If you’re looking for a way to warn your allies a town away, torture your nemesis with flying snakes, or even up-end an economy by interrupting a daily event with screaming rats, animal messenger might be for you.
Today we’re looking at one of the most abused spells in DnD 5e, Animal Messenger. It’s a 2nd level enchantment spell that lasts for 24 hours. Similar to Animal friendship, Bards, druids, and rangers can use this spell which comes from the player’s handbook. And good news for you ritual casters out there, you can cast this as a ritual, or spend one action.
TL;DR you pick a tiny beast, give it a location and a short message and it can then run and tell the roughly described individual that message in your voice.
This spell is interesting because it gives a lot of “such as” examples, which not too many other spells do. If you just want to get to the chaotic and somewhat breaking uses of this spell, go ahead and forward on to the “uses” chapter. To better understand how players break this spell, let’s take a look at the rules as written.
Who Can Cast Animal Messenger in DnD 5e?
Available to Bards, Druids, and Rangers can cast Animal Messenger to send a message via a Tiny beast for a duration of 24 hours (or until the message is delivered).
What School of Magic is Animal Messenger From?
In DnD 5e, Animal Friendship is an Enchantment spell
What are the Rules As Written for Animal Messenger in DnD 5e?
By means of this spell, you use an animal to deliver a message. Choose a Tiny beast you can see within range, such as a squirrel, a blue jay, or a bat. You specify a location, which you must have visited, and a recipient who matches a general description, such as “a man or woman dressed in the uniform of the town guard” or “a red-haired dwarf wearing a pointed hat.” You also speak a message of up to twenty-five words. The target beast travels for the duration of the spell toward the specified location, covering about 50 miles per 24 hours for a flying messenger, or 25 miles for other animals.
When the messenger arrives, it delivers your message to the creature that you described, replicating the sound of your voice. The messenger speaks only to a creature matching the description you gave. If the messenger doesn’t reach its destination before the spell ends, the message is lost, and the beast makes its way back to where you cast this spell.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the duration of the spell increases by 48 hours for each slot level above 2nd.
Starting with the flavor text, By means of this spell, you use an animal to deliver a message. Easy enough.
Choose a Tiny beast you can see within range, such as a squirrel, a blue jay, or a bat. Beast. Specifically, Tiny Beast.
You specify a location, which you must have visited, and a recipient who matches a general description, such as “a man or woman dressed in the uniform of the town guard” or “a red-haired dwarf wearing a pointed hat.” You’ve been there before and know someone there, you must be specific about their features. If you say “a man in chain mail” that could lead to the tiny beast talking to any man in chain mail. Give some identifying characteristics or risk the consequences.
You also speak a message of up to twenty-five words. 25, max! Any more and the creature won’t remember. After all they are essentially opening their mouths and letting your magic voice come out.
The target beast travels for the duration of the spell toward the specified location, covering about 50 miles per 24 hours for a flying messenger, or 25 miles for other animals. Got it, 24 hours max or however long it takes under 24 hours to get to the destination and the desired recipient. The distances are a bit interesting, but they are at least specific. More on that later.
When the messenger arrives, it delivers your message to the creature that you described, replicating the sound of your voice. The described creature, again, remember to be specific!
The messenger speaks only to a creature matching the description you gave. RAW really wants you to be specific on this description, as does your DM I’m sure.
If the messenger doesn’t reach its destination before the spell ends, the message is lost, and the beast makes its way back to where you cast this spell. Think of Dory from Finding Nemo, but a 24-hour attention span. If they don’t get there they snap out of it and abandon the mission.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the duration of the spell increases by 48 hours for each slot level above 2nd. Ritual casting AND upcasting? Interesting. You can’t do both at the same time, but most spells don’t give you an upcast option if it’s also a ritual.
* – (a morsel of food)
One thing to note here, there’s absolutely zero save action on the Tiny Beast’s side. It has to do what it is commanded to do. Doesn’t matter the Intelligence, Wisdom, nothing.
