Hi everyone, I had a question on how pseudodragons can communicate. According to the monster manual entry, it can understand common and draconic but not speak. It has limited telepathy to transmit simple ideas, emotions, and images to another creature in 100 feet that understands a language. That part is all well and good, as its generic stats of the monster pseudodragon. The part the DM and I have a discrepancy on is it's telepathy with me, its master. The familiar pseudodragon gains extra attributes as described by the Find Familiar ritual; such as the ability to cast a touch spell for their master, allow their master to perceive through their senses, and telepathy between them and their master. The Find Familiar telepathy simply states telepathy with the only restriction of 100 feet radius of effect. It doesn't stipulate and language restrictions or what scope the telepathy can encompass. I interpret the telepathy as described by the spell:
"Until the spell ends, you and the target can instantaneously share words, images, sounds, and other sensory messages with one another through the link, and the target recognizes you as the creature it is communicating with. The spell enables a creature with an Intelligence score of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your words and take in the scope of any sensory messages you send to it."
As such, I believe the familiar can express complex ideas to its master, not limited to simple ideas that a non-familiar pseudodragon is limited to. The spell telepathy mandates a Int of 1 or greater, with no mandates upon languages. My DM argues that since the pseudodragon cannot speak according to its monster manual text, it cannot telepathically communicate words and will be limited in scope to simple ideas despite no restrictions placed on the telepathy granted by the Find Familiar spell. We both agree a pseudodragon familiar can receive complex ideas, but we differ on whether it can transmit complex ideas and I was wondering if there were some people who knew the answer to this.
I've made a poll because I like general consensus, please give your input and comment if you'd like! I will say that my DM prefers answers from authors / wizard's employees, so if you happen to be one of them, you're response would be welcome.
Hmm. Well I would go by the description of Telepathy in the Monster Manual. Under languages it says the following about Telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy is a magical ability that allows a monster to communicate mentally with another creature within a specified range. The contacted creature doesn't need to share a language with the monster to communicate in this way with it, but it must be able to understand at least one language. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation.
A telepathic monster doesn't need to see a contacted creature and can end the telepathic contact at any time. The contact is broken as soon as the two creatures are no longer within range of each other or if the telepathic monster contacts a different creature within range. A telepathic monster can initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation without using an action, but while the monster is incapacitated, it can't initiate telepathic contact, and any current contact is terminated.
A creature within the area of an antimagic field or in any other location where magic doesn't function can't send or receive telepathic messages.
Clearly the Find Familiar spell provides this telepathy in addition to the limited telepathy of the pseudodragon. It states simply that the monster can 'communicate mentally with another creature' and that they do not have to share a language. A pseudodragon has a 10 Int so it is plenty smart enough to communicate fairly well.
Also, I wonder at your DM's reason to limit communication with your familiar. Of all the game breaking stuff you could be doing this seems odd to worry about. Especially since every other improved familiar (imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite) can absolutely communicate in a complex way.
I'd argue that the Pseudodragon's inability to speak is due to anatomic limitations, i.e., not having appropriate organs to speak, and the fact that they understand not only one, but two languages, definitely would enable them to "speak" once given telepathic powers.
Another important fact to point, is that if you are using Find Familiar rules, then your familiar is not a true Pseudodragon at all, but rather a spirit that takes the form of a Pseudodragon by your will, and might not necessarily have the same "limitations".
Hi everyone, I had a question on how pseudodragons can communicate. According to the monster manual entry, it can understand common and draconic but not speak. It has limited telepathy to transmit simple ideas, emotions, and images to another creature in 100 feet that understands a language. That part is all well and good, as its generic stats of the monster pseudodragon. The part the DM and I have a discrepancy on is it's telepathy with me, its master. The familiar pseudodragon gains extra attributes as described by the Find Familiar ritual; such as the ability to cast a touch spell for their master, allow their master to perceive through their senses, and telepathy between them and their master. The Find Familiar telepathy simply states telepathy with the only restriction of 100 feet radius of effect. It doesn't stipulate and language restrictions or what scope the telepathy can encompass. I interpret the telepathy as described by the spell:
"Until the spell ends, you and the target can instantaneously share words, images, sounds, and other sensory messages with one another through the link, and the target recognizes you as the creature it is communicating with. The spell enables a creature with an Intelligence score of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your words and take in the scope of any sensory messages you send to it."
As such, I believe the familiar can express complex ideas to its master, not limited to simple ideas that a non-familiar pseudodragon is limited to. The spell telepathy mandates a Int of 1 or greater, with no mandates upon languages. My DM argues that since the pseudodragon cannot speak according to its monster manual text, it cannot telepathically communicate words and will be limited in scope to simple ideas despite no restrictions placed on the telepathy granted by the Find Familiar spell. We both agree a pseudodragon familiar can receive complex ideas, but we differ on whether it can transmit complex ideas and I was wondering if there were some people who knew the answer to this.
I've made a poll because I like general consensus, please give your input and comment if you'd like! I will say that my DM prefers answers from authors / wizard's employees, so if you happen to be one of them, you're response would be welcome.
Hmm. Well I would go by the description of Telepathy in the Monster Manual. Under languages it says the following about Telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy is a magical ability that allows a monster to communicate mentally with another creature within a specified range. The contacted creature doesn't need to share a language with the monster to communicate in this way with it, but it must be able to understand at least one language. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation.
A telepathic monster doesn't need to see a contacted creature and can end the telepathic contact at any time. The contact is broken as soon as the two creatures are no longer within range of each other or if the telepathic monster contacts a different creature within range. A telepathic monster can initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation without using an action, but while the monster is incapacitated, it can't initiate telepathic contact, and any current contact is terminated.
A creature within the area of an antimagic field or in any other location where magic doesn't function can't send or receive telepathic messages.
Clearly the Find Familiar spell provides this telepathy in addition to the limited telepathy of the pseudodragon. It states simply that the monster can 'communicate mentally with another creature' and that they do not have to share a language. A pseudodragon has a 10 Int so it is plenty smart enough to communicate fairly well.
Also, I wonder at your DM's reason to limit communication with your familiar. Of all the game breaking stuff you could be doing this seems odd to worry about. Especially since every other improved familiar (imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite) can absolutely communicate in a complex way.
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I'd argue that the Pseudodragon's inability to speak is due to anatomic limitations, i.e., not having appropriate organs to speak, and the fact that they understand not only one, but two languages, definitely would enable them to "speak" once given telepathic powers.
Another important fact to point, is that if you are using Find Familiar rules, then your familiar is not a true Pseudodragon at all, but rather a spirit that takes the form of a Pseudodragon by your will, and might not necessarily have the same "limitations".
If you look at the find familiar spell, you can see you cant have a pseudodragon, that's only for chainlocks
DM did this for on of my fellow players, tons of fun, wouldn't get to overly technical with it. With a CR of 1/4 it doesn't seem far out of reason.