D&D 5E Is Rime's Binding Ice OP?

They can not fight with actions even if cornered because they have to take the dash action as their action.

From the fear spell:

While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from you by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move

So if there is nowhere to move (it is cornered or can only move closer to you, which it can't while frightened) it does not have to dash and can take other actions.
 

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The rules state it is one action to wake someone from HP and once that happens the person is no longer charmed. If he is not charmed by the spell and it makes it to his turn he can use his action. Those are the rules.
So, in group initiative for the monsters, you essentially are saying that time stops for the sleeping enemy? They are not awake when the round starts. No, sorry, they don’t get to sleep for most of the round then domino wake everyone up (or shake from a daze, as the case may be).

Do I believe I could be shaken free and then shake someone else free etc, etc. Yes I do, especially when we are talking about magic. You go running past him and slap him on the butt.
magical butt slapping? Whaaaa…?

Answer me this, if you use sequential initiative how is it supposed to work? As a point of fact if you wake someone who goes after you in the initiative order, according to the rules, what happens next? How long is it before he can use his action?
If they are acting on the same exact initiative (I.e. group initiative), they are waiting until next round.

Just like 15 different enemies can move in and out and attack the same character in that 6 seconds. Let's say you are standing in an open doorway and there are 15 enemies in the room. One after another they can close with you and hit you with a sword (maybe twice with multiattack) and then back up to make room for another one to go in and do the same thing.
Different scenario altogether - they were all up and active at the start of the round. That could be coordinated. Gets a little awkwardly crowded, but sure.

That is the way the game works, sure you can homebrew it to work differently, but that is not RAW.
I don’t really care if you think it’s not RAW. I’m not going to screw over the players by chaining baddie “shake awakes” at our table.
 

From the fear spell:

While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from you by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move

So if there is nowhere to move (it is cornered or can only move closer to you, which it can't while frightened) it does not have to dash and can take other actions.

That is not the normal way to interpret that sentence. This sentance means:

The creature must take the dash action. The creature must move .... unless there is nowhere to move.

That would be the normal interpretation of that sentence and it would be consistent with the way wording is typically done on spells etc. If another action was allowed they would do it like they did the turned effect, where they say what other actions can be used if he can't move.

Regardless of the odd interpretation, you can always position yourself so he can move somewhere by at least 5 feet. If he is trapped in a room against the far wall, think of a chess board and move to the verticle directly opposite of him then he can move one or more squares sideways to be a little bit further away from you and triggering this. The only way this would not work is if he was in a 5 foot wide hallway. As I said though, I do not think that is the intended interpretation. Moreover remeber that if he was holding a weapon it was dropped.
 

That is not the normal way to interpret that sentence. This sentance means:

The creature must take the dash action. The creature must move .... unless there is nowhere to move.

That would be the normal interpretation of that sentence and it would be consistent with the way wording is typically done on spells etc. If another action was allowed they would do it like they did the turned effect, where they say what other actions can be used if he can't move.

Regardless of the odd interpretation, you can always position yourself so he can move somewhere by at least 5 feet. If he is trapped in a room against the far wall, think of a chess board and move to the verticle directly opposite of him then he can move one or more squares sideways to be a little bit further away from you and triggering this. The only way this would not work is if he was in a 5 foot wide hallway. As I said though, I do not think that is the intended interpretation. Moreover remeber that if he was holding a weapon it was dropped.

I was looking at the wording and I agree, the affected creatures are basically just dashing and that's it (unless it loses sight of the caster). Which IS quite powerful.

But I, personally, just don't like the downside(s). Too short range. Too much room for escaped bad guy (s) causing extra problems for the group when they otherwise wouldn't. Though I suppose it's not REALLY that different than opponents consciously running away and causing trouble (though few, too few, DMs actually have opponents do that). I prefer control to be actually being able to control for the opponent. Fear doesn't do that for me.
 

So, in group initiative for the monsters, you essentially are saying that time stops for the sleeping enemy? They are not awake when the round starts. No, sorry, they don’t get to sleep for most of the round then domino wake everyone up (or shake from a daze, as the case may be).

I am saying he can go on his turn. If 6 of them move forward and attacks and then the other one casts web the area they just walked through, does he have to save because it was all happenin at the same time?

