The Happy Halloweeners
A selection of spooky familiars for 5.5, adaptable to other D&Dalikes
Assembled below are some variant familiars themed around the spirit of Halloween. While not every realm has Halloween, many have something resembling it - a spooky period in the Autumn as the seasons rotate, when the air chills, the leaves tumble, and the realms of the dead are close at hand. The familiars below all have the regular powers and limitations of the Find Familiar spell, but they also each have a minor extra ability as well.
How to use these Halloweeners
These critters are imagined as arcane caster familiars but could be used as variant companions for the right sort of cleric or paladin, as appropriate.
Although in 5.5 familiars can be Celestial, Fey, or Fiendish, given the theming here these Halloweeners should probably be limited to Fey or Fiendish. They’re all written “cute” rather than “menacing”, so perhaps Fey is the way to go.
Use one with an NPC (hostile or otherwise); an unusual familiar makes an NPC instantly memorable.
Allow a PC caster to summon (or upgrade to) one of these familiars as a reward for a Halloween-themed quest - such as defeating a coven of appropriately-themed hags, or for casting the Find Familiar spell in a special place on Halloween, etc.
Add them to a custom table of summonable creatures for use with a particular Summon Animals spell or related item (Bag of Halloween Tricks?).
Temporarily replace a PC caster’s normal familiar with a Halloweener during a themed Halloween adventure.
Jack-o-Little. This softball-sized animated jack-o-lantern offers a friendly, toothy grin, and can be quite useful to the adventuring wizard. First, he emits light as a Continual Flame spell at all times, unless commanded to shut his mouth. Secondly, despite his lack of visible limbs, the jack-o-little cannot easily be dislodged from its owner’s shoulder when he is happily sitting there, making this familiar an excellent spotlight for the spelunking explorer. Finally, a number of times per day equal to proficiency bonus, the owner of jack-o-little can speak with plant creatures as per that feature of the Speak With Plants spell.
Pocket Square Ghost. When not floating lazily about in sheet-ghost form, the tiny pocket-square ghost prefers to rest in a jacket pocket so it can be carried about but still see what’s going on. Although it can fly and even phase through walls a number of times per day equivalent to its owner’s proficiency bonus, the pocket-square ghost is incredibly slow (Speed 5) and insists on making not-actually-that-spooky noises as it floats around. The ghost takes itself seriously and may refuse to work if mocked.
Spookan. An eerie black-and-green bird with a gigantic beak, the Spookan can “follow its nose” and detect the presence of undead within 120 feet, which causes its tremendous proboscis to emit a sickly green glow. The creature is not clever enough to tell the difference between a lich and a vampire by sight or description, for example, but certainly undead of greater power smell more strongly than a simple zombie or skeleton, and thus trigger a brighter glow. (Note: bringing your Spookan into the presence of an actual death god (Orcus), really legendary undead (Vecna, Dragotha), or similar is very likely to cause the poor familiar to explode comically, never to be summoned again.)
Scaredy-Crow. This creature, assembled from straw and flannel rags, is essentially a scarecrow version of a crow, which likely causes it considerable existential angst. The caster attuned to the Scaredy-Crow has advantage on all saving throws against fear effects.
Cauldronid. A little animated witch’s cauldron the size of a soup bowl, which skitters about on its stubby metal legs (speed 20, can climb walls) when not perched on its owner’s shoulder or hanging from a belt or backpack. The cauldronid cannot speak but is a happy little fellow, eager to serve. Its cavity can hold the equivalent of one beverage or potion, which will not spoil while in the cauldron, and which the cauldron will not spill despite its frantic movements. The cauldronid will dutifully carry a healing or other potion across an active battlezone and pour it in the mouth of an ally. If the little cauldron is dismissed or destroyed while holding a liquid, that liquid will be destroyed (lost in whatever pocket dimension) by the time he is re-summoned.
Bankenstein. This little piglet golem has obvious stitching and mismatched parts, having been assembled from multiple piglets. He has a little slit in his back where you can deposit coins. Each time the attuned caster places a gold piece in Bankenstein (up to as many times per day as the caster’s proficiency bonus), Bankenstein will manifest the following turn a random effect from the “pig of wonder” table below. The piglet can of course be aimed if the caster is holding him. When Bankenstein is out of charges for the day, his belly will appear full and distended, and he will moan a bit and want to take a long nap.
Pig of Wonder effects table
1 Eldritch squeal - Bankenstein emits a terrifying pig-squeal from beyond the dawn of time (possibly from that aberrant plane known as the Farm Realm). All hearing creatures within 120 feet, including allies, must make a Wisdom saving throw or take 2d8 psychic damage.
2-3 Candy corn - Bankenstein produces a handful of candy corn. If consumed immediately, the candy corn heals 2d8 hit points. If saved for later, it’s just candy corn.
4-5 Fire bolt - The piglet burps out a fire bolt spell.
6-7 Web - Bankenstein belches forth a web spell.
8 Jackpot - The piglet loudly and painfully produces every gold piece he’s been “fed” since the last time he delivered a jackpot. If this is Bankenstein’s first jackpot with you as his owner, then he provides 5d6 gp of filthy lucre.
