When we summon a familiar for our spellcasters, we assume that the familiar who is serving you is serving only you, but how do we know that for sure?
So, Find Familiar summons a spirit and gives it an animal body to control. And, it must obey you. This is all outlined in the spell well enough. It's an animal who always obeys you. But... it isn't really an animal it is just piloting the body of an animal. It isn't really an animal at all, it is a spirit. And, is it possible the same nebulous entity, this 'spirit' is puppeteering several animals for different spellcasters all at the same time?
Is that all we know for sure? It is a spirit and that part is certainly not well defined by the spell. Does it have a real identity, its own goals and motivations? There are questions left unanswered here that most of us seem to ignore entirely.
What if there are only a handful of these spirits out there even capable of controlling the body of animals for spellcasters in this way, and what if these entities do have their own goals and aims. They're bound to obey your spellcaster, sure, but, only in that one animal's body. Could a spirit controlling several such familiars not be playing wizard against wizard, sharing crucial information to one so as to evoke a reaction that furthers their own design?
Have these elusive spirits been pulling the strings from beyond the veil for countless eons? Subtly steering the course of history by their selective service to some of the world's most powerful people, its spellcasters? Manipulating them to fight in a never-ending familiar war for supremacy?
What aren't they telling us about these unassuming servants!?
... Hyperbolic narrative aside. What do we know about the spirits that serve as familiars? Is there any real established lore for these beings and why they do what they do? They must obey but do they even have to like you? Maybe they're angry and hostile but magically compelled? Or do we assume they're actually friendly and like to serve, and if they are, is that a façade? So many unanswered questions about these creatures.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
As far as I'm aware, there is no lore for "spirits". It is simply a way of saying that the familiar is inherently a Celestial, Fey, or Fiend, despite its outward appearance. Previous editions used templated creatures, such as a "Celestial Bat", which added unnecessary complexity.
5e likes to keep things simplified, and actively leaves things for the DM to determine for their own table. Rather than "unanswered questions", they can be considered "creative prompts".
Seriously I love stuff to do with magic gone wrong and think there's great mileage in this especially with conjuration magic. There's a precedent with conjure animals that you can't really control what you get. In most media, when something gets conjured, something goes wrong.
There was a recent thread where a warlock player was questioning their DM's approach of playing the imp familiar in an occasionally uncooperative way.
When we summon a familiar for our spellcasters, we assume that the familiar who is serving you is serving only you, but how do we know that for sure?
So, Find Familiar summons a spirit and gives it an animal body to control. And, it must obey you. This is all outlined in the spell well enough. It's an animal who always obeys you. But... it isn't really an animal it is just piloting the body of an animal. It isn't really an animal at all, it is a spirit. And, is it possible the same nebulous entity, this 'spirit' is puppeteering several animals for different spellcasters all at the same time?
Is that all we know for sure? It is a spirit and that part is certainly not well defined by the spell. Does it have a real identity, its own goals and motivations? There are questions left unanswered here that most of us seem to ignore entirely.
What if there are only a handful of these spirits out there even capable of controlling the body of animals for spellcasters in this way, and what if these entities do have their own goals and aims. They're bound to obey your spellcaster, sure, but, only in that one animal's body. Could a spirit controlling several such familiars not be playing wizard against wizard, sharing crucial information to one so as to evoke a reaction that furthers their own design?
Have these elusive spirits been pulling the strings from beyond the veil for countless eons? Subtly steering the course of history by their selective service to some of the world's most powerful people, its spellcasters? Manipulating them to fight in a never-ending familiar war for supremacy?
What aren't they telling us about these unassuming servants!?
... Hyperbolic narrative aside. What do we know about the spirits that serve as familiars? Is there any real established lore for these beings and why they do what they do? They must obey but do they even have to like you? Maybe they're angry and hostile but magically compelled? Or do we assume they're actually friendly and like to serve, and if they are, is that a façade? So many unanswered questions about these creatures.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
As far as I'm aware, there is no lore for "spirits". It is simply a way of saying that the familiar is inherently a Celestial, Fey, or Fiend, despite its outward appearance. Previous editions used templated creatures, such as a "Celestial Bat", which added unnecessary complexity.
5e likes to keep things simplified, and actively leaves things for the DM to determine for their own table. Rather than "unanswered questions", they can be considered "creative prompts".
Unseen servants, what do they have to hide?
Mage hand, what is afoot?
Seriously I love stuff to do with magic gone wrong and think there's great mileage in this especially with conjuration magic. There's a precedent with conjure animals that you can't really control what you get. In most media, when something gets conjured, something goes wrong.
There was a recent thread where a warlock player was questioning their DM's approach of playing the imp familiar in an occasionally uncooperative way.
I've commented that, RAW, an artificer ability to infuse spellwrought tattoos would result in familiars becoming commonplace. What if all these needled familiars were fiends ready to morph into something more threatening when the time was right.
What if magic shop establishments sold brass braziers that allowed the magic shop hierarchy to tap into the familiars for some sort of gain?
There's some potentially great mileage in all this!