Rules edition: This guide uses the 2014 Player’s Handbook Dragonborn and Cleric rules, plus the optional feats in that rules set. It identifies the Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Artificer options separately. Later character options change some details; do not combine them without choosing those rules for your campaign.
A Dragonborn Cleric can gain a familiar through a feat, a multiclass, or help from another character. Each route uses a different rule. A familiar is useful for scouting, the Help action, and delivering touch spells, but it is not automatically a combat attacker or a general-purpose extra party member.
What a familiar can do
The 2014 find familiar spell gives you a spirit in an animal form. It acts on its own initiative and follows your commands. It cannot attack, but can take other actions such as Help. Within 100 feet, you can communicate with it telepathically. As an action, you can see and hear through it until the start of your next turn; while doing so, you are blind and deaf to your own surroundings.
A familiar can deliver a spell you cast with a range of touch. It must be within 100 feet and use its reaction when you cast the spell. That makes cure wounds or spare the dying possible at a distance, but the familiar still has to reach the target and can be harmed along the way. An owl’s Flyby trait can help it leave an enemy’s reach without provoking an opportunity attack; other forms do not automatically share that trait.
When the familiar reaches 0 hit points, it disappears. You can summon it again by casting find familiar; the spell takes 1 hour and consumes 10 gp of listed materials. It can also be dismissed to a pocket dimension as an action and brought back as an action. A normal familiar’s scouting and telepathy have limits: it must be within 100 feet for communication or spell delivery, and using its senses costs your action.
Ways for a Cleric to get one
Magic Initiate (Wizard)
Under the 2014 feat, Magic Initiate lets you choose two Wizard cantrips and one 1st-level Wizard spell. You can cast the chosen spell once at its lowest level, then regain that use after a long rest. Choosing find familiar gives you that one casting; the feat does not add the spell to your Cleric preparations or give you another way to recast it after the familiar disappears. This is a low-investment option if one familiar is enough for the campaign.
Ritual Caster (Wizard)
The 2014 Ritual Caster feat requires Intelligence or Wisdom 13. Choose Wizard and put find familiar among the two 1st-level rituals in your ritual book. You can then cast it as a ritual without using a spell slot, adding 10 minutes to the spell’s 1-hour casting time. The feat’s book can hold other eligible rituals too. This is the renewable feat route, though each recasting still uses the spell’s material components and casting time.
Warlock: Pact of the Chain
A Warlock does not receive Pact of the Chain at Warlock 2. The 2014 Pact Boon arrives at Warlock level 3. It teaches find familiar, allows ritual casting, and adds the imp, pseudodragon, quasit, and sprite forms. The familiar still cannot attack freely on its own turn. When you take the Attack action, you can give up one of your attacks so it can make one attack using its reaction.
The Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything invocation Investment of the Chain Master requires Pact of the Chain. It gives additional familiar benefits, including letting you use a bonus action to command it to take the Attack action. That is a separate option from the base Pact feature and competes with your other bonus actions, such as healing word or attacking with spiritual weapon. A two-level Warlock dip grants neither the Pact nor this familiar package.
Multiclassing into Warlock requires Charisma 13, as well as Wisdom 13 to multiclass as a Cleric. Legacy 2014 Dragonborn receive +1 Charisma, so that increase can help meet the Warlock minimum; it does not remove the need to reach 13. Consider the lost Cleric progression and the separate Charisma investment before choosing this route.
Artificer: Homunculus Servant
The Tasha’s/2019 Artificer requires Intelligence 13 for multiclassing. At Artificer level 2, you can choose the Homunculus Servant infusion if you meet its requirements and have the required item. This construct is a companion option, not a find familiar familiar. You can command it with a bonus action to take an action other than Dodge; it can also deliver a touch spell through its reaction while within 120 feet. This route costs two Artificer levels and depends on Intelligence, so it does not share the Cleric’s Wisdom focus.
Ranger: Beast Master
Under the original 2014 Player’s Handbook Beast Master, the companion arrives at Ranger level 3. To command it to take an action, you use your action; it takes Dodge if you issue no command. The later Primal Companion option in Tasha’s uses a bonus action to command the beast, and the revised 2024 Ranger has its own rules. These are different versions. A Cleric considering Ranger must meet both Dexterity 13 and Wisdom 13 to multiclass.
Using a companion with Cleric features
A familiar’s Help action can aid an ally’s attack when the familiar is close enough to the target. The familiar takes its own action, so this does not consume your action or bonus action. It cannot attack with Help, and a familiar cannot use spiritual weapon for you. Remember that spiritual weapon uses your bonus action, as do healing word and several companion-command features.
Life Domain’s Disciple of Life can improve healing from a qualifying spell you cast through a familiar. Order Domain’s Voice of Authority instead lets an ally targeted by your qualifying spell use a reaction to make one weapon attack; it does not grant a familiar its own attack feature. Both features depend on their printed conditions.
Light Domain’s 1st-level Warding Flare protects you when a creature you can see attacks you. At Cleric 6, Improved Warding Flare lets you use the reaction for a different visible creature within 30 feet. Only then could the feature protect a familiar in range. Trickery Domain’s Blessing of the Trickster can grant another willing creature advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks for a limited time; pass without trace can help a nearby familiar that is within the spell’s area, but neither feature makes a scout undetectable.
War Domain’s War Priest bonus attack is available after you take the Attack action, and its uses are limited by your Wisdom modifier. It does not trigger when your action is spent casting a spell. A familiar can still take its own Help action on its turn, provided it can reach the target safely.
Choose the option that fits the campaign
For repeated scouting and touch-spell delivery, Ritual Caster is a direct Cleric option. Magic Initiate offers one casting between long rests. Pact of the Chain and Homunculus Servant add more specialized companion rules, but require class levels and different ability scores; Beast Master has its own edition-dependent command costs. Ask your DM which sourcebooks and options are in use, then track the companion’s action, reaction, range, and limits as written.
Official rules sources
- 2014 Basic Rules: Spells — find familiar, delivery, senses, and limits.
- 2014 Basic Rules: Classes — Cleric, Warlock Pact Boon, and original Ranger features.
- 2014 Basic Rules: Races — legacy Dragonborn ability increases.
- 2014 Basic Rules: Customization Options — multiclass prerequisites and feats.
- D&D Beyond: Spell Spotlight — Find Familiar — familiar uses and feat access.
- Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything — optional Artificer, Primal Companion, and Chain invocation material.
Looking for more builds, subclasses, and tactics? Explore our complete D&D 5e Cleric Guide.
