[RPG] What happens when you cast Continual Flame on a Familiar

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Continual flame does not produce heat nor require oxygen and lasts until dispelled:

A flame, equivalent in brightness to a torch, springs forth from an object that you touch. The effect looks like a regular flame, but it creates no heat and doesn't use oxygen. A continual flame can be covered or hidden but not smothered or quenched.

If it doesn't produce heat, it presumably does not burn whatever it is touching.

Now suppose you have an owl familiar. If you cast Continual Flame on the owl, will the owl become a flying torch? And if you dismiss the owl and have it reappear, does the continual flame, having never been dispelled, reappear as well?

Best Answer

You could not cast continual flame on your familiar

Continual flame states (PHB, p. 227, bold added):

A flame, equivalent in brightness to a torch, springs forth from an object that you touch. The effect looks like a regular flame, but it creates no heat and doesn’t use oxygen. A continual flame can be covered or hidden but not smothered or quenched.

But a familiar is a creature, not an object. So it is not a valid target of continual flame.

A similar question (about a different spell that targets an object) was answered by Jeremy Crawford:

The ... spell targets an object. A creature is not an object.

As such (credit to enkryptor for making this point), if you tried to cast continual flame on your familiar, according to Xanathar's Guide to Everything's (optional) rules on invalid targets (XGtE p. 86, bold added):

If you cast a spell on someone or something that can't be affected by the spell, nothing happens to the target, but if you used spell slot to cast the spell, the slot is still expended.

(Whether or not your material component would be consumed would be up to your DM).

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