What are the official options for alternate familiars using the Find Familiar spell?

Question

Other than the options listed under the find familiar spell in the PHB, and the Pact of the Chain warlock, what other official options are available for familiars that can be summoned by find familiar?

For example, on page 221 of Tomb of Annihilation, we see:

With the DM's permission, the find familiar spell can summon a flying monkey.

I know that several monsters have a "Variant: Familiar" option (which refers to actual creatures of that kind that form a contract to serve as an NPC spellcaster's familiar). This is not about those, but about creatures that offer an option to work with the find familiar spell.

Answer 1

I have no idea if this is all of them, but I have found the following in the books I have access to.

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Individual monster entries from adventures whose description states that the creature can be added to the options for find familiar at the DM's discretion:

• Tressym (Storm King's Thunder, p. 243):

  With the DM’s permission, a person who casts the find familiar spell can choose to conjure a tressym instead of a normal cat.

• Almiraj (Tomb of Annihilation, p. 211)

• Flying Monkey (Tomb of Annihilation, p. 221)

• Abyssal Chicken (Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, p. 96, under "Spawning Trees"):

  With your permission, a character who casts the find familiar spell can henceforth choose to conjure an abyssal chicken instead of a raven.

Additional options listed in a section preceding all monster entries in an adventure:

• Fox and Hare (Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, p. 268, under the "Appendix C: Creatures" header):

  If the adventuring party includes a wizard who can prepare the find familiar spell, consider allowing the wizard to add the fox and the hare to the spell’s list of eligible familiars.

Specific creatures from adventures that can become a familiar usable with the find familiar spell, as listed in a specific location in the adventure:

• Albino Gazer (Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, p. 105):

  A wizard character can befriend it with a successful DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion) check and turn it into their familiar with a find familiar ritual.

• Virgil (Ghosts of Saltmarsh, p. 159, as detailed in the "Restoring Virgil" sidebar):

  Any character who can cast find familiar can attempt to restore Virgil to its former role, taking the gull as their own familiar. To accomplish this, the character must earn Virgil’s trust, contemplate the nature of conjuration magic, and finally cast find familiar.

Answer 2

Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos provides five more options through a feat.

The feat Strixhaven Mascot provides five new options, one for each of Strixhaven's five colleges (Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, p. 37):

Strixhaven Mascot

Prerequisite: 4th Level, Strixhaven Initiate Feat

You have learned how to summon a Strixhaven mascot to assist you, granting you these benefits:

• You can cast the find familiar spell as a ritual. Your familiar can take the form of the mascot associated with the college you chose for the Strixhaven Initiate feat: a spirit statue mascot (Lorehold), an art elemental mascot (Prismari), a fractal mascot (Quandrix), an inkling mascot (Silverquill), or a pest mascot (Witherbloom). Stat blocks for these creatures appear in chapter 7.

Answer 3

It's a bit of an edge case, given the question's parameters, but Chapter 2 of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons does provide the option of a Draconic Gift called Draconic Familiar, which states:

You can cast the find familiar spell as a ritual without using any material components. When you cast the spell in this way, your familiar always takes the form of a pseudodragon.

Additionally, when you take the Attack action on your turn, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your pseudodragon familiar to make one attack of its own with its reaction.

While you would need a DM to grant you the gift in order to summon a pseudodragon in this way, it still does use the find familiar spell, so the creature type and other abilities are the same as other "standard" familiars, with the added benefit of getting to attack with it as well.

Answer 4

This isn't a standard Forgotten Realms option, but Mythic Odysseys of Theros also lists the Anvilwrought Raptor as a variant familiar, with the specific condition that:

VARIANT: ANVILWROUGHT RAPTOR FAMILIAR

Some anvilwrought raptors are created expressly to be familiars. Such creatures have the following trait.

Familiar. The anvilwrought can serve another creature as a familiar, forming a magical, telepathic bond with its willing master. While the two are bonded, the master can sense what the anvilwrought senses, as long as they are within 1 mile of each other.

Answer 5

WotC also released 4 familiars as D&D Legacy Awards, consisting of:

1. gelatinous ice cube (using oblex spawn stats)
2. chwinga squidling (using stirge stats with no flying speed)
3. snowy owlbear cub (using cat stats; meh)
4. arctic stink squirrel [i.e. skunk] (using weasel stats - can cast stinking cloud 1/day, save DC 11)

Since they were released during D&D Celebration 2020, there isn't any working link to the source anymore. But you can check Nerd Immersion's videos:

• https://youtu.be/ibnczO0zi5w (gelatinous ice cube)
• https://youtu.be/wjI50PvtApk (arctic stink squirrel and snowy owlbear cub)
• https://youtu.be/dx5T-iJ0uVw (chwinga squidling)

Answer 6

Not necessarily "official," but an option. First (AD&D) edition has a 'special' form that can be summoned with the right roll. Say a DC 20 allowing for proficiency (level & ability) bonuses to succeed. The special form depends on the caster's alignment. . Chaotic E or CN: Quasit . Lawful E or NE: Imp . Lawful G or N: Brownie . Chaotic G, NE, or N: Pseudo-dragon A brownie isn't a pre junior girl scout in.this case; it's a pixie without wings.

There are also a lot of options for warlocks, depending upon the school / campaign / patron if you Google that.

Some odd but powerful cool ones can be found in The Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu mythos guide (brazen head, brain cylinder).