Inspiring leader is a great buff if you have a familiar in your party, especially if it has resistance effectivelly doubling those hit points. Your party will also love you if you get this!
Also if you are playing a game restricted to T1 or you wanted it - Chef. Either way it is always good to give the party reasons to take a short rest as a Warlock.
@@Bilbrons-and-DragonsI'm sure that you caught this after looking into Inspiring leader but Celestial Warlock gets a similar feature at, I believe, 10th lvl.
One synergy I also picked up - magic stone can be cast thru a familiar, constantly filling them with a very solid ranged attack option in case poison doesnt work, or in case you can't close on an enemy for a round
ok, how about this. we cast "summon familiar swarm" and get 3 familiars and give them all stones? I prefer ninja spirites shooting people to death at range.
@@tombirmingham7033In 5e the spell is Flock of Familiars as for magic stone you can only make 3 a casting and if I recall correctly they only last one minute so can't really stockpile them.
@@nickm9102 bless your heart. magic stone is a bonus action, you summon 3 stones. range touch, so in the hands of the familiars. and you then have 3 potential attacks.
@@tombirmingham7033 I understand that it is 3d6 in potential damage from 3 attacks. That said I can stock up on acid or alchemist fire and up cast flock of Familiars for more when the warlock reaches lvl 5 and 3rd lvl pact slots. This also means that your strategy after lvl 5 leaves one or more of those Familiars that you just spent half of your slots on have no magic stones and as mentioned you can't really stockpile them and since they're are no good buff spells that can target multiple people on the Warlock list you are better off with the bag of holding trick after lvl 4. Also your backhanded Southern way of calling me an idiot is inappropriate as my original post is still completely accurate and unrefuted by your response AND your response resulted in an explanation of where the strategy falls short and an option for how to negate that shortcoming.
Some thing worth noting: Imp, and Quasit are CR 1. Which means you can polymorph them into more useful forms, than the others. Not that you would frequently poly them over a PC, just something to keep in mind. I like the idea of using Gift of the Ever-living Ones, in combo with Celestial warlock, and then you can use the bonus action heal mechanic as a self heal for max effect. It's pretty selfish... but you're a warlock.
Man I started planning a Custom Lineage(Fey) character who used pact of the chain to get a sprite, Flock Of Familiars, both familiar invocations, and the Watchers dark gift flavored as evil fey. Then I thought "I wonder if Bilbrons has done a video about Chain Pact" and here I am! I'm about to listen to this video and see how it can add to my character The Fey King.
At level 2 you can take non-pact of chain invocations, then at level 3 when you get pact of chain you can swap out one of them, then level 4 you can swap out the other
One possible fun combo. If you are multiclassed with a battle master, or have one in your party, they can attack and use disarming strike making a creature drop a weapon or a caster drop their spell focus. Normally they can just pick it up on their turn and still have all of their actions. . . Unless your invisible familiar, who readied their action snatches it 1st. In this case it becomes invisible just like the familiar. Then they can just bring it to you and you can store it in your genie vessel with everyone else's stuff.
i love chainlock familiar. good for magic stone usage, pseudodragons have a great poison ability (better than sprites) with invesment of the chain master while quasits have scare that works well with the same invocation. i pretty much just use those 2 and skip the imp and quasit since quasits can become invisible like the imp anyway. i disagree though that warlocks don't have good bonus action options. depends on the kind of warlock you're making and how long your combats go. hex, hexblade's curse, spirit shroud, polearm master, crossbow expert, tentacle of the deep, elemental gift, sanctuary, magic stone, expeditious retreat, misty step, etc. some these will compete with the investment of the chainmaster's bonus action attack so imo the build is either built around the familiar attacking to make that choice the usual choice or it makes non-bonus actions superior such as doing invis + help/drop inhaled poisons or the quasit's scare. i disagree that quasit is the worst of the bunch. it's the familiar i pick every time unless i'm building around the pseudodragon's poison ability. being able to scare 1/combat (simply unsummon and resummon the familiar after each combat (takes 10 mins due to ritual cast). having a high dc fear effect that doesn't consume your action economy is excellent to have for every 1st round of combat. then you can either have it attack and poison or hide and help/drop inhaled poisons. so yeah i think you are underrating how often you can use the scare ability. good point on the synergy with summon greater demon. sprite imo is the worst of the bunch though not by much. all of them are good actually. in terms of usefulness i rank them as quasit>pseudodragon (for builds based around it)>imp>sprite. i'd rank the pseudrodragon below the imp if you're not taking advantage of its poison. voice of the chainmaster is great as a pseudo blind fight/devil sight that you can combo with darkness, fog cloud, pyrotechnics, etc. i disagree that the imp is the best for melee combat. if i'm sending my familiar to melee, it better be doing something effective and as you mentioned it has no riders. i'd rather send the quasit or pseudodragon so i can inflict poison or unconscious. the main use of imp for me is the scouting you mentioned. it's just superior statblock wise for combat but none of its abilities make me want to use it for that aside from the typical invis + help/inhaled poison drop or darkness + voice of the chainmaster/devil sight combo.
Very DM dependant, but I've used my invisible imp to steal arrows from the quiver of an enemy archer. Outside of combat, I love using the bird's eye view of my familiar while my character uses cartographer's tools to draw out maps of the area. The maps tend to fetch a decent price when I'm done using them, if the area was relatively uncharted. I love the idea of cheating at card games, though. I'll definitely have to try that on the NPC who cheated us at a card game.
