DnD 5E Spell Spotlight: Find Familiar

Author: pandaniel

Welcome to another edition of Spell Spotlight. Today’s post is part one of a two part series, where we will talk about some staple 5th Edition spells: find familiar, find steed and find greater steed. All of these spells share both part of their names and the ability to conjure up a creature that can be used in a variety of ways, and all three are worthy of a deep dive into their myriad uses.

You can learn more about using find steed and find greater steed in part two of the series; our Spell Spotlight about these spells.

Find traps and find the path fall in line with the naming convention of these spells, but we won’t be diving deep into these two spells. This is because we consider find traps to be the black sheep of the family, so to speak—a spell that is so bad it isn’t worth analyzing. Find the path is more useful, but also straightforward, without much to expand upon. Thus, we will skip them for our forthcoming analysis.

The focus today will on find familiar, a spell available to just a few select characters as a spell they can readily cast (discounting feats, Magical Secrets and the like): Wizards, Warlocks (either through Pact of the Chain or Pact of the Tome through the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation), Eldritch Knight Fighters, Arcane Trickster Rogues, and Druids post-Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Find familiar is an incredible spell, and it will always be a good pick up for any Wizard. The spell is interesting in that it opens so many doors that your creativity is the limit—it can never truly be completely figured out, but we will try to explain as much about the spell as we can!

Upon casting find familiar you get the choice of a select few creatures to serve you as a companion. There are upsides and downsides for each of these summons, but some make out better than the others. 

The spell lists out 15 different options, additional options are listed in a few published adventures that can be used with your DM’s permission. Even more options are opened up for Pact of the Chain Warlocks, who get 4 extra choices. This section will rate these different servants against each other, where choices that are usable with DM’s approval will be noted with ^Optional, and choices that are usable as a Pact of the Chain Warlock with ^{Pact of the Chain}.

These ratings do not take into account opportunity cost, like having to pick up Pact of the Chain instead of another pact, or losing out on using a better familiar (this means that good familiars are good familiars even if a different familiar fulfills a similar niche). Some options might have a dual rating if something drastically changes their viability. Sea creatures might not be very useful across an entire campaign, but when you are underwater they become a lot more useful. Familiars that can be used to acquire poisons (see more info on this in our Complete Guide to Tools) are generally less useful if you are not in need of more poison. Many poison-producing familiars have split ratings as a result.

Never forget that you can choose a different type of familiar every time you cast the spell. Sometimes a niche option is exactly what you need in a given circumstance.

Note: Page 347 of the Monster Manual and page 211 of Volo’s Guide to Monsters have a Variant: Familiars rule that says that any spellcaster that can cast the find familiar spell can have a familiar that is one of the creatures described in the spell, or some other Tiny monster. Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer of 5E, has tweeted that the intent of that variant rule was that it applied to NPC spellcasters, not player characters. As such we have assumed that this variant is not applicable for our readers. If your DM rules otherwise, congratulations on being able to access several powerful familiars without a three level Warlock dip!

Standard Familiars

Bat (★★★★★)

Without a doubt, the bat is truly a great option. It has a fly speed, blindsight at an incredible range of 60 feet, and Keen Hearing. Flight is no small thing, as it opens up an entire new dimension of both tactics and possibilities. When scouting, flight can lead a familiar to many new places, and in combat it can make any creature harder to hit. Pack Tactics has a good video on this concept here. While the video is aimed at more characters than familiars, most points will still apply.

The bat’s game statistics state that it cannot use blindsight while deafened, and the bat has the Keen Hearing feature that confers advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing. This is not explicitly stated in the rules, but it is possible that a bat will often have advantage on Perception checks within its blindsight range, due to its echolocation using hearing, but this is something to be talked about with your DM. Either way, blindsight stays incredible as mentioned before, and this Tiny beast is a top contender for scouting champion.

Cat (★☆☆☆☆)

Cats are surprisingly similar to almiraj in that they are a half decent—but not great—scout because they lack a fly speed, but do have Keen Smell and proficiency in Perception and Stealth. The differences are that cats lack darkvision and Keen Sight and gain a climb speed. This is a tradeoff in which cats unfortunately get the short end of the stick. (Don’t get us started on Tabaxi’s darkvision being explained as having eyes like a cat.) Cats are at least inconspicuous in most urban areas, and thus unlikely to draw suspicion in all but the most paranoid of locales.

