D&D 5E How you want familiars to be in your campaign...

[Casimir Liber]

So been doing some reading about familiars and curious to see how DMs have them in their campaigns. Do you play familiars as actual animals, imps/quasits/pseudodragons etc or prefer the idea of energy? Are you happy with easy-killed ones with no consequence or prefer harder to kill ones, possibly with a consequence to the familiar owner. Do you play with some sort of leveling-up of animal familiars? If so, how? Also, do any other classes get familiars in your campaigns and what other non-canon critters do you allow? Also do you have familiars as faithful servants or contrary at times (or split between animals as servile and warlock familiars as strong-willed?) If you do allow other classes/creatures/improvements/any other non-canon alterations, please post as posts below the chat.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I prefer them to be actual creatures, but that includes fey and fiends IMO. I don't want fey/fiends/etc. in "animal form". I loved familiars in AD&D, where they were a blessing and a curse depending on what happened.

I think making them a "bit" harder to kill later on makes sense if they've been with you from the beginning, but not too much.

They should definitely have personalities of their own instead of just being totally agreeable to the caster.

Here is a revised 5E Find Familiar spells we've used for nearly two years:

 

[Lyxen]

I have put "energy in the form of creatures", taking in that you mean "a spirit" as per the rules, and for me it's the right balance.

 

[aco175]

I did not see an option for not at all, so I chose easy to kill.

 

[TheSword]

My preference is that they be pulled away from specific creatures that have to be directed as a separate entity but instead provide general benefits to the player that require less time to implement.

For instance an owl familiar might attack anyone in combat with its master granting the foe disadvantage on the first attack in any combat.

An eagle familiar might give the player a general sense of which groups are within a 1 mile radius of the player at all times. Size of group, rough direction of travel. Etc.

A mouse familiar gives you a similar effect on the other side of a door.

Or some multiple abilities. Think of them like Icarus from Assassins Creed Odyssey.

I actively dislike familars that are effectively used as second characters.

 

[Cruentus]

I generally prefer familiar to NOT be an easy out for things like scouting, finding traps, providing advantage, and others. I also dislike their disposable nature. "Oh, that's okay, I'll just summon another one.", which is a common refrain around my table.

I'm working with the SRD(?) familiars as a base, which provides for tougher familiars, a variety of small buffs for the caster, and improved abilities over time.

The trouble I'm having is figuring out exactly what a familiar is supposed to be? I did some googling around to see what, if anything, was out there from lore perspective (either game related or historically) and really couldn't find anything. Pet? Connection to Other? Guide? Assistant? All of the above?

The second sticking point was what to do with it. As mentioned by TheSword, I didn't want it to be a second character, and mostly just take up space in the initiative order, but where does it go? In a wizard's pocket? Its just there but can't be harmed? Etc. TheSword's idea about the familiar providing some benefit without actually being a physical thing is something I'll consider.

I can remember in the old old days, when one of us had a familiar, it was "in the pocket" until it wasn't. And was mostly immune to damage there. Unless, of course, you were hit by a fireball or lightning bolt, or disintegrate and needed to start making saves for everything on you. Ouch.

I also tweaked the Find Familiar spell (thanks DND_Reborn for the example) to be more costly, and to have a severe cost to the wizard for having the familiar die. But balancing that against the benefits is the challenge. I was also trying to add in a research benefit to the familiar, so that it is something more often found in a wizard's lab, rather than out adventuring.

 

[TheSword]

I like my familiars to be real animals but assumed to be out of the way unless their powers are called into play. They could be spotted and targeted specifically but that would require a not small amount of effort.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think for what most players want in a familiar, what we currently have in the game is the right way to go... although I personally prefer familiars not be something you would actually take out on adventure and instead they would basically hang around your house / laboratory as a companion while you were working (in which case, having the familiar be a real animal makes more sense.)

But as that kind of familiar is merely set dressing more or less (as we tend to have few if any game scenes taking place at the PCs houses in most campaign I would venture a guess)... if you are going to take the familiar out of the lab and have it sit on your shoulder doing all kinds of work like a full-fledged member of the party... then I prefer them to just be spirits / energy that the bad guys can destroy easy enough just to get them off the field, but then you can bring back into existence the next morning without feeling like you are forcing them to be Hugh Jackman at the end of The Prestige.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I want my familiars to have human intelligence. I want them to be able to converse with their masters, and optionnaly other members of the party if appropriate language is designed, not a 2 INT creature that would have trouble differentiating between friend and foes because "all two-legged are alike and I can't remember what I saw during my exploration tour". Also, if they are intelligent and able to converse, they'll have a personnality, independant from the player. Sure, they will sacrifice themselves for their masters if needed (and I lament that the penalty is only 10 gp ritual in 5e, I prefer an incentivization to protect the familiars in other systems), but they'll certainly complain about wet and cold if it's raining and your famliar is a cat.

Having penalties from dying means they need some way of improving, if only to survive the various AoE attack higher level characters can be exposed to. Unless there is a strong reason (such as participating actively in the fightà, I wouldn't have enemies target specifically the familiar, for example. But if the party decides to walk across burning coals because they can tough it up, it would be mean to say "you hear "meow". Cat barbecue is served..."

 

[touc]

I liked quite a bit the Pathfinder Witch familiar. It was your spellbook. As you gained levels, like all familiars in that setting, they got more powerful and durable. If it died, the witch had to do an expensive ritual or they couldn't regain spells.

I also liked the AD&D "familiar improvements" where wizards researched spells that permanently imbued their familiar with random scaling abilities and greater intelligence (the precursor to scaling familiars in 3E).

All in all, I don't think familiars get much flavor in 5E without modification.