Common and uncommon magic items work well for chainlock familiars indeed, bags of holding with trap making supplies from the equipment section of the phb, a spell tattoo for something like unseen servant or prestidigitation or mending, any of these could easily make an imp into a back up rogue if the party doesn't have one, especially if you give them the gloves of thievery and some lock picks or acid, they're already an excellent poisoner when you consider their immunity and personal supply, add prestidigitation to the mix and your victim won't know anything is wrong. A quick taste and add some poison and then reset the flavor and they won't know the difference.
uploads are popping off! As for tactics, you could take Inflict Wounds via Shadow Touched. An upscaled Inflict Wounds + auto advantage from an invisible familiar could hurt quite a bit and be a good way to start the combat. Or of course Ring of Spell Storing + Summon from an invisible familiar, Will cancel invisibility, because of the concentration addon in the text, but an Elemental just popping up into the enemy ranks from nowhere could be rather amusing
@@Samuel_Kabel Sorry my bad on clarification. You wouldn't be casting Summon Elemental through the Familiar, the Familiar would be casting it via a Ring of Spell Storing
nice review! at least for me, the imp and the pseudodragon tend to be the most attractive for the overall versatility in the range of situations that i might expect in a campaign. i usually re-interpret the creature for fitting with a specific character.
Familiar bomb tactic. Fill a bag of holding with whatever flammable substance you concoct in your game. Have your Imp carry the bag next to the target that you do not like very much. Have him open bag and then summon him back. Flame Arrow and enjoy the fireworks.
@@godofzombi Yes! The ever flammable poison trick. Why didn't I think of that? lol Here I was setting oils and volatile liquids on fire creating small explosions, when all this time I should have been using poison.
@@tobybigham4196 Acid, not poison. It's not as flashy as fire, I admit, but it'll hurt more. Creatures immune to poison: 95. Creatures immune to fire: 40. Creatures immune to acid: Only 15. Also you can use it without accidentaly burning down the orphanage you were defending.
@@godofzombi Ahhhh the ever so flammable Acid. Now mind you, you are talking about a completely different tactic that I have used with Familiars and homunculus where they can't lift more than 5 lbs and fly above things while dropping them on baddies. But that has nothing to do with with teleporting say 200lbs of flammable liquids or powder to a target and igniting it. I only made fun of you because you came in discussing a completely different tactic that had nothing to do with the conversation. And you probably didn't realize I was talking about cool tactics to do with your Artillerist or Alchemist. Another tactic I would use is shooting nets with the catapult spell, which do damage and knock baddies prone. Or using catapult to shoot glass bottles full of "irritant" powder which could blind folks for 1d2 rounds on a Dex DC12.
@@tobybigham4196 Yeah I tought this was about chainlocks, not multiclassing into artifcer. I got a tactic: infuse a bag of holding, then craft or buy another one and have your imp (or unseen servant) fly to the traget and shove one bag in the other and everything within 10ft gets sucked into the astral plane. You can light some fireworks to celebrate afterwards.
We are rocking almost the same build! I have a new DM so I can wait on investment for a bit because at lvl 3 I ALREADY have a ring of spell storing! Excited on 5 to try out Sprite attacks+summon Putrid undead synergy. Yeah they are con saves but there's just SO MANY
(Ref 19:45) With respect, Familiars are of type - celestial, fey or Fiend! You can change there form but that is all. They are not the real creature (though feel like EVERYONE plays them and considers them real). IMHO, this means that they can’t be type Demon and would be attacked by one easily enough if one got out of control nearby. That is only based on the rulings of the PsudoDragon Familiar but please point out if I missed one that allows for that interaction. The synergy with the Sprite is that it does that one point of damage it lets other casters using Toll the Dead to get improved damage. Minor but hey Famialrs are all about the helping. Thanks for the fun video.
I believe the RAW on the Demon tag being transferred is quite vague. The familiar is a Celestial/Fey/Fiend 'Spirit' in the body of a creature that normally has the Demon tag attached. I personally don't see how that's much different from a Player Character who is just a Soul inhabiting a body that could normally have the Elf or Goblinoid tag attached.
OK, I primarily play AL but I am pretty sure Custom Background is always available which means that you can choose an existing background and change a proficiency and call it a custom background so unless you wanted two skills more you can always get perception.
If you can use Dragonmark races, the Mark of Hospital Halfling is incredible as a Warlock with chain pact. You get to add Aid to your spell list. It lasts 8 hours with no concentration, and it upcasts well. You can start the day buffing your team’s max HP (stacking with temp HP from Inspiring Leader), and provide both of those buffs to your familiar. Then add the resistance from Investment, suddenly your familiar is pretty tough - even the Sprite can take a hit or two.
Chain Pact = Sprite poison has your DC and sometimes a second attack. Undead warlock = your attack causes fear Shadow sorcerer= you can twin cast hast on yourself and sprite(and summon hounds without concentration) Poison sprite = 3 attack every turn You = 1 fear attack and one single attack... Menacing = replace single attack Total 3 nasty poison attacks, 1 fear attack, and one fear effect each and every turn.
Note: Pseudodragons and imps both have a strength score of 6, so if you have a kobold or goblin in the party that doesn't have medium/heavy armor and is willing to drop their bag then you can drop them on the enemies. You can also pick up and drop any goblin or kobold you come across, or get a bunch of alchemists fire or douse opponents in oil *then* drop the fire. 45 lbs of carrying capacity doesn't seem like much, but it can be better than you'd expect.
Imagine how much synergy you could have with an artillerist artificer pumping 12 or so temp hit points via protector canon onto those familiars. Who needs a barbarian to be a meat shield when you have round over round temp hit point pool and resistance from Investment of Chain Master.
A couple of minor points on the quasit: it's non-magical damage resistance does NOT have the "non-silvered" qualifier; and it is the only option that has access to a swim speed, which could be valuable in certain situations.
Yep, this is the one thing that didn’t get covered here. 40’ swim speed as a toad, retains all quasit stats. Useful if you’re not taking IotCM and still need an underwater ally.
Big fan of the Deep Dives and this one just hit home! Love it. In reflection of the video a discussion came up about a Ravnica game we have. Our Undead Warlock (not undeath - I talk about the one with Form of Dread from Van Richten) is with the Orzhov Guild. Since they have a strong connection to the shadow fell, darkness, corrution and the undead we were wondering that there don´t really seem to be any undead familiars that are actually viable, like those mentioned by Bilbron. Does anyone have a good idea in this case?
