D&D 5E Warlock - Pact of the Chain Question

[green_destiny]

Reading thru monster manual it states when Imps, quasit and pswudogradon familairs are within 10ft of their master, their master is also granted their familiar's magic resistance. Awesome. Did i mention awesome?

 

[TrippyHippy]

Yep, there are a few hidden eggs in the familiar rules from the MM. It also implies that Wizards and Sorcerers and other Classes could have these familiars too (it just mentions “mortal spell casters”) - but I think they should be Chain-bound Warlocks only, really. Incidentally, it’s a shame there isn’t some sort of angelic familiar to choose from too. I suppose you could convert the Sprite or Pseudodragon into something divine instead, without too much difficulty.

 

[Jared Vanotterdyk]

Ok but i have a question i have yet to find an answer to. the description says you can forego one of your attacks to let your familiar attack. makes sense in most cases. but it gets a bit more interesting when you have the extra attack feat, offered by some invocations (1 really) or some other classes.

I have found that most everyone agrees that any attack in the extra attack feature allows you to instead make an attack with your familiar, essentially letting you attack twice, or even four times if your a fighter, with your familiar.

but there's one instance that I've yet to see asked or answered. and that's with eldritch blast. eldritch blast is this really unique cantrip that scales with the caster not by just increasing the damage, but by making the caster cast multiple blasts, each with their own attack roll and additive bonuses. which is the main reason everyone agrees its the strongest cantrip. but this mechanic also confuses me in regards with this familiar feature.

if you cast eldritch blast, can each attack roll made for the individual beams be counted as an individual attack for the sake of this feature, or do you need to use the whole spell to make one attack with the familiar.

if the latter is true. then it would mean the pact of chain,familiar scales much better into the later game than if not, being able to cast eldritch blast and sacrifice some of your damage for poison potential is crazy cool. but again, it all depends on whether or not each beam is considered an attack that can be spent to use your familiars attack.

 

[Gadget]

Ok but i have a question i have yet to find an answer to. the description says you can forego one of your attacks to let your familiar attack. makes sense in most cases. but it gets a bit more interesting when you have the extra attack feat, offered by some invocations (1 really) or some other classes.

I have found that most everyone agrees that any attack in the extra attack feature allows you to instead make an attack with your familiar, essentially letting you attack twice, or even four times if your a fighter, with your familiar.

The feature in questions allows you to forgo one of your attacks, when you take the attack action, to allow your familiar to attack once:

"Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack of its own."

So I would say that if you have an ability that allows you to make more than one attack as part of an attack action, you would still only be able to forgo one of them to allow the familiar to attack once. This ability does not seem to be able to grant multiple attacks to familiars.

if you cast eldritch blast, can each attack roll made for the individual beams be counted as an individual attack for the sake of this feature, or do you need to use the whole spell to make one attack with the familiar.

if the latter is true. then it would mean the pact of chain,familiar scales much better into the later game than if not, being able to cast eldritch blast and sacrifice some of your damage for poison potential is crazy cool. but again, it all depends on whether or not each beam is considered an attack that can be spent to use your familiars attack.

Casting Eldritch Blast, with one beam or many, is a Cast a Spell Action, not an Attack action. Granted, you get to make one or more ranged spell attack rolls as part of resolving the spell, but it is not an Attack Action and you would not be able to forgo one of your blasts to allow your familiar to attack. Now if you were casting something like Green Flame blade, where you make a melee attack as part of the action used to cast the spell, it would be more confusing, but, IMHO, you would still not be able to use this to allow your familiar to attack with the Chain Pact Warlock feature.