I started a new campaign and the DM started me with an egg, which I just discovered contains a homunculus. (egg, whatever). I looked up its stats and it seems…awful. The create homunculus spell from XGtE is 6th-level, while the find familiar spell is 1st-level. Is there something I'm missing here? What makes the homunculus 5 spell levels better than other familiars?
[RPG] Homunculus: worth its own weight
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There's nothing in the rules that prevents you from having the service of two creatures with the Familiar variant.
What you have to remember is that variant monsters, like monsters, are designed for the GM to use to make enemies more interesting. The Familiar variant is a monster variant, just like the troll's Loathsome Limbs variant or the Genie Powers variant. They're for GM use rather than player use.
The Mage NPC in Appendix B of the Monster Manual also has a Familiar variant, which says:
Any spellcaster that can cast the find familiar spell (such as an archmage or mage) is likely to have a familiar. The familiar can be one of the creatures described in the spell (see the Player’s Handbook) or some other Tiny monster, such as a crawling claw, imp, pseudodragon, or quasit.
So the Familiar variant is for GMs to create more interesting NPCs, rather than to provide players with additional options. Of course, with your GM's permission, you could obtain one of these familiars. This would probably involve actually finding such a creature and somehow forming a bond with it. But this relies solely on your GM to allow and arbitrate.
Needless to say, if even getting one familiar this way is entirely up to your GM, getting two is, even more so. There's nothing in the rules to prevent it, but you'll have to talk your GM into it if you want to have a quasit on each shoulder.
Now for combining Find Familiar with the Familiar variant: The interpretation that causes the least difficulty is that the variant Familiar isn't actually a familiar, it just "serves you as a familiar". In this case, there's no interaction between Find Familiar and the Familiar variant, and everything is fine.
However, if the variant Familiar is a familiar, well...things get weird. If you have your familiar from casting Find Familiar, and you then bond with one from the Familiar variant, there's no way to tell what happens. You "can't have more than one familiar at a time", so you've already put the game in a paradoxical state. Your original familiar might vanish, or your new one might die, or, well, anything, really.
If you have a familiar from the Familiar variant, and you cast Find Familiar, then by the rules (when using the interpretation that variant familiars still count as familiars), you get to change the form of your variant Familiar. You probably don't want to do this, since all the forms you could change it to are weaker than the one you've got, but there it is.
The fact that these rules break down completely when faced with each other is just more evidence - the Monster Manual is not meant as a player resource. Sorry, but it's not. Every spell or ability (like Wild Shape) that would require a player to look at the Monster Manual says "your DM has the stats" or something similar. The Familiar variant was never meant for players to see. It belongs to the GM.
No. They are part of a class feature of the character, and considered as "part" of that character. They are not NPC, they are creatures under the control of the PC with strict guidelines.
The stats of those creatures are therefore bound to the controlling player's stats, proficiency and level in general, as they are part of that player's class features, just like a spell save DC.
They also don't act on their own. The ranger's beast companion must be instructed to attack every single round, for example.
The difference between those creatures and a real NPC is that an NPC has its own will and motivations. An NPC cannot be dismissed when convenient like a familiar can (and the familiar will never complain or rebel against the warlock). An NPC is under the control of the DM at all times, but the familiar and beast companion are under the control of the player. The DM should refrain from describing actions for those, as it would violate player agency.
Best Answer
A Homunculus offers a primarily utility-focused benefit...but it's big thing is the Telepathic Bond.
With a normal, summoned familiar, you must be within 100 feet of it to communicate with it, and must use an Action to see through its senses, rendering you blind and deaf in the process. Thus, using a normal familiar, it's effective range is mostly limited to 100 feet.
With a Homunculus, you have an always-on sensory link with it that applies as long as you're on the same plane. Everything it senses, you get live updates as if you sensed those things yourself. Thus, it is a familiar with unlimited effective range, and you DON'T have to blind and deafen yourself to perceive what your familiar is perceiving.
With a normal familiar, it doesn't learn any new languages. Most familiars (per the Find Familiar spell) can't necessarily understand spoken languages. Therefore, unless you are hijacking your familiar's senses, it can't serve to listen in on conversations because it won't understand what is being said.
With a Homunculus, it understands every language you do. So even if you aren't paying attention to the Homunculus at the moment, you can have it go spy on something and then just report back to you what it overheard...allowing it to work as a detached agent without your direct involvement
A typical summoned familiar is an animal. Find Familiar does not actually increase the creature's intelligence. A Familiar cannot carry out complex instructions any more than an animal could. A Homunculus is as intelligent as an average humanoid. They can handle much more complicated instructions than a summoned familiar could. And, coupled with the fact that they understand all the languages you do, you can give them tasks that require more thought.
So, just as a nice example of implementing this: with a strength of 4 and being tiny, it can lift a max of 30 lbs. That's more than enough to pick up most books, and those little hands look reasonably dexterous. So you could turn your Homunculus loose in a library with instructions to research something, and it can go pull down books and read them--dumping all that information straight into your head while you're off doing whatever it is you're doing. And, in response, you can just give it updated instructions based on whatever you've just learned through it, or ask it to go look something else up that you need to know (say you just failed a History check or something).
The other creatures in the Monster Manual with the Variant: Familiar tag are more combat-useful than a Homunculus is. However...they are not necessarily magically bonded to you (You do NOT get the 'Variant: Familiar' bonus if you're a Warlock who summons one of those creatures). They work with you because they choose to, and if you don't end up doing the things they like, they may move on and go find someone else to be the familiar of. A Homunculus' mind-link is permanent...they are perfectly loyal to you.
Additionally, if you have access to both spells, you can have both a Familiar and a Homunculus. You don't have to pick one or the other, both can be active at the same time.
There are three downsides with regard to a Homunculus vs a normal familiar, however.
So, in short...other familiars have combat utilities and the like. A Homunculus effectively allows you to be in two places at once, working on two things at once, where one copy of you is a Tiny, flying squirrel-like creature. It's just a little easier for it to end up in danger, and a bigger deal to replace if it gets killed. So, maybe leave it behind when you go into a fight...or at least let it provide a second set of eyes from a distance so it stays out of trouble (and AoEs)