The Pact of the Chain is a spell that allows Warlocks to cast a familiar spell as a ritual, without counting against their known spells. This spell can be cast in one of four forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite. It doesn’t count against the Warlock’s number of spells known, and when cast, it works exactly like any other spell she knows how to cast.
The Pact of the Chain is a helpful friend that Warlocks can travel with, providing access to a helpful friend to travel by their side. When taking this boon, Warlocks can choose from one of the normal forms for their familiar or one of the special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite. The spell doesn’t count against the Warlock’s number of spells known, and when cast, they can choose one of the normal forms for their familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite.
The Warlock Pact feature works exactly like the spell Find Familiar, except where it specifies it’s different. The text states that Warlocks can learn the find familiar spell and cast it as a ritual, and it doesn’t count against their number of spells known. When casting the spell, Warlocks can choose one of the normal forms for their familiar or one of the special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite.
In summary, the Pact of the Chain is a useful option for Warlocks looking for a smooth early game experience. It allows Warlocks to cast a familiar spell as a ritual, without counting against their known spells. The Warlock Pact feature works similarly to the spell Find Familiar, but with different specifications.
📹 Pact of the Chains Warlock and Familiars in Your Dungeons and Dragons Game – D&D Player Tips
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Do Eldritch invocations count as spells known?
Invocations allow you to cast a spell once per long rest, expanding your spell list beyond your existing ones. These spells count as warlock spells. If you have the spell Hex, are a hexblade warlock, or can cast Bestow Curse, you can use special invocations on hexed creatures. One such invocation is the Maddening Hex, which deals psychic damage to the hexed creature and surrounding creatures equal to your charisma modifier.
How does Pact of the Chain familiar work?
The Pact of the Chain Warlocks gain a small magical companion through the Find Familiar spell, which allows them to choose from four special types of familiars. These familiars can fight alongside them on the battlefield, depending on the player’s Patron’s Patron. For instance, if the player’s Patron is one of the Archfey, their familiar could be a sprite or pseudogragon. For those with a Fiendish Patron, quasits and imps may be more appealing. The real merit lies in their performance in combat situations alongside their new master.
The original Find Familiar spell offers a variety of options for spellcasters, including land, sea, and air, making it versatile for every player and many game settings. Each possible familiar choice uses their own stats, but they count as celestial, fey, or fiend rather than a beast. The choice of familiar depends on the player’s character and their preferences.
Do ritual spells count as spells known?
It is incumbent upon bards and wizards to be conversant with the spells enumerated in their respective spellbooks, which serve as the definitive compendia of magical knowledge for those who have attained the rank of wizard. The specific rule governing the casting of rituals does not necessitate preparation; however, it does require that the caster be knowledgeable about the spell in question. It should be noted that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by an extension, and that your browser does not support cookies.
How does pact of the chain work in BG3?
The guide has been updated to provide more information on using the Pact of the Chain’s familiar and the best pact. At level three, players can choose one of three pacts, which are upgraded at level five. These pacts offer a larger range of familiars and an Extra Attack feature, which is useful in battle and exploration. Pact weapons can be summoned or turned into pact weapons, allowing proficiency and damage scaling.
Melee pact weapons can be thrown and automatically retrieved, and the damage scales with Charisma instead of Strength or Dexterity. Upgrading a pact weapon allows for twice-in-one attacks, stacking with sources of extra attacks like Haste and other classes’ Extra Attack features.
How useful is Pact of the Chain?
The Pact of the Chain is an optimal option when no feats are taken, as it enables the creation of a flying, invisible familiar that operates independently but necessitates mental control, with the capacity to attack solely when one of the player’s actions is utilized.
Do domain spells count against spells known?
Domain spells are prepared at cleric levels and do not count against daily preparations. If a spell does not appear on the cleric spell list, it is still a cleric spell. At the 2nd level, you can channel divine energy from your deity to fuel magical effects. Starting with two effects: Turn Undead and an effect determined by your domain, some domains grant additional effects as you advance. When using your Channel Divinity, you choose which effect to create and must finish a short or long rest to use it again.
Should I let Astarion bite me?
Allowing Astarion to bite you can gain approval, but it comes with a downside: you gain the Bloodless debuff, while Astarion gains the Happy buff and your approval rating increases. If you fail two checks or don’t stop, your character will be dead the next morning at camp start. After allowing Astarion to bite you, you will be afflicted with the Bloodless condition, which gives you a -1 penalty to Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, and Ability Checks. Inversely, Astarion will gain the Happy condition, which is the inverse of your penalty, giving him a +1 to Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, and Ability Checks.
How does spells known work with multiclass?
The multi-classing rules permit users to select spells based on their levels in specific classes; however, they receive slots based on the combination of classes. A sixth-level artificer is permitted to select up to two spells from the provided list. It should be noted, however, that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by extensions, and cookies may not be supported.
Do warlock pact spells count against spells known?
The Book of Shadows is a grimoire given by your patron that allows you to cast three cantrips from any class’s spell list, regardless of their list. If you lose the Book of Shadows, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a replacement from your patron, which destroys the previous book. The book turns to ash when you die. Additionally, you can increase one ability score by 2 or two by 1 at different levels, but cannot increase an ability score above 20. This feature is only available at the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level.
Do Paladin oath spells count against spells known?
Each oath has a list of associated spells, which can be accessed at specific levels. These spells are always prepared and don’t count against daily preparations. If an oath spell doesn’t appear on the paladin spell list, it’s still a paladin spell. Your oath also allows you to channel divine energy for magical effects. Each option explains how to use it, and you must finish a short or long rest before using it again.
What can pact of the chain summon?
In the Pact of the Chain feature, a warlock can choose an Imp, Pseudodragon, Quasit, or Sprite as their familiar, in addition to the Find Familiar spell options. A Pact familiar can be any creature with characteristics such as being small or tiny, not of the Humanoid type, having a maximum of 15 Hit Points, having a CR 1 or lower, and not having a spell-casting trait. Other possible familiars include Crawling Claw, Flumph, Flying Sword, Gazer, Mud Mephit, Oblex Spawn, Quickling, and Twig Blight. These factors should be considered when considering other familiars.
📹 Pact of the Chain Familiars and what to do with them: D&D
Matt Morich discusses the unique uses of the Pact of the Chain Familiar in Dungeons and Dragons. If you are playing a Warlock …
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There’s a few things here; Vampiric Touch has range of “Self” not “Touch”, so can not be used through a familiar. A quasit can shapechange into a toad which is amphibious and has a swim speed of 40ft, so no need for a qipper. Lastly, Pact of the Chain warlocks, according to Mike Mearls, do NOT receive magic resistance from having Imp, Quasit, or Pseudodragon familiars, as those familiars gained through Monster Manual encounters, as opposed to warlock servitude, are considered different.
Pact of the chain is enticing to me because of two invocations: voice of the chain master and gift of the ever living ones. Voice of the chainmaster is seriously overpowered. Being able to basically scry infinitely or send a message, or use your familiar as a walkie talkie. Its so good, and as you said there’s no limitation to repeat cast the ability. Gift of the everliving ones makes healing spells maximized when you get healed.. its hard to not see the value here, and thematically I just love it. I think this one was printed in xanathar’s.
