however such a thing might not have been possible. If it was, that meant they kept someone on the brink of life and death for 8 hours instead of just one for a short rest. Like I said, I’m still pretty nee and not really sure how they did it.
To be honest, except for combat or when the DM directly asked me what I was doing, I was only really asked what i thought we should do once. Everyone was just instantly saying what they were doing and not conferring with the group. Ultimately, there wasn’t anything I really could do at the time, but i get the feeling even if there was things were going so fast pace I’m not sure i could have even gotten a word in.
if i could do it all over again with my updates, I’d ask our Cleric to let me disguise self instead to interrogate since I have the actor feat and mask of many faces.
The second might be at least express my discomfort when the druid of all people covered two people with the evil affinity in cooking oil because they wouldn’t say under the zone of truth that they didn’t have anything to do with the poisoning. My character is still lawful good from my Sorlock campaign (he was that way to get bless, but i didn’t mind playing into it.) Oh, and no, he wasn't a wildfire druid.
I guess the other thing might be doing something creative with my imp familiar. The others were pulling pranks on the ship with control flames and just being annoying and I couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe my main could use telepathy to mess with people, but that just seems out of character. The party seemed more excited about my familiar than me!
I love my imp familiar. It allows me to do a lot of different things, and honestly I could do more. For example, we have a rogue and my imp is a far better scout. However, I don't send it out to do that because...that would be a jerk move to the rogue who wants to do that role. I do send her out for scouting missions the rogue doesn't want, and she carries around some heal potions for my teammates in emergencies. She's carried ropes and hooks to places so we could climb. I tend to use my familiar to solve odd problems.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Oh yeah pact of the chain remains relevant the entire campaign, but its ability to fight drops off fast. Still can be useful in a fight, but it probably wont get much use attacking people once the enemies scale enough past it.
I almost never use my familiar to launch attacks. only if I cannot get line of sight any other way, and once when I felt the familiar would have been enraged for story reasons. Generally, I prefer to make my own attacks to using the familiar for that.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Although it upgrades all of the familiars, it is really strong on the sprite which has a ranged attack and poison damage. Every other familiar has to be in melee and can draw an attack which will kill it. A sprite can fly invisibly to cover and riddle the enemy with arrows doing:
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: 40/160 ft., 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a CON saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. If its saving throw result is 5 or lower, the poisoned target falls unconscious for the same duration, or until it takes damage or another creature takes an action to shake it awake.
It has a lower chance of the unconscious effect, but still applies the poisoned condition as a BA. Heartsight has situational uses in social encounters, especially when sneaking and invisible. Also knows Elvish and Sylvan, can speak normally, has hands for potions and carrying.
With my play style, imp is the superior scout with shapechange and devil's sight, but the sprite is a better BA aid in combat due to range and applying the poison condition with less chance of getting smacked in the face.
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
Interesting. I hadn’t considered the sprite before. It probably makes more sense than a Celestial Warlock having an imp. I always said he was there out of some service agreement to get time out of hell. …even though it is a familiar and bot a real imp.
Anyway… i realize the ability can do more than just let them attack, but I’m not sure it’s necessary for what I plan to do with it.
My eldritch invocations in order are agonizing blast, mask of many faces, eldritch mind, repelling blast, Gift of the ever-living ones, voice of the chain master, shroud of shadow, and chains of Caceri. Do these seem to work? I know they are rated highly but still would like to hear from other players. Thanks!
I think it is unclear how the sprite and investment work together. There are 3 potential readings on it imo.
1. To be poisoned it uses your spell DC, and a roll of 5 or less they fall unconscious.
2. The 5 or less is 5 less than a sprites base DC so it is following the same model as the pseudo dragon and a few other effects and its 5 less than 10 which just happens to be 5 so it ends up being 5 less than your spell Dc.
3. they both are poisoned and fall unconscious if they fail a save against your spell DC. As it is forcing them to make a save it now just uses their spell Dc, not 6 not 10 their dc.
The problem with natural language based rules is people can very easily interpret the same line in multiple ways. As a DM I have used interpretation 2, and people still generally picked the imp.
As an aside your signature is very correct. Earthdawn/shdowrun/dark sun top settings.
This is a tricky bit of personal feelings over what was edited and published considering:
The Pseudodragon has the exact same poison except for on word difference which is more vs. lower. If you think it is an unintentional mistake on the editing team then the poison becomes way more powerful, but if you think the RAW is the final word then the range attack is meant to just be lower while the melee attack has better value potential. So, a roll of 1-5 with the sprite is unconscious while the pseudodragon is failing by 5, 6, 7, etc... I personally think it is an editing mistake by multiple eyes working at different times, so it should be the exact same wording.
As to your confusion, YES...use the casters DC/attack for everything it states which means the new DC is way more and the effectiveness goes way up. Your little bonus action could drop a minion/big bad each round in addition to your normal action. I had a character that made this their focus and went all in on the Investment just like a Blade would go all in on their weapon and Tome goes all in on their spellbook. I would cast Mind Sliver and BA command my sprite to target that individual. Then the target was having to make a DC 16 check with an additional d4 loss to their roll. It was a very good combo. It gave my warlock a much better option than just Eldritch Blast.
Thanks for the kudos on the signature, remembering when the big storytelling systems focused on a lot of compelling lore with great mechanics instead of just rehashing old lore with simplified mechanics. I guess that is why they went out of business, haha...sad.
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
I tend to reskin the imps on my celestials. Hell, I often reskin the imps on my fiends. My current fiendlock's imp is reskinned, and taken over by his patron.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Agonizing Blast - must have, as your primary position in a group during combat is as an archer, JK, but seriously
Mask of Many Faces - this is great if it fills your concept and playstyle of being a humanoid shapeshifter with a strong insight, performance, and comprehend languages spell
Eldritch Mind - Fine choice if you cannot figure out how to fit Warcaster into your feat pick up, which I have not found to be very useful as you should not be in melee to take advantage of the AoO
Repelling Blast - good if you are coupling it with a crowd control ability and a GM that rewards battlefield positioning and creative play
Gift of the Ever-Living Ones - turns lackluster healing potions into your favorite beverage, I made fantastic use of this ability throughout my game play
Voice of the Chain Master - the Message cantrip usually covers what you need here, but long range scouting benefits because 100ft runs out real fast during exploration.
Shroud of shadow - excellent stealth scouting option, but it is casting a spell that uses concentration and drops the second you do anything interactive
Chains of Caceri - this is a VERY subjective choice depending on your campaign and coordinating with you DM to know the enemies you will be facing throughout. Also, at level 15 I prefer Visions of Distant Realms
RESKIN those familiars to fit your style and concept and change their statblock to meet your needs. Remember it is a spirit, not the actual creture, so visually it could look like anything that fits.
IMHO, Earthdawn is still the best fantasy realm, Shadowrun is the best Sci-Fi realm, and Dark Sun is the best D&D realm.
The only thing with Visions of Distant Realms is I thought summoning the imp did just as good of a job as Arcane Eye.
That aside, it’s nice to know the rest are pretty solid choices. Thanks!