Can a familiar use its natural attributes when performing a task? ie, can a hawk use its talons to scratch and gouge if it is sent to retrieve something and the character doesn't want to let the item go? Can a poisonous snake bite a character and poison it? Is there a definitive answer to this question?
You touch one willing creature and imbue it with the power to SPEW MAGICAL ENERGY FROM IT'S MOUTH, provided it has one. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Until the spell ends, the creature can use an action to exhale energy of the chosen type in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 damage of the chosen type on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
"spew magical energy from it's mouth" is not an attack.
That’s what confuses me. it can take other actions as normal. A poisonous snake would bite. That’s normal for a snake. I’m still confused.
well, it's not a poisonous snake. the familiar is almost certainly a celestial/fey/fiend spirit in the form of a poisonous snake and that spirit can't attack. it can certainly try to intimidate as if it were actually a venomous (or poisonous, if that's interesting to the narrative) beast, though.
I understand that, as an elf, I cannot have my familiar do an Eldridtch strike. But what is the point of a familiar not being able to use its natural attributes and carrying out a task.
What they mean is game options as normal, not what would be normal for the creature. So it can take the dash action, dodge action, hide action, etc. It just can’t take the attack action.
It absolutely can use its natural attributes; an eagle-shaped familiar can fly, a fish-shaped familiar can breathe underwater, a snake-shaped familiar can fit in tight spaces. What it cannot do is attack. Familiars are useful for all sorts of tasks that do not involve attacking, such as scouting an area, or fetching an object from another room. The only thing they can't do is attack. Maybe the spirits are pacifists, maybe the planar stabilization field that allows them to exist in our reality dissolves on contact with another creature's subjectivity matrix. It doesn't super matter why they can't attack; the spell explicitly says they can't, so they can't.
Got it. I guess my Dungeon Master (also my son) was right. Rats.
Thanks for all the info.
Marana
I feel like it's worth mentioning that in specific cases, your familiar can actually attack per the spell's description:
"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."
For instance, you can use your action to cast Inflict Wounds, and have your familiar attack with the spell as reaction against a target it can touch. But this is only for spells you can cast that have a range of touch. Another example is if you have a party member that is down, but you are too far away to cast Cure Wounds, you can still use your action to cast it and have you familiar use it as a reaction to heal somebody if it can touch them.
You touch one willing creature and imbue it with the power to SPEW MAGICAL ENERGY FROM IT'S MOUTH, provided it has one. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Until the spell ends, the creature can use an action to exhale energy of the chosen type in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 damage of the chosen type on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
"spew magical energy from it's mouth" is not an attack.
This is a tricky one. I'd rule it that the familiar cannot be the recipient of the spell, but can deliver the spell to someone that may be out of reach of the caster. So you'd cast Dragon's Breath as an action, then have your familiar use their reaction touch another party member, and the receiving party member would be able to spew magical energy from their mouth.
Got it. I guess my Dungeon Master (also my son) was right. Rats.
Thanks for all the info.
Marana
I feel like it's worth mentioning that in specific cases, your familiar can actually attack per the spell's description:
"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."
For instance, you can use your action to cast Inflict Wounds, and have your familiar attack with the spell as reaction against a target it can touch. But this is only for spells you can cast that have a range of touch. Another example is if you have a party member that is down, but you are too far away to cast Cure Wounds, you can still use your action to cast it and have you familiar use it as a reaction to heal somebody if it can touch them.
Hope all is well and have a great day!
I think this confuses the issue more than it clarifies; when you cast Inflict Wounds via your familiar, your familiar is not making an attack (as in the Attack action); the one taking the action and making the attack roll is your character, which is why the roll uses your character's Spell Attack modifier.
You touch one willing creature and imbue it with the power to SPEW MAGICAL ENERGY FROM IT'S MOUTH, provided it has one. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Until the spell ends, the creature can use an action to exhale energy of the chosen type in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 damage of the chosen type on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
"spew magical energy from it's mouth" is not an attack.
This is a tricky one. I'd rule it that the familiar cannot be the recipient of the spell, but can deliver the spell to someone that may be out of reach of the caster. So you'd cast Dragon's Breath as an action, then have your familiar use their reaction touch another party member, and the receiving party member would be able to spew magical energy from their mouth.
But there's no attack involved in the spell. An attack, very specifically, includes an attack roll. If there's an attack roll, it's an attack. If there's no attack roll, it's not an attack.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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You touch one willing creature and imbue it with the power to SPEW MAGICAL ENERGY FROM IT'S MOUTH, provided it has one. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Until the spell ends, the creature can use an action to exhale energy of the chosen type in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 damage of the chosen type on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
"spew magical energy from it's mouth" is not an attack.
This is a tricky one. I'd rule it that the familiar cannot be the recipient of the spell, but can deliver the spell to someone that may be out of reach of the caster. So you'd cast Dragon's Breath as an action, then have your familiar use their reaction touch another party member, and the receiving party member would be able to spew magical energy from their mouth.
But there's no attack involved in the spell. An attack, very specifically, includes an attack roll. If there's an attack roll, it's an attack. If there's no attack roll, it's not an attack.
I think this one has been debated enough in the past, the act of spewing the magical energy is not an attack, it's breathing.
Whereas Inflict Wounds specifically says make an melee spell attack:
Make a melee spell attack against a creature you can reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d10 necrotic damage.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 1st.
I rule Dragon's Breath is fine for a familiar but Inflict Wound is not, even if it is a touch spell. EDIT: A quick rethink on this, it's not the familiar's action that casts Inflict Wounds, it's their reaction to cast the PC's spell. Ooof this one is tough to decide.
