You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: Bat, Cat, Frog, Hawk, Lizard, Octopus, Owl, Rat, Raven, Spider, Weasel, or another Beast that has a Challenge Rating of 0. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a Celestial, Fey, or Fiend (your choice) instead of a Beast. Your familiar acts independently of you, but it obeys your commands.
Telepathic Connection. While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as a Bonus Action, you can see through the familiar’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses it has.
Finally, when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the touch. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must take a Reaction to deliver the touch when you cast the spell.
Combat. The familiar is an ally to you and your allies. It rolls its own Initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal.
Disappearance of the Familiar. When the familiar drops to 0 Hit Points, it disappears. It reappears after you cast this spell again. As a Magic action, you can temporarily dismiss the familiar to a pocket dimension. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As a Magic action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you. Whenever the familiar drops to 0 Hit Points or disappears into the pocket dimension, it leaves behind in its space anything it was wearing or carrying.
One Familiar Only. You can’t have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new eligible form.
* - (burning incense worth 10+ GP, which the spell consumes)
No more brass brazier required! Sad the earlier version of zero hit points once no longer unsummoning it didn't stick.
" another Beast that has a Challenge Rating of 0 " does not include a size restriction. Does Find Familiar now allow you to create a mountable summon?
7 STR gives a Carrying Capacity:105 lb. which suggests that a level 1 Small character could ride their Medium Vulture.
Restricting to just the Free Rules 2024 Beasts, the CR 0 Medium Goat could be a mount for a Small character.
Amused at the thought of a party of Small Sages bounding across the field on Fiendish deer or riding across an ocean on Celestial Seals.
Brilliant!
That is suuuuch a cool visual. Would definitely have to allow it for aesthetics alone.
Giant Fly from the 2014 DMG would have a carrying capacity of 420 and is size large. Very thematic for a Warlock with Pact of the Chain. When you land, a single magic action turns it into an Imp. Thanks for the ideas!
Also has 19 HP and 11 AC, so with its 60 ft fly speed (still 30 walking), it is easily now one of the most survivable familiar options on top of being a viable mount for any PC.
If your party uses "Acquisitions Incorporated" or "Waterdeep: Dungeon Of The Mad Mage", either of those include HUGE beasts that qualify (Onyx and Haungharassk, respectively)!
Other new options of note for mounts (other than Giant Fly): Deer, Hyena, Vulture, & Goat are all medium. Of those, Goat has speed of 40 ft with 30 ft climb, vulture has 50 ft fly, and the others have 50 ft walk. Their carrying capacities are vulture has 105 lbs and the rest (Goat/Deer/Hyena) get 165 lbs. Goat is the only one with darkvision (again, excluding the fly), and Deer has the highest AC possible for a familiar (as far as I can tell) at 13.
Honestly, I see reasons to try ALL of them!
Giant Fly would be the best mount for this spell. Can carry 2 medium sized PCs.
* - (burning incense worth 10+ GP, which the spell consumes)
A block of incense is worth 1 silver......does this mean you need 100 blocks of incense to cast this spell?
A spell focus only covers material costs of spells that are NOT consumed by the spell, which this spell does consume.
The only listing on D&D beyond for incense is that link I put up or the actual block of incense page, which doesn't even have a cost. Do most DM's ignore this?
I don't see the During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses part anymore under the Telephatic Connection ability. Does this mean this isn't the case anymore?
I often just have them go to a spellcaster's or cleric's shop and say they sell high-end incense or something similar.
Correct, that is not the case anymore in the 2024 rules. That concept has also been removed from several other things that used to have it (e.g. the Warlock invocation "Gaze of Two Minds").
"Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever." What happens when you do this? Does the spirit/animal become a normal animal of the existing plane? Or does it just disappear into the abyss?
Familiars are always a spirit summoned from another plane of existence, be it Celestial, Fey, or Fiend. What it means is that there is no upkeep cost to keep it summoned, but if you so wish, you can dismiss it back to its plane of existence for...whatever reason if you so desire, instead of the temporary pocket dimension which would allow you to not need to do the full casting again to re-summon it. Basically, it's there as a "just in case" though I assume most people would not have a reason to do this.
If a familiar is uncalled or killed, and the caster uses the find familiar spell again, would the familiar retain its memories or be considered seperate?
Familiars a fey, celestials, of fiends. Presumably the spirits aren't changing types, so the old one goes back to it's native plane and a new one comes along of whatever kind you choose.
I don't see anything about the caster being on another plane of existence. Could I cast it and leave it out while I go into the pocket realm of a Rope Trick? Or a Genie Warlock's bottle dimension? The ability to put it into its own pocket dimension implies that this should work just fine. Obviously you'd need to be on the same plane to use the senses ability, so couldn't spy from the Rope Trick pocket dimension, but could, say, a Genie warlock with a ring for a vessel pop into their realm inside their vessel, have the familiar sneak the ring into someplace, then pop out?
My player is trying to use Pact of the Chain Find Familiar to use magical items. Can Familiars even use items?
A familiar like a Raven can fulfill the verbal components of magic items due to mimikry. Albeit most familiars have the issue of hands to wield items. They can short rest potentially so really DM fiat in part there. Old Adventurers League ruling made it so you share the total 3 attunement of the master and the familiar (or otherwise if higher).
Yes, all of those things are possible. There's no restriction on how far away the familiar can be from you in general. You just have no way to directly communicate with it if it's farther than 100 feet, barring some other ability.
As a DM, when a spell does this I just understand it to mean a ‘higher quality’ version of the base item that meets that cost. It’s kind of like how some spells require a Diamond of different values
theres regular incense blocks for one Silver Piece, but there’s also really high quality incense they sell over at a wizard’s spell supply emporium for just this purpose that costs 10 gold