Wizards who focus their arcane studies on the art of familiar summoning are referred to by many names, the most common being ‘Familiarists’ or ‘daemoners.’ What distinguishes them from general summoners is their extreme focus on familiars specifically, and the combat applications that these summoned spirits bring to the battlefield.
Familiarists push the boundaries of what a familiar can do for a Wizard, elevating them beyond the basic role of helper and making them an integral part of the Wizard’s arcane practice. When in battle, the two move in perfect synchronicity to bring an onslaught of arcane and martial damage down upon their enemies.
There are accounts of master Familiarists who cultivate a bond with their familiar so deep that the edges between the two blur until becoming indistinguishable, while others hone their craft to a point where familiar and Wizard form not a duo but an army in and of themselves. No familiar is more of a partner and comrade-in-arms to its wizard than the enhanced familiar of a Familiarist
Your familiarity with the arcane art of summoning familiars allows you to call forth a spirit in a form stronger than that of your fellow Wizards’ familiars.
You know the Find Familiar spell, you always have it prepared, and it does not count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. You can cast Find Familiar with a casting time of one action a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier. When you do so, you do not consume any material components in the casting of the spell, and the familiar you summon uses a different stat block and has abilities that are not normally granted by the Find Familiar spell.
When you summon your Enhanced Familiar, you choose which abilities it has by selecting one of the available stat blocks. See the game statistics in the Enhanced Familiar stat blocks below, which use your Proficiency Bonus in several places. Your Enhanced Familiar takes the form of an animal, though with some telltale sign of its arcane nature. What kind of animal form it takes depends on which Enhanced Familiar stat block you choose. For example, choosing the Enhanced Familiar (Flying) stat block makes your Enhanced Familiar capable of flight, so it may take the form of an owl whose feathers sport the pattern of a shifting star map, or a great moth with the phases of the moon stamped on its wings.
In combat, your Enhanced Familiar shares your Initiative count, but takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its Reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a Bonus Action on your turn to command the familiar to take a different action. The stat block chosen dictates which actions the Enhanced Familiar can take. If you’re incapacitated, the Enhanced Familiar can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
If your Enhanced Familiar is reduced to 0 Hit Points, it disappears. You can cast the spell Find Familiar using this feature to summon it again. Whenever you cast the Find Familiar spell using this feature, you can choose to summon your Enhanced Familiar using a different Enhanced Familiar stat block.
You regain all uses of this feature at the end of a Long Rest.
The arcane connection between you and your Enhanced Familiar allows you to use it as an extension of yourself in your own spellcasting. You can cast spells as though you were in the Enhanced Familiar’s space, but you must use your own senses.
You and your Enhanced Familiar have become a deadly duo in battle.
Whenever you use a Bonus Action to command your Enhanced Familiar to make a melee attack as an action, it can attack twice, rather than once.
Additionally, your Enhanced Familiar can use its Reaction whenever it is within 5 feet of you or a creature attacking you to become the target of an attack targeting you.
The bond between you and your Enhanced Familiar is so strong that your very lives are bound together.
When your current Hit Point total is reduced to 0, your Enhanced Familiar can spend its Reaction to drop its own HP to 0 instead. However many Hit Points it had whenever it takes this Reaction are immediately passed on to you.
Once your Enhanced Familiar has taken this Reaction, it cannot do so again until you finish a Long Rest.
At 14th level, you and your Enhanced Familiar have become as one, allowing it to use your own arcane power to become an even more threatening force in battle.
Whenever you cast a levelled spell that deals damage, your Enhanced Familiar can add an additional 1d8 damage to its attacks until the end of its next turn. The type of damage dealt is the same as the damage dealt by your spell.
Your familiar gains a +1 bonus to its AC. Whenever it makes a saving throw, the familiar may choose to use either its own ability score bonuses and proficiencies or yours. Whenever your Enhanced Familiar uses its Reaction to become the target of an attack targeting you, it can immediately make an attack against the creature targeting you as part of the same Reaction, provided said creature is within range of the Enhanced Familiar’s attack.
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