Familiars used to be as intelligent as humans (just not necessarily the smartest humans, so we assumed average, or around INT 10), and it was clear there was two-way communication before, but 5e says they have the animal's stats, and that's low INT. Nothing guarantees celestials, feys, or fiends are all intelligent, anyway - they may have stupid ones well suited for this purpose and more susceptible to being controlled by spell casters. Despite being low INT, the Speak with Animals spells sort of augments that just to get a vague idea of what the low INT animals have seen recently, but Find Familiar doesn't say it's doing that, too. Near as I can make out, the familiars are animal INT (maybe INT 3, tops) and don't really communicated back and forth with their masters.
Besides, the actual time it takes for two-way telepathic communications (particularly dumbed down talking with low INT animals) used to take a minute, an old round, you know, 60 seconds, so it was real time stuff, mostly, but in 5e, it's just an action, so 6 seconds, tops, to have a look through and see and hear for yourself. The DM will take a lot more time describing it than 6 seconds, sure, but that's all it takes your PC to see for themself - and that's a lot quicker than trying to figure out some vague description in a back-and-forth. You can't get that kind of detailed information in verbal telepathic communication in 6 seconds or less, so there is no real reason for actual two-way verbal telepathic communications. The master just issues telepathic orders and that's it. This is a dumb (unintelligent) tool - not an animal companion anymore. It's powerful and useful, don't get me wrong - but not the same flavor as before like a friend or extension of one's own being.
well talking is a free action. your familiar if smart enough could use telepathy to read you the complete works of william shakespeare in 6 seconds by RAW
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Familiars used to be as intelligent as humans (just not necessarily the smartest humans, so we assumed average, or around INT 10), and it was clear there was two-way communication before, but 5e says they have the animal's stats, and that's low INT. Nothing guarantees celestials, feys, or fiends are all intelligent, anyway - they may have stupid ones well suited for this purpose and more susceptible to being controlled by spell casters. Despite being low INT, the Speak with Animals spells sort of augments that just to get a vague idea of what the low INT animals have seen recently, but Find Familiar doesn't say it's doing that, too. Near as I can make out, the familiars are animal INT (maybe INT 3, tops) and don't really communicated back and forth with their masters.
Besides, the actual time it takes for two-way telepathic communications (particularly dumbed down talking with low INT animals) used to take a minute, an old round, you know, 60 seconds, so it was real time stuff, mostly, but in 5e, it's just an action, so 6 seconds, tops, to have a look through and see and hear for yourself. The DM will take a lot more time describing it than 6 seconds, sure, but that's all it takes your PC to see for themself - and that's a lot quicker than trying to figure out some vague description in a back-and-forth. You can't get that kind of detailed information in verbal telepathic communication in 6 seconds or less, so there is no real reason for actual two-way verbal telepathic communications. The master just issues telepathic orders and that's it. This is a dumb (unintelligent) tool - not an animal companion anymore. It's powerful and useful, don't get me wrong - but not the same flavor as before like a friend or extension of one's own being.
well talking is a free action. your familiar if smart enough could use telepathy to read you the complete works of william shakespeare in 6 seconds by RAW