Mandragola
2015-01-01, 04:18 PM
Here's a slight trick you can do, which will sometimes improve the effect of hold person and other spells.
Background: I realised that these spells are a bit rubbish if you're the last party member to act before the monsters' turn. You cast the spell, they might save, then they might save again at the end of the turn. The monster does spend its turn under the effect of your spell, but often you and your friends don't get to batter the thing while it's held. Monsters will always get two chances to save before you yourself get to hit them, even if you're first in the initiative order, so you never get to enjoy the effects of your own spell. Sad times!
The ideal time for hold person to go off is immediately after the monster acts, so it misses that chance to save at the end of its turn and your whole group gets to beat on it, should it fail its save.
So here's what you do: You brief the other characters with a code-word prior to combat (but not at the inn - you want them to remember). You then ready to cast hold person (or whatever) when someone says the word. Then the monsters have their turn*. When the first player to act has their turn, they say your code word and you use your reaction. Hold person goes off, hopefully sticking the baddie in place. The party, you included, then gets to commence smacking the monster around getting auto-crits, until hopefully it falls over.
*Note that the designers seem to have actually put something in place to make this not-entirely-broken: readying a spell requires that you cast it and then concentrate on it. You're planning on waiting through the monsters' turn, so something bad might happen to make you lose your spell - and you can't concentrate on anything else. Of course, quite a lot of monsters won't understand what's happening and will beat on the tank, or you'll be a cheesy vengeance paladin with polearm mastery and sentinel so they can't get to you, or you're invisible and they don't know you're there at all or something.
Background: I realised that these spells are a bit rubbish if you're the last party member to act before the monsters' turn. You cast the spell, they might save, then they might save again at the end of the turn. The monster does spend its turn under the effect of your spell, but often you and your friends don't get to batter the thing while it's held. Monsters will always get two chances to save before you yourself get to hit them, even if you're first in the initiative order, so you never get to enjoy the effects of your own spell. Sad times!
The ideal time for hold person to go off is immediately after the monster acts, so it misses that chance to save at the end of its turn and your whole group gets to beat on it, should it fail its save.
So here's what you do: You brief the other characters with a code-word prior to combat (but not at the inn - you want them to remember). You then ready to cast hold person (or whatever) when someone says the word. Then the monsters have their turn*. When the first player to act has their turn, they say your code word and you use your reaction. Hold person goes off, hopefully sticking the baddie in place. The party, you included, then gets to commence smacking the monster around getting auto-crits, until hopefully it falls over.
*Note that the designers seem to have actually put something in place to make this not-entirely-broken: readying a spell requires that you cast it and then concentrate on it. You're planning on waiting through the monsters' turn, so something bad might happen to make you lose your spell - and you can't concentrate on anything else. Of course, quite a lot of monsters won't understand what's happening and will beat on the tank, or you'll be a cheesy vengeance paladin with polearm mastery and sentinel so they can't get to you, or you're invisible and they don't know you're there at all or something.