Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 37th episode of our first level spell series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at one of the most useful and popular first level spells out there. Today we’re gonna be taking a look at dnd 5e find familiar guide.
By raw this is just usable by the wizard, the warlocks can get access to it should they pick pack to the chain. Same applies for anyone who takes a ritual caster feat as well as the magic initiate feat in any case it is found in the players handbook, so you should all have access to it. With that hyped-up introduction out of the way let’s take a look at the brief overview of the mechanics so you can kind of get a better idea of how this about functions.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Hour (Ritual)
- Range/Area: 10 ft
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Conjuration
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Summoning
The cast time is one hour and it can be ritual casted for an additional 10 minutes. Most people do it this way, i don’t know why you wouldn’t! The range is 10 feet, the duration is instantaneous. You may also like to read our article on best familiar dnd 5e.
The effect at a glance is as followed: Gain a magical animal companion. It has it’s own turns and actions but cannot attack. You are telepathically connected up to 100ft. As an action you can look through their senses or dismiss them into a pocket realm. You can also cast touch spells through your familiar so long as they are within 100ft of you.
Needless to say so much utility it is crazy. The components are somatic, material and verbal meaning you have to gesture with one hand and speak forth an incantation and the material components are ten gold piece worth of charcoal incense and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass bézier.
So what that means is every time you cast one you gotta sacrifice 10 gold roughly that’s how most GM’s run it. The school is conjuration. With that brief overview out of the way let’s take a look at the full description……it is a long one, my goodness! Oaky it written as followed. Also read this expanded familiar list 5e.
Description
You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast.
Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal. When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again.
While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.
As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar. It disappears into a pocket dimension where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 30 feet of you.
You can’t have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature.
Finally, when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll.
* – (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier)
Wow i think this is the longest worded spell we’ve ever covered on this website. But it might also be worth noting that there are two alternative choices for your familiar. Now that almiraj or a flying monkey they are optional so your dm doesn’t have to include them. The stats are pretty interesting.
They are found in the tomb of annihilation handbook. So if you have the tomb of annihilation the stats will be in there, i’ll probably and this is where i was kind of debating on which direction to take this. Also read this does find familiar use a spell slot?.
I will probably have to write an article on the dnd 5e find familiar stats of each individual familiar i’ll make sure they’re super quick, i’ll make sure they’re super fast and i’ll make sure they’re all labeled. I tried to do it all in one massive article but it just didn’t workout and i am still trying to figure out the details as to why it didn’t work. But for now i’ll just have to do a bunch of smaller ones. In any case that’s about how this works. Let’s take a look at some alternative uses i could think up. You can also check out this article about what is the most powerful familiar?
Alternative Uses
So the primary alternative use for your familiar is taking advantage of the help action. what the help action does is it at least within combat, it allows your familiar to distract the foe long enough for you to get an attack with advantage.
Alternatively to help out you can also be used to your advantage and saving throws and as for that reason why this is one of the most popular spell choices in the game. You essentially get free advantage which is super nice.
Outside of that your familiar can take other actions as well namely ability checks and saving throws so hypothetically let’s say you deal with the cat familiar and there’s a guard blocking a door. First and foremost you can look through their senses to scope out the situation before your party gets directly involved.
A cat fairly inconspicuous creature as well. And then you could also have it make a potential sleight of hand check to try and steal the key from the guard then on a success you know this is your party a lot of time, a lot of risk nd honestly i just really liked it. Don’t miss this find familiar 5e classes.
Then there’s also the role-playing potential in addition to all of that. The limits for this spell are really up to the person using it and their experience with it and how courteous your DM is. Also check out this dnd 5e sorcerer find familiar.
Conclusion
In any case if you have any alternative uses, any cool ideas or any interesting ways to use the spell i’d really like to hear them down below. That being said guys, thank you so much for checking out today and as always have a great day and happy casting. dnd 5e find familiar owl | dnd 5e find familiar fey | dnd 5e find familiar imp | dnd 5e find familiar pseudodragon | find familiar 5e warlock.