So, I’m not gonna go into exact details, but, I arbitrarily had my Halfling Arcane Trickster go into Great Old One Warlock based on what was happening in my game with creatures from the Far Realm. And to a lesser extent, to get limited telepathy for a running joke. But when I realized how freaking amazing a warlock dip and an Imp familiar are to a rogue, I kinda pooped a little.
A note about Chains of Carceri that sold me on the invocation is that the text states, “You can cast hold monster at will — targeting a celestial, fiend, or elemental — without expending a spell slot or material components. You must finish a long rest before you can use this invocation on the same creature again” meaning that you can cast it as many times as you want as long as you are trying to use it on a different creature each time. Definitely helps my Summoner Chainlock when he summons Demons that are less than willing to help out.
Gotta say, my favorite familiar by far is the raven. I had one with my Tiefling Blood Hunter due to Magic Initiate and his name was Greigus and he was really useful outside of combat because I could have him scout by flying above the party while traveling, he could assist in being on watch or do it himself because he could wake me telepathically if something was coming, and because of the mimicry skill there was more than one occasion where I distracted a guard or scared a bandit by having him make different noises. He may have been more effective for me than normal however due to my DM being pretty cool with me just letting my raven familiar do that stuff and he also let me keep a list of certain sounds Greigus had heard that he could choose to mimic, I remember my go to sounds were some small demon’s battle cry, a fragment of one of our bard’s songs, and a glass shattering
For Pact of the Chain, the main combat draw IMO will be the Invocation Chains of Carceri, basically once per creature per day Hold Monster on any Celestials, Fiends, and Elementals you meet. The scouting can be useful as well, but mostly Pact of the Chain is IMO the biggest roleplaying opportunity of the Boons. As for the Magic Resistance, I don’t think that is Adventurer’s League legal, so yeah…
At early levels, an Imp has an attack modifier the same as a PC’s, but does more damage (barring poison resistance/immunity, which I realize is a big thing.) It also has advantage on its first attack and maybe on alternating attacks, depending on how you use it, and can benefit from Darkness without any invocation cost, and without getting in the way of party members much. With Investment of the Chain Master, it can actually attack twice per round at PC level 3! Oh, and it can fly, and if it dies, you’re only out 10gp, a spell slot, and an hour. What about hp? They’re overkill at low level, considering immunities and resistances, which also, incidentally, make healing or temp HP (like from Inspiring Leader, which I think every party should have somewhere) count double. They are sufficient to take an Ancient dragon wing beat, which is about the damage you should ever expect accidentally directed at them, and of course they can just straight up ignore the breath of an ancient green or red dragon. At higher levels, the effectiveness depends highly on the availability of magic items, but at the very least, this is a critter than can deliver a healing potion without using your action. If everybody had a Chain familiar, you could probably afford to go to 0 hp every turn. Yes, you’re that close to party invulnerability. Oh, yeah, and scouting. Chain is the best pact, not the worst pact.
Honestly, it seems to me like Familiars really need a big boost. They just aren’t that powerful, and when you have a Warlock branch fully dedicated to Familiars it just feels like intentionally gibbling yourself for little reason. I’ve put together a few house rule options for familiars. You can mix as many or as few as you like, though I would personally use them all. 1 – Familiars/Animal Companions gain hit dice, proficiency, stats, and the like through level up just as the master does. 2 – Familiars have their own action block, either directly tied to the masters action, or their own turn in initiative, controlled by the player rather than allowing the player to exchange their own action for a familiars action 3 – The master may use their Familiar as the origin of any spell or magic ability at their disposal, including any spells that target Self 4 – If a familiar or animal companion is part of a class feature and not simply achieved with the Find Familiar spell and that creature dies, it will automatically reform in (1d10 – Spellcasting Ability Mod) days at no cost to the master. I personally divide familiars and animal companions into suitable base types, like tanks, bruisers, assassins, casters, and healers. Then those creatures will level up along those general lines, including taking suitable feats for their role, etc. I treat these kind of creatures much like the Demonology Warlock and Beast Master Hunter from World of Warcraft. The two together are very powerful, but separate are somewhat weak.
Early game imp is the best for warlocks depending on what you are fighting. Imp 10 Hp Resistance to nonmagical non silvered bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. That means it essentially has 20 hp against nonmagic monsters and humans. Which is more than the warlock has for the first few levels. It’s also has immunity to fire and poison. It’s attack is +5 and does 1d4 + 3 piercing and on a DC 10 does 3d6 poison damage (half on a save) if the warlock forgoes their action. Which is about the same as a guiding bolt and more than magic missile. But wait there’s more. Investment of the chain master let’s the warlock command them to take the attack action as the warlock’s bonus action and the DC is the warlock’s spell DC With point by it’s pretty easy to have a charisma of 16. Meaning the imps poison DC will be 13 instead of 10. The imp also can attack twice. Once using warlock’s action (which consumes imps reaction) and twice using the warlock’s bonus action (using the imps action) That’s 2d4 + 6 and 6d6 of poison. That’s on par with the average and max single target damage of a fireball. Lastly imps can shape change into a raven with a fly speed of 60 and have devils sight so can see through magical darkness. So could technically fly in attack twice and leave not provoking any opportunity attacks and get far enough away that it wouldn’t interfere with other party members In later gift of the everliving invocation makes all healing max and since familiars have their own action economy and have hands they should be able to give the Warlock or other party members healing potions.
I’ve always been a fan of having pets in game, and having a familiar is a very special pet! But maybe I’m still on a hold over of ideas from 3.5, but I am not a fan of the idea of dismissing your familiar or changing it into something else. I have always seen familiars as actual animals given a bit of the caster’s power – they’re friends, they’re companions, they have names. They are what they are. My old sorcerer had a lizard familiar that he created from a pet lizard that he raised. He used the ritual to imbue it with power – his own. That power was an extension of himself, the creature was just borrowing it, but Dameon the lizard was still Dameon, just with a little fun, extra juice. And when he died, he had to be resurrected like any other character. Finding a new familiar would give my sorcerer a new familiar with a new personality. I guess I see familiars as another character – I could see using an later spell to change it, but it would go back to normal when then spell ends. In my games, we are definitely not treating the find familiar spell the way it does it in the book. And our group has been proponents of familiars for all classes for years.
when you guys were talking about swapping out familiar bodies on the fly dependent upon need it got me thinking of the Dresden Files. The relationship he has with Bob the Skull is kind of like a cross between pact of the chain and tome. He sends bob out to scout and gather like a chain warlock, but he also does research and acts like an tome pact on steroids. Would be fun to work with a good dm to balance a Harry Dresden Warlock/wizard/sorcerer hybrid
My son who’s playing for the first time recently multiclassed into a wizard and cast find familiar. I gave him a porg (from the new Star Wars movie) this was before the movie was released and we realized how cool Porgs are. I could have used anything standard but wanted to introduce something new to my world and now my son loves it. I also have a little fun and as DM give the Porg a little bit of a love for gold coin and the Porg has a habit of picking up gold in his mouth and walking away with it Nothing harmful and never when it will actually hurt in game play.
The Celestial Chainlock I made has an imp familiar that was forced into eternal servitude by my patron and it begrudgingly obeys my commands. The relationship between the character and the familiar is a bit strained at times and it’s often quite funny. It’s still in essence a spirit so I can change it around into various forms but it typically doesn’t enjoy having it’s form manipulated, especially if is no longer able to speak because of it. His name is Libic and his main jobs are scouting, pranking, occasionally attacking, and flying around creatures heads invisibly swearing at them in infernal to distract them. His favorite thing to do is roll abysmally on saving throws and get one shot by aoe effects.
