Does it ever seem like WotC forgets Concentration is a thing?

[Segev]

With Belak, in the update of Sunless Citadel, where they advise the use of Entangle and Barkskin in rapid succession, I can kind of forgive the oversight. It is coming from a 3e module and had tactical advice from there that they translated faithfully, if foolishly.

But then I look in Volo’s Guide at the Conjuror. Almost all of her spells require Concentration. She can’t even battlefield control as well as her spells might suggest, because they don’t synergies well with each other. Unless she’s supposed to go in much higher-CR fights with an army of minions (which she can’t conjure, because her conjure elemental spell takes concentrator just one), she’s best paired with some Grungs or some undead for her two poison cloud spells. Evard’s Black Tentacles would be a good lockdown to do something else, except it also requires concentration.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

With Belak, in the update of Sunless Citadel, where they advise the use of Entangle and Barkskin in rapid succession, I can kind of forgive the oversight. It is coming from a 3e module and had tactical advice from there that they translated faithfully, if foolishly.

But then I look in Volo’s Guide at the Conjuror. Almost all of her spells require Concentration. She can’t even battlefield control as well as her spells might suggest, because they don’t synergies well with each other. Unless she’s supposed to go in much higher-CR fights with an army of minions (which she can’t conjure, because her conjure elemental spell takes concentrator just one), she’s best paired with some Grungs or some undead for her two poison cloud spells. Evard’s Black Tentacles would be a good lockdown to do something else, except it also requires concentration.

The quality of 5e books don't tend to hold up under a microscope, I think it's less about remembering about concentration and more about not having some one else proof read what a person wrote.

So, yes? But that's just a piece of the pie.

[Democratus]

Reminder: Create a spell that allows a 2nd concentration spell to be up at the same time.

Level 3?
Duration: 10 min/lvl?
Effect:
A caster may have two simultaneous concentration spells running at the same time.

However, such activity takes a heavy toll on the caster.

Each round that a caster is keeping 2 concentration spells running simultaneously incurs a level of fatigue.

[Segev]

Reminder: Create a spell that allows a 2nd concentration spell to be up at the same time.

Level 3?
Duration: 10 min/lvl?
Effect:
A caster may have two simultaneous concentration spells running at the same time.

However, such activity takes a heavy toll on the caster.

Each round that a caster is keeping 2 concentration spells running simultaneously incurs a level of fatigue.

A version of this spell without the exhaustion should be published in 12 days. It should also require Concentration.

[sithlordnergal]

I'll be honest, WoTC, and most modules, aren't very good at creating spell casters. Hell, there's one module in particular, Ooze There, that has you fight a Wizard with some oozes. The encounter starts by saying "The Wizard is concentrating on a ritual spell." They gave the Wizard nothing but concentration spells and Magic Missile. =/

I generally swap up the spell lists of every Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock that I come across.

[Segev]

I'll be honest, WoTC, and most modules, aren't very good at creating spell casters. Hell, there's one module in particular, Ooze There, that has you fight a Wizard with some oozes. The encounter starts by saying "The Wizard is concentrating on a ritual spell." They gave the Wizard nothing but concentration spells and Magic Missile. =/

I generally swap up the spell lists of every Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock that I come across.

Well, if he's concentrating on a ritual spell, he must spend every action on casting it as well as maintaining Concentration, so he couldn't actually do anything regardless of whether his other spells were Concentration or not.

Arguably, MAYBE, he could cast bonus-action spells? I'd have to re-check the rules on ritual casting to be sure.

I can sort-of see a use for the Conjuror as printed, but only in high-ish level encounters where he's a secondary or tertiary threat, and there's minions and a bigger boss running around. Then the BFC would be useful even if it's just one AoE at a time. As PCs save out of effects, or the BFC becomes less useful, he can switch to a different one.

But it looks an awful lot, from his spell list, like the designer expected things like stinking cloud and web to be used together, or evard's black tentacles and cloudkill, or the like. he does have fireball, and could drop that on the immobilized foes, but he can drop that on them without immobilizing them, too.

[Starbuck_II]

With Belak, in the update of Sunless Citadel, where they advise the use of Entangle and Barkskin in rapid succession, I can kind of forgive the oversight. It is coming from a 3e module and had tactical advice from there that they translated faithfully, if foolishly.

