Best uses for Suggestion?

[ChampionWiggles]

So I know that Suggestion is a pretty potent spell, even though some DMs will argue the part of the spell that the suggestion must sound "reasonable". But I was just curious about some of the better and more creative ways to use the spell, both in and out of combat.

Some of the only ones I could think of are things like:
"Drop your weapon. Show us your real strength and fight unarmed."
"Your friend will betray you. Betray them first in the frenzy of this battle."
"We are not a threat. Show us to the exit of this dungeon"

[nickl_2000]

I think the best uses of Suggestion tend to be situational. Something that you come up with on the fly. For example, in one of the final battles from a campaign I was playing I used it.


The leader of the Flaming Fist was being driven insane by Ba'al and was currently in the process of launching flaming projectiles into the city of Baldur's Gate from the top of the flaming fist headquarters. I used suggestion one on his lackeys that "Your leader is not acting for the safety of the people and must be killed." Given the fact that he was literally trying to kill the people he was sworn to protect, it is pretty reasonable.

That being said, when the lackey managed to land the killing blow with a crit on his boss, he still wasn't all that happy with me. It's okay though, I used my instrument of the bard to levitate out of his reach and viciously mock him to death after that.



Other good uses
-Map out the dungeon, our leader needs to know where all the traps are.
-It's late, and we've come to take over your watch. You can go to bed
-The master summoned you, quick run to him (use this for the person to lead you right to the big bad)
-We will be using this item to save the city, sell it to me for cheaper
-These are not the droids you are looking for (woops, wrong nerdom. These are not the people you are looking for)

[Ventruenox]

I once used it on a red dragon that was being used as a mount against its will. "You have itchy vermin on your back, you should roll over and scratch it off." The archmage was quite surprised.

I also enjoy using it with a GOO-lock's telepathy. One use I stole from these boards: "Ignore this Suggestion!"
-edit for resolution: DM chose to resolve this as the target wasted an action for that round. I was hoping for a non-damaging 1 minute duration Feeblemind effect. Oh well.

[ImproperJustice]

A few we have come up with (apologies for repeats):

"You didn't bring enough healing potions, hurry back to your base to get some."
Worked best with a Chain Lock pet to follow.

"Your buddy's sword is dangerous! Get it from him before he hurts somebody!"

"It's too hot, you should take off all that heavy armor."

"Here, let me hold that for you."

"This book is great, you should read it cover to cover!" -Not useful in combat but great for distracting a guard.

"Can you introduce us to your boss?"

"Will you order your men to stand down so we can talk privately?"

[Kryx]

I would like to raise the "reasonable" flag here.


"Drop your weapon. Show us your real strength and fight unarmed."
I would consider this is an unreasonable suggestion unless the person is known to be a brawler of some kind and is lead to believe that it'd be a fair fight. Otherwise it's like asking a person to fight you with their hands behind their back. No matter how drunk a person is they're able to realize that fighting with hands behind their back would be suicide.


"Your friend will betray you. Betray them first in the frenzy of this battle."
I would consider this is an unreasonable suggestion unless there is reason for the person to believe that their friends might betray them. Even then it entirely depends as if you're truly hostile of the creature they'd be better off either running or fighting you and then turning on them when they are weak.


"We are not a threat. Show us to the exit of this dungeon"
Depends how your party presents itself. Could definitely be a reasonable suggestion.

Suggestion is a subtle spell that provides slight adjustments in reason when the conditions are right. It is not mind control like the 5th level spell Dominate Person. Though I expect this thread will fill with many of such ideas as I can already see several that copy examples used in Dominate Person.

[Aett_Thorn]

I also enjoy using it with a GOO-lock's telepathy. One use I stole from these boards: "Ignore this Suggestion!"

Ahhh...the good ole 'Paradox Suggestion'! What was the result of this suggestion, if I can ask?

Some of my favorites so far:

1) On a guard on night duty: "There's nobody around, so you can take a nap for a while."

2) City Watch was on the lookout for two Gnomes (player PCs) after a botched theft. While roaming the city with the rest of the party, a member of the watch approached us: "We're not two Gnomes, we're two Gnomes, an Elf, and a Dwarf, so we can't be who you're looking for."

[Breashios]

2) City Watch was on the lookout for two Gnomes (player PCs) after a botched theft. While roaming the city with the rest of the party, a member of the watch approached us: "We're not two Gnomes, we're two Gnomes, an Elf, and a Dwarf, so we can't be who you're looking for."

This is much in the spirit of the spell, I'd absolutely allow it.

An exhausted party was escaping some tunnels and ran into the two giant-kind guardians at the entrance. (They probably could have taken them, but that is DM knowledge. A couple of the party probably would have gone down though.) The giants were not particularly smart and the party knew from previous observation the first guard constantly poked fun at the intelligence of the second.

They tried to bluff their way out with a story the guardians did not quite believe. When that looked like it was going to fail suggestion was used against the first guard to have him check with his boss (who was dead in the tunnels). When he was more than a few rounds gone, the first suggestion was dropped and the second guard was convinced the first was gonna tell the boss how stupid he was and he needed to stop him or he would end up getting all the duties he didn't like.

It took two suggestion spells, but the party escaped to safety without fighting two giants.

[Blacky the Blackball]

"Go get me a beer."

[Kryx]

An exhausted party was escaping some tunnels and ran into the two giant-kind guardians at the entrance. (They probably could have taken them, but that is DM knowledge. A couple of the party probably would have gone down though.) The giants were not particularly smart and the party knew from previous observation the first guard constantly poked fun at the intelligence of the second.

They tried to bluff their way out with a story the guardians did not quite believe. When that looked like it was going to fail suggestion was used against the first guard to have him check with his boss (who was dead in the tunnels). When he was more than a few rounds gone, the first suggestion was dropped and the second guard was convinced the first was gonna tell the boss how stupid he was and he needed to stop him or he would end up getting all the duties he didn't like.

It took two suggestion spells, but the party escaped to safety without fighting two giants.
These are great examples of the spell. Thanks for sharing!

[Dalebert]

This is what bugs me about the spell. "Reasonable" is so wide open to interpretation. That could mean that it may as well be a mundane suggestion, with maybe just advantage on your persuasion check, i.e. nothing that you couldn't convince them of without magic.

Obviously, it is magic and so it should suppress their good judgment to some extent. To what extent? That's hard to say and really hard to gauge how the DM will decide.

I'm likely to try to use it cleverly and work with the particular target of the spell so I'm less worried about using it as a player than I am about DMing it. Mostly the players who use it in my games treat it more like outright mind control and make very unreasonable suggestions.