In another topic this question came up. But as a mechanical rules topic it really is a tangent over there so wanted to create a new thread on it here.
Spirit Guardians says "An affected creature's speed is halved in the area"
The question is, how exactly does that function. There are two lines of thought.
One. "Speed is halved" is the same type of effect as difficult terrain, and movement within the area costs 2 ft per 1 ft moved.
Two. "Speed is halved" means if your speed was 30ft it becomes 15ft.
The different interpretation matters in some cases. For example, an Enemy with a 30ft movement speed is 20ft away from the Cleric with Spirit Guardians and wants to move in and cudgel him. He moves 10ft, entering into the area (and taking some damage) his speed is now halved.
Either 1. He moves the rest of the 10ft to the cleric, spending his remaining 20ft of movement doing it.
Or 2. His speed becomes 15ft, and he only has 5ft remaining, and is unable to reach the cleric.
Thoughts?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
There are a number of features in the game that limit how far you can move, and many of these use different ways of describing how that takes effect. I'll give a very incomplete list to highlight the variety of ways I am referring to:
Difficult terrain: moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed. (Movement cost x2)
Squeezing: a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there. (Movement cost +1)
Plant growth: A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves. (Movement cost x4)
With this in mind, I think the best and most literal way to handle spirit guardians is to say that when you walk into the AOE with a walking speed of 30, your walking speed becomes 15 and movement can continue as normal. Any distance you have already covered is subtracted when you adjust your speed, and if that puts you at 0 or less, you stay right there.
Suffice it to say the spell is somewhat absurd in this regard. The easiest thing is to rule as a DM that it's difficult terrain and 1ft of movement inside costs 2ft.
RAW: "An affected creature's speed is halved in the area"
Your Option Two is the correct interpretation for RAW.
Take Being Prone "Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You can’t stand up if you don’t have enough movement left or if your speed is 0."
If you only have a speed of 20ft it costs you 10ft to stand, if you have a 60ft speed it will cost you 30. The same applies to the Spirit Guardian rules except you can get some strange circumstances. Assume the character has 30ft move/speed for each of these:
1. A character starts on the edge of the effect and enters. Their speed goes from 30ft to 15ft and they have 10ft remaining from the 5ft they spent to enter the effect. The character then spends an additional 10ft walking up to the caster so they have 0ft left of a speed that is presently only 15ft. They hit the caster with a melee attack, breaking their concentration and ending the effect. Their speed total now 30ft again and they have 15ft of speed remaining to spend as they have only spent 15ft so far.
2. A character starts 10ft inside the effect and has a speed of 15ft as a result. They spend 10ft moving away and now their speed becomes 30ft, leaving them with 20ft of movement. If they spend 5ft to re-enter the effect then their speed becomes 15ft again and since they have moved 15ft they have 0 speed remaining to use.
3. A character starts 15ft away, moves 20ft to enter the area. Their speed becomes 15ft and they have used 20ft of movement to reach the area leaving them with 0 speed remaining to use.
4. A character is 5ft inside the area, prone and stands up. They had 15ft to begin with (being inside the area) and since they spend half their speed to get up and because their speed is 15ft it only costs them 7.5ft. They have 7.5ft remaining, move 5ft to exit the area and their speed becomes 30ft but they have only spent 12.5ft leaving them with 17.5ft of speed left. They could now drop prone again and stand up, costing them 15ft of movement since their speed is now 30ft and have 2.5ft remaining.
5. A character is inside the area, setting their speed to 15ft and spend 15ft taking a long way to the edge. They have 0ft remaining as their total speed has been 15ft for the duration and they are unable to exit the effect with their regular move. They take the dash action which gives them additional movement equal to their speed which is still 15ft and spend 5ft to exit the effect. Dash states "Any increase or decrease to your speed changes this additional movement by the same amount" so by our speed now becoming 30ft we have 25ft of movement remaining with our dash.
I've lost the link but there was a Crawford tweet addressing this and it works more similarly to requiring 2 ft of movement to move 1 ft. Basically:
A creature moves 20 ft into SG, their current remaining speed is 10 ft -> this get halved leaving them with 5 ft of movement.
A creature inside SG move 10 ft to get out of it, their remain speed is 5ft when they reach the edge, this gets doubled leaving them with 10 ft of movement.
In play I've never really seen it come up, because enemies have to be pretty stupid to willingly move into SG, and if they are inside SG they are most likely going to attack the cleric rather than move away b/c why wouldn't they? clerics are high value targets and KOing them is very important to the enemies.
Thanks everyone for replying and providing your thoughts!
