"So at level 1, the PC gets their hawk familiar. The familiar will be doing this from the beginning of the first level 1 adventure until the death of the PC, or the campaign ends. Are you going to run every random encounter with burrowing or invisible enemies? The existence of the hawk means that random encounters can never occur in anything but heavily concealed areas. Planned encounters will always be fully scouted from afar. Just how often are you going to throw in an airborne predator to keep it bay?"
This assumes that every campaign or a majority of them occur outside in open terrain, completely ignoring the concept of random encounters in the dark, on open water, under ground, in dungeons and buildings, in dense fog, in thick woodlands where a tailing party can snipe the hawk down without being seen, etc, etc, etc, etc... Planned encounters, in my experience of 10+ years dming, have very rarely if ever been scouted ahead, even by players with years of experience and more than Level 1 characters. Can it happen, yes, can it be avoided, also yes. will it happen, that depends ont eh players.
"Good luck watching the expression on your players' faces the second time you pull this. The first time? Fine. The second? Hah. And all traps now have to be triggered only by pressure plates, that's fun."
I've seen traps in prewritten campaigns for other editions, mostly magical, that trigger in the presence of humanoids only. There are also trap options which trigger entirely by the players doing something like pulling a lever or failing a puzzle. A clever DM can plan trap around what the players can do and what they expect. In addition, some of my player ran through Dead in Thay in it's entirety, do you know how many random pit traps their just are in that dungeon, two of my players fell through almost all of them. Despite how common they were my players weren't always in the mindset to look for them when they travelled from room to room. The two party wizards didn't even have find familiar, neither of them wanted it.
"Because having villainous NPCs speaking in code when there's nobody else around to hear it is metagaming to deny the PC the power to use their fairly acquired abilities. It doesn't make sense. Once? Ok. Twice? Errrrm. Three times? Reeeeaaaaally? And then remember as well: All familiars can do ALL OF THESE THINGS since you can change them into something else by resummoning. So now you've designed your world so that there are only invisible/burrowing creatures, traps only work on specific pressure plates, and everyone speaks in code."
Then it assumes that every campaign includes only stealth missions where the content of a conversation is important to the players. It's obvious a group of enemies may not consider a mouse in the area if they see one, but It's not likely for a group of bandits who live in an icy cave to notice a random snake and think something is up. A player of mine actually tried this by pretending to be a cow with magic to sneak up to a bandits hideout which was on a grassy hill in the dark. The bandits didn't buy it because there weren't any farms anywhere near their hideout for a random cow to just show up out of nowhere.
Since the casting time of Find Familiar is 1 Hour at the least then it requires the player to plan ahead by a lot if they want to "resummon" a familiar. Is your familiar a hawk, and are your random encounters on open water, okay, spend that time to resummon your familiar as an octopus, that's fine, now you can scout below, but not above. In a dungeon and need to stealthily listen at a door, is your familiar a crab, that sucks, better have an hour of downtime to resummon a cat and hope the enemies don't notice you doing it. Got a spider familiar, need to check for traps, how long do you think it will take that spider to crawl through a dungeon ahead and find every tripwire, pressure plate, pitfall, arrow slit, sigil, etc. How many is it actually likely to find?
None of this is thought process error. I said it once and I will say it again, if you know what your players can do and what they will do, you can work with it, or work around it.
if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies
So at level 1, the PC gets their hawk familiar. The familiar will be doing this from the beginning of the first level 1 adventure until the death of the PC, or the campaign ends. Are you going to run every random encounter with burrowing or invisible enemies? The existence of the hawk means that random encounters can never occur in anything but heavily concealed areas. Planned encounters will always be fully scouted from afar. Just how often are you going to throw in an airborne predator to keep it bay?
Random encounters already pretty much only happen in pretty heavily concealed areas, because having them in any other terrain usually means either 'the PCs avoid them' or 'dead before they get close enough to attack'. This is not to say that find familiar isn't disproportionately powerful for its low opportunity cost (if you want a 1e feel, I'd be tempted by 'if your familiar is killed, gain a level of exhaustion').
if a hawk flies up to watch for random encounters every time then attack from underground or use invisible enemies
So at level 1, the PC gets their hawk familiar. The familiar will be doing this from the beginning of the first level 1 adventure until the death of the PC, or the campaign ends. Are you going to run every random encounter with burrowing or invisible enemies? The existence of the hawk means that random encounters can never occur in anything but heavily concealed areas. Planned encounters will always be fully scouted from afar. Just how often are you going to throw in an airborne predator to keep it bay?
Random encounters already pretty much only happen in pretty heavily concealed areas, because having them in any other terrain usually means either 'the PCs avoid them' or 'dead before they get close enough to attack'. This is not to say that find familiar isn't disproportionately powerful for its low opportunity cost (if you want a 1e feel, I'd be tempted by 'if your familiar is killed, gain a level of exhaustion').
