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Pact of the Chain Warlocks have access to an invocation called Voice of the Chain Master:

Voice of the Chain Master

Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain feature

You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

One of the limitations of the Druid's Wild Shape feature is as follows:

You can't cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form.

If a Druid/Warlock multiclass had this invocation, could they speak through their familiar, even while using Wild Shape to assume a form that does not have any languages?

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2 Answers 2

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Voice of the Chain Master:

Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.
{Emphasis mine}

Wild shape:

You can't cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form.
{Emphasis mine}

As the rules are written you don't have a voice if you wildshape into, say, a bear and therefore Voice of the Chain Master wouldn't work. If you wildshaped into something that could speak then you can use it.

Voice of the Chain Master makes the distinction between telepathy, which allows you to communicate with your familiar, and speaking through them. With that distinction in mind, the rules appear to state that your wildshaped form must be capable of speech also.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Could a familiar in this scenario roar like a bear? Bears have a voice, even if they can't use it to speak. \$\endgroup\$
    – Upper_Case
    Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 20:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Well, to speak means to say something but I get your point. A roar can express a feeling so...maybe? But a bear wouldn't be able to speak in common through the familiar. \$\endgroup\$
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 20:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ I don't know about the actual official rules but as a DM I most certainly would let the familiar roar in that case. Plus imagine any of the small familiar options roaring like a bear. It would be the funniest thing. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 22:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ I agree. The rule of cool is still important. \$\endgroup\$
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 22:26
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The druid rules assume that you would be using your own form to speak or cast spells. Since you aren't speaking in or casting spells in the way it means, I don't see a problem with it. I think the idea behind the rule is that animals can't normally speak because their vocal chords and mouth and tongues aren't designed to do so.

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