Crab (★★★☆☆)

The crab is like an abyssal chicken with less downsides and better accessibility, words you will only ever read on a D&D blog. Crabs too have 30 foot blindsight, but can actually still see beyond that radius due to not being blind. Additionally they have a swim speed, are Amphibious and have proficiency in Stealth. They lose darkvision, but in general come out better. 

Frog (★☆☆☆☆)

What is another option with suboptimal scouting prowess? While frogs do have cool abilities like Amphibious and a swim speed, this together with their darkvision, Perception and Stealth proficiency still does not make up for their terrible Wisdom score and lack of fly speed. Additionally, frogs aren’t especially inconspicuous.

Hawk (★★★☆☆)

Hawks have proficiency in Perception, Keen Sight and a fly speed, making them a pretty good if fairly bland choice of familiar. They lack any features beyond the ones listed above, but they are decent nonetheless.

Lizard (★☆☆☆☆)

The lizard’s lack of features beyond a climb speed and darkvision make it a pretty bad option. Not much to say here. 

Octopus (★☆☆☆☆/★★★★★)

In your average game, the octopus is not a great option. If you know you will have fights underwater, however, the octopus actually becomes one of the best available choices for a familiar. It has proficiency in Perception and Stealth, darkvision, and most importantly, Ink Cloud. Ink Cloud can be used to have you or your allies move away from melee without provoking an Opportunity Attack, and it combines nicely with Alert, a feat that most Wizards (the largest percentage of find familiar users) will want to take, as creatures will not have advantage anymore because you are unseen due to the cloud, and will thus have disadvantage when attacking you. 

Owl (★★★★★)

Owls, similar to bats, are really good at scouting. They have a fly speed, proficiency in Perception and Stealth, Keen Hearing and Sight, and darkvision. Additionally, owls can be really good in combat due to their Flyby. Flyby allows them to reliably give someone advantage on an attack using the Help action, a tactic described later in this guide in which owls reign supreme.

Poisonous Snake (★★★☆☆/★★★★☆)

The poisonous snake’s combination of 10 foot blindsight and being a source of farmable poison makes it a great familiar. It also has a swim speed, but this is not going to come up often without it being able to breathe underwater. 

Quipper (★☆☆☆☆)

This is where my quip would go…if I had one. The quipper just is not good. A swim speed, Water Breathing and darkvision don’t help it make up any ground. Another example of a creature that just lacks what you should be looking for in a familiar.

Rat (★☆☆☆☆)

The rat can be quite inconspicuous in certain areas, but a scouting package of just darkvision and Keen Smell makes them not worth your while.

Raven (★★☆☆☆)

The raven is not a terrible option, given that they have Perception proficiency and a fly speed. Additionally, Mimicry can be used for some fun tactics depending on your creativity, but keep in mind that there are spells that cover this niche too.

Sea Horse (★☆☆☆☆)

The sea horse, similar to the quipper, cannot do too much with just a swim speed and Water Breathing. They even lack darkvision! More like an F horse.

Spider (★★★☆☆)

The spider partially makes up its lack of proficiency in Stealth with how inconspicuous it can be in pretty much any situation. Additionally, mechanically it still has a climb speed which can often work similar to a fly speed, Spider Climb and darkvision. Web Sense and Web Walker might come up at some point too, but they are only situational benefits.

Weasel (★☆☆☆☆)

Much like its other one star friends, this little critter just simply lacks what it needs to be rated better. It does have proficiency in Perception and Stealth, and Keen Hearing, but a lack of a fly speed just makes this sub-optimal.

Optional Familiars

Abyssal Chicken (★★☆☆☆)

The abyssal chicken is an optional familiar from Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. There is little reason to use this Tiny critter beyond it having blindsight, which is a really useful form of sight as it can see through illusions and make out invisible creatures. While it has a fly speed, it is a Bad Flier and is blind beyond its 30 feet radius. The aforementioned problems together with its lack of proficiency in Perception or Stealth makes the abyssal chicken a bad option for long range scouting purposes.

