Here's my up-to-date list of example familiars for all the people asking to see it: imgur.com/y0BXbzM

Dad! Dad! Can I have a dog? Only if you split off a piece of your soul, son.

My new character is a monk/wizard multi-class who makes his familiars out of origami paper, the first time the other characters met him, he had a small paper butterfly circling him. I explained it as him channeling his ki into his creations

When you started speak italian "Dare forma fisica alla mia anima" (give physical form to my soul) I kinda freaked out 'cause I was listening you speaking english and suddenly I heard my native language and my brain went "wait wha-". Anyway, I will use this flavour concept for sure! Thanks, magical lady.

This trial is what I did for my paladin. I took each of the paladin oaths and created a challenge based on them. And you either passed or failed that challenge and that proved whether or not you'd be able to make that oath. And then when all the challenges were done they had a book in front of them full of paladin oaths with some of the pages torn out. Now I knew the exact oath the player wanted and so I designed that one in a way I knew they would pass but it meant they also experienced failures and they felt that and it worried them because they didn't know what was going on.

I don't think I've ever watched someone be more endearing when they talk.

I love your suggestions In my game my son started as a thief and multi-classed into a wizard. When he cast find familiar l gave him a porg (Star Wars Last Jedi) He hated it at first but then it started to grow on him. But because he started as a thief his porg likes to random grab gold coins in his mouth and run away with them. However being a thief he tried to make a quick coin and tried to sell his porg to someone and was gonna magically call him back at night. Well he tried to sell it to a child with an old grandmother for 3 gold. Until he her the old women tell the small boy "Looks like we are gonna have dinner tonight look how plump it is." My son freaked out and was like no deal. My son was 11 at the time lol.

They aren't cardinal positions, they're archbishop positions.

I'd love it if you made a ritual series, I always struggle with coming up with ideas for rituals - bringing people back from the dead, summoning familiars, opening portals to other realms etc. It's the classic conundrum that you actually mentioned in this video - you want the players to work for it so it feels earned, but it needs to be fun so it doesn't become tedious.

Just wanted to say that I am so glad that Matthew Colville's didgeridoo brought me here because your out-of-the-box ideas are fantastic and entertaining and help keep GM'ing fresh and interesting.

What your are describing is essentially 1st edition familiars. In 1st edition, you summon a normal animal and infuse a portion of youself, body soul and mind, into it to create the bond and augment your familiars abilities. When it dies, the wizards hit point max total is permanently lowered by the familiar's hit points x 2. In 1E, you cannot pocket dimension the familiar. You cannot change its shape. The animal summoned is completely random. You cannot cast touch spells through 1e familiars. They were mostly used for scouting and hit point augmentation, since you can add the 1e familiar's hp if within 12ft. If it dies, you may not summon another familiar for at least one year. Find Familiar was pretty hardcore. They were mostly used for scouting and hit point augmentation. There is a cartoon in the 1e DMs guide that is very true about 1e familiars. It showed a thug holding a dagger to a cat's throat. The thug says to the wizard before him, " One false move and the familiar gets it." The wizard is drawn with a terrified look on his face. In Dark Materials form, our group has had a tradition that the familiar is the opposite sex from the summoner.

This brings in elements from past versions of D&D. Back in AD&D, if a Familiar died, the wizard suffered twice it's hit points in damage. I believe it was 3.0 that granted the caster benefits based on the familiar's form (not sure on that one). The downside is that this contradicts a lot of what Find Familiar does (re-summon the creature in different forms, for instance) so it may be very important to have a discussion with the player ahead of time. Something I do for my players is to assign the familiar very specific habits or quirks that show through regardless of the form the familiar takes. This is especially important in the case of the "special" familiars (Imp, Quasit, etc). I also allow any familiar to talk, even if it's in beast form. After all, it is an otherworldly being. A little added RP is always good. Custom familiars that aren't in the 5E books are also in the mix. I might create fey winged chameleons , animated toys, robotic pocket watches or pieces of clothing or even weapons as familiars. Imbuing an item with sentience instead of summoning a creature is always a great surprise (especially when it's a Wild Mage who has somehow unlocked the ability to cast Find Familiar), and leads to great moments. Thanks for all you do Dael. You're a treasure.