Distance-wise, an adventuring party can typically cover 24 miles in one day, uninterrupted, on normal terrain.
There’s also no rules on whether or not you can attach something to the Tiny Beast, so something to consider as we go through Uses. You’d probably need an Animal Handling check to make sure you don’t spook it while you are attaching said object, but DM discretion there.
There’s also nothing to say the field mouse you gave a super secret whisper to won’t get snatched up by a predator on the way to its destination, so make sure to clear things up at your table when possible.
AND There’s no knowing whether or not the cartographer you are trying to send your message to will be in town at that exact moment.
Lots of gaps in these rules.
What are the Best Uses of Animal Messenger in DnD 5e?
Let’s start with the standard uses and progressively get more unhinged.
The intent is to set up some sort of communication channels between you and a place you’ve been.
Remember too, there’s no save in Animal Messenger, so rules as written, the animal just has to do this. Taking only one action, mid-combat you could tell it to go and it would go. The message doesn’t even matter at that point.
- Your party is going south, but you need to warn the town in the north about something. Animal Messenger let’s you tell a nearby badger to go warn the mayor in the bright green suit. Simple enough and let’s you rest easy knowing that the town will be ready for the impending cranium rat horde charging toward them.
- Technically velociraptors and stirges fit into this, so you could send them into an enemy encampment you’ve been to and deliver a strange message. When the velociraptor has given the message and snaps out of your enchantment, they’re likely going to start chasing after everyone in that camp because of their primal urges.
- Open your own postal system with Pigeons and Crows.
- You could also send fake quest hooks to your rival in town, tricking them into dangerous or deadly situations.
- You could probably even strap a magical proximity mine to the animal messenger, though that has a negative effect on the fuzzy little friend even if it does harm your enemy.
Now we get real unhinged. Ready for this?
There was a reddit thread four years ago that highlights how amazingly creative and chaotic players can get with Animal Messenger.
- Because you can cast Animal Messenger as a ritual, you could spend an entire day sending a new tiny beast every 11 minutes, for a grand total of 130 messengers in one day. There is no rule against corralling those critters and releasing them all at once, but keep in mind you’ll have a 24 hour timer on each.
- From Hytheter: “Imagine that five times an hour a raven shows up at your window and says “nevermore” or “I’m coming for you, Derek.” The messengers 50 miles to their destination, so you could keep feeding all the birds in a town and then send them en masse to anyone within soaring distance, which could be as far as a neighbouring city.”
- From 500lb: “The message is delivered in your voice, so my bard used the “capture and release all at once” method to create a choir of animals to announce the party’s entry to a big city.”
- From King Owlbear: “Rats have a strength score of 2. Which means that they can easily carry the weight of a torch. Tie a torch to the tail and light it. Telling it to go to somewhere at the other end of town. At least one of the 130 torch rats will set a significant fire somewhere.”
The creative uses are endless. Let us know the best usage of Animal Messenger you’ve seen!
Side note, Animal Messenger is a great low-cost way for DMs to get messages to the party while they’re traveling.
What’s The Difference Between Animal Handling and Animal Messenger in DnD 5e?
Animal Handling is much more for uses of calming animals, while Animal Messenger near-guarantees the delivery of a message to an individual in your own voice. Rules and restrictions above apply.
History of Animal Messenger Across DnD Editions
Originally Animal Messenger forced the caster to tie a note of some sort to the creature instead of it projecting the casters voice.
It wasn’t until fourth edition that Animal Messenger added the ability for the creature to speak as you. The distances were added as well, then ported into fifth edition.
Nothing major in change other than some mechanics which now allow the spell to be even more chaotic.
Final Thoughts on Animal Messenger Spell in DnD 5e
This is an extremely fun spell to have at your disposal, especially if you’re a ritual caster. If nothing else, do it for the shenanigans.
As far as we know, this is the official list of named Tiny Beasts across all the books in DnD, but you can obviously add your own.