Also, hawks cant see in the dark or through trees, or through total cover. If something is going to ambush players they are probably going to hide rather than just stand out in the open. Just because the party knows about potential danger doesn't mean they can avoid it, jus that they wont be surprised by it. Random encounters shouldn't only be a bunch of obvious bad guys or monsters waiting to attack. Its random encounters, not random wandering monster table. Encounters can be social, a skill challenge, a trap or something like a chest that looks like it fell off a wagon that is a mimic.
If at any time, any of the above is not naturally true (such as by an infant creature maturing into an adult and growing larger)
Familiars don't age. They aren't "real" animals -- per RAW, they are "a spirit that takes an animal form you choose"
Just a related question. If they are spirits that can take the for of any “animal” you choose, then why does it have to be an animal?
Even accepting that the spirit is limited in size due to the fact that it’s not very powerful in general, why couldn’t it take the form of a small or tiny humanoid - or something like a pixie?
I think people are confusing stat blocks with in-game descriptions a bit. If you want a tiny Jar-Jar Binks as a companion, knock yourself out. But it has the stats of a rat or a weasel or a crab or whatever. You may occasionally need to refer to the 'statblock creature' when determining whether it can perform fancy actions like dispensing potions, but other than that there's absolutely no harm in reflavoring a familiar. It's already not actually the creature it's based on anyway.
As for opening it up the way OP has, I think it's going way, way beyond the scope of a 1st level spell. As others have suggested, there are better existing mechanics if you want some kind of advanced sidekick or animal companion.
If you are punishing your players for investing and using spells, abilities, and features... you are a bad DM.
I live in Texas... there are cows... they exist... none live near me, not for 50 miles... have I seen a cow in my neighborhood... YES... they walk, they wander... was it odd... absolutely... did I think the cow was a Wildshaped Druid trying to spy on me... NO, what kind of idiot thinks a random animal that exists is an enemy? The Cougar that wandered through Bellaire for weak was a threat, not a Ranger's Animal Companion... the Wolves that frolicked in Downtown Houston for months weren't some Animal Summons... the Opossum that showed in my Den might have been the grown up form of the one I fed a half decade ago, but it sure wasn't someone's familiar trying to check for traps on my dining room Window AC Unit... Animals exist everywhere... Spiders are literally all around you, right now, yes, everyone, this instant, you probably don't see it, but it is nearby, they lurk everywhere.
Here are what you do... You tell your players, "Set your Familiar to the Max HP for its stat block. Remember that unless you have Pact of the Chain, they can't Attack. You have to use your action to command them to take a Magic Action to use a Magic Item, and most creatures don't have the manual control to properly wield most items. Yes, some familiars can administer potions, I will allow it since it requires them to not take the dodge action on their turn and they are using their action to give it to you, it is believable the Spirit wants you to live and understands a healing potion will save you."
Few Familiars will not have much HP, 3-6 (1d4-1, 1d4, or 1d6) for all Base Familiars, even expanded familiars only get to 24 (4d4+8 for the Anvilwrought Raptor which has to be found or built IC to bond with), and even the 2024 Pact of the Chain Familiars at max will get to a max of 40 HP (10d4). So the squishy spellcaster has their own sacrificial mini-tank to delay foes while they flee. Even with the 5+ Level Invocation of Investment of the Chain Master, the Familiars still require the Warlock to be using resources (Bonus Action to grant attack, Reaction to give resistance)... you don't give foes Instant Full HP Resurrection to punish the Fighter for Action Surge or the Barbarian for Rage. Also remember... 15 is the highest AC of any Familiar (Pact of the Chain Sprite, which actually wears tiny leather armor) with most at a 12 or 13, your NPCs don't need much to hit and hurt them, and by the time Warlocks can use Bonus Actions instead of sacrificing their Action to use their familiar those familiars are relatively average to lower than average HP for PCs and NPCs alike... remember, the HP of Familiars never gets any higher, ever... giving them an early mini tank is not a big deal. Also remember, that the range that most familiars can communicate is measured in feet, not even yards, let alone miles (The Anvilwrought Raptor, again, is a special case... 1 mile... Pact of the Chain Warlocks could also take Voice of the Chain Master from 2014, technically even in 2024 since it wasn't updated, to also do this or better, but again, they invested a Invocation for that benefit).
Remember, most creatures have a limited range of vision, so even if the familiar can fly high above, it can't see stuff unless it is close enough to be in longbow/heavy crossbow range (possibly short bow, light crossbow, and longer range spell range).