With the permission of my DM, my Orc Necromancer's familiar was the spirit of his Necromancer grandfather and took the form of a weasel! The spell was a gift sent to my Necromancer through a message contained on a coin by his grandfather.

Ooo, I like the tattoo idea, also I wish there were more options for familiars for celestial warlocks

Here’s an interesting addition: each time they have to re-summon, they have to do this all again, although you basically tell them it happens again and summarize what happened. After awhile, it becomes less painful and easier to do, but it happens every single time. And then tell them “This is what all magic has been like for you. Truly Painful memorization to which you become numb over time.”

I raised chickens. I would suggest: Rooster: may chose advantage on all intimidation checks so long as any unrelated Int checks have disadvantage. Effect ends after short rest.

I love the way your dm style sounds, very tied in with folklore and it just feels very mystical, just the right kind of fantasy i love. I'd adore to play or run a game with the same flavor you do

Dael Kingsmill - "We want to make them cry, right?" Permanent hp loss on the class with the least hp will do that for you haha xD Lovely video, thanks! Some really creative ideas; I do like the turning it into a tattoo instead of banishing, very flavourful.

Oh also also I DM-ed my first ever D&D session a week ago today! We rolled up characters and started killing baddies. I couldn't have done it without you and Matt Colville to fill me up with D&D ideas/inspiration. So a big cheers from me. Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray! And one for good luck, hip hip, hooray! 🙂

instead of bonuses to random stuff, consider having the familiar teach the wizard new spells based on the kind of familiar! familiars can grant an extra spell known that’s always prepared for 1st through 5th spell levels. this can build up familiars as the spirits who teach mages their magic flavor. it’s especially nice to give them spells not frequently taken. a falcon can give them feather fall, an owl can give darkvision, an octopus can give water breathing, etc.

I really like many of these suggestions, however, I do believe that pocket-dimensioning your familiar should still be allowed. My reason for this being that familiars have so little health, that almost any AOE can simply eradicate them, quickly turning the familiar into more of a debuff than a bonus if they are going to lose HP and their given buff for each that dies. This problem likely wouldn't arise until later in levels for the campaign, but eventually, more and more enemies will have the ability to cause AOE damage. I will say, though, that I like the idea of them turning into something like a tattoo or maybe a figurine that the caster carries around instead of them simply disappearing.

A dwarf wizard familiar should be a parrot that, instead of saying he wants a cookie, screams profanities at everybody he sees, especially elves. It truly embodies the essence of a dwarf.

Here's an idea I'd like to tack on : The familiar's hit-points add to the bottom of the wizard's. This means that when the wizard gets their familiar, they get a little HP boost, which helps the feeling that they're going through growth by manifesting a part of themselves into reality. The knifey part comes in with combat encounters: when the wizards starts to dip into the last of their HP, the pain/dmg is shared with their familiar. So the closer the master is to death, the more the familiar is visibly distressed/in pain. And finally when the wizard is unconscious, the familiar loses consciousness too, and only awakes along with their master. Also re: warlocks, I like the idea that just as the creature that's supposed to be summoned by the ritual manifests, it is abruptly consumed by the familiar that is provided by the patron. Really gives a bitter-sweetness that feels appropriate to the class' flavour.

this seems... familiar >_>

I do this different for each class. I do something like this system for sorcerers. Wizards summon and bind an extradimensional creature to make a familiar, like in the phb. Warlocks make their own little sub-contract with an animal. They are that animal's warlock patron. You can use the phb spell for all of these cases, this is just how I flavor it.

I really liked this! I’d probably still let my players bamf their familiar away and resummon it, but that’s just me. I might say when their familiar dies, they can resummon it, but they have 1 hit point permanently lost from their maximum. Of course, communication, communication, communication.

The last bit of the title was cut off when I clicked on this. My brain read the title as "Homebrew Wizard's Families"........I mean, this is good too, but........

