I am looking at College of Creation - Animating Performance, and it reads to me like a 6th level non-concentration fairly effective “remove a medium or smaller clothing-wearing enemy from combat.” The text clearly doesn’t specify non-worn or carried. It reads, “As an action, you can target a Large or smaller nonmagical item you can see within 30 feet of you and animate it. The animate item uses the Dancing Item stat block…etc.” This is the only animate-object ability I can find that doesn’t say “non-worn or carried,” so I’m assuming that’s intentional. (Compare with the spell Animate Objects which reads, “Choose up to ten nonmagical objects within range which are not being worn or carried.”)
So, you see the enemy’s non-magical armor/robe/shirt/etc from 30 feet and animate it with no save. Immediately, it locks up rigid because you’re going to command it to (not) move that way, so they’re going to be fighting against 18 strength to even move their arms. On the object’s turn, immediately after yours, for free because the object moves on its own without use of your bonus action, it inverts, flies them 30 feet straight up, and starts rapidly spinning. If the robe has a hood, it moves over their eyes and goes rigid. Obviously a DM would adjudicate a lot of this (there’s probably a grapple check or two somewhere in there), but it still seems really effective.
Also, consider your own clothes. If Artificer - Armorer is D&D’s attempt at Iron Man, Creation Bard gets you Dr. Strange’s Cloak of Levitation for an hour a day + additional times from at least 3 available 3rd level+ spell slots. 18 strength can carry 270 pounds. Animate your cloak - it can fly now. That’s flight for you for an hour (6x the length of the Fly spell) for the same spell slot and no concentration. And at any point in that hour, your cloak can let go of you, shoot across the room, wrap itself around your enemy’s head, and drag them 30 feet up.
I had also noticed that there was no clause about the object not being worn or carried. I feel like this is a situation which the rules don't neatly cover. I suppose it could be a grapple, but what does it mean if the animated suite of armor fails the grapple? They're still connected. It doesn't feel right to simply have them spring apart.
The only other rules I can think of would be the rules for being swallowed by a monster, restrained and in total cover, but if they can do enough damage to it, they can get out?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Animating Performance is definitely incredibly interesting and powerful with the lack of the worn/carried clause, but I do not think you can use it to completely lock someone in place with no arm movements without some generous DM approval.
If you target a piece of clothing they are liable to take an action to disrobe and get out (still good action economy but not nearly as devastating). The move is to target someone in armor because doffing armor takes longer than an action.
The real strength to this is that it is a strong summon that doesn't take concentration. So you can have two "concentration" effects going at the same time. I think it's in the Creation Bard's best interest to use 3rd level slots to fuel this ability in most if not every combat.
i actually did that in campaing, dm decided that i have to roll charisma so he can decide if m ycharacter is good enough with the spell to operate a lock
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I had also noticed that there was no clause about the object not being worn or carried. I feel like this is a situation which the rules don't neatly cover. I suppose it could be a grapple, but what does it mean if the animated suite of armor fails the grapple? They're still connected. It doesn't feel right to simply have them spring apart.
The only other rules I can think of would be the rules for being swallowed by a monster, restrained and in total cover, but if they can do enough damage to it, they can get out?
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Would it also make picking locks obsolete? Just animate the chest/door/lock to ensure it opens and you could do that 30 feet away to avoid most traps.
I now have an idea for an alchemist creation bard pc. Thank you!
Animating Performance is definitely incredibly interesting and powerful with the lack of the worn/carried clause, but I do not think you can use it to completely lock someone in place with no arm movements without some generous DM approval.
If you target a piece of clothing they are liable to take an action to disrobe and get out (still good action economy but not nearly as devastating). The move is to target someone in armor because doffing armor takes longer than an action.
The real strength to this is that it is a strong summon that doesn't take concentration. So you can have two "concentration" effects going at the same time. I think it's in the Creation Bard's best interest to use 3rd level slots to fuel this ability in most if not every combat.
i actually did that in campaing, dm decided that i have to roll charisma so he can decide if m ycharacter is good enough with the spell to operate a lock