"You can summon a nature spirit that assumes an animal form to aid you. As a Magic action, you can expend a spell slot or a use of Wild Shape to cast the Find Familiar spell without Material components.
When you cast the spell in this way, the familiar is Fey and disappears when you finish a Long Rest."
Does this mean that for a druid, this is the only way to cast Find Familiar (unless you also have it through another instance such as magic initiate (wizard)), or could I also cast it as a regular/ritual spell (expending a spell slot (regular) or 10 minutes (ritual), alongside the component cost) if I only have it from this feature? And if so, does that mean the restriction of it needing to be fey disappears when I cast it with material components?
I have the impression the way it is worded is that although the Wild Companion feature acts mostly like Find Familiar, it is not exactly like Find Familiar and you do not actually have the Find Familiar spell prepared. Compare the wording with that used for Speak with Animals gained from the Druidic Language feature, which says you always have the spell prepared.
Because it lacks language saying you have Find Familiar prepared, that spell is not prepared, therefore you cannot cast Find Familiar as a Ritual unless you have it from another source. However, I think that if you have Find Familiar from another source, it would follow the normal rules (can be cast as a ritual if you have it prepared, will cost the 10 GP to replace the familiar if it died, can be fey, fiend or celestial and not just fey, will not disappear after a long rest if it hadn't actually been killed).
I have the impression the way it is worded is that although the Wild Companion feature acts mostly like Find Familiar, it is not exactly like Find Familiar and you do not actually have the Find Familiar spell prepared. Compare the wording with that used for Speak with Animals gained from the Druidic Language feature, which says you always have the spell prepared.
Because it lacks language saying you have Find Familiar prepared, that spell is not prepared, therefore you cannot cast Find Familiar as a Ritual unless you have it from another source. However, I think that if you have Find Familiar from another source, it would follow the normal rules (can be cast as a ritual if you have it prepared, will cost the 10 GP to replace the familiar if it died, can be fey, fiend or celestial and not just fey, will not disappear after a long rest if it hadn't actually been killed).
But that's just how I see it.
That's exactly correct.
You can't cast leveled spells using your Spellcasting feature (i.e., using spell slots) unless you have them prepared. The rules on ritual casting also say that to cast a spell as a ritual, you have to have it prepared. The Wild Companion feature does not say that you have Find Familiar prepared; it just gives you an alternative way to cast it.
I have the impression the way it is worded is that although the Wild Companion feature acts mostly like Find Familiar, it is not exactly like Find Familiar and you do not actually have the Find Familiar spell prepared. Compare the wording with that used for Speak with Animals gained from the Druidic Language feature, which says you always have the spell prepared.
Because it lacks language saying you have Find Familiar prepared, that spell is not prepared, therefore you cannot cast Find Familiar as a Ritual unless you have it from another source. However, I think that if you have Find Familiar from another source, it would follow the normal rules (can be cast as a ritual if you have it prepared, will cost the 10 GP to replace the familiar if it died, can be fey, fiend or celestial and not just fey, will not disappear after a long rest if it hadn't actually been killed).
But that's just how I see it.
That's exactly correct.
You can't cast leveled spells using your Spellcasting feature (i.e., using spell slots) unless you have them prepared. The rules on ritual casting also say that to cast a spell as a ritual, you have to have it prepared. The Wild Companion feature does not say that you have Find Familiar prepared; it just gives you an alternative way to cast it.
Thanks for the clarification from both of you
It being listed in the DnD beyond online character sheet as a prepared spell made me unsure, but I'm guessing they just don't have a good way to implement this (yet) in there.
Although, I do wonder why they didn't just rewrite the spell with the changes (no material cost; only fey) as a class feature itself, rather than making the class feature refer to the spell along with changes/restrictions, when you only have access to the spell via the class feature anyway, would it be to ensure that someone can't have 2 familiars (1 from the class feature, and 1 from the spell if they take something like Magic Initiate (Wizard))? Other than that, I can't think of any reason to do it in this more convoluted way.
To answer your last question: there's been a general trend in the 2024 update toward avoiding repetition wherever possible. There are tons of examples of this in all three core books; they have removed a lot of redundant language. I don't think this is always a good idea, but it's clearly part of their design philosophy for this round of updates.
To answer your last question: there's been a general trend in the 2024 update toward avoiding repetition wherever possible. There are tons of examples of this in all three core books; they have removed a lot of redundant language. I don't think this is always a good idea, but it's clearly part of their design philosophy for this round of updates.
fair enough
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"You can summon a nature spirit that assumes an animal form to aid you. As a Magic action, you can expend a spell slot or a use of Wild Shape to cast the Find Familiar spell without Material components.
When you cast the spell in this way, the familiar is Fey and disappears when you finish a Long Rest."
Does this mean that for a druid, this is the only way to cast Find Familiar (unless you also have it through another instance such as magic initiate (wizard)), or could I also cast it as a regular/ritual spell (expending a spell slot (regular) or 10 minutes (ritual), alongside the component cost) if I only have it from this feature? And if so, does that mean the restriction of it needing to be fey disappears when I cast it with material components?
I have the impression the way it is worded is that although the Wild Companion feature acts mostly like Find Familiar, it is not exactly like Find Familiar and you do not actually have the Find Familiar spell prepared. Compare the wording with that used for Speak with Animals gained from the Druidic Language feature, which says you always have the spell prepared.
Because it lacks language saying you have Find Familiar prepared, that spell is not prepared, therefore you cannot cast Find Familiar as a Ritual unless you have it from another source. However, I think that if you have Find Familiar from another source, it would follow the normal rules (can be cast as a ritual if you have it prepared, will cost the 10 GP to replace the familiar if it died, can be fey, fiend or celestial and not just fey, will not disappear after a long rest if it hadn't actually been killed).
But that's just how I see it.
That's exactly correct.
You can't cast leveled spells using your Spellcasting feature (i.e., using spell slots) unless you have them prepared. The rules on ritual casting also say that to cast a spell as a ritual, you have to have it prepared. The Wild Companion feature does not say that you have Find Familiar prepared; it just gives you an alternative way to cast it.
pronouns: he/she/they
Thanks for the clarification from both of you
It being listed in the DnD beyond online character sheet as a prepared spell made me unsure, but I'm guessing they just don't have a good way to implement this (yet) in there.
Although, I do wonder why they didn't just rewrite the spell with the changes (no material cost; only fey) as a class feature itself, rather than making the class feature refer to the spell along with changes/restrictions, when you only have access to the spell via the class feature anyway, would it be to ensure that someone can't have 2 familiars (1 from the class feature, and 1 from the spell if they take something like Magic Initiate (Wizard))? Other than that, I can't think of any reason to do it in this more convoluted way.
To answer your last question: there's been a general trend in the 2024 update toward avoiding repetition wherever possible. There are tons of examples of this in all three core books; they have removed a lot of redundant language. I don't think this is always a good idea, but it's clearly part of their design philosophy for this round of updates.
pronouns: he/she/they
fair enough