Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7831977" data-attributes="member: 6677017">Jeremy Crawford is the authoritative rules source...but he doesn't always agree with himself. He also almost always just states what he thinks RAW say, rather than any sort of implications of what that means, or even what the written intent was.For instance, if we were to ask, "Does the 'Variant: Familiars' box in the MM imply that the spell find familiar is somehow used to gain those variant familiars?", Mr. Crawford would likely respond with something like:"The find familiar spell lists the familars it grants in its description. The variant in the MM specifies familiars that the DM might grant an NPC with access to the find familiar spell."If we were lucky, he might respond to a further question with:"By default, the find familiar spell isn't used to bond variant familiars. A DM might decide to allow PCs or NPCs to gain the benefits of the find familiar spell with a variant familiar, but this would be a house-rule."Early in the edition, Jeremy Crawford's tweets were really useful. At this point, he has pretty much covered the vast majority of questions about the PHB (sometimes reversing his rulings), and therefore his answers are less useful.The basic premise I'm coming from is creating a consistent world. If all you get with a pseudodragon "familiar" is the boxed text, all you're going to have is a dead pseudodragon pretty quickly. It is both more reasonable, and more consistent with the "Variant: Familiars" box in the NPC section at the back, to allow the find familiar spell to bind that pseudodragon as a real familiar. This is induction here, not deduction. In 5e you have to use induction, because there is often not a clear chain of valid logic connecting the rules elements. That AL certificate is a precedent (not a rule) that supports this ruling. Since it works for both PCs and NPCs, there is little downside to allowing it to work that way in a campaign. It's kind of funny how I seem to find myself on opposite sides of the player empowerment / DM empowerment discussion depending on the particular issue. This is an issue where I'm firmly in the camp that a player ought to be able to have that sort of option.</blockquote>

Verification