D&D 5E (2024) Best use (abuse) of Dissonant Whispers

[ECMO3]

I was playing a game recently and an enemy Dragon cast Hypnotic Pattern on the party from far away (I will say about 70 feet, he was on the ground though). Three of the four PCs failed their save. My Dance Bard is the only one who passed. My Bard is a back-liner and is pretty fragile so this was a bad situation.

I went after the Dragon and after thinking about it I actually contemplated abandoning my allies, but then an idea came to me. I cast a 1st level Dissonant Whispers on the Barbarian. Aside from breaking the enchantment due to the damage, he also failed the save on purpose and therefore got to move with a reaction, positioning himself so he could actually move again and melee the dragon on his turn. He took 9 damage I think and with the Dragon occupied for a couple rounds I could free the Psion and he freed the Cleric and we won the fight.

At the time it was a creative use, since then though I've taken to using this pretty regularly in another game with a Sorcerer PC (I took Fey Touched for DW), letting the Sorcerer burn his action or bonus and some SPs to get the Barbarian a full move off turn as a reaction.

Do you think this is abuse?

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Not abuse. It was a clever use of hostile magic on an ally to maneuver them, even if it hurt them. It works RAW, and works narratively. It's awesome that you won the "fear-off" with the imposing dragon, spooking your buddy closer to the dragon.

It sounds like the Barbarian player enjoyed it, but in the story, how did the Barbarian character feel about it? Did they take offense?

 

[ECMO3]

It sounds like the Barbarian player enjoyed it, but in the story, how did the Barbarian character feel about it? Did they take offense?

Well it was tragedy when 3 of the 4 party members were incapacitated indefinitely. The Barbarian player is a classic kind of guy that plays that PC. Someone who does not know the rules about spells that well, so they play a brawler.

It was my turn and I said "Well this is going to hurt but I can't fight this thing alone and I need you back in the fight" and then I cast it and then it was the DM that said "Do you want to automatically fail the save" The player was like "what is the difference" and I said if you make it you will probably take about 5 damage and no longer be incapacitated. If you fail it you will probably take 10 damage and no longer be incapacitated and use your reaction to move closer to the Dragon. He said "well I choose to fail it then"

In terms of role play we played it like a mind spike that spurred him to snap out of it and rush the dragon.