D&D 5E Using COMMAND to break a caster's concentration?

[jasper]

Could they do it within 6 seconds on command? Without already being on the verge of exhaustion?

Yes and some could sleep standing up. Grrr.

 

[R_J_K75]

I agree. All spells were consolidated into powers (or rituals), virtually all powers followed a simple formula. They were almost always fluff text that most people ignored and a short paragraph of explicit results.

I vaguely remember. We played the edition for a very short time. One of the good things about 4E is that 5E came next.

 

[Helldritch]

All I can say is that I disagree. There's no need to consolidate "drop concentration" into a single word. If such a word is used by some people, anyone can command them to stop concentrating. Anyone who does not know the word it will not have any effect. If you tell someone that "blarg" means stop concentrating and then command them with "blarg" I would rule that they will just look at you funny and say "blarg is just a made up word with no meaning".

In any case, dropping concentration is not an action. At best it would mean a DC 10 concentration check.

As always, feel free to run your game differently.

As I have a background in both science and literature, I can assure you that the need to consolidate concepts is there and it is real. Especially with academicians. If we compare casters to academicians when they teach their craft, you can safely bet that there are words and verbs for just about any possible concepts. How many different type of brushes are used by painters? And they all have a name. For me a brush is a brush. But not for a painter. For me to lose concentration is to... lose concentration. But for a caster, it might be losconing... who really knows.

And then again, it might be because I have been fortunate enough to speak two languages and to have innu, cri, Muslims and other foreign language friends that have been kind enough to teach me a bit their culture and language. It maybe why I have no trouble to think that a specific word might have been created. Different culture have many words for things that we might have only one or two words to describe.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I dont think 5E specifically states what percentage of the population have PC/NPC classes but I seem to recall reading it somewhere in some previous edition. Seems like a pretty useful piece of information to include in the core books if you ask me.

I actually prefer the implication method, for various reasons. If it’s spelled out, people will take it as a rule, and feel less empowered to decide for themselves in their campaign.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I agree. All spells were consolidated into powers (or rituals), virtually all powers followed a simple formula. They were almost always fluff text that most people ignored and a short paragraph of explicit results.

I mean, no, but go off I guess.

 

[jasper]

Any reasonably intelligent person will immediately ...

WE are all gamers here. So we do qualify for one of those. The other two I am not too sure,.

 

[R_J_K75]

I actually prefer the implication method, for various reasons. If it’s spelled out, people will take it as a rule, and feel less empowered to decide for themselves in their campaign.

At the adventure/encounter level its not going to matter much if at all because the story will most likely dictate such things. Though if I were creating a larger scope campaign then that information could be helpful to flesh out the amount of people in an area with a class. Regardless I usually take these as guidelines more than rules.

 

[TheSword]

What about the word ‘cease’.

I prefer this because it suggests stopping what you’re doing without implying movement like ‘stop’.

It also, doesn’t try to stack penalties on top of each other like sleep does.

Incidentally, command is very powerful... it can affect multiple creatures and can have a lot of flexibility in effect.

 

[R_J_K75]

It also, doesn’t try to stack penalties on top of each other like sleep does.

To add to this, one thing alot of people have said in this thread is that they'd give the target a concentration check on a failed save. Isnt this making the spell pretty ineffective, would the Wis save trump the Con Save?

 

[Mort]

To add to this, one thing alot of people have said in this thread is that they'd give the target a concentration check on a failed save. Isnt this making the spell pretty ineffective, would the Wis save trump the Con Save?

The spell is extremely effective.

It doesn't have to be effective at stopping concentration.