Almiraj (★☆☆☆☆)

The almiraj is an optional familiar from Tomb of Annihilation. Its only two redeeming qualities are its cuteness, and its ability to not be an awful explorer. The almiraj’s combination of proficiency in Perception and Stealth, darkvision and Keen Senses give it a decent way to scout, but a lack of fly speed really hurts this Tiny goofball.

Flying Monkey (★★★☆☆)

The flying monkey is an optional familiar from Tomb of Annihilation. A fly speed is always great to see, as explained in the bat section, but lacking proficiency in any of the three “scouting” skills (Perception, Investigation, and Stealth) holds this Tiny monkey back from being as great as it could be. There is the potential your DM might rule that your familiar will need hands or opposable thumbs to do some of the uses that are described later in this guide. If this is the case, this familiar becomes a lot better relative to the field due to their nifty opposable thumb technology.

Fox (★☆☆☆☆)

The fox is an optional familiar from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They have the same overarching issues as almiraj do. The differences are that they lack Keen Senses, but gain Keen Hearing and a burrow speed in exchange. A burrow speed is interesting, but without the ability to attack it is not too useful.

Hare (★☆☆☆☆)

The hare is an optional familiar from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. The hare is pretty much the same as the fox, but lacks darkvision and gains Escape (the same feature as a Rogue’s Cunning Action). This might make you think that the hare could make good use of the Help action, similarly to the owl, but its low speed of 20 feet and inability to fly makes it so that the enemies can often still kill the hare even if it runs out of melee. 

Tressym (★★★★★)

The tressym is an optional familiar from Storm King’s Thunder. Unlike the cat, this kitty knows what one needs to be a good pick up for find familiar: it has a fly speed, proficiency in Perception and Stealth, Keen Smell, darkvision (okay, come on!), Detect Invisibility and Poison Sense. Detect Invisibility is comparable to the Bat’s blindsight, but there is some nuance there.

Pact of the Chain Familiars

Imp (★★★★★)

The imp is an option opened up by taking the Pact of the Chain as a Warlock. Their kit is quite stacked, with a fly speed, Devil’s Sight (which will allow you to see through magical darkness when looking through your familiar’s eyes), a poison you can farm, and they can even become Invisible and change into a select few less conspicuous forms. Magic Resistance and a few damage resistances and immunities might sound nice, but it won’t often matter too much with how squishy familiars can be without help (this is something we will go into later). An excellent option, as Pact of the Chain familiars tend to be.

Pseudodragon (★★★★☆/★★★★★)

The pseudodragon is an option via Pact of the Chain as Warlock. Their combination of abilities is great, as they have all the necessary tools for scouting with 10 foot blindsight, darkvision, Keen Senses, and proficiency in Perception and Stealth. You can also use them for poison farming, and their poison is actually quite strong. Their poison was used as an example for describing poison farming in our Complete Guide to Tools.

Quasit (★★★★★)

The quasit is an option opened up by taking the Pact of the Chain as Warlock. Once again, the Warlocks are lucky with these great options at their disposal. The quasit too has some amazing options, which are quite similar to those of the imp. Its options for Shapechanger are not as inconspicuous, it lacks Devil’s Sight, but it gains Scare, which has a low DC but imposes a strong debuff (frightened).

Sprite (★★★★★)

The sprite is an option opened up by taking the Pact of the Chain as Warlock. It has a lot of what you might need in your adventures with its fly speed, proficiency in Perception and Stealth, and Invisibility. Heart Sight is not something that makes or breaks the sprite, but it can very situationally be helpful when you need to question someone, especially because there is no limit to the amount of times it can be used. 

Strixhaven Mascot Familiars

Art Elemental Mascot (★★☆☆☆)

The art elemental mascot is a familiar accessible through the Strixhaven Mascot feat. Its charm ability is cute, but is not very useful due to its low save DC and because it allows targets to repeat the save every turn. Additionally, it is limited to one use per day. Besides its charm ability, the art elemental mascot is not much more than a sack of hit points with some measly attacks. This lacks all good qualities of a familiar, as it cannot fly, has no proficiency in Stealth or Perception, and has no additional senses, thus qualifying it as a poor scout.

