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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ECMO3" data-source="post: 8773460" data-attributes="member: 7030563">So IF I hit the caster, which is a lot harder than hitting the familiar, and IF he fails the concentration save, IF I am successful in doing both those things, he just casts it again on his next turn.  Generally there is a really low probability of breaking concentration on one attack, really low, like 10% or so, especially if I need to resort to using a thrown improvised weapon.The familiar on the other hand is gone with any hit, and there is a really high probability of that happening on one attack.Math Matters!I would not attack the familiar if my allies were under the effect of Hypnotic pattern, but I would not attack the wizard either.  If that was the case I would just use an action so they could all brush off the spell in one round (Shake one guy out of it, that guy uses his action to shake another guy out of it, that guy uses his action .......)In is never worth going after the caster with Hypnotic pattern because with an action you can pretty much get everyone out of the effect in a round ... 2 rounds maximum of  the positioning is difficult.   This is far more effective than trying to end concentration, which is a low percentage move that is likely to fail. Depending on the situation, if I have multiattack I might also attack an ally (waking him) and then use another attack on the familiar.  Every ally could do this (one attack to wake an ally, 2nd attack on someone) instead of using a whole action to shake someone out of it.Now with the Fear spell - yes I would let the familiar go (for now) and attack the caster, because in most circumstances that spell takes your allies completely out for the entire fight with no further saves,  or with saves so late it is irrelevant, but I would not attack the wizard with HP and probably not with polymorph or web either, although with polymorph it would depend who it was cast on.  Using one attack against a casting wizard likely has no effect on his spell at all, yet you are here talking about it like it is a done deal. Normally you are going to need to attack a wizard 5 times or more to get him to lose concentration, more than that if he is proficient in constitution or has warcaster.   So using one attack to take out the familiar is hardly changing that dynamic, you still have to  attack the wizard a bunch of times to be successful.Attacking a familiar on the other hand will usually kill it in one shot, not always but usually.Finally if the familiar has "no real effect" on a 6 round battle, then it is undoubtedly worse than a battlemaster combat maneuver which will always have a damage effect even if it does nothing else.</blockquote>

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