#dnd 5e rules

[mmeveronica]

I have a problem with how DnD 5e handles summoning and binding extraplanar beings to your service, and I have a question for you on the issue.

If you wishe to have a creature such as a celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend bound to you for a period of time longer than one hour of concentration you need to use the spell Planar Binding to, well, bind it to your current plane and your service.

The problem arises at the intersection of the following facts:

Summoning and Conjuring spells always have a concentration duration, and the summoned creature dissapears either when concentration is broken or shortly thereafter.

"When you cast a spell with a casting time longer than a single action or reaction . . . you must mantain you concentration while you do so." (PHB, pg. 202)

"You lose concentration on a spell if you cast another spell that requires concentration. You can't concentrate on two spells at once." (PHB, pg. 203)

Planar Binding has a casting time of 1 hour (PHB, pg. 265)

Because of these facts of DnD 5e, if you summon a creature and then go to cast Planar Binding on the creature your concentration will be broken on the spell that summoned the creature and it will dissapear before you can finish casting the spell.

The only true exception to this is Conjure Elemental which is unique due to the fact that if "your concentration is broken, the elemental doesn't dissapear. Instead you lose control of the elemental . . . and it dissapears 1 hour after you summoned it" (PHB, pg. 225).

As I've layed it out currently, Planar Binding can only be used in combination with the Conjure Elemental spell. However, there is yet hope. Planar Binding does point out that typically one summons a creature into an inveted Magic Circle first, so let us look there.

Magic Circle has the following property of interest;

"The creature can't willingly enter the cylinder by nonmagical means. If the creature tries to use teleportation or interplanar travel to do so, it must first succeed on a Charisma saving throw." (PHB, pg. 256)

Thus, when inverted a creature would have to make a Charisma saving throw to leave the cylinder via interplanar travel, and our great question arises.

Is a summomed creature willingly returning to it's home plane using interplanar travel once the spell that summoned it ends, or is the summoner using interplanar travel on the summoned creature as an unwillingly target to send it back to its home plane?

Does a summoned creature return home of its own will and power once the summoning spell ends?

Yes, thus it could be trapped by Magic Circle and then bound by Planar Binding

No, thus it could not be trapped by Magic Circle nor bound by Planar Binding

Voting ended onFeb 18, 2025

[itzjohnwayne]

So for one of my most recent games, I took the time to type up some alternative rules for Death in my games. Since falling unconscious and basic waiting to die could feel...underwhelming, I made a small list of actions that players could do to feel engaged while dying to have those final moments of heroism to make it feel more memorable.

Id be interested to hear more thoughts from others and get opinions on if you think it would work in your games or if its something you wish you had for a dying character. Thank you for any input!

[mmeveronica]

Infinite Healing Spells in DnD 5e

If you play as a Mark of Healing Halfling, which appears in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the Cure Wounds, Healing Word, and Prayer of Healing spells are added to any spell list you may have. This means that if such a Halfling was a Wizard these would be wizard spells for this Halfling.

At 18th level all wizards gain access to the Spell Mastery feature which let's them choose a 1st level wizard spell and a 2nd level wizard spell and then cast them at their lowest level an infinite number of times.

This means you could select Cure Wounds or Healing Word and/or Prayer of Healing for your Spell Mastery and then cast them as much as you want to do as much healing you want, very possibly restoring your whole party to max HP before the next fight.

Enjoy breaking the game!

[mmeveronica]

Is throwing/splashing a Acid/Alchemist's Fire/Holy Water part of the...

"Use An Object" action

"Attack" action

Voting ended onAug 2, 2024

Context:

Under the Adventurering Gear section of the original D&D 5e Player's Handbook says;

for Acid, "As an action, you can splash the contents of this vial onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw the vial up to 20 feet [...]. In either case make a ranged attack [...] treating the acid as an improvised weapon" (PHB, pg. 148)

for Alchemist's Fire, "As an action, you can throw this flask up to 20 feet [...]. Make a ranged attack [...] treating the alchemist's fire as an improvised weapon." (PHB, pg. 148, 151)

for Holy Water, "As an action, you can splash the contents of this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw the flask up to 20 feet [...]. In either case make a ranged attack [...] treating the holy water as an improvised weapon" (PHB, pg. 151)

Implications:

If these are considered part of the "Use An Object" action, then Rogue Thief-s would be able to use their Fast Hands feature to throw or splash these things as bonus actions, potentially increasing their damage by 2d6 + 1d4 per round after the first.

