I do not think this is a good idea, nor do I think WOTC should replace the current Concentration rules with this. This is less of a suggested rule and more of an mechanical exploration of what the consequences of making a flavor change would be, if you want to keep things logically consistent.
My apologies if I'm missing some procedures of this forum. I've never been here before, and I don't know if this is the correct formatting or anything like that.
The (awful) idea I had was that you need to continuously provide components for concentration spells. You need to continuously speak or gesture or hold your focus or materials in order to keep the spell going. This doesn't interfere with brief actions such as casting a spell with a casting time of an action or less, one handed object interactions, and verbally communicating short simple ideas. It does however prevent you from casting spells with a casting time of a minute or longer, intensely participating in a conversation, and using both hands if one of them has a focus/materials. It may also prevent the use of non-spell abilities that require sustained speech or gesturing. Additionally, you would loose concentration if you were silenced, stunned, or disarmed.
A major benefit of this is that you can concentrate on up to two spells at one, if the two spells do not have conflating components. So if one spell has only Material and Somatic Components, you can also concentrate on a spell that has only a Verbal component.
I guess you only have one mouth, but you often have two hands. So I'm not sure if you could use each hand to provide a material/somatic component for a different spell, and so have two spells going that have an overlap in components. Additionally, the hand you use for materials can be the same hand you use for somatic components, so I wonder if you could use the same hand to keep two different spells going. Probably not. What about having two of the same spell going? Like, if you had a Friends going in each hand, and then Cause Fear for verbal.
This would probably punish spellcasters who use weapons/shields, unless they invested in Warcaster.
This would either nerf Wildshape by taking away a druids ability to concentrate on spells, or give druids a huge buff over other spellcasting classes by making it so that for as long as they're in Wildshape, they don't need to continuously provide components.
I'm also sure that there are some game breaking combinations in two concentration spells at once. I don't know spells from an efficiency perspective (I play exclusively utility builds), so I can't cite any off the top of my head.
The idea of having to continuously provide components for a spell is a really really cool visual (holding aloft a glowing staff to keep Banishment up, muttering an incantation to maintain the flames of Immolation), but ultimately not every bit of flavor needs to be reflected in the mechanics. I want it to be though.
Thank you for coming on this horrible journey with me, I promise to never post here again.
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I do not think this is a good idea, nor do I think WOTC should replace the current Concentration rules with this. This is less of a suggested rule and more of an mechanical exploration of what the consequences of making a flavor change would be, if you want to keep things logically consistent.
My apologies if I'm missing some procedures of this forum. I've never been here before, and I don't know if this is the correct formatting or anything like that.
The (awful) idea I had was that you need to continuously provide components for concentration spells. You need to continuously speak or gesture or hold your focus or materials in order to keep the spell going. This doesn't interfere with brief actions such as casting a spell with a casting time of an action or less, one handed object interactions, and verbally communicating short simple ideas. It does however prevent you from casting spells with a casting time of a minute or longer, intensely participating in a conversation, and using both hands if one of them has a focus/materials. It may also prevent the use of non-spell abilities that require sustained speech or gesturing. Additionally, you would loose concentration if you were silenced, stunned, or disarmed.
A major benefit of this is that you can concentrate on up to two spells at one, if the two spells do not have conflating components. So if one spell has only Material and Somatic Components, you can also concentrate on a spell that has only a Verbal component.
I guess you only have one mouth, but you often have two hands. So I'm not sure if you could use each hand to provide a material/somatic component for a different spell, and so have two spells going that have an overlap in components. Additionally, the hand you use for materials can be the same hand you use for somatic components, so I wonder if you could use the same hand to keep two different spells going. Probably not. What about having two of the same spell going? Like, if you had a Friends going in each hand, and then Cause Fear for verbal.
This would probably punish spellcasters who use weapons/shields, unless they invested in Warcaster.
This would either nerf Wildshape by taking away a druids ability to concentrate on spells, or give druids a huge buff over other spellcasting classes by making it so that for as long as they're in Wildshape, they don't need to continuously provide components.
I'm also sure that there are some game breaking combinations in two concentration spells at once. I don't know spells from an efficiency perspective (I play exclusively utility builds), so I can't cite any off the top of my head.
The idea of having to continuously provide components for a spell is a really really cool visual (holding aloft a glowing staff to keep Banishment up, muttering an incantation to maintain the flames of Immolation), but ultimately not every bit of flavor needs to be reflected in the mechanics. I want it to be though.
Thank you for coming on this horrible journey with me, I promise to never post here again.