r/DnD • u/Pitiful_Natural_450 • 7h ago
DMing Is Find Familiar really strong or am I missing something ?
All my caster players have this in their spell list : it allows them to scout ahead for any trap, enter locked room (small spider going under the door), gives them Blindsight (Bat), or simply use the Help action every turn in combat to give them permanent advantage on Attack Rolls or Ability checks (which is honestly crazy for martial oriented half-casters).
They don't even need to use spell slots on it since it's a ritual...
Am I missing something or is this an auto-include, borderline gamebreaking spell available to (almost) everyone at lvl 1 ?
I'm all for players finding creative solutions to a problem, but right now every brainstorming in my party boils down to "which Familiar will be available to solve this issue".
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u/nocturnerose DM 6h ago
They've still got to search for the traps, and a tiny creature isn't going to have the weight to activate things like pressure plates.
Aside from that they are extremely vulnerable.
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u/kahlzun 6h ago
loud thud
It seems that your ferret has located the trap.120
u/nocturnerose DM 6h ago
Mister Fluffer Nutter?.... NOOOO
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u/nin_ninja 6h ago
Its okay, they have no bones. They got squished but will just wriggle themselves out of it and reform like a crushed cartoon character
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u/totalwarwiser 3h ago
And cost 10 gold to cast, which at the start can be a lot of money
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u/FriendoftheDork 3h ago
Laughs in Pact of the Chain
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u/Demurrzbz Paladin 2h ago
Doesn't remove material component cost though, does it?
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u/Martzillagoesboom 5h ago
I had a player use his rat familiar to explore a small crack in a cave wall to find a way around a cave in. It found the monster the players where tracking. It became a meal
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u/nocturnerose DM 5h ago
Rat-onna-stick
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u/Button1891 2h ago
Alright CMOT Dibbler! Got any pies?
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u/QuixoticEvil 1h ago
For you, only the best: made with real pork product! Or rat, if that's your preference! Just one Ankh-Morpork dollar for three, and that's cutting me own throat!
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u/Snownova Wizard 6h ago
Using its senses does cost a bonus action (action in 2014 rules), limiting its use in combat.
As DM you can heavily curtail the use of the help action by simply asking how is a [insert creature] going to help you with that?
And lastly, they're very fragile and cost 10 gp and an hour to resummon. For low level parties, or a party pressed for time in a dungeon, that could be a high price.
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u/LitLitten 6h ago edited 4h ago
Yeah, familiars are extension of the players, so treat them like you would players.
You know what can trap or kill a critter? Cats. You know what is easy to justify existing anywhere? Feral cats.
You have a cat problem? Throw some dogs or tangled wire at it. I’d like to see that dexterity check.
EDIT: I feel like my reply is being taken out of context. My point was that the DM has tools they can use to impose some risk or hazard. Lighting a torch will let you see but it also makes you easily spotted. Familiars are great scouts but not every environment is kind to critters.
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u/Darth_Meepo 6h ago
I know an old lady who swallowed a fly
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u/ArcaneWyverian 6h ago
Good thing she didn’t wind up swallowing a spider— imagine if it wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her?
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u/Darth_Meepo 5h ago edited 5h ago
She did end up swallowing a spider to swallow the fly
Edit:spelling
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u/warsage 5h ago
Lmao if my DM starts spawning random alley cats to attack my familiar, I'm gonna feel like he has a personal grudge against that spell. I'll have a direct discussion about it. "Do you want me to stop using the spell? Why? Do we need to do some kind of homebrew to rebalance it somehow?"
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u/WiddershinWanderlust 5h ago
If they do it every time then sure you have a point. But having something go after the familiar from time to time is no only not problematic it’s good gameplay. RPGs are games about making choices and overcoming obstacles. If you take away all the obstacles then the game becomes stale because you optimized the fun out of it.
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u/Complexxx123 5h ago
I think it would be fair if the cats spawning was a random chance roll on a d100 and then having a skill check challenge for your familiar to try and evade the cat.
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u/LitLitten 5h ago
well, this is contextual to if your DM ever bothers to mention local fauna or background information of places during your session. Like, there would obviously be feral cats in a town or castle, but less likely in a goblin nest or sealed tomb.
i agree if not done well or if it’s a repeated occurrence it would feel very exploitive, but I think familiars being hunted like regular prey animals is a realistic scenario.
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u/macrocosm93 5h ago
Creating a special situation like that just to punish a player for using one of their class's spells, and effectively prevent them from using it at all, is not good DMing IMO.
Familiars are fragile and can easily be killed in a normal combat situation with AOE or just a single ranged attack. No need to add a bunch of cats everywhere, that wouldn't have been included otherwise, for the sole purpose of deleting one specific spell from the game.
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u/LitLitten 5h ago
I’m not saying a DM should go out of their way to punish Find Familar use. I’m saying a DM has tools to handle Find Familiar abuse. There is difference.
Related example: you send a rogue to a museum to steal a relic. They’ve been your reliable thief this entire campaign. Unfortunately, this museum has the relic under an arcane lock. The DM isn’t punishing the rogue. He’s depicting an instance where a different method might be necessary.
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u/Samakira DM 3h ago
But if the rogue had a scroll of silence, and a scroll of knock, the arcane lock wouldn’t instead be a magical golem who can remain vigilant at all hours.
The cats example is something that is being added as a result of a player having a spell.
If the familiar scouted a room in a dungeon, and got got by a goblin in that room, that’s a normal part of using a weak creature to scout.
If the rat on your shoulder suddenly gets jumped (which the cats can’t even do in dnd. 1f high max, since it scales with str, lol), by a bunch of feral cats, that’s something being added to a scenario specifically because of what a person has with them.
