War Caster opportunity attack spell clarifications

Question

The War Caster feat gives the ability to cast certain spells as reactions, which creates some ambiguous rules. So far I've found:

• Command: the spell states that the creature must do a specified action on its next turn...does that mean in this case the spell would have no immediate effect, instead waiting for the creature's next turn to come around? Or is it the way I hope it is, where my opportunity attack can cause them to drop to the ground and end their turn immediately?
• Thorn Whip: where can I pull them to? Can I move them to the opposite side of me?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Spells do exactly what they say they do unless otherwise specified.

With Command, it does not take effect until the following turn. So yes, no immediate effect, waits for the creature's next turn. You don't affect their current turn with this.

With Thorn Whip, pull typically means that every foot of movement must move them closer to you (though this is not yet mechanically defined). this means that most likely, you aren't going to have anywhere to pull a target you attack with it via warcaster. A very lenient DM might let you pull a creature opposite you, but I'd find this a bit loose on the ruling side of things.