Question regarding the Haste spell

[Rallek25]

The Haste spell text reads "choose a willing creature that you can see in range..."
Now would it be possible to perhaps cast it on an enemy? I'm sure if you acted like you were on their side you could convince them or something. Perhaps they would just be willing to have that power outright.

Anyways my question is:
In theory could you as a sorcerer quicken spell a haste on an enemy and then hold action till it's that person's turn at which point you drop haste and they spend a round doing nothing?

It was just something I thought of and wanted to see what other people thought about this.

[follacchioso]

Your interpretation is correct. You can only cast it on a willing creature - thus no enemies, unless you convince them somehow.

It's a good tactic if you need to fool or betray a comrade - but not for every combat.

[DrKerosene]

The Haste spell text reads "choose a willing creature that you can see in range..."
Now would it be possible to perhaps cast it on an enemy? I'm sure if you acted like you were on their side you could convince them or something. Perhaps they would just be willing to have that power outright.

Anyways my question is:
In theory could you as a sorcerer quicken spell a haste on an enemy and then hold action till it's that person's turn at which point you drop haste and they spend a round doing nothing?

It was just something I thought of and wanted to see what other people thought about this.

That seems technically possible. Would probably require some good skill checks or spell usage like Suggestion/Charm to pull-off.

Though I’d like to suggest an Extended Catnap on several frenemies may be worth considering.

[sophontteks]

The target doesn't inherently know what you are casting, so this would be equivalent to them giving up their save vs. your spell. Almost all targets outside of those who know and trust you would elect to resist the effects of a spell cast on them.

[xanderh]

You don't even have to quicken the spell or hold your action or anything. It's a concentration spell, which means you can drop it at any point. I don't see why you wouldn't just drop it immediately though, since it makes them unable to take actions until the end of their next turn. That includes reactions. Might as well deny them those, if you can somehow convince an enemy to let you cast a spell on them.

[Unoriginal]

Willing means willing, not just desirous of power. Anyone who's willing to let you cast *any* spell on them would need to trust you a lot, which tends to not happen between declared enemies.

As other have said, if you fooled someone into thinking you're on their side, it may work, but otherwise, nope.

[darknite]

Sure, I'd let you do that. The 'enemy' would get to choose whether they take it or not. If they don't know anything about magic, they'll probably resist because they would assume any magic being cast on them by an opponent would be bad. If they know something about magic they would resist knowing full well what you intend to do.

[R.Shackleford]

Your interpretation is correct. You can only cast it on a willing creature - thus no enemies, unless you convince them somehow.

It's a good tactic if you need to fool or betray a comrade - but not for every combat.

The answer to this, and many other issues in 5e, is the Actor feat.

People vastly underestimate how utterly fricken broken Actor actually is. Especially since expertise (rogue/bard) and Prodigy is a thing.

Deception/Performance: Get in a fake fight with an ally.

Deception: Screw this, I'm done with you guys. Hey, y'all (looking at enemies) want to hire a caster? These guys suck.

*casts haste on ex-enemy*