New Spell: Displacement

[Segev]

Opening Comments: I have missed this spell in concept since 5e opened up. It's a tricky thing to bring into 5e, because the Displacer Beast demonstrates that the mechanic for it would most straightforwardly be simple disadvantage on attack rolls to hit the target. However, blur covers that. In 3e, the two spells both granted concealment, just higher amounts of it. 5e doesn't have "concealment" in two or more grades. One possibility would just be to have displacement be blur, but concentration-free and 3rd level, but that feels somehow unsatisfying. Might be superior in practice for implementation purposes to what I'm writing here, though, so I'll include it as an alternate version.

Spoiler: Alternate Version

Show

Displacement
3rd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Target: Self
Components: V
Duration: 1 minute
Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard
You appear to be five feet from your actual location. For the duration, any creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against you. An attacker is immune to this effect if it doesn’t rely on sight, as with blindsight, or can see through illusions, as with truesight.

Displacement
3rd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Target: Self
Components: S, M (a billowing cloth, cape, or cloak)
Duration: 1 minute
Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard
As part of casting the spell, you may cause your image to move away from your current location, in a manner of your choosing that appears to make you walk to a location up to five feet from your actual position. This image otherwise mimics your movements. While your image is displaced in this fashion you are Invisible, though your image's presence means you can't effectively hide without some other form of concealment. If you are hit with an attack, attack another creature, deal damage, or force another creature to make a saving throw, your image snaps back onto your actual position, rendering you effectively visible until you spend another bonus action moving your image off of yourself again.

[Abuzorg]

I feel like the spell's actual effect would be adjudicated very differently by different DM. Still, I wouldn't shy away from using it personally. I think that the bonus action casting time makes it a little too much, but again, that depends on how each DM would adjudicate the effects.

The alternate version is probably the most balanced one, but the best way to implement it would be as an upcast option for Blur.

[Segev]

I feel like the spell's actual effect would be adjudicated very differently by different DM. Still, I wouldn't shy away from using it personally. I think that the bonus action casting time makes it a little too much, but again, that depends on how each DM would adjudicate the effects.

The alternate version is probably the most balanced one, but the best way to implement it would be as an upcast option for Blur.

You could be right, though implementing it as an upcast of blur robs it of the opportunity to "be" "displacement." If that makes sense. Maybe that version of displacement needs to also be touch range, so you can cast it on somebody else?

I'm not sure I follow you on the "actual effect" being "adjudicated very differently by different DMs." Could you please elaborate on that?

[Abuzorg]

Maybe that version of displacement needs to also be touch range, so you can cast it on somebody else?

That would make sense since Displacement actually is a touch spell in 3.5. But then it might be too strong to put this buff concentration-free on the party's tank. At the very least, the casting time should be 1 action if you make the range touch.

I'm not sure I follow you on the "actual effect" being "adjudicated very differently by different DMs." Could you please elaborate on that?

I didn't think it through when I posted my first comment, but it's actually more complex than I initially meant.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that by RAW, the invisible condition doesn't actually prevent enemies from determining in what space you actually stand. Since the wording of this version of Displacement prevents you from hiding, all it does is essentially making you invisible right next to an image of you, giving your enemies an even more obvious indicator on where you stand. If the Displacement is momentarily cancelled, you then have to use a bonus action to re-establish this half invisibility effect. It still might be worth a 3rd level spell since it's concentration-free, but I don't think so. Maybe it would be ok the only thing that can cancel the Displacement is you being hit, just like a Displacer Beast.

What I meant with my variable adjudication comment is that I don't think that most people play the invisible condition that way since it is not that obvious that this is the RAW interpretation of the condition. What would then happen is that a GM could come up with various ways that it would be possible to figure out where exactly is the subject of Displacement around the projected image.

[Segev]

That would make sense since Displacement actually is a touch spell in 3.5. But then it might be too strong to put this buff concentration-free on the party's tank. At the very least, the casting time should be 1 action if you make the range touch.

I could see that, yeah.

I didn't think it through when I posted my first comment, but it's actually more complex than I initially meant.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that by RAW, the invisible condition doesn't actually prevent enemies from determining in what space you actually stand. Since the wording of this version of Displacement prevents you from hiding, all it does is essentially making you invisible right next to an image of you, giving your enemies an even more obvious indicator on where you stand. If the Displacement is momentarily cancelled, you then have to use a bonus action to re-establish this half invisibility effect. It still might be worth a 3rd level spell since it's concentration-free, but I don't think so. Maybe it would be ok the only thing that can cancel the Displacement is you being hit, just like a Displacer Beast.

What I meant with my variable adjudication comment is that I don't think that most people play the invisible condition that way since it is not that obvious that this is the RAW interpretation of the condition. What would then happen is that a GM could come up with various ways that it would be possible to figure out where exactly is the subject of Displacement around the projected image.

I did write it with the intent that the RAW be understood to allow people to know where to attack. This is essentially a half-improved invisibility, rather than the full-on greater invisibility. I could see making it so the only thing that cancels it is being hit, and then taking a bonus action to "re-acquire" it.

Greater invisibility is level 4, and lets you get all advantages of Invisibilty-the-condition and keep attacking. This would give you everything but the ability to hide in plain "sight." Plus the negation/reestablishmetn rules borrowed from the 5e Displacer Beast.

Heck, maybe just more directly copying the displacer beast's Displacement trait would be cleaner. Making it touch range and non-concentration probably makes it sufficiently different from blur to be worthy of its own spell, as well as keeping the "on hit, it is disrupted" clause.

This makes it a lot less powerful and removes the other advantages of invisibility, such as advantage on attacks.

So, maybe something like this:

Displacement
3rd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: One willing creature
Components: S, M (a billowing cloth, cape, or cloak)
Duration: 1 minute
Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard
The spell projects a magical illusion that makes the target appear to be standing near its actual location, obscuring where it truly is and causing attack rolls against it to have disadvantage. If it is hit by an attack, this effect is disrupted until the target moves on its next turn. This effect is also disrupted while the target is incapacitated or has a speed of 0.

[Abuzorg]

I think I like this latest version best. I just might put it in my homebrew spells repertoire.

[Yakk]

I'm uncertain why this isn't a concentration spell. I'm guessing because it is more powerful as a non-concentration spell.

[Abuzorg]

I am just guessing Segev's intent, but I guess it is not concentration for the same reason Mirror Image isn't one. I would even say that Mirror Image ranks higher in the 2nd level spells than this version of Displacement in the 3rd level spells.

[Segev]

I'm uncertain why this isn't a concentration spell. I'm guessing because it is more powerful as a non-concentration spell.

It is higher level than blur, and needs to justify that. It is actually less effective than blur if the target gets hit in spite of it, shutting down for the rest of the round. It lets you put it on others and doesn't have concentration. And costs the same as a fly spell, which does require concentration.

So, pure balance consideration. It's a higher-level spell that does what a lower-level spell does slightly better.