YES. My Wild Magic Sorcerer has the feat that lets her cast wizard rituals and adding that element of randomness every time she summons her familiar is very thematically appropriate.

"Because everyone rolls an Evocation Wizard." *Faux Offended Divination Wizard face.*

Epic flavor for right after the trial... "You gaze through the tear and see.. yourself sitting at the edge of the spell circle." Have them already sharing the senses of their familiar, which is a part of them!

That opening flourish with the notebook was _impeccable._

One of my favorite characters was a demon pact of the chain warlock whose imp familiar WAS the patron. A Pit Fiend ran afoul of the more powerful lords of the hells and was demoted, but put the last vestiges of his pit fiend into a random contract before turning into an imp.

I really like this channel's story and "vibe" focus. To me it's what sets it apart from other, often-more mechanics focused d&d channels

I'm a fan of the thought that a Warlock's patron could observe the warlock and their actions through their familiar. That way it makes the patron feel more present to the warlock as well.

Thank you! Especially for your thoughts on making the familiar a part of you - so many people are happy to have the "spirit" version of a familiar, but there is no stake in the game then - who cares if you can just re-summon it or send it to a pocket dimension? There is no gravitas, no risk - no incentive not to just bring it into battle or use it as a shield, etc. The old system of getting a familiar is better, where it actually MEANS something.

i'll be honest i wasn't on board at first but after watching the entire video i love it. i still don't know about permanently killing the familiar.

That thing about the Wizard bringing their animal familiar into the real world reminded me of the Dream Eaters from Kingdom Hearts! In one of the games, Sora and Riku can shape their dreams and give them physical form to help them in combat. Really cool concept, I’m definitely using that in my next campaign!

I like how when you're describing bounded choices you give us a bounded choice on how to present the bounded choice of familiars to the player. I like the idea of two from the preferred category, btw.

Your players must have so much fun in your campaigns. You put so much thought into details like this. Really inspiring. Thanks for these ideas!

Love your videos! The way you describe things is awesome. So vague... And yet, so evocative...

I love the idea of the tattoo spell. I feel a familiars hit points are added to the wizard or whatever, then the two of them share hit points out of this pool. Yes, damage to the familiar hurts the wizard, but healing the familiar will heal the wizard also.

Ooo! I had a neat idea. At the beginning of the ritual, the caster is on the outside of the magic circle, but upon the completion of the ritual, they are at the center of the circle, and the familiar comes out of them! Or it could just be on them - like in their clothes, perched on their shoulder, curled up in there lap. It doesn't have to be some sort of terrible body-horror birth thing...because most people probably don't want that.

Not only are you amazing - you are BRILLIANT!

I really like the idea of the familiar becoming a tattoo. Not so keen on the (old school) idea of the character permanently losing hp when their familiar dies. Maybe the tattoo burns into the skin becoming a permanent brand, and the character then needs to get another tattoo.

It's worth looking into pathfinder 2ed familiars. I like the idea of a flying cat or a talking snake. Maybe a mouse lab assistant.

I also like the Warlock's familiar being loyal first to the patron, and second to the Warlock.

Those trials put me in mind of the personality quizzes at the start of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games

I love how you make videos that are exactly relevant to my campaigns at the time that you post them and i know that its coincidence but it feels nice.

I finally have a campaign and a wizard! Going to give him a shopping list tonight

I've always wanted my familiars to feel more important than just, "casting a spell". These rules are really inspiring!

I love this so much! Makes the familiar much more precious than just a spell. I love the Old Magic, mystical vibe of this whole process.

I love the idea of having the familiar be vulnerable. Like if the players make the choice to go for this extra bit of magic they should be risking or sacrificing something to get it. But what about sorcerors and clerics? Also, I think it would be really emotional if they tried to repeat the ritual after their first familiar died, but summoning an entirely different animal with a different personality: a permanent reminder that that part of themselves is lost forever, maybe the traits that familiar was based on become dampened in the wizard themselves after losing that bit of their essence.

I now have Don Spencer's Feathers Fur Or Fins stuck in my head. Cheers for that.

