Situation
A level 8 Celestial Warlock, Pact of the Tome, has an owl familiar1. The party Wizard casts polymorph on the Warlock such that a Tyrannosaurus Rex (INT 2, Wis 12) is now standing there.
How it was ruled
While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. (PHB, find familiar, spell description)
We (DM and I) guessed that the telepathic connection between the Warlock and the familiar remained, but we weren't sure.
The target’s game statistics, including mental ability scores, are replaced by the statistics of the chosen beast. It retains its alignment and personality. {my emphasis} (PHB, polymorph, spell description)
The "retain its alignment and personality" was our basis for thinking that the owl would stick around and still have contact with the Warlock/T Rex. We weren't sure what the familiar could do, now that the Warlock's intelligence was 2. (Normal INT of that Warlock PC is 12). We did allow that a 12 Wis was helpful, but since INT is the "memory" trait we felt that the Warlock might have taken a hit on mental interactions (such as 'who is that talking in my head?').
Question(s)
The directly related questions to answer are:
- Does the familiar stick around to assist the polymorphed PC? (If No, then the rest is moot)
- What actions can the familiar take if its caster is polymorphed into a beast?
We weren't sure. The DM (for simplicity's sake, six players to take care of) let the owl fly around and do its usual scouting such that the T Rex could learn from the telepathic communication, but the T Rex was not able to share that info with the rest of the party2. The owl did a couple of flyby/Helps in combat to give the T-Rex advantage on a bite attack, but we (the DM and I) weren't sure, after the battle, if we'd gotten that right. (This familiar does that in some, but not all, of our combats depending on the situation).
When we took a look at the rules it wasn't clear. When I searched Familar + Polymorph at RPGSE I came up empty, beyond the two rules cited above and this:
Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal.
We think that an INT 2 (Wisdom 12) T Rex (with a Warlock's personality) could, if the telepathic communication is still active, issue commands to the familar to "do this, I need it" but that's about it. I wanted to not get more out of a 2 INT than seemed reasonable to the rest of the table.
Question restated
-
If the familiar's caster is polymorphed, will the familiar remain
and function normally? If yes, -
What can the familiar do while the caster is polymorphed into a
beast?
If there are rules, rulings, or Save Advice that covers this that we missed, that would be helpful. If there's a glaring gap in how it was ruled, that would also be useful. (We expect for there to be T-Rex shenanigans, and Giant Ape shenanigans, in the near future in the city where we deal with a grand vizier who has been spying on us).
1 Book of Shadows, level 1 spell, find familiar
2 The Totem Warrior Barbarian didn't choose to cast the speak with animals ritual that they could have, even though I, OOC, suggested it
Related questions include: communicating with a familiar , minimum INT for using abilities, and what can my familiar do?
Best Answer
The familiar functions normally, but you don't.
Your familiar is still your familiar.
Find Familiar says:
None of these requires you to be smart or humanoid or even to have an unchanging body. If your race is changeling or verdan, you don't suddenly lose your familiar when you transform. Because the familiar has a magical and a telepathic connection to you, it will still recognize and obey you.
Also remember that the familiar is not a beast; according to the spell, it's a celestial, fey, or fiend spirit that takes an animal form. As such, it likely has a greater comfort with magical effects than you'd expect from a typical beast.
You might choose to role-play that your familiar is momentarily confused the first time you change into a particular form, but no game mechanic requires this. As an analogy, consider how a dog behaves when reunited with its human after a long separation. They may display an initial hesitance, but as soon as the dog catches the person's scent, there's instant recognition and acceptance.
You're dumber than you were.
Although your familiar still functions the same, you do not. As you quoted from Polymorph:
In the case of the T. Rex, your Intelligence score is reduced to 2. To better understand what this means, it's helpful to compare that score to the scores of other common beasts.
INT = 1
INT = 2
INT = 3
So, as a T. Rex, you're not effectively brainless like an insect, but you're also not as smart as a dog. This will affect your communication, but it may not be as limiting as you might think.
Being dumb probably doesn't limit your communication with your familiar.
It's important to note that the Intelligence scores of Find Familiar's creatures are all between 1 and 3. Your owl shares the T. Rex's 2, so you and it are now matching in intelligence.
You can no longer formulate complex thoughts, but your familiar wouldn't have understood those anyway. You can still send telepathic commands, and although they're likely not structured as language, they'll still be as effective as necessary. For example:
Communication with your party members is limited, but possible.
Like a horse or bear, the T. Rex will be able to use body language and simple sounds to communicate with party members in a limited fashion. Typical messages might be:
(Of course, this limitation to the character's communication doesn't mean the player must be similarly limited. See this discussion for guidance: How can I model a character polymorphed into a (stupid, speechless) Tyrannosaurus Rex?)
The giant ape you mentioned offers more interesting options. With an Intelligence Score of 7, it may well be smarter than any members of your party for whom Intelligence wasn't a priority during character creation! In this case, communication through more complex sounds, body language, and gestures would be feasible.
In fact, because some real-world chimps and gorillas have been able to learn rudimentary (and somewhat clumsy) sign language, you might take the time to develop a small set of useful signs to use with your party.
Don't forget that you can't cast spells.
One way your being polymorphed does limit your familiar's function is related to their delivery of touch spells. Polymorph removes all of your spellcasting ability:
The familiar would still be able to deliver any spells you sent its way, but your spellcasting has been disabled.
(Side Note: Some might argue that the wording here is ambiguous, and if your spells didn't need somatic or verbal components -- such as when using Subtle Spell metamagic -- they would require neither hands nor speech, so you could still cast them when polymorphed. This interpretation is discussed here and here.)