I need to shore up a weakness that my Fighter/Cleric has first, but I’m seriously considering picking up Magic Initiate and getting a Hawk or Raven for a familiar at some point. It’d be thematic with his Death Domain, a Priest of the God of the Afterlife. Not evil, but ensuring that people don’t cheat death. Yes, he doesn’t like Undead. He’s sort of a ghetto Paladin, but I’m okay with that. He’s not sneaky, so being able to scout by way of a Familiar would be insanely helpful.
So yeah now that tasha’s is out pact of the chain has gotten way more viable with the invocation Investment Of The Chain Master which makes any save the familiar has go off your warlock spell save DC as the biggest thing they get a flying or swimming speed of your choice when you summon it which is 40 ft any of the familiar’s weapon attacks count as magical to be rid of immunity and resistance to nonmagical damage and if the familiar takes damage you can give it resistance to that damage as a reaction so now since usually a warlock doesn’t use its bonus action unless they were a more combative warlock (as with fathomless or Hexblade for example) you’ll find yourself using your familiar to debuff enemies or lead them away to either gain a surprise round/steal from them while distracted/go through a path they were blocking and while the imp is still useful for its role in surveillance while being immune to magical darkness but wouldn’t be all that useful for its one attack that could deal Poison damage since an enemy could cleave them in half easily same goes for Pseudodragon for being able to keep an eye out just with its melee attack being somewhat more useful for if you want to chance being able to make someone pass out for an hour (or until it takes damage or is shaken awake) to possibly end a fight early what now really takes the cake is the sprite and the gazer which I’ll explain for both of them the sprite’s shortbow has a poison which doesn’t go away after they fail against it’s save which again with the Invocation is the warlocks save so now a normal couple of rounds for a sprite goes along of it starting as invisible it shooting an enemy with advantage due to invisible possibly giving the enemy essentially unending Poisoned condition since usually you aren’t fighting like paladins and stuff that can remove poison then the sprite goes behind full cover since it’s really small so it can’t be targeted by attacks unless an enemy goes out of their way to search for the tiny creature shooting at it instead of worrying about the frontliners up next to them next sprite turn they go invisible and move to a different cover next turn they repeat the process the only downside being that a good couple of creature types naturally are immune to the poisoned condition making the sprite more situational but at least they can still do their alignment thing and now my favorite familiar now the Gazer now let me tell you how great the Gazer is 1 it’s eye rays don’t count as spells so if he’s invisible from the invisibility spell if he uses a ray on someone he’s neither using the attack action nor casting a spell so it doesn’t break invisibility it will stay up until to break concentration which also from tasha’s you can have advantage on concentration checks from the eldritch mind Invocation and you probably have either one of 2 of the 120ft range cantrips eldritch Blast or chill Touch so you aren’t in constant range of concentration checks anyways although it would be better for the gazer if you take mind Sliver so if you target one enemy with mind Sliver and they fail the save their next save subtracts a d4 (this does go with the other familiars with saves as well keep in mind) then hit the same enemy with 2 rays which the gazer can be at most 60ft away to use on them while they’re also invisible so after they attack they move to a different position so now 1 of the rays which are all saves exclusively subtracts a d4 from his roll and side thing but the gazer’s type of flying naturally hovers so that means they’re immune to being prone so no falling to it’s death and final thing is that they’re still a great choice for a wizard/sorcerer (probably aberrant sorcerer since it’s thematic) who forms a pact with them using find familiar because since their eye rays aren’t attack rolls they can use them on the familiars turn freely Thank u for reading all this you’re cool and now another person knows about how great the Gazer is now for combat/causing a suprise round for your party have fun at your tables have a great day 🙂
I’ve used the quasit many times to walk around and explore a dungeon whilst invisible. It can also polymorph into a centipede, which my DM said was small enough to sneak under doors etc. In combat a quasit can also attempt to frighten your enemies, which is great. I’ve used the pseudodragon as a flying scout quite a lot as well as a long-range messenger. It can also poison an enemy in combat if you need that.
Familiar, Beast Companion, Humonculus, Servo, and Raven with bonuses and tons of spells… Warlock 5 Raven Queen – Raven Pact of Chain – Familiar Eldritch Invocation options W/ Eldritch Adept feat will have -Investment of Chain Master -Voice of Chain Master -Gift of the Everliving One Artificer 6 Homonculous W/ Quicksmithing Feat – Servo Ranger 3 Companion’s Bond Druid 6 Circle of Shepherds – Mighty Summoner (Good Berry) 20 levels, 2 feats, 5 “permanent” pets, with HP bonuses, Good Berries to keep them fed, lots of low level spell slots and thus more small summonables and versatility. Not a beater build out, but definitely a skill heavy problem solver.
Ive said this before and ill say it again; The celestial chain boon warlock is AMAZING. You can take a couple levels in sorcerer for Twin Spell metamagic and you can start twin spelling Cure Wounds at 5th level at two different targets. This is effectively 10 casts of a 5th level Cure Wounds spell as long as you’re targeting 2 people. Combine this with them being able to use the Help action, you can give anyone you want advantage on anything. The Help action, as far as I’m aware, can be applied to attacks and skill checks. With an imp, you gain an invisible familar with improved division, letting them see through magical darkness as well as conventional darkness. Rather than have them hang on YOUR shoulder, why not have them hang on the rogue’s shoulder? The rogue is often scouting ahead, you PLAY a rogue to be the guy that scouts ahead. Normally you do it alone, so nobody else gets hurt but NOW you have a little devil on your shoulder who gives you advantage on your stealth checks, slight of hand checks to disarm tracks or pick locks or what have you, and if you get in trouble youll never be “alone”. At least one member of your party will know exactly what’s going on. Moreover, if you FAIL to disarm a trap and you end up eating a javelin to the face, youll have a friend there who can heal you up. This works in combat as well, the familar IS an ally and will meet the requirements in granting sneak attack. An imp works best for this but the sprite is decent. Their sleep arrow is sinfully easy to save against BUT when an enemy doesn’t save against it they are OUT of that fight.
It’s hard to believe that you actually think that a creature having the variant familiar sidebar make it valid for the find familiar spell or pact of the chain. The sidebar has nothing to do with the spell. It’s basically just hiring a sidekick that can choose if it stays around and if it wants to do what you want.
I like the idea of familiars, but the implementation is rough.Something like a familiar is often a defining feature of the character. However, familiars really don’t scale so they really end up being a “ribbon” and a poor one at that. Prior editions did a better job at making them not suck. WotC seems to like to balance things by making them cool for a round but then destroyed and require refreshing in the short rests (ugh… that just needs to go, what a poorly designed mechanic that constantly rubs against suspension of disbelief).
Putting a Chainlock Familar up your sleeve or somewhere on you and having Gift of the Ever-Living Ones at all times is something I find very useful, even for roleplay as you can just hide your Familiar on you constantly and hide the fact you’re a warlock from the party and be a Celestial Warlock (Godlock?) And pretend to be a cleric.
