Greywander
2020-07-16, 07:42 PM
The Find Familiar spell is one that is shrouded in mystery. Sure, most of the mechanical effects are explained fairly clearly, but the fluff behind those mechanics is almost entirely absent. We know what the spell does, but not why it works that way. As we'll see later on (particularly with chainlocks), this causes us some problems when something isn't explained and we need to figure it out for ourselves. One of the big unanswered questions is...
What even is a familiar?
Now, it should be noted that you can also make a contract with an existing creature to be your familiar. However, despite any similarities, this uses completely different mechanics from the Find Familiar spell, and it's pretty clear that the fluff is different, too. The familiar you gain from Find Familiar has little to do with the familiars that are the result of contracts with a preexisting creature.
Even without definite answers, we can still speculate what exactly a familiar is.
Familiars are an extension of the caster
Your familiar is you, or a part of you. It may even contain a piece of your soul, which safely returns to you when the familiar dies or is dismissed (though creatures capable to stealing souls, such as a demilich, might pose a special danger to you). While the familiar initially appears to be a distinct and separate creature, with its own thoughts, desires, and personality, it actually shares a subconscious with you. This can produce some curious behavior. For example, your familiar might act aggressively toward a person you subconsciously distrust, even if you're not consciously aware of your misgivings toward that person. Your familiar might also act on your subconscious desires with less inhibition than yourself. A stoic and aloof elf might have a familiar that is playful and gregarious, for example.
Under this theory of the familiar, the logical conclusion is coming to a place where you perfectly harmonize with your familiar. The two of you become one, having one mind and acting in concert. Perhaps one way this could manifest might be permanently sharing your senses with one another, while retaining awareness of your own senses.
Familiars are the caster's genius
A genius is a personal guardian spirit. Everyone has one, wizards have just found a way to give their genius a physical form. This ends up similar to the above, but with one difference in that the genius actually is a distinct and separate entity, capable of having its own thoughts, desires, and personality without sharing a subconscious with you. Or not. It kind of depends on what exactly a genius is. But that's a whole other discussion, so for now we'll assume that it is a distinct entity. Rather than being a splinter of yourself, it acts more like a trusty partner or best friend. It also handily explains why you can only have one at a time: each person only has one genius.
One of the interesting consequences of having a genius is that it can explain a number of other curious mechanics. Perhaps the reason why, say, Fire Bolt can't set fire to equipment that is worn or carried is because your genius protects the gear immediately on your person, but anything farther away is beyond its ability to protect. The genius could also explain hit points, where your genius struggles to protect you from fatal blows and HP is a measure of its power.
Find Familiar enslaves a weak spirit and gives it physical form
Find Familiar says that you "gain the services of a familiar", and that it is a "celestial, fey, or fiend". Nothing is open and shut here, but one way of interpreting this is that the spell finds a weak celestial, fey, or fiendish spirit and compels it into your service. Find Familiar is only a 1st level spell, so it can only enslave a particularly weak spirit, so fittingly the spirit can only take particularly weak forms.
This has some interesting implications. Perhaps your familiar retains their own personality and desires, but the spell compels it to obey you. A fiendish familiar, for example, might still desire to corrupt you and to perform evil acts, but its will is entirely suppressed by the spell. Would they remember you if you dismissed them, and they later returned in a stronger form? Summoning a fiendish familiar might grab a random lemure and cause it to take whatever beast form you've chosen. But that lemure might get promoted to a stronger type of devil later, and come back for revenge.
When a familiar dies, it might be well and truly dead, forever. Each time you cast the spell, it might summon a completely different spirit. Each new familiar has no memory of you or your party. Familiars aren't beloved pets you can keep calling back, they are mere tools, to be used and then thrown away and replaced.
The logical conclusion of this theory is, first, that Find Familiar isn't a very nice spell, and second, that the goal is to eventually enslave a stronger creature. This would be a great segue into talking about chainlocks if I didn't have one more theory to discuss first.
Find Familiar creates the spirit
In a way, this is kind of a mix of all of the above. It's not really part of you, but the spirit is something you create with the spell. It's not a guardian spirit, but the parameters of its creation make it a loyal ally. The spirit is kind of enslaved, but more like it was never created with free will in the first place. Honestly, this seems an unlikely theory, as the ability to create spirits seems like it would be a powerful effect. There'd also be no reason you couldn't create more than one at a time.
Regardless, the possibility remains that the spell does create the familiar from nothing, and for whatever reason can't create more than one at a time, and can't be repurposed as a general "Create New Life" spell. This is perhaps the most mysterious possibility, and would raise even more questions if this was the truth.
