D&D 5E TIME STOP SPELL (9º)

[SilverfireSage]

This spell sounds like it could be extremely powerful out of combat. The great macguffin is in a heavily trapped and guarded room. Time stop might enable you to ignore traps, bypass guards, grab the macguffin and get out.

It seems like a spell that you wouldn't cast every day, but would learn for particular planned tasks.

The more I read these boards, the more it seems that people only focus on the combat aspect of D&D.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

This. It is a terrible combat spell, but one of the most powerful exploration spells in the book.

As such, I don't think I'd often bother to prepare it unless I knew I'd have a reason to cast it. On most days, you will find there are far better uses for your 9th-level spell slot.

If the crafting rules allow (I am not up on 5e on those kinds of things), Timestop is an extremely attractive scroll. When the moment is right, this is an incredibly useful ability, both in and out of combat.

 

[EroGaki]

The more I read these boards, the more it seems that people only focus on the combat aspect of D&D.

Well, you have to keep in mind that there's a period of unlearning happening; many of the old classics have been nerfed or diminished by rules changes. Time Stop used to be one of the most powerful combat spells; as it should be, considering it's 9th level. Now, however, it is practically garbage in combat, so people will have to learn other ways to use it. Or not use it, as the case may be.

I personally think it should have been lowered in level; it's too narrow now to warrant using a 9th level slot.

 

[AmerginLiath]

This spell sounds like it could be extremely powerful out of combat. The great macguffin is in a heavily trapped and guarded room. Time stop might enable you to ignore traps, bypass guards, grab the macguffin and get out.

It seems like a spell that you wouldn't cast every day, but would learn for particular planned tasks.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

I now officially want to play a wizard to high levels just for this purpose...

(I'm picturing two conflicting parties meeting up in the final room of the dungeon and their fastest members racing to grab the MacGuffin as battle breaks out. As they get to the object, they suddenly find both it and one of the party's wizard missing. In its place on the pedestal is a piece of parchment with a single sentence written: "I prepared Time Stop this morning.")

 

[SilverfireSage]

Well, you have to keep in mind that there's a period of unlearning happening; many of the old classics have been nerfed or diminished by rules changes. Time Stop used to be one of the most powerful combat spells; as it should be, considering it's 9th level. Now, however, it is practically garbage in combat, so people will have to learn other ways to use it. Or not use it, as the case may be.

I personally think it should have been lowered in level; it's too narrow now to warrant using a 9th level slot.

I always thought that there wasn't any way to attack people with Time Stop in any edition. In fact, reading the Pathfinder one, it specifically says you can't target anyone with an attack or a spell. I believe it was the same way in 3.5 and 3.0, so casting delayed blast fireball wouldn't technically work because you wouldn't be able to target anyone with it. Maybe people just are forgetting that Time Stop has always been like this?

 

[Celtavian]

Why You can not conjure a creature ?

Casting time versus duration of spell.

 

[Li Shenron]

This spell sounds like it could be extremely powerful out of combat. The great macguffin is in a heavily trapped and guarded room. Time stop might enable you to ignore traps, bypass guards, grab the macguffin and get out.

It seems like a spell that you wouldn't cast every day, but would learn for particular planned tasks.

They have to be very well planned tasks which you can complete in 2 rounds, if you want to make sure it works in the worse case. If it takes 3/4/5 rounds, you have 75%/50%/25% chance respectively that such plan would work.

This. It is a terrible combat spell, but one of the most powerful exploration spells in the book.

As such, I don't think I'd often bother to prepare it unless I knew I'd have a reason to cast it. On most days, you will find there are far better uses for your 9th-level spell slot.

Exploration usually requires carefulness. Ho much can you explore in 30 seconds?

I am not a huge fan of combat spells, but if they wanted to make Time Stop a non-combat spells, then keeping a 1-5 round duration is a mistake.

OTOH, I can totally see that different DMs are going to interpret the spell's limitation differently: some DM can say that "affect" a creature means directly harm and thus allow a Fireball to work (on the ground that it affects an area and not a creature directly); other DM, probably the majority, will consider indirect harm as ending the spell; other DM can even ban the "steal an item" application, since this could indeed qualify as affecting it; yet other DM can extend the meaning of "affect" to really make it useless in combat if they want so.

I don't know how I'll handle it, if I ever DM the game up to that level, but I do know that from a spell (or anything in the game) I require it to be usable but not abusable. There's a range between the two, so it's not that I need to surgically dissect the spell's text to find "the" correct way to use it. But if the rulings make it fall out of this range, then it's just better to remove the spell from the game.

 

[seebs]

I always thought that there wasn't any way to attack people with Time Stop in any edition. In fact, reading the Pathfinder one, it specifically says you can't target anyone with an attack or a spell. I believe it was the same way in 3.5 and 3.0, so casting delayed blast fireball wouldn't technically work because you wouldn't be able to target anyone with it. Maybe people just are forgetting that Time Stop has always been like this?

Why would you need to "target anyone"? Delayed blast fireball isn't a targeted spell, it's an AoE. Delayed blast fireball works fine with time stop prior to 5e.

 

[SilverfireSage]

Why would you need to "target anyone"? Delayed blast fireball isn't a targeted spell, it's an AoE. Delayed blast fireball works fine with time stop prior to 5e.

I'm sorry, but the semantics of "I target you with this fireball spell" and "I shoot this fireball spell at the square next to you so that it will hit you" is silly. In both cases you're "targeting" the enemy, but in one you're doing it with the outer edge and the other you're doing it with the center.

 

[Joe Liker]

Exploration usually requires carefulness. Ho much can you explore in 30 seconds?

I was referring to the exploration "pillar" of the 5e D&D philosophy, which includes such things as trap avoidance and puzzle-solving.