[RPG] What does the Find Familiar spell target

dnd-5espellstargeting

Directly pulling from this Q/A about who controls a summoned steed's familiar, I am wondering what the find familiar spell targets.

Does the find familiar spell target the caster, a point in space, the familiar, or something else I may have missed?

Best Answer

find familiar (probably) only targets a point in space

Under the Targets section it states:

A spell's description tells you whether the spell targets creatures, objects, or a point of origin for an area of effect...

Technically, one could argue that the quote implies only area of effect spells can target points of origin, and thus summoning spells such as spiritual weapon and find familiar perhaps do not have points of origin; however, the summoned thing fills the space in which it is summoned, and thus, I believe, is likely still an area of effect or at the very least, should be treated similarly.
For more evidence that these should count as areas of effect we can look at a spell like cloud of daggers which also fills only a 5-by-5 area but is considered to be an area of effect.
There is also this Q/A asking about whether bigby's hand can be twinned, the second answer there says that bigby's hand targets an unoccupied space and the answer currently has 18 upvotes and nobody disagreed with this idea so it seems quite well agreed upon that summoning/conjuring spells do indeed target spaces.


And under the Range section it states:

The target of a spell must be within the spell's range...

Looking at find familiar we see that it has a range of 10 feet, so the target must be within 10 feet; the spell goes on to say:

You gain the service of a familiar... Appearing in an unoccupied space within range...

While it does not explicitly say that the caster chooses which space it appears in, I have never seen it done another way. Regardless, find familiar at least targets the space they (the player or DM) choose, as this is the spell's point of origin (as argued for above)

We also see under the "Targeting Yourself" section that:

If a spell targets a creature of your choice, you can choose yourself...

find familiar does not target a creature of the caster's choice so this method will not let it target the caster.

And furthermore under the "Range" section we also see that:

Other spells, such as the shield spell, affect only you. These spells have a range of self.

find familiar does not have a range of self and so cannot target the caster using this method either.


This Q/A on what counts as a target for a spell finds that the definition is quite complicated and horribly undefined/ambiguous.
If we use the approach that anything affected by a spell is considered a target then find familiar potentially does target you because it affects you in some way; it grants you a familiar, which you control, and can even look through its senses.

The comments in This Q/A however, show that adopting this idea that "anything affected is considered a target" has some issues because what counts as being affected is still just as undefined and leads to lots of questions such as these:
"Do touch spells technically target the caster?" (You are "affected" as you have to touch something)
"Does levitate target the caster?" (you can move the creature affected by the spell so is that considered to be "affecting" you?)
"Does misty step target a point in space?" (You teleport into it and that arguably "affects" it)...

There isn't a good way to use the "if something is affected it is a target" method. This is likely a result of 5e being written in "plain English" yet we attempt to apply lawer-like rules strictness to it (I am not saying that is a bad thing, just a thing that is done by many, including myself).
If you did use this interpretation, then find familiar could technically be considered to be targeting the caster as, to some degree, it is affecting them, but I would say this is more up your GM than anybody else.