Imp and Familiar

Inferno creatures
Level 1
Imp
Familiar
Level 2
Gog
Magog
Level 3
Hell Hound
Cerberus
Level 4
Demon
Horned Demon
Level 5
Pit Fiend
Pit Lord
Level 6
Efreeti
Efreet Sultan
Level 7
Devil
Arch Devil
Towns

Statistics
Imp
Cost per troop  50
	Attack 2 Defense 3 Damage 1–2 Health 4 Speed 5 Movement Ground Size 1 Growth 15 (+8) AI Value 50
Familiar
Cost per troop  60
	Attack 4 Defense 4 Damage 1–2 Health 4 Speed 7 Movement Ground Size 1 Growth 15 (+8) AI Value 60
Special abilities:
• Magic channel
Portraits

Imps and Familiars are level 1 creatures of Inferno. They are recruited from the Imp Crucible.

"Small, frail, and armed only with their natural scratching claws, imps and familiars are among the weakest units in the game. They are, however, produced in great numbers. When familiars are on the battlefield, they channel 20% of spell points spent by enemy spellcasters directly into their hero's spell point pool. " ^{RoE manual}

Building the Birthing Pools increases Imp and Familiar growth by 8 per week. With the Grail building of Inferno built, the Deity of Fire, will also make every upcoming week to be the week of the imp, which will double their growth.

Special ability

While Imps possess no special abilities, Familiars have ability phrased as magic channel. It enables hero to gain spell points during combat if the enemy hero casts any spells and at least one stack of familiars are alive. Mana received this way is 20% of the points the enemy hero uses for the spell (rounded down). The points go straight to hero's mana pool and are at disposal the next time hero wishes to cast a spell.

However, the effect is not cumulative, which means that the channeling works only once no matter the number of familiar stacks. Naturally, the channeling does not work if all the familiar stacks have died during combat.

Heroes with a specialty

• Ignatius the Demoniac has imps as a specialty, which increases the attack and defense skills of any imps or familiars for each level attained after 1st level and gives them a speed bonus of 1.

User commentary

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Imps and Familiars are literally one of the worst creatures in the game, upgraded or not, except for the peasant, pixie which becomes a strong and fast unit when upgraded to sprite, and the regular gremlin, who becomes an useful shooter when upgraded. However, they are nice to have as cannon fodder and also to steal some mana from the enemy hero. They can also be farmed for Demons, or, with the Grail building of Inferno, become more than a decent stack, with their double growth. Still, they are more expensive than they should be. Enemy shooters will often prefer Imps to other Inferno creatures. Therefore, if you intend to turn them into Demons anyway, a good tactic is to let them soak ranged attacks while the rest of your army closes the distance. Familiars have decent speed for a level 1 creature and can be given to army-less scouting heroes to boost their overland movement.

See also:

• List of creatures