You could always reflavor an existing Familiar. I believe that there are also some Tiny Undead that your DM could homebrew in as Familiar options. I think that a "Death's Head" would be a decent CR 1/2 option for Pact of the Chain Warlocks. You can find it in the VRGR book, which it looks like you guys are already using anyway.
Me using flock of familiars to summon three pseudo dragons in order to force a creature to make three currently DC 15 constitution saving throws knocking them unconscious if they get bellow a 10 on their saving throw. The sheer number of enemies I have completely trivialized with this is insane, and I have use spells like bane in order to further increase the effectiveness against stronger enemies.
You can't summon pseudo dragons with flock of familiars, by RAW. The spell explicitly states that you can only summon familiars in animal form, in the first line of the spell.
At 8:10 you say you were not able to choose perception as a background skill due to the rules. Are you familiar with "Customizing a Background" on page 125 of the PHB? You can basically choose any feature from any background and then choose any 2 skill proficiencies and any 2 language or tool proficiencies. I haven't used a standard background in years.
There is also a rule there that if you already have a proficiency (from race or class etc.) and the background you choose duplicates it then you can choose any other one... just another way to get Perception for a Warlock... or any skill for any character.
I really like the idea you had of being in the other room and seeing through your eyes of the familiar. But I would imagine you need to use your action to look through their eyes and thus I don’t think you can command them to attack unless you can see, but being in the same room standing super far back or peaking around the corner I think would be ok.
What do you mean they can't die with voice of the chain master? You didn't quite explain that. Also, the advantage of keeping the imp in imp form is it can carry a backpack of ball bearings, caltrops, oil, flour, etc. The Raven can't. The spider can't. This is why it is risky to give it a backpack of shit to hold if you pop it back 30 feet of you because the backpack doesn't travel with it to the extradimensional space. Same as it's Shapechanger ability, its stuff doesn't meld or teleport with it (according to my DM, and I agree with him, being able to go infiltrate, steal a small object, and summon it back without having to get out once you've stolen Aladdin's lamp isn't fun gameplay for anyone). It is difficult to take investment of the chain master over voice of the chain master and mask of many faces at low level. Or tomb of Levistus...or eldritch mind...or agonizing blast...or repelling blast...
1. Not sure without knowing the context of what you mean, but I think you're probably referring to my tactic of just sending in Summons over and over and over, in perfect safety due to VotCM, and winning via attrition. Yes, I manage his equipment if I need to use Shapechager or whatever. I think it's really EASY to take IotCM over options like MMF, ToL, or EM, which are basically useless to this build, and I'm not a fan of Agonizing Blast or Repelling (wasn't an Eldritch Blasty sort of Warlock at those levels, I don't gravitate to Spike builds but to Jonny builds).
My problem with investment of the chain master is that it doesn’t boost your familiar’s hit rate. The advanced familiar options don’t exactly start with an amazing attack bonus, that means once you get past level 5 or 6 they’ll almost never hit. Investment is great at level 3 but it’s definitely an invocation you want to switch out as you level up.
I just give my Imp a sack full of vials of acid and have it fly above the target and throw it at them for 2D6 acid damage. No need for it to get into melee. You also have it spread caltrops (uses just the imps action, nothing from the warlock) sometimes you just gotta slow people down.
I'm not high enough level yet, but I plan on taking Sign of Ill Omen so I can bestow a curse on my familiar. Upcast at level 5, the curse would last 8 hours with no concentration requirement. Then, with the relentless hex invocation, I can use a bonus action teleport up to 30 feet landing beside my familiar. For 8 hours.
@@jrg305 I admit, two invocations is a high price to pay. But let's look at the benefits. Far step lasts for one minute and takes concentration. Bestow curse can be better at 5th spell level where you drop the concentration requirement and get the 8 hour duration. If the party is about to take a short rest and you have a spell slot available, this is a great use for it. This case looks even better if you're playing a melee warlock and wanted relentless hex anyway.
@@godsamongmen8003 totally agree it is a cool tactic and creative and I've not seen anyone use it yet. When I thought about taking bestow curse tho, it was for the ability to have things land or demons you summon stay longer, but since it is once a day (if I recall correctly?) I didn't think that use was worth the invocation. But your use of it certainly does make it worth it. It's like I go pact of the Chain, voice of the chain master, and Actor so I can project anyone's voice anywhere I want for a perfect distraction technique after listening in with my familiar to gain their voice. Basically a large investment for that niche utility
I was told the shapeshifting didnt make them into actual spiders and ravens, only gaining spider and ravenlike features, so they would not change in size, thoughts?
Your assistant is missing. Curious, The Sprite's bow hits for 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. Does the Investment of the Chain Master not change the DC to your spell casting DC? By the spell (Find Familiar) it could be a Fiend Spirit, but that in no way makes it a Demon or a Devil. Spirit which has the stats of the creature chosen, but is a Fey, Fiend, or Celestial, your choice.
Nice video, this made me want to know what are your thoughts on the pact of the talisman, i think it's pretty bad, but maybe you see something that i don't.
My imp is currently carrying 10 bottles of healing potion couple bags of ball bearings & a couple bags of caltrops. I'm also a warlock with a genie patron so when I go inside my lamp my imp can carry The lamp and we're both invisible
Find familiar spell says it is a spirit that is celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) so would t that keep a demon from attacking it? As far as demon on demon attacks
Well technically the SGD only attacks the nearest non-Demon. The issue is that whether your Quasit familiar would have the Demon tag is ambiguous, and it looks like no rulings have been made on it either.
@@jrg305 Well here's the thing, not all creatures with the 'elf' tag are Humanoid. Some are Fey (Eladrin). Meaning that tags aren't actually restricted to one creature type. If the Chain Familiar can be a Demon, then IMO you should be able to make a Celestial Demon!
So for the imp unless im reading this wrong It can be invisible, get advantage on it's first attack if the player gives up their action to make it use it's reaction to attack Then the player can use a bonus action and make it attack again. But the imp still has it's original action? If so it can use the help action, give a pointon, re-cast invisibility on itself or change form to scurry away? And still have a bonus action left?