Fractal Mascot (★★★☆☆)

The fractal mascot is a familiar accessible through the Strixhaven Mascot feat. This has a small niche in being able to be used as a cork in a bottle with its Augment ability to completely block doorways and Dodge. However, keep in mind that it won’t be able to survive too many hits without significant investment (see the “Survivability” section below). It also has advantage on most checks to Grapple when it uses this ability, which could be occasionally useful. This mascot isn’t a great scout, as it lacks any sort of darkvision or blindsight and has low Perception and Stealth bonuses (it can use its Diminish ability to become Tiny, which may improve its ability to stay hidden). It is, however, capable of traversing through walls that are less than 60 feet thick, which gives it more maneuverability than is afforded by the ability to resummon your familiar to a space you cannot see (see “What is so special about making my familiar reappear?” below).

Inkling Mascot (★★★★★)

The inkling mascot is a familiar accessible through the Strixhaven Mascot feat. While its Perception is not great, it has proficiency in Stealth, can Hide as a bonus action in darkness or dim light, has a 60 feet range blindsight, and can fly! This is easily the best mascot option. The inkling mascot even has the Amorphous quality, meaning it can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch, which should open up traversal opportunities as well. The Ink Spray ability isn’t half-bad, either. 

Pest Mascot (★★☆☆☆)

The pest mascot is a familiar accessible through the Strixhaven Mascot feat. This is really only just usable as an alternative to a “bag of rats” for Dhampirs due to its Regeneration, and not much else. Darkvision and a decent passive Perception don’t make up for a lack of Stealth proficiency and its ground-bound movement speed.

Spirit Statue Mascot (★★★★☆)

The spirit statue mascot is a familiar accessible through the Strixhaven Mascot feat. It has some nice social skills, but the big kicker is its Counsel of the Past ability which can give you a d4 twice a day that you can add to any ability check you want. You can basically get 1d4 twice for 10 gp, and it stacks with things like guidance (remember, initiative rolls are ability checks)! The ability to choose which ability check you want to apply it on within the 10 minute duration gives it a bit more flexibility than guidance. This mascot also has proficiency in Perception, but with its Medium size, lack of Stealth proficiency, and lack of flight, you won’t be getting too much use of it.

On Familiar Types

A familiar has all the statistics of your chosen form, besides its type. You instead get to choose one of celestial, fey, or fiend. In general, this choice will most likely not have much consequence in your game. One thing worth mentioning is that many different Paladin subclasses have a Channel Divinity that affects specific types of creatures. Communicate with Paladins in your party for this choice to make sure you pick a type that won’t be turned by them.

On Familiar Uses

The different things you can accomplish using your familiar are only limited by how long your campaign lasts and your creativity. Having said that, we cannot reasonably list everything you can do. We would instead like to spark your creativity so that you can better think of ways to use your familiar. We can’t list everything, but we do think this list is pretty exhaustive!

Scouting

First and foremost comes the obvious, yet reliable option of scouting. Your familiar can perceive as any other creature, but the rules on using its senses are a little unclear.

This does not tell us who would roll checks related to perceiving. Whether your DM rules you use your own statistics for this, or your familiars, your familiar will still be able to see and hear the very same, meaning that they could still communicate with you to tell you what they are perceiving. Information is power, and if your familiar does get noticed it is more expendable than (most of) your party members. Take the option of flight to your advantage and get a sense of what you are dealing with. Additionally, you can use familiars to get into places that would be much harder for your or your party to get into. Specifically, we mean…

Finding Opportunities through Obstacles

After having temporarily dismissed your familiar you can make it reappear in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you as an action. Upon first glance this might mean very little to you.

What is so special about making my familiar reappear?

Something that might not immediately be obvious is that this ability of the spell is not based on sight, and is not limited by the line of effect rules for spellcasting, as you are not casting a spell. This opens up a world of possibilities, like resummoning your familiar in the next room over. However, it doesn’t end there: the space must be unoccupied, meaning you cannot accidentally make your familiar appear in a wall where it would suffocate. Jeremy Crawford even talked about this interaction in an interview for Dragon+ with a surprising level of clarity. Later articles might mention this tactic using the term “Passwall.”

