D&D 5E Extending the 'cast it one year in succession and said effect is permanent until dispelled' Mechanic

[Inanity]

Hi All, One of the coolest mechanics in 5e is the spell mechanic that essentially makes a spell effect permanent if said spell is cast a certain number of days in a row (this mechanic has precedent in other editions but 5e has integrated the mechanic more robustly than other editions as far as I am concerned, and the mechanic works great with new concentration). Anyway, my suggestion:

EVERY spell that that both, (i) has a duration other than instantaneous and (ii) does not require concentration, can be cast (in the same, and relevant way) every day for one year and become permanent until dispelled.

This mechanic is cool for RP reasons (making castles and building/fortifying stuff, etc.) and has some cool but not OP in combat uses (having mirror image up until dispelled is cool, but not game breaking, etc...).. Of course some spells may be abusable and I dont know lll have to reread the spells. And of course a year may be a long in game time period so this may onyly be functionally useful for certain kinds of (maybe high level) campaigns... Any thoughts?

 

[jaelis]

Permanent foresight eh? Guess pretty much every lich would have that up. I think a lot of spells (stoneskin, mindblank, eyebite, mage's sword, flaming sphere, spiritual weapon., blade ward, haste...) would be overpowered.

But it would be neat for some others. Mostly spells that create a stationary effect like walls, fog cloud, illusions....

Maybe restrict it to spells that have a range other than self and don't target a creature or object?

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sorry I missed your concentration restriction... that rules out some of my overpowered objections, but there are still plenty I think (blade ward is a good example. Also blink, charm person, chill touch, color spray, command, ...)

 

[jmartkdr2]

Permanent longstrider could be an issue.

I would add (iii) does not target a creature or object.

 

[Inanity]

Permanent foresight eh? Guess pretty much every lich would have that up. I think a lot of spells (stoneskin, mindblank, eyebite, mage's sword, flaming sphere, spiritual weapon., blade ward, haste...) would be overpowered.

But it would be neat for some others. Mostly spells that create a stationary effect like walls, fog cloud, illusions....

Maybe restrict it to spells that have a range other than self and don't target a creature or object?

---
sorry I missed your concentration restriction... that rules out some of my overpowered objections, but there are still plenty I think (blade ward is a good example. Also blink, charm person, chill touch, color spray, command, ...)

Thank you for the response! I dont know if what I will say right now will affect whether you think it too OP but... An Nth level dispel magic will dispel an nth level spell,... So one has just spend a year casting blade ward constantly (and has probably gained in many levels in that yea) and can finally have that blade ward up until dispelled.. but that WILL BE dispelled (especially considering it is a cantrip and cant be cast with a higher level spell slot)...

You make good points concerning offensive/attack spells that have an odd duration (like color spray or chill touch)... But hey if you cast chill touch successfully on a creature for a year straight then heck why not make the effect permanent (bmut yes point taken about some attack spells, and maybe the spell would in addition to having a duration need to have an area of effect and have no target...

 

[jaelis]

Quick run through the PHB makes me think you should just exclude cantrips altogether. Prestidigitation, shillelagh, mage hand are weird and probably overpowered. Plus there is no actual cost to casting a cantrip every day.

If you exclude cantrips, spells with targets, and spells with range of self, I'm left with:

alarm, antipathy, cordon of arrows, daylight, demiplane, forcecage, grease, guardian of faith, hallucinatory terrain, magic circle, mirage arcane, Faithful hound, Mord's mansion, magic aura, passwall, prismatic wall, seeming, Tenser's disk, unseen servant, zone of truth

which all seem fine to me. But also

creation, tiny hut, phantom steed and spiritual weapon,

which seem a bit problematic, and substantially problematic for spiritual weapon.

 

[77IM]

Hey I created a spell for this. I gave it a costly material component. Original thread: Permanency

Permanency
6th-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a rare type of magical diamond found on the astral plane, worth 10,000 gp)
Duration: Instantaneous

When you cast permanency, you target a magical effect within range that you can see. The targeted effect must have been created by a spell cast at 5th level or lower, and the targeted effect must have a duration of at least 10 minutes.

If the targeted effect is on a creature, the creature must be willing, and must be capable of attuning one or more magic items. For the duration of the targeted effect, the number of magic items the creature is capable of attuning is reduced by one. If the creature dies, the targeted effect ends.

The targeted effect's duration is extended to 24 hours if it isn't already longer, and if it required concentration, it no longer requires concentration. For its remaining duration, if the targeted effect is subject to dispel magic, it is merely suppressed for 10 minutes. The targeted effect may end early as described by the spell which created it (for example, invisibility will end if you attack).

If you cast permanency on an identical effect (including the same target) every day for a year, then on the final casting, you may choose to extend the targeted effect's duration to permanent, if it isn't already. If you do, the permanency spell's material components are consumed.

At Higher Levels. When you cast permanency using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, you can target the effect of a spell cast at up to one level less than the spell slot used for permanency. However, the material component increases to two astral diamonds at 7th level, five astral diamonds at 8th level, and ten astral diamonds at 9th level.

 

[77IM]

oh, and for an effect on a creature, making it permanent uses up an attunement slot. and I don't allow permanent 9th level spells via this. for that, use some variant of wish.

 

[bedir than]

creation, tiny hut, phantom steed and spiritual weapon,

which seem a bit problematic, and substantially problematic for spiritual weapon.

Those seem awesome from a story stand point and will almost never have a PC do this, as it is a quite rare campaign that has an entire year of downtime.

 

[jaelis]

Plenty of campaigns start at higher level, why would a character not be able to say they had cast one of these spells at some point in their past? And NPCs could presumably do this too. You could account for that in your adventure design, but it seems like any spell casting NPC who could set up one of these would.

 

[Inanity]

Quick run through the PHB makes me think you should just exclude cantrips altogether. Prestidigitation, shillelagh, mage hand are weird and probably overpowered. Plus there is no actual cost to casting a cantrip every day.

If you exclude cantrips, spells with targets, and spells with range of self, I'm left with:

alarm, antipathy, cordon of arrows, daylight, demiplane, forcecage, grease, guardian of faith, hallucinatory terrain, magic circle, mirage arcane, Faithful hound, Mord's mansion, magic aura, passwall, prismatic wall, seeming, Tenser's disk, unseen servant, zone of truth

which all seem fine to me. But also

creation, tiny hut, phantom steed and spiritual weapon,

which seem a bit problematic, and substantially problematic for spiritual weapon.

I dont know these all seem fine to me, except creation... creation is surely abusable if allowed in game so yeah maybe excluding creation would be good... In a game where there are creatures that live forever permanent creation (even if it takes a year) would be radically world changing i suppose (althogh there are already Gods that CAN AND DO do that so i dont know)...