Question about spirit guardians

[kamap]

An affected creature's speed is halved in the area, and when the creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Wisdom saving throw.

So we where fighting the bbeg and he had the ability to get into a magical or physical imune pillar if that pillar was then hit with the opposite and enough damage was dealt he was booted out again.
Would the boss getting out of the pillar count as entering the spirit guardians area again on a turn?

There was also some discussion about "a turn" first its the bbeg's turn, then someone else's and so forth, so when its my turn I move so he isn't in the area any more then move closer again.
He enters the area again and takes damage again, I rather thought it was until his next turn so He could only get damage from the guardians once until his turn had passed.

So how many times can spirit guardians tick between bbeg first turn and the next.
What does a turn exactly constitute of?

[DM_Trick]

Enter means voluntarily. Not pushed or pulled or thrown. So if a goblin walks up to you, entering your Spirit Guardian radius, then he immediately suffers the damage and will likely die (he is a goblin after all). If, by some miracle, he survives and provided you do not move away from him when his turn comes back around, at the start of his turn (meaning immediately), he takes damage again. If you move away, thus he's not in the area of affect any more, and he starts his turn outside the area of affect he suffers no damage.

Moving back and forth putting the goblin repeatedly in and out of the area of affect does not prompt him to keep taking damage. He ONLY takes damage if he VOLUNTARILY enters your area of affect or STARTS HIS TURN in your area of affect. That's it.

So you could walk up to him, take a swing (hit or miss) and end your turn. He would not suffer damage at this point because he did not VOLUNTARILY enter your area of affect. Then, when it's his turn, he would immediately take damage because he started his turn inside your area of affect. Unless he was pulled, dragged out or you were knocked away before he began his turn.

[MrStabby]

I would use a rule of thumb that it is the same type of movement that triggers an attack of opportunity.

For me this means that spells like dissonant whispers that make someone run into the area would trigger it.

In this specific case I would rule the bad guy is not expending their movement to do this so it wouldn't trigger till the start of their turn.

[DMThac0]

Would the boss getting out of the pillar count as entering the spirit guardians area again on a turn?


He is, for the first time in that turn, entering the area of effect of the spell. This is under the assumption that the spirit guardian spell cannot penetrate the pillar effectively making it total cover. In a lesser form, consider it like wearing a gas mask in a room full of tear gas. Until you take off the gas mask (exit the pillar) the tear gas (spirit guardians) doesn't do anything to you. Where as the moment you take off the gas mask (leave the pillar) the tear gas (spirit guardians) will begin to affect you immediately.



There was also some discussion about "a turn" first its the bbeg's turn...

What does a turn exactly constitute of?

Turns are where you land on the initiative, anything that happens during that initiative is your turn. A round is what happens containing that initiative count and the rest (until your next turn, beginning of your next turn).

A turn consists of: move, action, and bonus action. There are rare instances where something else may happen on a turn and those are explained in the stat block of that creature, lair, item, spell, or thing.



So how many times can spirit guardians tick between bbeg first turn and the next.


This has been answered sufficiently above

[Atavis]

Enter means voluntarily. Not pushed or pulled or thrown.

So, by extension, you are positing that in an area affected by
•Create Bonfire
•Cloud of Daggers
•Cloudkill
•Evard's Black Tentacles
•Incendiary Cloud
•Spike Growth
•Wall of Fire
•Healing Spirit

a person dragging/pushing another person through that area would result in the dragger/pusher suffering from the effects of the area spell while the one being moved does not, and that movement from things like the Thunderwave spell, a warlock's eldritch blast (Grasp of Hadar/Repelling Blast), and a monk's Open Hand Technique results in no damage or healing done to the affected person?

[solidork]

There was a Sage Advice question specifically about this a while back: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-april-2016

TL;DR
-Moving or creating the area of effect won't damage
-Regardless of how they move into it, enemies will take damage once per turn

So grappling/shoving someone into the area will make them take damage.

[kamap]

Thanks for all the replies but I'm still confused.

According to DM_trick beeing forced out of the pillar the turn after he got into it, doesn't trigger spirit guardians.
Then Therverian says it does.

I'm leaning more to Therevian cause nowhere is it stated that it has to be voluntarily, nor does it say he needs to be the one entering the area just entering the area so if I move out and back in it looks like it should trigger.