Now how about those chainlocks?
Voice of the Chainmaster gives some pretty straightforward mechanical upgrades over the standard Find Familiar rules. There's nothing really mysterious about that invocation. Just getting that out of the way first.
Where chainlocks get mysterious is with the new forms that they can give their familiars. For example, a common argument I see, and have made myself, is that the chainlock's imp isn't a real imp, but rather a familiar spirit taking the form of an imp. This is why it won't try to corrupt you or betray you. But under the Enslavement theory, it might just be an actual, real imp. Or... is it? There might just be a loophole in the mechanics that can prove the familiar is, in fact, not a real imp.
The curious case of the celestial imp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0wg3t6osM)
Going back to the Find Familiar spell, it summons a spirit that take the form of a beast, but is considered a celestial, fey, or fiend rather than a beast. That last part is important, because none of the chainlock familiars are beasts. Is the fact that the imp is a fiend considered part of its stat block that overrides whatever choice of spirit you made? If you summon a fey spirit, but have it take the form of an imp, does it become a fiend? Or, can you override the familiar's creature type with your choice of celestial, fey, or fiend? Can you summon a celestial imp?
But more interesting than the imp is perhaps the pseudodragon, because it is neither beast nor celestial nor fey nor fiend. If you summon a pseudodragon as a familiar, there are three possibilities for what happens to its creature type:
The pseudodragon is always a dragon. You can't change its creature type.
The pseudodragon is never a dragon. You must choose between celestial, fey, or fiend.
The pseudodragon is sometimes a dragon. You can keep its existing creature type or override it with celestial, fey, or fiend.
If we go by strict RAW, only a beast type can be replaced with celestial, fey, or fiend, so the first option is the "correct" one. But this might only be because the original spell can only create a beast familiar. Perhaps it was intended that chainlock familiars could also have their creature types replaced, and they just forgot to write it into the pact description. However one would have thought there'd be some errata, or at least a Sage Adv- Oh. (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/10/01/for-the-celestial-warlock-pact-of-the-chain-what-is-an-alternative-familiar-you-would-suggest/) Well, according to Jeremy Crawford, you can have a celestial sprite or a celestial pseudodragon. For whatever his word is worth.
If we take Crawford at his word, then that means we can summon a celestial imp, and therefore it can't be a real imp, even if we summon it as a fiend rather than a celestial. On the other hand, Crawford has a spotty track record when it comes to rules interpretations, so I don't know how much stock I put in his opinion. Either way, this still doesn't tell us if it's possible to have the pseudodragon retain its dragon type. But I do think option 3 above is a nice middle ground.
(As an aside, we could simply make an errata to the Pact of the Chain that expands the possible creature types for your familiar to include aberration, dragon, elemental, and undead. This greatly expands the number of creature type options in such a way that should accommodate any patron.)
Celestial imp skin pack - $4.99
Okay, so here's the thing. The familiar "takes an animal form you choose", and "has the statistics of the chosen form". What is clear is that you must use the stat block of the creature you choose. What's not clear is if the familiar must have the appearance of that creature. Especially since refluffing one creature as a different one is something that's brought up, with toads and frogs being interchangeable, as well as ravens and crows (and parrots?).
Could you, for example, give your celestial imp blue skin instead of red? Replace their leathery wings with feathered wings? A halo instead of horns? Give them a tiny Mario shape instead of a tiny Waluigi shape? (My headcanon is that all imps look like tiny red Waluigis.)
Unfortunately, this is an "Ask your DM" question. Nothing in the spell description indicates you can change up the familiar's appearance. Since you can give the familiar a variety of forms, it seems implied at least that you could give the familiar a different appearance if it fit with the stat block. Like a parrot using the raven stat block. So there's definitely some control over the form, it's just a question of how tightly linked to the stat block does the creature's appearance need to be?
There are no other creatures that are like an imp. If appearance and stat block are tightly linked, you have no other option but to make it look like an imp. A permissive DM might just allow you to completely make up the appearance, so long as it plausibly fit the stat block in question. You could make the imp into a winged bunny with a poisonous bite, for example. A permissive DM might also allow you to make tweaks to one of the existing stat blocks, like replacing Infernal with Celestial, or changing out the shapechanger forms for different animals.
You certainly can't make an implausible mismatch between appearance and stat block. For example, you can't have a familiar that looks like a toad but uses the raven stat block. You could probably have a parrot that used the raven stat block. But could you have a pink striped raven with human legs and cat ears? Ultimately, that's up to your DM. RAW is probably that you can't. Personally, I'd be pretty lenient with a chainlock, but standard Find Familiar might still need to be recognizably an animal.
