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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6513277" data-attributes="member: 2011">This depends on a several factors.Best case scenario, the PC caster's init comes immediately after his target's init, he casts the spell, is successful, and every PC's turn comes up and if they have the chance, the other PCs can whale on the held target. If the NPC fails the save. If he saves, the caster basically used up his action and his spell slot for a spell that did nothing when saved against.Worst case scenario, the target's init comes immediately after the PC caster's init. If the caster casts right away, then the caster gave up his action in order to possibly have the target fail his first save and if he does, possibly fail his second save. The odds of failing both saves (for a target powerful enough to cast Hold Person on like a lieutenant) are not typically that high. So, for the most part, the caster gives up his action (100% of the time) to possibly have the target give up his action (say 60% of the time, one save failed) and give up his action and be toast for a round (say 36% of the time, two saves failed). But the odds of nothing happening (40%) are basically as good or better than the odds of something good happening (36%).Now in a worse case or bad scenario (the caster's init comes up shortly after the target's init), the caster can ready an action to cast after the target's turn (or sometimes even during the target's turn, but then we are back to worse case scenario). But, that sort of defeats the purpose of casting the spell at all. The target gets to use his normal turn. The caster "delayed" his attack to improve the results, but allowed the target to use his normal action in order to do so. This is handing action economy to the NPCs. The target could kill or incapacitate one or more PCs during his turn.Hold Person is one of those iffy spells because of these types of things. When the timing is good and the target fails one or more saves and it works, it can be great. But there are scenarios (like worse case above) where casting it usually means that not much happens. Either the target saves, or he loses an action. And the PC caster gave up an action and a spell slot for that to happen.Granted, there are foes with low Wisdom modifiers where the odds increase dramatically for something good to happen. But, the players do not always get to decide who they are fighting against, that's mostly the purview of the DM.</blockquote>

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