Familiars and the Attack Action

The Find Familiar spell summons a spirit that takes the form of a small beast. Familiars have specific restrictions on what they can do in combat.

A familiar can't attack. The spell explicitly states that a familiar can't take the Attack action, regardless of the stat block of the form it takes. Even if the beast form has natural weapons listed, the familiar cannot use them to attack.

What familiars CAN do:

• Deliver touch spells: When you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast it, using its reaction.
• Take other actions: Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, Hide, Search, Use an Object.
• The Help action is particularly valuable — your familiar can fly adjacent to an enemy and use Help to give an ally advantage on their next attack roll against that target.

Pact of the Chain exception: Warlocks with Pact of the Chain can command their familiar to attack using a bonus action (forgoing one of the Warlock's own attacks). This is a specific class feature override.