D&D 1E How many spells can you cast per round if casting time is less than 1 round?

[Emirikol]

How many spells can you cast per round if casting time is less than 1 round?
I noticed that Command's casting time is only 1 segment.
Also, does this coordinate with Weapon Speed time?
If a spell has a 1 round casting time, does that mean that the caster simply cannot move that round?

 

[aco175]

Man, 1e was a long time ago. I believe casting time and weapon speed was the same essentially with a segment being 1/10th of a round. This could mean that you start something this round and finish next round. You are still limited to one spell per round, kind of like 1 attack with a sword.

 

[John R Davis]

Have recently returned to 1e and have desperately been trying to work though all the ad hocness of this:
Weapon speed and casting time only seem important in regard to " how many segments of time you have to do stuff during surprise" which actually happens quite a lot.
A round is 10 segments, so you have next to no chance of casting that spell during surprise.
Bless is a round to cast; so goes off at the start of your go, the round after you start to cast? Very poor spell in 1e as it only affects non combatants. Only cast pre combat really

 

[Nikosandros]

How many spells can you cast per round if casting time is less than 1 round?
I noticed that Command's casting time is only 1 segment.

No, just one spell per round.

Also, does this coordinate with Weapon Speed time?

This is rather complicated. According to the DMG (p. 66), you should subtract the losing side's initiative roll from the weapon's speed factor (for some weird reason, you must take the absolute value of the result, i.e. a negative number becomes positive) and compare it with the casting time of the spell. On the previous page, there is a much simpler rule: attacks on spell casters arrive first if the caster's side lost initiative, otherwise they arrive on the segment indicated by their side initiative roll. I suggest using this rule and ignoring speed factors.

If a spell has a 1 round casting time, does that mean that the caster simply cannot move that round?

Yes.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

How many spells can you cast per round if casting time is less than 1 round?

One. Only one. This is a consistent thing across every edition of D&D. Weapon attacks can increase and decrease wildly, but casters ONLY ever get one spell per round to cast. With possible exceptions - because AD&D loves exceptions to every damn thing. It's possible that a DM borrows abilities from post-1E rules that permit things like "Twin spells" and "multi-spell". In the rules such things would be taken from, however, even such sacrilegious abilities were severely limited to never get blown out of proportion. And I think maybe there's an item or two that permits, say, casting a spell, and then an additional use of a spell stored in an item. Not quite the same thing as casting more than one spell - but close, and yet still very highly controlled so as to not screw up the whole game (which such stuff very easily can in a hurry).

Spells have OTHER controls (level of spell, components, saving throws, areas of effect, and whatever restrictions the description itself might give such as permitted targets, not using all the effects at once, adjustments to saves and damage for this and that...) that adjust their power and permitting multiple spells in a round without severe restriction just would knock all the normal controls into a cocked hat.

I noticed that Command's casting time is only 1 segment.
Also, does this coordinate with Weapon Speed time?
If a spell has a 1 round casting time, does that mean that the caster simply cannot move that round?

Much depends on the actual casting rules and especially initiative rules being used. 1E initiative is a mess and it is RARE INDEED that anyone really, truly attempts to use it by the book. Even people who literally say, "I use by-the-book initiative," will ALWAYS have an additional, "...except I do this and that and something else to change it." Mostly, where a 1E game is using Casting Time and Weapon Speed, then, YES, it makes an important difference, which is why those data are even in use. But overwhelmingly the importance of spell versus weapons is the spell user wants to be FIRST to complete their action to avoid even the possibility of their casting then being interrupted or disrupted by weapons. And by the book initiative in 1E still permits casters with 1 segment spells and who have WON initiative rolls to still be attacked by weapons. So, yes, the ACTUAL rules an individual DM uses cannot be overlooked.

And yes, 1 round casting time means that the caster simply cannot move.

 

[Cruentus]

When we played 1e I think we played it this way, its been awhile:

Initiative was d10 + Weapon Speed Factor/Casting Time. So a sword with speed factor 7 + d10 roll of 5 = Init 12 for that character. If you cast a 1 segment spell, it was your D10 roll (say 8), plus the 1 segment = Init 9. So the spell goes off before the sword strike.

1e also had a host of other modifiers you could add to the equation, but the above was what we used at its most basic.

If you had a casting time of 1 Round, you had to stand still, and I think the spell went off at the very end of that round (you basically acted last). I think that's how we played it, and likely not the correct one. We didn't want to mess with rolling over segments into the next round of any of that kind of stuff.

 

[glass]

One. Only one. This is a consistent thing across every edition of D&D.

Every edition except 3.0 (quickened spells, haste, time stop), 3.5 (quickened spells, time stop), 4e (minor-action spells, move-action spells, action points), 5e (bonus-action spells, time stop again)?

