Whose perception to use when seeing through a familiar's eyes?

[Heliomance]

A friend of mine's DMing a 5e game, and asked me to post a rules query for him, regarding a player who he suspects is trying to get away with more than he should:


Basics are this

He took variant human and Observant feat so he gets a +5 to his passive perception and passive investigation

He then dipped into Wizard to get the Find Familiar spells and took an owl

Owl has advantage on Perception checks

which equates to a +5 to passive checks

and he is allowed to see through its eyes

making his passive perception 24

so unsneakupable on

thing is my other players find this quite OP

and from the text I think he is reading it so that he gets all the advantages

as it says he "sees through the familiars eyes" surely he would use its perception

So my basic question is "does the observant feat carry through familiars eyes?"

and should he use his perception or the familiars

[Theodoxus]

Couple things of note:
1) This is a DM ruling, you won't find hard fast rules to help adjudicate - and the 1st rule I use to adjudicate is if something is just annoying or is it detrimental to everyone's enjoyment (my own included).
2) The "see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears" has a couple of issues. 1st, it requires an action to do, and 2nd, it lasts only a single round.

So, even if the DM decides that it's ok, your Observant Wizard friend is spending every round of every day, using an action to meld with his Owl's senses. Sure, he can describe what he sees to his companions, but other than reactions and a few bonus actions, he's SOL if he tries to use the 120' darkvision to get the jump on some critters in the dark - he'll know where they are, but he'll be effectively blind once his sensory meld ends and he'll be at Disad to attack, potentially foiling any surprise round he managed to obtain.

Now, to how I would adjudicate the question specifically.

So, the specific paragraph in question with Find Familiar is this:

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.

So, you gain the benefits of any special senses the familiar has [Darkvision and Advantage on Perception checks that rely on sight]. However, you are simultaneously blind with regard to your own senses. That's important. I'd rule that Observant is part of your senses; it's using your highly tuned senses to gain a 'spidey' sense of your surroundings. Merging with your bird denies you that sense.

So, for passive perception, while looking through your Owl's eyes, you're looking at an 18 passive perception - I wouldn't allow the player to substitute his Wis or Proficiency bonus, as I'd rule that's also part of his senses, not the owls. 18 is pretty darn good on it's own, and it has a range of 120' in darkness...

But this is of course, just my ruling. Your DM will need to concede on their own how to proceed.

[Nod_Hero]

Now, to how I would adjudicate the question specifically.

So, the specific paragraph in question with Find Familiar is this:

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.

So, you gain the benefits of any special senses the familiar has [Darkvision and Advantage on Perception checks that rely on sight]. However, you are simultaneously blind with regard to your own senses. That's important. I'd rule that Observant is part of your senses; it's using your highly tuned senses to gain a 'spidey' sense of your surroundings. Merging with your bird denies you that sense.

So, for passive perception, while looking through your Owl's eyes, you're looking at an 18 passive perception - I wouldn't allow the player to substitute his Wis or Proficiency bonus, as I'd rule that's also part of his senses, not the owls. 18 is pretty darn good on it's own, and it has a range of 120' in darkness...

But this is of course, just my ruling. Your DM will need to concede on their own how to proceed.


100% agreement, this is how it goes at my table.