Does anyone else think full-round casting rules are stupid?

Are the current full-round casting rules stupid, or what?

  • Yes they are, Dimwhit. You're brilliant!

    Votes: 25 33.3%
  • You're aptly named, Dimwhit. They're just fine.

    Votes: 50 66.7%


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Dimwhit said:
So when you cast, for example, a summoning spell, it doesn't come into effect until just before your next turn, and you're vulnerable to disruption for the entire round. Why? ...

In 3.5 PHB (I apologize for not having the page numbers, don't have the book at work) when you cast a full round spell you are only vulnerable to disruption when you start the spell on your turn. My DM and I had a long discussion on this just a couple of weeks ago and I looked it up to check this out specifically.
 

In 3.5 PHB (I apologize for not having the page numbers, don't have the book at work) when you cast a full round spell you are only vulnerable to disruption when you start the spell on your turn. My DM and I had a long discussion on this just a couple of weeks ago and I looked it up to check this out specifically.

I'm going to respectfully disagree, though someone correct me if I'm wrong. Here's a cut from the 3.5 SRD

When you begin a spell that takes 1 round or longer to cast, you must continue the invocations, gestures, and concentration from one round to just before your turn in the next round (at least). If you lose concentration after starting the spell and before it is complete, you lose the spell.

You only provoke attacks of opportunity when you begin casting a spell, even though you might continue casting for at least
one full round. While casting a spell, you don’t threaten any squares around you.

You only provoke an AoO when you first cast, but it says you have to maintain your concentration for the entire round until the casting is complete. That implies to me that if you take damage during the round, you still have to make a concentration check or lose the spell. It's only AoO that can't happen throughout the round.

Anyone else have a thought on this? It's actually quite important. If fett527 is right, then that solves one of my biggest complaints with these spells. But, respectfully, I don't think that's right.
 



Li Shenron said:
...I think another reason might have been that they didn't want the summoned creature to act in the same round when you start casting?
I think you hit the nail on th' head (ouch), with that speculation. The more I think about it, the more I see the "full round casting time" to be more about when they wanted the spell to "go off", and less about the perceived need to balance the spell's power.

As I see it, a better mechanic would be a standard action casting time and then the creature appears at the beginning of your next turn, and acts immediately after you do. (That last bit is important, for buffing reasons.)

As an aside, I DM a game where some of these spells are cast. Rather than change the spell, I think I may instead introduce "new" versions of the spell (same level, slightly better effect). Think of it as a "technological improvement". Thoughts?

How do you deal with corrections to spells?
 

An idea for summoning spells

If the major reason for the summoning spells taking one round to cast is delaying when the summoned creature gets to act, and if letting the creature appear at the time of casting but not having it act until your next turn would nerf the spell too much (due to the risk of the creature being slain before getting a chance to act), how about this solution:

Summoning spells take a full-round action, but the summoned creature appears as the last thing in the round of casting. (This also means that the casting doesn't 'carry over' until your turn in the following round).

At the beginning at the round following the casting (at which point the summoned creature has just appeared), initiative is rolled for the creature, determining when it gets to act in that round.

This lessens the risk of the summoned creature being slain before getting a chance to act (as opposed to having it appear on the caster's initiative in one round but not letting it act until the caster's initiative in the following round, as it now only will be a sitting duck for an entire round if it rolls lower than everybody else on its initiative) as well as adding the strategic element of considering a creature's initiative modifier when choosing what to summon.
 

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