D&D 5E Give all familiars the nimble escape ability?

[Leatherhead]

I normally go with bats for a familiar, because wizards don't need the help action that often and having Blindsight on demand is really good.

 

[FrogReaver]

That seems extreme and unnecessary. There really isn't a "owl familiars are destroying game balance" problem just a "owl familiars make other familiars not get picked as often" problem, which is really not a problem worth banning anything over.

And even if you do feel the great compulsion to ban things, just ban owls from using the flyby ability and let people who actually like the aesthetics of an owl do their thing.

Things don’t have to be game destroying to ban.

 

[FrogReaver]

I mean, sure, you can do that. But banning (or nerfing) is generally an inferior solution to buffing, both in video games and in tabletop games.

I disagree. I also don't think tabletop games function the same as video games in this regard. There's significant differences between the 2.

Yes, you need to be cautious about trying to bring things up just below the desired ceiling of power. And sure, sometimes a nerf (or very rarely a ban) is really well and truly the only acceptable response, if something is so ridiculously and unintentionally powerful that it warps the game around it. For something like this though...I don't think the Owl is overpowered beyond belief. It's just got the best package deal. Make the other packages good for different reasons, and you'll induce a trade-off review, rather than a brute calculation.

Something doesn't have to be overpowered beyond belief to be banned or nerfed.

Only if you presume that every option can be evaluated by a single, fixed metric. The whole point of balance in a non-trivial game system is to find ways to offer incommensurate but clearly valuable benefits. E.g., to use 4e terms, having someone with healing and support powers (a Leader, whether by their innate class role or by investing feats, powers, and/or their PP into gaining that role) is "equally vital," in some sense, to having someone with high defenses and powers that force the enemy to choose between bad options (a Defender, same deal as the previous). Leaders and Defenders are incommensurate, because you can't objectively put both of them on a single metric and truly capture what makes each of them worthwhile. Yet both of them are, quite transparently, extremely valuable to have in an adventuring group.

Do you not believe that for a given scenario we can determine which is actually more valuable? Do you not believe we can estimate how often the different scenarios typically occur?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Things don’t have to be game destroying to ban.

I ban that attitude from my tables.

 

[FrogReaver]

I ban that attitude from my tables.

And I ban entitlement from mine.

 

[Umbran]

Mod note:
If you folks want to get into a personal head butting contest, you can be banned from the thread.

Be better.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

aaaanyway

I prefer to give familiars roles, of a sort. So, the owl is the best combat familiar, that works for me. You're basically making a fantasy falconer, at that point, and it's satisfying to have your raptor harry an enemy. What I'm considering for my next campaign is twofold.

• Firstly, I'd go through the familiars and give beasts in general stuff like more common darkvision, and proficiency in skills that can be thought of as physiological.
  • Cats would gain Insight, because they definitely have empathy and will comfort their fellows and adopted clumsy babies ie humans, for instance, but also acrobatics for obvious reasons, and probably a trait that lets them jump twice their strength score or something.
  • Alot of critters would get a trait similar to the octopus, allowing them to squeeze through tiny spaces.
• Many familiar beasts would get traits that are associated with them in mystical writing or folk lore. Cats would be able to see the dead, for instance.
• The Familiar rules would include a couple additional tidbits that make them more useful outside of combat. Things like proficiency in one Int based skill of your choice, and the explicity ability to Help you with checks with any skill they are proficient in. Having a familiar would also decrease the time required to scribe spells, craft potions or poisons or scrolls, and undertake the Research Downtime activity.
• I'd introduce one or more feats that turn your familiar into a more robust companion, giving it evasion, the ability to aid you in saves against mind controlling effects and psychic damage, perhaps the ability to scribe spells for you while you sleep. (I really want wizards and ritualists to get the most out of familiars tbh)