Anyone know where to find the Crawford tweet Agilemind mentioned? My search-fu has failed me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
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In another topic this question came up. But as a mechanical rules topic it really is a tangent over there so wanted to create a new thread on it here.
Spirit Guardians says "An affected creature's speed is halved in the area"
The question is, how exactly does that function. There are two lines of thought.
One. "Speed is halved" is the same type of effect as difficult terrain, and movement within the area costs 2 ft per 1 ft moved.
Two. "Speed is halved" means if your speed was 30ft it becomes 15ft.
The different interpretation matters in some cases. For example, an Enemy with a 30ft movement speed is 20ft away from the Cleric with Spirit Guardians and wants to move in and cudgel him. He moves 10ft, entering into the area (and taking some damage) his speed is now halved.
Either 1. He moves the rest of the 10ft to the cleric, spending his remaining 20ft of movement doing it.
Or 2. His speed becomes 15ft, and he only has 5ft remaining, and is unable to reach the cleric.
Thoughts?
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
There are a number of features in the game that limit how far you can move, and many of these use different ways of describing how that takes effect. I'll give a very incomplete list to highlight the variety of ways I am referring to:
With this in mind, I think the best and most literal way to handle spirit guardians is to say that when you walk into the AOE with a walking speed of 30, your walking speed becomes 15 and movement can continue as normal. Any distance you have already covered is subtracted when you adjust your speed, and if that puts you at 0 or less, you stay right there.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Suffice it to say the spell is somewhat absurd in this regard. The easiest thing is to rule as a DM that it's difficult terrain and 1ft of movement inside costs 2ft.
RAW: "An affected creature's speed is halved in the area"
Your Option Two is the correct interpretation for RAW.
Take Being Prone "Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You can’t stand up if you don’t have enough movement left or if your speed is 0."
If you only have a speed of 20ft it costs you 10ft to stand, if you have a 60ft speed it will cost you 30. The same applies to the Spirit Guardian rules except you can get some strange circumstances. Assume the character has 30ft move/speed for each of these:
1. A character starts on the edge of the effect and enters. Their speed goes from 30ft to 15ft and they have 10ft remaining from the 5ft they spent to enter the effect. The character then spends an additional 10ft walking up to the caster so they have 0ft left of a speed that is presently only 15ft. They hit the caster with a melee attack, breaking their concentration and ending the effect. Their speed total now 30ft again and they have 15ft of speed remaining to spend as they have only spent 15ft so far.
2. A character starts 10ft inside the effect and has a speed of 15ft as a result. They spend 10ft moving away and now their speed becomes 30ft, leaving them with 20ft of movement. If they spend 5ft to re-enter the effect then their speed becomes 15ft again and since they have moved 15ft they have 0 speed remaining to use.
3. A character starts 15ft away, moves 20ft to enter the area. Their speed becomes 15ft and they have used 20ft of movement to reach the area leaving them with 0 speed remaining to use.
4. A character is 5ft inside the area, prone and stands up. They had 15ft to begin with (being inside the area) and since they spend half their speed to get up and because their speed is 15ft it only costs them 7.5ft. They have 7.5ft remaining, move 5ft to exit the area and their speed becomes 30ft but they have only spent 12.5ft leaving them with 17.5ft of speed left. They could now drop prone again and stand up, costing them 15ft of movement since their speed is now 30ft and have 2.5ft remaining.
5. A character is inside the area, setting their speed to 15ft and spend 15ft taking a long way to the edge. They have 0ft remaining as their total speed has been 15ft for the duration and they are unable to exit the effect with their regular move. They take the dash action which gives them additional movement equal to their speed which is still 15ft and spend 5ft to exit the effect. Dash states "Any increase or decrease to your speed changes this additional movement by the same amount" so by our speed now becoming 30ft we have 25ft of movement remaining with our dash.
Since Spirit Guardians says "An affected creature's speed is halved in the area" it means their movement speed is divided in half while in the effect.
I've lost the link but there was a Crawford tweet addressing this and it works more similarly to requiring 2 ft of movement to move 1 ft. Basically:
A creature moves 20 ft into SG, their current remaining speed is 10 ft -> this get halved leaving them with 5 ft of movement.
A creature inside SG move 10 ft to get out of it, their remain speed is 5ft when they reach the edge, this gets doubled leaving them with 10 ft of movement.
In play I've never really seen it come up, because enemies have to be pretty stupid to willingly move into SG, and if they are inside SG they are most likely going to attack the cleric rather than move away b/c why wouldn't they? clerics are high value targets and KOing them is very important to the enemies.
Thanks everyone for replying and providing your thoughts!
Anyone know where to find the Crawford tweet Agilemind mentioned? My search-fu has failed me.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.