D&D 5E Gust of wind vs breath weapon

[Croesus]

I think if my Druid Readied an action to cast or redirect Gust of Wind as the green dragon breathed I would allow that to disperse the gas (if outside). It seems the best ruling for imaginative play, and the Druid is giving up an action to Ready. My thinking is that the gas is static and has to hang there for a bit to poison foes, whereas other breath weapons are kinetic. I could imagine allowing other spells to negate different breath weapon attacks also. Of course after the first time the dragon would change tactics.

As a house rule, that's fine. However, I can see significant consequences. For example, the party wizard casts a spell at the bad guys. The enemy wizard has readied a wall spell (doesn't matter which one). He casts the wall 5' in front of the wizard, which blocks line of effect, so the spell fails. And if the spell happens to be fireball? A reasonable ruling is that the fireball impacts the wall and explodes there, engulfing the wizard. Suddenly there are a lot more options to block spells - including those from the party - than just using counterspell.

Other issues with changing readied actions: What if I swing at and injure the wizard as he casts his spell? Does the spell fail? What if I trip the party barbarian as he's swinging his sword in an attack? Does he attack prone? There would be a literally infinite number of possibilities, each of which would have to be adjudicated by the GM. I like that the current edition embraces "rulings, not rules", but that puts the burden on the GM to be consistent, and that looks awfully difficult once you change the order in which triggering/readied actions occur. YMMV.

 

[Blue]

I think if my Druid Readied an action to cast or redirect Gust of Wind as the green dragon breathed I would allow that to disperse the gas (if outside). It seems the best ruling for imaginative play, and the Druid is giving up an action to Ready. My thinking is that the gas is static and has to hang there for a bit to poison foes, whereas other breath weapons are kinetic. I could imagine allowing other spells to negate different breath weapon attacks also. Of course after the first time the dragon would change tactics.

Not is the druid giving up an action to ready, but by the readying rules you cast the spell (using the slot), and it takes concentration until cast so any other concentration effects go down. And if the trigger doesn't go off the slot is wasted.

I'd definitely let that sort of creativity work. At least once.

 

[Croesus]

Not is the druid giving up an action to ready, but by the readying rules you cast the spell (using the slot), and it takes concentration until cast so any other concentration effects go down. And if the trigger doesn't go off the slot is wasted.

I'd definitely let that sort of creativity work. At least once.

Yep, it's definitely creative and not unbalanced. In fact, given that the dragon might not even include the druid in the area of effect, the druid might end up wasting his action completely. So as a one-off tactic, it doesn't cause any balance or rule problems. If one expands this tactic to allow other things to be done before a triggering action...then things get messy.

 

[Quickleaf]

When fighting a green dragon a druid of my group took a ready action to counter the dragon's cone of gas breath weapon, so as the spell's description implied it disperse any gas, I allowed it but it got a little confusing the next few rounds when it breaths again.... How would you had rule it? And what about other kinds of Dragóns? (white, red, black)

I totally agree with the rule of cool. Using gust of wind as a counter to a green dragon's breath weapon expelling a gaseous poison cloud. Awesome idea!

The only question is: How effective should this be in terms of balance compared to other spells?

For example, in Elemental Evil there's a 1st-level spell called absorb elements that, as a reaction, gives a PC resistance to one incoming type of damage, and that resistance lasts until the start of their next turn. And then on top of this it adds a d6 of damage of that type to your next attack.

So I'd say Readied Action: gust of wind providing a group of PCs resistance to damage from a poison gas, and able to concentrate to sustain that, is pretty balanced for 1st-level.

If the player really wants to negate the breath weapon entirely, then I'd look into options for casting the spell with a higher level spell slot. Not sure what that would be, but my hunch is a 3rd or 4th level slot.

 

[EvanNave55]

Personally I think I'd rule it as changing the type of area of effect for breath weapons.

So as the two forces collide it causes them to swirl around at the point of impact (around the dragons mouth)

Mechanically this would change a breath weapon from a line/ cone effect to a radius effect centered at the front of the dragon.

Sent from my XT1080 using EN World mobile app

 

[Imaculata]

I would always encourage the clever use of magic, because it makes it extra cool. Just be wary that low level spells should not completely negate the attacks of very powerful opponents.

 

[Jester David]

Cool idea.
Depending on the positioning of the gust of wind and proximity to the dragon, I'd have given advantage on saving throws to one or all people affected. Or even negated: it is a second level spell that eats up concentration and is a *really* strong wind.

A blue dragon's lightning. No way.
A black dragon's acid... I think it just becomes a cloud centred where the breath weapon hits the wind. Ditto the white dragon's frost breath. It just sprays everywhere.
Fire and the cloud of poison. Sure.