The relevant text of Summon Wildfire Spirit reads:
"The spirit is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands."
And:
"The only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action."
Notice that it doesn't specify that the commands are verbal or telepathic. What do you guys think, which one is it?
Tbh I could also see it being neither, just a balancing mechanic rather than actually speaking to it (telepathically or verbally or otherwise), like the druid and their spirit are in tune with one another and acting instinctually in tandem, but I figured I would check before assuming any of the three possibilities.
They must be spoken commands. I agree that the feature doesn't make this explicit but if command can be issued via other means they are specifically called out.
The relevant text of Summon Wildfire Spirit reads:
"The spirit is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands."
And:
"The only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action."
Notice that it doesn't specify that the commands are verbal or telepathic. What do you guys think, which one is it?
Tbh I could also see it being neither, just a balancing mechanic rather than actually speaking to it (telepathically or verbally or otherwise), like the druid and their spirit are in tune with one another and acting instinctually in tandem, but I figured I would check before assuming any of the three possibilities.
Neither.
It has to be commanded. You can command it using any ability at your disposal to issue commands. If you have a means of telepathically broadcasting to the spirit, that will work, although the spirit doesn't give you one for free. By the same token, you could issue a verbal command - unlike telepathy, all playable races can speak by default, and the spirit understands all of your languages - but you could also toss the spirit a written note (since, again, it understands your languages). Nonverbal commands will work, too - the spirit is intelligence 13. That's significantly smarter than the average commoner. It can understand basic concepts like pointing, and what's more, it can be taught. You can sit down the night before you go into combat and have a whole conversation with your spirit to set up specific body language commands in case it should come up you need to issue them, like if you're wild shaped.
tl;dr Verbal, telepathic, and all other commands will work, provided you can issue them and the spirit can sense them; the spirit ability grants neither you nor the spirit telepathy, but you can speak by default and the spirit can hear by default.
P.S. Default senses also include touch and smell. You could issue commands via headpats if you taught your spirit Morse Code. You do you.
Interestingly, since the spirit knows all the languages that you know, you could issue basically secret commands in Druidic. Not too many NPCs are going to know “all languages” or Druidic. I’d be surprised if even any of your other party members knew it.
Ooh, I love the flavor of commanding it in druidic. My character is the only druid in the party and also the only party member who speaks primordial, and either of them are very thematic. Thanks for the idea!
I do like the flavor of commanding this critter in Druidic.
However I feel the need to point out one major point that is being missed or glossed over. That being the fact that the druid must USE their bonus action to have the critter do anything besides dodge while they are conscious. It is very specific that the use of the bonus action is the only requirement for the control. Roleplay it how you want, use the bonus action and the critter takes the action you want.
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The relevant text of Summon Wildfire Spirit reads:
"The spirit is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands."
And:
"The only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action."
Notice that it doesn't specify that the commands are verbal or telepathic. What do you guys think, which one is it?
Tbh I could also see it being neither, just a balancing mechanic rather than actually speaking to it (telepathically or verbally or otherwise), like the druid and their spirit are in tune with one another and acting instinctually in tandem, but I figured I would check before assuming any of the three possibilities.
They must be spoken commands. I agree that the feature doesn't make this explicit but if command can be issued via other means they are specifically called out.
For example Find Familiar also says:
"Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands."
And then later explains further with:
"While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically."
Also if you check the Wildfire Spirit's stat block it says it can understand the languages you speak.
- Find familiar: explicitly telepathic communication
- Tasha's summon spells: explicitly verbal
- PHB conjure spells: explicitly verbal
- Tasha's subclass pets: neither is specified
Neither.
It has to be commanded. You can command it using any ability at your disposal to issue commands. If you have a means of telepathically broadcasting to the spirit, that will work, although the spirit doesn't give you one for free. By the same token, you could issue a verbal command - unlike telepathy, all playable races can speak by default, and the spirit understands all of your languages - but you could also toss the spirit a written note (since, again, it understands your languages). Nonverbal commands will work, too - the spirit is intelligence 13. That's significantly smarter than the average commoner. It can understand basic concepts like pointing, and what's more, it can be taught. You can sit down the night before you go into combat and have a whole conversation with your spirit to set up specific body language commands in case it should come up you need to issue them, like if you're wild shaped.
tl;dr Verbal, telepathic, and all other commands will work, provided you can issue them and the spirit can sense them; the spirit ability grants neither you nor the spirit telepathy, but you can speak by default and the spirit can hear by default.
P.S. Default senses also include touch and smell. You could issue commands via headpats if you taught your spirit Morse Code. You do you.
Interestingly, since the spirit knows all the languages that you know, you could issue basically secret commands in Druidic. Not too many NPCs are going to know “all languages” or Druidic. I’d be surprised if even any of your other party members knew it.
Ooh, I love the flavor of commanding it in druidic. My character is the only druid in the party and also the only party member who speaks primordial, and either of them are very thematic. Thanks for the idea!
I do like the flavor of commanding this critter in Druidic.
However I feel the need to point out one major point that is being missed or glossed over. That being the fact that the druid must USE their bonus action to have the critter do anything besides dodge while they are conscious. It is very specific that the use of the bonus action is the only requirement for the control. Roleplay it how you want, use the bonus action and the critter takes the action you want.