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Unearthed Arcana Mass Combat
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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 7709348" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>You have to completely wipe your mind from the idea that what is written in the PHB combat rules represents reality. It doesn't. It only represents what your PC can do <em>in small-scale combat</em>, but it is not any more general than that. </p><p></p><p>You already know that <em>once you're not in a combat</em>, initiative doesn't make sense, combat actions don't make sense, readying an action doesn't make sense, <strong>rounds and turns </strong>don't make sense... Normally if you cast a spell out of combat, you <em>can</em> imagine that if it says "1 action" then it means 6 seconds, and that's a convenient equivalency but not an absolute truth. The point is, out of combat you just don't normally care about <em>seconds</em>, unless the DM says so (and makes something up).</p><p></p><p>Now try to think that also when you are in a <em>mass combat</em>, you still are NOT in a <em>PHB combat</em>. So a "1 action spell" does not mean it takes 6 seconds. Instead, it takes whatever makes sense. And you can find some sense in saying it takes 1 minute now, because the "1 action" rule is meant for <em>small-scale combats </em>where each PC can focus its attention easily enough to be able to cast the spell during a 6-seconds turn, but in a <em>mass combat</em> everything is different: you may have literally hundreds of enemies in your vicinity (the abstraction of the rules don't say so, but you can imagine that 2 units attacking each other aren't really standing side-by-side but their occupied spaces merge, as combatants on both sides get close to attack each other), weapons dangerously flying around you all the time, you have to constantly move around and dodge, the ground gets full of corpses and stuff, the noise around is loud, you have friendly fire and need to interact with a lot more than 3-4 allies... in other words, you have a lot less chances to focus your attention than when fighting a small bunch of enemies. One spell every 6 seconds just isn't an applicable model anymore.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 7709348, member: 1465"] You have to completely wipe your mind from the idea that what is written in the PHB combat rules represents reality. It doesn't. It only represents what your PC can do [I]in small-scale combat[/I], but it is not any more general than that. You already know that [I]once you're not in a combat[/I], initiative doesn't make sense, combat actions don't make sense, readying an action doesn't make sense, [B]rounds and turns [/B]don't make sense... Normally if you cast a spell out of combat, you [I]can[/I] imagine that if it says "1 action" then it means 6 seconds, and that's a convenient equivalency but not an absolute truth. The point is, out of combat you just don't normally care about [I]seconds[/I], unless the DM says so (and makes something up). Now try to think that also when you are in a [I]mass combat[/I], you still are NOT in a [I]PHB combat[/I]. So a "1 action spell" does not mean it takes 6 seconds. Instead, it takes whatever makes sense. And you can find some sense in saying it takes 1 minute now, because the "1 action" rule is meant for [I]small-scale combats [/I]where each PC can focus its attention easily enough to be able to cast the spell during a 6-seconds turn, but in a [I]mass combat[/I] everything is different: you may have literally hundreds of enemies in your vicinity (the abstraction of the rules don't say so, but you can imagine that 2 units attacking each other aren't really standing side-by-side but their occupied spaces merge, as combatants on both sides get close to attack each other), weapons dangerously flying around you all the time, you have to constantly move around and dodge, the ground gets full of corpses and stuff, the noise around is loud, you have friendly fire and need to interact with a lot more than 3-4 allies... in other words, you have a lot less chances to focus your attention than when fighting a small bunch of enemies. One spell every 6 seconds just isn't an applicable model anymore. [/QUOTE]
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