D&D 5E Pact of the chain - how did it work out?

[Ancalagon]

It's a hawk. It has Intelligence 2. It can tell you if there are any bipeds in that valley, probably give you a rough description of their size and shape, and estimate their numbers in terms of "one", "few" or "many". It can tell you if it saw any major structures, but it doesn't know the difference between a farmhouse and a fort.

That's the real value of being able to see through its eyes.

Birds are a lot smarter than people realize. Ravens (which have the same intelligence as hawks, D&D stat wise) have been shown to be able to tell individual apart.

Given the different types of prey and dangers that a farm vs a fort have, I think they could discriminate too.

 

[Ancalagon]

Welcome to Eberron.

Eaten by a bigger hawk.

Distracted by prey and eaten by a badger.

Struck by lightning.

Blown away by a hurricane.

blown away by a hurricane? If the DM is so adversarial, he can find other players.

Can't see anything. Army is camouflaged and Hawk only has 14 Passive Perception.

They have advantage on sight based perception check, ie +5 to passive perception...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Birds are a lot smarter than people realize. Ravens (which have the same intelligence as hawks, D&D stat wise) have been shown to be able to tell individual apart.

Given the different types of prey and dangers that a farm vs a fort have, I think they could discriminate too.

Hawks are not ravens, in the same way as sheep are not chimpanzees. I've spoken to falconers, apparently the biggest challenge is coping with the stupidity of the animals they train.

Odin knew what he was doing when he chose ravens. Not only can they follow complex instructions and manipulate small objects (such as stealing a key), but the won't refuse to fly in dim light or enclosed spaces, as a hawk would.

But all this is DM's call. The DM could rule that the familiar does not behave as the creature whose form it takes on, but instead has the mentality of particularly dim fey/celestial/fiend, just as it's DM's call that NPCs ignore/attack familiars.

So just how good your familiar/improved familiar* is is pretty much entirely dependant on what table you are sitting at.

But tomblock is similar. You basically trade improved familiar for a few more out of combat utility spells. Neither has much effect on the warlock's combat performance. The choice is simply "what do you want to do out of combat".


*NB Your improved familiar can be a hawk if you really want, you still get some extra tricks you can do with it.

 

[MarkB]

blown away by a hurricane? If the DM is so adversarial, he can find other players.

I did see that happen once, in a 3.5e game, but in that case it was entirely our own fault due to some atrocious rolls on the random weather table. It started out with us rolling torrential rainfall for about three days straight, so that the marshes we were traversing turned into a lake, and we were stranded on a bit of slightly higher ground that was now a shrinking island. Then the druid wildshaped into a hawk and flew off to try to find either a boat or some form of assistance.

Now off on his own, the druid's player was now making the weather checks himself, and managed to roll in the high 90s on a d100 three times in a row. He was caught up in a hurricane, battered close to death, and just managed to make a skill check to see a small cave in which to take refuge. He just needed to make one d20 check (I think it was a reflex save) to make it inside safely instead of being dashed against the cliffside. He rolled a 2, and that was the end of that character.

 

[ClaytonCross]

A Celestial Patron Pact of the Chain actually with Toll The dead as a primary weapon actually makes for a descent Warlock tank by using your bonus action each round to "regenerate" 30HP a turn by combining Healing light and the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones invocation. You don't use plate so you can be a sneaky dex tank who leads from the front using your familiar to scout ahead telepathing guiding you.

So not bad.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

A Celestial Patron Pact of the Chain actually with Toll The dead as a primary weapon actually makes for a descent Warlock tank by using your bonus action each round to "regenerate" 30HP a turn by combining Healing light and the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones invocation. You don't use plate so you can be a sneaky dex tank who leads from the front using your familiar to scout ahead telepathing guiding you.

So not bad.

What level?

 

[ClaytonCross]

What level?

Well the basic setup is level 3 but your limited to maximizing 4d6 at that level (assuming you have 18 Charisma)which is only 24HP. Starting at level 4 with 20 Charisma you can do 30HP in a turn. However at level 3 you likely don't even have 30HP to regenerate, so you likely just use 6HP a turn as a bonus action when your not using it for anything else to top you off or you use 12 twice after big hits. The average level 3 warlock has around 23HP so your basically doubling the HP you should have at this level which make you near Barbarian level tanking and this is completely under your control. No magic item drops or anything. Then you add some Armor of Agathys from your spell slots for +20 more HP and your enemies take damage when they hit you. That's golden and it all scales to level 9 where you get your 3rd level 5 spell slot for Armor of Agythis at 25HP each.

But remember Gift of the Ever-Living Ones effects all healing! Including healing potions and heals from party members and you don't lose it when you go unconscious. So even your druid bringing you back up after a knock out with a level 3 healing word....your not getting 3d4+3 average 10.5 nope your getting 15 every single time. It adds up.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

...holy dooley! I've really ignored the Celestial Patron, as the flavour doesn't attract me. But damn, that's some tasty cheese!

 

[Ancalagon]

A Celestial Patron Pact of the Chain actually with Toll The dead as a primary weapon actually makes for a descent Warlock tank by using your bonus action each round to "regenerate" 30HP a turn by combining Healing light and the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones invocation. You don't use plate so you can be a sneaky dex tank who leads from the front using your familiar to scout ahead telepathing guiding you.

So not bad.

Every turn?

 

[Todd Roybark]

The dice granted by the Healing Light ability replenish on a Long Rest...so yeah..."every turn?" is a valid question.

Also why Toll the Dead instead of Sacred Flame? The Radiant Soul ability has no synergy with Toll the Dead.