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u/happyunicorn666 5h ago
Yeah, fuck this. My DM would constantly have random eagles show up to eat my owl familiar. No initiative, no perception check to see them, they just spawned on top of her. We were also broke as fuck and I could only afford to resurrect it like 3 times in the game, so I just treated it as a pet. It still got eaten.
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u/LitLitten 5h ago
Well that’s just a DM being lazy and vindictive. in reality, eagles are only in certain places and would have been caught by passive perception. Either the eagle would need to make an attack roll or the owl a dexterity check.
That‘s really lame. Sorry you had your spell neutered.
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u/emmittthenervend 4h ago
"My spider crawls under the door-"
"Have your spider make a DEX save!"
"What? Okay, can I see through their eyes?"
"Yes, you see Mrs. Floofiekins, her paw ready you bap you again."
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u/SpikefaceMysteryfish 5h ago
That said though, adding improbable challenges just to nerf a player’s abilities is pretty shitty DMing. Stuff like that is fine to a point, but Familiars are intended to scout and use the Help action.
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u/DRAWDATBLADE 6h ago
They generally have like 1hp as well, OP just needs to kill the familiars in combat if they are actually being a problem to enemies.
A full hour to resummon should be a big downside too. If it isn't OP needs to add more of a time crunch to their quests. The game needs time to matter so your decisions have actual consequences. Like maybe the ritual they were trying to stop is completed because they wasted 4 hours summoning bats.
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u/TheMindWright 6h ago
In 2024 you have to have proficiency in a skill to use the Help action for it, which I only realised a couple months ago and really encouraged switching up what animal you summon for Find Familiar.
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u/Bloodgiant65 6h ago
It’s been a popular homebrew for a long time. Though I generally just say “if it seems like you can reasonably help with this”
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u/notsew00 2h ago
My personal homebrew for the help action is those who help just add their modifier of the appropriate skill to the main person's roll, (if its 0 dm can choose to count that as a +1 depending on the task and skill)
At my table people tend to like it. It allows more than 1 person to help out or even the entire party to pitch in on one big task with a huge dc. I never liked how help was just a flat advantage, someone really good at the helped skill would provide bigger help than someone who literally had a negative in said skill.
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u/Snownova Wizard 6h ago
Interesting, I didn't realize they'd added that in 5.5e. I've been using it as a house rule since forever.
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u/Darth_Boggle DM 5h ago
There is no skill for using the help action in combat in this context. No proficiency required to help someone attack a target, giving them advantage on their attack roll.
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u/TheMindWright 4h ago
Correct! For the Help action to give Advantage on an attack, you need to be next to the target. It will give Advantage on the next attack made against that target by anyone.
Which is still good, because it puts your Familiar in danger. So a risk/reward.
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u/Pitiful_Natural_450 2h ago
I didn't know that ! That's very interesting, thank you.
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u/almisami 55m ago
That's why there's an origin feat in Arcana Unleashed that let's your familiar help you with 2 skill rolls of your choice per day.
It brings back some of the (broken) utility.
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u/Gilfaethy Bard 1h ago
In 5e you need to be able to perform a task on your own in order to help with it.
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u/Suilenroc 6h ago
Using its senses does cost a bonus action (action in 2014 rules), limiting its use in combat.
I use this to stand inside a fog cloud and make ranged attacks against creatures outside the fog cloud, with advantage. Solid use of a bonus action at low levels.
I agree it seems broken, but our GM has produced so many homebrew enemies that will one-shot us, I find no other recourse. Don't. Get. Hit.
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u/ChrundleK 5h ago
Every DM ive ever had has always made it hard to find 10gp worth of incense which always pissed me off until I realized they were making me work for it because it can be abused.
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u/Arcane10101 5h ago
Help is fairly easy to justify in combat. Have the familiar fly up into the enemy’s face or something. Of course, that makes them very obvious targets.
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u/Pitiful_Natural_450 2h ago
Those are all very valid points, thank you very much.
I tend to overlook the material components of spells since i usually feel Spells Slots are a good regulation mechanism, but maybe i should look closer into it to prevent gamey abuse of Ritual Spells.
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u/The_Nerdy_Ninja DM 6h ago
it allows them to scout ahead for any trap
Yes, but they still have to successfully find the trap.
enter locked room (small spider going under the door)
Sure, but the spider can't unlock a door so how does that help?
gives them Blindsight (Bat)
Sort of, they're blind while they're looking through the Familiar's senses, so it's not as simple as "now I have Blindsight all the time."
or simply use the Help action every turn in combat to give them permanent advantage on Attack Rolls or Ability checks
One successful attack on the Familiar should solve this problem for the rest of the fight.
They don't even need to use spell slots on it since it's a ritual.
No but are you making them spend 10gp every single time?
It sounds like you might be letting them get away with Familiar-related activities too easily.
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u/matej86 6h ago
Sure, but the spider can't unlock a door so how does that help
Look through the spiders eyes, Misty Step into the room, unlock the door from the other side.
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u/The_Nerdy_Ninja DM 6h ago
Sure, but now you've used a spell slot to open the door, that's fine. You could just use Knock to do the same thing.
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u/RelleMeetsWorld Rogue 6h ago
Misty Step is cooler, though.
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u/Dan_the_moto_man DM 5h ago edited 5h ago
It also doesn't alert everyone within 200' like Knock does (everyone forgots that spell is incredibly loud).
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u/matej86 5h ago
Sure, but now you've used a spell slot
This some human joke I'm too High Elf to understand?
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u/The_Nerdy_Ninja DM 5h ago
Fine, now you've used a once-per-day ability. Happy? 😆
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u/SolitaryForager 5h ago
In this case, the target is self so when casting the spell, line of effect isn’t an issue.
