Speak with Familiars?

[Mr. Crowbar]

Can Speak with Animals be used to allow Familiars to verbally communicate, or would the spell fail? Are there any other means that would allow a familiar to speak with other party members if it normally couldn't?

For the specific case, I'm introducing a Raven Queen warlock with the sentinel raven swapped for a Treesym (flying cat) to a Nature Cleric who's been itching to use Speak with Animals whenever she can, and I don't think the player knows what familiars are. I do expect Speak with Animals would fail, but now I'm legit curious if there's any other way for an animal-like familiar to talk to other party members, outside of the warlock improved familiar invocation. It would totally be a cat thing to meow for the duration of the spell, then talk well after the duration ended.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Can Speak with Animals be used to allow Familiars to verbally communicate, or would the spell fail?

The spell doesn't fail (its range is Self), but it doesn't let you speak to familiars because they aren't beasts. A familiar is a fey, a fiend or a celestial.


Are there any other means that would allow a familiar to speak with other party members if it normally couldn't?

Yes. The spell Tongues does exactly this.

[Millstone85]

The spell doesn't fail (its range is Self), but it doesn't let you speak to familiars because they aren't beasts. A familiar is a fey, a fiend or a celestial.Annoyingly, Sentinel Raven says nothing about the spirit being a fey, fiend or celestial.


Yes. The spell Tongues does exactly this.I am not sure. Tongues lets a creature understand what it hears and be understood when it speaks, but it doesn't give a creature the ability to speak in the first place.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Annoyingly, Sentinel Raven says nothing about the spirit being a fey, fiend or celestial.

I am not sure. Tongues lets a creature understand what it hears and be understood when it speaks, but it doesn't give a creature the ability to speak in the first place.

I will concede that I haven't read the Raven Queen thing, but if it uses the word 'familiar' anywhere in there, that makes it an extraplanar spirit in my book.

And whether 'animal noises' counts as speech for the purposes of Tongues may be DM's call, but I'd definitely feel hard done by if someone ruled that it didn't. It's a 3rd level spell!

[Millstone85]

I will concede that I haven't read the Raven Queen thing, but if it uses the word 'familiar' anywhere in there, that makes it an extraplanar spirit in my book.I hadn't noticed it before, but the word "familiar" does not appear anywhere in that UA.

You "gain the service of a spirit" that "assumes the form and game statistics of a raven", which sounds a lot like a familiar. But the feature should probably be read without any preconception from Find Familiar.


And whether 'animal noises' counts as speech for the purposes of Tongues may be DM's call, but I'd definitely feel hard done by if someone ruled that it didn't. It's a 3rd level spell!I can see a spell meant to communicate with beasts and a spell meant to break the language barrier being treated as two different things, regardless of level. But yeah, it is a DM's call.

[Dalebert]

Tongues says "when the target speaks" which means the creature still has to speak. It doesn't grant it the ability to speak if it can't already. it just causes other creatures to understand it if and when it speaks.

Also keep in mind most familiars aren't intelligent enough for speech even if they were somehow physically capable of it.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Tongues says "when the target speaks" which means the creature still has to speak. It doesn't grant it the ability to speak if it can't already. it just causes other creatures to understand it if and when it speaks.

That's what I mean though: when an animal makes noises (e.g. a cat meows), that's voice-based communication, which I would rule as 'speech'.

Granted the animal isn't trying to say anything deep or insightful, but that's going to be a stumbling block for *any* method that does what the OP wants. Short of Awaken, at least.

[scalyfreak]

Maybe not, but all pet owners know that companion animals make an effort to try and communicate with their humans, at least when they want something. If that counts as speaking, then presumably tongues would enable you to actually understand what the dog/cat/ferret is saying rather than just try to infer it from clues in the animal's behavior when it begins to beg you for treats.

I note the spell says nothing about making the creature it is cast on either sentient or wise... presumably if I was to cast it on my cat, I'd gain the ability to understand her speak about the things she cares about, in the way she thinks about them.

And that's kind of frightening, to be honest. It's a cat.

[Honest Tiefling]

If Tressym are like previous editions, yeah, they don't speak, lack of lips and all.

I can understand some frustration at Tongues not working in this instance, as it is a 3rd level spell. I personally would rule that it would only work on languages, but things like Thieve's Cant are languages, tee hee.

However...Can't the nature cleric use Handle Animal? A bit of a stretch, but I'd use that to interpret meows and the like of the Tressym without the need for a spell. I think it is thematically appropriate.

[Dalebert]

Eh, animal handling is more of persuasion but for animals. I'd say understanding what an animal is trying to convey would be an insight check.