The player Bonus Action command to Attack takes place on/with the Imp's original Action. So the Imp can take 2x Attacks in a Round with Action/Reaction, or just 1x Attack with Reaction and reserve Action for something else. In both cases, the Imp's Bonus Action is still available.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons so can it use it's action to make itself invisible again durong combat? And via rules what is possible to do with it's bonus action? Maybe equip it with a magic item that uses a bonus action to activate?
@@crunchevo8974 Yes, it can turn invisible in combat, I'll often do that after his Reaction Attack so that he can Fly away without incurring an OA. Weaponizing its Bonus Action would require an item. I'm eying Decanter of Endless Water.
Question, if your Imp is invisible and you use your Ready Action and Bonus Action to allow it to make 2 attacks, are both attacks made with advantage since its coming out of being invisible or just the first attack has advantage and 2nd attack (even though in same turn) doesn't?
Where in the rules does it say that devil's sight eliminates the passive perception negative to dim light? Crawford said that devil's sight only effects how the creature interacts with darkness, which is perceived as bright light. I only found that dark vision makes dim light appear as bright light. Therefore you'd have to have both darkvison and devil's sight to perceive all lighting conditions with no obscurement.
@@MrAtreties They do. I was curious if this was the case for devil's sight exclusively, because a non darkvison race could take the devil's sight invocation and cover all light restrictions.
@@IkaikaArnado In that case they would have clear vision in bright light and darkness, but would have DIS in dim light. There is an errata or sage advice or tweet out there that clarifies that this is also RAI, not just RAW.
@@Samuel_Kabel Yeah, as far as I last read. Devil's Sight alone only effects sight in darkness, and dim light would still cause disadvantage on perception checks. One would have to layer darkvison with devil's sight to bypass all light conditions, or get blindsight.
Is the Daolock you are playing Packt of the Chain? I thought your build was Pact of the Tome? Did you make adjustments after releasing your video on the Dao Genie Warlock?
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons Looking forward to it! I‘d love an updated, battletested build at some point!! Keep it up - you’re channel has become a favorite quickly!!
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons ah, ok. Just making sure i didn't miss anything cause that sounded awesome. I am playing a dao lock in a single character game and the better perception in darkness would have been handy without the invocation for myself.
I meant that the Imp sees normally in Darkness due to Devil's Sight, and doesn't suffer a reduction to "Dim Light" in Darkness like those with Darkvision do.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons Ah, my roll20 write of the creature says "Darkvision" and then in the writeup "Devil's Sight. Magical darkness doesn't impede the imp's darkvision." so I figured it was darkvision, that can also penetrate magical darkness
@@karenorgan6203 I was going by the Invocation description that states "You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical", but I can see how it's ambiguous with the Imp write-up.
As long as you are within range, you could spam Toll the Dead/mind sliver and summoning spells from behind total cover (like a dungeon wall). Since the familiar is invisible, the enemies might not even know you're there. They only see your other party members and whatever horror you chose to summon. Also, a familiar can be a good bait to use against a greater demon that broke out of control. It effectively wastes one turn for the summoned demon (assuming insta-kill, more turns if demon misses) and since a greater demon must attack the nearest target its easy to manage. If the familiar dies, you are 10 minutes away from getting it back
Another good combo is with misty visions. From behind total cover and looking through the familiar, engulf the fighter and ranger in 5'x5'x5' bubbles of illusory darkness. All the heavy hitters get attacks at advantage and are attacked at disadvantage, and the enemy is oblivious to your existence. If your party is optimised for dealing weapon damage this is incredible dpr increase at no resources cost whatsoever. If enemies have true sight resort to lame-ass inefficient secondary bailout tactic of summoning greater demons 👹👹😂😂
@@Samuel_Kabel sure, but my intention wasn't to cast the spell through the familiar, but rather seeing through its senses from behind cover so as to meet the "that you can see within range" qualification for sight spells
Inspiring leader is a great buff if you have a familiar in your party, especially if it has resistance effectivelly doubling those hit points. Your party will also love you if you get this!
That's a great idea, I will probably do it!
Also if you are playing a game restricted to T1 or you wanted it - Chef. Either way it is always good to give the party reasons to take a short rest as a Warlock.
@@Bilbrons-and-DragonsI'm sure that you caught this after looking into Inspiring leader but Celestial Warlock gets a similar feature at, I believe, 10th lvl.
One synergy I also picked up - magic stone can be cast thru a familiar, constantly filling them with a very solid ranged attack option in case poison doesnt work, or in case you can't close on an enemy for a round
I'm pining over getting magic stones to use with tiny servants, or going with mind sliver for the debuff.
ok, how about this. we cast "summon familiar swarm" and get 3 familiars and give them all stones? I prefer ninja spirites shooting people to death at range.
@@tombirmingham7033In 5e the spell is Flock of Familiars as for magic stone you can only make 3 a casting and if I recall correctly they only last one minute so can't really stockpile them.
@@nickm9102 bless your heart. magic stone is a bonus action, you summon 3 stones. range touch, so in the hands of the familiars. and you then have 3 potential attacks.
@@tombirmingham7033 I understand that it is 3d6 in potential damage from 3 attacks. That said I can stock up on acid or alchemist fire and up cast flock of Familiars for more when the warlock reaches lvl 5 and 3rd lvl pact slots. This also means that your strategy after lvl 5 leaves one or more of those Familiars that you just spent half of your slots on have no magic stones and as mentioned you can't really stockpile them and since they're are no good buff spells that can target multiple people on the Warlock list you are better off with the bag of holding trick after lvl 4.
Also your backhanded Southern way of calling me an idiot is inappropriate as my original post is still completely accurate and unrefuted by your response AND your response resulted in an explanation of where the strategy falls short and an option for how to negate that shortcoming.
Before I even see a second of your video, I played a fiendlock chain pact levels 1 to 20+ over 3 years. We've got our eyes on you!
