D&D 5E Concentration spells in 5e

[DM-Rocco]

The concentration mechanic is one of the biggest balancing factors for magic in 5e. Any time you mess with that it gets slippery.

In this situation, even if you were able to do that, wouldn't the Wall of Force block line of effect for the Suggestion spell?

I don't think this is a mechanic that should get a houserule like this personally. Even if you were to rule that "you can choose which to concentrate on", that would immediately negate the effect of the second spell if you chose to retain concentration on the first. Basically you have to "start" concentration on the spell to get it to do anything. That's my reading/interpretation anyway.

The wall of force in this scenario separated a group of fighters from their support wizard. Then I cast suggestion on the wizard outside of the wall of force.

I see you point on your last statement which is why I reworded it a few posts above to the following:

You may cast a concentration spell while already engaged in concentrating on a spell. The spell you are casting would be maintained through concentration, the concentration spell you are casting would have it's duration limited to 1 round (beginning of your next turn) and the target(s) would get advantage on any saving throws.

or

You may cast a concentration spell with a 1 round duration instead of a duration of concentration by adding 1 level to the required spell slot.

 

[DM-Rocco]

No, hold person is auto-crit and auto-fail dex/str saves, command is just advantage on melee attacks. (they both kill a turn's worth of actions).

It is much much stronger.

Most concentration spells with a 1 round duration are as good or better than similar level non-concentration spells.

Animate objects: 65 damage at +8 to hit and a pile of possible opportunity attacks. If it lasts until the end of your next turn, 130 damage. Throw in a dissonant whispers and it can hit 195 damage. As a 6th level slot.

Polymorph. Target player is basically immune to damage for 1 round and has their damage output doubled.

Hold Person. (Level-1) targets grant advantage on everything, and melee range attacks are auto-crits, for a turn. Plus they auto-fail str and dex saves.

Maybe I'm cherry picking the best spells, but many are really really are strong spells, even with a 1 round duration. In some cases, the concentration instead of 1 round duration makes the spell a bit worse; the way to deal with a concentration spell is to focus fire the caster.

Okay, I'm not sure how you get 195 damage on a Dissonant Whisper, but Wizards can't cast it anyway so the Bard would be using that with another Bard spell.

I do appreciate your input though as I want to know the kinds of fallout that can happen by altering the spell mechanic. However, don't you think that advantage on saving throws for the secondary concentration spells reduced to 1 round or the use of a higher-level spell slot is a fair balance? Why or why not?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A variant spell to that effect seems fine. I wouldn’t penalize the spell at all beyond reduced duration. Call it Push.

 

[Blue]

Hmm, sucks the 5e team didn't directly think of this.

Or maybe they did. And from what you can see of the Concentration rules didn't want it. They don't want certain spells to be live at the same time, so they made them Concentration. Not "I only want them to be overlapping a little".

The Smite spells are an excellent example that this type of thing is very intentional from the designers. Regardless if you like it or not, it's intentional. This is not an oversight.

 

[Nebulous]

Because he's not asking the rules about surprise. And it may not be RAW, but the way it was played is not a huge leap. It's reasonable for a DM to allow a spell to be cast outside of combat to start the combat. It's just like playing the first round of combat where the enemies are surprised and the other PCs don't act.


That's a pretty powerful upgrade. And takes out a lot of the risk casting a second concentration spell. Say you cast hold person while concentrating on wall of force and the enemy makes their save. Then you could say that you're still maintaining wall of force and you haven't lost anything (other than the spell slot). Even if you say you have to decided before the save is rolled, and you picked hold person which was then saved, wall of force would still be up for a round, giving you control of the battlefield for the next round until you could recover from it.
Either way, you're increasing the power of spellcasters and reducing the risks associated with casting concentration spells while already concentrating.
I don't see a reason for this change, other than wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

I think he wouldn't like it much when the drow wizard does the same thing to the party with stacked Concentration spells under the same houserule. It is opening a can of worms you are better off leaving shut.

 

[Vaultamore]

This is such a catch-22 so I looked at from the outside in. If I am concentrating on something, I can move or attack, I can cast a cantrip, but not another spell. Unless I am a class that does not have a spellbook, I learn each spell and that is what I know. It has to go back to character development. I like 5e for a lot of reasons, I think they over though the rules trying to introduce new ways of gaming, and never really thought it out in true idiot gameplay. The thought of a spell caster having a concentration spell up and just walking around in battle casting spell after spell seems to be incredibly unlikely. I am going with House rules on this one. As for the question about a spell caster readying a spell, that takes concentration and breaks a regular spell. Also think about it like this, while Feather Fall is a reaction spell if a spell caster is falling the thought of damage could be seen as a break of concentration if they are contacted that implies damage which breaks concentration.

All in all, I don't like having to dig this deep into a single thing. I have characters in the campaign I am running that are absolute beasts at level 4. I have to strengthen my campaigns for it to even be a challenge.