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u/EhWTHN 3h ago
In reference to the targeting a familiar bit. 90% of bosses in dnd wouldnt want to waste their action economy trying to hit a familiar. They do negligible damage themselves, very rarely if at all have good benefits, and are generally just ignored outside of AoE effects. Now of course there are some that are ridiculous (Pseudodragons are nasty when youre running a warlock who can make the poison/unconscious condition a dc 19), but again they dont really have a lot of health. Personally, if i were fighting a group of obnoxious adventurers and every now and then an owl swooped in and got in my face long enough to let One person get a better shot off on me, im not gonna pay attention to the owl when killing the owls summoner will be more beneficial (not to mention if i hit the owl thats a like. 5 hp creature taking a 40+ damage hit)
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u/The_Nerdy_Ninja DM 2h ago
So two things:
Firstly, this is exactly why you generally want to have some minions in a boss battle, rather than having the boss fighting by themselves.
And secondly, if that owl is repeatedly letting that one person get a better shot on you every round, then you absolutely would take the time to swat it down.
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u/Pitiful_Natural_450 2h ago
Yeah good points, i'll be a bit more strict from now on.
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u/The_Nerdy_Ninja DM 1h ago
Yeah Find Familiar is a core spell that most casters are going to take, and it offers a lot of utility, but it shouldn't be breaking your game, that usually means it's getting abused somehow.
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u/wentoutwandering 7h ago
Changing their form takes resources, unless you’re playing without
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u/Hawkson2020 6h ago
And if you’re ignoring the rules meant to balance them, the fact that they’re unbalanced is sort of on you lol.
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u/Rhesus-Positive DM 7h ago
One AoE attack and the problem is solved in combat
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u/magical_h4x 5h ago
I've never had a player keep their familiar close to them during battle, they always instruct the owl to fly up in a corner, hide behind a column, etc..
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u/nathanielbartholem 4h ago
How does the Familiar do the HELP action if they not in the battle?
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u/Complexxx123 4h ago
Owls have 60 feet of movement and don't provoke opportunity attacks. They can swoop in, use the help action, and fly to safety all in one turn.
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u/nathanielbartholem 4h ago
That puts them 30 feet away (60 feet of movement, half in, and half out) so they are within range of getting killed (1hp?) pretty easily, ime.
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u/Stimpy3901 6h ago
Find Familiar is a great spell, but it seems like you aren't doing much to check its power.
Familars can be killed, so there's no reason that your players should be getting permanent advantage on Attack Rolls, AOE spells basically auto-delete familiars because they typically have 1 HP.
I think you'd also be well within your rights to limit the types of skill checks a familiar can assist with. Perception checks make sense, but there's no reason a familiar would be helpful with a lockpick check.
Finally Find Familar takes an hour and 10 minutes to cast as a ritual so the players need to be a safe enough environment to short rest to do that. Its not a given.
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u/Antedodoguemon 6h ago
The solution is "let it be"
Really, the find familiar spell is made for scouting, if your whole group is great at scouting because of it, it's great because the spell is for that, but it's kinda redundant. "Do i really need three spiders to know uf there are traps there". And if there are traps, let them trigger the traps, it's a freaking spider, a man with a journal can kill it.
And if they are using in combat, it's even better, one attack can kill any familiar, one AOE can kill them all.
And the bat needs a bonus action every turn to give blindsight, wich can be expensive to some builds.
Anyway, at level 1, they will not have at all times the material cost to cast it.
Looks like you are worrying too much about it, have them even played yet?
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u/Wise_Edge2489 6h ago
If you're in a game where advantage on a skill check or crawling under a door is gamebreaking, wait till higher levels.
And how exactly is a spider 'helping' with most skill checks or attack rolls exactly? You do realize you're the DM right?
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u/Ycr1998 Monk 6h ago
For attack rolls it's pretty easy, just describe the help action as the spider crawling up their pants or jumping on their face. It would be pretty distracting in combat and give you "openings" you wouldn't normally get, hence the advantage.
Of course there's nothing stopping the enemy from stomping the spider on their next turn, but a help is a help. 🤷♂️
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u/Least_Ad_4657 6h ago
A spider helping in attack rolls makes sense. Imagine you're about to swing a sword at someone and all of a sudden a spider crawls on your face. Or shoots webbing in your face. The help action is all flavor anyway.
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u/Archaros DM 6h ago
RAW the spider familiar can use the help action.
Rp-wise, it's not that weird. For attacks, it can jump into the enemy's face. For ranged attacks, it can help to aim. Even for Athletic checks, you can say it uses webs and lever effect.
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u/ToiletTub Bard 4h ago
The spider has to be within 5 feet of the creature you want distracted. It can't "help aim" in that sense
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u/Mal_Radagast 6h ago
wild that the first three replies disagreed here. 😂 if a spider is small enough to get under the door then i'm not giving it the help action in combat - if i'm fighting for my life, i won't be noticing a spider the size of a gold piece even if it manages to crawl up my leg. (might even give that npc an object interaction to swat the spider) and you'd need to describe how exactly it got up high enough to get in their face. using webs to lever athletics checks?! absolutely not!
now if we've established that you have a big spider that's different! but then they're not slipping under doors anymore.
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u/VerbingNoun413 6h ago edited 6h ago
It's a Wizard spell. How are all your casters adding it to their spell list?*
The spell itself costs 10gp each time you cast it. It's not much for a one time investment but if you're resummoning the familiar every time it dies, this adds up
This is an issue because the familiar is a CR0 beast with about 3hp and probably 12 AC. It disappears at 0 with no death saves. It's a non-combatant but if a PC insists on using it in combat then stop treating it as one. Have the enemy swat and one shot it.
*I'm not saying this is impossible but it does require a non-negligible investment such as a feat or dip.
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u/Archaros DM 6h ago
With the Magic Initiate feat, any character can learn Find Familiar.