This concept can be used in many ways, be it scouting out neighboring rooms using invisibility on your familiar, finding secret doors by trying to summon your familiar past a wall (and using the principle explained above we can even do something like using misty step and the ability to see through your familiar’s senses as an action to teleport there!) or a chance to find out if there are any more layers left in the dungeon you and your party are exploring.

Delivering Touch Spells

While the potential of delivering touch spells from far away might seem like a good boon to have, the feature is actually not very good, when you dig deep into the specifics. It’s also quite fuzzy with its wording, and thus requires a talk with your DM about how it will be ruled. 

The description of find familiar says your familiar has to use their reaction to deliver the spell when it is cast. However, the developers seem to not have taken into account that spells can have a casting time longer than an action. It is unclear whether the intent was for them to use their reaction at the end of the spell, or a reaction for every action you have used to cast the spell (which could happen with things like rituals), which would go against the description using the singular “reaction.” In either case, spells with a casting time longer than an action are possible, but the way they are delivered is unclear.

Additionally, while the spell description says your attack modifier is used for spells requiring an attack, it does not mention what spell save DC is used for spells that require one. It is a reasonable assumption to make that it is just your own as well, but this is not included within the spell. One big spell we would recommend to use with this feature is identify. As described in our Healthy Paranoia article, your party faces life-or-death situations regularly. Touching an object will probably only sometimes be bad, but being prepared for an instance like that by having your familiar identify them can be useful. We have already talked about your familiar being more expendable than you, and there is not really a reason to not have your familiar use this spell instead of you. Besides this option, we advise against actively trying to use this feature, as there are a variety of better options, most listed here. Cure wounds from range might sound cute, but goodberry or healing word is likely a lot better. Shocking grasp is shockingly still a downgrade from other damage cantrips, even from range, but it has its niche in encounters where counterspells fling back and forth.

Help

The Help action allows you to either give someone advantage on an ability check, or—more applicable to familiars—give a friendly creature advantage on their next attack roll against a chosen enemy, provided it is made before your next turn. The Help action in this case is taken within 5 feet of the enemy, after which your familiar can move away. As stated before, owls are the best way to use this action, as they can fly in, use the Help action, and fly away without provoking Opportunity Attacks using Flyby. Other familiars that are good at using this tactic are the quasit and imp when they have used their Invisibility action, but this will not always work, as creatures that can see them while invisible can still take an Opportunity Attack. 

A character with Sharpshooter will have between a 45 and 50% chance to hit using Sharpshooter over their career, which advantage increases by about 24 to 25%. With a crossbow they’ll average between 16.5 (10+3.5+3) and 18.5 (10+3.5+5) damage on a hit. This means the Help action would add on average between 4.1 (16.5 x 24.75%) and 4.6 (18.5 x 25%) damage. This will be less for martial weapon users without power attacks, like sword and board, but it will be more for something like a Fighter with Great Weapon Master (because advantage is better on lower base hit rates, and two-handed weapon users do not have an equivalent to the Archery Fighting Style. Note that because Reckless Attack must be declared on the first attack of the Barbarian’s turn, the Help action isn’t useful there). Figuring out whether to do this compared to other options is an exercise left to the reader, as we cannot know everything about the situation you are facing at a given point in time. Nevertheless, this is a reliable option which in most cases is not bad, even if it “scales” poorly as the game progresses and martials get more weapon attacks per turn.

Object Interactions, Use an Item Actions, and Using Magical Items

Besides the common uses described above, a familiar can also equip themselves with items to use or share. 

A potion of healing or similar potion can be retrieved from a backpack or such by your familiar as an object interaction and administered as an action. This basically allows you to not have to use any of your own action economy to give someone the benefit of this potion. Be it to get someone up from unconsciousness with a potion of healing or to give them the strength of a giant in an unexpected fight. Action economy is important, so this is really a big deal. Instead of you or your ally needing to use their action, it is instead your familiar who loses out on other options, which is a lot more cost efficient. 