So … Funny story. I made a warlock with a raven familiar, and everyone in my group (including me) forgot that you can only cast through your familiar if the spell has “touch” as range. Result – I used it to eldritch blast 4 enemy camps before my DM said “wait HOLD ON…” Everyone scratches their heads as to what to do now that we are in the middle of the campaign; and our whole approach to attacking orc camps was “send Paco the Raven to scout from the sky, everyone gets in position to attack, Eldritch blast, everyone looks at sky trying to find WTF just hit them, we storm them”. The DM decided that if it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Voice of the Chain Master increased the range of the spells I can cast through Paco. It was either that or retcon why I was able to shoot lasers through my bird for 2 months and now I couldn’t.
I love the Warlock concept so much, but I feel like there are several paths they could have taken that would require some tweaking. I want to give you my ideas for the Chain-lock. (Sorry this can get lengthy, but I have thought about this a lot and I’m kinda passionate about it.) My logic for approaching this would be to homebrew a few invocations or a set of invocations that allow for the Warlock to basically gain similar features as the Ranger’s Beast Master archetype, and control their “Combat Familiar” in the same way the Ranger controls their animal companion. Other invocations could further enhance the effectiveness in similar ways to how the Pact of Blades invocations do. For example, ‘Thirsting Fang’ would allow the Warlock to command their familiar to attack in the same turn that they attack. As the name suggests, this is very similar to the Thirsting Blade invocation, but instead of giving the Warlock the ability to attack twice, it mimics the ability in a similar way that BM Rangers have access to. As for a more unique idea however, I think it would be interesting for an invocation to give the Warlock the ability to cast self-targeting spells on their familiar instead of their self. I would give this a much higher level requirement, but I think it could be useful. I haven’t seen you guys do a whole lot of homebrew discussions, so I don’t know if you would be willing to look into this at all, but I also have some thoughts on Pact of Tome that I would be willing to share if you’re interested .
Sometimes I think that Pact of the Chain familiars should at least get a bit more hitpoints and/or hitting power. Sure you can summon a special familiar, but you are almost never going to give up your attack just to have it miss/be ineffective at later levels. Maybe it could add your warlock level to it’s health pool and add your proficiency bonus to its DC saves, attack rolls, and any skills/saves it is proficient in. Bit too much Beast Master? Probably, but considering one of the primary features the Boon gives you, I think it would be pretty fair.
Pact of the Chain is arguable the better Pact for non-Hexblades. With Voice of the Chainmaster and the Imp familiar, you basically have a permanent Arcane Eye which can see through magical darkness and a permanent Mage hand/Message spell, which has infinite range. They’re also the only pets which can actually speak a language and reason intelligently. Actually, my Imp has higher Wisdom and Intelligence than me, so in many respects she’s the brains of the operation.
One thing that you got near, but never really mentioned directly is that these are the only companions that are intelligent at least until 9th level when the druid can make everyone else’s companions intelligent (unless the DM has strict ruling on the familiars being fae not beast, so they can’t be awakened), and so are able to carry out complex course of strategy independently.
Pseudodragons, Imps and Quasits do not give the Warlock magic resistance. First of all, that’s a variant option and up to DM’s discretion (so more likely than not that’s a no go) and secondly, the text block that describes said option mentions that such creatures enter into a willing pact to serve as a familiar and that they can end said service for any reason at any time. Summoning a familiar and binding it to you through the spell “Find Familiar” does not even give you said creature: it summons a spirit that takes the form of a small animal or one of the special forms for a Chain Pact Warlock (You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form that you choose… When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite.), which is also the reason why that form can be changed everytime you cast the spell anew. Said spirit gains the statistics of the chosen form which, according to page 6-11 of the Monster Manual, is everything written inside a creature’s yellow text box. Variant options are green boxes and as such do not fall under creature statistics. The only way you would be able to get said magic resistance is if you encounter the actual creature and somehow manage to convince it to become your PC’s familiar.
Familiars, whether via Warlock, Wizard, or a feat that grants access to the spell, are never really fleshed out as “persons”. I love the idea of the Familiar being not only a servant, but a trusted companion and ally (Unless it’s a Quasit…fuck that guy). Even an Imp understands loyalty and will protect it’s own investment in time and energy given the hard time these little devils have in Hell. I’ve run special familiars for a few players and I always endeavor to make them “somebody”. When the players can see them as a WHO and not a WHAT, they tend to confide in them more and not use them as a resource-only-mechanic. Felzig the Imp was a crass, cigar smoking smartass with a Brooklyn accent. Yes, he wanted Inhala’s soul, but he wanted to EXIST long enough to get it. He might “interpret” he commands from time to time, but he always got the job done. Noir (also an Imp in female form) was a seductress and had her master Kitsune (even small for a Halfling) “master” around her finger. He was very protective of her for the kinds of reasons you think, and the two were inseparable. Belthazar the Gazer suffered from multiple personality disorder. “Bel” would have lasted a lot longer had he not shifted personas at the wrong time and chased a kobold down a “rabbit hole”. His master Warlock, “Wesley”, would have re-summoned him too had he not also taken two arrows to the eyes… I have plans for another familiar to meet the group through the use of an “Out of the Box” encounter (given that my players watch these, I’m not saying which) and it should be pretty great.
so also one thing to think about its the Farsest caster in the game. as long as you are in the same plane you can cast Any spell in the same plane anywhere using the creature reaction …. so they can dash and then cast the spell. pair that with Eldrech spear …….. and you have your own Orbital nuke Satellite 😀
I’ve got a chainlock warlock with pact of the outsiders. His invisible sprite familiar sits on the shoulders of people we’re talking to with it’s nutso stealth bonus and invisibility and speaking mind to mind with me while I get a second by second update on what they’re feeling giving me advantage on persuasion, insight and deception. He’s also a complete bastard for delivering poisons with his tiny bow and fucking off before anything can happen. He can work keys and lockpicks, cut bootlaces and belts, deliver messages and so much more. He’s also been a plot hook as the tribe he’s from had a few quests for us. And if someone else is talking I’ve got 30ft telepathy and can feed them second by second info. With my little invisible friend I’m the scout and a telepathic hub for my party allowing us to work in complete silence and stealth. Furthermore there’s a simple thing to set up when you’re scouting through a familiar, have the rogue or anyone that has a good perception bonus give you a smack if something’s happening.
I’m so confused, where in the Pact of the Chain feature does it state the player also receives magic resistance if the Imp has it? Am I missing something? Are they thinking this is a real Imp vs a familiar Imp? I guess this is 5 years old so I assume its widely established you do not receive magic resistance from your familiar.
Investment of the chain master is really good. Voice of the chain master isn’t bad at all. Gift of the everliving ones is situationally pretty nice. I like my idea of using the 2nd level spell flock of familiars on a quasit, have 2 of them turn into bats (quasits can transform into toads, bats, and millipedes) keep one of them in its base form. Use 2 of them to survey the battle field, while invisible, using their 60ft of blindsight. One will occasionally use its poisonous sting to inflict damage on my bonus action or use a touch spell for me on my action. When the first one drops to 0hp, have one of the surveyors transform back to quasit. The spell lasts an hour and most dungeons would theoretically take less than that. If you already have a familiar one would stick around after the spells duration as normal. Because we communicate telepathically for free, you could at least have a decent understanding of the area around you. But as an action, you can choose to observe through your familiars senses. Perfect for scouting and getting details about a place out of your DM, but it leaves your pc open to danger due to a lack of senses in their own body.