This video earns a "like" from the thumbnail picture alone.

Imagine a big burly dragonborn wizard with a tiny hedgehog familiar. Even better, they are scary and gruff, but the hedgehog comes out and they turn into the biggest softie ever. I want a hedgehog.

I love your in depth and, how you put into even the small things, where most DM's just sorta hand-wave it. Love the additional rules if I ever DM will definitely be using them!!!

Sooooo... The wombat familiar gives you an extra hit die on short rests because it poops in the shape of d6's? That's clever on the level of old school spell components!

On your subject of Warlocks, that's how Warlock Familiars work in my setting, and there's an even further degree to this. My setting started with Pathfinder where the Witch, Paizo's version of Warlock, gets a familiar from level 1 that acts as both their connection to their Patron and their "spellbook" in a sense as they too prepare spells from a list of known, and other familiars can share spells among each other. That all being said, in my setting a Warlock/Witch with a familiar is often times found by said familiar: you're just minding your own business then BAM, owl swoops in and never leaves you alone, suddenly you're setting stuff on fire and you accidentally put your mom to sleep. An example I had a Warlock who's familiar was an Owl, he had a bunch of necromancy focused abilities and spells. In my setting, the Elvish god of death is represented by an Owl. In reality though, this was a shadow demon from the Shadowfell trying to trick my PC into basically committing genocide to allow the shadow demon to venture into the material plane (more lore stuff) and when my PC eventually broke his pact, his powers were restored by the actual Elvish Death God who was offended someone was posing as them.

I've always flavored the becoming of the familiar as the herbs and oils needing to be packed into a ball and lit on fire with a drop of the caster's blood, then as the ritual completes, the embers of the ball burn out, and after a moment the ball unfurls itself into the form of the animal familiar, shakes off the ash, and there stands the familiar the wizard (or warlock) chose.

I have an arcane trickster in my group I dm and I have him a boggle familiar recently. Really proud of how I did it. Totally wish I had this video then lol. Keep up the good work Dael!

I like to imagine my old fiend pact warlock bargains with his imp to gain new powers. The imp teaches the spells and invocations on behalf of the patron.

Oh, that tattoo thing is genius! Will definitely use that if I ever get the chance!

I loved this one! I’m about to start a new campaign tomorrow with my family, and I’ll will be incorporating some of this. Thank you very much! I hope you have a wonderful day.

I ran a warlock who had a litch patron. His familiar was a large ( about 8 inches long)scarab beetle. And the cool part all the warlock spells were cast by the beetle. I love the idea of this bug shooting eldrith blast or crown of thorns.

thought on the whole "familiars die forever" angle: Maybe make it a choice? Have them make a choice at the time they're summoned (or during downtime, perhaps, in the same way some people would do research or carousing) wherein they decide how closely this creature and their own soul are intertwined. If they opt to bind the familiar to themselves, they would suffer some sort of maximum HP decrease if the creature dies, or take away one of their spell slots, as a temporary measure until they're brought back. If you go with the whole "benefit based on what creature they are" thing, maybe the inverse happens where a dead hyena familiar takes a toll on your ability to speak eloquently, or a dead rooster familiar makes them feel sluggish to the point of having disadvantage on initiative. That way if a character really gets attached to their familiar, they can opt to revive that familiar, but the choice needs to be made in advance and it carries weight. Just a thought!

Really great updates! I always find your videos helpful. I'm more of a world-building GM and often overlook these types of ways to add flavor through spells and rules. 🤘🏻

That's a rad jacket. And thank you for this video.

One thing in His Dark Materials that I love is the connection between the Daemons and innocence and experience. When people in Lyra' world are young, the form of their daemons is very fluid and can fluctuate with moods. As they grow up, the daemon starts to prefer a select few shapes and eventually fixes. Other points to note are that the daemons are almost always the opposite gender to their human, they can't be separated from their human (Witches daemons, dead people and cut children being the exceptions), and once fixed are always fixed as real animals where children's daemons can be fantastical creatures such as hippogriffs and dragons when necessary. These aspects could be useful for thinking up guidelines for familiars, or not. Either way, I think that it is important that if a player has a familiar the reality of that familiar should be expressed throughout the game rather than being left in the bag of holding and forgotten. Excellent video as always.

