Attack your own familiar?

[Zachopotamus]

I couldn't find any information on this, but then again my Google-Fu has always been terrible so thought I'd ask here.

The Question (the important part):

Are there any actual written rules that address what happens if you attack your own familiar?

The Reason (you can freely skip this part):

This came up as part of a really dumb "thought excercise" character build. The relevant part being a Dhampir character that uses his familiar as his "hunger" food source. The gameplay mechanics being that if you know a combat is coming up or you need to make an important skill check you use your Empowered Bite on your familiar to get your d4+ConMod bonus to your Intiative/Skill Check.

[sayaijin]

The fluff of find familiar is extremely lacking, but potentially for our benefit. Are you summoning the same creature every time? Is it a new one? Does it have a top hat or a flowery collar? Does it even register fear or pain? Rules don't say, so your DM must. There is nothing in the rules about it disobeying or questioning you either.

The crunch, or mechanics, of find familiar are a lot better spelled out. It has a known AC, but you control it, so you can potentially make it go prone to give you advantage on your attack against it.

I will say 10 GP, a spell slot [assuming no ritual casting], and an hour seems a little steep for some HP though.

[Zachopotamus]

Personally, 10gp and an hour to sinch a crucial skill check seems CHEAP to me. The Initiative bump would be pretty situational but could potentially be a huge advantage (or it could be minimal). Either way, as I stated, it's part of a really dumb build experiment.

[quindraco]

I couldn't find any information on this, but then again my Google-Fu has always been terrible so thought I'd ask here.

The Question (the important part):

Are there any actual written rules that address what happens if you attack your own familiar?

The Reason (you can freely skip this part):

This came up as part of a really dumb "thought excercise" character build. The relevant part being a Dhampir character that uses his familiar as his "hunger" food source. The gameplay mechanics being that if you know a combat is coming up or you need to make an important skill check you use your Empowered Bite on your familiar to get your d4+ConMod bonus to your Intiative/Skill Check.

Nothing special happens, but in terms of the familiar's reactions, it is bound by the spell to obey your commands and is incapable of attacking. If you don't issue it any commands, it will react the way you'd expect an attacked animal that can't attack would react.

If the familiar hits 0 hit points, it disappears, and the same familiar re-appears if you cast the spell again. Casting the spell while you have a familiar causes it to change forms, but it is the same mind. You can dismiss your familiar, in which case casting the spell will get you a new one.

[sithlordnergal]

I couldn't find any information on this, but then again my Google-Fu has always been terrible so thought I'd ask here.

The Question (the important part):

Are there any actual written rules that address what happens if you attack your own familiar?

The Reason (you can freely skip this part):

This came up as part of a really dumb "thought excercise" character build. The relevant part being a Dhampir character that uses his familiar as his "hunger" food source. The gameplay mechanics being that if you know a combat is coming up or you need to make an important skill check you use your Empowered Bite on your familiar to get your d4+ConMod bonus to your Intiative/Skill Check.

Crunch wise: Nothing prevents you from doing this, at all. And since the Familiar is technically a creature, it would activate your Dhampir abilities. The only downside is the 10gp and hour cost to resummon it.

[JackPhoenix]

Note that the actual damage you're doing is only what's required to drop the familiar to zero, which is 1-2, unless you're a warlock.

[elyktsorb]

Couldn't you just buy like a sack of mice for way cheaper tho?

[Anymage]

Other people have covered how familiars have game stats and you're free to interact with yours through said game stats. Including attack rolls and dealing HP damage.

You also most likely have other party members, and 1d4+con mod is unlikely to be significant at any but the lowest levels. So while there might be niche cases when you want a disposable bite target (if you have smite or sneak attack to get a massive bonus to a critical skill roll), most of the time poofing a familiar is unnecessary overhead.