Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
I disagree for two reasons.
First, you don't need to spend "significant" resources to make them easier. You already almost certainly have a better than 10 Constitution - because here you are arguing you are getting hit a lot to make this an issue to begin with, so it would be disingenuous to argue you don't need hit points much to begin with while making that argument. So, you have likely a 14 Con, maybe even a 16 Con. That's +2 or +3 to the check - a check that STARTS usually at DC 10! And you have not spent any resources so far to get to 60% to 65% chance of making the save. That's all the spell casters have needed in my games, and I've been playing two games a week since the game was released. IF you go to the extraordinary extent of getting the War Caster feat, now you have advantage on the check as well - so that's the rough equivalent to +4.5. So now you have effectively a +6.5 to +7.5 on a check that is usually DC 10 (in addition to some other awesome stuff like being able to cast a spell as an opportunity attack and cast while wielding weapons and shields). And you're complaining you'd want to spend even more on that? You'd want to get Resilient also, for another +3 to +4 on the check (more likely +4 as you are also bumping Con), making you nearly immune to losing a spell to a normal concentration? OK, if that's what you want, then go for it. But it seems excessive and needless obsessing on certainty over utility.
Which leads to the second argument: while our spell casters normally make their constitution saves when it (rarely) comes up without having spent any feats on it, on the minority of occasions when they do not, it's not that big a deal. You lost your concentration spell - big whoop. It happens. A resource you spent didn't last as long as you expected. Sort of like an offense spell you cast didn't do as much as you expected because the target made their save, or has resistance or immunity to the energy type of the spell, or turned out to be an illusion, or they only had a few hit points left anyway and the excess damage was meaningless. It's just not that big a deal most of the time.
And "most of the time" is a rare event to begin with - the casters getting hit is a minority of the time, the caster missing the save for getting hit is rare also, and finally the hit happening and them missing the save in the early part of a challenge rather than a later part of a challenge is also only 50-50 itself. Add up all those odds: getting hit while concentrating, missing the save, happening early enough in the combat to even matter, with a spell that would have prevented something bad or done something challenge-changing later had it remained in effect, and we're looking at a relatively rare event.
It's why I keep saying "What's your experience with this" instead of talking about it in theory. Discussing these things in theory misses the mark far too often. If you have actual experience with this spell and concentration checks, let us hear about it. But - it's nearly pointless to be having this conversation on a theoretical basis. The game doesn't often play close to the theory, with this version of the game. I've yet to hear from anyone saying it's been an issue in practice. In practice when I've seen this spell cast, it's usually cast on the Fighter by the Wizard, and the Wizard hides at the back of the party and almost never gets hit. Meanwhile the Fighter is soaking up damage with the help of this spell and their armor and shield.
Last edited:
