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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5434413" data-attributes="member: 42582">First, not all "encounters" are combats. Some (many? - it depends on the individual game, I guess) are skill challenges.Second, all "encounter" means is you need a short rest to get the power back. And "short rest" is not defined by reference to combat. (Within the rules as published, it is an open question whether an Encounter buff can be used multiple times in a skill challenge that occurs over an extended time interval that permits short rests. The most literal reading of the rules probably suggests that it can be. My preferred ruling is that it can't be. As far as I know, the designers have never specifically addressed this question.)Third, specifying the action required is no different from specifying casting times in earlier editions. Comprehend Languages has a casting time of "1 standard action" in 3E, and (from memory) 1 segment in AD&D. No one suggests that this makes Comprehend Languages a combat spell in 3E or AD&D, even though I have to go to the combat section of the rulebooks to find out what those terms mean. Similarly, from the fact that a particular utility buff is a minor action in 4e, it doesn't follow that it's a combat spell or created in the context of combat.Finally, and confining myself to the PHB, here are the non-combat Wizard utilities:2nd level: Feather Fall and Jump (2 of 4) 6th level: Dimension Door, Disguise Self, Invisibility, Levitate and Wall of Fog (5 of 6) 10th level: Arcane Gate (1 of 4) 16th level: Fly, Greater Invisibility (2 of 4) 22nd level: Mass Fly, Mordenkainen's Mansion (2 of 3)For Warlocks, here is the same list:2nd level: Beguiling Tongue, Ethereal Stride, Shadow Veil (3 of 4) 6th level: Dark One's Own Luck, Fey Switch, Spider Climb (3 of 4) 10th level: Ambassador Imp, Shadow Form, Warlock's Leap (3 of 4) 16th level: Cloak of Shadow, Eye of the Warlock, Infuriating Elusiveness (3 of 3) 22nd level: Raven's Glamour, Wings of the Fiend (2 of 3) Undoubtedly many of these spells could be used in combat (especially the movement and invisibility ones) - just as was the case in AD&D. Equally, there are some spells I haven't mentioned - one's which raise defences or grant resistance - which could be used out of combat, for example if exploring or negotiating certain sorts of natural or magical traps/hazards.Nevertheless, I don't see any evidence here that nearly every utility spell in the 4e PHB is a combat spell.</blockquote>

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