Some thing worth noting: Imp, and Quasit are CR 1. Which means you can polymorph them into more useful forms, than the others. Not that you would frequently poly them over a PC, just something to keep in mind.
I like the idea of using Gift of the Ever-living Ones, in combo with Celestial warlock, and then you can use the bonus action heal mechanic as a self heal for max effect. It's pretty selfish... but you're a warlock.
Man I started planning a Custom Lineage(Fey) character who used pact of the chain to get a sprite, Flock Of Familiars, both familiar invocations, and the Watchers dark gift flavored as evil fey.
Then I thought "I wonder if Bilbrons has done a video about Chain Pact" and here I am! I'm about to listen to this video and see how it can add to my character The Fey King.
At level 2 you can take non-pact of chain invocations, then at level 3 when you get pact of chain you can swap out one of them, then level 4 you can swap out the other
One possible fun combo. If you are multiclassed with a battle master, or have one in your party, they can attack and use disarming strike making a creature drop a weapon or a caster drop their spell focus. Normally they can just pick it up on their turn and still have all of their actions. . . Unless your invisible familiar, who readied their action snatches it 1st. In this case it becomes invisible just like the familiar. Then they can just bring it to you and you can store it in your genie vessel with everyone else's stuff.
i love chainlock familiar. good for magic stone usage, pseudodragons have a great poison ability (better than sprites) with invesment of the chain master while quasits have scare that works well with the same invocation. i pretty much just use those 2 and skip the imp and quasit since quasits can become invisible like the imp anyway.
i disagree though that warlocks don't have good bonus action options. depends on the kind of warlock you're making and how long your combats go. hex, hexblade's curse, spirit shroud, polearm master, crossbow expert, tentacle of the deep, elemental gift, sanctuary, magic stone, expeditious retreat, misty step, etc. some these will compete with the investment of the chainmaster's bonus action attack so imo the build is either built around the familiar attacking to make that choice the usual choice or it makes non-bonus actions superior such as doing invis + help/drop inhaled poisons or the quasit's scare.
i disagree that quasit is the worst of the bunch. it's the familiar i pick every time unless i'm building around the pseudodragon's poison ability. being able to scare 1/combat (simply unsummon and resummon the familiar after each combat (takes 10 mins due to ritual cast). having a high dc fear effect that doesn't consume your action economy is excellent to have for every 1st round of combat. then you can either have it attack and poison or hide and help/drop inhaled poisons. so yeah i think you are underrating how often you can use the scare ability. good point on the synergy with summon greater demon.
sprite imo is the worst of the bunch though not by much. all of them are good actually. in terms of usefulness i rank them as quasit>pseudodragon (for builds based around it)>imp>sprite. i'd rank the pseudrodragon below the imp if you're not taking advantage of its poison.
voice of the chainmaster is great as a pseudo blind fight/devil sight that you can combo with darkness, fog cloud, pyrotechnics, etc.
i disagree that the imp is the best for melee combat. if i'm sending my familiar to melee, it better be doing something effective and as you mentioned it has no riders. i'd rather send the quasit or pseudodragon so i can inflict poison or unconscious. the main use of imp for me is the scouting you mentioned. it's just superior statblock wise for combat but none of its abilities make me want to use it for that aside from the typical invis + help/inhaled poison drop or darkness + voice of the chainmaster/devil sight combo.
Very DM dependant, but I've used my invisible imp to steal arrows from the quiver of an enemy archer.
Outside of combat, I love using the bird's eye view of my familiar while my character uses cartographer's tools to draw out maps of the area. The maps tend to fetch a decent price when I'm done using them, if the area was relatively uncharted. I love the idea of cheating at card games, though. I'll definitely have to try that on the NPC who cheated us at a card game.
I love this idea. I think cartographers tools are very underrated.
Common and uncommon magic items work well for chainlock familiars indeed, bags of holding with trap making supplies from the equipment section of the phb, a spell tattoo for something like unseen servant or prestidigitation or mending, any of these could easily make an imp into a back up rogue if the party doesn't have one, especially if you give them the gloves of thievery and some lock picks or acid, they're already an excellent poisoner when you consider their immunity and personal supply, add prestidigitation to the mix and your victim won't know anything is wrong. A quick taste and add some poison and then reset the flavor and they won't know the difference.
uploads are popping off!
As for tactics, you could take Inflict Wounds via Shadow Touched. An upscaled Inflict Wounds + auto advantage from an invisible familiar could hurt quite a bit and be a good way to start the combat.
Or of course Ring of Spell Storing + Summon from an invisible familiar, Will cancel invisibility, because of the concentration addon in the text, but an Elemental just popping up into the enemy ranks from nowhere could be rather amusing
Does Summon Elemental have Touch range? I don't believe it does, but I haven't checked.
@@Samuel_Kabel Sorry my bad on clarification. You wouldn't be casting Summon Elemental through the Familiar, the Familiar would be casting it via a Ring of Spell Storing
@@ice8433 Ah yeah, lol. That part was kinda useful to add in. :P
nice review! at least for me, the imp and the pseudodragon tend to be the most attractive for the overall versatility in the range of situations that i might expect in a campaign. i usually re-interpret the creature for fitting with a specific character.
Chain Pact at 3 is oh so good :) And it's awfully nice that you can spec out of investment at any level you want....
Familiar bomb tactic. Fill a bag of holding with whatever flammable substance you concoct in your game. Have your Imp carry the bag next to the target that you do not like very much. Have him open bag and then summon him back. Flame Arrow and enjoy the fireworks.
You don't even need a bag of holding. Just a cloth sack full of vials of acid and have it throw them one at a time.
@@godofzombi Yes! The ever flammable poison trick. Why didn't I think of that? lol Here I was setting oils and volatile liquids on fire creating small explosions, when all this time I should have been using poison.
@@tobybigham4196 Acid, not poison. It's not as flashy as fire, I admit, but it'll hurt more. Creatures immune to poison: 95. Creatures immune to fire: 40. Creatures immune to acid: Only 15. Also you can use it without accidentaly burning down the orphanage you were defending.
