He's a hoot

That’s enough out of you.

The owl makes for a great choice as a familiar as the owl can fly up to enemies and utilize the Help action to allow an attack to be made with advantage (as is referenced here). Additionally, since the owl has Flyby, then when it leaves the threatened area, no attack of opportunity! Plus, advantage on Perception checks is pretty good too.

Is there a way to favorite this page so I can easily return to it?

Came to look this up to check Frumpkin's stats as an owl!

Important rules clarification for those looking to use this as a familiar:

The Familiar has its own turn.  This means that if your owl rolls higher initiative than you do it can move up to a target and use the help action, but it can't ready its turn to move away (thus taking advantage of flyby).  If the owl rolls lower initiative than you then you could ready your action to cast a spell with the trigger of (after my owl uses the help action), but you would be sacrificing your action and your reaction to do so.

The owl is a very useful scout and one of the best familiar choices from a mechanical standpoint, but it isn't as broken as many would often lead you to believe.  If your DM houserules that the owl acts on your turn... then expect your owl to get killed a lot because it will be really good. :)

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I'm not understanding the first part of your explanation of the rules?  If your owl moves before you in the round it can fly to your opponent, use the help action, then move away and take advantage of the flyby ability.  It can leave immediately.  It doesn't have to ready anything.  You then get the benefit of advantage on your next attack against your opponent (provided you go before your opponent does).  Is that what you're saying?  

Sage advice

Quote from Fishbeard >>

Came to look this up to check Frumpkin's stats as an owl!

 Me too!

Exactly as TheRealNedlam1 has pointed out. In order to easier understand this, Haven923, you need to understand one vital thing about how D&D combat rounds operate in relation to time passing. A round lasts for approx. 6 seconds of "real time". A round, not a turn. Turns all happen stimultaneously. I know it doesn't make much sense on the board, since everyone moves one after another, but there would be just no way of doing it otherwise (closest thing would probably be Gygaxian Initiative, but that's much more complicated and still isn't truly "real time").

So the gist is: Your owl moves at the same time as you, your enemies, your allies, and everyone in combat, so even though it moves first on board, flies up to the enemy, uses Help Action, and flies away, then even though 2 more people have moved inbetween the owl and yourself, it all happened at once, so it was helping you with your attack, and then immediately left.

Like I said - doesn't make much sense when explained, but that's how it works.

Apart from casting longstrider and mage armor on it to give it an AC of 14 and speed of 70ft, or perhaps frostbite / poison spray / restrain on the most dangerous mob, how on earth are wizard keeping these things alive?  I mean it's gonna be taken out first, surely?  With the lack of opportunity attack, how practically are peoply providing the help action?  Obviously fly to near the bad guy, distract, and fly behind someone or something I take it, exploiting cover bonuses?

https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/phb/combat#Cover

I enjoy using my owl in battle as it can allow me to use attacks like moon bean with out seeing where it is going. also helps a lot for patrol and keeping an eye on my party members who need help. I have added it to a home brew staff weapon. It lives mainly as a wooden figure on my staff until I need it most.

this is great for summoning  as a familiar when play a hexbale.blade singer. or eldritch knight. becauseit can use flyby and use help so thats pretty much free advantage 

This. This bird is singlehandedly the best familiar in vanilla. 

It has skill bonuses for Perception and Stealth, and has advantage on Perception checks. Not only that, it has 120ft of darkvision. That is insane. Even without taking control over it with the spell, you can just use it as a natural sentry while you do something else.

And then it has Flyby. This is what makes it so good for inside of combat. Being able to use a touch spell, and then getting out of range, without provoking attacks of opportunity is amazing. And it even has 60ft of fly speed to move outside of melee range, and then taking cover in a tree or behind some wall.

Here's how combat with it boils down:

Use your action to cast a spell, it delivers said spell, and then it flies away without getting attacked, and you can even use its action to either use dodge, dash, help or hide action, or whatever for maximum tactical gain.

