What happens if you use the Optional Class Feature ‘Wild Companion’ when you already have a Familiar already summoned from the spell

class-featurednd-5edruidfamiliarsstacking

I am mainly asking for the purpose of answering Is it possible to have two familiars? Noting that effects from the 'same' spell don't overlap.

The Wild Companion ability reads as:

You gain the ability to summon a spirit that assumes an animal form: as an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to cast the find familiar spell, without material components.

When you cast the spell in this way, the familiar is a fey instead of a beast, and the familiar disappears after a number of hours equal to half your druid level.

Is this the same spell for the purpose of overlapping (duration, material components, casting time and type of creature summoned are all different)? Does it bypass this part of the Find Familiar spell?

You can't have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature.

Obviously the druid would need some way to gain the spell separately, either through multi-classing or a feat (Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate perhaps).

So does summoning a familiar from the Wild Companion ability cause your non-wild companion familiar to transform into a fey creature for an hour before disappearing or do you (temporarily) get two familiars? Or is it something else?

Best Answer

Casting find familiar is casting find familiar

Wild Companion states:

You gain the ability to summon a spirit that assumes an animal form: as an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to cast the find familiar spell, without material components.

This counts as casting find familiar, so anything that activates on casting find familiar would occur. Quoting find familiar, this includes:

[...] You can't have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. [...]

So, because you are casting the spell again, you do not get a new familiar.