Important to mention is that: Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal. So in order to cast touch spells through your familiar, you can only do so if on your turn, the familiar already is next to an enemy. Or you would have to hold your action to cast a touch spell until the familiar’s turn and wait for it to get close enough.
I have a drow infernal warlock and felt that taking an imp familiar was a good rp choice. I don’t min/max my characters like a lot of people. And already the imp has come in handy in a fight against animated armour. I had the imp sit on the helmet of the armour when it was knocked off by the tank in the group, the helmet was trying to get back to the suit; so I told the imp to sit on the helmet and to stop it from moving. Only had one session with the imp, but I can see more rp opportunities coming up.
“It’s the only way to get the familiar.” Really? Ever consider taking Pact of the Tome plus the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation? Then you can choose Find Familiar as one of your two free rituals. Plus, of course, you get the extra cantrips – from any class’ spell list – and the ability to learn rituals. The only reasons to go Pact of the Chain is for the magic resistance from the special familiar or if it’s vitally important for your character to have the extended range offered by Voice of the Chain Master.
I’m gonna have to talk to my DM about it, but I’m thinking about building a pact of the chain warlock more for roleplay purposes than combat. Thinking maybe my warlock is blind and uses his familiar as a sort of seeing eye pseudodragon of sorts? Our party is pretty big so I don’t necessarily need to carry a ton of the weight in battle. Popping off a few spells with disadvantage cause I’m letting the familiar kind of guide my eldritch blasts or something. Idk. In my other game, one of my party members is a bard with warlock levels and he just scored a Gazer familiar. It’s great and I love it.
Well, my current character is going to dip 3 into warlock and he’s getting pact of the chain. Reason is that she’s mostly a buffer/healer. And in xanathars there is the invocation that allows you to be healed for max die whenever your familiar is within 100 ft. Combine that with for instance healing spirit and you basically become a health battery. Especially if you combine it with something like warding bond, or life transference and it becomes pretty useful. (bard 16, for 6 random spells, Hexblade Warlock 3 for shield prof, medium armor prof, a powerful charisma based booming blade, low lvl warlock spells, powerful eldritch blast, extra hex and 2 lvl 2 spell slots extra per short rest. lvl 1 divine soul sorcerer to get 3 lvl 1 cleric spells known + 1 2d4 to saving throw/attack per short rest, and 4 cantrips from sorcerer or cleric). A lot of lvl 2 spell slots (because of warlock spellslots), a LOT of cantrips (about 11 I think), and basically access to every buffing spell in the game. Also, the magic resistance thing, is that official? I thought those didn’t count really. Edit: Checked it, according to Mike Mearls you do not gain the magic resistance, it’s a separate thing.
So I have a few questions to amy dnd vets or knowledgeables. Im building a character and im really new to dnd. I wanna make a warlock and ive looked through everything I can. From what ive heard and seen I wan a use Eldritch Blast a lot and I wanna take a few invocations that make EB good. Agonizing blast, repelling blast ofc but more importantly Eldritch Spear which makes EB have a range of 300 ft. I am also looking into if I can take a feat called Spell sniper which gives it a 600 ft range. I wanna kind of make a sniper warlock if that makes sense. Ive looked into races and one race Teifling has flying so ive looked into that as a means of mobility and getting places to utilize that range. Ive also looked into fiend patronage, because it just seems good with the temp HP, extra resistance on top of teiflings fire res, the help on saving throws and hurl through hell doesnt have a range so from 600 ft I could add a lot of dmg on EB. So heres the thing I looked at pact of the tome and the cantrips from the cantrips sections of the spell list just dont seem that great when I already have like 4 at lvl 10 and those cantrips are already the best ones imo but pact of the chain may have more utility for me since im so far away or trying to be in combat. Wouldnt the familiar add utility to a character thats as far back as mine? Does this all add up as a character? Does it seem effective in combat? I just kind of need advice.
I kind of bungle the discussion about Investment of the Chain Master when discussing the average damage. It would look like this: Round 1, place Hex then Imp performs Help Action. Round 2 attack with advantage from Help action. Imp attacks out of Invisibility averaging about 10 damage. Round 3 attack without advantage and move Hex if necessary (and probable). Imp turns invisible. Round 4 attack without help and Imp attacks with advantage. This would generate an extra 2 points per round over the Help action. These numbers decrease slightly at level 4 due to the Imp now hitting behind the curve, albeit with advantage. So it may be worth it to take the invocation, but not for long. In addition I was working under the initiative rules for pets in Tasha’s, whereas the Imp rolls initiative separately. Want to support the website? Please check out the list below: Amazon Wish List: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1CYUE67ISGC14?ref_=wl_share
It is absolutely mind boggling how a website like this flies under the radar. These articles covers more than simply reading off the rules like some of the more frequented D&D youtube websites. The moment you shared actual ideas and how to apply them I hit subscribe. This is high quality content that absolutely deserves more attention.
You wanted chain pact stories? I had a criminal background celestial warlock who went pact of the chain with the Sprite. We reflavored the Sprite as a “shoulder angel 😇” who was there to keep him on the path of the righteous. (Complete with robes and halo) Sadly, he got killed on his second adventure. His story was he robbed a church and accidentally destroyed a holy relic. A solar came down and gave him a choice- serve Good or take your chances in the afterlife. He took the deal. So he’s a reluctant hero who’s basically on probation with the powers of Good. His natural instincts were to rob, cheat, manipulate, all for his benefit. But his pact was pushing him to do good, to be good.
Good article. I’m currently playing a level 11 GOO-lock with Pact of the Chain, so I’ve explored every concept you’ve talked about in this article, plus some. Couple of things to consider: 1.) My DM ruled that if the familiar dies, whatever it’s carrying drops to the ground. So, ring of spell storing, wand, etc. If the imp casts a spell, it’s no longer invisible. Easy way to lose a very powerful Magic item. 2.) There’s also a rule you want to check with your DM in the Find Familiar spell. It states, “you can summon the familiar within 30ft of you,” but it says nothing about being able to “see” where you’re summoning the familiar. So, could you “summon” the familiar behind a wall or a door? RAW, yes … instant infiltration spy. 3.) If your DM allows addition spells from the OPUS of Extrinsic Substance spell list, take a 3rd level spell called Instant Traversal. You can cast this spell on an object and teleport to within 5 feet from the object as a bonus action (range is 1 mile). Have your Imp carry the object, and now you’ve got a 1 mile range Dimension Door, as a bonus action. 4.) Your Imp can carry rope … so you (and your party) can now basically climb anywhere. 5.) Your Imp can see in magical darkness. Take the Devils Sight Invocation. Cast darkness on your Imp. You now have mobile darkness that you can attack into at range with Eldritch Blast. 6.) And, the most diabolical (I shouldn’t even share this) … take Bestow Curse. At 5th level, Bestow Curse lasts for 8 hours with no concentration .