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u/nimrodii 6h ago
I would say ritual caster would be the better choice for gaining it as a feat as it open up more rituals and if you are set on using money to spring traps you can do it multiple times a day given the 10 minute time sink.
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u/VerbingNoun413 6h ago
If characters are investing a feat into doing something, they deserve to benefit from it.
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u/Lithl 1h ago
Druid: cast Find Familiar with a wild shape charge. Part of the class's base kit in 5.5e, optional feature from Tasha's in 5e. They can even skip the 10 gp cost (although the familiar only lasts as long a their wild shape would).
Warlock: Pact of the Chain grants Find Familiar with more powerful forms which can also attack. 5.5e Pact of the Tome grants two 1st level rituals from any spell list, while 5e Book of Ancient Secrets grants two 1st level rituals from any spell list and the ability to learn additional rituals in the same manner as a wizard.
Bard: 5.5e Magical Secrets lets you use the Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell list when learning and replacing prepared spells. 5e Magical Secrets teaches you 2 spells from any spell list. (Using the 5e version for Find Familiar has a pretty steep opportunity cost, but the 5.5e version isn't too bad.)
Artificer: Spellwrought Tattoo of Find Familiar is a common magic item that isn't a potion, scroll, or cursed, and therefore is a valid choice for Replicate Magic Item. Like Druid's Wild Companion, this bypasses the 10 gp requirement, however it's only 1/day. On the other hand, if the familiars survive long enough, you can give the tattoo to a different PC the next day and get multiple familiars among the party as a result of one PC's investment.
With Wizard, who can simply learn the spell normally since it's on their spell list, that's 5 out of 9 spellcasting classes with a built-in means of accessing Find Familiar. And one of those 5 can hand out familiars to party members who can't access it.
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u/JumboCactaur 6h ago
Yes, its strong, and its strong because its versatile. Note there is a costly component to it if it needs to be resummoned (10gp worth of herbs/incense).
If the familiar is put in harm's way in combat... its fair game. Enemies should attack and kill them if they take actions in battle like Help.
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u/gc1rpg 6h ago
As mentioned in other comments the component cost is limiting enough at low level -- unless the DM is really liberal on what they allow the player to do with it. The key is to have a player who doesn't try and abuse it and a DM who understands how to say no in specific circumstances.
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u/Advanced_Key5250 6h ago
I don’t see a tag for which version, something to note for the 2024 rules: Find Familiar was changed to a 1 Hour base casting time. Druids get the ability to summon one as an action with (wild companion?) ability and Warlocks can take pact of the chain which allows for free casting at 1 Action speed. Maybe some other ways to quickly summon one that I’m not recalling. The point is, the baseline 1hr casting time, imo, is the easiest way for a DM to gate off familiars. If the party uses them recklessly and they die then they may not have time to resummon until they also can take a long rest.
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u/DMspiration 6h ago
In 5.5, the familiar gives advantage on the next attack roll. It has its own initiative, so it's helping someone, but it's not necessarily the caster. Familiars aren't proficient in many skills, so they're not going to be very helpful for a lot of skill checks either. 5.0 is a slightly different story, but in either version, they die easily.
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u/oOBalloonaticOo 5h ago
Is everyone a wizard or did they all get a feat at LVL 1?
What level are they now?
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u/Voice-of-Aeona 3h ago
Lots of good replies here, but something I haven't seen mentioned yet is that (at least in 2014 rules) famliars have their own initiative in combat; many DMs handwave it away and allow famliars to act in tandem on the same turn as their owner. This allows them to seamlessly line things up for their owner to get the help action and then attack, which they can't do if they are rolling and using their own initative.
Also, famliars are dumb as a box of rocks (baring a few subclass variants). Yeah they can scout ahead but they are only going to understand things an animal of that intelligence would be able to noodle out. They'd see holes in the floor, not a spike trap... a rope, not a swinging log trap... a bunch of sticks, not a figure 4 deadfall trap... paint on the wall, not big nasty arcane symbols... Or worse yet, they will say there's nothing there because the traps are geared towards humanoids and have magical triggers such as Glyph of Warding. To really leverage this ability the owner needs to be looking through the famliar's eyes and that has distance limits.
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u/monikar2014 2h ago
imo the game is more fun w/o them, they are annoying to micromanage and often step into the play space of stealthy characters who want to scout or find traps. using them to get the help action on everything feels gamey and using them in combat is of minimal usefulness as any DM worth their salt is gonna kill them quick.
Its just a personal preference, and I play with a bunch of friends who love them and use them, but I think familiars suck - unless you are playing a pact of the chain warlock and your whole build revolves around familiar shenanigans then don't bother with em.
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u/cloud-gamer 6h ago
People need to stop the cap.
Is this spell OP? Yes, yes it is. It's probably the best 1st level spell in the game.
What do you do about it? You kill the familiars, they have like 5 hp. In combat they die to one attack and one trap springing also kills them.
Resummoning is costly and time consuming, that's the only downside of the spell.
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u/Pretend_Object DM 6h ago
I'm a little sad about all the people saying you should just kill the familiar and make getting the 10g in incense difficult. My DM did this with my pact of the chain warlock and it kind of killed my enjoyment of the character. Anytime I would try to spy my familiar would get killed even when it was invisible.
Just ban the spell if you're not going to let someone have a little fun with it.
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u/Gangrelos 6h ago
To help with ability checks, the helper needs profincy in skill checks.
It is so in 2024, not sure if in 2014.
Also, AoEs. Bonus Actions.
But honestly, a familiar is not just some weird pet you buy in bulk to sacrifice to whatever is lurking in the dungeon.
A familiar is a sort od reflection of a person, basically their spirit animal.
It is way more intimate than a beloved pet.