@@godofzombi Ahhhh the ever so flammable Acid. Now mind you, you are talking about a completely different tactic that I have used with Familiars and homunculus where they can't lift more than 5 lbs and fly above things while dropping them on baddies. But that has nothing to do with with teleporting say 200lbs of flammable liquids or powder to a target and igniting it. I only made fun of you because you came in discussing a completely different tactic that had nothing to do with the conversation. And you probably didn't realize I was talking about cool tactics to do with your Artillerist or Alchemist.
Another tactic I would use is shooting nets with the catapult spell, which do damage and knock baddies prone. Or using catapult to shoot glass bottles full of "irritant" powder which could blind folks for 1d2 rounds on a Dex DC12.
@@tobybigham4196 Yeah I tought this was about chainlocks, not multiclassing into artifcer. I got a tactic: infuse a bag of holding, then craft or buy another one and have your imp (or unseen servant) fly to the traget and shove one bag in the other and everything within 10ft gets sucked into the astral plane. You can light some fireworks to celebrate afterwards.
We are rocking almost the same build! I have a new DM so I can wait on investment for a bit because at lvl 3 I ALREADY have a ring of spell storing! Excited on 5 to try out Sprite attacks+summon Putrid undead synergy. Yeah they are con saves but there's just SO MANY
(Ref 19:45) With respect, Familiars are of type - celestial, fey or Fiend! You can change there form but that is all. They are not the real creature (though feel like EVERYONE plays them and considers them real).
IMHO, this means that they can’t be type Demon and would be attacked by one easily enough if one got out of control nearby. That is only based on the rulings of the PsudoDragon Familiar but please point out if I missed one that allows for that interaction.
The synergy with the Sprite is that it does that one point of damage it lets other casters using Toll the Dead to get improved damage. Minor but hey Famialrs are all about the helping.
Thanks for the fun video.
I believe the RAW on the Demon tag being transferred is quite vague. The familiar is a Celestial/Fey/Fiend 'Spirit' in the body of a creature that normally has the Demon tag attached. I personally don't see how that's much different from a Player Character who is just a Soul inhabiting a body that could normally have the Elf or Goblinoid tag attached.
OK, I primarily play AL but I am pretty sure Custom Background is always available which means that you can choose an existing background and change a proficiency and call it a custom background so unless you wanted two skills more you can always get perception.
If you can use Dragonmark races, the Mark of Hospital Halfling is incredible as a Warlock with chain pact. You get to add Aid to your spell list. It lasts 8 hours with no concentration, and it upcasts well. You can start the day buffing your team’s max HP (stacking with temp HP from Inspiring Leader), and provide both of those buffs to your familiar. Then add the resistance from Investment, suddenly your familiar is pretty tough - even the Sprite can take a hit or two.
Chain Pact = Sprite poison has your DC and sometimes a second attack.
Undead warlock = your attack causes fear
Shadow sorcerer= you can twin cast hast on yourself and sprite(and summon hounds without concentration)
Poison sprite = 3 attack every turn
You = 1 fear attack and one single attack...
Menacing = replace single attack
Total 3 nasty poison attacks, 1 fear attack, and one fear effect each and every turn.
Note: Pseudodragons and imps both have a strength score of 6, so if you have a kobold or goblin in the party that doesn't have medium/heavy armor and is willing to drop their bag then you can drop them on the enemies.
You can also pick up and drop any goblin or kobold you come across, or get a bunch of alchemists fire or douse opponents in oil *then* drop the fire.
45 lbs of carrying capacity doesn't seem like much, but it can be better than you'd expect.
I prefer vials of acid myself, less creatures got resistance to acid.
Imagine how much synergy you could have with an artillerist artificer pumping 12 or so temp hit points via protector canon onto those familiars. Who needs a barbarian to be a meat shield when you have round over round temp hit point pool and resistance from Investment of Chain Master.
Damn, I love this idea. I'm playing as a chain warlock and desperately wish my party had this now.
As a chainlock, i really want an artillerist buddy
A couple of minor points on the quasit: it's non-magical damage resistance does NOT have the "non-silvered" qualifier; and it is the only option that has access to a swim speed, which could be valuable in certain situations.
Yep, this is the one thing that didn’t get covered here. 40’ swim speed as a toad, retains all quasit stats. Useful if you’re not taking IotCM and still need an underwater ally.
Big fan of the Deep Dives and this one just hit home! Love it.
In reflection of the video a discussion came up about a Ravnica game we have. Our Undead Warlock (not undeath - I talk about the one with Form of Dread from Van Richten) is with the Orzhov Guild.
Since they have a strong connection to the shadow fell, darkness, corrution and the undead we were wondering that there don´t really seem to be any undead familiars that are actually viable, like those mentioned by Bilbron.
Does anyone have a good idea in this case?
You could always reflavor an existing Familiar. I believe that there are also some Tiny Undead that your DM could homebrew in as Familiar options. I think that a "Death's Head" would be a decent CR 1/2 option for Pact of the Chain Warlocks. You can find it in the VRGR book, which it looks like you guys are already using anyway.
Me using flock of familiars to summon three pseudo dragons in order to force a creature to make three currently DC 15 constitution saving throws knocking them unconscious if they get bellow a 10 on their saving throw. The sheer number of enemies I have completely trivialized with this is insane, and I have use spells like bane in order to further increase the effectiveness against stronger enemies.
You can't summon pseudo dragons with flock of familiars, by RAW. The spell explicitly states that you can only summon familiars in animal form, in the first line of the spell.
@@IkaikaArnado Correct I was testing to see if anyone would pick up on that tidbit because no DM in their right mind would allow this in their games.
@@IkaikaArnado Flock of familiars is still am amazing spell in the right circumstances.
@@NobodyDungeons Oh yeah, familiars are definitely great!
I don't think many DM allow flock of familiars. It is not Canon d&d...
the new slaad tadpole might need its own video
Love your work and analyses.