Initiative was d10 + Weapon Speed Factor/Casting Time. So a sword with speed factor 7 + d10 roll of 5 = Init 12 for that character. If you cast a 1 segment spell, it was your D10 roll (say 8), plus the 1 segment = Init 9. So the spell goes off before the sword strike.

Apart from using the word "segment" that sounds a lot like 2e initiative. I am not a 1e expert, my my impression is it was much more complicated than 2e.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Every edition except 3.0 (quickened spells, haste, time stop), 3.5 (quickened spells, time stop), 4e (minor-action spells, move-action spells, action points), 5e (bonus-action spells, time stop again)?

The question is tagged as dealing with 1E so my answer was framed accordingly. I also SAID there would be exceptions (even in 1E), and yes, in 3E quickened spells do make for one of those exceptions. Haste, however, does not make one of those exceptions in 3E and in fact SPECIFICALLY says in the description you can't cast multiple spells with it. Time Stop in any edition is another matter entirely.

In 1E it essentially breaks the normal flow and function of the round. It really doesn't give the ability to, say, cast multiple spells "in a round" - it interrupts the round, effectively "inserts time" into that instant, freezing time for those in the area of the spell other than the caster, allowing the caster multiple segments of activity to take, which can be used for drinking potions, casting spells, moving within the spell area, and then returns the flow of time to the point where the round was interrupted. The truly broken part (that is to mean, disfunctional) is that time is NOT frozen for those OUTSIDE the area of the spell so for them the same amount of time passes as for the caster allowing THEM just as much time to do whatever they would like to do. Thus, only for some people will it APPEAR that the caster is able to cast multiple spells in a single round.

4E - well, I'd have to admit complete willful ignorance because it's just too different from anything I know as D&D both in what it does and how it does it, but it's still covered by "there will be exceptions". 5E... again, there are exceptions, but AS A RULE, in any edition of D&D, you don't get to cast multiple spells in one round. That's true even if every edition does have exceptions TO THAT RULE. The exceptions then explain how it is they break, suspend, ignore, or otherwise deal with the rule.

 

[glass]

The question is tagged as dealing with 1E so my answer was framed accordingly.

Are you really claiming that when you said...

across every edition of D&D

...you actually meant only 1e? Because if so you need to work on your word choices. If you had actually been talking purely about 1e, I would not have said anything because it is not my area of expertise. But you made a claim about all editions of D&D, and it was simply not true, so you should expect to be corrected.

You did mention "possible exceptions", but none of the things I mentioned are exceptions to any rule, because there is no general rule that you can only cast one spell in a round in any of the edition I mentioned - you can cast as many spells as you have actions for.

Haste, however, does not make one of those exceptions in 3E and in fact SPECIFICALLY says in the description you can't cast multiple spells with it. Time Stop in any edition is another matter entirely.

No. From my 3.0 PHB:

The transmuted creature moves and acts more quickly than normal. This extra speed has several effects.
On his turn, the subject may take an extra partial action, either before or after his regular action.
He gains a +4 haste bonus to AC. He loses this bonus whenever he would lose a dodge bonus.
He can jump one and a half times as far as normal. This increase counts as an enhancement bonus.
Haste counters and dispels slow.

Apart from the "stat block" at the top and the material component at the end, that is the entire text of the spell (possibly give or take a typo or two). Notice the conspicuous lack of any prohibition on casting extra spells?

(A "partial action" is a standard action minus the move component - equivalent of a standard action in 3.5 or 4e, or an action in 5e. 3.0 action economy was weird.)

4E - well, I'd have to admit complete willful ignorance

Then maybe you should not make claims about it?

 

[Lanefan]

5E... again, there are exceptions, but AS A RULE, in any edition of D&D, you don't get to cast multiple spells in one round. That's true even if every edition does have exceptions TO THAT RULE. The exceptions then explain how it is they break, suspend, ignore, or otherwise deal with the rule.

One exception in 5e that is, via Sage Advice, baked in to the rules is that a caster can cast a normal spell and Counterspell not just in the same round but at the same time (!) in order to counter someone trying to counter their original spell. As in:

Caster: starts casting Fireball (or whatever)
Foe: casts Counterspell targeting the Fireball casting
Caster: suspends casting Fireball to cast Counterspell targeting foe's Counterspell
<no more reactions occur>
Caster's Counterspell resolves, foe's Counterspell is countered and does nothing
Caster resumes casting Fireball, which then resolves as normal.

Yes it makes no temporal sense at all, but for some inane reason they seem to have been specifically trying to allow M:tG-style LIFO counterspell battles.