D&D 5E Investment of the Chain Master: Sprite is the new Imp?

[NaturalZero]

The gazer familiar doesn't work at all with the new invocation. The invocation specifically states, "when you cast find familiar" and the gazer cannot be gained through the find familiar spell. The sprite is still and interesting option though.

 

[Chaosmancer]

If you think the Sprite is crazy now, just wait until you add a Sidekick class to it for your Chain Pact Warlock to summon!

I almost convinced my DM to let me have a Sprite Expert when the UA came out. Sooo close.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Meh, pixie caster sidekick ftw!

 

[Hooffina]

The gazer familiar isn’t compatible with the new invocation since it doesn’t come from the Find Familiar spell as the invocation specifies. That makes it a bit tricky! I agree that the Sprite is a solid alternative, though. It offers some unique abilities that can be pretty helpful. It’ll be interesting to see how players adapt their strategies to the new changes!

 

[ECMO3]

So, looking at the new warlock invocations in Tasha's, Investment of the Chain Master jumped out at me. Specifically, these two bits:

• As a bonus action, you can command the familiar to take the Attack action.
• If the familiar forces a creature to make a saving throw, it uses your spell save DC.

These are, uh... significant improvements. All of the special warlock familiars have potent debuffing attacks, but the save DCs are only 10-11, and you have to give up one of your own attacks to use them. This invocation removes both restrictions.

Now, familiars still have one big weakness, which is their abysmal hit point totals. Zipping in to engage big monsters in melee when you have 10 hit points or less is a risky plan. That's where the sprite comes in: Unlike quasits, imps, and pseudodragons, the sprite can attack at range. This allows it to snipe from the sidelines, duck behind cover, and take advantage of whatever tanking your party has to offer. It also has a quite respectable fly speed of 40, and the best attack bonus and AC of the lot (+6 and 15 respectively).

So, as long as you can keep your sprite alive, you now get a bonus-action attack each round: +6 to hit, and on a hit, the target takes 1 damage and has to make a Con save against your spell save DC. If it fails, it's poisoned... for the rest of the fight, with no chance to shake it off. If it fails by 5, it's also knocked unconscious! It can be woken up by damage or being shaken, but otherwise it's out for the full minute.

To be clear, I am not claiming this is OMGBROKEN: When all's said and done, the sprite still only has 2 hit points. One stray arrow or AoE and it's out. But if you can land just one of those poison hits per combat, I'd say the invocation has more than paid for itself. And if you can in fact keep the sprite alive, it will be devastating.

DMs with warlock players using Tasha's: If you feel it's unsporting to target a familiar in combat, you may wish to reconsider that attitude.

I have played this it is really powerful. The abysmal hit points meant it died a lot. When you have something throwing around poison arrows that can make a foe unconscious it tends to draw fire, even though it is ranged. One attack of any kind, even an enemy throwing an improvised weapon at it is probably going to kill a sprite.

On the plus side though, get some real poison for those arrows - like wyvern poison or purple worm poison and when you aren't using your bonus to attack, have the sprite apply it to three arrows.

It is the most powerful familiar I have played with by a long shot.

The second most powerful is a Pseudo Dragon. The poison on a PD is substantially more powerful than the Sprites because bad guys only need a 6 to save against the unconscious effect of a Sprite and a lot of them are going to have a +3 or so. So while it is easy for an IOCM Sprite to poison, it is very rare to make an enemy unconscious. I think the whole campaign level 1-14, I only made 2 enemies unconscious.

On Pseudo Dragon though they don't need a 6, they need your DC-5 to avoid unconscious which is going to be a lot higher and at high level about half of time you will knock them out. As a result a PD has a much higher chance of making a foe unconscious. The PD needs to get in melee though, which is a lot tougher to do.

Another piece of advice - Inspiring Leader Feat. At High Level this is a huge boost to your Warlock combat familiars because it more than doubles their hit points.

 

[ECMO3]

It kinda doesn't, though. EB/hex spam works quite nicely with Investment of the Chain Master. You do have to skip the poison attack on any round where you lock hex onto a new target, but you aren't likely to be switching targets once a round or even once every two rounds.

This works well though because when you skip the attack the Sprite uses Invisibility ... or applies a more potent poison to her arrows.

I had a Shadow Sprite named Tinkerhell with my Undying Warlock. She was a normal Sprite mechanically but had spent a lot of time in the Shadowfell with my Patron so she looked cool ... well cold and dead really. This was before Skeleton was an option.

 

[Okland]

I have played this it is really powerful. The abysmal hit points meant it died a lot. When you have something throwing around poison arrows that can make a foe unconscious it tends to draw fire, even though it is ranged. One attack of any kind, even an enemy throwing an improvised weapon at it is probably going to kill a sprite.

On the plus side though, get some real poison for those arrows - like wyvern poison or purple worm poison and when you aren't using your bonus to attack, have the sprite apply it to three arrows.

It is the most powerful familiar I have played with by a long shot.

The second most powerful is a Pseudo Dragon. The poison on a PD is substantially more powerful than the Sprites because bad guys only need a 6 to save against the unconscious effect of a Sprite and a lot of them are going to have a +3 or so. So while it is easy for an IOCM Sprite to poison, it is very rare to make an enemy unconscious. I think the whole campaign level 1-14, I only made 2 enemies unconscious.

On Pseudo Dragon though they don't need a 6, they need your DC-5 to avoid unconscious which is going to be a lot higher and at high level about half of time you will knock them out. As a result a PD has a much higher chance of making a foe unconscious. The PD needs to get in melee though, which is a lot tougher to do.

Another piece of advice - Inspiring Leader Feat. At High Level this is a huge boost to your Warlock combat familiars because it more than doubles their hit points.

I've had similar experiences with sprite familiars - absolutely devastating when they connect but frustratingly fragile in combat. The poison arrow strategy is brilliant, especially combined with higher-grade poisons, though I found keeping mine at extreme range helped with survivability. Interesting comparison with the Pseudo Dragon - I hadn't considered the DC difference making such an impact on the unconscious effect reliability. My sprite familiar became much more effective once I started using hit-and-run tactics and having it hide between attacks to avoid becoming a target. Inspiring Leader is definitely a game-changer for familiar survivability; those temporary hit points made my sprite last through entire encounters instead of dropping to the first stray attack.