D&D 5E Find Familiar Questions

[SilverBulletKY]

So a spell caster casts find familiar and creates a spider. Last session, basically nothing was a surprise and he just crawled the spider in to the areas and reported back what he saw so the group was ready for anything. While this is cool every now and then, after awhile it will get old as nothing will be a surprise. You may say to have the enemies attack the spider. The spider has a +4 to stealth, but even if the enemies in the another room noticed it, what are the odds that they'll attack the spider, especially if it's in a cavern where spiders would be fairly common?

 

[DEFCON 1]

How far away was the group when he sent the spider walking ahead? Assuming the party stayed so far back from encounter areas that they had no chance of being heard... based on its size alone a spider would take *forever* to actually travel down all these hallways scouting ahead, seeing what was going on, and then returning to the party. Did the DM really let them take 10 to 30 minutes in between rooms as they waited for this 3" bug to skitter down dozens of feet of corridor and back?

If I was the DM and this became a monotonous issue... I'd have a lot more wandering monsters walking around to notice the party sitting on their hands waiting for this "scout" of theirs to return room after room after room.

 

[Paraxis]

The spider can just sit on the stealthy characters shoulder as he walks ahead like normal and where he would listen to the door the spider just crawls under the door and scouts the room. The spider doesn't have to walk down all the halls by himself, but if he did it's speed is 20 so not that much slower than the party especially if they have heavy armor wearers or small races.

Use of familiars either innocuous ones like spiders or the warlocks invisible ones for scouting is just part of the game.

 

[MasterTrancer]

In an environment where spiders abound, the same may hold true for whatever feeds on the same spiders.

Alternatively, it should take a lot to explore as a tiny critter.

 

[PnPgamer]

What if there is no way a spider can get there?
What if the spider doesn't want to go there?

 

[Paraxis]

What if there is no way a spider can get there?

That might work in some situations but not most, spiders get into peoples homes and businesses all the time even in our modern age of well fitted doors and windows.

What if the spider doesn't want to go there?

Don't think it has a choice, there is that line about it always obeying your commands for one and the threat of a good shoe squish as another reason the little useful guy does what you say.

More DM's need to learn to work with creative use and abuse of player abilities instead of trying to stop it and say "No" all the time. Trust me the more you work with your players and the more you say "Yes" the better the game for everyone will be, remember this isn't a competition it is a collaboration.

 

[PnPgamer]

Yes, those small spiders that can fit on your fingertip. The spider we are talking about is the size of a palm, if not even bigger.

 

[Kaychsea]

The spider we are talking about is the size of a palm, if not even bigger.

In that case expect anyone who does see it to scream like a girl and demand the wizard fireball it. Especially if it's on their shoulder.

 

[PnPgamer]

In that case expect anyone who does see it to scream like a girl and demand the wizard fireball it. Especially if it's on their shoulder.

Same could be said of a bat, a rat, homunculus, imp... Bunnies usually are spared.

 

[Rune]

Regarding spider-speed: some of those things can cover a lot of ground very quickly.

As for size, I'd think the smaller, the better, to a limit. But be prepared to cast find familiar again, because something will try to eat it.


(I'd like to se a spider-wizard with a pig-familiar, though. Maybe if I start up my fable game again.)