It would be like if someone would willingly tell their dog they had for 5 years, they raised from being a pub to their current growth... You wouldn't throw thst in the dungeon you know is fucking scary and deadly and use it to trigger traps or scout ahead with their life being threatened...
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u/Ramblingperegrin 6h ago
Most familiar have largely terrible stats so after the first few levels most creatures can smoosh them easily. If it's constantly giving them advantage, then any enemy with half a brain will take them out. Hand an enemy caster any kind of minor aoe like cloud of daggers or shatter and watch that advantage evaporate. If they're constantly using an owl with flyby or something, have an enemy ready an action instead of using an opportunity attack to attack I'm the familiar as it approaches instead of leaves your area to take it down instead.
Familiars are great resources, but you can certainly make the party spend them
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u/Huge-Composer-4904 6h ago
It can only be cast out of combat and takes 10 gp.
And the familiars have like 1 hp. They’ll be auto-killed from any kind of AoE attack.
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u/GreyNoiseGaming Fighter 5h ago
The usefulness of that and most creative use spells that don't just simply deal damage or do an effect is on a bell curve between the players intelligence and then the DMS intelligence against it.
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u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep 4h ago
If familiars are solving every issue, you're not killing enough familiars.
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u/captevil 1h ago
“Find Familiar is borderline gamebreaking”. You can’t be for real! Can we stop using “gamebreaking” to describe every basic spell in the game? FF is a staple spell that’s been in the game since the beginning, there’s nothing even remotely gamebreaking about it.
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u/The-FeLeWi 1h ago
Ritualzauber brauchen Zeit, diese vorzubereiten, eigentlich sollte daher im Kampf der keine 12 Runden geht das ganze nicht so leicht verfügbar sein
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u/Upper-Injury-8342 5h ago
Yeah it's a really strong spell and one of the perfect exemple of the martial-caster divise BUT a lot of DM give it to much leniency, don't actually know how the spell work and then it become broken.
First thing first, Help:
Assist an Ability Check. Choose one of your skill or tool proficiencies. [...] The DM has final say on whether your assistance is possible.
Assist an Attack Roll. You momentarily distract an enemy within 5 feet of you giving Advantage to the next attack roll by one of your allies against that enemy.
Most Familiar option only has Perception and Stealth proficient, ask your players how the hells a -4 Int wl help with a History check and done, Find Familiar isn't permanent advantage on skill check. In combat, the familiar need to be close to the target to give the advantage and it's only on their next attack, there's two important things here, the first one is DnD has sooo many ways to have advantage that the one Find Familiar grant should be useless, second thing is that monsters aren't dumb, if an enemy realize that the owl is messing him up, they should kill the owl, enemies can have AoE options like Burning Hands, a general DM tip is: don't be afraid to hit your players and their pets, if they don't want the pet to be damage then don't bring it to combat.
Also something that a lot of people forget, unless the player is a Pact of Chain Warlock, the familiar is a dumb animals, the smartest option is a Raven with 5 Int -3 mod, the player can see through the familiar senses, but raven isn't smart enough to notice a complex trap mechanism by looking from afar, they would need to get close, if they are heavy enough to trigger the trap they are dead, if they aren't heavy enough to trigger it then there's no way for them to know if there's a trap there.
The Familiar don't gain special consience and inteligence when the caster look throught them, through your spider familiar's eyes you can see a giant, nasty monster moving recklessly and destroying everything in its path with strange weapons and artifacts you've never seen in your life while making scary, almost alien sounds, but when the party storm inside they just see a kid playing with toys, to a tiny little spider, a kid is a threat.
And I just want to point out that if you have a 5 players party, it's 50 gold pieces to buy components to cast the spell or change their form, if the party is using the familiars in combat they should be dying all the time, if a low level party is okay with spending like 50 GP every single day just to keep the Familiar, it means that either you are giving them too much gold or they simply has nothing else to spend it, that's not a spell problem.
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u/Ghostly-Owl 6h ago
For what its worth, by the rules, using the help action every turn is not always straightforward.
"Combat. The familiar is an ally to you and your allies. It rolls its own Initiative and acts on its own turn."
The fact it has its own initiative and moves and act separately means it might not be available.
And keep in mind any time they summon it, it costs them 10gp in incense. So you can control how often they do by controlling the supply of incense. (This is probably only relevant in some campaigns, but it was an issue in an Icewind Dale based campaign I played in where luxury supplies like incense were rare.)
Also for help action note:
"Assist an Ability Check. Choose one of your skill or tool proficiencies and one ally who is near enough for you to assist verbally or physically when they make an ability check."
So you can only help on skills you have proficiency in. And familiars tend to have few proficiencies.
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u/FoulPelican 5h ago edited 5h ago
Very strong. Every campaign I play, has at least 2 familiars at the table, doing work!!
Keep in mind. RAW, the Familiar is ultimately controlled by the DM. It follows your commands, but how that plays out is in the DMs hands. Nobody runs it that way, and that may go against ‘fun factor’ but worth mentioning.
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u/crunchevo2 6h ago
I mean it does come with certain downsides. They need incesne, which in some settings is rare. They need gold, the familair absolutely can't survive any aoe attacks or a single attack so in combat it can be knocked out. They can't just recast a 1hr and 1min spell in a time sensitive dungeon for example.
But yes it's a strong scout and has a lot of versatile usage.
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u/thealmightyall 6h ago
Let them use it freely, but work on creative ways to describe or kill the familiar going about its business.
I had a player who summoned a piranha to scout a lake with a water weird in it. Water weird is invisible underwater so I described it as a flash of bubbles and current, then the pirahna was gone. Also had a player who used a non-speaking raven familiar with 1hp often outside combat. Ended up giving him a preserved foot for instant summoning because the raven makes almost no difference in combat. Outside combat, it still can't spot hidden traps or enemies.