What about you?
On the subject of pseudodragons and celestial imps, how would you rule as a DM? What about appearance customization? Got any stories about funky familiars?
What even is a familiar?
Now, it should be noted that you can also make a contract with an existing creature to be your familiar. However, despite any similarities, this uses completely different mechanics from the Find Familiar spell, and it's pretty clear that the fluff is different, too. The familiar you gain from Find Familiar has little to do with the familiars that are the result of contracts with a preexisting creature.
Even without definite answers, we can still speculate what exactly a familiar is.
Familiars are an extension of the caster
Your familiar is you, or a part of you. It may even contain a piece of your soul, which safely returns to you when the familiar dies or is dismissed (though creatures capable to stealing souls, such as a demilich, might pose a special danger to you). While the familiar initially appears to be a distinct and separate creature, with its own thoughts, desires, and personality, it actually shares a subconscious with you. This can produce some curious behavior. For example, your familiar might act aggressively toward a person you subconsciously distrust, even if you're not consciously aware of your misgivings toward that person. Your familiar might also act on your subconscious desires with less inhibition than yourself. A stoic and aloof elf might have a familiar that is playful and gregarious, for example.
Under this theory of the familiar, the logical conclusion is coming to a place where you perfectly harmonize with your familiar. The two of you become one, having one mind and acting in concert. Perhaps one way this could manifest might be permanently sharing your senses with one another, while retaining awareness of your own senses.
Familiars are the caster's genius
A genius is a personal guardian spirit. Everyone has one, wizards have just found a way to give their genius a physical form. This ends up similar to the above, but with one difference in that the genius actually is a distinct and separate entity, capable of having its own thoughts, desires, and personality without sharing a subconscious with you. Or not. It kind of depends on what exactly a genius is. But that's a whole other discussion, so for now we'll assume that it is a distinct entity. Rather than being a splinter of yourself, it acts more like a trusty partner or best friend. It also handily explains why you can only have one at a time: each person only has one genius.
One of the interesting consequences of having a genius is that it can explain a number of other curious mechanics. Perhaps the reason why, say, Fire Bolt can't set fire to equipment that is worn or carried is because your genius protects the gear immediately on your person, but anything farther away is beyond its ability to protect. The genius could also explain hit points, where your genius struggles to protect you from fatal blows and HP is a measure of its power.
Find Familiar enslaves a weak spirit and gives it physical form
Find Familiar says that you "gain the services of a familiar", and that it is a "celestial, fey, or fiend". Nothing is open and shut here, but one way of interpreting this is that the spell finds a weak celestial, fey, or fiendish spirit and compels it into your service. Find Familiar is only a 1st level spell, so it can only enslave a particularly weak spirit, so fittingly the spirit can only take particularly weak forms.
This has some interesting implications. Perhaps your familiar retains their own personality and desires, but the spell compels it to obey you. A fiendish familiar, for example, might still desire to corrupt you and to perform evil acts, but its will is entirely suppressed by the spell. Would they remember you if you dismissed them, and they later returned in a stronger form? Summoning a fiendish familiar might grab a random lemure and cause it to take whatever beast form you've chosen. But that lemure might get promoted to a stronger type of devil later, and come back for revenge.
When a familiar dies, it might be well and truly dead, forever. Each time you cast the spell, it might summon a completely different spirit. Each new familiar has no memory of you or your party. Familiars aren't beloved pets you can keep calling back, they are mere tools, to be used and then thrown away and replaced.
The logical conclusion of this theory is, first, that Find Familiar isn't a very nice spell, and second, that the goal is to eventually enslave a stronger creature. This would be a great segue into talking about chainlocks if I didn't have one more theory to discuss first.
Find Familiar creates the spirit
In a way, this is kind of a mix of all of the above. It's not really part of you, but the spirit is something you create with the spell. It's not a guardian spirit, but the parameters of its creation make it a loyal ally. The spirit is kind of enslaved, but more like it was never created with free will in the first place. Honestly, this seems an unlikely theory, as the ability to create spirits seems like it would be a powerful effect. There'd also be no reason you couldn't create more than one at a time.
Regardless, the possibility remains that the spell does create the familiar from nothing, and for whatever reason can't create more than one at a time, and can't be repurposed as a general "Create New Life" spell. This is perhaps the most mysterious possibility, and would raise even more questions if this was the truth.
Now how about those chainlocks?
Voice of the Chainmaster gives some pretty straightforward mechanical upgrades over the standard Find Familiar rules. There's nothing really mysterious about that invocation. Just getting that out of the way first.
