So they changed the stats of the old chain options, at least some of them. But its still imp on top by a country mile.(okay the sphinx is pretty close) Why didn't they actually balance the options if they were going to update the stats. and some are clearly terrible in comparison like the tadpole.
Bump them all to be Cr 1 creatures so people have real options. This is something people are spending a invocation on the tadpole fits my character only goes so far.
Sprite for example likely would not need much, give them darkvision,(baffling they don't have it when almost every other non animal fey does)bump its hit points a bit more so they survive one hit. Give them back the knock out shot, maybe add in a misty step like feature and you are good.
skeleton might need 2 stat blocks so it doesn't break animate dead. Heck give them all 2 stat blocks, the normal version and the pact version. let the pact build in upgrades, heck give some standard upgrades like extra AC/HP for animal familiars.
It just feels like a big miss to give a bunch of options but really only have one or 2.
There will always be something the community wants, all the familiars got a huge buffs, the sprite for example can do 6 damage average. But the main thing is health which they all got a huge buff to. The sprite does everything people need a familiar to do, invisibility, for stealth or scouting missions, extra stuff like heats sight which is a weird quirky feature but can be incredibly useful in lots of scenarios like court intrigue. I think the imp is still the top for a lot of people but i believe they are all a lot more equal, remember i say more equal, the poisonous is still not on level with the quasit but besides that and the slaad tadpole, i think they are all strong options, even the quasidragon, especially compared to the 5e options.
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Imagine a sorcerer riding a catoblepas into an epic battle to the last minute of black-heart by two steps from hell.
Close is not near equal imo. Even they know it given the CR of a sprite is 1/4th and a imp is 1. They bumped the ht points of them but why not bump them all to the imp range of 20 something. And why not darkvision on the sprite, invisibility and stealth without it is fairly middling in many campaigns. Its damaging attack is in melee so good luck using that with 10 hit points at any level past 3. Heart sight has a range of 5 feet it has a low DC and it gives pretty vague information you likely can pick up pretty easily. The sphinx can boost the players saves by 2 twice a day, so I can see an argument for that as after level 5 none of them are used in combat. But in general the imp is head and shoulders above the rest still.
So they changed the stats of the old chain options, at least some of them. But its still imp on top by a country mile.(okay the sphinx is pretty close) Why didn't they actually balance the options if they were going to update the stats. and some are clearly terrible in comparison like the tadpole.
Bump them all to be Cr 1 creatures so people have real options. This is something people are spending a invocation on the tadpole fits my character only goes so far.
Sprite for example likely would not need much, give them darkvision,(baffling they don't have it when almost every other non animal fey does)bump its hit points a bit more so they survive one hit. Give them back the knock out shot, maybe add in a misty step like feature and you are good.
skeleton might need 2 stat blocks so it doesn't break animate dead. Heck give them all 2 stat blocks, the normal version and the pact version. let the pact build in upgrades, heck give some standard upgrades like extra AC/HP for animal familiars.
It just feels like a big miss to give a bunch of options but really only have one or 2.
There will always be something the community wants, all the familiars got a huge buffs, the sprite for example can do 6 damage average. But the main thing is health which they all got a huge buff to. The sprite does everything people need a familiar to do, invisibility, for stealth or scouting missions, extra stuff like heats sight which is a weird quirky feature but can be incredibly useful in lots of scenarios like court intrigue. I think the imp is still the top for a lot of people but i believe they are all a lot more equal, remember i say more equal, the poisonous is still not on level with the quasit but besides that and the slaad tadpole, i think they are all strong options, even the quasidragon, especially compared to the 5e options.
Imagine a sorcerer riding a catoblepas into an epic battle to the last minute of black-heart by two steps from hell.
That's basically whats going on inside my head.
Close is not near equal imo. Even they know it given the CR of a sprite is 1/4th and a imp is 1. They bumped the ht points of them but why not bump them all to the imp range of 20 something. And why not darkvision on the sprite, invisibility and stealth without it is fairly middling in many campaigns. Its damaging attack is in melee so good luck using that with 10 hit points at any level past 3. Heart sight has a range of 5 feet it has a low DC and it gives pretty vague information you likely can pick up pretty easily. The sphinx can boost the players saves by 2 twice a day, so I can see an argument for that as after level 5 none of them are used in combat. But in general the imp is head and shoulders above the rest still.
I would have preferred they make a "generic" warlock familiar similar to how they do the beastmaster ranger's animal companion.
I'd of been fine with that.