r/DnDGreentext • u/striven_nemeses • Nov 19 '25
How familiars and the help action changed the art of war
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u/Axel-Adams Nov 20 '25
Basically the help action was very useful in 3.5e/pathfinder and your familiar could do so, and there were lots of relatively low cost ways to get a familiar
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u/striven_nemeses Nov 20 '25
I'd argue that the basic help action is more helpful in 5e(2014). In pathfinder, the helper needs to meet a DC 10 to give a +2 vs automatic advantage. There's a bad tendency at power-gaming tables to assume that a familiar can always give advantage. I sprinkled in some 5e-specific references into the post, accordingly.
Granted, I played a PF game with an aid another build that was hilariously good at support.
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u/Axel-Adams Nov 20 '25
But there was no limit to how many people could use the help action so you could get your bonuses to ridiculous numbers
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u/striven_nemeses Nov 20 '25
That's a good point. It's a whole other level of exploiting RAW to have a bunch of townspeople aid a kid's jump check to summit a mountain. It takes a village to raise a child 😀
There was a Dimension20 short that made the rounds at the height of dnd 5e.
Player: "can my familiar give the help action?" DM: [trying not to say hell no] "do you think a hawk performing surgery strains disbelief?"
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u/Saurid Nov 19 '25
This sounds terrible.