One of my players want to carry his familiar on his body and says it should not be targeted by enemies because it can hide on his body?

Question

One of my players (of a rogue) said that he heard of DM's allowing the familiar to be carried on the players body. He use his familiar to help him in combat and get advantage on the attack roll.

I said it's okay for me and allowed it. But later in fight I played a goblin and obviously attacked his familiar in his pocket, to take his advantage away. He said that it shouldn't be possibly because his familiar hides in a pocket and can't be targeted. I didn't allow that because it would obviously break the game. He said that many DM's bend the rule like this and allow this.

I would like to hear whether anyone has ever allowed this change of the rules, and whether it did or will break the game.

"obviously" attacked his familiar hiding in his pocket. How did the goblin know there was a familiar hiding in his pocket? — PJRZ, Feb 21 '21 at 19:25
How is the familiar helping him in combat while hiding in his pocket? — Jon Aristotle, Feb 21 '21 at 19:35
Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already and see the [help] or ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance. Good Luck and Happy Gaming! — Someone_Evil, Feb 21 '21 at 20:02
I changed the final final line to instead of asking for a survey of opinions, to ask for experience based answers on the actual concern about whether it'll break the game. It shouldn't negate good answers, but should stave off responses which don't work here (and ain't nobody got time for that). — Someone_Evil, Feb 21 '21 at 20:09
Related question on Can my familiar hide in the same space as me? — NotArch, Feb 21 '21 at 20:46
Related and possibly another reason why the rogue player is interested in this: Can a Rogue exploit a tiny familiar for automatic Sneak Attack in melee? — Mars Plastic, Feb 21 '21 at 21:10
Does this answer your question? Does a Wizard's Familiar grant advantage on every roll? (The wizard has a rat familiar hiding in his robe, exactly like here). — Peter Cordes, Feb 22 '21 at 07:41

Steve · Answer 1 · 2021-02-21T20:36:55.380

I don't see how a familiar hiding in a pocket is doing anything beneficial in the fight but maybe there's more to it than you've described.

Personally, I'd allow the familiar to hide if it made sense that it could do so, taking size and other factors into account. But to be useful and give the Rogue advantage, the familiar needs to use the Help action.

Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s Attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first Attack roll is made with advantage.

The familiar would have to make itself at least visible for this to happen and from that point I'd rule it can be attacked, either directly on the Goblin's turn or by holding an Attack action until the familiar next tried to Help.

I would rule against a player getting continual, never-ending advantage because a familiar was hiding on them and never being exposed to danger. It isn't game breaking but it is quite strong.

A very good comment was asked about creatures sharing the same space, which I didn't mention at all so I'm adding it now. This is a personal ruling for how I'd handle it. I have no issue with a tiny creature hiding on a medium sized player, a rat fitting in a pocket kinda thing, but for the Help action to be done the familiar would have to move into an adjacent square, perform its distraction and move back. This is to allow for targeting the familiar in the simplest way. It's really just a mechanical description for something that could just as easily be ignored.

One of my players want to carry his familiar on his body and says it should not be targeted by enemies because it can hide on his body?

1 Answers1