The question is in the title essentially. I have looked all over and can't find an answer. Since cantrips are a zero level spell would the rod just cancel any cantrip cast endlessly? I just can't justify that it does nothing, but it won't give the rod a level of spell power.
Hopefully I can get an answer here, figured it was the best place to ask.
I'm with Filcat. There are examples in the rules where Cantrips are treated differently, and this isn't such a case.
It would be very powerful if it was like in 3rd edition, where the rod was always active as long as you held it (I think?), but the one here requires you to use a reaction, so your usage of it is limited. It will help a lot against a single Warlock's Eldritch Blast, but it's not gaining anything, so you can't fuel your own spells in that duel, and against more than one caster (or anything else that might require you to utilize your reaction), it becomes a tactical choice. What will you stop? The Ray of Frost or the Fireball?
Admittedly, you can stop a single Warlock's Blast indefinitely, but if you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest you cut your losses and run - he's delaying you for his allies to arrive. :p
That would make the most sense, but if you find that its too powerful then you can always change you're mind later and have the cantrips count the same as a 1st level spell. Cantrips can be pretty powerful in this edition so i don't think making them count as 1st level spells for the rod of cancellation would be too unfair
If anything, I'd count them as 1/2 level. 1st level spells are still better than a cantrip. But I'd hesitate to do this either way, because it's too easy to quickly add levels to the rod at no cost before a dangerous encounter, then crank out a bunch of 5th level spells.
I'm with Filcat. There are examples in the rules where Cantrips are treated differently, and this isn't such a case.
It would be very powerful if it was like in 3rd edition, where the rod was always active as long as you held it (I think?), but the one here requires you to use a reaction, so your usage of it is limited. It will help a lot against a single Warlock's Eldritch Blast, but it's not gaining anything, so you can't fuel your own spells in that duel, and against more than one caster (or anything else that might require you to utilize your reaction), it becomes a tactical choice. What will you stop? The Ray of Frost or the Fireball?
Admittedly, you can stop a single Warlock's Blast indefinitely, but if you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest you cut your losses and run - he's delaying you for his allies to arrive. :p
I agree with you about how cantrips work, but I'm not sure it's intended that you can absorb a multi-beam Eldritch Blast. I can think of two ways to rule it and both are kind of weird:
Use the reaction when the first beam targets you. Technically the spell is "targeting only you" right now, but the caster hasn't finished choosing targets.
Use the reaction on the last beam, if all the previous beams targeted you. But for this to work you'd have to know in advance how many beams they're going to shoot, and it kind of defeats the point of trying to absorb the spell since you've probably already taken at least half the damage.
You're right. Once the Eldritch Blast starts being able to target more than one creature, it's likely not eligible for Rod of Absorption's power.
The topic is a little convoluted, but it's been discussed a lot with things like Twinned Spell and Green-Flame Blade or Ice Knife. Apparently, the potential of more than one targets (or an area) is enough to prevent Twinned Spell, and I suspect Rod of Absorption as well.
You know what, I stand corrected. I trying some reasoning below for the different wording:
Twin spell: ...a spell that targets only one creature...
War Caster: ...must target only that creature...
Rod of Absorption:...is targeting only you...
It seems that the wording in Twin spells is imperative: the restriction is clear on spells that can target only one creature.
The wording of War Caster and Rod of absorption seems more circumstantial. So yes, spell like Magic Missile can be absorbed, as long as you are the only target of the spell.
Cantrips should absolutely not add to the power level of the rod or you risk the rod always having a lot of charges as you or one of your campanions can cast cantrips all the time.
Cantrips should absolutely not add to the power level of the rod or you risk the rod always having a lot of charges as you or one of your campanions can cast cantrips all the time.
so after you absorb the energy and then cast from it . does the rod lose the energy stored in it and can go down to zero eventually do we subtract from the total or keep a separate count absorbed and available ?
You convert the energy stored in the rod, so it loses it. You do need to keep track of two numbers, but slightly different ones: "Currently absorbed levels" (available), and "total absorbed levels" (lifetime). You use up the former per your needs, and the rod can't absorb anymore when its lifetime total reaches 50.
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The question is in the title essentially. I have looked all over and can't find an answer. Since cantrips are a zero level spell would the rod just cancel any cantrip cast endlessly? I just can't justify that it does nothing, but it won't give the rod a level of spell power.
Hopefully I can get an answer here, figured it was the best place to ask.
Yes I would say that a Rod of Absorption can absorb cantrips endlessly, but cantrips would give 0 energy to the rod.
I'm with Filcat. There are examples in the rules where Cantrips are treated differently, and this isn't such a case.
It would be very powerful if it was like in 3rd edition, where the rod was always active as long as you held it (I think?), but the one here requires you to use a reaction, so your usage of it is limited. It will help a lot against a single Warlock's Eldritch Blast, but it's not gaining anything, so you can't fuel your own spells in that duel, and against more than one caster (or anything else that might require you to utilize your reaction), it becomes a tactical choice. What will you stop? The Ray of Frost or the Fireball?
Admittedly, you can stop a single Warlock's Blast indefinitely, but if you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest you cut your losses and run - he's delaying you for his allies to arrive. :p
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You're right. Once the Eldritch Blast starts being able to target more than one creature, it's likely not eligible for Rod of Absorption's power.
The topic is a little convoluted, but it's been discussed a lot with things like Twinned Spell and Green-Flame Blade or Ice Knife. Apparently, the potential of more than one targets (or an area) is enough to prevent Twinned Spell, and I suspect Rod of Absorption as well.
According to this sage advice: http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/10/13/twin-magic-missile/Spells like Magic Missile and Scorching Ray are not spells "targeting only one creature". So, theoretically, such spells can't be absorbed by the Rod of Absorption.EDIT: See post below.
Twinned Spell has slightly different wording though, and explicitly says the spell must be incapable of targeting multiple creatures.
Jeremy has previously ruled that you can use Level 5+ Eldritch Blast with War Caster as long as you only target the enemy that provoked. That's much more straightforward though, because the person that must satisfy "the spell must ... target only that creature" is the same person doing the targeting.
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Cantrips should absolutely not add to the power level of the rod or you risk the rod always having a lot of charges as you or one of your campanions can cast cantrips all the time.
so after you absorb the energy and then cast from it . does the rod lose the energy stored in it and can go down to zero eventually do we subtract from the total or keep a separate count absorbed and available ?
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You convert the energy stored in the rod, so it loses it. You do need to keep track of two numbers, but slightly different ones: "Currently absorbed levels" (available), and "total absorbed levels" (lifetime). You use up the former per your needs, and the rod can't absorb anymore when its lifetime total reaches 50.