So I got an idea. If a bard had, for example, drums, or any sort of small instrument, could a familiar play it somehow and still let you cast a spell somehow? For example, a bard got the magnificent idea to teach his small animal to play the drum. He pulls out his drums and his familiar (lets say cat for simplicity) bangs on them with its paws or whatever. Fast forward to when it was trained, bard wants to cast a spell, so his familiar starts playing the drum. Can he cast it?
As in, does a familiar interacting with a spellcasting focus negate the need for a caster to be holding that focus when casting Material component spells? No. Not for any casters or any foci, including a bard and musical instrument. If the cat has the focus then the cat is trying to cast the spell, not the bard. It's not the music coming from the instrument that is the focus power for the bard, it is the holding or touching of the instrument with their hand.
It's definitely inventive, and I would welcome it being attempted in one of my games in some weird situation where the bard was tied up and the cat got to the drum and something. There'd be an Arcana check involved to channel the power and we'd all cheer if it worked. But any attempt to use one-off inventiveness to permanently bypass the weapon-shield-focus trade-off would be denied.
I think you are thinking of foci wrong. They are not components that must be present in order to cast magic, they are tools casters use to manipulate the weave to cast spells.
Your basically asking if giving a drill to a trained monkey will let you poke holes in wood with your finger.
I do appreciate the role play elements of your scenario though. And since find familiar let's your familiar channel touch spells, you could make it seem as though you had tought an animal to cast spells.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So I got an idea. If a bard had, for example, drums, or any sort of small instrument, could a familiar play it somehow and still let you cast a spell somehow? For example, a bard got the magnificent idea to teach his small animal to play the drum. He pulls out his drums and his familiar (lets say cat for simplicity) bangs on them with its paws or whatever. Fast forward to when it was trained, bard wants to cast a spell, so his familiar starts playing the drum. Can he cast it?
Extended Signature! Yay! https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/3153-extended-signature-thread?page=2#c21
Haven’t used this account in forever. Still a big fan of crawling claws.
As in, does a familiar interacting with a spellcasting focus negate the need for a caster to be holding that focus when casting Material component spells? No. Not for any casters or any foci, including a bard and musical instrument. If the cat has the focus then the cat is trying to cast the spell, not the bard. It's not the music coming from the instrument that is the focus power for the bard, it is the holding or touching of the instrument with their hand.
It's definitely inventive, and I would welcome it being attempted in one of my games in some weird situation where the bard was tied up and the cat got to the drum and something. There'd be an Arcana check involved to channel the power and we'd all cheer if it worked. But any attempt to use one-off inventiveness to permanently bypass the weapon-shield-focus trade-off would be denied.
I think you are thinking of foci wrong. They are not components that must be present in order to cast magic, they are tools casters use to manipulate the weave to cast spells.
Your basically asking if giving a drill to a trained monkey will let you poke holes in wood with your finger.
I do appreciate the role play elements of your scenario though. And since find familiar let's your familiar channel touch spells, you could make it seem as though you had tought an animal to cast spells.