Find Familiar

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1st level Conjuration
Casting Time
1 Hour
Range
10 Feet
Duration
instantaneous
Components
V
S
M
Materials Required
10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier
Class
Wizard

Spell 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.

Is Find Familiar Good?

Overall Rating: Sky Blue. This means that Find Familiar is an amazing spell. If you do not take this spell your character would not be optimized.

Overall Notes: Familiars can do everything except actually attack. They can provide help actions in combat, steal things, scout for your party, and even be used to deliver touch spells on your behalf. Some DMs may not be amused.

Class Specific Ratings for Find Familiar

Eldritch Knight fighter: * Seeing as your familiar gets to take a turn of its own but can’t attack, having it take the Help action to give you advantage on attacks every turn. This is a great option.

Arcane Trickster rogue: If you choose an owl familiar, this spell can be the most broken one available to Arcane Tricksters. Command the owl to fly down, provide a Help action (by distracting your enemy, for example), and then fly away without provoking an attack of opportunity with its Flyby ability. Help actions give you advantage on your next attack, so you guessed it….free Sneak Attacks! It’s a bit cheesy, but hey, it works. If your enemies can use ranged attacks, expect your DM to quickly ruin your fun.