Quote Originally Posted by Waterdeep Merch View Post
I completely agree with this. You simply can't use the artillerist's turrets to accomplish anything a familiar could, while the homonculus is decisively better at everything any familiar that isn't a Pact of the Chain familiar can do. And I wouldn't call a PoC familiar necessarily superior, they're just better at different things.

They're ungodly scouts with incredible utility. You don't even really care if they die, so you can intentionally throw them into the kind of dangerous situations you wouldn't want your rogue walking into.

Speaking of, they're excellent backup for a proper party scout if you've got one. Buoyancy and Inspiration are great clutch abilities when traveling into the unknown, as is simply having a flying helper that might be able to have hands and thus use certain magic items. Immunity to poison's also an excellent toy for circumventing a very common sort of trap. For Absolute Shenanigans, grab Magic Initiate at some point and find familiar to make a small scouting squad.

By comparison, the turrets are only helpful in combat. I'd say they're out-and-out worse for most games due to their lack of relevancy in wide swaths of gameplay.

EDIT: Homonculus's having hands is technically not mentioned anywhere in the rules whatsoever, so it's difficult to say if they have them and can thus produce the somatic components needed for magic items.
It's not mentioned in the rules, but the art for a standard homunculus provided shows they can have limbs and hands.
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