D&D 5E Drawmij's Instant Summons: Am I Missing Something?

[Dausuul]

Hmm, okay. Theft insurance makes sense. It's an extremely narrow niche, but at least I can see its value within that niche.

You could have your familiar do the touching. "I was never even close to it!"

note, it does not say the sapphire is destroyed as most spell components are. So.. could you reuse a sapphire after you Mended it?

It doesn't say it's destroyed, but I think that's the intent of the bit where you crush the sapphire. (Presumably the magic renders the sapphire crushable... I always wondered how you were supposed to just casually crush a gem in your fist. It's a rock, not a freakin' eggshell.) If the sapphire is reusable, the spell gets a lot better.

 

[Antz7766]

Hmm, okay. Theft insurance makes sense. It's an extremely narrow niche, but at least I can see its value within that niche.

It's only partial insurance right? Since the second part of the spell says "If another creature is holding or carrying the item, crushing the sapphire doesn't transport the item to you, but instead you learn who the creature possessing the object is and roughly where that creature is located at that moment."

You'll still have to find the guy (if he's near by, might be easy, but if he's far away when you crushed the sapphire, chances are he's no longer there when you reached that location), and then get the item back somehow...

Edit: Typo

 

[raleel]

Hmm, okay. Theft insurance makes sense. It's an extremely narrow niche, but at least I can see its value within that niche.


It doesn't say it's destroyed, but I think that's the intent of the bit where you crush the sapphire. (Presumably the magic renders the sapphire crushable... I always wondered how you were supposed to just casually crush a gem in your fist. It's a rock, not a freakin' eggshell.) If the sapphire is reusable, the spell gets a lot better.

I don't disagree, particularly on the crushing part. However! Unless 1k gems are quite common, or magic items are very hard to come by, I'm going with this cheese, because this is some Limburger if not!

Putting it in the LSC is good insurance against it getting purloined by someone. You could even have a whole chest with labelled pouches and little shelves and reequip your entire party if they got captured by Demogorgon or something. Just make sure the LSC mini gets well hidden

 

[lkj]

Didn't I see somewhere that spell components aren't consumed unless the spell says so? Could be remembering that wrong, but it's worth looking up.

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[Eejit]

It's for doing the handoff in kidnapping cases. Wait till you see the hostage is alive and well before summoning the payment.

 

[lkj]

Ah, here it is, from the 'sage' himself:

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/534174449390452736

 

[Gadget]

Yes, the spell does seem rather niche, especially for a precious 6th level spell. I realize that it can be used as a ritual, but it still seems like they could have taken a good long look at spells and re-adjusted their level and effects, rather than just carry them forward. I know they did this to Teleport, they should have done it to more spells as well.

One use is to pay the ransom for the "princess" then go home and summon the ransom back once everyone is out of harms way.

 

[Antz7766]

One use is to pay the ransom for the "princess" then go home and summon the ransom back once everyone is out of harms way.

Assuming the ransom isn't being carried by anyone at the time you crushed the sapphire

 

[lkj]

Though, to second guess myself, you guys have a point that 'crushing the sapphire' might be what they mean by destroy. My apologies for missing that bit.

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[ExploderWizard]

I always preferred the version of the spell from an old Dragon April fools issue. The spell, summons the mage, Drawmij, to your current location. Seems much handier to pull a wizard out of your hat than a 10 lb. object.