So i'm currently playing my first real D&D campaign as a wizard. In the beginning, i was really hyped about the attack spells and other powerful options as a wizard, but now i want to play more clever than before. The topic of my question are the different possibilities for the spell "Suggestion" (Level 2).
Our group is very balanced with complete different characters, so there are in general many options for the spell "suggestion" to be used. One character of our group is a nasty druid (wild shape and moon). So our group learned after a circle of truth in the last session, that he is lowkey preparing a heel turn. Therefore it's really clear that we have to fight him sooner or later. It is very likely, that he will transform into a giant spider or a dire wolf when it comes to a battle. Our DM stated, that when the druid is in his animal form, he can still understand what the other characters would say to him. I want to know, if i could cast the spell "Suggestion" on him as an animal, so i can persuade him to tranform back in his dwarfen druid form, which has a lot fewer hit points. He can only transform in a beast two or three times a day on level 6, so we could eliminate his strongest ability with a bunch of level 2 spells without figthing him that much. We don't want to kill him straight away, so could this be a way to handle his beast form?
First, yes, you can cast suggestion as you will be understood. Can you word your suggestion in a way that seems a reasonable course of action. I'd say yes. Your suggestion is not directly harmful. As with most things it will be up to the Dm on how effective it is. He could argue that dropping wild shape would be harmful so he wouldn't be compelled to follow the suggestion, but I would allow that in my game.
What works as a suggestion is a point of a lot of contention. Suggestion says that the suggestion must "make the course of action sound reasonable".
Is changing from animal to druid form "reasonable"?
Who knows? DM's call.
There've been some threads on these boards where people have had very different ideas of what is meant by "reasonable". From the spell, we know that "Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act" is not reasonable, and suggesting "that a knight give her warhorse to the first beggar she meets." is reasonable (though potentially that might depend on the knight.)
We came back from our first real adventure and he accidentally stepped into a circle of truth and revealed his true intentions, so i don't know if we will travel with him after that again. Maybe we can talk him into a "double-agent" role, so we could learn more about our enemy. He confessed that he was dropping pieces of wood or was carving signs into trees while we travelled to tell the evil NPCs our current location in exchange for money.
So i'm currently playing my first real D&D campaign as a wizard. In the beginning, i was really hyped about the attack spells and other powerful options as a wizard, but now i want to play more clever than before. The topic of my question are the different possibilities for the spell "Suggestion" (Level 2).
Our group is very balanced with complete different characters, so there are in general many options for the spell "suggestion" to be used. One character of our group is a nasty druid (wild shape and moon). So our group learned after a circle of truth in the last session, that he is lowkey preparing a heel turn. Therefore it's really clear that we have to fight him sooner or later. It is very likely, that he will transform into a giant spider or a dire wolf when it comes to a battle. Our DM stated, that when the druid is in his animal form, he can still understand what the other characters would say to him. I want to know, if i could cast the spell "Suggestion" on him as an animal, so i can persuade him to tranform back in his dwarfen druid form, which has a lot fewer hit points. He can only transform in a beast two or three times a day on level 6, so we could eliminate his strongest ability with a bunch of level 2 spells without figthing him that much. We don't want to kill him straight away, so could this be a way to handle his beast form?
Thank you for your answers. Greets.
First, yes, you can cast suggestion as you will be understood. Can you word your suggestion in a way that seems a reasonable course of action. I'd say yes. Your suggestion is not directly harmful. As with most things it will be up to the Dm on how effective it is. He could argue that dropping wild shape would be harmful so he wouldn't be compelled to follow the suggestion, but I would allow that in my game.
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
What works as a suggestion is a point of a lot of contention. Suggestion says that the suggestion must "make the course of action sound reasonable".
Is changing from animal to druid form "reasonable"?
Who knows? DM's call.
There've been some threads on these boards where people have had very different ideas of what is meant by "reasonable". From the spell, we know that "Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act" is not reasonable, and suggesting "that a knight give her warhorse to the first beggar she meets." is reasonable (though potentially that might depend on the knight.)
Anything beyond those examples... ¯\_(o_o)_/¯
A different question - if you know this character will probably betray you... why are you guys still traveling/adventuring with him?
We came back from our first real adventure and he accidentally stepped into a circle of truth and revealed his true intentions, so i don't know if we will travel with him after that again. Maybe we can talk him into a "double-agent" role, so we could learn more about our enemy. He confessed that he was dropping pieces of wood or was carving signs into trees while we travelled to tell the evil NPCs our current location in exchange for money.