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Further to the question "How to determine if an animal is a familiar or a regular beast?", can the original form of a familiar be detected by Truesight?

PHB pg 185 includes the following in the description of Truesight:

"perceives the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic."

PHB pg 240 includes the following in the description of the Find Familiar spell:

Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast."

Where it gets more complicated is that also in the description of the Find Familiar spell, it indicates:

You gain the services of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose

I found this question "Is a soul or spirit a creature?" regarding creatures and spirits, but I don't believe the answer addresses whether a spirit is a creature.

I also found this question "What exactly is a fey fiend celestial spirit?" regarding spirits, but again I don't believe it addresses whether a spirit is a creature (although it is very long so I may have missed something).

However, MM pg 279 includes this in the description of the Specter (Wights and Wraiths also have references to being spirits):

A specter is the angry, unfettered spirit of a humanoid

Accordingly, has the celestial, fey or fiend been "transformed by magic", and is its spirit a "creature", such that its original form would be apparent to someone with Truesight?

Someone_Evil
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Weiramon
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2 Answers2

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No.

Spells do what they say they do; 5e has no hidden rules. The Find Familiar spell doesn't say it conjures a creature and then transforms it, so it doesn't. You can't see its true, original form with Truesight, because there is no true, original form to see. The first time the spirit has a stat block is once it's become your familiar, so that is its true form, and that is the form that would be seen by Truesight.

Eddymage
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nick012000
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  • Please cite your sources for every claim in the first three sentences of this. – Mark Wells Feb 25 '21 at 02:03
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    @MarkWells The first sentence is a general principle of 5e that comes up so often here that it probably doesn't need to be cited. As for the second or third sentences, just imagine that there's a link to the DnD Beyond page for the Find Familiar spell where it says "Find Familiar spell" in the second sentence. I'm on mobile at the moment, so the GUI to add links to my answers isn't displaying when I edit my answer. – nick012000 Feb 25 '21 at 02:15
  • @nick012000 good point - I believe the spell description is unclear whether the familiar is conjured or just shows up, but it is more explcit that the familiar is "a spirit that takes an animal form". "Taking form" as a creature appears to me that the animal form would be the original form, hence the different language used compared to a spell like Polymorph where it refers to transforming. – Weiramon Feb 25 '21 at 06:22
  • So readers don't have to hunt for it themselves, it would be worth quoting truesight "perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic" then point out the relevant quote in find familiar "You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose" – GcL Feb 25 '21 at 14:50
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    Also worth noting some later text in the Find Familiar spell: "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." This seems pretty clearly to transform the familiar by magic, but I still think the original text of "takes an animal form" is less clear. To me, it still wouldn't make sense to rule that transforming an existing familiar causes the original form to be visible to truesight; because then what happens if you magically transform it back? – Zaelin Goodman Feb 26 '21 at 14:45
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Yes

Whether a “spirit” is a creature or a teapot doesn’t matter - the familiar is and is explicitly changed from a spirit to a beast by magic so that engages the “creature that is transformed by magic." True sight will allow you to see its original form.

NotArch
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Dale M
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    Expanding on Medix's comment, it seems your answer should substantiate the idea that there are not corporeal Fey cats running around the Feywild waiting to be summoned with no need for shapechanging. – Thomas Markov Feb 24 '21 at 20:13
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    The natural follow up question to address here would be what the form is like, or whether it is at all defined. You say the true form is seen, so what is that? – Someone_Evil Feb 24 '21 at 20:48
  • I don't disagree with the conclusion of this answer, but I disagree with the reasoning that it "doesn't matter" whether a spirit is a creature or not. To the contrary, I think that is the crux of the matter. In any event a teapot that is physically transformed into something else (as opposed to an illusion cast over it) would not be detected by Truesight as per my understanding of the definition of Truesight in the PHB. – Weiramon Feb 24 '21 at 21:15
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    @Weiramon If the spirit was somehow not a creature, and now is, then it's a creature that is transformed by magic. – Mark Wells Feb 24 '21 at 21:26
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    @Someone_Evil That's a separate question, if you want to ask it. – KorvinStarmast Feb 24 '21 at 21:30
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    @Weiramon see also true polymorph creature into object, and object into creature ... true sight would reveal that – KorvinStarmast Feb 24 '21 at 21:33
  • @KorvinStarmast I was thinking of objects transformed into objects (eg. via Fabricate and Stone Shape). I had not considered True Polymorph. I am having difficulty with the semantics because the fey,fiend,or celestial spirit has been transformed (well, taken an animal form at least), but the creature bat, cat, crab etc.has not yet been subject to transformation. – Weiramon Feb 25 '21 at 01:27
  • @KorvinStarmast (cont'd) For example, the wording in Polymorph indicates "The spell transforms a creature that you can see within range into a new form." Whereas Find Familiar indicates "a spirit that .takes an animal form." It's clear to me that the spirit has transformed, it is not clear to me that a creature has transformed, hence why I believe the crux of the matter is whether a spirit is a creature or not. But maybe I am getting lost in semantics. – Weiramon Feb 25 '21 at 01:27