D&D 5E (2024) Does your table use concentration with Ready a Spell?

[UngeheuerLich]

Phase spider has around half the hp for its CR.

DM special though could very annoying if it had buffed hp.

Still its only gonna adt an extra round or two.

Personally I would say good riddance. I use dead magic zones and greater magic resistance DM specials. None of my players quit. Hell shadow storms, darkness etc as well, spellcasters packing hold person etc.

Half HP makes sense, as PCs should just use the dodge action. A very underused asset.

 

[SkidAce]

Phase spider has around half the hp for its CR.

DM special though could very annoying if it had buffed hp.

Still its only gonna adt an extra round or two.

Personally I would say good riddance. I use dead magic zones and greater magic resistance DM specials. None of my players quit. Hell shadow storms, darkness etc as well, spellcasters packing hold person etc.

I created shadow sludge. Its an area of dim light that lets things bonus action hide, and also acts as difficult terrain. And it can get stuck on you.

Good times.

 

[Mecheon]

Surprise. You have to play by the rules.

See my post above. Not a good sign if a player does not want to play by the rules when it is just 1d6 damage lost...

I mean, as people are pointing out in this thread, its hardly a well known rule and it isn't a rule being used. Seramus' crew isn't playing by the rules by having readied spells in non combat situations, for example.

I would not call it suboptimal.

There is absolutely no synergy between that and everything else a Champion fighter would do. Its sub optimal, especially as a champion fighter is, y'know, more than likely going to be in the frontlines and therefore anything involving concentration is massively de-valued compared to things more reliable in that situation

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I mean, as people are pointing out in this thread, its hardly a well known rule and it isn't a rule being used. Seramus' crew isn't playing by the rules by having readied spells in non combat situations, for example.

Reading comprehension seems like a rare ability.
As I understood however, the player clearly knew that rule but just did not want to repspect it.

 

[Mecheon]

As I understood however, the player clearly knew that rule but just did not want to repspect it.

Did he? The way I read it, he got blindsided by it. Remember, True Strike's not a concentration spell so you're not going to immediately think about another one dropping off when using it.

To me it comes off as "Can't cast the spell so have to do a Readied action, but doing the readied action screws up earlier stuff you've laid out". Its not the most well known and obvious rule as this thread shows, and its such a rare case its obvious how someone could be blindsided by it.

 

[TheSword]

I had a player quit over this today.

RAW if you use ready action to cast a spell you need to hold concentration until the trigger event:

When you Ready a spell, you cast it as normal (expending any resources used to cast it) but hold its energy, which you release with your Reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of an action, and holding on to the spell’s magic requires Concentration, which you can maintain up to the start of your next turn. If your Concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect.

The player in question wanted to ready Truestrike while concentrating on Hex. I told him he had to drop concentration. The PC said that is unreasonable and I should houserule it. I would have been open to that discussion on making it a houserule during session 0, but not in the middle of a combat. He said no one plays that way and actually left the game over it.

What do you think?

You ran it by the book. Can’t say fairer than that. No one should ask you to change the rules on the fly because it’s convenient.

Otherwise where does it end? Decide you don’t need verbal or somantic spell components because it’s not convenient.

Sounds like a seriously sour grape player. Don’t doubt yourself.

 

[ECMO3]

There is absolutely no synergy between that and everything else a Champion fighter would do. Its sub optimal, especially as a champion fighter is, y'know, more than likely going to be in the frontlines and therefore anything involving concentration is massively de-valued compared to things more reliable in that situation

Yes there is. If there is no synergy why would a player be upset about having to give up concentration?

Hex is +1d6 damage per attack. That has a lot of synergy with many attacks and an expanded critical range. Heck using it a single time at 7th level the same round you action surge is a flat +14 damage on the first round alone if all your attacks hit (it would be +17.5 with nick) and it is more than that if you roll a 19 or 20 and crit. For comparison, 14 Damage is more extra damage than a 7th level Paladin does using his highest level slot for Divine Smite. This is the floor if you lose concentration right after using it and let's keep in mind this is a PC with Constitution proficiency, a high Constitution and at higher levels Indomitable. Honestly when you consider Action surge, Constitution Proficiency and the expanded crit range, I think Hex has more Synergy with the abilities of a 7th level Champion Fighter than it does with any other 7th level class and subclass.

This is not to mention the out of combat uses of causing disadvantage on skill checks while you can give yourself a +1d10 on a check at will and the other stuff in the build - utility of a once-a-day 30 foot teleport, Radiant damage at will and the light spell.

We are talking about feats, He has 2 Origin Feats and 2 General Feats: Tough, Magic Initiate for which he got Light, Truestrike and Protection from Evil and Good (I will admit PEG is not optimal, but the feat itself and the other two spells are pretty darn optimal), Fey Touched which gave him Hex and Misty Step and raised Charisma to a 16 and I believe his last feat is GWM which raised Strength to 18.

This character has a ton of hps, a high AC and is awesome at both the combat and social pillars. Can you give an example of 4 feats he could have taken through 7th level that would be objectively more "optimal" across all 3 phases of the game on a Human Champion Fighter?

 

[ECMO3]

Did he? The way I read it, he got blindsided by it. Remember, True Strike's not a concentration spell so you're not going to immediately think about another one dropping off when using it.

I don't think he knew the rule before I mentioned it.

 

[Clint_L]

That seems like an overreaction, IMHO…

If the DM was constantly adversarial and pulling this trick in every single enouncter, ok, fine. That would be frustrating.

Doing it once, or doing a variety of different challenges, where this is one of them, and at other times other characters are affected, I think that’s totally fine. Actually, it’s not just fine, I would say it’s almost mandatory… a game that never stretches players’ creativity and never forces them to choose between two opposing effects… that would be boring. Not worthy of rage quitting, but certainly worthy of boredom quitting …

It’s not true the character is out of options… they could still True Strike without Hex, or fire a non-TS crossbow shot with Hex. Let them do the math and figure out which option they prefer. That’s hardly unfair… just a slightly above average challenge.

The problem is the "participation ribbon philosophy" where every kid must win every contest they enter. No, that’s not how life works. You don’t always win every time. I sincerely hope you have a chance to win some of the time. But no one is entitled to win all of the time.

Wut? You had me until the last paragraph. This is about being a jerk and not playing well with others. Frankly, that player would benefit from learning more about participation and maybe come to understand that playing a cooperative game isn’t about winning. Maybe if they’d received a participation ribbon or two they would have learned to value it more.

Playing well with others is a good thing. I think you misunderstand what participation ribbons are about.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Did he? The way I read it, he got blindsided by it. Remember, True Strike's not a concentration spell so you're not going to immediately think about another one dropping off when using it.

They mentioned that the player said, noone uses that rule. But in the end it does not matter.
There are so many guides using true strike and the ready rules for maximum damage. How convenient it is to forget the downsides...

To me it comes off as "Can't cast the spell so have to do a Readied action, but doing the readied action screws up earlier stuff you've laid out". Its not the most well known and obvious rule as this thread shows, and its such a rare case its obvious how someone could be blindsided by it.

As a DM I would just tell the player, that readying makes them drop concentration. And if they like to do something else.

But it really does not matter. Leaving a table because of the DM applying rules correctly is really dubious.