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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zander" data-source="post: 6526898" data-attributes="member: 1364">You can indeed do it without readying, but there are a couple of downsides to doing it that way that you need to weigh against the risk of readying. The first consideration is that if you don't ready and just let your familiar in to help, it can't move away on its go and therefore get out of the opponent's melee reach. A familiar that moves in, takes the help action and moves out before the wizard acts won't be helping the wizard. The rules imply very strongly that the helper has to be within 5' of the opponent at the time the attack is made. It's a very soft DM who allows the effects of help to linger after the helper has moved more than 5' away.The second consideration is that without readying, the familiar may help one of the wizard's allies rather than the wizard himself depending on the initiative order. Let's say that the initiative order is:22. Monster16. Familiar11. Fighter (a member of the wizard's party)4.  WizardThe monster moves up to the fighter and attacks. The familiar then flies in and helps. The fighter then attacks and gets advantage from the help provided by the familiar being "the first attack roll". The wizard then makes a regular, not advantaged attack. Of course there are ways around this problem such as the fighter readying until after the wizard has attacked but that's a bit of a pain when, for example, there isn't just one fighter but the whole party and other opponents between the familiar and the wizard in the initiative order.</blockquote>

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