Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
So, weird thing I've encountered since theorycrafting around this spell. I'd been having a tough time finding a proper definition in D&D rules for Features and Statistics after seeing this. The closest thing I can find is the Rules Glossary definition of a Stat Block which "contains the game statistics of a monster". This same section goes onto list pretty much everything on a statblock, of course, including Speeds, Traits, Actions, etc. But I'm having problems with something seemingly obvious because Find Familiar says "You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose", and "the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a Celestial, Fey, or Fiend (your choice) instead of a Beast." which in my mind means you aren't summoning just an animal with a fancy Creature Type.
The Find Familiar spell is giving this spirit this stat block, because you, the person casting the spell, "told" the spell to give it. It cannot change form on its own without casting the spell again. "If you cast this spell while you have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new eligible form." It can be argued that means that the spell grants this entire stat block to the spirit, Features and all. Meanwhile Battle Familiar overrides Find Familiar with its own stat block to a point, but specifies it "retains its creature type, alignment, Hit Points, Hit Point Dice, and any features granted by the Find Familiar spell."
Wouldn't that mean Battle Familiars would actually retain things like Actions, or Traits of the original familiar? Or am I reading into the spells wrong somehow? It feels like a bad faith reading on my part considering what the consensus I've seen seems to be, but I've been trying to come up with actual textual sources to the contrary on my own and failing.
The battle familiar statblock replaces the familiar statblock entirely. Treat it like Polymorph.
What you retain is the features granted by find familiar, and any abilities that apply to your familiar. ie, all the familiar feats still treat it as your familiar. And you can still use its senses with a bonus action, or send it to a pocket demiplane, because find familiar lets you do those things.
I suppose the thing I am getting stuck on was the wording of Find Familiar very much implies it is a type of combination summoning and transformation at least on the second casting of the spell.
While 5.5e does not specifically say that it is treated as Shapeshifted despite repeated castings saying that it "adopts" a "new" eligible form, Polymorph also calls it's own transformation a creature's "new" form. I'm mainly directing this towards 5.5e of course, so this is admittedly somewhat less relevant, but at the risk of involving two different versions of the game at once, 5e's Find Familiar even uses the phrase after a similar adoption line "Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature."
Therefore, Find Familiar permanently "polymorphs" a spirit, at the time of summoning, or an already summoned Familiar into what you have chosen its form to be, until it either dies, or the spell is cast once more. Any Features it has after the spell is cast that it did not already possess are, like something transformed by Polymorph, granted to it by the Find Familiar spell. Much like Polymorph mechanically grants the target the ability to use a Giant Ape's Boulder Toss Feature, or to make it a closer comparison, a Cat's Jumper Trait. This happens because a spell granted it these Statistics, and therefore, Features. The cause of what the spell allows you to do with a Familiar, and what a Familiar can do are the same thing.
This recent thread about the spell might be useful for you: Battle Familiar and Pact of the Chain
I did see this thread, but I didn't want to potentially muddy the waters by involving a class feature and discussing whether or not Chain's enhanced Familiars still count as something granted by the Find Familiar spell. I think it would, but without looking into better evidence that's more based on Rule of Cool and the idea of still being your spell being the delivery mechanism.
Then you'd have to do things like decide whether a Sphinx of Wonder's Rend attack can get the benefits of Battle Familiar's Multiattack because it says "Rend" can be used more than once. You'd have two attacks with the same name. Feels way more speculative and up to how certain tables play.
Enhanced familiar is a choice of stat block. It's granted by the Find Familiar spell, but it's not a feature of the spell. The statblock gets replaced just like the regular forms' statblocks do. ie, a bat familiar loses blindsight and flying when it becomes a battle familiar. It stops being a bat, and becomes a battle familiar. Similarly, the sphinx of wonder stops being a sphinx of wonder.
You do keep the ability to use an attack to let your battle familiar make an attack as a reaction. That's a feature gained through the find familiar spell for chain pact warlocks.
Something like Xanathar's Guide's Summon Lesser Demons on the other hand, isn't as responsible for these stats, as it directly summons these demons from the Abyss, as stated at the beginning of the spell. There is no intermediary spirit, nor transformation involved. It manages what is summoned, and its behavior afterwards, but does not grant these demons Features.
No, a monster statblock contains traits, not features.
The glossary definition of Traits on this very website defines them as a type of Feature. I made sure to check before making this thread to begin with.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/rules-glossary#StatBlock
"Traits. The monster’s traits, if any, are features that are active at all times or in certain situations."
@Aidal Not sure if this is going to help you, but I recalled a person sharing the link https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/138783/what-all-is-included-in-a-creatures-game-statistics in What exactly counts as Game Startiscs or Stat Block?. That information is for 5e, but I'd say it's pretty similar to 5.5 or at least enough to understand what is replaced with Battle Familiar.
And maybe Shapechange: What's the line between spellcasting and class features/feats? can give you more context related to stat blocks as well.
