D&D 5E Do Arcane Abilities work when bound and gagged?

[The Crimson Binome]

It's not necessarily for use _against_ the players. Assume the players want to keep an enemy wizard captive. Barring some kind of anti-magic prison, how do they keep wizards from being able to break out with magical abilities that essentially do what spells do but aren't spells?

On a similar vein, if people know there's no good way to keep a wizard from being able to use magic, why would they ever try to capture one rather than kill it?

As I said, it was a major headache in 4E. Why would you bother to try and tie up an Eladrin, if it can escape in five minutes? It's like an entire race of wizards who can teleport.

If the only way to stop minor magic is to rely on major magic to do so, then that represents a fundamentally unstable setting. That being the case, feel free to say that non-spell magical abilities are like spells in that they require verbal and somatic components. It makes for a world that's much more stable and easier to play in.

 

[Horwath]

well, you can always say that shackles of pure iron or alloy of cold iron and mithril prevents dimmensional travel etc...

But it is hard to pin down spellcasters,

Sorcerers with subtle spells are also very tricky. Subtle spell with knowing misty step and invisibility is free get out of jail card for 99% of prisons.

 

[S'mon]

My approach when rules are silent is to always try to maintain equivalence between casters and non-casters when it comes to using abilities, eg between using a weapon and casting a spell. I don't think either caster supremacism or caster nerfing are particularly good approaches in recent editions (Gygax's caster-nerfing advice in 1e is explicit and appropriate in that game). Where an action is not specifically disallowed, but circumstances make if difficult, I would typically use a check. Athletics or Acrobatics checks to burst or wriggle out of bonds would typically be high, DC 20+. Using innate conjuring ability to summon knife while bound would be easier, but I'd likely still require an arcana check, DC 12 looks about right for typical circumstances.

 

[Capn Charlie]

Historically, my players would crush every bone in a wizard's hands, cut out their tongue, and possibly gouge out their eyes, just to be sure, when it was necessary to take a wizard captive. I had assumed that the reason for foci was to allow the disarming of wizards to avoid such a barbaric necessity. Guess it's back aboard the maim train.

 

[cbwjm]

Historically, my players would crush every bone in a wizard's hands, cut out their tongue, and possibly gouge out their eyes, just to be sure, when it was necessary to take a wizard captive. I had assumed that the reason for foci was to allow the disarming of wizards to avoid such a barbaric necessity. Guess it's back aboard the maim train.

Foci, such as wands and orbs only ignore material components. For the other components, it is very easy to counter pretty much every spell by simply by binding the hands and gagging the wizard. Use manacles and you don't have to worry about a conjurer conjuring up a knife to cut through his bonds. It's also a good idea to put a hood on a wizard (or other caster) so they cannot see. This prevents a conjurer from teleporting or an enchanter from charming a guard.

Even in earlier editions, that is all you really needed. No maiming was needed to prevent a wizard casting spells.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Have you ever seen a bound and gagged wizard cast a spell?

Actually, yes.

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

 

[The Human Target]

As I said, it was a major headache in 4E. Why would you bother to try and tie up an Eladrin, if it can escape in five minutes? It's like an entire race of wizards who can teleport.

If the only way to stop minor magic is to rely on major magic to do so, then that represents a fundamentally unstable setting. That being the case, feel free to say that non-spell magical abilities are like spells in that they require verbal and somatic components. It makes for a world that's much more stable and easier to play in.

Major headache?

Pffftttt.

That's such absolute crap.

But a blindfold over their eyes, or a sack on their head.

Major headache solved.

 

[Rocksome]

When your conjurer is bound and gagged and can't cast spells is PRECISELY the time to let them summon a small object to save the day. How awesome would that player feel when their totally flavorful ribbon ability saves the day?

It's too easy to think in terms of balance and realism and forget they whole point of the game is to make the players feel like heroes. And nothing would make a conjurer feel like a hero more than rescuing themself and their allies with scissors or a key out of nowhere.

 

[machineelf]

Maybe I am not understanding the question, but in 5th ed. each spell has requirements listed, including whether there are verbal and/or somatic components. So if there are somatic components, they can't be cast if the wizard has her hands bound. If there are verbal components required, they can't be case while her mouth is gagged.

 

[Ketser]

Well when it comes to capturing NPCs, very few of them of them actually have the class abilities of PC wizards. Volo's guide breaks it a bit, but even there the specialist wizard options have one arcane tradition ability and from them only the conjurer one is the only really problematic one. So in most cases it doesn't really come up.

In cases you have to worry about stuff... well manacles, a decent gag and a blindfold can do the trick. A creative use of a glyph of warding can be a bonus.

Now when talking about the world in general, the world doesn't need to be built to be built to PC specific. Larger cities or castels can have cells that have been specially built to dampen spellcaster's abilities, at least the more problematic of them

Hmm... i also got a few sudden and pretty rough ideas. 5e doesn't have assumed magical items but in an Eberron-like campaign or if the party is mostly about capturing spellscasters (or one of them is captured by some rich and well-prepared enemy):

Manacles of arcane binding
uncommon? wondrous item
This item dampens the wearers ability to use spells or other abilities of magical origin. When the wearer attempts to cast a spell or use a magical ability, he must succeed a DC 15 constitution(?) save or the spell or ability fails. If the spell is 6th level or higher the spell the check is made with an advantage. in addition while wearing these manacles all saving throws to maintain concentration are are made with a disadvantage.
Special: Some versions of these manacles also emit a loud sound when a successful spell is cast.

Rare version of previous item
The saving throw to cast a spell or ability that causes the wearer to transform, disguise itself, become invisible, teleport or gain any other benefits in mobility, is made with a disadvantage.

Manacles of Magical Backlash
rare+ wondorous item
When worn these manacles have the ability to turn a persons magical abilities back at him. Whenever the person attempts to use a spell or an ability of magical origin, he must make a DC constitution save. On fail the spell or ability is disrupted and the wearer takes 3d8 force damage. If the spell was cast using 2nd level or higher spell, the damage increases by 1d8 for spell slot used. On a save the wearer takes half damage and the ability or spell works as normal.
Special: Some versions of these manacles also emit a loud signal when the wearer successfully casts a spell.

Both of those items are created with the idea of not causing a hard shutdown of character's abilities, but still make it harder to use them.