Harzel
Adventurer
As if I hadn't aggravated my group's Wizard enough about Identify, it turns out that when he went to cast the Identify that sparked my previous thread, he wanted to cast it via his familiar (because there were dangerous creatures somewhat nearby). Sure enough, Find Familiar says that your familiar can deliver any spell that you cast with a range of 'touch' as if it had cast the spell itself as long as it is within 100 ft. of you.
Now most spells are 'unidirectional' - they have an effect on their target (or targeted area) and that's it. I have no problem with a familiar delivering such a spell. But Identify, of course, transmits information back to the caster, and I guess I have always viewed the physical act of touching the object to be identified as integral to that transmission. Still, there is a perfectly sane argument that the familiar is touching the object and can communicate telepathically with the caster, so why should this not work?
But even though I have been, I think, liberal with the telepathic communication business and the "see through your familiar's eyes" feature (not trying to gate information through how the familiar itself would perceive the world), this just felt like toooo much making the familiar a complete robo extension of the Wizard. So I said, sure the familiar can deliver the spell, but you won't get much information back. The ruling was accepted, the Wizard went himself, and everything turned out fine, but I think I have to admit it is a nerf, albeit a niche one.
So, what say you? Does it seem arbitrary? Does it seem unfair? Is it an unnecessary/petty imposition of my sense of how the world works?
Now most spells are 'unidirectional' - they have an effect on their target (or targeted area) and that's it. I have no problem with a familiar delivering such a spell. But Identify, of course, transmits information back to the caster, and I guess I have always viewed the physical act of touching the object to be identified as integral to that transmission. Still, there is a perfectly sane argument that the familiar is touching the object and can communicate telepathically with the caster, so why should this not work?
But even though I have been, I think, liberal with the telepathic communication business and the "see through your familiar's eyes" feature (not trying to gate information through how the familiar itself would perceive the world), this just felt like toooo much making the familiar a complete robo extension of the Wizard. So I said, sure the familiar can deliver the spell, but you won't get much information back. The ruling was accepted, the Wizard went himself, and everything turned out fine, but I think I have to admit it is a nerf, albeit a niche one.
So, what say you? Does it seem arbitrary? Does it seem unfair? Is it an unnecessary/petty imposition of my sense of how the world works?