If you really feel your players are abusing the scouting outdoors, surprise them ONCE with a Sorlock with Spell Sniper, Eldritch Spear, and Distant Spell on their Eldritch Blast... a barrage of 1200 foot Eldritch Blasts will make them question things, but really, why are you angry your players are making the effort to be tactical... a roof or tent can prevent most spying they can do from the air, and it is far less metacruelty (Generals and Leaders tend to shade themselves from the sun), so what if they know there are enemies ahead. Reward teamwork, tactics, thinking outside the box, and using their resources. If a player built their character to use their familiar to spy, that is their build, don't take that joy from them, encourage and foster it... make certain rewards only discoverable by them using their familiar (especially if they took the Tressym or Imp for those unique vision capabilities... hide stuff behind magical darkness or inside an invisible chest, have a trap that can only be detected either with the detect poisons spell or an ability to sense/detect poison... make the game for your players, not for your desire to hurt and kill their PCs.
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"So at level 1, the PC gets their hawk familiar. The familiar will be doing this from the beginning of the first level 1 adventure until the death of the PC, or the campaign ends. Are you going to run every random encounter with burrowing or invisible enemies? The existence of the hawk means that random encounters can never occur in anything but heavily concealed areas. Planned encounters will always be fully scouted from afar. Just how often are you going to throw in an airborne predator to keep it bay?"
This assumes that every campaign or a majority of them occur outside in open terrain, completely ignoring the concept of random encounters in the dark, on open water, under ground, in dungeons and buildings, in dense fog, in thick woodlands where a tailing party can snipe the hawk down without being seen, etc, etc, etc, etc... Planned encounters, in my experience of 10+ years dming, have very rarely if ever been scouted ahead, even by players with years of experience and more than Level 1 characters. Can it happen, yes, can it be avoided, also yes. will it happen, that depends ont eh players.
"Good luck watching the expression on your players' faces the second time you pull this. The first time? Fine. The second? Hah. And all traps now have to be triggered only by pressure plates, that's fun."
I've seen traps in prewritten campaigns for other editions, mostly magical, that trigger in the presence of humanoids only. There are also trap options which trigger entirely by the players doing something like pulling a lever or failing a puzzle. A clever DM can plan trap around what the players can do and what they expect. In addition, some of my player ran through Dead in Thay in it's entirety, do you know how many random pit traps their just are in that dungeon, two of my players fell through almost all of them. Despite how common they were my players weren't always in the mindset to look for them when they travelled from room to room. The two party wizards didn't even have find familiar, neither of them wanted it.
"Because having villainous NPCs speaking in code when there's nobody else around to hear it is metagaming to deny the PC the power to use their fairly acquired abilities. It doesn't make sense. Once? Ok. Twice? Errrrm. Three times? Reeeeaaaaally? And then remember as well: All familiars can do ALL OF THESE THINGS since you can change them into something else by resummoning. So now you've designed your world so that there are only invisible/burrowing creatures, traps only work on specific pressure plates, and everyone speaks in code."
Then it assumes that every campaign includes only stealth missions where the content of a conversation is important to the players. It's obvious a group of enemies may not consider a mouse in the area if they see one, but It's not likely for a group of bandits who live in an icy cave to notice a random snake and think something is up. A player of mine actually tried this by pretending to be a cow with magic to sneak up to a bandits hideout which was on a grassy hill in the dark. The bandits didn't buy it because there weren't any farms anywhere near their hideout for a random cow to just show up out of nowhere.
Since the casting time of Find Familiar is 1 Hour at the least then it requires the player to plan ahead by a lot if they want to "resummon" a familiar. Is your familiar a hawk, and are your random encounters on open water, okay, spend that time to resummon your familiar as an octopus, that's fine, now you can scout below, but not above. In a dungeon and need to stealthily listen at a door, is your familiar a crab, that sucks, better have an hour of downtime to resummon a cat and hope the enemies don't notice you doing it. Got a spider familiar, need to check for traps, how long do you think it will take that spider to crawl through a dungeon ahead and find every tripwire, pressure plate, pitfall, arrow slit, sigil, etc. How many is it actually likely to find?
None of this is thought process error. I said it once and I will say it again, if you know what your players can do and what they will do, you can work with it, or work around it.
Random encounters already pretty much only happen in pretty heavily concealed areas, because having them in any other terrain usually means either 'the PCs avoid them' or 'dead before they get close enough to attack'. This is not to say that find familiar isn't disproportionately powerful for its low opportunity cost (if you want a 1e feel, I'd be tempted by 'if your familiar is killed, gain a level of exhaustion').
Also,
hawks cant see in the dark or through trees, or through total cover. If something is going to ambush players they are probably going to hide rather than just stand out in the open.
Just because the party knows about potential danger doesn't mean they can avoid it, jus that they wont be surprised by it.
