Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Familiar/Animal Companion Upgrades?

Certainly at low levels I can understand the reasoning behind animals/familiars being static but maybe after several levels it would be reasonable to get some attack/HP upgrades? What does everyone thing? I am not too familiar with official 5th Ed. so maybe there is something there?

Larian is being faithful to 5e here. Familiars have been significantly nerfed compared to 3,5 by WotC (I am not familiar with the 4e stuff). In 5e, familiars remain the same no matter the power level of their master.

Familiars summoned with Find Familiar are not really meant for combat in 5e. The exception is warlock's familiar via Pact of the Chain, but as @spacehamster95 said they still don't level up according to 5e rules. Given their decreased usefulness in scouting and inability to deliver touch spells in BG3 (their main uses in PnP D&D), it's possibly Larian might compensate by upping their HP at higher levels.

BG3 Beast Master Rangers do get a more powerful version of Find Familiar at level 3, and we haven't seen enough levels in BG3 (levels 5+) to know if those companions will level up with us. In 5e their HP does level up: "Its hit point maximum equals its normal maximum or four times your ranger level, whichever is higher." (or HP = 5 + five times your ranger level for beasts of the land via TCoE). Similarly, their attack to-hit and damage increases with your character's proficiency bonus.

Haven't tested it out this patch but animal companions were not leveling up at all.

It took a bit of googling but I did find this:

"Well, WotC released a clarification on how it works now, but in essence it has the stats of the animal you are getting ( However, if it would get multi-attack, it loses it for balance reasons ), but it has the same proficiency bonus as you. It gets the proficiency on it’s AC and on its damage rolls. It get’s proficiency on two skills of your choice, proficiency on all saving throws, another hit dice whenever you level up, when you get a ability score improvement, you also get it. It shares your Favoured Enemy Feature."

https://www.quora.com/How-do-animal-companions-work-in-D-D-5e