[DigitalCharlie]

Enter means voluntarily. Not pushed or pulled or thrown.

This isn't right. If an enemy is forced into the area of effect, it will take damage. If you move onto the enemy, it won't take damage. This is from sage advice from April 2016 (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-april-2016):

"Entering such an area of effect needn’t be voluntary, unless a spell says otherwise. You can, therefore, hurl a creature into the area with a spell like thunderwave. We consider that clever play, not an imbalance, so hurl away! Keep in mind, however, that a creature is subjected to such an area of effect only the first time it enters the area on a turn. You can’t move a creature in and out of it to damage it over and over again on the same turn."

To the original question: there are turns and there are rounds. An individual character has a turn. Going through the entire initiative count is a round. Spirit Guardians can be triggered once per turn, which means if you have an ally who can pull the enemy out and then force them back in, the enemy will take damage once (and only once) on a turn. You, however, cannot move the effect on and off of the enemy — that doesn't count as the enemy entering the space. From the same sage advice:

"Reading the description of any of those spells, you might wonder whether a creature is considered to be entering the spell’s area of effect if the area is created on the creature’s space. And if the area of effect can be moved—as the beam of moonbeam can—does moving it into a creature’s space count as the creature entering the area? Our design intent for such spells is this: a creature enters the area of effect when the creature passes into it. Creating the area of effect on the creature or moving it onto the creature doesn’t count. If the creature is still in the area at the start of its turn, it is subjected to the area’s effect."

[Theodoxus]

The answer is in your bolded OP. "When a creature enters the area For the FIRST time on a turn ..." moving your Spirit Guardians in and out on your turn would have no additional effect after the first time it forced the BBEG to make the save.

So, this sounds a bit like a WoW raid boss mechanic... assuming the booting from the pillar happens on the turn of the PC who dealt sufficient damage, the BBEG would make a save and take the damage. It would again make a save and take damage if it starts its turn while in the SG.

There are a few ways to make the BBEG eat more SG damage - anything that lets you move off your turn (Glamour bards, for instance) would work.

[kamap]

Theodoxus when its my turn and the bbeg is already in the area it won't have to make the save because it isn't affected cause it doesn't enter the area its already in it.
If I then move the area of him and onto him again it wont affect him either because it was not intended to work that way, comming from the sage advice DigitalCharlie linked.

Though if I can make him move during my turn and make him enter the area instead of having the area go back over him then it would do damage again.

Thanks for all the replies and I'm glad we didn't interpret the spell wrong and did way more damage then it was supposed to.

[solidork]

Theodoxus when its my turn and the bbeg is already in the area it won't have to make the save because it isn't affected cause it doesn't enter the area its already in it.

The spell also triggers if they start their turn within the area. The rest of it, you've got it right.

[DM_Trick]

Thanks for all the replies but I'm still confused.

According to DM_trick beeing forced out of the pillar the turn after he got into it, doesn't trigger spirit guardians.
Then Therverian says it does.

I'm leaning more to Therevian cause nowhere is it stated that it has to be voluntarily, nor does it say he needs to be the one entering the area just entering the area so if I move out and back in it looks like it should trigger.

Solidork is correct & I was wrong.

I was basing my judgement on the rule for attacks of opportunity. If a creature is moved against it’s will it does not invoke an attack of opportunity. So an ogre couldn’t just drag a character through a mob of goblins and every goblin along the way gets to take a shot at the character.

I missed a key phrase in Spirit Guardians description: “...first time on a turn...”

So the caster, could cast Spirit Guardians, move away from the monster, then the next turn another character could push the monster back in and then on the monster’s turn take another hit resulting in 3 damage rolls on the monster.

That’s some decent value right there.

[holywhippet]

I was basing my judgement on the rule for attacks of opportunity. If a creature is moved against it’s will it does not invoke an attack of opportunity. So an ogre couldn’t just drag a character through a mob of goblins and every goblin along the way gets to take a shot at the character.


I don't think that is quite right either. The rules say:
You also don’t provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction. Certain things, like dissonant whispers, force the target to use one of the actions (in that case, reaction) so you will provoke an AoE by being forced to move like that. An ogre dragging someone uses the ogre's action, not the target so that case means there is no AoO.