This is part of the main issue, yeah. There's enough references to statistics and Features and things like this within other definitions to get a good sense of what they are, but there's little direct clarification on what it is within the books themselves. The glossary or some other Book like the Monster Manual should have a definition of what a Feature is, but doesn't. It instead identifies various things as Features, drawing a bunch of lines to what seems to be a blank spot. It's something I never realized until getting into the details of this spell.
Having to reevaluate everything I thought I knew already, the conclusion I came to is that statistics are basically "everything" a Monster or Character can do, including Ability Scores, Skill Proficiencies, Resistances, Senses, and the like, as detailed within the stat block. Features meanwhile, are the specific lines of text that denote specific things like Attacks, Spellcasting, or Traits. All Features are a a part of Statistics, but not all Statistics are Features.
I mean, i think in this case we need to separate features you get with respect to your familiar (you keep those), and the familiar itself (which is completely replaced by the Battle Familiar statblock).
That's what I think as well. And in that respect Find Familiar pretty much gives owner most of the abilities within. If I'm not missing something, this is the division of what the spell provides.
What You Get: Commanding it for free, Telepathy within 100ft, a Bonus Action to see through it, the ability to Dismiss it or make it reappear.
Shared: Delivering a spell of yours through them as a Reaction
What the Familiar Gets: The entire stat block, and a creature type of Fey, Celestial, or Fiend.
The key issue is trying to resolve exactly how much Find Familiar is responsible for. Battle Familiar would certainly replace Ability Scores, Speeds, and Skill Proficiencies, but if Find Familiar grants the spirit described in the spell every Feature it has, then they would not be replaced.
Those belong to the statblock, not the spell. "...your familiar's game statistics are replaced by the Battle Familiar stat block..." They're pretty explicitly replaced, as they're part of the statblock.
The "features granted by the Find Familiar spell" are any features specifically spelled out in the Find Familiar spell, or any features explicitly triggered by summoning a familiar with the Find Familiar spell.
That latter category includes any familiar feat features, this line from Pact of the Chain: "Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack of its own with its Reaction.", and the Investment of the Chain Master features.
I feel that's circling back to old ground where the answer is that the Features within the stat block are provided to it by Find Familiar, but to bring up another question I just realized, where is it said that the bullet points within the Find Familiar spell even are Features to begin with? Do other, similar spells list them as such anywhere? Are Features within Features a thing? Skimming various Class Features seems to describe these individual clauses as benefits. The spell Sylune's Viper does the same thing, as does Protection from Evil and Good, though that one doesn't do bolded bullet points.
Spellcasting is a Feature, and certain Features allow you to use Spells, like other Eldritch Invocations, as defined in both, but I actually don't know for sure if individual spells are, much less individual abilities/effects inside of it. The Glossary only says that Spells are a magical effect. The Basic Rules say Spells are given by Features. If they aren't, then Battle Familiar's Feature Retention text does nothing in any circumstance, if the Features in a Familiar's stat block don't get to be retained.
As for things like Pact of the Chain, or Investment of the Chain Master, those are what I'd consider to be Features that interact with the spell, or the Familiar specifically. A Battle Master Fighter doesn't give the Rogue a whole new Feature just because they used their Commander's Strike on them for another attack that also uses a Reaction, like Chain. Side note, I also don't see anything considering individual Maneuvers as Features in their own right.
How much clearer do you need it to be that the statblock is replaced? "...your familiar's game statistics are replaced by the Battle Familiar stat block..."
Even if you consider the aspects of the statblock 'features granted by the find familiar spell' (which they really aren't, they're features granted by the statblock), specific overrides general here, and those are specifically replaced.
Technically, they are "class features".
IMO, when the rules use "game feature(s)" or "features", they can include a variety of things: class features, species traits, feats, abilities... This is from the 5e DMG:
By looking at how Battle Familiar layers onto an existing pet, you actually uncover a brilliant tactical synergy for your character. When you cast the spell over a traditional find familiar pet, your familiar doesn't lose its core identity; instead, it receives a massive protective buffer of temporary hit points equal to the battle familiar's stat block. This means your fragile utility pet—like an owl or an imp—can suddenly dive into the thick of combat without instantly vaporizing from a stray AoE or enemy attack.
Even better, because the spell explicitly allows your familiar to retain all features granted by Find Familiar, you keep vital utility traits like telepathic communication, shared senses, and the ability to deliver touch spells. Meanwhile, it gains the standardized, scaling Rend attacks and maneuverability of the battle familiar form. This transforms your regular pet from a purely out-of-combat scout into a resilient, independent combat participant that still retains its magical utility toolkit.
Ultimately, this rules interaction rewards meticulous reading by giving you the best of both worlds without breaking the action economy. You get a scaling offensive threat that acts on its own initiative, paired with the irreplaceable scouting and spell-delivery mechanics of a classic familiar. It is a stellar option for wizards, warlocks, or druids looking to maximize their action economy safely and efficiently.