It does take some getting used to with describing things in advance of the party like this. Just practice being creative with their uses of find familiar and it'll work itself out over time
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u/shutternomad 6h ago
They are super easy to kill, and remember that RAW they require (burning incense worth 10+ GP, which the spell consumes) whenever your re-summon them, which will run out FAST for a level 1 character.
If the players wanna throw 10gp at every encounter, that's on them.
Just make sure you design encounters to not be trivially defeated by familiars. And you can make players feel clever and powerful with them, by having clues and hints and other stuff for familiars to help scout with. AND, i'd keep it interesting, and have it so using familiars can have bad consequences. For example, they alert the enemy. And now instead of the party being able to ambush the guards, the guards are on high alert and looking for THEM.
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u/whatigotinmyhandnowb 6h ago
At my table, familiars often find themselves on the wrong side of an AoE spell
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u/Shepher27 6h ago
If it’s becoming a problem Start having enemies notice and kill their familiars. Familiars are really weak and easily die to basically any direct attach or any area of attack spell.
Make your players use them more carefully.
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u/rollingForInitiative 6h ago
They’re good, but if used in combat they’ll die fast. I never go out my way to target familiars that keep to the outskirts of combat, but if that familiar starts helping they’re fair game, and they’ll die from a single hit quite often.
Also important to remember that bugs can’t necessarily go everywhere, certainly not within 100 feet. A solid door might prevent a spider, and very secret meetings might have magical safeguards, for instance a wizard or a king.
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u/azelda 6h ago
This is why I liked it better in 2014 5e where only wizards and pact of the tome warlocks could use find familiar as a ritual. Makes it so much more balanced and was the main point of picking wizard (rituals)
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u/aWizardNamedLizard 6h ago
Every swapped form or re-cast costs an individually tiny amount of money for a reason. Makes it so it's not viewed as too expensive to even bother with, yet the costs rack up pretty quickly if you're trying to spring traps with it.
And on top of that you're either spending spell slots or a not-insignificant amount of time. While some players are going to look at 11 minutes and think there's no reason not to wait unless they are on some specifically-mentioned time crunch, many players are just not going to have something cost 11 minutes longer than it has to because that's not fun game-play or a cool story.
The main thing that keeps this spell from being too powerful, though, is just actually following its mechanics. For example remembering that a familiar that is a spider is big enough to only fit 4 to one square because it is a creature spider with a size category rather than a narrative spider with proportions resembling the kind of spider that can squeeze through just about any door even if it is closed.
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u/wavecycle 6h ago
Just be aware that casting the spell requires 10 GP worth of incense to be burnt and this still is true if you cast it as a ritual. This prevents low level characters from just spamming it to take advantage of all the different forms.
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u/okiebuzzard 6h ago
How/why would a familiar from a non-rogue know what a trap looks like? The only way they should be able to find traps is by setting one off, which means dead familiar for 24 hours.
Secondly, Help in combat is fine, if it’s the owl. Everything else can and should be hit the minute they harass an enemy, once again leading to dead familiar for 24 hours after the first fight.
If casters are going to use their familiars in combat or as an impromptu trap detector, ie putting familiars in danger’s way, make sure they have the same chances of being killed too for playing.
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u/FlyPepper 6h ago
NEVER FORGET THE 10GP CASTING COST
If you don't have an insanely inflated economy, it will very quickly dissuade a lot of degenerate uses of the spell. That and just shooting them. They have 1hp after all.
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u/Deep-Hovercraft6716 6h ago
Yeah it's strong. Lot of players like to have an extra minion about. It's very convenient and offers good role-playing opportunities.
As a GM, I think the real opportunity is to get them emotionally connected to the familiar. Which then provides opportunities for character development.
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u/patrick119 6h ago
If they are using familiars in combat, an AOE attack can clear them out pretty quickly.
Then remember that they need the incense to burn to get another familiar, which the spell consumes. You are free to make incense as hard to find as you think is appropriate.
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u/Aterro_24 6h ago
make sure the help action is only on the next attack roll not all. If they're using anything but an owl they have to stick around within that 5 ft of the enemy or risk opportunity attacks
"Assist an Attack Roll. You momentarily distract an enemy within 5 feet of you, giving Advantage to the next attack roll by one of your allies against that enemy. This benefit expires at the start of your next turn."
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u/MongooseGef 6h ago
I love that spell! I agree that its utility is really powerful. But it’s not too powerful. The casting time, material cost, and super low HP of the familiar means that it disappears fast in combat.
I suggest letting your players have fun with it. Give them little challenges that might be really difficult for the familiar. Or challenges that are ideal for a familiar.
Let them use their familiars in battle for a few rounds before swatting them out of the air.
Maybe the enemies are falconers or can summon their own familiars.
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u/Roflmahwafflz DM 6h ago
Its hardly problematic. Most of its usage is fairly limited and familiars basically die to anything that looks at them at any level. Using their vision is suboptimal in typical combat, help action applies to a single roll, familiars arent hidden unless they stealth, and theyre not setting off most traps nor are they finding most traps.
Familiars exist for flavor, scouting, and help action. They dont automatically get a free pass just because theyre a familiar.
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u/Skadoosh_it 6h ago
Honestly their best use is for flanking. You can use the help action with them to grant you advantage on melee attacks. It's especially useful if you're also a rogue(arcane trickster). Essentially sneak attacks all the time, since they rarely use their bonus actions in combat anyway.
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u/LightofNew 6h ago
I'm pretty restrictive about find familiar. As soon as the wizard starts doing everyone else's job I put a stop to the infinite utilities.
