D&D 5E Is the stun from Psychic Scream permanent if it is impossible to make the save?

[Mort]

Dispel Magic would certainly work (as long as you cast at 9th level).

No it wouldn't. Psychic Scream is instantaneous so the stun can't be dispelled (it's essentially just residual trauma not a lingering magic effect).

 

[Clint_L]

What if you polymorphed the victim into something with an Intelligence of 2 or less - would that end the stunned condition from psychic scream? The exact wording of the spell is "creatures that have an Intelligence score of 2 or lower are unaffected." You could polymorph them into a bug to end the stunned condition, then step on them to break the polymorph.

Or what if you feebleminded them? Extreme measure, but greater restoration is more available than power word: heal.

 

[jgsugden]

Resistance is a much better cantrip than people seem to think. I take it on my Clerics and have it right now in a game. SO many times out of combat our rogue is doing something super-risky and I hit him with a Resistance in prep for him doing the wrong thing and needing to make a save. I let someone else hit him with a Guidance though he rarely needs a Guidance. His skills are great - it's trap he triggers because he never checked which gets him every time. Whether it's opening a chest or sneaking around, Resistance comes up more often than Guidance for that guy.

Your experience seems to be an outlier. At low levels you get 2 or 3 cantrips for the primay 3 classes that could cast resistance. One goes to an attack, one goes to guidance (generally), and then we see the high utility cantrips like thaumaturgy, mending, light, etc... get taken. It is hard to make a strong argument for resistance. Over the 5E years, I think I saw it once out of hundreds of PCs.

Specifically, a cleric is unlikely to take it because if they really need the benefit, especially outside combat, a bless spell is going to be superior because the PC that is going off to scout can get multiple save assistances. Yes, it uses a slot - but especially outside combat that doesn't mean much - and the benefit can extend to multiple targets.

Druids have few slots and a couple urgent needs for their cantrips. Shillelagh and a ranged cantrip are both a good idea, as is guidance. Further the elemental cantrips are quite thematic. It is tough to fit in resistance.

And if it tough for the druid, the artificer is really up against a rough spot. They get access to the superior list of arcane cantrips, so they get to cast mage hand, message, a variety of ranged options, etc...

The PCs that may get enough cantrips that they might consider resistance tend to be multiclass PCs that get 6 or 7 cantrips fairly early on. Even then, it isn't a lock. I have a Gloomstalker 5, Cleric of Order 1, Divine Soul 5, Battlemaster 4, Assassin 3, Divine Soul 5 to 7 that started adding cantrips at level 6 (3 cleric ones), and had added 7 at 7th level. She did not need a ranged attack cantrip as she was an archer. Her 7 cantrips? Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion, Move Earth, Guidance, Mending and Light. At 10th level she added Message. All saw far more use than I'd have had with Resistance.

 

[Mort]

What if you polymorphed the victim into something with an Intelligence of 2 or less - would that end the stunned condition from psychic scream? The exact wording of the spell is "creatures that have an Intelligence score of 2 or lower are unaffected." You could polymorph them into a bug to end the stunned condition, then step on them to break the polymorph.

Since the Psychic Scream's duration is instantaneous, I don't think that would work (not unless you polymorphed someone before the spell was cast, somehow anticipating it).

Or what if you feebleminded them? Extreme measure, but greater restoration is more available than power word: heal.

Again, they're stunned as a result of the spell but the spell is no longer in effect, so that wouldn't work either.

Best "cure" would seem to be to boost the subject's save enough that they could eventually make it.

 

[Clint_L]

Since the Psychic Scream's duration is instantaneous, I don't think that would work (not unless you polymorphed someone before the spell was cast, somehow anticipating it).


Again, they're stunned as a result of the spell but the spell is no longer in effect, so that wouldn't work either.

Best "cure" would seem to be to boost the subject's save enough that they could eventually make it.

I think I'd allow both. My reasoning would be that, since the psychic scream obviously needs some kind of mind to take effect, the resulting trauma also has to be mental, and ongoing. So if you remove the mind, the effect would be gone.

