I’ve never been happy with the Warlock’s Pact of the Chain, as I’ve written about before. My premise has always been that people come to the Pact of the Chain because they want to emphasize the warlock-and-pet duo, like they’re a Demonology spec Warlock from World of Warcraft. Your familiar is what sets you apart from other Pacts, but it’s so hard for it to do anything beyond scouting, because… hit points, AC, saves.

Then Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything came out, a few years went by, and I contributed to the Witch class for Worlds Beyond Number. If you’re not already backing the Worlds Beyond Number Patreon and reading the playtest draft of the Witch, well, hie thee hence, or wait for its full release.

Kainenchen had a character concept that she’d previously built as a Bard, but it didn’t quite fit. When she reworked the concept as a Coven of the Claw Witch, a lot of things came into focus, and I suddenly saw how we should be solving the Pact of the Chain. Kainenchen said that she specifically wanted her dog familiar to become a powerful combatant the way Cringer becomes Battle-Cat, and here we are.

Summons

As we all know, Summon spells from TCOE are procedural stat blocks that include scaling functions for AC, hit points, attack rolls, damage, and so on. They usually include some internal choice between a few different options as well. That’s all great. We also see, the Fey Wanderer ranger and in some recent UA content, that instead of always requiring Concentration, it might be okay in some cases to have a Summon spell that has a 1-min duration and no Concentration, without changing anything else about the effect.

The first part of the idea, then, is dead simple. As a Pact of the Chain Warlock, when you cast one of the relevant Summon spells (not Drawmij’s Instant Summons from the PH, and not Summon Greater Demon or Summon Lesser Demon from XGTE), you can have your familiar transform into the summoned creature instead of summoning a separate creature. This reduces the duration to 1 minute, with no Concentration required.

Good so far, but that creates two main complications.

Action Economy

This had better not be a surprise to you by this point, but: in 5e, action economy is king, because it’s so unlikely that a character faces a roll they don’t have at least a fair chance of succeeding. NPCs almost never send their AC as high as the best a PC can do, because they don’t get the Defense Fighting Style or a ring of protection or whatever. But I digress.

If you can have a familiar and a summon rather than or, why would you choose the latter? Making adjustments to the procedural Summon stat block needs to stay very simple. On the other hand, owls, imps, and pseudodragons are some of the only familiars that have any special or desirable traits or actions in their stat blocks.

For starters, all of the options listed in the Find Familiar spell are still in effect for your transformed familiar. The Eldritch Invocation Investment of the Chain Master makes this incredibly strong, so I might recommend cutting that – after all, it’s an attempt to accomplish the same end goal.

I’d probably stop at “your transformed familiar adds its hit point maximum (minimum 5) to the maximum hit points of its summoned form” and call it a day, just to keep things as simple as possible.

Spell Level

There’s a more significant problem with spell level. If you have to be level 7 to cast the 4^th-level spell Summon Aberration, or even level 5 to cast the 3^rd-level spell Summon Fey, to take advantage of the whole mode of play I’m talking about… well, that’s too long. This Pact deserves to be as interesting at level 3 as the Pact of the Tome and the Pact of the Blade. (Okay, before you point out the problems with Pact of the Blade, let’s assume we’re also fixing that in something like the UA’s style.)

This one is a lot harder to solve satisfactorily. My current preference – and this is replete with problems, but it’s the most direct – is twofold.

Early Access

One, you can choose one Summon spell to access one spell level earlier than normal. That gets me Summon Beast, Summon Fey, Summon Shadowspawn, and Summon Undead by character level 3, and those are a pretty big deal. Summon Celestial and Summon Draconic Spirit aren’t Warlock spells, so I’m off the hook for those. But Summon Fiend doesn’t come online with this plan until level 9, and that’s a dealbreaker. Fiend Warlocks are the thing I’m most trying to model! I can’t leave them out to dry like that.

The story-centered solution would be to sacrifice something for this upcasting, and fold in a complicating factor. Let’s try this.

As a Warlock, you can choose a Summon spell from your class’s spell list for your Spells Known even if your highest spell level is less than the spell’s level. When you cast the spell and your spell slot you expend is lower than the spell’s level, you must expend a Hit Die. Roll the Hit Die and add the level of the spell slot you expended. If the total is equal to or greater than the spell’s level, you can cast it normally or reduce its duration to 1 minute and remove its Concentration requirement. The creature’s maximum hit points are halved.

If the total is less than the spell’s level, the creature is summoned, but not under your control. You might be able to convince it to help you anyway. This removes the spell’s Concentration duration.

New Spell

The less story-centered solution is to write a Summon Lesser Fiend spell at level 2, giving you something like a succubus or cambion. I already wrote some reasonable versions of this in the post I linked way up at the top – I just stored those as Eldritch Invocations. They were some kind of interesting ideas, but TCOE came out a year later and they look pretty dated now.

Summon Fiend

2^nd-level conjuration (warlock, wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 ft
Components: V, S, M (a blasphemous wrought-iron rune, worth 50 gp)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You call forth a lesser fiendish spirit. It manifests in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. This corporeal form uses the Lesser Fiendish Spirit stat block. When you cast the spell, choose Succubus/Incubus or Cambion. The creature resembles a fiend of the chosen type, which determines certain traits in its stat block. The creature disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The creature is an ally to you and your companions. In combat, the creature shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It obeys your verbal commands (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any, it takes the Dodge action and uses its move to avoid danger.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2^nd level or higher, use the higher level wherever the spell’s level appears in the stat block.

Lesser Fiendish Spirit
Medium fiend

Armor Class 12 + the level of the spell (natural armor)
Hit Points 25 + 5 for each spell level above 2^nd
Speed 30 ft, fly 30 ft.

STR         DEX        CON       INT         WIS        CHA
13 (+1)  16 (+3)  14 (+2)  10 (+0)  10 (+0)  16 (+3)

Skills Deception +6, Intimidation +6, Persuasion +6
Damage Resistances cold, fire
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal, telepathy 30 ft.
Challenge – Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus

Shapechanger (Succubus/Incubus only). The fiend can cast Disguise Self. Charisma is its spellcasting ability.

Innate Spellcasting (Cambion only). The fiend’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC equal to your spell save DC). The fiend can innately cast:

1/day each: command, detect magic

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The fiend makes a number of attacks equal to half this spell’s level (rounded down).

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 + 4 + the spell’s level piercing damage.

Draining Kiss (Succubus only). The fiend kisses a creature charmed by you or a willing creature. The target must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC, taking 3d8 + the spell’s level psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Fire Ray (Cambion only). Ranged Spell Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6 + the spell’s level fire damage.

Design Notes

I wish I could say either of these approaches were perfect solutions, but I hope you find them interesting all the same. Even if they take your Concentration, Summons are pound-for-pound extremely competitive with options like Hex, and more situationally adaptable than Hunger of Hadar.

DM Tip: I’ve had great results from encouraging my PCs to name the creature they summon most often, and I’ve even allowed one of them to give his summoned buddy a +1 silver shortsword that improves its stats. (Fey Wanderer rangers are simply not going to have the Wis score to make Summon Fey as powerful as it needs to be, for a level 11 feature.)

---

You can now buy Under the Seas of Vodari in PDF!

Under the Seas of Vodari is a 300-page book that provides 5E/Fifth Edition material for both gamemasters and players to dive into a world full of action and adventure set beneath the waves of Vodari or your own campaign world. This book is a follow-up to The Seas of Vodari, a setting book filled with swashbuckling action and magical adventure. Dive into your first adventure today!