Just a thought, add some flasks of oil into your bag of holding, get the imp to drop them near to or on an enemy, or have your imp pour the oil onto the enemy, turn firebolt into a discount fireball for 1sp+ each cast and no spell slots spent. Also the fun you could have with poison or other substances that can have interesting effects when ingested are countless, especially if you’re playing an evil character
Chain pact is pretty much like having a second character under your control. There’s so much complexity and power to it. It’s just important to clear up with the DM that your familiar is basically a second character for you. I track equipment for my familiar on a separate sheet. You’re vastly underrating Investment of the Chain Master, it’s a flippin’ insane invocation. It makes Sprite into a monster. Ranged shortbow attacks with like dc15 vs be poisoned for a minute with no repeated save, and if it gets a 5 or lower (which isn’t something you count on, it just happens sometimes) it gets Slept and basically oneshotted as a result. Further a Sprite might actually be a decent holder of your party’s Thieves’ Tools. And it has such an insane sneak modifier it will almost never fail stealth. And when you combine temporary HP and the reaction damage resistance you suddenly worry much less about your familiar dying. Oftentimes enemies will just waste attacks against familiars and get nowhere. Oftentimes your familiar will not have anything to do with its action on turn 1 (especially if it beats your initiative). I like giving my familiar a bag of ball bearings or caltrops for it to spread around. Also I’d always take Magic Stone on my warlock. Your Imp/Sprite/whatever uses its reaction to boost its own pebbles since it’s a touch spell, then on each subsequent bonus action it chucks a stone for 1d6 + 5 damage. It’s like Hex but a cantrip and non concentration. Imp with a Pyroconverger or Horn of Blasting seems cool too.
The pact of the chain warlock (or tome lock with find familiar) has an interesting mobility option — curse the familiar and use relentless curse for the duration to teleport to the imp. The hexblade could do this without a spell slot or concentration using hexblade’s curse. Any patron at all could take sign of ill omen and cast bestow curse at 5th level, getting this teleport for 8 hours. Voice of the chain master also has applications in scouting and mapmaking. Medeival mapmakers were horribly inaccurate by modern standards, but a chain lock could draw the land as he sees it from 1000 feet up. All without leaving hus hotel room. This could also apply to scouting — use the eagle for its incredible vision and scout not by hiding but by flying very high.
IF I were to take pact of the Tome, it’s more to pickup / convert cantrips from another class, i.e. Thorn Whip, Shillelagh etc… Having access to the base Find Familiar spell is just a bonus. The main attraction of Pact of the Chain to me are all the familiar centric invocations, and the borderline game breaking combinations that are made available as a result. The variant familiar isn’t summoned via a spell, so if it died, that would be a big Ooof. I think that since magic resistance exists via 2 races, having it granted as a class feature via Pact of the Chain shouldn’t be game breaking. One of my favorite combinations is a Hill Dwarf Warlock, Pact of the Chain, with the Dwarven Fortitude Feat, and the Gift of the Ever living Ones Invocation. This lets you use a hit die to heal when you take the dodge action, and it heals for max value if your familiar is within 100ft. If you manage to pick up the Periapt of Wound Closure that essentially doubles your hit dice pool. On the use of Ring of Spell Storing: I’ve played with DM’s that are more pedantic about spell casting rules, and in order to cast a reaction spell you’d have to meet the requirements i.e. being attacked to cast shield, or having another spell caster cast a spell to use Counterspell. I’m sure some DM’s would be much less strict regarding the use of reaction spells, but there are other magic storage items that explicitly limit the possible spells to be ones with a casting time of 1 action. Additionally, by RAW use of a magic item is an action, so it’s debatable if the Imp could even use it’s reaction to cast a spell from the ring, as that would qualify as using a magic item, rather than casting a spell.
Note: As someone who primarily uses pseudodragon familiar, it may be worse in melee than the imp but it is better in other ways. First, it has its poison which is extremely good once you get investment of the chain master and a decently high charisma. Pseudodragon also has very high perception bonuses, useful if you don’t have a wisdom caster to manage perception checks, and it has blindsight and darkvision. Also, quasit can fly by just turning into a bat.
In a homebrew campaign in wich we were forced by our patrons to be warlocks I was originally an artificier, so by pure lore I multiclassed immediately into a Artificier-warlock character, I chose pact of the blade and, my blade was the strongest weapon I’ve ever used in a campaign, because Inwas an artificier my blade was a kind of robotic arm that could absorb non-magical weapons to copy its features, and could combine them to make goofy ahh weapons, like a crossbow that could shoot axes or things like that. Obviously this is impossible with the manual rules, but the story forced us to be warlocks, so in exchange we transformed into THE warlocks. Hope you enjoyed this short story as much as I enjoyed using a beartrap attached to a chain as a grappling hook.
Hello, I enjoy this format a great deal. I also loved playing a Chain-Lock thru the BALDUR’S GATE: DESCENT INTO AVERNUS adventure. IMP is even more amazing for that story arc. But…Why Choose? It only costs you 70 minutes and 10 gp to reformat your familiar into any of the Pact of the Chain options. As an example, when we were attempting to bypass a invading War-band of Demons, I cast Find Familiar and formatted my, normally Impish, familiar spirit into a Quasit. The Quasit version was able to infiltrate the Demonic camp unnoticed. We gathered enough information to bypass the Demons.
I don’t think it’s as clear cut in favor of the imp with pact of the chain familiars. Pseudodragons have the advantage on perception and communication, Quasits closely rival the imps only they get that free Scare once a day and can fly in bat form, Sprites are the best at stealth as well as the smartest of the 4 and has more social utility. They all have hands to manipulate things too. My feeling is that the shared magic resistance thing depends on negotiations between the familiar and the warlock since they are intelligent creatures who should be able to withhold this extra feature if they wish. They are commanded to help the warlock by the patron but should still have some agency in my opinion. Imagine the roleplay possibilities of constantly having to stay on your familiars good side in order to have this advantage!
I’m not sure what’s so much better about the Imp compared to the Sprite here. Everything that relies on hands and at-will invisibility is stuff the Sprite can do. A bag of holding weighs 15 pounds, so a Sprite can still carry it. Plus, with Investment of the Chain Master, the Sprite can attack from 40 feet away rather than closing to melee, and it applies the poisoned condition on a failed save (using your save DC because of the invocation) for the entire combat. It can also do some low level mind reading for you during social scenes, especially interrogations. It used to be a poor choice compared to Imp, but with the Investment invocation it’s now competitive.
Im considering going fighter six, and warlock four. Maybe pick kobold for pact tactics. Or varient human for a feat. Pact tactics might be redundant if darkness is our concentration spell of choice, but it could also free up concentration for something like hex. Being a crappy fighter for six levels that invests in charisma and con will pay off hugely when the warlock dip is set up. Go hexblade pact of the chain. Be in melee range with a familar doing bonus action attacks off your shoulder. Maybe having magic resist.
Poly your imp into something with a flyby then and take dragons breath. Then take ritual caster if you like. I personally am doing a lightfoot with rock genie familiar and a few levels mercy or drunken monk for the versitility. The spell that sets things on fire you walk past looks fun when you can move through people. Plus you can make the mask the vessel for the genie and really double down thematically. Like..majoras mask.
My plan would be have invocations Investment of the Chain Master and Devil’s Sight (also if you can take a feat take Eldritch Adept and then Agonizing Blast) cast Darkness on a pebble, give pebble to Imp, Imp runs up to target in darkness, I cast Eldritch Blast with advantage, Imp then bonus attacks with 5dmg plus 10dmg (or half if missed) so even with a miss to 2nd ability you’re getting an extra 10dmg with both you and Imp at advantage, then have your Imp move back toward you and you’re in darkness giving disadvantage to attacks against you. yeesh pretty powerful.
