Warlock has cast the Hex spell and still has time left on its duration. The spell component is V, S, M.
During an interlude between combat, the BBEG gives the party a chance to surrender before unleashing its Hill Giants. This starts a dialogue between the two groups. While the conversation is going on, the Warlock would like to transfer the Hex spell to the BBEG-- hopefully undetected.
Question:
Is the transferenceof the Hex spell automatically with no effort, or since the spell has a Verbal component, could the Warlock be detected by the BBEG during the transfer? In short, does the verbal component come into play for the transference?
Transferring hex is completely undetectable. It has no components and is done at will (or as a bonus action in combat) as long as the previous target is no longer living. The creature being hexed will not be aware that they have been hexed unless the hex has a direct impact on what they are doing. An affected creature may notice that they have disadvantage on ability checks related to a stat, they might feel a bit more clumsy (dex), less able to coordinate their strength (str), a bit less nimble with their speech (cha) etc ... depending on what the creature is doing but it isn't going to be easily noticeable in most cases.
From the PHB:
"Unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all. An effect like crackling lightning is obvious, but a more subtle effect, such as an attempt to read a creature’s thoughts, typically goes unnoticed, unless a spell says otherwise."
Just to confirm, the previous target of Hex has died? Because you cannot move it from one living creature to another, you can only move it after the current subject is dead.
Also you might want to run this question by your DM; while RAW there's no reason to think the transfer would be noticeable, some DM's have different opinions on these things, and they have the final say. So best to talk it out with them.
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Setup:
Warlock has cast the Hex spell and still has time left on its duration. The spell component is V, S, M.
During an interlude between combat, the BBEG gives the party a chance to surrender before unleashing its Hill Giants. This starts a dialogue between the two groups. While the conversation is going on, the Warlock would like to transfer the Hex spell to the BBEG-- hopefully undetected.
Question:
Is the transference of the Hex spell automatically with no effort, or since the spell has a Verbal component, could the Warlock be detected by the BBEG during the transfer? In short, does the verbal component come into play for the transference?
The components are for the casting, not for any post-cast ability the spell provides.
Transferring hex is completely undetectable. It has no components and is done at will (or as a bonus action in combat) as long as the previous target is no longer living. The creature being hexed will not be aware that they have been hexed unless the hex has a direct impact on what they are doing. An affected creature may notice that they have disadvantage on ability checks related to a stat, they might feel a bit more clumsy (dex), less able to coordinate their strength (str), a bit less nimble with their speech (cha) etc ... depending on what the creature is doing but it isn't going to be easily noticeable in most cases.
From the PHB:
"Unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all. An effect like crackling lightning is obvious, but a more subtle effect, such as an attempt to read a creature’s thoughts, typically goes unnoticed, unless a spell says otherwise."
Just to confirm, the previous target of Hex has died? Because you cannot move it from one living creature to another, you can only move it after the current subject is dead.
Also you might want to run this question by your DM; while RAW there's no reason to think the transfer would be noticeable, some DM's have different opinions on these things, and they have the final say. So best to talk it out with them.