Random encounters shouldn't only be a bunch of obvious bad guys or monsters waiting to attack. Its random encounters, not random wandering monster table. Encounters can be social, a skill challenge, a trap or something like a chest that looks like it fell off a wagon that is a mimic.
I think people are confusing stat blocks with in-game descriptions a bit. If you want a tiny Jar-Jar Binks as a companion, knock yourself out. But it has the stats of a rat or a weasel or a crab or whatever. You may occasionally need to refer to the 'statblock creature' when determining whether it can perform fancy actions like dispensing potions, but other than that there's absolutely no harm in reflavoring a familiar. It's already not actually the creature it's based on anyway.
As for opening it up the way OP has, I think it's going way, way beyond the scope of a 1st level spell. As others have suggested, there are better existing mechanics if you want some kind of advanced sidekick or animal companion.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
If you are punishing your players for investing and using spells, abilities, and features... you are a bad DM.
I live in Texas... there are cows... they exist... none live near me, not for 50 miles... have I seen a cow in my neighborhood... YES... they walk, they wander... was it odd... absolutely... did I think the cow was a Wildshaped Druid trying to spy on me... NO, what kind of idiot thinks a random animal that exists is an enemy? The Cougar that wandered through Bellaire for weak was a threat, not a Ranger's Animal Companion... the Wolves that frolicked in Downtown Houston for months weren't some Animal Summons... the Opossum that showed in my Den might have been the grown up form of the one I fed a half decade ago, but it sure wasn't someone's familiar trying to check for traps on my dining room Window AC Unit... Animals exist everywhere... Spiders are literally all around you, right now, yes, everyone, this instant, you probably don't see it, but it is nearby, they lurk everywhere.
Here are what you do... You tell your players, "Set your Familiar to the Max HP for its stat block. Remember that unless you have Pact of the Chain, they can't Attack. You have to use your action to command them to take a Magic Action to use a Magic Item, and most creatures don't have the manual control to properly wield most items. Yes, some familiars can administer potions, I will allow it since it requires them to not take the dodge action on their turn and they are using their action to give it to you, it is believable the Spirit wants you to live and understands a healing potion will save you."
Few Familiars will not have much HP, 3-6 (1d4-1, 1d4, or 1d6) for all Base Familiars, even expanded familiars only get to 24 (4d4+8 for the Anvilwrought Raptor which has to be found or built IC to bond with), and even the 2024 Pact of the Chain Familiars at max will get to a max of 40 HP (10d4). So the squishy spellcaster has their own sacrificial mini-tank to delay foes while they flee. Even with the 5+ Level Invocation of Investment of the Chain Master, the Familiars still require the Warlock to be using resources (Bonus Action to grant attack, Reaction to give resistance)... you don't give foes Instant Full HP Resurrection to punish the Fighter for Action Surge or the Barbarian for Rage. Also remember... 15 is the highest AC of any Familiar (Pact of the Chain Sprite, which actually wears tiny leather armor) with most at a 12 or 13, your NPCs don't need much to hit and hurt them, and by the time Warlocks can use Bonus Actions instead of sacrificing their Action to use their familiar those familiars are relatively average to lower than average HP for PCs and NPCs alike... remember, the HP of Familiars never gets any higher, ever... giving them an early mini tank is not a big deal. Also remember, that the range that most familiars can communicate is measured in feet, not even yards, let alone miles (The Anvilwrought Raptor, again, is a special case... 1 mile... Pact of the Chain Warlocks could also take Voice of the Chain Master from 2014, technically even in 2024 since it wasn't updated, to also do this or better, but again, they invested a Invocation for that benefit).
Remember, most creatures have a limited range of vision, so even if the familiar can fly high above, it can't see stuff unless it is close enough to be in longbow/heavy crossbow range (possibly short bow, light crossbow, and longer range spell range).
If you really feel your players are abusing the scouting outdoors, surprise them ONCE with a Sorlock with Spell Sniper, Eldritch Spear, and Distant Spell on their Eldritch Blast... a barrage of 1200 foot Eldritch Blasts will make them question things, but really, why are you angry your players are making the effort to be tactical... a roof or tent can prevent most spying they can do from the air, and it is far less metacruelty (Generals and Leaders tend to shade themselves from the sun), so what if they know there are enemies ahead. Reward teamwork, tactics, thinking outside the box, and using their resources. If a player built their character to use their familiar to spy, that is their build, don't take that joy from them, encourage and foster it... make certain rewards only discoverable by them using their familiar (especially if they took the Tressym or Imp for those unique vision capabilities... hide stuff behind magical darkness or inside an invisible chest, have a trap that can only be detected either with the detect poisons spell or an ability to sense/detect poison... make the game for your players, not for your desire to hurt and kill their PCs.