I think this one has been debated enough in the past, the act of spewing the magical energy is not an attack, it's breathing.
Whereas Inflict Wounds specifically says make an melee spell attack:
Make a melee spell attack against a creature you can reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d10 necrotic damage.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 1st.
I rule Dragon's Breath is fine for a familiar but Inflict Wound is not, even if it is a touch spell. EDIT: A quick rethink on this, it's not the familiar's action that casts Inflict Wounds, it's their reaction to cast the PC's spell. Ooof this one is tough to decide.
Let me make it a little easier: the text of Find Familiar tells you to use your own Spell Attack modifier for spells delivered via your familiar. If you couldn't deliver spell attacks through your familiar, they would not include rules that tell you how to calculate spell attack rolls delivered via your familiar.
For what it's worth, I let my players use Dragon's Breath on their familiars. It very occasionally leads to a funny surprise attack, but they also found out real quick that using a 2nd level spell slot to empower a creature with 2 HP and 13 AC was not a super efficient strategy for open combat.
Can a familiar use its natural attributes when performing a task? ie, can a hawk use its talons to scratch and gouge if it is sent to retrieve something and the character doesn't want to let the item go? Can a poisonous snake bite a character and poison it? Is there a definitive answer to this question?
Marana
Yes, there's a definite answer in the spell description.
"A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal."
What you're describing are attacks.
That’s what confuses me. it can take other actions as normal. A poisonous snake would bite. That’s normal for a snake. I’m still confused.
Marana
It would, but biting is an attack, so a familiar can't do it. It can take other actions (that are not attacks) as normal.
Dragon's Breath:
"spew magical energy from it's mouth" is not an attack.
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well, it's not a poisonous snake. the familiar is almost certainly a celestial/fey/fiend spirit in the form of a poisonous snake and that spirit can't attack. it can certainly try to intimidate as if it were actually a venomous (or poisonous, if that's interesting to the narrative) beast, though.
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I understand that, as an elf, I cannot have my familiar do an Eldridtch strike. But what is the point of a familiar not being able to use its natural attributes and carrying out a task.
Marana
What they mean is game options as normal, not what would be normal for the creature.
So it can take the dash action, dodge action, hide action, etc. It just can’t take the attack action.
Because the game needs an arbitrary cut off to keep wizards from having a resource less way to have 2 attacks in a round.
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It absolutely can use its natural attributes; an eagle-shaped familiar can fly, a fish-shaped familiar can breathe underwater, a snake-shaped familiar can fit in tight spaces. What it cannot do is attack. Familiars are useful for all sorts of tasks that do not involve attacking, such as scouting an area, or fetching an object from another room. The only thing they can't do is attack. Maybe the spirits are pacifists, maybe the planar stabilization field that allows them to exist in our reality dissolves on contact with another creature's subjectivity matrix. It doesn't super matter why they can't attack; the spell explicitly says they can't, so they can't.
Got it. I guess my Dungeon Master (also my son) was right. Rats.
Thanks for all the info.
Marana
Marana
I feel like it's worth mentioning that in specific cases, your familiar can actually attack per the spell's description:
"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."
For instance, you can use your action to cast Inflict Wounds, and have your familiar attack with the spell as reaction against a target it can touch. But this is only for spells you can cast that have a range of touch. Another example is if you have a party member that is down, but you are too far away to cast Cure Wounds, you can still use your action to cast it and have you familiar use it as a reaction to heal somebody if it can touch them.
Hope all is well and have a great day!
OK. So if I was more than 60 ft away from a character that attacks me, I can use my familiar to cast Hellish Rebuke?
Marana
This is a tricky one. I'd rule it that the familiar cannot be the recipient of the spell, but can deliver the spell to someone that may be out of reach of the caster. So you'd cast Dragon's Breath as an action, then have your familiar use their reaction touch another party member, and the receiving party member would be able to spew magical energy from their mouth.
I'm sorry, but the spell needs to have a fixed range of "touch", and Hellish rebuke has a range of 60ft., so it would not work that way.
Not familiar with Range of Touch yet. But I get what you're saying.
Marana
I think this confuses the issue more than it clarifies; when you cast Inflict Wounds via your familiar, your familiar is not making an attack (as in the Attack action); the one taking the action and making the attack roll is your character, which is why the roll uses your character's Spell Attack modifier.
But there's no attack involved in the spell. An attack, very specifically, includes an attack roll. If there's an attack roll, it's an attack. If there's no attack roll, it's not an attack.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
I think this one has been debated enough in the past, the act of spewing the magical energy is not an attack, it's breathing.
Whereas Inflict Wounds specifically says make an melee spell attack:
I rule Dragon's Breath is fine for a familiar but
Inflict Wound is not, even if it is a touch spell.EDIT: A quick rethink on this, it's not the familiar's action that casts Inflict Wounds, it's their reaction to cast the PC's spell. Ooof this one is tough to decide.How to: Replace DEX in AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
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Let me make it a little easier: the text of Find Familiar tells you to use your own Spell Attack modifier for spells delivered via your familiar. If you couldn't deliver spell attacks through your familiar, they would not include rules that tell you how to calculate spell attack rolls delivered via your familiar.
For what it's worth, I let my players use Dragon's Breath on their familiars. It very occasionally leads to a funny surprise attack, but they also found out real quick that using a 2nd level spell slot to empower a creature with 2 HP and 13 AC was not a super efficient strategy for open combat.