They get a turn and they can take an action on their turn. That is RAW. Anything else is homebrew.

Moreover if we are looking at the real world one guy who saved could probably do it more than once Bob wake up, Mike snap out of it. Jim you are daydreaming. It takes me 2.85 seconds to say that, give me another 3+ to physically shake/slap each them .... so if we are looking IRL maybe 1 enemy should be able to wake up 3 guys in one turn? Why can't he do this? Because HE ONLY HAS ONE ACTION ... even if that action would only take 2 seconds out of the 6.

There are many, many things in the game inconsistent with physics - for example getting stabbed by a dagger and not being either dead or seriously wounded for weeks. Falling instantaneuosly. Someone firing a heavy crossbow and hitting a target at 400 feet twice in 6 seconds, someone swimming in chainmail armor while carrying a pike and 80 more pounds. Being cut so badly you are literally bleeding out and being 100% and uninjured hour later. None of these things can happen in the real world, most of them are more preposterous than this example, but they are all RAW and we conform to the rules to have a game. Same thing here.


magical butt slapping? Whaaaa…?
I said it is a magical world, people know about magic. People who are fighting those weilding magic have probably seen a lot of it .... and yes "get with it man" as you run by him.

If they are acting on the same exact initiative (I.e. group initiative), they are waiting until next round.
That is Homebrew. Which is fine, but it is not RAW.

In the DMG on page 270 it states using side initiative allows a side to "act in any order they choose" and "makes your life as a DM easier since you can more easily coordinate monsters"

Coordinating monster actions is exactly what I am doing here, and if I am "choosing" the order, the guys who saved go first and the guys they wake go next.

Different scenario altogether - they were all up and active at the start of the round. That could be coordinated. Gets a little awkwardly crowded, but sure.
But IRL would take a WHOLE lot more than 6 seconds for them all to move in and out and get a swing or two, which is your whole argument for why it does not work in the HP example. To use your own words "are you saying that time stops for people making an attack" since there is no way possible for 15 different people to swing a sword twice each at an individual from the same location in 6 seconds. If the sword was a Claymore, I think they would be pressed to do that IRL in an entire minute.

This is an extreme example, but if we go down this path we need to start looking at every single action and see if it can be accomplished in the same 6 seconds, considering what the last players did in the round. There are a LOT of things that can't physically be accomplished in 6 seconds that routinely happen in combat.


I don’t really care if you think it’s not RAW. I’m not going to screw over the players by chaining baddie “shake awakes” at our table.
That is how the spell is designed to be played. It is in the spell description, sequential actions are RAW and it has been done in every table I have played and DMed.

Not with 14 of 15 enemies as in the extreme example I used, but for example 2 unengaged enemies that saved waking up two others that failed and one of them waking up the last guy while the other attacks. Happens every time the spell is used on every table I played and this happens with the players every time the players are hit with a similar spell.
 

I was looking at the wording and I agree, the affected creatures are basically just dashing and that's it (unless it loses sight of the caster). Which IS quite powerful.

But I, personally, just don't like the downside(s). Too short range. Too much room for escaped bad guy (s) causing extra problems for the group when they otherwise wouldn't. Though I suppose it's not REALLY that different than opponents consciously running away and causing trouble (though few, too few, DMs actually have opponents do that). I prefer control to be actually being able to control for the opponent. Fear doesn't do that for me.
You do have a point there. You do lose control of the enemies, so perhaps saying it is a "control" spell is debatable. You control the battlefield itself but the battlers are out of control unless they are cornered .... They can also carry off treasure.

Also if you have to catch one of your own it is a non-starter. It is catastrophy if an ally is in the AOE and fails his save so you just can't do it. This is the kind of spell that will end friendships if you hit an ally. With HP you can hope he saves and if he doesn't it is not the end of the word because at least he is not fleeing the battlefield WITH the enemies.

Most of my wizards are defensive builds and they either spend a lot of time in melee or are at least resilient enough to go up there on occasion to get a spell like this off. If your wizard is a fragile "never risk it" build, the cone can be intimidating because enemies that don't save will almost certainly attack you. Those wizard builds tend to have a broader array of powerful control spells and damage spells because they do not need the defensive spells as much. So if their go to spell is not the best for this engagement, they probably have something else that is.
 



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