I have an interesting pact of the chain build that uses cross classing with the artificer artillerist. Keeping the player character out of battle and pretty much giving all the stuff from that class to the imp. Then also use enchantments on items to further bolster the Imp then after nine levels of artificer (total level 12) taking Glyph of warding and just start storing spells every night heck sometimes after a short rest last time maybe only able to use Touch spells through the familiar that means I can cast multiple touch Spells at the same time stacking effects and etcetera
@SecretDoor: Your math is slightly off for your damage calculation for the Imp. Imp inflicts about 12 hp average on a hit. Ignore resistance and immunity to poison – when you meet those the imp does something other than attack. Imp hits for +5 hp magical piercing on a hit. Poison damage is either 5 hp on a made save or 10 hp on a failed save. If the target ALWAYS saves then average damage is +5 poison damage. Counting the chance of failing the save that works out to average damage +5 hp piercing damage and +7 hp poison damage.
Actually, just saying but, with a bag of holding the Imp could carry something like water, and drop a ton of water somewhere, which would allow for a Fathomless Warlock to teleport there if need be. Also, I don’t know if the Imp is 100% loyal to its master, but if so, while Genie Warlock would take a rest in his ”lamp”, the invisible-flying-40feetspeed imp could very well carry the lamp and travel long distances for the party (level 10). Since it speaks, and since the party can hear what’s going on outside of the ”lamp”, the Imp could inform the party when it’s time to get out. Although, again, that would rely on the fact that the imp is 100% loyal to its master, because otherwise, nothing could stop the imp to fly to the moon and drop the party in orbit and to watch them suffocate and die. Lol
If you play with a dragon, and it gets erect… Wait what? Ehem. Sorry I let me get my head out of the donkeys ass. -.- God dammit SOUTHPARK! I should delete that butter… If you play in a game where you perhaps gather ingredients for potions and poisons, surely you can just send your familiar imp out both night and day to gather all sorts of herbs, spices and other stuff for you right? Hell the imp has hands… If nothing else it could assist you while you make potions and stuff, however, could it possibly even make stuff on its own? Say you have a TON of ingredients. Could you go into your Genies whatever and summon the Imp? The Imp could then stay inside there forever with a full setup for the creation of various useful potions, poisons… Why even limit it to that. The imp may be weak, but could it forge? Could it make armor and clothing in there if you have shown it what to do? You left your imp in there. It finished its task of making you healing potions. Then while waiting for you to get it, it sat down and made itself a little chainmail armor. Wait… Question: Do you pick only once and your familiar is always that thing? Do the pact version only allow you one form? ______________ Man, I actually do not like it if magic is so common. Perhaps you got a magic store in some really big cities and those are like famous. They should also be super expensive so although people several towns or even cities over murmur about this famous magic store. However even those who have been to that city would be unlikely to have been able to buy from the store.
From perusal your articles, I think the major consideration should be what does your group need? If you have no other ritual caster and are lacking in utility cantrips as a group, I would suggest Tome. If thats covered, then being redundant would be a waste and you would get more out of Chain. We should play what we want but we don’t play in a vacuum.
Yeah, yeah, the imp is great, but how does it compare to the sprite or pseudo dragon? The Sprite has hands, too. And a empathic sense that can identify otherplanar beings. faster flying speed, sleep arrows, and natural invisibility. And they are not azzholes, like imps are. Pseudodragons are magic resistant, too. And have a poison tail stinger that can knock people unconscious. Unfortunately, they did away with the natural camouflage ability of previous editions, so they aren’t as stealthy as the other two. But what I’m getting at is why fixated on the imp? The other two are equally viable.
Do you consider the Voice of the Chain Master invocation to be worth taking in lieu of Investment? I am not particularly keen on having my imp be a massive battlefield presence besides the bag of holding/ healing potion combat medic role and of course the always useful “flyby” help action. Instead I’d really prefer to lean into the scouting, sabotaging shenanigans that the Imp can get up to. As such, would you think Voice to be a worthwhile level 5 invocation?
How does the bag of holding work if / when you dismiss your Imp? Wouldn’t it suck everything within 10’ of it to the astral plane? I mean, this could certainly be useful in some circumstances as there is no save against it and you can just summon the Imp again with a ritual, but I don’t think that is the point. I have a warlock with an Imp that the fiend has given me (a fat loud mouth that is difficult to control) that the DM controls for the most part so he tends to stay in his pocket dimension…do most players keep their familiars beside them and summoned constantly?
I like Dwarf warlock, pact of the chain with fiend patron. Temps for downing enemies early on. 4th level Take Dwarven resilience, this combo’d with Gift of the everliving one so when you need to you can regain max for HD on the fly and defend yourself ; Fiendish vigor is also great if you want temps at the start of fights etc but it can potentially wait if you want to take something else.
Here is a question, do you think most DM’s would rule an invisible creature using the Help action is now known to the enemy since the Help action is a form of distracting focus away from something. So most likely still at disadvantage but probably be able to attack the Imp? Not sure if AoO would be triggered but maybe it could target the Imp with just a regular attack as the enemy now realizes something around here is distracting it.
Imp, pseudo dragon, quasit and gazer all have the variant familiar texts. Find familiar summoned familiars do not extend their resistance to their summoner. The imp entry mentions a contract (per all devils, contracts are key), quasit entry days can leave at any time. An independent imp, quasit or pseudo dragon can choose to serve a mortal spell caster. One summoned by a find familiar spell has no choice, they are a gift, a boon, from the other worldly patron. Now the gazer, THAT is a familiar to have. Eye beams aren’t attacks…
yknow its funny you mention people would decide between pact of the tome or pact of the chain…. i was actually deciding between blade and chain…because i have shadowglass daggers, 1d4 pierce and 1d4 necrotic, +1 daggers…no visible wound left behind, so if i understand PotB correctly, i can make those daggers my pact weapon (the ‘weapon’ is 2 daggers though, would need to talk to me DM on that, as the desc says ONE weapon) and thus not only leave no damage evidence on assassinations, but also leave no evidence of me having the daggers either! ultimately i went with chain, before even knowing what you described with using imps! i’d figured i’d use the quasit mostly…
The thing with using your BA to attack with your familiar and it losing invisibility is less of an issue imo. This is because the familiar will take its turn right after you, and can therefore use its action to recast invisibility on itself. So, unless the creature has a way of seeing through its invisibility—in which case, there would be no point in being invisibile to begin with—then I don’t see a massive downside to having the ability to have an attack that doesn’t take your action and its reaction. Also, I’d imagine the familiar could only attune to a magic item if it is a “real” imp, (or quasit, pseudodragon, and sprite). My reasoning being because it is something that can exist absent of you. Whereas if you die, your familiar ceases to exist. (I’m fairly certain… I haven’t reread the find familiar spell to make sure.) Though I don’t see anything wrong with letting them use magic items in general, if they are physically capable of doing so, and (if it is required) if you are attuned to it, then there should not be a problem with that either. Great article man.
