Segev
2022-04-14, 02:16 PM
5e has done away with the displacement spell that existed at least in the PHBs for 2nd and 3rd edition. I do not know about 4th. That spell was based on the Displacer Beast's innate magical ability to appear as if it is adjacent to its actual location. In 2e and 3e, this gave it a 50% miss chance whenever anybody tried to attack it, because they had to guess to which side of the image the creature actually was (assuming they knew not to attack where it appeared to be, anyway). In 5e, this is modeled as Disadvantage to attack it, which makes sense given 5e's paradigm of how such things work.
This does create some other issues, mostly surrounding how easy Disadvantage is to negate with Advantage, but those are by and large considered acceptable by players, in my experience, for the simplicity of the mechanic.
However, the reason the spell was removed from 5e, I am convinced, is because it would do nothing that blur doesn't already do. (In fact, if you wanted to refluff blur as displacement but keep the mechanics, simply changing the description, I doubt it would cause any problems.) Blur makes attackers suffer Disadvantage on attack rolls against you. It is a second level spell that requires Concentration, lasts for up to a minute, and requires only a verbal component.
Invisibility is also a 2nd level spell, lasts for up to an hour, can target anything you can touch, and imposes Disadvantage under the same conditions blur does. It also makes you impossible to see, which gives bigger advantages than blur does for utility. On the other hand, blur doesn't dispel if you attack or cast another spell, while invisibility does. So blur is just the "combat invisibility" niche at level 3-6, until greater invisibility becomes available (and still holds its own for being lower level).
Another spell to compare displacement to is mirror image. Despite some fiddly mechanics assigned to it in 5e, mirror image retains place of pride as a spell that doesn't use Disadvantage, but instead actually checks which image was targeted. This creates something that can stack with Disadvantage to hit you, and also remains in place even when an enemy has Advantage to hit you. (That it doesn't take Concentration means you can even have it and blur up simultaneously!)
It's worth noting that, in 3e, blur and invisibility were 2nd level spells, just as in 5e, and displacement was a 3rd level spell. This is because blur in 3e was a 20% miss chance, while in 5e it's a full Disadvantage. Displacement and invisibility were both 50% miss chances (with the lower-level invisibility still having higher utility, but also the problem of not being able to attack without breaking it).
If one wishes to implement displacement in 5e, as a spell, the simplest way, I think, is the aforementioned refluffing of blur. Instead of making you blur and waver, it displaces your image, but the net effect is Disadvantage on attacks against you.
If you wanted to keep both spells distinct, you'll have to give up on matching the Displacer Beast's mechanics, but you could try making a third level spell that makes you appear to be adjacent to where you are. The most straight-forward way to do it would be to make the attacker roll 1d8 with each attack, missing unless he rolls a "1" (because he guessed wrong which square you were in), but that's actually ridiculously overpowered. So, barring others having cool or original ideas, I think I would recommend the refluffing thing, if anybody cared to do it at all.
Hm. Maybe making it not require Concentration as part of being a 3rd level spell? Somatic instead of Verbal component?
This does create some other issues, mostly surrounding how easy Disadvantage is to negate with Advantage, but those are by and large considered acceptable by players, in my experience, for the simplicity of the mechanic.
However, the reason the spell was removed from 5e, I am convinced, is because it would do nothing that blur doesn't already do. (In fact, if you wanted to refluff blur as displacement but keep the mechanics, simply changing the description, I doubt it would cause any problems.) Blur makes attackers suffer Disadvantage on attack rolls against you. It is a second level spell that requires Concentration, lasts for up to a minute, and requires only a verbal component.
Invisibility is also a 2nd level spell, lasts for up to an hour, can target anything you can touch, and imposes Disadvantage under the same conditions blur does. It also makes you impossible to see, which gives bigger advantages than blur does for utility. On the other hand, blur doesn't dispel if you attack or cast another spell, while invisibility does. So blur is just the "combat invisibility" niche at level 3-6, until greater invisibility becomes available (and still holds its own for being lower level).
Another spell to compare displacement to is mirror image. Despite some fiddly mechanics assigned to it in 5e, mirror image retains place of pride as a spell that doesn't use Disadvantage, but instead actually checks which image was targeted. This creates something that can stack with Disadvantage to hit you, and also remains in place even when an enemy has Advantage to hit you. (That it doesn't take Concentration means you can even have it and blur up simultaneously!)
It's worth noting that, in 3e, blur and invisibility were 2nd level spells, just as in 5e, and displacement was a 3rd level spell. This is because blur in 3e was a 20% miss chance, while in 5e it's a full Disadvantage. Displacement and invisibility were both 50% miss chances (with the lower-level invisibility still having higher utility, but also the problem of not being able to attack without breaking it).
If one wishes to implement displacement in 5e, as a spell, the simplest way, I think, is the aforementioned refluffing of blur. Instead of making you blur and waver, it displaces your image, but the net effect is Disadvantage on attacks against you.
If you wanted to keep both spells distinct, you'll have to give up on matching the Displacer Beast's mechanics, but you could try making a third level spell that makes you appear to be adjacent to where you are. The most straight-forward way to do it would be to make the attacker roll 1d8 with each attack, missing unless he rolls a "1" (because he guessed wrong which square you were in), but that's actually ridiculously overpowered. So, barring others having cool or original ideas, I think I would recommend the refluffing thing, if anybody cared to do it at all.
Hm. Maybe making it not require Concentration as part of being a 3rd level spell? Somatic instead of Verbal component?