If these are considered part of the "Attack" action, these items would either be considered to have a property similar to the net where when "you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to attack [...], you can only make one attack regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make" (PHB, pg. 148). This would greatly reduce the utility of these objects. Otherwise you would be able to use these objects with the Extra Attack feature, allowing high level Fighters to throw four of these item in one Attack action.

[mmeveronica]

DnD 5e has the worst rules. Anyways here is how you can make infinite¹ money in DnD at level 4 with in text support.

So, the two features that are being taken advantage of are Minor Alchemy from the 2nd level of the School of Transmutation Wizard and Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing of the 2nd level of the Forge Domain of the Cleric.

First, you use Minor Alchemy to transform 1000 copper pieces into 1000 silver pieces². This is just within the volume limit of 1 cubic foot of material for a 10 minute transmutation as, using the container capacity of a basket to convert between volume and mass, 20lbs of material would take up 1 cubic foot (PHB, pg. 153).

Then over the course of the hour that that 1000 pieces of silver is silver you use Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing to "irretrievably" coalesce and transform it into a 2lbs bar of gold³ which has a value of 100gp⁴ (Xanathar's Guide to Everything, pg. 19). It is worth noting that you need a 2lbs bar of gold as reference to make bars of gold with Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing, but the original doesn't get consumed.

Once you have permanently made that gold bar, you can sell it or trade it at a bank for 90gp and 1000cp to start the process over again.⁵

Now what is the textual backing for being able to do a process that takes an hour to something that only lasts an hour? Well it is found in the parentheses of the first paragraph of the Planar Binding spell and how it interacts with the Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey spells.

Planar Binding says, "typically, the creature is first summoned into an inverted magic circle in order to keep it trapped while the spell is cast" (PHB, pg. 265). Now the only reason to need to trap a summoned creature is if it is hostile, however the two conjure spells in the PHB that summon something you'd want to use Planar Binding on, Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey, only have the creature turn hostile if concentration on the spell is broken. Therefore, if someone other than the caster of Planar Binding summoned these creatures concentration would never be broken outside of combat and extreme weather. No, I believe that the PHB reccomends that the creature is summoned into an inverted magic circle because the one summoning the creature and casting Planar Binding is the same character and as such they can't concentrate on the conjure spell while casting Planar Binding. This means they would have had to summon a creature that exists for one hour before starting to cast Planar Binding over the course of that hour that the creature is on the material plane, causing Planar Binding to take effect right before the creature returns to its plane of existence.

Using the in text example of Planar Binding a creature summoned using Conjure Elemental or Conjure Fey, we can safely assume that you would be able to use Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing on silver transmuted through Minor Alchemy, despite the silver only being transmuted into silver for hour that you are conducting the hour long ritual of Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing.

¹ Technically you can only make so much money in one day and your character has a finite life span so it is a limited amount of money. Assuming that you can't use Minor Alchemy or Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing while short resting or long resting, you'd be able to repeat this process 6 times per 13 hours as each cycle takes 2 hours and 10 minutes. 10 minutes for Minor Alchemy, 1 hour for Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing, and 1 hour for a short rest to recharge channel divinity. This means you'd only be able to do it a maximum of 7 times per day without forgoing a long rest which takes 8 hours. It is worth noting though that Elves only need 4 hours to short rest and as such can do this 9 times a day. The profit from this can be found in footnote five.

² Alternatively, instead of copper into silver you could use stone or wood, I chose copper into silver to avoid the questions of "does this feature conserve volume or mass? If it conserves volume how do we calculate the new mass?" because those questions suck.

³ You can do smaller amounts, such as one 1lb bar of gold which has a value of 50gp, but not larger. You could also reasonably make a bar of platinum that weighs ⅕lbs, but I don't like not whole number imperial units.

⁴ This relies on the DM not devaluing the gp value of transmuted silver compared to untransmuted silver, and this is where the whole process could break as there is nothing to compare it in rules to. However, I see no reason to say that silver isn't as valuable as silver.

⁵ 90gp is the max potential value, you'd probably get 89gp-85gp usually if trading because the other person needs to profit too. Using the maximum daily loops of this process without forgoing long rests from footnote one and the maximum potential profit-minimum reasonable value, you'd be able to get 630gp-595gp per day for non-elves and 810gp-765gp for elves.

[veritech-fighter-bastard]

Just for your DnD vampire knowledge:

A uterus expels about 6 to 8 teaspoons per menstrual cycle. An ounce is about 6 teaspoons.

A vial is 4 oz and is the bare minimum for a vampire to use for a week. So if you have 4 people with a uterus in your party, you can get an emergency vial of blood once a month without trying to drain someone.

We haven't decided what it means if someone just turned and has a uterus but ill leave that research to fuck up someone else's search history.