I love the Imp and the quasit. I love the 2nd level spell flock of familiars. The invocation investment of the chain master is quite worthwhile. Both the quasit and the Imp can turn invisible. With the afore mentioned invocation, The quasit can transform into a bat. Bats have 60ft of blindsight (which is basically what dark vision and devils sight wish they were) Flock of familiars with a quasit familiar. Have two of them transform to bats. Have those two turn invisible and fly around the battlefield using their 60 feet of blind sight. Communicating with them telepathically doesn’t take any action economy, just seeing through their senses does. You could just have them warn you when there is some invisible creatures or other threats you normally would’ve missed. The 3rd quasit just acts as a normal familiar that might occasionally attack with its sting weapon on your bonus action or deliver a touch based spell on your action. If you have the invocation gift of the everliving ones, having any of your familiars within 100ft of you makes any attempt at healing act like you rolled max numbers.
I think RAW and RAI with that variant Imp is that it is only intended when you make a deal with an actual imp for it to be your familiar. I’m going to see if I can make a deal with an imp in a game I am in and then use that as part of the basis of multiclassing into Warlock and then using that imp as the familiar (as the imp is really a conduit to the greater power). Getting that magic resistance or not I don’t mind.
I gotta say you are a game changer! I’ve never played a warlock, 90% of the time I play druid/monk/ranger variations. I started a new game and had this idea for a druid/warlock with just a dash of monk for no armor needed sweetness while shapeshifted. Granted, the warlock bit started out just to get Devil’s Sight and Beast speech for free. Then while working on background idea it sorta took on a life of its own. I’m taking Pact of the Chain to get a fey spirit that turns into an imp. Even better its an albino imp, my GM is loving the idea and is running away with it. (She helped me think of a really interesting twist to the the background idea, can’t share it because someone from my group might see it and be spoiled) After perusal this article, my little dude is going to be so fun to play around with and shock the party at just how useful he is. If I can just come up with a name for him before next session where I will be introducing him to the party. Always open for name ideas! Thanks again for the article, I’m only slightly sadden I went with Archfey warlock instead of Genie warlock. That will be for next game… oh no… new idea, yep I know what I’m doing if my rouge/monk dies in my other game because Genie Pact Warlock would make sooooo much since oh that gm is going to love it! THANK YOU for all the new fun I’m going to have with my warlocks and their imps!
Other option when you have investment if the chain master is cast magic stone as a bonus action (familiar can be carrying the stones as you can cast touch spells through it) and then have it lob them for the next few turns. I’ve given mine a bead of force too… A bag of tricks and a wand of magic missiles are great – as is casting dragon’s breath on it
Hey Matt! I know you haven’t posted in a while, I hope everything is well with you. I just wanted to share, tonight is gonna be my first night playing a new warlock, and per all your advice and suggestions I am going Chain pact and picking the Imp. I am BEYOND excited to try it out!!! Thank you for the awesome articles, I really hope we get to see some more from you soon! Many blessings to you.
Some excellent ideas here!!! But I do have a question: you point out that a Familiar is NOT the actual creature but a spirit (Fiend, Celestial, or Fey) taking that form. I presume that to mean that if the Familiar changes form, it would still retain its memories from previous incarnations. If that is the case, do you think the INT (and WIS, for that matter) of the form matter? Or, should those stats be of the spirit that is merely manifesting as that form?
Although the imp is mechanically strong, it does have two drawbacks that you did not mention. MM p.67 and again MM p.69: an imp uses every opportunity to corrupt the soul of its summoner while serving as a familiar, to ensure the soul ends up in the Nine Hells. MM p.67: the imp also has a true name, which can be discovered. If an agile DM wants to keep the familiars on offer on par with each other (why not?), these drawbacks should definitely be felt in the game. Also, an invisible creature flapping its wings should definitely draw attention, especially in an indoor setting or an area with low ambient noise. I don’t think this was mentioned in your article. A sprite familiar is ideal in this respect with Stealth +8. I think the familiar’s monster lore is just as important as its stat block, and given the imp’s evil nature, the player should feel its corrupting influence constantly. It’s not about wands of magic missiles and magic rings, it’s about what corruption is happening to the warlock who chooses the imp, however temporarily, to be their companion. This article is player-centric, it would be nice to see some DM advice for these kinds of topics. The DM needs to put in as much work as the player to make this subclass work smoothly. All said, solid article. I will check out some of your others.
A familiar does not attack as a Bonus Action. If you give up your action, then it can attack as a Reaction on your turn. If you give up your Bonus Action, then it can attack as an Action on its next turn. 😊 If you have access to Fog Cloud, then a Pseudodragon’s Blindsight would be good. It might be detrimental to the rest of the party, but in an emergency situation it might be worthwhile. A Sprite is good, but the save against its poison has to be 5 or lower to knock a creature unconscious. The pseudodragon’s poison knocks a creature unconscious of their save if more than 5 points less than the DC. Remember, also, that this is your Spell Save DC that you are using. Therefore, the Pseudodragon’s poison is better. I think a better strategy for the Imp is to use a Net. You can buy a bunch for it to carry in its Bag of Holding. Put a coin on a chain around its neck. Cast Darkness on the coin. Have the Imp fly towards an opponent and throw the net. Nets usually are at Disadvantage to use at any range, but in Darkness the Advantage and Disadvantage cancel out. If the target cannot see the Imp, then it ends up with Advantage to hit. If the Imp hits, have it put the coin in its mouth and cover the magical darkness. The rest of the party can then rush in to help. What do you think of taking Magic Stone and giving three of them to a familiar with hands? You could hide and let your attack at range. If you have Pact of the Chain and Investment of the Chain Master, a DM might let you cast Flock of Familiars and get three of the special forms.
Sprite advantage/disadvantage is better than the imp resilience in combat. Enemies don’t have aoe? Send him in and spam help for advantage. They do have aoe? Range attack for disadvantage. Resilience doesn’t even matter. The Dm gets annoyed and takes out the sprite with range? You just got action economy. Out of combat? Sprite has higher stealth and dex . Rp? Heartsense beats anything an imp has. Heck dm will get furious if u roll well.
i wont stand for this sprite slander! does your imp get +8 to stealth, get to call out alligences and knock people unconcious from a safe distance? Can your imp potentially use enhanced weapons and armor? Didn’t think so! (sure, the imp is stronger, but don’t be telling me the sprite doesn’t have unique utility)
Investment of Chain Master has made the pseudodragon my top tier combat familiar. Combo with Summon Undead (wretched) and Mindsliver and its straight nonsense. You can have the familiar attack twice instead, you’re looking at two chances to KO any foe not immune to poison condition. Even if it isn’t KO’d by poison the Wretched undead will have a chance to paralyze it.
If you really need to you can reformat your Chain-Familiar into a “normal ” option. This is usually a bad idea since it gets the animal int. I did that once to turn the Imp into a octopus to bypass a challenge. My familiar has also been killed/ sacrificed twice “Detecting” traps. The uses are myriad.
I had this crazy idea involving the imp and Investment of the Chain Master that I would like to get an opinion on. So, say you have a warlock with an imp through chain. Now you also have the feat Shadow Touched giving you the ability to take the necromancer spell Inflict Wounds. Since Investment of the Chain Master allows you to use your familiar’s attack as your own bonus action attack, does that mean you can attack with your Eldrich Blase with your action and with Inflict wounds with your bonus action? And if your target retaliates with a strike at your familiar, can you respond with Hellish Rebuke?