Another way to keep people from dying due to death saving throws using your familiar is to let it use a healer’s kit. This kit has ten uses and can be used as an action. It allows someone to stabilize a creature without having to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check.

An interesting way to affect the battlefield using your familiar is through the use of caltrops (bag of 20) and ball bearings (bag of 1,000), two inexpensive and common items you should be able to easily acquire. Both of these items require your action to disperse and cover up a part of the map which slows down creatures. Control can be very strong, especially when you do not actually have to use any resources to do so. One more use would be with oil (flask), which similarly can be spread over the ground, it can subsequently be lit on fire to damage your opponent. There are more forms of ordinary equipment that can be used wonderfully by familiars, but these types of equipment deserve their own guide in its entirety.

Items can also be retrieved from a bag of holding or similar such object using an action of your familiar. This can sometimes be very handy in combat if you do not have an item in your backpack for whatever reason, but are in dire need of it. Additionally, your familiar can “Bag of Holding Bomb” someone. This tech was first described in our Complete Artificer Class Guide and can consistently be used when you have an Artificer in your party. Don’t pull this on a table where it is not appropriate—communicate with your co-players and DM.

One piece of tech that is incredibly powerful, to the point where we would recommend you talk to your DM about it, is the ability to use your familiars to create familiars. The ring of spell storing and spellwrought tattoo can both be used to cast the find familiar spell, which can in turn be used by your familiar, and your familiar’s familiar, and your familiar’s familiar familiar, and your… to effectively create an army of familiars who can all be used in any way any other familiar could be. The ring of spell storing is limited to what your DM allows you to find, but the spellwrought tattoo containing find familiar can be created by an Artificer who is a member of your party. There are some other great options besides this specific interaction that are only limited by the clause of your familiar not being able to attack. Some of your best options will be shutdown spells like web, hypnotic pattern, or wall of force allowing you to basically concentrate on another powerful spell. 

Various options still remain, but as a final conclusion for this section we would like to remind you that we have barely scratched the surface as to what is possible with different types of magical items that require an action to be used. Take for example the necklace of fireballs, which allows your familiar to bring down fiery punishment upon your enemies through fireball, which is pretty good, actually. And as familiars are creatures, they can actually even attune to items allowing for even more shenanigans through other equipment. Items that usually would be left to gather dust in favor of others can still be impactful with extra attunement slots, like weapons of warning.

Seeing Through Obscured Areas

As mentioned before in the section on scouting, find familiar allows you to use an action to perceive through your familiar’s eyes. There are a couple of benefits this can give you beyond scouting, especially when your familiar’s vision somehow exceeds that of your own, e.g. it having better darkvision (yes, 30 feet is better than 0 feet, for you variant human players) or blindsight. 

Many spells require sight in some way or another, and making your vision better through your familiar when available (do keep the action cost in mind) could open up additional and even more viable options. Imagine for a moment a combat encounter where the enemy drow uses a nasty darkness in a situation where you really wanted to use misty step to get out of another enemy’s grapple. However, at that moment you remember your trusty bat familiar, Batsy. You use your action to look through their eyes and bam, you can once again see. Then you use your misty step that relies on sight and run to your backline as fast as you can. You can increase your options here greatly if you have the Quickened Spell Metamagic, but this is not something we recommend you build around or try to actively set up.

Miscellaneous Actions

The biggest thing we tried to teach you with the earlier examples is that your familiar is an additional piece on the board that you control. An additional creature to control is powerful, and while this is not as strong as having a simulacrum, your thought process should be similar.

If a hypnotic pattern hits your friends, you might think using your action to wake them up would be a waste. However, at this point you should remember that the opportunity cost to have your familiar do this is not as steep. The same thing goes with sleep. 

On that note, if your resident kobold sidekick, Meep, is dying, your familiar can use their action to attempt to stabilize them using a Wisdom (Medicine) check! Of course, a healer’s kit allows you to automatically succeed in stabilizing someone and is thus a way better choice, if possible you should aim to always have them prepared instead.