If you or someone in your party is playing a rogue, your familiar can create a situation for a sneak attack, just by standing near the enemy, or, by using help action and then moving away without having to disengage, because Flyby.

While it is *possible* to use a Familiar Owl's flyby to deliver a touch spell, it's not as simple as it would seem since based on the Find Familiar spell, you do act separately, so you are not allowed to have the owl move in, then you cast your spell, then have the owl move out; basically, you're not allowed to weave parts of different characters turns together.

That is, by default. However we do have reactions and the Ready action. In order for this to work, you need to act before your familiar.
1) You use the "Ready" action to cast your spell, and hold onto it (note this does require concentration), naming your "condition" as when your owl gets in range.
2) Do your movement, or whatever else you can manage on your turn (make sure you stay in the 100ft range though)
3) Owl's turn, it swoops in, and when it's in range, you use your reaction to discharge the spell, and the owl uses it's reaction to channel it. You make the attack with your bonus
(If you're feeling super cheeky, and your DM is kind, you might be able to sneak having the Owl use it's *action* to "Help", giving you advantage on the roll. Otherwise just use Dash to expand your swooping range, or Dodge to mitigate it's measly AC)
4) Owl finishes up its movement, still during its turn, and bails out, not provoking because of its lovely Flyby ability.
5) Profit? Rinse and Repeat as needed.

I'm pretty sure this works, but if anyone has any evidence to the contrary, I'd be curious to know.
Edit: also best familiar for Arcane Trickster...

On your character you can add it in animals. I hope that helps?

As a familiar, I love the idea of helping the rogue to get advantage. You could also cast dragon's breath on the familiar and have them flyby a group of enemies for some AoE with no risk of opportunity attacks. Fun times.

Probably the best familiar you can choose 

All familiars are powerful, but the Owl familiar makes an excellent scout, and with it's bonuses to perception, ability to escape opportunity attacks, ability to move stealthily in the air, it can be an unstoppable engine of death and destruction for any properly shenanigan inclined wizard, even at high levels:

(utility)
"Wizard, why didn't you rest? We're preparing to assault the castle!"
"Hmm? Oh, while you rested I prepared Glyphs of Warding at key locations along the enemies defenses."

(direct combat)
"A bolt of brown and white, a flurry of feathers, streaks down from the sky and briefly alights on the Dark Knight's steel helm. Suddenly arcs of energy dance across his shiny plate mail dealing (cantrip dice) lightning damage! Before he or his minions can react; Angmar, Destroyer of action economies takes back to the air, safely out of reach."

(encounter cheesing)
"The Minotaur lifts his greataxe, preparing to sink it deep into the Rogue's neck, when suddenly; with a shudder and a failed Charisma save, it winks out of existance, and a Familiar (thrice-cursed by the DM) Owl is in it's place. The Minotaur finds itself drifting helplessly through the astral plane."

Pair it with a Ring of Spell Storing, if your DM is lenient/mad/asleep enough to let you find one, for more sillyness:

(AoE mob clearing, or taking care of entire encounters on your own while you and your party safely sip tea from 100ft away)
"It is a dark, moonless night, all is silent in the bandit camp when out of the sky comes crashing down a 5th level Fireball to burn the camp and all inside to ash."

(Make an example of someone)
"the thief was running, but he wasn't moving, what was going on? An uneasy sensation, the ground was pulling away from him, he was... flying? No, floating! He couldn't control it! He turned to look around for a source when he saw; the man he'd pickpocketed, a wizard?
The Wizard stared at him, he muttered quiet words and his eyes glowed a reddish orange, and on his shoulder sat... an owl? Are it's eyes glowing yellow?
In an instant these thoughts meant little more to the thief as a cloud of sharp spinning blades errupted into existance around him, churning his flesh to bloody ribbons and viscera scattered and splattered across the town square."