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Mars Plastic
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Can a petrified wizard communicate telepathically with their familiar?

The wizard in my campaign has just been petrified after his first encounter with a cockatrice. He had his familiar 'out' at the time of his petrification.

I'm sure that the intent of the rules is that this wizard can not communicate with his familiar whilst petrified (although I welcome suggestions to the contrary). However, I can't find anything in the rules which explicitly forbids it. The petrified condition imposes the following limitations (ignoring those with no bearing on this ruling):

  • A petrified creature is transformed, along with any nonmagical object it is wearing or carrying, into a solid inanimate substance (usually stone).
  • The creature is incapacitated
  • The creature can’t move or speak
  • The creature is unaware of its surroundings.

The incapacitated condition means only that the target can't take actions or reactions.

Communicating telepathically with the familiar conjured by the Find Familiar only requires that the familiar is within 100 feet of you. It does not:

  • Require an action
  • (Explicitly) require awareness of surroundings
  • Require movement or speech

Is it therefore possible (according to RAW) for a wizard to communicate telepathically with their familiar whilst petrified?

Lovell
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