Arial Black
Adventurer
A Pact of the Chain warlock's familiar can attack, therefore can use the Help action to give advantage to an attack roll.
D&D 5E Is Find Familiar essentially "gain Advantage on all skill checks and attacks"?
A Pact of the Chain warlock's familiar can attack, therefore can use the Help action to give advantage to an attack roll.
Where "forever" is "until somebody gets annoyed enough to take a swing at the familiar, or it gets caught in the blast of an AoE." The imp is the only familiar that even gets into double-digit hit points, and that just barely. If you're not a warlock, two hit points is the best you can get. Anybody even breathes on your familiar, it dies and you can't replace it until you have time to spend an hour re-casting the ritual.
Moreover, you have to carry "10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs" for each casting. That's not a lot of money, but depending on what the DM says, it could be quite a lot of weight, especially when you add the need for a bronze brazier.
Finally, it's not all attacks. It's one attack per round. Most classes either get multiple attacks per round, or are full casters who do most of their damage without making attack rolls at all. The rogue is the only class that relies on a single attack per round for dishing out damage.
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FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Yet another reason why Inspiring Leader is a fantastic feat. There's a world of difference between an Owl with 1 HP and an Owl with 1 HP + 25 temp HP.
I don't agree with the interpretation that thinks that the "Working together" restriction on PHB 175 also applies to the "Help Action" text on PHB 192. The description on PHB 192 makes it clear that "feinting" and "distracting" is sufficient to grant your ally advantage, and furthermore, applying the "Working together" restriction to this action would make it extremely narrow--I can't Help someone hit with a longbow unless I also have a longbow? Finally, the Help text on page 192 makes it clear that you can EITHER help another creature with a "task" (same language as PHB 175, and I would apply the same restrictions) OR "Alternatively" you can help a friendly creature attack a creature within 5 feet of you (even if the friendly creature is not within five feet of you).
(Incidentally, in a low-level party with a Sharpshooter, there's a good chance that Helping the Sharpshooter land a shot against e.g. an orc will turn out to increase party effectiveness significantly more than making your own little weak shortsword attack for 5 points of damage on a hit. It's too bad that Help loses steam at higher levels.)
Final thought: my ruling on Help is that you get advantage, but you use the lower creature's bonus. E.g. two PCs with +4 and +5 on Survival respectively are trying to navigate the Underdark with a DC 10 Survival check. You can either roll at +5, roll at +4, roll both and just argue it out as to who to follow, or put your heads together and cooperate to get a +4 roll with advantage. Your familiar could try to Help you navigate but you're probably looking at +1 at advantage instead of your own +X so it's fairly pointless unless you're a real dunce.
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To grant 25 temp hp with Inspiring Leader, you have to a) be 20th level and b) have a 20 Charisma. What exactly do you expect to be fighting at 20th level that can't effortlessly obliterate a 26-hit-point creature? Besides, aside from the rogue, all of the people who attack for a living at that level will be attacking 2-4 times per round, and you can only grant advantage on one of those attacks.
Not that it really matters, since most campaigns never get anywhere near 20th.
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FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Are you just nitpicking, or are you claiming that the temp HP doesn't matter until you hit 25? Even at 4th level your owl will have an extra 7 or 8 HP. Do you honestly not see a difference between a 1 HP Owl and a 9 HP Owl? Because I do.
Granting advantage on "only" one attack sounds just fine to me. Against a high-AC foe, that's almost as good as an extra attack, especially if you're trying a trick shot like Sharpshooter sniping or trying to Disarm Orcus's wand (DMG 271: Disarm, attack roll opposed by Athletics or Acrobatics; disadvantage on attack if target is holding object with two hands; Athletics has advantage if larger or disadvantage if smaller) so that yet another familiar can scoop up the wand with its action and then fly off with it.
If Orcus wants to spend his turn "effortlessly obliterating" the 26-HP Owl, hey, be my guest. It's only got 20% of the capability of a PC anyway.
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Psikerlord#
Explorer
Yes I'm fine with that - the Chain familiar is the main adv of that pact. Very different to the generic familiar from the 1st level spell/ritual.
Do you honestly not see a difference between a 9-hp owl and a 26-hp owl? A 9-hp owl can usually survive one hit; that's not nothing by a long shot, but it's also not a game-changer.
The place where it does make a big difference is the warlock--taking an imp from 10 hp to 18 hp puts it comfortably out of the range where it can easily be swatted down, and warlocks being a Cha-primary class means they can get the most out of the feat. But warlocks are investing rather more than a 1st-level ritual to get their familiars.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
So are you just nitpicking then? You just admitted that it's a useful thing, and you get it for free[1]. It's the difference between losing your familiar to a single lucky hit from a kobold, and it having a chance to fly clear before three kobolds hit it in a row.
At level 20, making Orcus spend two Legendary Actions killing the owl is still a pretty good use of 10 gp, n'est ce pas?
[1] That is, at zero marginal cost. You still had to get Inspired Leadership in the first place and a way to communicate with everything (Cthulock telepathy FTW). Although it turns out that Cthulock telepathy doesn't work on owls so this whole digression is kind of a moot point for me after all.
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Guest 6801328
Guest
An Owl only needs 1 HP because he can attack and then fly out of range without provoking AoO's, because of "Flyby". (That doesn't prevent an annoyed monster with ranged attacks from killing him, though.)
And it's still "Advantage Forever" because you can just re-summon him after the combat.
But it's moot because the Owl cannot attack unless the Wizard uses his Action to direct him to attack. Leaving the Wizard with no Actions left with which to attack (except for in some edge cases.)
Got that? Read that last paragraph again. That explains why you can't use your familiar to "Help" you on your attack rolls.
You could, if your DM allows Help on the Attack action, use your Action to have your Owl attack in order to Help an ally who is attacking the same target. In effect giving up your attack to make his/her attack more likely to succeed. That could be a good tactic in some situations.
And it's still "Advantage Forever" because you can just re-summon him after the combat.
But it's moot because the Owl cannot attack unless the Wizard uses his Action to direct him to attack. Leaving the Wizard with no Actions left with which to attack (except for in some edge cases.)
Got that? Read that last paragraph again. That explains why you can't use your familiar to "Help" you on your attack rolls.
You could, if your DM allows Help on the Attack action, use your Action to have your Owl attack in order to Help an ally who is attacking the same target. In effect giving up your attack to make his/her attack more likely to succeed. That could be a good tactic in some situations.
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Guest 6801328
Guest
Only if the Warlock uses his Action to direct the familiar to do so, meaning that the Warlock himself can't attack. The familiar and the warlock cannot both attack on the same turn, therefore the familiar cannot Help the warlock.
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