Where chainlocks get mysterious is with the new forms that they can give their familiars. For example, a common argument I see, and have made myself, is that the chainlock's imp isn't a real imp, but rather a familiar spirit taking the form of an imp. This is why it won't try to corrupt you or betray you. But under the Enslavement theory, it might just be an actual, real imp. Or... is it? There might just be a loophole in the mechanics that can prove the familiar is, in fact, not a real imp.
The curious case of the celestial imp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0wg3t6osM)
Going back to the Find Familiar spell, it summons a spirit that take the form of a beast, but is considered a celestial, fey, or fiend rather than a beast. That last part is important, because none of the chainlock familiars are beasts. Is the fact that the imp is a fiend considered part of its stat block that overrides whatever choice of spirit you made? If you summon a fey spirit, but have it take the form of an imp, does it become a fiend? Or, can you override the familiar's creature type with your choice of celestial, fey, or fiend? Can you summon a celestial imp?
But more interesting than the imp is perhaps the pseudodragon, because it is neither beast nor celestial nor fey nor fiend. If you summon a pseudodragon as a familiar, there are three possibilities for what happens to its creature type:
The pseudodragon is always a dragon. You can't change its creature type.
The pseudodragon is never a dragon. You must choose between celestial, fey, or fiend.
The pseudodragon is sometimes a dragon. You can keep its existing creature type or override it with celestial, fey, or fiend.
If we go by strict RAW, only a beast type can be replaced with celestial, fey, or fiend, so the first option is the "correct" one. But this might only be because the original spell can only create a beast familiar. Perhaps it was intended that chainlock familiars could also have their creature types replaced, and they just forgot to write it into the pact description. However one would have thought there'd be some errata, or at least a Sage Adv- Oh. (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/10/01/for-the-celestial-warlock-pact-of-the-chain-what-is-an-alternative-familiar-you-would-suggest/) Well, according to Jeremy Crawford, you can have a celestial sprite or a celestial pseudodragon. For whatever his word is worth.
If we take Crawford at his word, then that means we can summon a celestial imp, and therefore it can't be a real imp, even if we summon it as a fiend rather than a celestial. On the other hand, Crawford has a spotty track record when it comes to rules interpretations, so I don't know how much stock I put in his opinion. Either way, this still doesn't tell us if it's possible to have the pseudodragon retain its dragon type. But I do think option 3 above is a nice middle ground.
(As an aside, we could simply make an errata to the Pact of the Chain that expands the possible creature types for your familiar to include aberration, dragon, elemental, and undead. This greatly expands the number of creature type options in such a way that should accommodate any patron.)
Celestial imp skin pack - $4.99
Okay, so here's the thing. The familiar "takes an animal form you choose", and "has the statistics of the chosen form". What is clear is that you must use the stat block of the creature you choose. What's not clear is if the familiar must have the appearance of that creature. Especially since refluffing one creature as a different one is something that's brought up, with toads and frogs being interchangeable, as well as ravens and crows (and parrots?).
Could you, for example, give your celestial imp blue skin instead of red? Replace their leathery wings with feathered wings? A halo instead of horns? Give them a tiny Mario shape instead of a tiny Waluigi shape? (My headcanon is that all imps look like tiny red Waluigis.)
Unfortunately, this is an "Ask your DM" question. Nothing in the spell description indicates you can change up the familiar's appearance. Since you can give the familiar a variety of forms, it seems implied at least that you could give the familiar a different appearance if it fit with the stat block. Like a parrot using the raven stat block. So there's definitely some control over the form, it's just a question of how tightly linked to the stat block does the creature's appearance need to be?
There are no other creatures that are like an imp. If appearance and stat block are tightly linked, you have no other option but to make it look like an imp. A permissive DM might just allow you to completely make up the appearance, so long as it plausibly fit the stat block in question. You could make the imp into a winged bunny with a poisonous bite, for example. A permissive DM might also allow you to make tweaks to one of the existing stat blocks, like replacing Infernal with Celestial, or changing out the shapechanger forms for different animals.
You certainly can't make an implausible mismatch between appearance and stat block. For example, you can't have a familiar that looks like a toad but uses the raven stat block. You could probably have a parrot that used the raven stat block. But could you have a pink striped raven with human legs and cat ears? Ultimately, that's up to your DM. RAW is probably that you can't. Personally, I'd be pretty lenient with a chainlock, but standard Find Familiar might still need to be recognizably an animal.
What about you?
On the subject of pseudodragons and celestial imps, how would you rule as a DM? What about appearance customization? Got any stories about funky familiars?