D&D 5E Find Familiar Questions

[Gilladian]

I would fully expect certain types of monsters to smash any spider they see. Orcs or goblins, for example, might easily grab any spider they see, pull the legs off it, and have a tasty snack. Human cultists would probably just step on it, or smack it with gloved fist. I have a friend who is absolutely bonkers about spiders. She'd smash every one, even if it was an eighth of an inch across, and even if there were dozens of them. Except she'd never GO there, to begin with.

Also, the "thing that eats spiders" would be a problem in many caves and natural environments. Even just other spiders.

However, it is also a fair use of a familiar. Just remember that a quick scout of a room by a nonhuman creature isn't going to reveal everything, and may reveal totally useless things. "There are three humanoids in the room. What are they? Ummm... I don't know the difference between orcs and elves!" and "wow, I had no idea that round thingy floating in the corner was a monster! It didn't shoot rays at me!" And "there are two clouds of fruit flies, sixteen cracks in the floor large enough for me to hide inside, and five suspicious holes in the wall where predators could lurk. How big? Ummm... big enough to eat me!".

 

[Paraxis]

The wizard can see and hear through the familiar so there is no misunderstanding that the thing in the corner is a beholder and you know the difference between elves and orcs.

Why is everyone's first instinct to limit the players, just roll with it.

 

[Falling Icicle]

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.

Wait, what? I don't know about the spiders where you live, but the ones I find in my house are capable of truly terrifying speeds, especially once they realize that you're trying to smash them with your shoe.

 

[Archade]

Um, with 1 hp and no ability attack, what good would a spider familiar be without the option for scouting? I think that's the whole point ...

 

[Riley37]

While this is cool every now and then, after awhile it will get old as nothing will be a surprise.

So, there's lots of points to make which are specific to spiders, and where spiders can go, and the presence of spider-eating predators, and recasting Find Familiar and so forth.

Not to mention spider-pigs.

But I think this particular quote is the deeper issue. This point applies to other methods, such as a raven familiar in an urban or woods setting, such as a PC scouting while Invisible and/or in Wild Shape, such as any of the scrying spells.

Same issue can come up in Shadowrun with mechanical drones or astral scouting, or in a superhero RPG if a character has N-ray vision. (Literal X-ray vision: "it's dark, since there's no source of X-rays near you.")

How much is the player's enjoyment increased or decreased by tactical surprises?
How much is your enjoyment as DM increased or decreased by tactical surprises?

Are all of your sessions dungeon-crawls? Are the players always on the tactical offense? (That is, they are setting the pace, because they are entering someone else's lair?)

What other forms of surprise happen in your sessions, such as traps, illusions, NPCs betraying PCs or otherwise not being what they seem, sudden weather changes, foes having and using an unexpected magic item, goblins riding wolves which turn out to be werewolves (and who are giving orders to the goblin tribe), and so forth?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Why is everyone's first instinct to limit the players, just roll with it.

Our first instinct to question the activity was because the OP's post made it seem like it was (or was going to be) an issue for them... a monotonous, uninteresting, "we're never going to be surprised by anything ever again" issue. If I had gotten a sense from his post that what they were doing was a boon for their group I might've responded differently. But since SilverBulletKY came off as questioning (if not actually bothered) by their actions, I made it a point to question the tactics that were leading to this issue, and whether the DM was being far more lenient in how he was ruling the use of the familiar.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I think if you dont like all this scouting of a familiar, you shoudl rule that it looks spirit like (but in the form chosen). That's actually how I read the spell, but on closer inspection I see it's quite vague about actual appearance.

So it might be ghostlike in appearance, or having faintly glowing eyes, or whatever. But the idea is, if an enemy spots it, they know there is something funny about that spider. So still a great chance or remaining hidden etc when scouting, but if it is spotted, there will be consequences. I think that would achieve a good balance of usefulness and risk/meaningful choice about whether to send him scouting all the time.

Another option - how far can a spider see, anyway?

 

[SilverBulletKY]

It probably won't that big of an issue going forward as shut doors and things like that will prevent the spider from going through but they're heading to Wave Echo Cave next and I was just thinking about what would happen in there. I like the idea of still rolling a perception check and if the monsters pass it, then they do notice something strange about the spider and attack it, otherwise he gets the use of the scout.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Keep in mind that Familiars are dumb. Really dumb. Int scores of 1, 2, or 3. The DM should roleplay that level of intelligence. "How many creatures are in the next room?" should get a reply of "none", "some", or "lots", not a precise number. Familiars will probably include livestock or mounts when answering that question, and exclude anything that it wouldn't recognize as being alive (like undead, incorporeals, elementals and such). They'll have trouble differentiating between individuals. They have a very limited vocabulary and won't recognize most objects. And they're not robots: they'll get distracted, get scared, etc. They gossip. They preen. Maybe they like to collect things. They have the mentality and personality of a toddler or, well, an animal.

The special familiars are much smarter and can give better intel, but they also have more refined and particular desires, even agendas. A player can get perfect 1:1 intel by seeing through the familiar's senses, but that comes with the cost of being deaf and blind.

Point being: the DM can dial up the cost of use. I don't mean the DM should punish the player or nullify the benefit of the spell. I do mean the DM should discourage use of the familiar as a dumb R.O.V / drone.

Re: monsters spotting the familiar: consider using two checks. One to notice it at all, and another (probably Int (Nature) or Wis (Nature)) to recognize it as behaving oddly. In a magical world, some monsters would be on watch for possible Familiars. But others wouldn't even know such a thing as a magical servitor animal exists. Those monsters would just react with "Hey guys, check out this weird bug."

 

[Paraxis]

The familiar is like a drone, it obeys your commands and as an action you can see through it's eyes and hear through it's ears. It doesn't have to tell you things are living or undead or how many there are you see the room the spider just crawled into, sorta like a camera on a drone. If the little dumb animal starts acting up like a toddler you command it to do what you want.