85
votes
Accepted
How to prevent a single-element caster from being useless against immune foes, as a DM?
You don't
If you don't use immune foes when you were planning on doing so then you are invalidating this players choice, and taking away the agency they showed during character creation.
You will ...
- 30.3k
85
votes
Accepted
Do 10 second turns/60 second rounds make spellcasters horrible?
Yes and No. But mostly Yes.
It makes spellcasters worse, by making some spells worse. In particular, the spells you mentioned, i.e., spells that rely on a Duration. Notably, however, other spells are ...
- 37.3k
68
votes
How to prevent a single-element caster from being useless against immune foes, as a DM?
Multiple Roles
You indicated that the player has an interest in picking utility spells when a suitable lightning based spell is not available. I recommend steering the players towards spells whose ...
- 37.6k
65
votes
Accepted
Can the Wish spell be used to allow someone to be able to cast all of their spells at will?
That would be very powerful.
Let's compare the effect with the other things Wish can do:
You grant up to ten creatures you can see immunity to a single spell or other magical effect for 8 hours
You ...
- 26.3k
63
votes
Accepted
Can a Wizard cast a Ritual Spell as many times as they want during the day?
The limit is 142 times
Each ritual adds 10 minutes and most spells take 6 seconds1, there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day so 144 lots of 10 minutes, lose just under 15 minutes for the ...
- 216k
61
votes
Accepted
Can you cast a spell just before the end of a long rest?
Yes, you can do this
That's how it goes. Spell slots are regained at the end of a long rest, and there's no rule forbidding spellcasting during a long rest.
It's effective and somewhat cheesy, but ...
- 54.2k
58
votes
Accepted
When exactly can a caster stop concentrating on a spell?
You can end concentration at any time (no action required).
As it says above, you can end it at any time, no action required. It means you don't need to use a reaction, so you can elect to just end ...
- 32.2k
56
votes
Frequency of cantrips outside of battle
About the Rules
You are correct that even if you can do something as much as you want, it still takes time to do. Something that takes your action in combat should not be do-able more frequently than ...
- 361k
56
votes
Accepted
The Genie warlock patron's Expanded Spell List adds the Wish spell as a 9th-level Mystic Arcanum option. Do they suffer stress from using Wish?
You still suffer.
Wish says:
The stress of casting this spell...
Mystic Arcanum says:
You can cast your arcanum spell...
You are still casting wish so the consequences apply. There are no secret ...
- 154k
56
votes
Do I understand the difference between the two versions of Symbol, and why would anyone ever choose the second one?
The idea is that the surface option doesn’t move.
When the spell describes the surface option, the idea is that you are inscribing the glyph on an immovable or mostly immobile surface:
such as a ...
- 154k
55
votes
What happens when I can prepare more spells than I have slots to cast them with?
There is a big difference between 'Spells Prepared for the Day' and 'Spell Slots.'
The spells you prepare is the library of options you have to pick
from when you go to cast a spell.
A Spell Slot is ...
- 66.3k
55
votes
Accepted
Can a concentration spell be cast without actually concentrating on it for an "instant" effect?
No. Casting a concentration spell immediately breaks any existing concentration.
One of the rules clarifications in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (pg. 5) addresses this issue directly:
As soon as ...
- 63.9k
55
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between 1/3, 1/2, and full casters?
"1/X Caster" is shorthand for how quickly a character gains "spellcaster levels" (and with them, more spell slots)
The progression for each of these spellcaster types looks like ...
- 53.1k
55
votes
Am I using my high level spells wrong?
What they mean
Your friend is concerned that once you need to fight more than one or two encounters per (in-game) day, you will be frustrated not to have spells available to you. Action Economy is ...
- 44.7k
54
votes
Accepted
Is counterspelling a warlock different?
The warlock 'upcasts' naturally
Warlocks don't have the options to choose what level of spell slot they use to cast a spell, as other casters do. Their Pact Magic feature assigns a single spell level ...
- 126k
53
votes
I don't get the spell slot system for D&D 5e's Warlocks
Spell slots are the fuel you spend to cast spells.
For now, think of cantrips as being totally separate from spells.
All spellcasters, including warlocks, have a list of spells they can cast, ...
- 27.5k
53
votes
What happens if a caster is surprised while casting a spell with a long casting time?
The caster continues casting the spell.
Taking the same quotes from @Xirema's answer, we have the following for casting spells with a long casting time:
Certain spells (including spells cast as ...
- 7,766
52
votes
Accepted
Can a wizard use spells from his spellbook without preparing them?
Only if it is a ritual, and is cast as one
A wizard must prepare a list of spells they have available to cast. Available spells do not depend on being in or out of combat, but are simply the spells ...
- 38.4k
50
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to upcast ritual spells?
Ritual spells can't be cast at higher levels unless you spend a spell slot
The rules for rituals state that:
The ritual version of a spell takes 10 minutes longer to cast than normal. It also ...
- 36.6k
49
votes
Accepted
When a spell asks for targets, can I choose the same target multiple times?
Only if the spell says so
There are spells that can direct multiple attacks against the same target, but they use different language. Instead of saying to choose a number of targets, such a spell ...
- 64.2k
48
votes
What are the impacts of permitting casters to concentrate on 2 spells?
The Dungeon Master's Guide strongly recommends against this.
Dungeon Master's Guide, p.263:
Beware of adding anything to your game that allows a character to concentrate on more than one effect at ...
- 84.5k
47
votes
Accepted
What happens if a caster is surprised while casting a spell with a long casting time?
Rules as Written, the Spellcaster would lose the spell
This is relatively straightforward. The rules for spellcasting state unambiguously that a caster casting a spell with a long casting time must ...
- 53.1k
47
votes
Accepted
How does class balance change when I remove spellcasting?
Ok, as you've focused down the question, let's look at class by class balance. As you stated in the question, Wizards and Sorcerers are obviously useless now--and classes that already had no or only ...
- 66.3k
45
votes
Accepted
If a Wizard fails to copy a spell from a Spellbook, when can they try again?
A wizard can never fail, he copies exactly what he means to.
The rules for copying spells from sources other than spell scrolls say:
When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add ...
- 154k
45
votes
Without Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, how to make Drow cleric competitive?
You can't, and it's not that bad.
As you've noted, you aren't playing to optimize while others are. But in the end, that difference is going to be minimal. They will start with a higher modifier by ...
- 126k
44
votes
Accepted
Are warlocks able to abuse short rests to cast long-duration spells without consuming spell slots?
You're correct.
Your analysis is correct--a warlock can cast some long-duration spells by effectively spending hours instead of spell slots.
This is not unbalanced (for a single-classed warlock).
...
- 63.9k
44
votes
Accepted
Do out-of-combat spells use spell slots?
Yes, they do.
As described in the basic rules for spellcasting:
When a character casts a spell, he or she expends a slot of that spell's level or higher, effectively "filling" a slot with ...
- 9,442
44
votes
Accepted
What can a ranger 1/paladin 1 do with their spell slots?
You have no spell slots.
Even if you add before dividing and (1+1)/2 = 1, you have no spell slots. This is because the multiclassing rule that grants Combined spell ...
- 4,074
42
votes
Accepted
Which uses of Bonus-Action spellcasting are legal?
The table is entirely correct
Action Surge does not interact in any way with the bonus-action spell rule (other than being limited in the same way as other spells if you use a bonus action spell). ...
- 76.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible