Conversion Kit: Arcane Sapper

Kit Overview

• Investment Type: Spell Choice

• Minimum Investment: Two spells: Glyph of Warding and Find Familiar. (The Former requires at least 5 levels in a full caster class)

• Overall Impact: You are able to prepare devastating magical glyphs behind enemy lines via your familiar, winning battles before they are fought, and all without ever putting yourself in harm’s way.

Investment

The two cores to this kit are available to a rather limited number of classes. By default, only Wizards can learn the Find Familiar spell, and a familiar is a strictly necessary part of this kit. Since Wizards can also learn Glyph of Warding by default, Wizards have the easiest time achieving the use of this kit.

Three other classes have access to Glyph of Warding by default: Artificers, Bards, and Clerics. Of these, not one counts Find Familiar among their class spells.

Bards can hypothetically get this kit online at 10th level using their Magical Secrets feature to access Find Familiar, but realistically, this is 5 levels after you get the Glyph of Warding and there are likely better spells to snag.

Artificers actually have a built-in familiar alternative, the Homunculus Servant, accessible at 6th Level- but they don't get Glyph of Warding until 10th Level.

With that in mind, this is a 5th Level kit for Wizards, as well as Clerics and Bards with support. Bards without support will be waiting until 10th level, as will artificers, even with support.

For Bards and Clerics, I'd recommend utilizing the Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate feats to gain a companion. Ritual Caster has certain advantages since you’re already opting for a methodical playstyle, but you can feel free to use Magic Initiate if you want a little more immediate punch in the form of cantrips. You know what’s best for your character.

The only other class that has access to Find Familiar is the Warlock, and even then only if they select the Pact of the Chain. However, there are two problems for Warlocks trying to access this kit: They have no way to access Glyph of Warding shy of 5 levels of multiclassing- that’s far too deep an investment to get this trick online, and even if they do, Warlocks don’t have the spell slots to back it up. (Warlocks do have a place in this kit, so if you like their flavor, stay tuned for the kit support section).

Narrative Impact

So you’re sending your familiar out to prepare magical traps ahead of you. What does this method say about your personality or history?

Perhaps you were formally trained in this technique, and used powerful glyphs to defend locations of great significance? Were they holy sites, military encampments, or something else? Perhaps you slowly but surely rooted out enemy presence, or performed unpleasant and untraceable deeds from a distance. Who did you work for? What were they trying to accomplish?

You might have developed this technique to defend yourself from overwhelming odds. A Wizard whose research attracted the wrong attention, a Cleric whose faith led to persecution, a Bard who knew too much.

Perhaps you are a meticulous planner, and you approach battle as a puzzle to be solved, and Glyphs are your hidden piece on the board. A capricious trickster who toys with foes and delights in outmaneuvering them at every step. A sadist who inflicts terrible fates with a precise network of glyphs.

Your choice of familiar can lean into this narrative, if you do not choose based on mechanical advantage. Hawks befit military sappers, while owls and cats match stealthy agents. A spider might suggest a clever cruelty, while a weasel or rat might suggest cowardice.

Mechanical Impact

Okay, it's well established by now that we’re using our familiar and Glyph of Warding to set up traps for foes. But what does that look like? Your familiar has a feature that you may be aware of, but likely rarely use: when you cast a touch spell, your familiar can deliver the spell as a reaction as long as it is within 100ft of you. This usually puts your familiar in the thick of combat, and so you’ve likely written it off.

What you likely didn’t realize is that Glyph of Warding is a touch spell. And why would you? The spell takes an hour to cast, and you’re unlikely to get away with standing around for an hour while you cast it. But your familiar may not have much better to do. And it'll likely be much more subtle than you for the standing around bit.

Note that your familiar always obeys you, can communicate telepathically with you while you are within 100 feet of it, and you can use its senses while within 100 feet of it. What does all of this mean? You basically have a living drone that can place Glyphs of Warding on command.

If you do this right, you can use a familiar to scout the encounter, and set up your victory before the battle has even begun.

There’s more to it than that of course- a lot can change in the hour it takes to cast the glyph. Using this kit most effectively might involve luring or forcing enemies into the area of effect of your glyph in some cases.

This is worth the effort- when a glyph goes off it changes the entire dynamic of an encounter. You can heavily damage or disable entire groups before initiative has even been rolled.

Before we close out this section, it bears mentioning that certain familiars make for better sapper’s aides than others. Spiders are excellent for indoor sapping, they’re tiny, and even if noticed not particularly suspicious, though they are somewhat slow. Outdoors, a flying familiar such as an Owl, Hawk, or Raven is better for reaching the target location quickly, and rarely looks out of place outdoors.

Kit Support

Earlier I mentioned that the Warlock had a place in this kit. The Pact of the Chain grants access to powerful familiars. Imps, Quasits, and Sprites have on-demand invisibility that can help them place your Glyphs without risk. The Pseudodragon has magic resistance, which may allow them to take a hit from a misfired glyph more easily.

However, keep in mind that you can simply summon a fallen familiar once more. These special familiars do require a three level investment in the warlock class, but getting to choose a patron can add some unique flavor to your sapper. Going this route can save a feat if you are a Bard, Cleric, or Artificer in need of a familiar.

There are also a few additional spells your familiar can deliver out in the field. Snare is a simple disabling trap that your famililar can deliver from level one. At higher levels, Symbol offers a much more efficient variant on Glyph of Warding with a variety of devastating effects. Rope Trick is an odd duck spell that could give your familiar a panic room if you need to stage a rescue or if you need a hideout that your familiar can prepare for you ahead of time.

Plugging my own work for a moment here, Spymaster’s Coin from the Unseen Seer document is a fairly unobtrusive touch spell that your DM might just allow. If they do, your familiar can help you spy on a creature or area long after they are gone.

Keep in mind that your familiar can also self-deliver touch spells such as Invisibility and Gaseous Form- this can be vital in keeping them safe and unnoticed.

Pitfalls

There’s actually quite a few potential pitfalls with this one. Some of them in the realm of DM adjudication, others in the cooperation and acceptance of your fellow players.

On the DM side of things, certain aspects of Glyph of Warding are unclear. While it says that the spell delivered by the Glyph must be harmful, what constitutes ‘harmful’ is somewhat up in the air. Healing is obviously out, but certain indirect forms of harm seem acceptable. The spell explicitly calls out summoning ceatures and objects to attack a target, but what about a wall? Does impeding the enemy count as harm? What about Divination magic that reveals their position? Clear this definition up with your DM before committing to this kit.

I would suggest a rather broad interpretation- anything that does not directly affect allied characters can be cast via the glyph.

Your DM also has to make a ruling about when your familiar must spend their reaction to deliver a Glyph of Warding. If the familiar does so at the beginning or end of the process, they can rather quickly plant a glyph before running away. If they must be there throughout, it complicates things slightly. The rules as written are unclear, but the familiar staying put throughout doesn’t seem unreasonable.

The GM might also rule that the process of casting the spell is obvious, but I would remind them that you are casting the spell, the familiar is just the conduit. If they insist, consider ways to mitigate the issue, but also consider that your DM may not be comfortable with this playstyle and be prepared to adjust.

On the player side, you are asking your allies to essentially stand aside while you prepare the battlefield. An hour spent waiting passes by in the blink of an eye in DnD, but the hour you spent going back and forth with the DM performing reconnaissance certainly won’t. Be efficient about the moments you’re a solo act while invoking them sparingly, and your party should appreciate the asset more than they resent the delay.

On a mechanical level, you run two risks that feed into one another. First, the best Glyphs are spell Glyphs (as opposed to standard explosive runes), and these cost two spell slots, effectively doubling your resource consumption. And frontloading all that power can lead to One Big Miss: if the glyph doesn’t go off, or isn’t as effective as you’d hoped, you’ve blown a lot of resources on a failed effort.

You can only avoid this through careful planning, so scribe those glyphs judiciously.