D&D 5E Do you make your familiars into NPCs/sidekicks?

5E is kinda weird in that there are essentially three varieties of familiars:

• Mutable spirits created by the Find Familiar spell that can't attack (not even the poisonous snake) but always obey, cannot permanently die, can be used for scouting, and can deliver touch spells. Tomb of Annihilation adds three more creatures that spirit familiars can assume the forms of (notably, the flying monkey option is by RAW capable of lifting small PCs like gnomes and flying them around). Further, a spell called Flock of Familiars introduced in the adventure Lost Laboratory of Kwalish allows the caster to have multiple familiars simultaneously, but only for one hour.
• A modification of the above through the Warlock Pact of the Chain, which grants a few extra options that can attack via commands from the Warlock as well as benefit from any applicable invocations the Warlock has taken.
• Real creatures that can die permanently, can choose to disobey or even end their familiar bond, and can't do many of the things spirit familiars can do, but can attack on their own and have unique powers they can grant a mage.

That last category is sometimes known as "variant familiars". Specific monsters have been called out as possibilities for these "variant familiars", such as gazers, and the implication is that they are intended as the familiars of NPC spellcasters (confusingly, several of the special warlock spirit familiars can take the form of real creatures that are also eligible as variant familars, like imps and pseudodragons).

How would familiars be considered NPCs? They are literally characters that are creating and played by the players. Much like any PC the amount of depth and and general thought put into them are going to vary person to person.

Li Shenron said:

Quite the contrary! The 5e wizard's Find Familiar spells indicates that the normality is to keep your familiar forever.

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Maybe I am reading it wrong. You chose the type of familiar at every casting and can even choose to change it while it is with you:

Find Familiar spell:
"As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar. It disappears into a pocket dimension where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. .....You can't have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature."

Pact of the chain:
"When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit or sprite."

I would think if it was intended to be the same familiar it would say "when you cast the spell for the first time you choose ...."

Absolutely! My character's pseudo-dragon familiar adds fun role-playing elements. I've actually had my character made non-optimal tactical choices in combat occasionally, because he knew the familiar would get offended by the more effective choice and didn't want to deal with.

We have one house rule, and some interpretations that can be argued to have support from source texts.

House Rule: Familiars can take the Attack action with their own action. (It's not like it makes them overpowered!)

Interpretations:
-To get one of the Variant Familiars as described in the Monster Manual and elsewhere, you must cast the find familiar spell in the presence of the willing creature.
-It retains its own type, cannot be changed to a different form by recasting the spell (since it's actually whatever it is, not a mutable spirit), but otherwise gains all the features listed in the find familiar spell. This means it discorporates at 0 hp rather than dying and can be brought back by casting the spell.
-We haven't had any Pact of the Chain warlocks, but to maintain their status as having the best familiars, we would probably grant the special variant familiar abilities of the expanded choice of creatures their spirit familiar takes the form of, and if they cast the spell on an independent creature rather than summoning a spirit, I'd allow Pact of the Chain warlocks to cast the spell on it to allow it to change forms. If the familiar decides to break the pact, they regain their normal form.

I think that basically completely solves all the problems with the spell with literally no downsides (unless you consider that being required to use the find familiar spell to get a familiar is a downside).

I'm playing a halfling fighter type who used all his starting cash at character creation to buy a Mastiff mount. It's been a pretty big part of the character. At one point we found 'useless' glasses of intellect. They make a creature's INT and WIS 10 - which was a penalty for one or both of the stats for all of our characters. One of the PCs suggested giving them to the dog. So now, his War Dog is smart and is taking class levels that are tied to the glasses. It's been interesting.

Interesting. Of course, now I'm picturing the halfling fighter's war dog as looking like this....


Johnathan

Our familiars have individual names, they're just re-appearing in different forms each time. But they have full consistent personalities regardless of the form they take.

auburn2 said:

Maybe I am reading it wrong. You chose the type of familiar at every casting and can even choose to change it while it is with you:

Find Familiar spell:
"As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar. It disappears into a pocket dimension where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. .....You can't have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature."

Pact of the chain:
"When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit or sprite."

I would think if it was intended to be the same familiar it would say "when you cast the spell for the first time you choose ...."

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It doesn't prevent you to get a different familiar if you want, in the sense of an outright different spirit. You have to first "dismiss forever" the first one, and then take 1 hour to cast the Find Familiar spell again.

But then:

(a) the familiar doesn't die at 0hp (maybe it could die by another effect that bypasses 0hp, but otherwise it's immortal)
(b) you can temporarily dismiss it and then recall it as an action, no need to spend 1 hour to cast the spell again
(c) if you cast Find Familiar again without first dismissing the previous familiar forever, you change the current familiar to a new form but it's still the same spirit

these suggests to me that it makes it more natural for a Wizard to keep the same familiar forever, as changing it (the spirit) doesn't have any benefit. If you decide you don't even need to change its form, you might cast Find Familiar just once in your life.

Li Shenron said:

It doesn't prevent you to get a different familiar if you want, in the sense of an outright different spirit. You have to first "dismiss forever" the first one, and then take 1 hour to cast the Find Familiar spell again.

But then:

(a) the familiar doesn't die at 0hp (maybe it could die by another effect that bypasses 0hp, but otherwise it's immortal)
(b) you can temporarily dismiss it and then recall it as an action, no need to spend 1 hour to cast the spell again
(c) if you cast Find Familiar again without first dismissing the previous familiar forever, you change the current familiar to a new form but it's still the same spirit

these suggests to me that it makes it more natural for a Wizard to keep the same familiar forever, as changing it (the spirit) doesn't have any benefit. If you decide you don't even need to change its form, you might cast Find Familiar just once in your life.

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Ok this makes some sense. On the other hand I don't think an imp is going to be very happy if you turn him into a quasit...or worse a sprite.

A good DM can take anything and make them shine as NPCs...familiars, special mounts, animal companions, sentient magic items, you name it. You don't need special game mechanics for having a cat familiar bring the party a dead mouse as a gift (or threat), or to have your paladin's horse act insolent and persnickety when the non-Lawful, non-Good party members try to interact with it, or having a fighter's pet bloodhound lead the party (literally) to a clue.

My wizard's familiar is an owl named Bishop. He doesn't speak, but he still has plenty of personality. He shows his disdain for certain townsfolk by pooping on them.