Wears a hat that he can have his poisonous snake rest atop of... cast the Fog Cloud spell... and use the familiar's senses to get the 10 feet blindsense while within the fog cloud???
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
I don't see why not...you gain the use of the familiars "special senses" while using their senses, so the blindsight of the poisonous snake should qualify there.
Note that you have to use your action each turn to maintain using the familiars senses, so you won't be able to cast action spells while doing this. Bonus actions and reactions would be good though.
The bat has 60ft of blindsight, if you're wanting to go down that route.
Keep in mind that attempting to do anything with your own body while using your familiar's sense can be extremely disorienting. Your DM may give you disadvantage on relevant checks, or other such penalties.
You can’t be in the same space as another creature. Your familiar is another creature, no matter how small it is.
...
So you can’t have the snake on your head, at least by RAW. Many tables allow it, but it’s a house rule.
That's not technically true:
You can move through a nonhostile creature’s space. In contrast, you can move through a hostile creature’s space only if the creature is at least two sizes larger or smaller than you. Remember that another creature’s space is difficult terrain for you.
Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can’t willingly end your move in its space.
So, (A) You can willingly share space with another creature temporarily, and (B) There may be circumstances that result in two creatures ending their turn in the same space accidentally.
(C) Most humans are taller than the 5ft square they occupy, so technically, a familiar riding on a hat may not actually be within a standing medium-sized wizard's occupied space. :D
There are a few silly loopholes that can make the associated rules irrelevant, but yeah, having familiars riding along is so well established that it's a pretty easy assumption, even if it's not RAW.
Yes, but remember it will take your action every turn.
I also recommend bat for this.
A tiny creature could conceivably ride you like a mount, but remember that the mounted combat rules would actually make it more vulnerable than if it were flying 10 feet overhead.
If you upcast Fog Cloud it is 20 additional feet on top of the base 20 feet for every level of the spell slot used to upcast it.
You can cover a pretty big area but by using a bat as a familiar you can use your action to see through it's senses (60 foot radius blindsense) and make a mental note of where your enemies are... roughly.
Then cast spells with AoEs that include that area on the next round.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
You can’t be in the same space as another creature. Your familiar is another creature, no matter how small it is.
“Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can't willingly end your move in its space.”
So you can’t have the snake on your head, at least by RAW. Many tables allow it, but it’s a house rule.
Now we are back to discussing the mount rules. If the DM decides the caster has appropriate anatomy for the familiar to ride on them, then yes the familiar can ride on them. Insisting otherwise makes a lot of aspects of small pets problematic.
I wasn’t discussing mount rules at all, though that is an interesting take. But in that scenario the PC is the mount, and the snake is in charge, no?
You can’t be in the same space as another creature. Your familiar is another creature, no matter how small it is.
“Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can't willingly end your move in its space.”
So you can’t have the snake on your head, at least by RAW. Many tables allow it, but it’s a house rule.
Now we are back to discussing the mount rules. If the DM decides the caster has appropriate anatomy for the familiar to ride on them, then yes the familiar can ride on them. Insisting otherwise makes a lot of aspects of small pets problematic.
I wasn’t discussing mount rules at all, though that is an interesting take. But in that scenario the PC is the mount, and the snake is in charge, no?
Theoretically if you are a trained mount, yes; but I imagine more often using the independent mount rules.
I occasionally make use of this interaction when teleporting out of danger.
misty step is a spell that costs a bonus action to cast, but requires sight. I’ve used my action to see through a familiars senses to be able to teleport to a spot that the familiar can see. The spot still has to be within 30ft of my wizard.
this my help you teleport out of heavy obscurity, on the other side of walls you can’t see through, and around corners.
my wizard doesn’t have dark vision, and I’ve pretty much refused to take the spell to remedy that. Normal darkness and magical darkness can hinder me pretty effectively.
Don't forget that the bit about not sharing space with another creature assumes both creatures are combatants and therefore need their space to fight effectively. This is one of those "ask your DM" things but it's not much of a stretch to let a tiny creature hide on your person if 1) it's not going to participate in combat and 2) you're willing to risk their safety (I hope you don't get fireballed.) Also, the DMG does have optional rules for climbing onto a large hostile creature so there is precedent for this (see chapter 9, Action Options, Climb onto a Bigger Creature.) If it works for a hostile creature it can work for a friendly one too.
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Wears a hat that he can have his poisonous snake rest atop of... cast the Fog Cloud spell... and use the familiar's senses to get the 10 feet blindsense while within the fog cloud???
I don't see why not...you gain the use of the familiars "special senses" while using their senses, so the blindsight of the poisonous snake should qualify there.
Note that you have to use your action each turn to maintain using the familiars senses, so you won't be able to cast action spells while doing this. Bonus actions and reactions would be good though.
The bat has 60ft of blindsight, if you're wanting to go down that route.
Keep in mind that attempting to do anything with your own body while using your familiar's sense can be extremely disorienting. Your DM may give you disadvantage on relevant checks, or other such penalties.
You can’t be in the same space as another creature. Your familiar is another creature, no matter how small it is.
“Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can't willingly end your move in its space.”
So you can’t have the snake on your head, at least by RAW. Many tables allow it, but it’s a house rule.
That's not technically true:
So, (A) You can willingly share space with another creature temporarily, and (B) There may be circumstances that result in two creatures ending their turn in the same space accidentally.
(C) Most humans are taller than the 5ft square they occupy, so technically, a familiar riding on a hat may not actually be within a standing medium-sized wizard's occupied space. :D
There are a few silly loopholes that can make the associated rules irrelevant, but yeah, having familiars riding along is so well established that it's a pretty easy assumption, even if it's not RAW.
Yes, but remember it will take your action every turn.
I also recommend bat for this.
A tiny creature could conceivably ride you like a mount, but remember that the mounted combat rules would actually make it more vulnerable than if it were flying 10 feet overhead.
If you upcast Fog Cloud it is 20 additional feet on top of the base 20 feet for every level of the spell slot used to upcast it.
You can cover a pretty big area but by using a bat as a familiar you can use your action to see through it's senses (60 foot radius blindsense) and make a mental note of where your enemies are... roughly.
Then cast spells with AoEs that include that area on the next round.
I wasn’t discussing mount rules at all, though that is an interesting take. But in that scenario the PC is the mount, and the snake is in charge, no?
Theoretically if you are a trained mount, yes; but I imagine more often using the independent mount rules.
I occasionally make use of this interaction when teleporting out of danger.
misty step is a spell that costs a bonus action to cast, but requires sight. I’ve used my action to see through a familiars senses to be able to teleport to a spot that the familiar can see. The spot still has to be within 30ft of my wizard.
this my help you teleport out of heavy obscurity, on the other side of walls you can’t see through, and around corners.
my wizard doesn’t have dark vision, and I’ve pretty much refused to take the spell to remedy that. Normal darkness and magical darkness can hinder me pretty effectively.
Are people actually insisting that tiny familiars cannot share the space of the PC?
"Sorry rat that lives in my pocket, I have a sudden intense need for personal space!"
This is fine with me, but if that snake isn't dying all the time you have an exceedingly generous DM.
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
Don't forget that the bit about not sharing space with another creature assumes both creatures are combatants and therefore need their space to fight effectively. This is one of those "ask your DM" things but it's not much of a stretch to let a tiny creature hide on your person if 1) it's not going to participate in combat and 2) you're willing to risk their safety (I hope you don't get fireballed.) Also, the DMG does have optional rules for climbing onto a large hostile creature so there is precedent for this (see chapter 9, Action Options, Climb onto a Bigger Creature.) If it works for a hostile creature it can work for a friendly one too.
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