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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Wizard Archetype: Bonded Mage (PEACH)



ASchmidt
2015-02-11, 01:07 PM
Bonded Mage

While many wizards are content to use a raven or a cat as a bonded familiar, there are those that want something… more. To this end, rather than specializing in a field of magic, they devote their knowledge and effort towards having a companion more suited to their needs and temperament.

Author’s note: This wizard tradition is intended to allow unique familiars that expand upon the character and become much more than a footnote but a true companion. There are a lot of options to choose from and here is just a small selection of familiars you could create:



A flying monkey (vest and cap optional)
A fey spirit intelligent talking cat that can turn invisible
A worg in mail barding with a collar (ring) of protection
A swarm of ravens
An impeccably dressed zombie manservant
Your own shadow, able to deliver spells by touch and cast cantrips by itself

I think I got the balance pretty reasonable but it definitely horns in on both Beastmaster Rangers for having combat capable animal companions and Warlocks as the current keeper of the "cool" familiars. Please comment on any suggestions or ideas.

Find Familiar from Memory. Starting at 2nd level, you may now cast the Find Familiar spell from memory without requiring it as one of your prepared spells.

Familiar. Starting at 2nd level, when you use the Find Familiar ritual spell, you may instead summon a creature of up to Challenge Rating ¼ from the following types: Beast, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Monstrosity, Swarm of Tiny Beasts, or Undead. Familiars of the Beast or Swarm of Tiny Beasts types are physical manifestations of a fey, celestial, or fiend spirit as per the spell. Familiars of other types are simply a creature of that type that you have formed a familiar bond with through the spell.

Your familiar has the following benefits:


Its maximum Hit Points is equal to the creature’s normal maximum or 4 times your wizard level, whichever is higher.
Its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are each raised to 6 if any of those values are less than 6.
Add your proficiency bonus to your familiar’s Armor Class and to any saves or skills it is proficient in.
As your familiar is of greater strength than other more traditional familiars, it may perform the attack action per the rules below.
If your familiar is of at least small size, it may wear armor or barding depending on its shape. Any armor, barding, or clothing it wears appear and disappear with it when summoned or temporarily dismissed. If your familiar is killed, any items it wears fall to the ground when its body discorporates.
Your familiar may use any magic item that you may use so long as it has the physical ability to use the item. Items that require attunement still require attunement and count against your limit.


You can command your familiar to move to any location it can reach without spending an action. It will move during its turn. Unlike a normal familiar, your familiar is capable of engaging in combat and thus you can command it to attack, dash, disengage, dodge, or help by using an action.

Improved Familiar. At 6th level, your familiar gains the following attributes once you recast the Find Familiar ritual spell.



You can now use a bonus action to command your familiar to attack, dash, disengage, dodge, or help.


In addition you may select two of the following enhancements when you cast the Find Familiar ritual spell:



Improved Selection. You may now select a creature of up to Challenge Rating ½ from the following types: Beast, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Monstrosity, Swarm of Tiny Beasts, or Undead.
Intelligent Companion. Its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are each raised to 10 if any of those values are less than 10.
Familiar Speech. Your familiar is now capable of speech and knows all languages you know. It can read those languages and it it has the physical ability can write them as well.
Spellcasting. Your familiar can cast any cantrip you know twice. This ability is reset after a short rest.
Enhanced Link. Your telepathic communication with your familiar now extends to a range of 1 mile.
Magical Weapons. Your familiar’s natural weapons are now considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance.
Winged Flight. Your familiar sprouts wings appropriate to its form (feathered wings, bat wings, insect wings, etc…) and is now capable of flight with a speed of 40 feet.
Devil’s Sight. If your familiar is a Beast or Swarm of Tiny Beasts and is the manifestation of a fiend spirit, you may select this ability. Your familiar now has Darkvision to a range of 120 feet and can see even in magical darkness.
Invisibility. If your familiar is a Beast or Swarm of Tiny Beasts and is the manifestation of a fey spirit, you may select this ability. Your familiar may now take an action to turn invisible and can remain this way until it makes an attack or casts a spell.
Daylight. If your familiar is a Beast or Swarm of Tiny Beasts and is the manifestation of a celestial spirit, you may select this ability. Your familiar may use an action to cast the Daylight spell. It can only use this ability once but can do so again once it has completed a long rest.


