Just a question a few of my players have been bringing up.
Can a familiar be killed permanently if it's killed in a certain place? For example, would a familiar that is a fey be killed permanently if it were to be destroyed while in the Feywild? Same with the other familiars if tied to their respective places of origin.
I didn't have a definite answer for them, just genuinely curious what others would think.
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Familiars aren't physical beings so much as they are spirits given physical form. Destroying or dismissing them just returns the spirit energy from whence it came until it is called upon again. Now sure, you could say that a given familiar is effectively the same spirit summoned each time, and if it dies on its "home plane" of sorts then it dies for real and a new familiar that is summoned would be a new and different spirit. That could make for some interesting story moments, though, as DxJxC mentioned above, it matters little mechanically.
There's nothing about it in the rules, so it's up to the player and DM how they want to handle it!
The wizard in my game leaned into the fact that this was a celestial creature in the form of a small animal, and we've worked together to give the owl a personality and history. I've been rewarding that RP with all sorts of stuff, but also created a system to make resummoning a killed familiar include a slight risk that it won't be the SAME spirit. That way the risk reward of putting the familiar in danger (especially with AOE attacks) is much higher.
Just a question a few of my players have been bringing up.
Can a familiar be killed permanently if it's killed in a certain place? For example, would a familiar that is a fey be killed permanently if it were to be destroyed while in the Feywild? Same with the other familiars if tied to their respective places of origin.
I didn't have a definite answer for them, just genuinely curious what others would think.
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Possibly. It doesn't really matter for find familiar.
Familiars aren't physical beings so much as they are spirits given physical form. Destroying or dismissing them just returns the spirit energy from whence it came until it is called upon again. Now sure, you could say that a given familiar is effectively the same spirit summoned each time, and if it dies on its "home plane" of sorts then it dies for real and a new familiar that is summoned would be a new and different spirit. That could make for some interesting story moments, though, as DxJxC mentioned above, it matters little mechanically.
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InsiderThere's nothing about it in the rules, so it's up to the player and DM how they want to handle it!
The wizard in my game leaned into the fact that this was a celestial creature in the form of a small animal, and we've worked together to give the owl a personality and history. I've been rewarding that RP with all sorts of stuff, but also created a system to make resummoning a killed familiar include a slight risk that it won't be the SAME spirit. That way the risk reward of putting the familiar in danger (especially with AOE attacks) is much higher.
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