Level Up (A5E) Empowered Familiar in A5E Pets and Sidekicks nerfs familiar actions

[Tessarael]

It appears to me that Empowered Familiar in A5E Pets and Sidekicks nerfs familiar actions:

1. Per A5E Adventurer's Guide p.541, as in the 5E and 5.5E D&D rules, Find Familiar permits a familiar to act on its own turn in combat, but cannot take the Attack action.
   • This means that a familiar can do a non-attack action, such as the Help action to give advantage on an attack, open a door, drink a potion, administer a potion, etc. It also means that an Imp, Quasit, or Sprite can use their bonus action to go invisible.
   • The familiar can even use say a Wand of Magic Missile with the Use an Object action, though while this is permitted by the Rules as Written (RAW), I think it goes against the Rules as Intended (RAI).
2. Per A5E Adventurer's Guide p.272, Warlock's Pact of the Chain allows you to forgo one or your own attacks to allow your familiar to make an attack as a reaction.
   • Extra Blast (A5E rulebook p.273) gives Warlock an additional attack with Elritch Ray/Scythe/Whip, so they can forgo one of these to have their familiar attack as a reaction.
3. Per A5E Adventurer's Guide p.276, Frog Fangs eldritch invocation allows Warlock's familiar to take the attack action, giving an attack and damage bonus equal to your proficiency bonus.
4. Per A5E Pets and Sidekicks p.56, with the prequisites of Pack of the Chain and Frog Fangs, Empowered Familiar makes Warlock's familiar follow the heroic monster rules (p.16 of A5E Pets and Sidekicks): you must use a bonus action to order it to attack, or use an action to grant it both an action and bonus action. In particular, "Without a character issuing any orders to a companion, the companion can move on its turn, and it can take a reaction during the round," i.e., it cannot use a bonus action or non-attack action.

Empowered Familiar per bullet 4 seems to significantly nerf familiar actions, preventing 1 and 3, and possibly also 2. As a Warlock with Pact of the Chain, Frog Fangs, Empowered Familiar, and say an Imp, I now need to spend my action for the Imp to both use the attack action and go invisible as its bonus action. I also need to use a bonus action (or action) for the Imp to be able to open a door, as it only move or take a reaction, if I do not tell it what to do. This appears to be a severe limitation to me.

I understand the intended action economy of a character forgoing their bonus action or action to have their heroic companion act. There was a generous improvement in A5E where Imp/Quasit/Sprite got invisibility as a bonus action, instead of requiring an action per 5E/5.5E. So if that was nerfed back to being an action, then it would be that you're just losing the action, as they have no bonus action.

I am curious how others use Empowered Familiar in game in practice, as to whether you just ignore this limitation.

 

[Tessarael]

Scanning through the Companion Compendium chapter 5 of A5E Pets and Sidekicks, there are various bonus actions that some familiars can use without being ordered to by their bonded character. However, invisibility is almost always an action, not a bonus action - the one exception to this is the Faerie Dragon, which can choose as a level 4 heroic companion feature option: "Speedy Invisibility. The dragon can use Spellcasting to cast invisibility as a bonus action without being ordered to do so by its bonded character."

So on this basis, Warlock's Pact of the Chain familiar options like Imp, Quasit, and Sprite have been intentionally nerfed in A5E Pets and Sidekicks. Keeping in mind that DMs do not have to adopt such limitations, and can use the original A5E Daimonion, Faerie Dragon, Flumph, Imp, Quasit, Pseudodragon, or Sprite if so desired.

 

[Tessarael]

Mechanically, below is what what I get if I take the Empowered Familiar eldritch invocation as well, which gives a heroic companion of level 4 (Warlock level 9/2 rounds down to 4), vs. what I have currently with a level 9 Warlock and an Imp familiar through Pact of the Chain and Frog Fangs eldritch invocation.

• All actions of the familiar now require a bonus action by Warlock to command it.
• Invisibility changes from bonus action to action, and as above must be ordered by the Warlock's bonus action.
• +40 HP
• +4 HD - relevant for HP recovery on a short rest
• +1 proficiency bonus (+2 => +3)
• Charisma and Dexterity saving throw proficiencies.
• Heroic Feature at heroic companion level 4 - per Fiends on A5E Pets and Sidekicks p.123, the Warlock gets Magic Resistance. This no longer requires that the Warlock be within 10' of the familiar, which is a nice boost.
• 2 Combat Training selections from heroic companion levels 1 and 3 - more on this below.

For combat training at heroic companion level 1, the suggested benefit is extra poison damage equal to its heroic level, i.e., +4 poison damage at heroic companion level 4. First Blood for +d6 damage on the first attack that deals damage on its turn (A5E Pets and Sidekicks p.24), or Attack Enhancement for +1 to attack and +1 damage are also good options.

Alternative good heroic features are:

• Fiendish Ferocity for +3 proficiency bonus necrotic damage the first time it hits on a turn, rattling target when scoring a critical on a non-fiend creature.
• Persistent Attacker, where the heroic companion will keep attacking the target using the same attack without further orders, until it is unable to do so, or the bonded character uses a bonus action to tell it to to stop.

The Imp's sting goes from:

• Attack +5, d4+3 piercing + d6 poison => 9 average base damage if hit, requiring the Warlock to forgo an attack to have the Imp attack
• Attack +10, d4+3 piercing + d6 poison +4 force => 13 average damage if hit with Frog Fangs, attacking on its own
• Attack +10, d6+d4+3 piercing + d6 poison + 4 force + 4 poison => 20.5 average damage if hit with Empowered Familiar with Venomous Sting, First Blood, and Frog Fangs factored in, attacking only if ordered as a bonus action.

The extra 7.5 damage may not be worth the Warlock's bonus action, depending on whether they need to use bonus action to cast Hex, or another bonus action spell, or to use Warlock's curse. Worse, losing the familiar attacking on its own with Frog Fangs if the Warlock does not use their bonus action to command them is a big penalty. On the other hand, the increased HP will significantly boost the familiar's longevity in combat.

 

[Tessarael]

As a fix to the heroic companion nerf to keep existing action capabilities, I would suggest the following changes, as a house rule:

1. Familiars and other companions that already had the ability to use actions can do so per normal.
   • This permits familiars to take non-attack actions, non-attack bonus actions if they have them, use an object if they have the capability to do so, etc. It also permits Warlock's Pact of the Chain familiar to attack if the Warlock forgoes an attack (e.g., from Extra Blast), or attack on its own per normal if the Warlock has the Frog Fangs eldritch invocation.
2. To take advantage of combat training and heroic features on attack actions, you must use your bonus action to command your heroic companion, unless they have something like Persistent Attacker to attack independently or continue attacking.

The second restriction means that my Warlock's Imp does the 13 average damage if the Warlock doesn't spend the bonus action, or 20.5 average damage if the Warlock does.