I catch myself using the phrase “vague and evocative” in regards to regular storytelling, and then I go, wait, you didn’t come up with that lol

I like this. It makes the Familiar more personal to the caster. It feels kinda like your Avatar from Mage: The Ascension/The Awakening, where you have to pass Trials personal to your character to advance. And PS: I prefer Necromancy over evocation. Never know when a few debuffs and skele-bros help a situation.

I love the way you came up with transmitting character's persona into the familiar !!!! And imbed decisions into creating it! That is very intimate AND bonding to the entity they create. Now that I think of it.... that is actually precisely why I love my daughter )))

On the death of the familiar, I prefer instead of making the wizard lose hit points, to mar the wizard with a permanent mark on their appearance for the death of the familiar. Like a strange mark appearing on their hand or face. Something like that.

Another way of approaching warlock familiars is as a direct representation of the patron. The patron gives the warlock the familiar as a means of communication with the warlock. Perhaps it offers a quality static bonus for keeping it alive and with the party. This could serve as a microcosm of the greater pact the warlock possesses.

Oh man, glad my DM hasn't seen this before my wizard took Find Familiar. Hoshi's familiar is a fey owl (but reskinned to be a shikigami a la Shaman King, to fit my aesthetic), who I refer to as simply Shikigami. The DM tries to make everything Shikigami does super adorable, and I pay it zero attention until I'm giving it orders. Probably because Hoshi himself wants to quash the light and fluffy parts of him and focus on his duty. He loves cute things...but the cute thing made from himself? Detestable.

Who chooses Evocation?? Transmutation and Divination are so cool!

Love it. Adds a more robust interaction with a typically glossed over aspect of character creation that could really add flavor and uniqueness to the persona as a whole. Good job. Grandma says hi. Her level 2 rogue's still a little squishy but she's already picking pockets like a pro.

Just did this, we had the druid's feathers, the wizard's scales and the rouges fur end up being used.

Love this. I had my warlock have a quest given to him to earn his familiar. Obviously, it served the patron's needs in the overall picture (which the warlock couldn't see).

wonderful, I love this!

Could be fun to have another category of Familiars for when something goes wrong in the summoning, or if the character is evil (or chooses evil during their trials). A chance for something like a Gazer or a Crawling Claw could be a neat "Oh, you done fucked up!" moment for the spellcaster… or an opportunity!

I love this idea, im gonna call it "Enhanced Familiar" and it replaces Find familiar in your spell book once you complete the ritual (also the tattoo idea could be part of the spell, it should take a spell slot to turn it into a tattoo but free to release)

The screencap for this one is absolutely adorable

9:25 _"Dare forma fisica alla mia anima!"_ Thats a pretty good italian to say: "to give physical shape to my soul!" ^_^

"Warlock familiar"? Oh, shoot, now I really want a warlock as familiar! :D

Not going to lie, got a bit of a shiver when you started that incantation.

More D&D videos are always great.

For warlocks you could go through the normal ritual and have the familiar at the end be possessed or devoured by the patrons replacement, the new "stand-in" familiar houses the divided piece of your soul as an offering to your patron it will with it take when it "dies".

The fact that the familiar is an extension of yourself reminds me two things: a) The Golden Compass movie b) the homebrew Emergent class, designed by Ross Leiser. I really like that idea. I also love the idea of a Warlock's Patron just screwing up with the ritual to do whatever they want. xD

I think His Dark Materials has my favorite concept of familiars. Also you mentioned HDM literally as I was typing this. The internet continues to teach me that I am not special or creative. V_V

My Idea of the find familiars spell was that there were ways to find the spirit tied to it. It could be a baited trap that then forces the spirit into servitude, a baited trap that puts the spirit into a position to barter/ negotiate a contract of a sort, or it could just be a sort of want ad, on first casting the caster waits for x amount of time depending on if there is a spirit that wants to join them, and then a conversation of what the spirit and caster want ensues that ends with a pact. Thus if it is a spirit from another plane it is a true outsider and by those rules if the body it has on the prime material plane is destroyed that wizards subsequent castings of the spell are just making a new body for the spirit to inhabit. Which I liked as a role player that hates the Idea of getting a loved one killed in that fashion. Which is really easy to do, because familiars are so absurdly easy to kill, even accidentally. And if the familiars are loved and are permanently killed then the person would either never use them, making them pointless. If they are not loved then they just won't care about them at all and think of them as just another resource.

