D&D 5E Time Stop from Stopped Perspective

[beaumontsebos]

Hi all,

I had an enemy cast Time Stop to escape from my PCs. It got me to thinking... what do those under the influence of stopped time experience?

Do they still perceive what is going on around them while time is stopped? Or do they just notice what has changed once time starts again? Do they even know that time stopped at all?

In my case, I ruled that they just noticed that there was a some sort of time blip (but not how long it was). But they had no idea what happened during the time stop. They just noticed any differences once time started back up (the enemy was gone and there were tracks leading away...)

What do you think?

Beaumont

 

[Cadence]

Assuming it is still inspired by its use in Vance's Dying Earth books, I think the victims generally didn't notice anything except the differences. (I want to say that a special detection spell/device could be used to alert one to it happening).

 

[Reynard]

In general I would do it the way you describe, although I think it would be fun if immortal beings actually did get to watch even if they are stuck, given their unusual relationship with time. What constitutes "immortal" is a matter of interpretation,of course,but I would include most outsiders, undead, dragons and (in some settings) elves.

 

[cranberry]

I've always assumed that those effected by the spell are unaware of the time for the full duration of the spell.

For them it's like going to sleep and then waking up.

 

[Mad_Jack]

If they were in the middle of combat with an enemy that used a Time Stop, I just have them suddenly notice that the enemy is gone or whatever visible changes have happened while they were stopped...
If there weren't any plainly visible changes, especially if it happened outside of combat, I have them make an INT or perception roll to notice that smaller things have been changed.

 

[DEFCON 1]

From the stopped person's perspective, I always liked to see it as not them "stopping", but rather everything around them speeding up to insane speeds. They can actually move and react at their normal timing, but everything around them has completely changed around them as they try.

In terms of being able to actually see what is happening, you could say that the people around them move so fast that the stopped person can't actually identify the actions of what is happening when they are "stopped"... but as a DM, if the PCs were Time Stopped, I'd much rather enjoy narrating to the players everything they are seeing be done at high speed, rather then have them just "wake up" and then describe what is different. Personal choice there.

 

[aco175]

I likely would say it appears that the bad guy teleported, or maybe let an Arcana check determine time stop. Would be cooler if the spell worked like in the Matrix where there is the deja vu and the cat walks across the path again, but I would need to telegraph it ahead of time. There is also the newest Matrix where the guy went ludricrous fast and Neo just couldn't react.

 

[mamba]

Do they still perceive what is going on around them while time is stopped? Or do they just notice what has changed once time starts again? Do they even know that time stopped at all?

They are not aware of anything, they will notice the difference once the stop ends and then have no explanation for the changes, kinda like waking up from a coma and missing whatever happened in between. At least that is how I would do it.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It's a literal stopping of time, so they should perceive nothing. Whatever happens during the time stop that leaves any evidence is instantaneously experienced by them when the spell ends. Perhaps the actions of the caster caused some weird artifacts in light and sound waves, but otherwise there should be no evidence.

Alternatively, the random, short length of the spell makes it feel, to me, less like time is stopped and more like time is slowed to a crawl while the caster turns into the Flash, in which case they would see streaks of movement they can't react to or make sense of. But I feel like if that is the case the spell should also do thunder damage from the sonic boom.