I was looking through the spells in the PHB 2024 to see how the new version was wording things differently from 5e.
Most of the old spells are the same, with a few exceptions being buffed or nerfed.
But then I saw that the Sending spell which I thought was unchanged had one critical line added to it.
The target of the spell can now block the caster for eight hours after the initial casting of the spell.
You cannot convince me that this isn’t a direct consequence of Perkins watching in abject horror as Jester Lavorre abuses a spell meant for rapid communication to harass and annoy NPCs through the campaign.
A few posts ago you mentioned how you’ve been thinking about Grimmorbek a lot. May I ask about your opinion and personal interpretation of Grimmorbek?
GOD. This is so much fucking longer than I planned for but I love yapping about ship dynamics. Also sorry for the late reply Anon, I hope you see this eventually lol.
My personal opinions: I love them. As a big fan of Frostbek and someone who has seen quite a deal of Grimmorning floating on my dash, to me it's a pretty fascinating trio as they have such good chemistry and work well as duos.
Frostbek works in my mind as Frost has been noted to be much kinder to Torbek who has taken notice of this despite Frost's deadpan demeanor or troubles emoting. Torbek fascinates Frost and I think this can be looked at from many angles as Torbek is not only fascinating for the trauma he endures and secrets he holds but also for his oddly forgiving demeanor and caring nature. Blah blah you guys have heard me make many posts about Frostbek.
And Grimmorning obviously has chemistry as the two have been long, long time friends and they are fascinating as a polar opposite duo. Despite their differences they clearly compliment one another well as yapper vs listener or emotive vs internal or physically and verbally affectionate vs quality time and acts of service. The two basically coparent a child together and the running gag of "I've always wondered about you two" in terms of being a couple.
Grimbek (is that what it's called?) I think even has some grounds as both Goblinoids - I think that sharing a language the others don't is both something deeply connecting but also is very intimate when used - and Gricko has on multiple occasions gone out of his way to comfort Torbek aka sing for him when he's having panic attacks. While a little shit head towards Torbek at times, he's also advocated for Torbek and had shown the most moral guilt over being a cause for Torbek ever being hurt.
I think as a trio, the parts just make sense. Two emotive partners to Frost's introspective and introverted, two emotionally stable and grounding partners for Torbek who's more prone to panic and discomfort, and two calming and slow presences to keep Gricko from flying off the handle and take a pause to rest and relax and breathe. I think the addition of a 3rd to the partnership also adds interesting complexities to the dynamic as someone like Gricko can help Frost and Torbek who both sometimes struggle expressing themselves or communicating and he can mediate on their behalfs. Frost is very close to both Gricko and Torbek so having someone to watch out for the pair who left to their own devices may be more prone to rushing into danger or not taking care of themselves or giving themselves a break. And Torbek is fascinating because I think he brings out an odd fondness the pair don't normally display as they have both been shown to care for and tend to him and I think it brings out a nice - domestic isn't the word but I can't rly think of what other word to say - tenderness maybe to them that they don't normally show in the group due to it being as Gricko said "a bunch of middle aged lads who struggle to talk about their emotions to one another."
Larian studios missed out on the inherent hilarity of the sending spell. One in five sending spells is ever used properly, the other four times is stumbling all over yourself trying to count to 25 words and thinking of what to say
Got some copper wire? Why not send a little message to your friend, acquaintance, or stranger you happen to know the name of? Try the Sending* spell today!
*this version may not be able to fit 25 words in it, but it sure looks cute to me!
This was written for @critter-genfic-events's Gen Week Day 1: Inconvenient Sendings. See the rest of the days here.
You send a short message of twenty-five words or less to a creature with which you are familiar. The creature hears the message in its mind, recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, and can answer in a like manner immediately. The spell enables creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your message.
You can send the message across any distance and even to other planes of existence, but if the target is on a different plane than you, there is a 5 percent chance that the message doesn't arrive.
Seems simple enough, right?
So there’s a lot that we can talk about with this - What is a word? Are there code languages set up to impart large amounts of information? Do wizards try to gamify this by learning a language that allows for compound words? But if there’s anything that Critical Role’s second campaign makes really obvious, its that there really isn’t a simple way to stop sendings.
Outside of a house ruling, of course. Nothing to stop anyone from creating a device or ruling that Sending is actually a divination spell. But in general, most anti-detection spells and devices specify that Sending is divination, and not evocation. There’s no saving throw to resist, because the writers didn’t consider that anyone would want to waste a Sending on an unwilling participant. Which really, they all had access to twitter at the time, they should have been able to figure out the damage.
Granted, it’s not quite as bad as allowing everyone to slide into your twitter DMs by default. The earliest you get sending is fifth level. I think that we’re a little used to the idea that it’s something that can be cast ridiculously often by everybody - because as a D&D campaign, Critical Role is focused on adventurers and heroes - but it’s the same level as Revivify. Level five is when you are finally not considered local heroes - it’s a ‘Captain of the Guard’ level. So it’s not super common - but there’s still plenty of people that might have it. And if you’re famous enough, you might want to have some familiarity with you - even if it’s just a quick five minute meeting.
But also, there’s the question of what familiarity means. Does it mean anyone who has heard of and has a seen a depiction of the person? Matt Mercer allows for this, but if we followed this to their logical end, any ruler wouldn’t be able to sleep. But if the depiction is necessary - there might be an easy way around that - simply have a court appearance/depiction that’s very different from their normal appearance. Would that work?
What if someone is impersonating someone else, and gives that person’s name? If someone tries to message the impersonator (having only met the impersonator) would the message go to the impersonator, the real person, or neither?
And then there’s the question of consecution - if you’re familiar with someone’s past life, can you message the current one? What if it’s before anamnesis? I personally dislike this one for logistics reasons - it makes the finding of consecuted souls too easily, and there’s still the question about depictions.
Also, what if they’re taking a nap, or you get the timezone wrong and they’re in deep sleep? Does the recipient wake up, or do they just hear it in the dream? I certainly can sleep through people trying to talk to me, and even if I respond, I might not remember it. And if they do respond, is it in the dream: sleep-talking? Or is it just snores? If someone doesn’t wake up, are they aware that they got a sending, or might they just think they dreamed a sending? Would they remember it?
The Sending isn’t auditory, after all - so the recipient isn’t going to miss the conversation just because they’re paying attention to something else (which is good, most of the time, otherwise a lot of sendings would be missed). But that also implies that the recipient is forced, whether or not they want to, to concentrate on the message, no matter what else they might be doing at the time. So - can you use Sending to break concentration? In my mind, you 100% can, at least with a roll. Especially considering the amount of other psychological work that can be used to help break it - from a catchy song to screams. Typically one would want to use a spell that does damage for the same reason, but if you’re five hundred feet away and want to stop someone nonlethally, maybe that’s a shot. Especially since, unlike many out-of-combat utility spells, the casting time is only one action.
There’s also no way of knowing who a sending is from if they don’t know the person and the person doesn’t announce themselves. Which might make for an interesting adventure hook on its own: someone has been threatening the Town Special Person through sendings, maybe even blackmailing them. It’s up to the adventuring party to try and find the person and stop them - possibly by recognizing their voice secondhand.
This is also assuming that some aspect of the voice gets transmitted - though the spell doesn’t require the recipient to speak the same language as the sender. Does that mean the recipient receives comprehension of the sender’s language, does the recipient hear the message in their language, or do they simply know what the message is and who sent it - and any sort of auditory information is made up by their brain?
There’s no real right answers to this, only rulings for whatever fanfic or campaign you’re playing in.