Great Familiar. At 10th level, you may select two of the following enhancements for your familiar which it will manifest once you recast the Find Familiar ritual spell:



Any of the options from those available at 6th level.
Combat Familiar. Add your proficiency bonus to your familiar’s attack and damage rolls.
Extended Selection. You must have previously chosen the Improved Selection enhancement to select this option. You may now select a creature of up to Challenge Rating 1 from the following types: Beast, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Monstrosity, Swarm of Tiny Beasts, or Undead.
Wise Companion. Requires that you have already selected the Intelligent Companion option. Your familiar’s Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are each raised to 14 if any of those values are less than 14.
Superior Link. Requires that you have already selected the Enhanced Link option. You can now telepathically communicate with your familiar at any range as long as it is on the same plane as you.
Regeneration. Your familiar regains 5 Hit Points at the start of its turn if it started the turn with at least 1 Hit Point.
Fiendish Resistance. If your familiar is a Beast or Swarm of Tiny Beasts and is the manifestation of a fiend spirit, you may select this ability. Your familiar gains immunity to fire and poison damage and to the poisoned condition. It also gains damage resistance to cold and slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from non-magical weapons that are not silvered.
Shapechanger. Your familiar may now spend an action to change its shape similar to the Change Appearance option of the Alter Self spell.
Healing Touch. If your familiar is a Beast or Swarm of Tiny Beasts and is the manifestation of a celestial spirit, you may select this ability. Your familiar has a blessed touch can heal wounds. It has a pool of healing power that replenishes when it takes a long rest. With that pool, it can restore a total number of hit points equal to your wizard level x 5. As an action, it can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to restore a number of hit points to that creature, up to the maximum amount remaining in its pool.


Great Companion. At 14th level, you may select one of the following enhancements for your familiar which it will manifest once you recast the Find Familiar ritual spell:



Any of the options from those available at 6th level.
Magic Resistance. The familiar has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Share Spells. When you cast a spell targeting yourself, you can also affect your familiar with the spell if it is within 30 feet of you.


To help in selecting available familiar companions, here is what is available currently via the Monster Manual by type and CR:

Beasts CR ¼: Axe Beast, Boar, Constrictor Snake, Elk, Draft Horse, Giant badger, Giant bat, Giant centipede, Giant frog, Giant lizard, Giant owl, Giant poisonous snake, Giant wolf spider, Panther, Pteranodon, Riding Horse, and Wolf.
Beasts CR ½: Ape, Black Bear, Crocodile, Giant Goat, Giant Sea Horse, Giant Wasp, Reef Shark, and Warhorse.
Beasts CR 1: Brown Bear, Death Dog, Dire Wolf, Giant eagle, Giant hyena, Giant octopus, Giant spider, Giant toad, Giant vulture, Lion, and Tiger.

Construct CR ¼: Duodrone and Flying Sword.
Construct CR ½: Tridrone.
Construct CR 1: Animated Armor and Quadrone.

Dragon CR ¼: Pseudodragon.
Dragon CR 1: Brass Dragon Wyrmling, Copper Dragon Wyrmling, and Faerie Dragon (Young).

Fey CR ¼: Blink Dog, Pixie, and Sprite.
Fey CR ½: Satyr.
Fey CR 1: Dryad.

Elemental CR ¼: Mud Mephit, Smoke Mephit, and Steam Mephit.
Elemental CR ½: Dust Mephit, Ice Mephit, Magma Mephit, and Magmin.
Elemental CR 1: Fire Snake.

Monstrosity CR ½: Cockatrice, Gray ooze, Rust Monster, and Worg.
Monstrosity CR 1: Hippogriff.

Swarm of Tiny Beasts CR ¼: Swarm of bats, Swarm of rats, and Swarm of ravens.
Swarm of Tiny Beasts CR ½: Swarm of insects.

Undead CR ¼: Skeleton and Zombie.
Undead CR ½: Shadow and Warhorse Skeleton.
Undead CR 1: Ghoul, Scarecrow, and Specter.

NeoSeraphi
2015-02-11, 01:47 PM
How does Combat Familiar work with the given ability to add your proficiency bonus to your familiars attack rolls at 6?

Also the ability to cast find familar from memory would be useful.

ASchmidt
2015-02-11, 01:58 PM
How does Combat Familiar work with the given ability to add your proficiency bonus to your familiars attack rolls at 6?

Also the ability to cast find familar from memory would be useful.

Argh... Ok, that was totally an artifact of many many edits. I'll be removing the granted ability at level six.

And Find Familiar has a one hour cast time so casting it as a ritual from your spellbook just increases the cast time to an hour and ten minutes. Unless you had something different in mind...?

NeoSeraphi
2015-02-11, 02:09 PM
Argh... Ok, that was totally an artifact of many many edits. I'll be removing the granted ability at level six.

And Find Familiar has a one hour cast time so casting it as a ritual from your spellbook just increases the cast time to an hour and ten minutes. Unless you had something different in mind...?

I meant being able to cast it even if your spellbook was lost or stolen. It's a big part of your archetype and is arguably more important to your wizard than his spells are.

ASchmidt
2015-02-11, 02:17 PM
I meant being able to cast it even if your spellbook was lost or stolen. It's a big part of your archetype and is arguably more important to your wizard than his spells are.

Ok, that makes sense and I can see how it would be important. And from a balance side it doesn't seem like a big deal, just useful in a very small set of circumstances. Good suggestion and thank you!

Twelvetrees
2015-02-12, 08:35 PM
I like the concept a lot. I really like having a familiar that has an impact beyond just scouting around.

