your favorite word for "command"

[Mouseferatu]

The scene: the party is engaged in a battle with a number of adversaries, some of whom are sniping from the roofs of nearby buildings.

The cleric PC casts Command at one of the snipers. I figure he's going to say "jump," which will either result in the guy jumping up and down in place or--if I'm feeling generous--will result in him jumping off the roof and taking 3d6 (three story building) damage.

But he doesn't say "jump."

He says "dive."

I figured the guy hit head-first and broke his neck.

Maybe not 100% by the rules, but I thought that sort of tactical thought--dive vs. jump--should be rewarded.

 

[alsih2o]

does anyone else think help is an advantageous word? does anyone think it too vague or disallow it?

 

[jaerdaph]

This one's a b-movie classic:

KNEEL!

 

[The Fifth Elephant]

Orgasm.

 

[mooby]

FLEE

 

[Ciaran]

The whole business of the command spell using just one word is cool... as long as every single language in your campaign setting happens to be identical to English. Different languages have different verbs and different syntax. If Gnomish is an agglutinative language in which every sentence is actually a single word, then gnomes are pretty vulnerable to command, while if Orcish verbs are all broken up into two words, then Orcs are entirely immune. And heaven forbid that your PC comes from a culture that, unlike English, does have an imperative verb form of "Suicide."

Next time I DM, I'm going to allow command to use any simple imperative phrase that isn't directly self-destructive (such as "Kill yourself" or "Stick your sword into your leg").

- Eric

 

[Jeph]

If the campaign language is german, your foes are in for some trouble.

"Ousdasfensterundhalszörstorenspringen!"

(roughly translated, Outofwindowandneckbreakjump!)

 

[Mouseferatu]

does anyone else think help is an advantageous word? does anyone think it too vague or disallow it?

Definitely too vague, IMHO. As far as I interpret it, the single-word command has to be pretty unambiguous in terms of meaning to work.

 

[1st level magic-user]

i saw someone use "sneeze" once. but that's just silly.

1. back in 2e, it was the example in the spell descrition, so that way I had no disscussion with people about what their character would do. (fall over, go ridged, not move, ect.)

the same example was used in 1e too. my stand-by is always "die" for that exact reason. heh. i'm so imaginitive.

 

[Mark Chance]

Two faves

as it says above, what is the best one word command you have used or seen used?

On a ship against a heavily-armored fighter: "Dive!"

On the fifth-floor of a building: "Self-defenestrate!"