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For whatever reason, manyDungeons & Dragonsplayers also happen to be the proud owners of one or more pets. This results in a large number of player characters who are interested in acquiring a pet or summoning a familiar during their time at the game table.
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While you might think such creatures are more for roleplay than mechanical use, the fact of the matter is that a pet or familiar introduces many benefits to an adventuring party. Today, we’ll look at how to get the most out of your furry, feathered, scaled, or otherwise adorned friend.
Acquiring Pets And Familiars
As far as familiars are concerned, any spellcaster can summon a familiar through the use of the 1st-level conjuration spellFind Familiar. When you cast the spell, you choose a form for your familiar from among “bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel.” Each of these forms comes with its own stat block that has various proficiencies, speeds (such as swimming or flying), and abilities like advantage on hearing-based perception checks.
Pact of the chain Warlockscan access even more familiars, including the imp, pseudodragon, quasit, and sprite. These forms are slightly superior to the forms listed in the spell description.
On the other hand, acquiring a pet is a feat that is left up to the dungeon master. However, you may bet that earning a pet likely involves the use of theAnimal Handling skill. In addition, player characters are encouraged to further coerce pets through the use of roleplaying actions such as providing the pet food, talking to it using a spell or ability likeSpeak with Animals, and aiding the creature otherwise to the best of your ability.
There are no hard and fast rules on pets in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, so it may be worth it to have a conversation with your resident dungeon master over the mechanics of acquiring a pet in their game. Furthermore, don’t be surprised if a single successful Animal Handling check fails to convince a critter to become your loyal lap dog for the rest of its days.
Scouting
The first and most obvious use for pets and familiars is asa scouting agent. Thanks to thetiny sizeof these creatures, it’s usually rathereasy for them to slip into places that much larger creatures would have a hard time passing through. For example, many pets and familiars can easily squeeze beneath a door, fly through an open window, crawl through the cracks in some rubble, or climb a gutter to a nearby rooftop.
Depending on the environment,the presence of these animals in the adventuring space may go entirely unquestioned. For instance, a rat familiar that scouts out the hideout of a band of lizardfolk living in the sewers is unlikely to arouse suspicion from its targets.
While the rat won’t blow your cover in this example, the lizardfolk still may want to make a meal of the creature if they happen to notice it. Remember your surroundings!
The combination ofextremely small size and mundane attributes is a very powerful mixfor a scout. Consequently, pets and familiars often make better scouts than even the stealthiest of player characters.
Familiars like the spider and weasel also have high stealth bonuses that make them difficult for enemies to notice in general. For the best results, always choose the right pet or familiar for the situation.
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Help Action
The second most common use for pets and familiars is as a free Help action distributor. While pets and familiars are expressly forbidden from attacking, they do have access to other actions as normal. This includes the Help action, which providesadvantage on the next ability check or attack rollthat a fellow creature is making.
While pets and familiars tend to use the help action to assist their masters, don’t forget that you may also Help other members of your party as well as allied non-player characters.
This is the best feature of pets and familiarsas far as combat is concerned, however, it does present its own difficulties. In order to provide advantage on an attack roll against a creature, the familiar has to get within 5 feet of that creature. Thatexposes your pet or familiar to a dangerous situationwhere they quite possibly might be slain.
Additionally, area-of-effect spells like fireball will easily dispatch familiars and pets as even if the creature saves against the spell and takes half damage, it will still be enough damage to finish them.
It’s also worth noting thatthe depth of your familiar’s Help action is sometimes up to dungeon master interpretation. Don’t be surprised if your dungeon master decidesyour familiar can’t help your character bust open a door, eavesdrop on a conversation, or provide advantage on an attack against an ancient dragon.
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Touch Spells
Maybe it’s because it’s the final line of text on the already lengthy find familiar spell description, but many players don’t know about or utilize the ability for their familiar to deliver spells with a range of touch for them. This is an ability that’s tied to the magical nature of familiars. If your character has a more mundane or natural pet, you may not be able to access it.
Touch spells are often underused in games of D&D as they require typically ranged player characters to subject themselves to the dangers of melee combat. However, a player character with a familiar doesn’t have to worry about this risk as their familiar can deliver the spell for them while they remain safely in the distance.
Great touch spells to use alongside your familiar includeCure Wounds, Inflict Wounds, Shocking Grasp, Vampiric Touch, Contagion, Lesser Restoration,andGreater Restoration.
A lot of these spells just so happen to be powerful healing abilities. Take note, healers!
Object Interaction
Lastly and perhaps least commonly applicable, familiars can be great for interacting with certain objects. In many adventures,the player characters may be after a certain item. The item in these adventures is colloquially referred to as a"MacGuffin". If the MacGuffin happens to be small enough (like a gem, letter, or book),your familiar or pet can probably get away with carrying it.
Your enemies may be on high alert against your character’s attempts to steal such an item, but what they won’t be expecting is a hawk swooping in and taking off with it. While familiars and pets aren’t intelligent enough to understand how to take such actions on their own, the fact thata familiar always obeys your commandsmeans that it doesn’t need to understand to get the job done.
Aside from MacGuffins, familiars can also be useful forinteracting with other items often found in dungeons, such as keys and trap triggers. Who could’ve guessed that fetch would be such a useful command?
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