 

[tomBitonti]

What if you polymorphed the victim into something with an Intelligence of 2 or less - would that end the stunned condition from psychic scream? The exact wording of the spell is "creatures that have an Intelligence score of 2 or lower are unaffected." You could polymorph them into a bug to end the stunned condition, then step on them to break the polymorph.

Or what if you feebleminded them? Extreme measure, but greater restoration is more available than power word: heal.

Yeah, I was thinking that, but it's only the initial casting of the spell that cares about the target's intelligence. I don't see any restriction on stunned which prevents a creation with an intelligence of 1-2 from being stunned.

TomB

 

[Mistwell]

Your experience seems to be an outlier. At low levels you get 2 or 3 cantrips for the primay 3 classes that could cast resistance. One goes to an attack, one goes to guidance (generally), and then we see the high utility cantrips like thaumaturgy, mending, light, etc... get taken. It is hard to make a strong argument for resistance. Over the 5E years, I think I saw it once out of hundreds of PCs.

Specifically, a cleric is unlikely to take it because if they really need the benefit, especially outside combat, a bless spell is going to be superior because the PC that is going off to scout can get multiple save assistances. Yes, it uses a slot - but especially outside combat that doesn't mean much - and the benefit can extend to multiple targets.

Oh man I am not wasting a first level spell slot on scouting. We scout between every combat in a dungeon. I'd run out of spell slots in the first hour of exploring!

In years of choosing mending I've found zero use for it. A single discreet 1 foot tear is way too circumstantial. I finally stopped choosing it. Thaumaturgy is about as useless in my experience. Looks great on paper, but not much in our games. What you're calling "high utility" I find to be zero utility.

 

[jgsugden]

Oh man I am not wasting a first level spell slot on scouting. We scout between every combat in a dungeon. I'd run out of spell slots in the first hour of exploring!

In years of choosing mending I've found zero use for it. A single discreet 1 foot tear is way too circumstantial. I finally stopped choosing it. Thaumaturgy is about as useless in my experience. Looks great on paper, but not much in our games. What you're calling "high utility" I find to be zero utility.

I don't know what to tell you. Your experiences differ from the metrics pulled from D&Dbeyond on how often cantrips are taken, they differ from most of the optimization guides out there, by Critical Role Stats metrics on the number of times that group used these cantrips (Mighty Nein cast guidance almost 10 times for every 1 use of Resistance, and Mending over 3 times more often than resistance) and they differ from my experiences.

The utility of cantrips is certainly modified by DM style, by campaign design, etc.... I didn't call it out because I know my experience is a bit different than others, but Mold Earth has been A tier for me. When setting up defenses it has allowed us to create walls and trenches. It allowed us to burrow through some dungeon areas. It allowed us to bury things quickly and recover them later. We've buried enemies alive with it (dig a 5 foot wide and 10 foot deep hole with it (requires 3 castings), get an enemy in the hole, cast once more to move dirt on top of them. I even have a PC that runs a construction business between adventures using cantrips, rituals and a few non-ritual spells ... he can build buildings in just a few days and this is a key spell in that process. However, I know a lot of the use cases I saw were DM and setting specific interpretations and options. 'Loose Earth' is going to be interpreted differently by different DMs. Jeremy Crawford once said, "think dirt, not stone." Some DMs think it is only useful in a field that has been recently plowed. Approaches differ. However, it was amazing for me, historically, with a wide variety of DMs - but rarely is appreciated by others. Ot seems like your experience with Resistance is like mine with Mold Earth - you have seen far more utility for it than the vast majority have.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've certainly seen Mending used frequently. It's great. For example "the villain smashed the inscription so we couldn't read the directions." Mending.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

The main problem with Resistance (and Bless for that matter) out of combat is that 1 minute is actually a really short time. Cast it on the scout and it will have expired almost as soon as he rounds the first corner.

The 1 minute duration is much less of an issue with Guidance, since you often know when an action will call for an attribute check, so you can cast Guidance just as you need it.