Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 28th episode of our find familiar series. We’re going to be taking a look at couple of the technical variant familiar 5e what i mean by that is there’s no official way of getting these but they can be included into game play and your DMs discretion. Really cool stuff!. The first one i’m gonna be talking about is the variant imp familiar.
But you already covered the imp familiar 5e stats i hear you saying in the comment section or in your own heads. Technically true so i’ve covered the pact of the chain imp which as you guys pointed out a while back is actually different than the true imp in terms of d&d 5e. To explain what i mean by that we’ll need to move a little bit on here. Let’s take a look at its stats.
DnD 5E Imp Familiar Variant Stats
Imps are found throughout the Lower Planes, either running errands for their infernal masters, spying on rivals, or misleading and waylaying mortals. An imp will proudly serve an evil master of any kind, but it can’t be relied on to carry out tasks with any speed or efficiency.
An imp can assume animal form at will, but in its natural state it resembles a diminutive red-skinned humanoid with a barbed tail, small horns, and leathery wings. It strikes while invisible, attacking with its poison stinger.
Imps can be found in the service to mortal spellcasters, acting as advisors, spies, and familiars. An imp urges its master to acts of evil, knowing the mortal’s soul is a prize the imp might ultimately claim. Imps display an unusual loyalty to their masters, and an imp can be quite dangerous if its master is threatened.
- Imp (Familiar Variant): Tiny fiend (devil), lawful evil
- Armor Class: 13; Hit Points: 10 (3d4 + 3); Speed: Walk 20 ft., fly 40 ft.
- STR: 6 (-2)
- DEX: 17 (+3)
- CON: 13 (+1)
- INT: 11 (+0)
- WIS: 12 (+1)
- CHA: 14 (+2)
- Skills: Deception +4, Insight +3, Persuasion +4, Stealth +5
- Damage Resistances: Cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Silvered
- Damage Immunities: Fire, Poison
- Condition Immunities: Poisoned
- Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 11
- Languages: Common, Infernal
- Challenge: 1 (200 XP)
- Shapechanger: The imp can use its action to polymorph into a beast form that resembles a rat (speed 20 ft.), a raven (20 ft., fly 60 ft.), or a spider (20 ft., climb 20 ft.), or back into its true form. Its statistics are the same in each form, except for the speed changes noted. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
- Devil’s Sight: Magical darkness doesn’t impede the imp’s darkvision.
- Magic Resistance: The imp has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
- Familiar: The imp can enter into a contract to serve another creature as a familiar, forming a telepathic bond with its willing master. While the two are bonded, the master can sense what the imp senses as long as they are within 1 mile of each other. While the imp is within 10 feet of its master, the master shares the imp’s Magic Resistance trait. If its master violates the terms of the contract, the imp can end its service as a familiar, ending the telepathic bond.
- Actions:
- Sting (Bite in Beast Form): Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
- Invisibility: The imp magically turns invisible until it attacks or until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the imp wears or carries is invisible with it.
So it’s stats really exactly the same as the previous article. 13 to AC, 10 hit points, walk speed of 20 feet, fly speed of 40 feet, strength of minus two, positives in everything else most notably +3 to dex, +4 to deception, +3 to insight, +4 to persuasion and +5 to stealth.
It has darkvision, passive perrception and forms a telepathic bond. Damage resistances include cold as well as piercing the bludgeoning and slashing damage from nonmagical Attacks that aren’t Silvered. Immune to poison and fire and poison damage and can speak both common and infernal as well as understand it. So pretty much the same so far, right! Let’s move on to its other traits and i’ll go over the difference here.
So it can still shepeshift into the same rat, raven, spider combos as before it’s clothing doesn’t change shape with it however. Devil sight lets us see through magical darkness as well as normal darkness has magic resistance and through the familiar trait which is exclusive to the variant version of this.
It can provide the caster or its the one who it’s bonded with rather its master, with magic resistance so long as it’s within 10 feet, so pretty cool stuff. That being said, it’s actions taking a quick look at them now. Are still the same, so bite deals +5 to hit or sting technically but biting its beast form, it’s still +5 to hit, it still deals five piercing damage and still must succeed on a DC 11 constitution saving throw or take 10 poison damage and be poisoned.
Another one is invisible until it attacks or its concentration ends which is pretty cool stuff! So i’ve always played with this version of the familiar when i’ve been playing pact of the chain warlock as it does everyone at my table so i was actually surprised to see you here that this wasn’t tha main one so, thanks for letting me know guys i really appreciate it, i’ve written the revised versions of the pact of the chain articles already.
I would allow this in my game, i don’t think it’s particularly broken it highly incentivizes people to give the pact of the chain another look over adjust for that magic resistance which is super great, this could be brought into campaigns or this particular familiar can be brought into campaigns in a number of ways.
Bonding with a devil in the nine hels for example is a really good way of kind of getting this little guy on your side. So i mean DM’s discretion right, cool way to build it into a campaign as well is to give it to a bad guy and kind of persuade them to join your side i think that’d be really fun. Also check out what is the difference between imp and quasit?.
Conclusion
That being said, if you guys have any ideas i’d really like to hear them out in the comment section below, i really appreciate it. That being said guys, thank you so much for checking out today, i really do appreciate it and happy casting.