Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Hey all, one of my players picked this up as a Cantrip. I didn’t realize it was an option until they used it, but when she used it, it kind of threw me off with how busted it appears to be, especially since it is only a Cantrip. Am I understanding you can pause time, walk around, and interact with objects that have the utilize feature such as opening doors and stuff? For example, if she is in combat, can she use an action to attack, bonus action to pause time, and use movement to walk 30 feet away?
Spell: Moment to think
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range/Area: Self
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
Source: VSSPP
When you cast this spell, you briefly stop time for everyone but yourself. You can take one additional action and move around in your space while no time passes for other creatures. That action can be used only to take the Search, Study, or Utilize action. Furthermore, you can’t affect or damage any creature or object, other than objects you are wearing or carrying. If an object leaves your hand, it also becomes frozen in time.
Greetings Noel_Ceballos,
From reading the information for the spell Moment to Think, it looks like your player used the spell correctly.
You posted the info for the spell, which specifically states what it can be used for, and yes, if you were in combat and attacked, BA Spell, then waled away, you would be able to Disengage without the chance of the enemy taking an opportunity attack.
It would be the same if a Shadar-Kai walked up to a creature, attacked them, then BA Step of the Wind and appeared in another location.
So it seems that if other features of the game already let you do this, it wouldn't be too broken... but I'm still waking up and might not be thinking of all of the uses for the spell yet.
Cheers!
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I disagree. The spell specifically says that you can "move around in your space", which, by my reading, is the 5 ft. space you're occupying at the time of casting. There's no mention of being able to move freely or negate attacks of opportunity.
With that in mind, you could take the attack action, use a bonus action to cast Moment to Think, then interact with something within reach - search a chest, pull a lever, etc. But the moment you move away, time starts back up and you provoke opportunity attacks again.
Yeah that's my reading as well. Spells are usually very clear about what they can do and if you could move 30 foot it would say "use your movement" rather than "move around in your space"
Just based on how it’s written the only way I can see this being a good combat spell is if you have a lot of elemental AOE or melee spells (cone of cold, lightning bolt, flame blade etc.) and you start your turn using a bonus action to cast it moment to think, use a check to study your opponent for element vulnerabilities, then when time starts again hit them with a spell. I don’t think that’s broken
I will agree that I don't think it lets you leave your square. It's a cantrip which is a bonus action, allowing you to move from your square would be a free disengage at no cost. Additionally, the Disengage action is not listed as an action you can take.
I would suggest telling your player "I don't think I ruled correctly last time, so going forward, that spell does not let you leave your square."
This is coming from someone with a general bias against 3pp, as I often find them to be poorly worded, invent new and undefined terms (like move around in your space), and are usually overpowered or occasionally underpowered.
With that disclaimer, do you allow 3pp? I’m thinking the acronym says it’s from Valdas spire of secrets (I think). Do you permit that source? I’ve found that sometimes players accidentally choose spells from 3pp books, and could be that’s what happened here. In which case, if you don’t allow it, you might remind them the source was off limits. (It’s actually a bit of a running joke in one of my games when someone starts looking at spells, and thinking how one is incredible, and strong and why doesn’t everyone take this spell, it’s always an OP 3pp spell.)
The “move around in your space” wording is a little odd but I presume it’s to prevent arguments about “you just attacked that monster so you’re facing in that direction and can’t turn around” which would greatly reduce the things you could do while time is paused
Practically speaking, this spell is just "you may take the Search, Study, or Utilize action as a bonus action" with colorful wording, and since you can't affect any creature or object outside of yourself and your own inventory, the things you can do with a utilize action are very limited.
Basically it gives you a chance to have a free action to do the study action to roll a nature or history or arcana check to see if your character knows anything about the creature you're facing. Or it gives you a free search action so you can roll a perception check for free if something started hiding or if you're trying to find a trigger for a trap in the middle of a fight. Or it lets you do the utilize action if you have a magic item that requires it to activate or want to scatter caltrops in your space or something similar.
It doesn't let you run around the battlefield. And anything that leaves your hand becomes Frozen in time as well so those caltrops that you drop don't actually hit the ground until your cantrip ends and time starts up again.
The best use I have found for it it's not having to trade an attack to find out if my character know that trolls need to be hit with fire.
What is 3pp? And what book is this cantrip from?
No idea what 3pp is, but I’m pretty sure this is from Valda’s Spire of Secrets
"3pp" is "Third-Party Publishers."
3rd Party Publishing (Or 3rd Party Product). It's not WotC official content and was published by a 3rd party - in this case Mage Hand Press.
The book is Valda's Spire of Secrets: Player Pack 1.
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Thank you.
It’s strong enough that it’s a 7th level class feature for a battlemaster fighter. And they only get to do it 1/LR without expending a limited resource. Where here a level 1 character can do it all day long for free.
Well, someone with Keen Mind can do that all the time. It's still definitely too powerful for a cantrip (bonus action study is about 1/4 of keen mind, bonus action search is about 1/4 of observant, bonus action utilize is only with thief level 3 feature AFAIK).
It isn't practical in combat, because you're using your action to take a bonus action to do something you may not be proficient with.
The only possible benefit is for leaving objects to fall when the spell ends, provided you are high enough off the ground and/or have the equipment to do something useful w/such.
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You have that backwards. You use a BA to take an Action (from a small subset of actions).
You know... I just realized that it mostly amounts to the same thing, so sorry if this sounded over pedantic.
No you're not taking an action that's the whole point. You're taking a bonus action to get an extra action which you can only do one of three things, study, search, or utilize. Once you've done one of those you come out of the time freeze and now you can do your regular action as well.
So for example, you can use your bonus action to cast this spell and then do a study action to find out what your character knows about the monster your facing. You roll a history check or nature check or Arcana check whichever one applies and depending on your roll, your DM might say something like you remember overhearing another adventurer talk about fighting one of these the last time you were in a Tavern. You distinctly remember them saying that they shrug off cold damage like it didn't even happen.
Now you know that they're immune to cold damage so you come out of the time freeze and you can launch your own attack using an action and you know not to use a cold attack. That's just an example.