Superfluous Fun

Still not convinced that you can do crazy things with your familiar? Specifically for you, an additional cherry on top involving flying familiars. First, a quick recap on the rules on lifting and carrying: your carrying capacity is 15 multiplied by your Strength score, this is halved for Tiny creatures and doubled for Large creatures, and you can lift an amount of pounds up to twice your carrying capacity.

At this point, if you are light enough, you can get yourself a cage or similar and have your familiar carry you from within Inspector Gadget style. While a familiar cannot attack and thus not grapple either, lifting an object is fine. Here are some flying familiars with their limit for lifting: owls 45 (30 x 3/2) lbs and flying monkeys 240 (30 x 8) lbs. Gnomes and Kobolds weigh less than 40 pounds on average, which you could make work with either of these options. This means that if enemies do not have ranged attacks or other similar features, you are invulnerable to their damage and you can kill them for free with cantrips, presuming your party would walk away in a situation that could easily be beaten like this. 

Survivability

Hey! How can I even do all of these things if my familiar is just going to die immediately?!

This is a reasonable rebuttal. Familiars are squishy, but there are ways to increase their survivability. First and foremost is simply how tactically you play your familiar. Try to have your familiar be damaged less! If there is cover, use it! If you can get a familiar with a flight speed or climb speed (for any of the previously mentioned reasons), get one! Both of these options will greatly decrease the opportunities for enemies to hurt your familiar, and the best way to keep your familiar alive is to not have it be hurt!

Besides effective hit points, there is true hit points as well, whether it is temporary or not. A few good ways to increase your familiars survivability are via casting aid, using the Inspiring Leader feat, a Twilight Domain Cleric’s Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary, a Circle of Shepherd Druid’s Spirit Totem: Bear Spirit, and heroes’ feast. If you have a party member with aid and they have appropriate spell slots left at the end of the day, there is no reason for them not to rest cast this spell and include your familiar. While heroes’ feast is quite expensive to use solely to boost your familiars resilience, you can still treat your little friend to some nice food when the spell is used as a party will rarely have 12 members.

Finally, the last angle to be explored is to increase your familiar’s AC. Every familiar available gains a bonus to their AC if you cast mage armor on them, and even the sprite would be better off losing their armor and benefiting from this spell instead. (This is another good option for rest casting!) 

If mage armor is not your style, you can also equip your familiar with some physical magical armor. According to the Wearing and Wielding Items section in the Dungeon’s Master Guide,

This means if you have any excess gear, you could outfit your tiny friend. Wearing armor without proficiency might be seen as a cardinal sin, but this is far from the truth, and especially so for familiars. Wearing armor for which you lack proficiency will only give you disadvantage on any ability check, saving throw, or attack roll that involves Strength or Dexterity, and removes your ability to cast spells. How often will this even come up for your familiar? Disadvantage on initiative is unfortunate, but your familiar cannot attack or cast spells, and according to Rules as Written, delivering your spell does not even count as casting a spell (however, your DM might rule otherwise). This restriction can come into play for certain magical items you might want your familiar to use, so be mindful of the tradeoffs. Additionally, equipping your familiar with armor that they aren’t proficient in does become a lot worse if you are a Pact of the Chain Warlock with Investment of the Chain Master, as your familiar will be able to attack.

While barding says it works for animals in general, it is questionable whether the rules were made to work for creatures that are not mounts. You could technically squeeze an AC increase in with some familiars, but the doubling of weight is cumbersome for creatures that do not have their carrying capacity increased like the Large horses. Talk to your DM about whether they would allow you to get normal armor for your familiar, and what its weight would be.

Find familiar is an incredibly versatile spell deserving of all its praise. We highly recommend you get this spell on basically any of your characters where available, for all the aforementioned uses and reasons. In summary: the highlights are the increase in your action economy, the many delightful and original ways you could make use of them, for example with magic items, and the trusty standby Help action.

The “standard” familiars you should pick up are typically either the owl or bat, as they are great at scouting and have some highly practical bonuses, like Flyby or blindsight. Hopefully this Spell Spotlight gave you a better idea about the (lack of) limits of a familiar and an urge to use one! Also, more importantly, most of them are cute!