Tossing this out there into the internet-verse, we just had a rough encounter with our DMs homebrew Tiefling variant called a "Pride Tiefling." These Tieflings have the ability to cast a "Command" spell of some kind as a reaction, and they used it to force a character, who was engaged in combat with them, to sit. In front of them. But normally "Command" spells cannot make a character or creature do something that would put them in danger. Wouldn't it be considered inherently dangerous for a character to disengage and sit in front of an assailant? And would the effect be allowed to take hold?
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Just a casual player and artist enjoying some casual play. That's about it.
Command makes reference to "if your command is directly harmful to it". I would imagine the "grovel" example is very similar to your "sit" command. I would allow it to be used in a combat situation. It only makes them prone, it doesn't create an instant-kill situation.
Falling prone increases the likelihood of later harm but is not directly harmful in and of itself. Command fails only if the command is directly harmful, not if the command is dangerous in the abstract.
There are very few “directly harmful” one-word commands (the ones that come to mind are “kamikaze” or “self-defenestrate”), and just because the command is potentially harmful (pretty much all uses of command are) doesn’t qualify as directly harmful.
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What qualifies as imminent/obvious danger?
Tossing this out there into the internet-verse, we just had a rough encounter with our DMs homebrew Tiefling variant called a "Pride Tiefling." These Tieflings have the ability to cast a "Command" spell of some kind as a reaction, and they used it to force a character, who was engaged in combat with them, to sit. In front of them. But normally "Command" spells cannot make a character or creature do something that would put them in danger. Wouldn't it be considered inherently dangerous for a character to disengage and sit in front of an assailant? And would the effect be allowed to take hold?
Just a casual player and artist enjoying some casual play. That's about it.
Command makes reference to "if your command is directly harmful to it". I would imagine the "grovel" example is very similar to your "sit" command. I would allow it to be used in a combat situation. It only makes them prone, it doesn't create an instant-kill situation.
Falling prone increases the likelihood of later harm but is not directly harmful in and of itself. Command fails only if the command is directly harmful, not if the command is dangerous in the abstract.
There are very few “directly harmful” one-word commands (the ones that come to mind are “kamikaze” or “self-defenestrate”), and just because the command is potentially harmful (pretty much all uses of command are) doesn’t qualify as directly harmful.