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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
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Do you make your familiars into NPCs/sidekicks?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 8043904" data-attributes="member: 79428"><p>5E is kinda weird in that there are essentially three varieties of familiars:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> </ul><p>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).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hexmage-EN, post: 8043904, member: 79428"] 5E is kinda weird in that there are essentially three varieties of familiars: [LIST] [*]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. [/LIST] 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). [/QUOTE]
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Community
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Do you make your familiars into NPCs/sidekicks?
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