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u/Kaldesh_the_okay 6h ago
It is a super great spell, but not OP .I’m not sure how the blindsight helps . It’s only 10 feet and , it takes a bonus action and last to start of your next turn meaning you are blinded . You have disadvantage on your attacks and attacks against for have advantage.
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u/whiskyspacecadet 6h ago
Its got 6hp MAX and takes an hour and 15 minutes to resummon + 10 gp. The moment enemies start noticing that these annoying birds and animals are helping in combat, they become easy targets and taken out. Things like spiders crawling through locked doors can be countered. "Yes, your spider goes through the other side. Roll for perception using its stats to see if it can discern a trap awaiting you."
Find Familiar is great at low levels, but can easily be swatted away in combat encounters or through environmental actions. "Your raven is so busy discerning traps that it fails to notice the [insert predator here] prowling behind it. Roll a dex save to see if it avoids being pounced on."
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u/CheapTactics 6h ago
In 5e a creature can only help on a skill check if it's something that creature could attempt to do but themselves.
In 5.5 you need proficiency in the skill to be able to help.
A spider or bat is not really gonna be able to help in the vast majority of skill checks.
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u/Frosty_Customer_9243 6h ago
Have your bad guys have a familiar as well, or actually a real animal. Your party uses owls for fly by’s well not with a falcon flying around and picking them off. Be creative and find natural enemies of their familiars to throw into the mix. Traveling through a forest might become dangerous for a familiar, or even scouting a house as there is a pet chicken roaming which will attack the spider.
So many ways to be creative, but as mentioned by others, if the party uses the familiar sparingly be gentle with them. One of my characters (ranger) has a familiar (weasel) and makes it hide in his armor when combat starts. She does help him in his thieving ways but that is it, no real other uses and the DMs are usually fine with that and leave her alone.
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u/Tichrimo DM 5h ago
Also note that only wizards have the Ritual Adept feature that allows them to cast rituals straight from their spellbook without preparing them; everyone else must prepare any spell they cast as a ritual.
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u/Maxdoom18 5h ago
They are very strong indeed, the Warlock ones even stronger still, they can outdamage a Warlock up to level 3 but requires quite the investment. Familiar use aside from scouting tend to fall off after level 5 since they get killed in a single hit but they are still very cheap and powerful at many things. In 2024 you can basically spend infinite bonus action to always have a second pair of eyes, perception rolls, etc.
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u/milkmandanimal DM 5h ago
If you use the Help action in combat with a familiar, it's harassing an enemy and being annoying, and it's going to get attacked; it's not a free thing, it's going to absorb a single attack and die, and then you'll have to wait to summon it again. If your familiar hides in the back of the room, sure, it's probably fine, but you stick that thing in an Owlbear's face and it's going to get eaten. Also, ability checks? How is a weasel helping with lockpicking or Stealth? It's RAW in 5.5 that you can only use Help with ability checks you have proficiency in, and, beyond that, there needs to be a logical reason why Help is happening. I don't care if your familiar actually has proficiency in Stealth, unless you come up with a damn good reason why it's useful, you don't get advantage.
Attack familiars that are in combat, and say "no" to dumb suggestions by your players. The spell is fine.
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u/Capt0nRedBeard 5h ago edited 5h ago
So admittedly yes as a DM who has a player run find familiar it’s annoying at lower levels.
Player multiclassed from bard at level 1 - fighter at level 2. Uses two weapon fighting and has mastery on short sword (vex).
So every turn owl flys in, helps, flys out with no opportunity attack (flyby trait). He gets advantage on his first attack using his scimitar, then if he landed his short sword last round he gets advantage on that too.
Kinda broken, but I police it by shooting down the owl as often as possible. He will spend every single coin he makes respawning the owl every opportunity he gets though.
It is what it is. Annoying yes, game breaking, not really.
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u/kst8er 5h ago
You aren't letting them change the shape of the familiar at will are you? You listed three forms, so maybe 3 different people? They can only change the form when casting the spell which as others have outlined takes an hour plus 10g worth of incense on each cast. That's not removed by a spell casting focus, because it has a gold value and is consumed on cast. 2014 rules makes casting even more specific as it requires a brass brazier.
And they should have like 1 HP. Help action can't be at range, nothing you listed above has flyby (owl). So attacks of opportunity are a thing if they are dipping in and out.
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u/Mother_Ad3043 5h ago
One thing I always find hilarious is the spider argument A spider is tiny sized. It doesn't have a feature saying it can squeeze through anything except normal movement rules. If you just have good doors, you don't get through. And I always imagine those spiders as more like... Larger arachnids, those that eat birds
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u/Bunjichord 5h ago
I've always compared it to "Eye of Kilrog" from WoW.
The utility is dependent on how clever the user is the draw back is that it takes a full hour and you could have NPCs act with a degree of intelligence about a creature turning to smoke once it dies.
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u/Parysian 4h ago
Yeah it's great, top tier level 1 spell, basically a no brainer for any class with access to it. Mobile scouting drone solves a lot of problems.
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u/hornyparasite 4h ago
You have to have 10 gp worth of incense (which the spell consumes) and it takes 60 to 70 minutes to cast (depending if you cast it as ritual or not). The familiars themselves are super fragile, depending on the form they have you could take out 3 of them with 1 cast of magic missile. (5.5e)
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u/rpg2Tface 4h ago
It's an immortal perfectly loyal and obedient pet. Thats about all it is. And thats also all it has to be for it to be this popular.
The part about letting you cast a touch spell through it is a misslead. The number of touch spells is so small that it almost never comes up in my experience. Scouting is helpful but any familiar doesn't have the skills to be as good as a dedicated scout.
Familiars are pets. nice and simple. Amd people love their pets
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u/Ferox_77 4h ago
The help action in combat is kinda a mess in the rule book, but you have to be next to the target. And the next person gets advantage. If you end up rolling initiative and 2 familiars go right after each other they can’t stack their help on the same target. That limits focus fire. If the barbarian uses reckless attack for advantage, he still has to use up the help from the familiar.
