Using Suggestion

[trentonjoe]

SUGGESTION
Casting Time 1 action
Duration Conc., up to 8 hours
Range 30 feet
Components V M (Snake's tongue, honeycomb/sweet oil)

You suggest an activity to a visible creature that can hear and understand you. You are limited to 2 sentences. Creatures that can't be charmed are immune. The suggestion must be worded to make the action sound reasonable. Asking the creature to do something obviously self-harmful ends the spell.

The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it performs the action. The action can continue for the entire duration. If the activity can be completed in a shorter time, the spell ends when the subject finishes what it was asked to do.

You can also specify conditions that will trigger a special activity during the duration. If the condition isn't met before the spell expires, the activity isn't performed.

If you or any of your companions damage the target, the spell ends.



Couple questions about what happens when the caster stops concentrating:


What if the command is, "Go fall asleep."? Does the target wake up when the caster stops concentrating?
or
What if the command is, "Take the rest of the night off, go spend some quality time with the wife and kids."? Would the target stop doing something it liked doing just because the spell stops?

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Good question. Personally, I would say it depends. The way I see suggestion is that it plants the seed in your mind, but then the person rationalizes the decision themselves. For someone that left to go take the night off with their kids, stopping concentration of the spell wouldn't necessarily stop them from following through. It would either be an "Oh crap! What am I doing?!" moment and they might drop everything to return to their post. Or it might be more, "Wait... What was I thinking? Oh well, I'm already gonna be in trouble and I'm on my way home. Might as well enjoy it."

It kinda depends on the suggestion, the circumstances, and the personality of the target.

 

[jgsugden]

Remember that you do not know you were under a suggestion when you have had this spell cast on you unless you recognize the spellcasting, which requires some arcane knowledge.

If they do not recognize that a spell has been cast on them, I'd have the PC respond to the situation just as if they suddenly realized they made a mistake, generally. In your sleeping example, I would not have them magically wake up if they've made it to sleep, but it falling asleep they might suddenly question why they are going to bed at such a weird time.

 

[5ekyu]

Suggestion compels them to perform the task but does not make them stop it once the spell was off.

So they would go try to get some sleep - likely nod off when they could and when the spell ended would wake or not based on circumstances.

For home night, again, could decide "need to get back to work" or not when it ends. Lot os it depends there.

 

[jaelis]

What if the command is, "Go fall asleep."? Does the target wake up when the caster stops concentrating?

I would say this means the target tries to fall asleep, but that is not something most creatures can do at will. If it eventually does, then I would say it would remain asleep until it awakens naturally. So for a tired guard this might work great. For an not-so-sleepy guard another suggestion might be better.

What if the command is, "Take the rest of the night off, go spend some quality time with the wife and kids."? Would the target stop doing something it liked doing just because the spell stops?

Yes, it would stop if it knows there is something more important it should be doing. Compare to: I suggest you take this 1000 gp bribe and leave. Odds are that even after the spell ends the guard will be happy with the deal and keep it. Here it's not obvious that the spell would be required.

 

[aco175]

What would happen in the example if the guard has no kids?

I find that the caster dies in 2-3 rounds anyway, so the fighter is gone for only a few rounds after told to "Go run out of the dungeon."

 

[TwoSix]

What would happen in the example if the guard has no kids?

Seems like a pretty good rationalization for a successful save.

"Go home and spend time with your kids."
"OK, I'll go home and....wait, I don't have any kids! Have at you, mind-bending fiend!"

 

[Oofta]

I find Suggestion to be one of the harder spells to adjudicate because I have to get into the mind of the NPC to decide if it's reasonable.

Does the guard regularly nap on duty? ZZZ-Town it is.

Did the last guard that fell asleep on duty get fed to the rats and die a horrible painful death? Falling asleep is a really bad idea and my not be reasonable.

Is the guard a zealot who needs to be dragged away from their post because otherwise they'd starve to death in service to The Almighty Poo-Bah? Shirking duty by falling asleep isn't in their vocabulary.

Of course other people will rule differently, that as long as it can be worded in such a way as to sound reasonable to someone at some point somewhere it works. But it's only a second level spell so while it should be useful in some situations it shouldn't (IMHO) automatically remove an NPC from play every time they fail a wisdom save.