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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6806269" data-attributes="member: 6799649">Not in the game world. There are plenty of 5E game mechanics that work retro-actively at the gaming table in our world, but none of them work retro-actively in the game world unless the spell/ability description says so.Take shield for example: it very definitely works retro-actively at the gaming table in our world; it turns an already resolved 'hit' into a 'miss'. But it doesn't work retro-actively in the game world. In that world, the caster throws up a shield just in time to divert an attack which would have hit if he hadn't thrown a shield in the way. If it worked retro-actively in the game world as well as at the gaming table, then a wizard would get a javelin through the head (killing him), then cast shield, then the javelin slides out of his head and he returns to life!There is a distinction between what is happening with 5E game mechanics at the gaming table, and what this represents in the game world. The mechanics can be retro-active, but what is happening in the game world cannot be (without specifically time-altering magic).The VSM components are a game mechanic, but they represent specific magical phrases spoken with exacting intonation, and specific gestures that are enacted, without which the spell is never cast. These components cause the spell to begin (assuming everything else is also as it should be: knowing the spell, spell slot, all that). If the components are not provided, the spell cannot begin. Therefore, the spell cannot begin before they are provided. Since 'half the required phrase' does not meet the requirement of 'the required phrase', then the V component has not been provided until it is complete.</blockquote>

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