"dare forma fisica alla mia anima" That was some flawless Italian there, bravissima!! I guess Latin-based languages could sound somewhat arcane-ish, which would work wonders for a wizard (the power of alliteration is with me!)

In the land the familiar is like the missing part of their sole. The spell searches all the multivere to find the missing part of yourself. The protagonist gets a naging psy dragonling. :)

@MonarchsFactory I will be using this idea, though I tend to lean more toward the warlock than the wizard, each caster being different and you could touch more on the culture the character grew up in as well. I mean it's true wizards all come up through study, some through a college but others are the apprentice of the village wizard, or met a wandering sage so they could have a more almost barbarian feel to their trials. With the warlock the patron I am sure would give them a familiar, with the fiend pact it would depend on what type of devil offered the bargin, the same with the fey or the old ones. The hexblade would be interesting as the weapon could act as something of a familiar, but what it has me thinking about is Harry Dresden with Bob who was (at least in the show) a former wizard cursed into his own skull for the presumption of attempting spells of immortality. He acts as a guide and resevior of knowledge for Dresden when he needs it and I couldn't help thinking of this for a warlock familiar.

Had a fun idea for a replacement to the "trials" you put forth that still carries a lot of flavor but also more represents the wizard severing a piece of themselves to make their familiar. As the player is casting the ritual, they are presented with a vision: three fragments of their own personality manifesting before them. How these manifestations could appear might be based on the character's own background or personality. Perhaps they are disembodied, ghostly heads chained to the caster... and in the caster's hand a single ghostly key with which to open the lock and release a single chain. Perhaps the caster's personalities are presented on an altar, and in the caster's hand a dagger. My personal favorite is three duplicates of the caster, and a raft tied to a great river... the raft only has room for three (I'll explain why I love this one in a bit). Have the personalities talk, express themselves differently and maybe put them in situations that reflect on the caster's past. They'd be a great way to really help flesh a character out. Whichever personality the caster frees (or kills, or leaves behind... depending on your vision) becomes the personality reflected in the familiar. The reason I like the raft example is because there's a possibility that the player would opt to let all three personalities take the raft, and stay behind themselves... which would cause a bizarre failure state in which the caster's consciousness has been transferred to the familiar. Of course, this would be reversable thing should the party track down a priest or wizard high enough level to undo the damage, but it could be a lot of fun in and of itself to really see how that plays out.

Steven Brust wrote a series of books about a magic using rogue Vlad. In the first or second book he goes thru the ritual to get a familiar. It is very well written and reminds me a bit of your system. They are great books by the way and very easy to read.

Warlock ideas are phenomenal! DM’s for breaking the rules!

Fun fact, I have never made an evocation wizard. When I started I thought they were the best thing ever due to the party warlock knocking out a rogue with an AOE Spell. Now, I love the Illusion and Conjuration, along with all the traditions from outside the players handbook(Haven't read Wildemount).

Hey!👏👏 Love the ideas you came up with. Definitely going to borrow this for my future games. I would like to suggest two additonal ideas for the ritual: as an extra component the character must offer up a small item that holds sentimental value, and the player must choose the environment that the ritual is performed in. Also, another cool familiar ritual is outlined in Stephen Brust's Book of the Jhereg 👌👌 Highly recommend. Cheers!

I can't even tell ya how happy I am to hear about a hedgehog familiar. Mostly 'cause now I wanna play a wizard with a hedgehog familiar.

New title: "Familiar's in d&d except it's the golden compus"