At 8:10 you say you were not able to choose perception as a background skill due to the rules. Are you familiar with "Customizing a Background" on page 125 of the PHB? You can basically choose any feature from any background and then choose any 2 skill proficiencies and any 2 language or tool proficiencies. I haven't used a standard background in years.
Yes, but I think the PC under discussion was my very first one for 5e and I didn't know about it at the time.
There is also a rule there that if you already have a proficiency (from race or class etc.) and the background you choose duplicates it then you can choose any other one... just another way to get Perception for a Warlock... or any skill for any character.
I really like the idea you had of being in the other room and seeing through your eyes of the familiar. But I would imagine you need to use your action to look through their eyes and thus I don’t think you can command them to attack unless you can see, but being in the same room standing super far back or peaking around the corner I think would be ok.
Talking is a free action.
And now I'm so on the fence for my daolock. Tome or chain? So difficult.
15:05 voice of the chain master
Investment of the chain master
What do you mean they can't die with voice of the chain master? You didn't quite explain that.
Also, the advantage of keeping the imp in imp form is it can carry a backpack of ball bearings, caltrops, oil, flour, etc. The Raven can't. The spider can't.
This is why it is risky to give it a backpack of shit to hold if you pop it back 30 feet of you because the backpack doesn't travel with it to the extradimensional space. Same as it's Shapechanger ability, its stuff doesn't meld or teleport with it (according to my DM, and I agree with him, being able to go infiltrate, steal a small object, and summon it back without having to get out once you've stolen Aladdin's lamp isn't fun gameplay for anyone).
It is difficult to take investment of the chain master over voice of the chain master and mask of many faces at low level. Or tomb of Levistus...or eldritch mind...or agonizing blast...or repelling blast...
1. Not sure without knowing the context of what you mean, but I think you're probably referring to my tactic of just sending in Summons over and over and over, in perfect safety due to VotCM, and winning via attrition.
Yes, I manage his equipment if I need to use Shapechager or whatever.
I think it's really EASY to take IotCM over options like MMF, ToL, or EM, which are basically useless to this build, and I'm not a fan of Agonizing Blast or Repelling (wasn't an Eldritch Blasty sort of Warlock at those levels, I don't gravitate to Spike builds but to Jonny builds).
Good stuff Bilbron 👹
My problem with investment of the chain master is that it doesn’t boost your familiar’s hit rate. The advanced familiar options don’t exactly start with an amazing attack bonus, that means once you get past level 5 or 6 they’ll almost never hit. Investment is great at level 3 but it’s definitely an invocation you want to switch out as you level up.
Or take magic stone and make it a ranged damage source only.
@@jrg305 Late reply, but my GM ruled a familiar throwing a Magic Stone makes is a Ranged Magical Attack so he can't do it... (sadface)
I just give my Imp a sack full of vials of acid and have it fly above the target and throw it at them for 2D6 acid damage. No need for it to get into melee. You also have it spread caltrops (uses just the imps action, nothing from the warlock) sometimes you just gotta slow people down.
I'm not high enough level yet, but I plan on taking Sign of Ill Omen so I can bestow a curse on my familiar. Upcast at level 5, the curse would last 8 hours with no concentration requirement. Then, with the relentless hex invocation, I can use a bonus action teleport up to 30 feet landing beside my familiar. For 8 hours.
Nice. Unfortunately that's two invocations when you can just take far step as one spell. Invocations are rarer than spells known
@@jrg305 I admit, two invocations is a high price to pay. But let's look at the benefits.
Far step lasts for one minute and takes concentration. Bestow curse can be better at 5th spell level where you drop the concentration requirement and get the 8 hour duration. If the party is about to take a short rest and you have a spell slot available, this is a great use for it. This case looks even better if you're playing a melee warlock and wanted relentless hex anyway.
@@godsamongmen8003 totally agree it is a cool tactic and creative and I've not seen anyone use it yet. When I thought about taking bestow curse tho, it was for the ability to have things land or demons you summon stay longer, but since it is once a day (if I recall correctly?) I didn't think that use was worth the invocation.
But your use of it certainly does make it worth it.
It's like I go pact of the Chain, voice of the chain master, and Actor so I can project anyone's voice anywhere I want for a perfect distraction technique after listening in with my familiar to gain their voice. Basically a large investment for that niche utility
I was told the shapeshifting didnt make them into actual spiders and ravens, only gaining spider and ravenlike features, so they would not change in size, thoughts?
Your assistant is missing. Curious, The Sprite's bow hits for 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. Does the Investment of the Chain Master not change the DC to your spell casting DC? By the spell (Find Familiar) it could be a Fiend Spirit, but that in no way makes it a Demon or a Devil. Spirit which has the stats of the creature chosen, but is a Fey, Fiend, or Celestial, your choice.
Yes, it would increase with IotCM.
do they synergize with the new strixhaven feat?
Great video! Does anyone use Inspiring leader to boost familiars hp?
Nice video, this made me want to know what are your thoughts on the pact of the talisman, i think it's pretty bad, but maybe you see something that i don't.
I don't like Pact of the Talisman much, but it's not horrible.
Could use Nystuls Magic Aurs to give your quasit the demon tag maybe?
My imp is currently carrying 10 bottles of healing potion couple bags of ball bearings & a couple bags of caltrops. I'm also a warlock with a genie patron so when I go inside my lamp my imp can carry The lamp and we're both invisible
Find familiar spell says it is a spirit that is celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) so would t that keep a demon from attacking it? As far as demon on demon attacks
Well technically the SGD only attacks the nearest non-Demon. The issue is that whether your Quasit familiar would have the Demon tag is ambiguous, and it looks like no rulings have been made on it either.
@@Samuel_Kabel I think it would if your spirit is a fiend. Fiends are demons or devil's or yugoloth.
@@jrg305 Well here's the thing, not all creatures with the 'elf' tag are Humanoid. Some are Fey (Eladrin). Meaning that tags aren't actually restricted to one creature type. If the Chain Familiar can be a Demon, then IMO you should be able to make a Celestial Demon!
