Find Familiar 5e Spell

A wizard leans on their gnarled staff, watching their familiar frolic and play with a contented smile on their face. Their party members grin, too, knowing just how useful a well-placed familiar can be, either on the battlefield or while they’re out exploring.

So, where did that familiar come from? The wizard likely cast Find Familiar 5e!

What is Find Familiar Spell 5e?

The text from the Player’s Handbook reads: “You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast.”

Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal.

When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again. As an action, you can temporarily dismiss the familiar to a pocket dimension. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 30 feet of you. Whenever the familiar drops to 0 hit points or disappears into the pocket dimension, it leaves behind in its space anything it was wearing or carrying.

While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.

You can’t have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature.

Finally, when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll.”

Find Familiar 5e Stats

Level	1
Casting Time	1 hour
Range/Area	10 feet
Class	Wizard, Warlock** & Others***
Components	Verbal, Somatic, Material*
Duration	Instantaneous
School	Conjuration
Attack/Save	None
Damage/Effect	Summoning

How Does Find Familiar Work?

You summon a spirit that takes a bestial form that you choose from the list in the spell’s text. Your familiar can function as a scout on its own or by allowing you access to its senses. For example, if your party needs to explore a dark cave, and no one has darkvision, using your familiar would allow you to have darkvision if you choose the right form.

Although your familiar can’t take the attack action in combat, there are plenty of ways it can still help distract enemies or provide a flanking advantage for other party members. However, none of the familiar forms have more than 1 or 2 hit points, and they all have relatively low ACs, so they won’t last long in battle.

For combat, the poisonous snake has the highest Armor Class at 13 and has 2 hit points, so it could be a contender. On the other hand, the owl has the Flyby feature, meaning that it can fly in and out of melee range without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Is Find Familiar 5e a Good Spell?

Find Familiar is an excellent spell, and we highly recommend it for anyone able to take it. Having a familiar around that you can telepathically speak to and peer through their senses makes for an invaluable scout or distraction in combat.

Which Classes Can Use Find Familiar?

Find Familiar is available to Wizards, although since it is a ritual spell, other spellcasters may be able to learn it through the Ritual Caster feat or the Pact of the Tome boon for Warlocks.