But then I look in Volo’s Guide at the Conjuror. Almost all of her spells require Concentration. She can’t even battlefield control as well as her spells might suggest, because they don’t synergies well with each other. Unless she’s supposed to go in much higher-CR fights with an army of minions (which she can’t conjure, because her conjure elemental spell takes concentrator just one), she’s best paired with some Grungs or some undead for her two poison cloud spells. Evard’s Black Tentacles would be a good lockdown to do something else, except it also requires concentration.

Undead are great in general to block off foes, Animate Dead can make multiple undead (with repeated castings, but each casting can only maintain 4).

[CapnWildefyr]

Well, maybe we should forget concentration is a thing, too--sometimes at least. Take Barkskin for example. Why does it require concentration? I think that concentration is there partially as a balancing act so spellcasters don't totally dominate everything, but for simple defensive spells-- why? Concentrating on controlling an elemental or even a ferret makes logical sense to me; concentration for making your skin bark-like? Not so much sense to me. Fix that and some of the other problems go away.

[iTreeby]

A version of this spell without the exhaustion should be published in 12 days. It should also require Concentration.

A concentration spell that says you can cast any number of concentration spells, but each increases the difficulty of concentration checks buy the total amount of spell levels being concentrated on? Or maybe a concentration spell that makes concentration free slots scales by adding slot levels?

[Spo]

The concentration component of practically every Druid spell does keep my lvl 10 Shepard Druid from wrecking every encounter. I don’t care if WotC forgets about concentration, I want my GM to forget about it.

[HPisBS]

If nothing else, Sorcerers should get a way to circumvent concentration (beyond just Twinned).

Maybe something like what I added to my earlier post (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?608257-Thematic-Sorcerer-Subclass-Spells&p=24395387)

Automatic Spell - This metamagic allows you to maintain concentration on two spells simultaneously. To do so, spend a number of sorcery points equal to the concentration spell’s level. On a subsequent turn, you may cast a second concentration spell that is of an equal or lower spell level, simultaneously maintaining concentration for both. The second spell can't be twinned. You may spend 0 sorcery points to concentrate on two cantrips in this way.

Whenever something like damage forces you to make a Concentration Save, you must make a separate save for each spell you're concentrating on, and must declare which roll is for which spell beforehand. Only one spell at a time can be an Automatic Spell.

Or at least


Persistent Spell - When you cast a concentration spell, you may spend any number of sorcery points to make it persist for a number of rounds after your concentration ends equal to the number of sorcery points you spent. However, you still lose any ability to exert control over the spell after your concentration ends.

This metamagic can't extend a spell's duration beyond its maximum duration.

[Segev]

The joke was that 12 days from when I wrote that is April 1. A spell that lets you concentrate on one more spell than normal, but uses Concentration, is effectively doing nothing but wasting a spell slot. Hence, April Fool's joke.

A concentration spell that says you can cast any number of concentration spells, but each increases the difficulty of concentration checks buy the total amount of spell levels being concentrated on? Or maybe a concentration spell that makes concentration free slots scales by adding slot levels?

A spell is probably a bit much for that. Then again, spell slots are a lot more precious in 5e than I'm used to, so maybe it's okay. But then, we have to decide which class lists get it. And all COULD use it, so is it fair to have it be restricted, or should it be available for all?

I do like the metamagic notion of "Persist Spell," expending a number of SP to let a Concentration spell persist that number of rounds. "Cheating" the rules of magic is the kind of thing the 5e Sorcerer is supposed to get away with as part of his metamagic schtick.

...maybe give Sorcerers a couple of metamagics, and wizards a "psion-inspired" subclass that gets things like a unique psicrystal familiar (which can take on concentration for one spell) and a class feature of Schism (breaking the mind into two bits, both of which can Concentrate on a spell).

Not sure what I'd give druids, clerics, bards, and warlocks, though. Let alone half-casters.

[Democratus]

For a cleric, you could call the ability God is My Copilot. :smallcool:

[CapnWildefyr]

Hmmm.. you could always allow casting additional concentration spells, just require a check every round equal to 10+the spell levels. That way the check scales for you as the spells get more powerful. Maintaining 3 low level spells might not be too hard, but high level spells would be much tougher. If you take damage then the damage adds on top of that.

This way it's open to all casters without feats and without classes infringing in each other's turf.

[Luccan]

As far as the Conjurer goes (and I'm not really sure since I'm not great at minionmancy so I haven't really checked) could it be that many conjuration spells are concentration based? If so, I'm not sure a conjuration focused enemy being loaded up on concentration spells is an error in the enemy, though it's arguably an error in the number of concentration spells in conjuration. But again, I'm not actually sure if that's true or if they just picked a bunch of conjuration spells that are also concentration.