So in one of my games, the party leader - a bard - has a familiar. There was a bit of plot backstory to how this happened, but the important details is that his familiar started out as a normal kitten. That doesn't work well with the mechanics in 5th edition. Of course, we could simply handwave it, but that's not as satisfying.
I came up with this, which may be of use to others (if it isn't too complex and reliant on DM judgement for them):
Familiars are celestial, fey or fiendish spirits which form a bond with arcane casters. As cast today, the spell and ritual find familiar acts as a beacon for these minor spirits, ultimately forging a bond between the caster and a spirit with a strong affinity for their mindset. While the bond exists, the familiar may be summoned and dismissed, and the caster may later break the bond if they choose.
But this is not how the ritual is always cast. It can be - and indeed, may once have been exclusively - used to embody a small creature with some of the life force and spirit of the caster. When cast in this manner, the spell requires the presence of a Tiny beast of no more than CR 1/8. It also requires a focus that represents either the celestial, fey or infernal planes (at the choice of the caster). Stories tell of attempts to create familiars from larger or more powerful creatures, but it seems that such an act draws forth too much of the casters own spirit - the stories generally end in a dead wizard with no marks on their corpse and an occasional legend of a magical creature that seems far more intelligent than it should be.
The process is twofold - first, a link between the creature and the caster is created. Then, over this link, the caster invests the creature with a small portion of their life energy.
To create the link, the creature must be calm in the presence of the caster - a DC15 Wisdom(Animal Handling) check, which may be made with advantage if the caster has gained the trust of the creature beforehand. Any magic that affects the creatures mind will block the creation of the familiar bond, although use of such magic to gain the creature's friendship beforehand has no negative effect.
Once the link is in place, the creature is able to directly perceive the caster's mind, although its understanding may be limited. The caster has two choices at this point:
Checks may be retried, but after each failed check the link between caster and creature is broken and the creature must be calmed again before a new attempt may be made. This can take up to 20 minutes, depending on how badly the check failed.
If the check is a success the caster loses 1 point from their hit point maximum. This cannot be regained or prevented in any way short of dismissing the familiar. From this point onwards, the creature functions as a familiar as per the find familiar spell, with the following caveats:
I came up with this, which may be of use to others (if it isn't too complex and reliant on DM judgement for them):
Familiars are celestial, fey or fiendish spirits which form a bond with arcane casters. As cast today, the spell and ritual find familiar acts as a beacon for these minor spirits, ultimately forging a bond between the caster and a spirit with a strong affinity for their mindset. While the bond exists, the familiar may be summoned and dismissed, and the caster may later break the bond if they choose.
But this is not how the ritual is always cast. It can be - and indeed, may once have been exclusively - used to embody a small creature with some of the life force and spirit of the caster. When cast in this manner, the spell requires the presence of a Tiny beast of no more than CR 1/8. It also requires a focus that represents either the celestial, fey or infernal planes (at the choice of the caster). Stories tell of attempts to create familiars from larger or more powerful creatures, but it seems that such an act draws forth too much of the casters own spirit - the stories generally end in a dead wizard with no marks on their corpse and an occasional legend of a magical creature that seems far more intelligent than it should be.
The process is twofold - first, a link between the creature and the caster is created. Then, over this link, the caster invests the creature with a small portion of their life energy.
To create the link, the creature must be calm in the presence of the caster - a DC15 Wisdom(Animal Handling) check, which may be made with advantage if the caster has gained the trust of the creature beforehand. Any magic that affects the creatures mind will block the creation of the familiar bond, although use of such magic to gain the creature's friendship beforehand has no negative effect.
Once the link is in place, the creature is able to directly perceive the caster's mind, although its understanding may be limited. The caster has two choices at this point:
- Convey to the creature an honest oath that it will benefit equally from the partnership (a DC10 Charisma(Persuasion) check). Oaths such as this have some weight, and breaking such an oath (by mistreating the familiar or breaking the bond without good reason) may attract the attention of celestial, fey or fiendish entities (Some more powerful fey spirits consider themselves the guardians of beasts, and devils have been known to take a particular interest in mortal oathbreakers).
- Deceiving the creature as to the caster's intent. (A Charisma(Deception)against which the creature makes a Wisdom saving throw with advantage). A failure on this check by 10 or more will leave the creature with a clear idea (as much as its mind can hold) of the caster's intent, which may cause unexpected results (anything from the creature becoming terrified to accepting the bond)
Checks may be retried, but after each failed check the link between caster and creature is broken and the creature must be calmed again before a new attempt may be made. This can take up to 20 minutes, depending on how badly the check failed.
If the check is a success the caster loses 1 point from their hit point maximum. This cannot be regained or prevented in any way short of dismissing the familiar. From this point onwards, the creature functions as a familiar as per the find familiar spell, with the following caveats:
- If the caster used Persuasion
- The familiar becomes a celestial, fey or fiendish spirit
- The familiar is always able to be summoned in its original, natural shape, even if that is not on the list that find familiar usually provides
- If summoned in a form that the familiar has not experienced before, the familiar has disadvantage on all ability checks or saving throws (familiars cannot attack).
- The familiar can be trained in a new shapes from the set of forms available in the find familiar spell. To do this, the caster spends a short rest with the familiar, summoning it in the new shape and training it. Once this is done, the familiar may be summoned in that form without disadvantage.
- If the familiar is permanently dismissed, the creature loses its celestial, fey or fiendish nature and becomes a normal creature of its type. The caster regains the lost point from their hit point maximum.
- If the caster dies while the familiar is still bonded, it becomes a free celestial, fey or fiendish spirit. If the caster is not returned to life after a year, the familiar may respond to a normal casting of find familiar from another caster.
- If the caster is restored to life while the familiar is bonded to someone else, the familiar will break the newer bond and return to the caster.
