D&D 5E The Imp Familiar for Worlock Pact of the Chain

[thethain]

1. Yes. However, if you read the find familiar spell you can dismiss and resummon your familiar into a demi-plane as an action. You only need to recast the spell if it dies or you want a different one.

2. Correct. So to cast find familiar as a ritual is 70 minutes.

3. Correct. The warlock gains the find familiar spell, with a couple of bonus choices.

4. No. Use the imp stats from the player's handbook.

5. Sure? There's no question.

6. Regular familiars can carry items if it is logically possible. IE a raven could pickup a small pouch. Imps advantage over a regular familiar is its better attack, magical properties, and increased durability (most regular familiars have 1 hp)

7. That tag is not the imp from PHB. Also the Mephit has a similar skillset to imps and is available as a familiar to warlocks.

8. Again, the warlocks imp is a spirit taking the form of an imp, under the warlocks control.

9. The MM is designed for DMs. Not players. If the DM wants to include an imp they can bond with literally any player, caster or not.

Basically I think you would have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you just read imp from the back of the PHB rather than the MM.

 

[Waterbizkit]

As others have said the formatting of the original post makes following it a bit more difficult than it ought to be, but I'll give this a go and hopefully be of some help... though keep in mind I may not address the questions quite in order, I'm phone-posting so keeping my own formatting easy to follow will be a chore in and of itself.

The first thing I'll try to address is the confusion between the "Imp as a familiar" as presented in the MM and the "Imp form" granted to a Pact of the Chain Warlock when they cast Find Familiar. These are not the same Imp. The Warlock is still summoning a "spirit" which takes the form of his or her choice, they simply add the Imp, Pseudodragon, Sprite and Quasit to the forms available to pick from. This is not the same as using the Variant Familiar rules found in the MM sidebars. As such, for example, the Warlock does not gain the spell resistance listed in the MM entry for the Imp. What does happen is that the Warlocks Imp-like spirit familiar uses the Imp stat block presented at the end of the PHB. There are still tangible advantages to using these "improved" familiar forms, but things like the shared spell resistance isn't one of them.

Now to address the casting of the spell, you seem to have the casting duration correct. The spell typically takes an hour to cast, casting a spell as a ritual adds ten minutes to that time, so in total it would take the Warlock an hour and ten minutes to summon a "fresh" familiar, regardless of its form. As to all bits about dealing with actual process of casting the spell, how much you dwell on this details is up to how you prefer to run it at your table. I will say though that you describe the brazier being used as a "wok" sized implement and then go into issues that might cause... all I have to say here is that there's nothing at all which describes the size or nature of the brazier and speaking for myself I'd have no issues with such an implement being as small as your typical food bowl, something easily held and transported in other words. But again, this is flavor that's down to how you might run your table or how your players describe these sorts of things.

Due to time constraints and the fact that doing this on a phone is downright awful, I'll leave it at that for now. But if there is one thing a day one thing only that you take away from this it's the first point: the Warlocks "improved" version of Find Familiar is not the same as the Variant Familiar sidebars one can find throughout the MM and the so neither are the familiars gained from one or the other.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Ok,let's focus on this variant rule. How many of your players happen across an imp and sit down together to draw up a contract? The rule states "mortal spell casters". Why? If it is just a contract to be a familiar, then why not a paladin or a barbarian? They would like familiars too. Why is this rule there? When does someone go walk around the nine hells to talk to the residents? My point is that they are called familiars. A familiar is summoned. Well, it was prior to 5e. It was a "familiar" spirit and there were serious consequences to losing them. Anyway, I think that this variant rule, if used, since it is a variant, is meant to be used for familiars. When I say familiar, I mean "found familiars".

This is why it is a DM thing, not a player thing. If a DM wants a PC to get the option of a variant imp familiar, the PC's run into one (imp in a bottle, one shows up when they are eating breakfast, etc.). If the DM doesn't want them to, they don't (or they do run into one and it isn't in the mood to make a deal). This is both RAW and RAI (people have asked the devs on twitter ever since the variant imp showed up in the MM).

Edit: I also want to say this is a great boon to DM's. Adding an unreliable and possibly treacherous NPC to a party and the damned fools....I mean gullible suckers are good with it because someone misread the monster manual. That is karma and plot gold in one move. That is good DMing.

 

[tuxgeo]

You can purchase miniature Hibatchi grills on eBay that measure 4.75 inches tall by 3.5 inches wide. Such a thing would fit in a pack, and might count as a brazier.

Casting a ritual uses up the material components, anyway. . . .
Oops. Let me start that again:
Casting the "Find Familiar" spell consumes the 10 GP worth of material components, per the wording of the spell. Also, "Find Familiar" can be cast using a spell slot; but doing so consume the material components just the same as casting it as a ritual, and it uses up the spell slot into the bargain. The only advantage gained by casting "Find Familiar" using a spell slot instead of as a ritual is that you don't add the extra 10 minutes of casting time when using a spell slot -- but it still takes the full hour to cast, as specified in the spell description.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[tuxgeo]

Yeah. No buying them on eBay, right?
Such things do still exist, though: a "brazier" doesn't have to be the size of a wok.

Hibachi on Wikipedia: "It is not known when the hibachi was first used in Japan. Written records suggest that it was in use by the Heian period (794–1185 AD)." (Therefore, it is sufficiently Dark Ages or Medieval for D&D.)

 

[Undrhil]

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/08/10/do-chain-pact-warlocks-get-the-familiars-magic-resistance/
It's only Mike Mearls, but it's still some kind of guidance, especially since he's usually answering from the perspective of a DM.

 

[Ancalagon]

whatever type the imp has, he's going to give the warlock an earful for being replaced by a *frog*, even if momentarily... that's what you get when you chose an intelligent familiar that can speak!