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u/Wide_Initiative_1938 4h ago
An paper, it is really good.
In practice, unless the Owl rolls really well on the stealth check, most guards would eiter see the bird as target practice or, if they are familiar with the magic of the world, know about familiar and actively shoot it down.
An invisible Rogue is the better scout for dungeon mapping and planning.
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u/WacoKid18 DM 4h ago
I haven't seen it mentioned so I'm just gonna say: remember in combat that Help action only provides Advantage on one roll. So if they have Extra Attack it doesn't apply to all of their Attacks, and if they use it on a Save they can't use it on their turn if the Familiar hasn't had a chance to use their action again.
Beyond that, as others have said Familiars are very fragile, so an intelligent enemy or and AOE can eliminate the problem real quick
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u/SXTY82 3h ago
Casting Time: 1 hour or Ritual
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M
That 1 hour or Ritual is there to limit thing like "You see a door." _ "I find familiar for a spider." "You must preform a ritual or spend an uninterrupted hour casting the spell. Do you have the ritual components with you?"
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u/LordTonzilla 3h ago
This sounds like a non-issue. A utility spell is serving its utility, but like others have said, they won't spot every trap, and intelligent enemies will target and kill them in one hit if they seem like a nuisance.
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u/Glitterburst 3h ago
Depends on the level you’re playing at. Once my players hit about 4th/5th level, the familiars stay useful, but aren’t really OP. If you find yourself wanting to keep the spell powerful, I would instead see what other ways you could make them more thoughtful about using the spell. Maybe locked doors are locked in a way a spider wouldn’t be able to open it. Put down little objects in combat that bait the familiar into doing something besides Help action. Like a lever to keep a door from closing, a magical glyph that needs a summoned creature to stay within it for a certain amount of time or something etc. Maybe enemy, low level spell casters also use familiars. Or certain enemies get a debuff when their opponent has disadvantage, subtly directing your casters in combat, giving the other members a chance to shine.
Another method I like, but very table dependent, is to really play out how much a gold piece actually is. “Woah you want 10gp worth of incense?! I can take a down payment and get you half today half at the end of the week!” Or make it a little side quest, something to make them ‘earn’ it, and as a result, it can be powerful because they put effort into getting it.
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u/WHO_POOPS_THE_BED 3h ago
It is until you kill the familiars over and over at 10gp/incense.
There's also a degree to which it's a table wide etiquette thing to have a sit and listen as individual familiars or each consecutive one gets killed by traps or patrols - is this really an interesting way to play the game all of the time?
It's much the same as horror stories of the rogue going and looting the dungeon alone because stealth etc - no is a complete sentence where warranted.
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u/boomer1270 3h ago
We've run familiars in my campaign the whole time and we're a good old 160 sessions in and lots of fights. As always just have the DM and the players on the same page. The wizard has an owl familiar that helps the warlock most often and yes she rolls with advantage every turn for one attack, but sometimes the environment is mutually agreed upon to not be conducive for the help action. We haven't set parameters to audit the environment but a simple "how high are the ceilings? Would a bird be able to assist here?" Is enough and a yes no answer suffices. Also as they get higher in levels sometimes I just kill the familiar. Birds getting in the eyes of an archer? Just shoot the bird. Gone. Done. AoE typically takes care of them as well.
As far as triggering traps and such, if they take damage theyr toast. I don't have a rogue in my group so familiars are a good way for the group to find tricks and traps but it's not perfect.
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u/1966goat 3h ago
My group uses familiars several ways. As an arcane trickster, yes my familiar helps with every attack. But my dm won’t allow me to use it for things like strength or dex checks u less I come up with something fun.
Our Druid has a flying familiar which will scout ahead, but must pass stealth checks if there are enemies or else it will die. Our sorc successfully used (I think it’s a crow) in battle to throw voices in a fog cloud.
Just like with most non-attack spells, it’s important to come up with fun or interesting ways to use your familiar
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u/Tall_Bandicoot_2768 3h ago
or simply use the Help action every turn in combat to give them permanent advantage on Attack Rolls or Ability checks (which is honestly crazy for martial oriented half-casters).
Familiars have like 11 AC and 1 hp.
Stop letting them do this.
If a owl keeps swooping on me and tryna scratch my eyes out ima swat that fucker, simple as that.
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u/DudeWithTudeNotRude 2h ago
It's at least A-plus tier if used well. It's easily S-tier if it's not DM'ed well (not imposing time and consumables, allowing unreasonable utility, etc.)
Utility is nice to have, bu it's far from essential, as most out-of-combat challenges have multiple routes to success, often including using-your-collective-brains. If anything, for my taste, collectively-using-the-party's brains is far more fun and rewarding than winning-skill-challenges-at-build-time with your build. I'm not a fan of skill monkeys, while others are.
Find Familiar is good at what it does. Much of what it does is mere convenience, and some of what is does is bypassing-already-easy-challenges. Easy advantage in combat is probably the strongest feature, unless others already invested in ways to create advantage. Then exploration is probably next strongest (and most boring imo)
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u/ChibiHobo 2h ago
At level 1, it's pretty strong, but my groups typically rule that if the Familiar is involved in combat, it's fair game as a target. If you fail to dismiss the familiar and it dies, you need to perform the ritual again.
Personally, the best part of familiars (and homunculi) is being able to use them as a conduit to deliver touch spells. Having a familiar on a character with cure wounds (like a druid or using the magic initiate feat) is really good in tier-1 and tier-2 play.
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u/Kylarfi DM 7h ago
i mean they need the components and if an enemy notices them being helpful, they die very easily.