Familiars

Creatures who become a familiar

The focus of this article is on a Creature.  For rulings on the Familiar Spell see: Spell: Familiar - Checks 

All Actual creatures who can choose to become a familiar (Gazer, Imp, Pseudodragon, Quasit and Oculider) have the defined trait:

The ____ can serve another creature as a familiar, forming a telepathic bond with its willing master, provided that the master is at least a 3rd-level spellcaster. While the two are bonded, the master can sense what the ___ senses as long as they are within 1 mile of each other. If its master causes it physical harm, the ___ will end its service as a familiar, breaking the telepathic bond.

  The Find Familiar spell says:

...While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses...

  These are not the same thing... but ... Let's set some ground rules.

For the Spell, clearly the limit is 100 feet. Beyond that, the creature acts on it's own and is limited to its own stats. So this raises the question: Can a spider with an intelligence of 1 go off on its own and then report back details of its findings?

My thought: Investigation is INT based but perception is WIS based. Spiders can perceive things, but not investigate and figure things out. So if you're within 100feet you can use your INT to have a spider inside a room investigate stuff because you have a direct link. But beyond 100 feet I wouldn't expect a detailed and accurate report. I'd say going forward we do an INT check of the spider to see if it remembers specifics of what it perceived.

For the creature. Within a mile you can sense what the creature senses is rather vague. It could be interpreted literally as the ability to feel all 5 senses and not just sight and sound. It is also reasonable to interpret "sense" like "you get a vague sense of." Like ET and Eliot (if you have ever seen that movie.) The description also does not specifically say use your own senses during this time (like the spell.) Also unlike the spell, the creature is free to end this relationship for any reason at any time and if it dies, it's gone forever.

So we can do this a number of ways. I want to keep some balance with it so I want to make a proposal that I think is balanced. It's pretty much the way Jacob/Lucky has been playing but I want to spell it out.

1. You always have the general sense of what the creature senses emotionally. If it's lonely you can sense it. If it's hungry you can sense it. If it has a sudden fear you can sense it and then tap into the mental connection to get more specifics.
2. If you want to have full senses (sight, sound, taste, hearing, feeling) we can do that but you have to put yourself into a deep mental connection (like the spell) and you lose your physical senses during this time.

In either case the creature is much more independent than the spell version and still limited by its stats. So while you may not want it to eat a pet dog, it is under no specific compulsion to obey. With a low intelligence it may not recognize or remember that creatures with collars are a no no. However, as long as there is a bond and it's treated well, it's not going to go out of its way to upset its master. Having said that, it will never harm the party or a creature clearly held by the party unless it has reason. It won't like to be made fun of or poked, prodded or teased. It thinks that it is beautiful and likes words of affirmation. Lucky and the party have treated it very well and so far and therefore Bitey likes them all.