So for the imp unless im reading this wrong
It can be invisible, get advantage on it's first attack if the player gives up their action to make it use it's reaction to attack
Then the player can use a bonus action and make it attack again.
But the imp still has it's original action?
If so it can use the help action, give a pointon, re-cast invisibility on itself or change form to scurry away?
And still have a bonus action left?
The player Bonus Action command to Attack takes place on/with the Imp's original Action. So the Imp can take 2x Attacks in a Round with Action/Reaction, or just 1x Attack with Reaction and reserve Action for something else. In both cases, the Imp's Bonus Action is still available.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons so can it use it's action to make itself invisible again durong combat?
And via rules what is possible to do with it's bonus action?
Maybe equip it with a magic item that uses a bonus action to activate?
@@crunchevo8974 Yes, it can turn invisible in combat, I'll often do that after his Reaction Attack so that he can Fly away without incurring an OA.
Weaponizing its Bonus Action would require an item. I'm eying Decanter of Endless Water.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons oooh nice, i also was looking at a few other items it could use it's bonus action to toss a fuzz ball from a bag of tricks too
Don't you wish you could use Faerie Dragons like me as a familiar option in Pact of the Chain?
could you make a video about artificer's humonculous?
Yeah, I'll be doing a Deep Dive Optimized Artificer video soon, and I'll be going over all of the Infusions.
can't wait :D I'm loving my artificer :D
Good vid
Question, if your Imp is invisible and you use your Ready Action and Bonus Action to allow it to make 2 attacks, are both attacks made with advantage since its coming out of being invisible or just the first attack has advantage and 2nd attack (even though in same turn) doesn't?
1st only
Doesnt the Pseudodragon Passive Perception is only 13? , It does hace advantage on perception checks that rely on vision, hearing and smell.
Where in the rules does it say that devil's sight eliminates the passive perception negative to dim light?
Crawford said that devil's sight only effects how the creature interacts with darkness, which is perceived as bright light.
I only found that dark vision makes dim light appear as bright light. Therefore you'd have to have both darkvison and devil's sight to perceive all lighting conditions with no obscurement.
Imps have 120ft darkvision, and also devil's sight.
@@MrAtreties They do. I was curious if this was the case for devil's sight exclusively, because a non darkvison race could take the devil's sight invocation and cover all light restrictions.
@@IkaikaArnado In that case they would have clear vision in bright light and darkness, but would have DIS in dim light. There is an errata or sage advice or tweet out there that clarifies that this is also RAI, not just RAW.
@@Samuel_Kabel Yeah, as far as I last read. Devil's Sight alone only effects sight in darkness, and dim light would still cause disadvantage on perception checks.
One would have to layer darkvison with devil's sight to bypass all light conditions, or get blindsight.
@@IkaikaArnado Or the Skulker feat. Or truesight. But this might be a spoiler. ;)
I am one level away from Chain Lock with my sorlock.
Is the Daolock you are playing Packt of the Chain? I thought your build was Pact of the Tome? Did you make adjustments after releasing your video on the Dao Genie Warlock?
I did change things up a bit, based on personal preference and the rules of the Westmarch server. I'll talk about the deviations more as we go along.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons Looking forward to it! I‘d love an updated, battletested build at some point!! Keep it up - you’re channel has become a favorite quickly!!
I have been waiting on this one
Can you switch between a familiar. As in switch between the imp and the sprite with ease and without casting the ritual again?
No, you have to cast it again
I am confused as to how the Imp's darkvision is better than regular darkvision for the -5 for dim light? I am just not seeing that in the rules.
Imp has Devil's Sight so isn't at disadvantage on Perception in darkness like Darkvision is.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons "Devil's Sight. Magical darkness doesn't impede the imp's darkvision."
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons is there another version of imp that has a different devil sight rule, or am I just misreading something?
@@IsaacScharp You are correct, I was using the description of the Devil's Sight invocation.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons ah, ok. Just making sure i didn't miss anything cause that sounded awesome. I am playing a dao lock in a single character game and the better perception in darkness would have been handy without the invocation for myself.
Why is the Imp not affected by dim light?
I meant that the Imp sees normally in Darkness due to Devil's Sight, and doesn't suffer a reduction to "Dim Light" in Darkness like those with Darkvision do.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons Ah, my roll20 write of the creature says "Darkvision" and then in the writeup "Devil's Sight. Magical darkness doesn't impede the imp's darkvision." so I figured it was darkvision, that can also penetrate magical darkness
@@karenorgan6203 I was going by the Invocation description that states "You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical", but I can see how it's ambiguous with the Imp write-up.
As long as you are within range, you could spam Toll the Dead/mind sliver and summoning spells from behind total cover (like a dungeon wall). Since the familiar is invisible, the enemies might not even know you're there. They only see your other party members and whatever horror you chose to summon. Also, a familiar can be a good bait to use against a greater demon that broke out of control. It effectively wastes one turn for the summoned demon (assuming insta-kill, more turns if demon misses) and since a greater demon must attack the nearest target its easy to manage. If the familiar dies, you are 10 minutes away from getting it back
Another good combo is with misty visions. From behind total cover and looking through the familiar, engulf the fighter and ranger in 5'x5'x5' bubbles of illusory darkness. All the heavy hitters get attacks at advantage and are attacked at disadvantage, and the enemy is oblivious to your existence. If your party is optimised for dealing weapon damage this is incredible dpr increase at no resources cost whatsoever. If enemies have true sight resort to lame-ass inefficient secondary bailout tactic of summoning greater demons 👹👹😂😂
@@YotamGalli Familiars can only cast spells with touch range. (But don't quote me on that)
@@Samuel_Kabel sure, but my intention wasn't to cast the spell through the familiar, but rather seeing through its senses from behind cover so as to meet the "that you can see within range" qualification for sight spells
You're 1 hour and 10 min from getting it back. I think you misunderstood how ritual casting works.
I just like to use dragon breath on my imp lol
First
...things first, I'm the realest! Drop this and make the whole world feel 'is!