Two suggestions for improvement:

Improved Familiar: Being able to use a bonus action to have your familiar attack is a little strong, especially for a primary spellcaster. I would suggest removing the attack option.

Great Familiar: Under Regeneration, change the part about gaining hit points to regaining hit points.

Once again, nicely done.

Amechra
2015-02-12, 10:36 PM
Familiars can't take the attack action.

Like, at all.

So you might want to address that.

ASchmidt
2015-02-12, 11:05 PM
I like the concept a lot. I really like having a familiar that has an impact beyond just scouting around.

Two suggestions for improvement:

Improved Familiar: Being able to use a bonus action to have your familiar attack is a little strong, especially for a primary spellcaster. I would suggest removing the attack option.

Great Familiar: Under Regeneration, change the part about gaining hit points to regaining hit points.

Once again, nicely done.

First, thank you so much! Great catch about the regeneration and I've already made the correction.

As for the familiar attack option... what I was trying to do was blend the Beast Master Ranger's pet with a familiar to give the option of having a familiar that could be something of a bodyguard.

I'm stuck in the middle between two points right now...



I can let them attack but only if the Wizard gives up their action to let the familiar attack but this feels like the Wizard is just standing there while the familiar runs around attacking. This works for the Ranger because they can give up one of their two attacks to the familiar and still have an attack to make. So in essence, this seems like too big a cost for the Wizard to command their familiar to attack.
Or I can let it be a bonus action to attack and yeah, in some familiar builds this ends up being a bigger bonus than it should be. So this seems to be too small a cost.


So I'm looking for an option 3 that splits the difference. I'm toying with a couple ideas but don't have anything concrete. But thank you very much for bringing it up and making your suggestions.

ASchmidt
2015-02-12, 11:10 PM
Familiars can't take the attack action.

Like, at all.

So you might want to address that.

Yep, I'm fully aware of that. I made the point in the last paragraph of the Familiar section that unlike a normal familiar that a familiar paired with a Bonded Mage is capable of attacking. But if you think that is not a significant enough distinction, I could always come up with a new spell available only to a Bonded Mage, say Find Bonded Companion, that doesn't have the limitation in question.

Twelvetrees
2015-02-12, 11:43 PM
Could you perhaps expand the wizard's ability to cast spells through the familiar, instead of the familiar attacking? Instead of just touch spells, perhaps some certain number of spells with a different range could be cast through the familiar.

Amechra
2015-02-12, 11:49 PM
I didn't notice that you made that exception; maybe you could stick that in the bulleted list right above it, where all the other benefits they get on top of a normal familiar are listed.

ASchmidt
2015-02-12, 11:51 PM
Could you perhaps expand the wizard's ability to cast spells through the familiar, instead of the familiar attacking? Instead of just touch spells, perhaps some certain number of spells with a different range could be cast through the familiar.

The idea I've been toying with (and forgive me, this is really rough wording here) is that you can order your familiar to attack as a bonus action but if you do, you can't cast spells whose level is more than half the max level you can cast. The idea being that your high level spells require more concentration and you can't spare the attention to your familiar while you're casting those spells. So if you can cast up to 5th level spells, you'd only be able to instruct your familiar to attack on a round where you cast a 1st or 2nd level spell. Given that your familiar isn't going to be more than at most a CR 1 and therefore doesn't have really heavy attacks (especially since to have a CR 1 familiar you'd have to be at least level 10), I think that's not too big of a boost to your damage.

ASchmidt
2015-02-12, 11:53 PM
I didn't notice that you made that exception; maybe you could stick that in the bulleted list right above it, where all the other benefits they get on top of a normal familiar are listed.

Good point, I'll try to make it more noticeable so it doesn't get lost in all the text. It's definitely a big distinction and shouldn't get missed.

Darkstand
2015-02-13, 09:54 AM
I meant being able to cast it even if your spellbook was lost or stolen. It's a big part of your archetype and is arguably more important to your wizard than his spells are.

Its not explicitly mentioned in 5e, but other editions had lines that spellbooks did not have to be literal books if you did not want. If your DM was allowing such a option, I wonder if, as a improved familiar option, your familiar WAS your spellbook? A very niche option, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a class option choice. It'd really make the case for some character concepts. Just my two cents.

ASchmidt
2015-02-13, 04:21 PM
Its not explicitly mentioned in 5e, but other editions had lines that spellbooks did not have to be literal books if you did not want. If your DM was allowing such a option, I wonder if, as a improved familiar option, your familiar WAS your spellbook? A very niche option, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a class option choice. It'd really make the case for some character concepts. Just my two cents.

Hurm... I'll let that one rumble about in the back of my head. Because the first thought that I had was if your spellbook could be your familiar, then why not your sword or staff? But that had me thinking about Warlocks who can have a spellbook, familiar, or bonded weapon. So for right now I'm just pondering it and seeing if something comes out of it that I can fit in to this archetype without just stealing all of the Warlock's good stuff.