I searched the forum for a while - and it seems that, as they are both concentration spells, a wizard cannot be invisible and then use detect magic whilst invisible.
A druid cannot cast barkskin and then entangle his enemies. Or even cast it on someone else and then entangle.
Cannot fly invisibly or spider climb whilst detecting magic.
Hold monster, then cast expeditious retreat to get away - well, the monster is now free to chase you so... wth?
Who would want to play a caster when all they can do is cast one spell then spend the rest of the encounter taking other actions? Seems terribly broken to me.
Concentration is an important part of balancing casters and non-caster classes. The examples you listed are all examples of situations where spell effects could not be maintained simultaneously due to the concentration restriction.
However, the casters are free to cast non-concentration spells, while maintaining the effects of a concentration spell (invisibility would obviously drop in your example regardless because of other stipulations in the spell.)
Seems like you are focusing too much on the 230 spells that require concentration and not enough on the 250 spells that don't.
There are so many spells that you can cast repeatedly while concentrating on the 1 spell with a useful continuous effect that "a lot" would be an understatement.
Seems like you are focusing too much on the 230 spells that require concentration and not enough on the 250 spells that don't.
There are so many spells that you can cast repeatedly while concentrating on the 1 spell with a useful continuous effect that "a lot" would be an understatement.
I am concentrating on the spells that require concentration because that's the subject of the post lol! A lot of the D&D staples fall into this category and leave me puzzled.
just find it odd that the rule negates many opportunities - I hate telling my players "no, you can't do that because you have to concentrate on the spell you cast earlier, just magic missile or something" So yeah, as a newbie to 5th but 35 years in D&D, some of the rules that are meant to streamline the game and speed it up (which it does brilliantly) also strip away some of the sideways movement that breeds creative thinking.
And as for casting repeatedly, until you run out of spell slots yes lol
THAT seems stupid and really just turns the caster into just a damage chucker but hey, that's what House Rules were made for ;)
Can't really argue with someone who sees problems in only half the spells.
You exclude half the spells and pretend like there is a problem because a druid can't fly AND have barkskin. Not that there needs to be these limitations or else the druid just casts barkskin on the whole party before a fight and now even the wizard and sorc have an armor of 16 and can just fireball without needing to care about concentration.
Lets fly, banish, and prismatic wall all at the same time.
Seems like YOU are having this problem because you don't like saying no - I recommend a different game if you can't tell your PCs no.
I will say, Morgun mentioned some Druid spells in their post, and not all classes are equal when it comes to spell selection. Druids in particular have a lot of Concentration spells in levels 2 and 3, which can kind of make it difficult to envision how to play them as a dynamic round-to-round caster in combat rather than just "okay, Entangle, and then I guess three or four rounds of cantrips or hitting people with a stick..."
Of course, Druids are the caster class that also is potentially using Wild Shape to turn off their casting for some or all of a fight after putting up a concentration spell, so it makes a little bit of sense that they'd have so many. But a Wizard has a lot more interesting spells to throw around after their Fog Cloud than the Druid does.
Quote from MorgunCruitshank>>just find it odd that the rule negates many opportunities - I hate telling my players "no, you can't do that because you have to concentrate on the spell you cast earlier, just magic missile or something" So yeah, as a newbie to 5th but 35 years in D&D, some of the rules that are meant to streamline the game and speed it up (which it does brilliantly) also strip away some of the sideways movement that breeds creative thinking.
There are many combinations of spells that still work, without worrying about concentration. I believe you will find many creative ways to combine spells if you put some effort into it.
Also, 5e is balanced with concentration in mind - house rule that away and your melee characters will feel drastically underpowered while a single spellcaster ruins every encounter. Be prepared to add some more house rules to balance it all out if it comes to that.
I searched the forum for a while - and it seems that, as they are both concentration spells, a wizard cannot be invisible and then use detect magic whilst invisible.
A druid cannot cast barkskin and then entangle his enemies. Or even cast it on someone else and then entangle.
Cannot fly invisibly or spider climb whilst detecting magic.
Hold monster, then cast expeditious retreat to get away - well, the monster is now free to chase you so... wth?
Who would want to play a caster when all they can do is cast one spell then spend the rest of the encounter taking other actions? Seems terribly broken to me.
And so on. Am I missing something?
It's important to remember that while you're concentrating on one spell, you can still cast non-concentration spells.
Concentration spells are usually much more powerful than non-concentration spells; Banishment can (permanently if you're luck) remove an enemy from the field. Fly can put you in the most advantageous positions for your fireball. Antimagic field can shut down an enemy caster.
I searched the forum for a while - and it seems that, as they are both concentration spells, a wizard cannot be invisible and then use detect magic whilst invisible.
A druid cannot cast barkskin and then entangle his enemies. Or even cast it on someone else and then entangle.
Cannot fly invisibly or spider climb whilst detecting magic.
Hold monster, then cast expeditious retreat to get away - well, the monster is now free to chase you so... wth?
Who would want to play a caster when all they can do is cast one spell then spend the rest of the encounter taking other actions? Seems terribly broken to me.
And so on. Am I missing something?
Concentration is an important part of balancing casters and non-caster classes. The examples you listed are all examples of situations where spell effects could not be maintained simultaneously due to the concentration restriction.
However, the casters are free to cast non-concentration spells, while maintaining the effects of a concentration spell (invisibility would obviously drop in your example regardless because of other stipulations in the spell.)
Seems like you are focusing too much on the 230 spells that require concentration and not enough on the 250 spells that don't.
There are so many spells that you can cast repeatedly while concentrating on the 1 spell with a useful continuous effect that "a lot" would be an understatement.
I am concentrating on the spells that require concentration because that's the subject of the post lol! A lot of the D&D staples fall into this category and leave me puzzled.
just find it odd that the rule negates many opportunities - I hate telling my players "no, you can't do that because you have to concentrate on the spell you cast earlier, just magic missile or something" So yeah, as a newbie to 5th but 35 years in D&D, some of the rules that are meant to streamline the game and speed it up (which it does brilliantly) also strip away some of the sideways movement that breeds creative thinking.
And as for casting repeatedly, until you run out of spell slots yes lol
THAT seems stupid and really just turns the caster into just a damage chucker but hey, that's what House Rules were made for ;)
Can't really argue with someone who sees problems in only half the spells.
You exclude half the spells and pretend like there is a problem because a druid can't fly AND have barkskin. Not that there needs to be these limitations or else the druid just casts barkskin on the whole party before a fight and now even the wizard and sorc have an armor of 16 and can just fireball without needing to care about concentration.
Lets fly, banish, and prismatic wall all at the same time.
Seems like YOU are having this problem because you don't like saying no - I recommend a different game if you can't tell your PCs no.
It is for game balance. cloudkill, wall of force, and sickening radiance should probably not be possible to all be cast at the same time by one person.
I will say, Morgun mentioned some Druid spells in their post, and not all classes are equal when it comes to spell selection. Druids in particular have a lot of Concentration spells in levels 2 and 3, which can kind of make it difficult to envision how to play them as a dynamic round-to-round caster in combat rather than just "okay, Entangle, and then I guess three or four rounds of cantrips or hitting people with a stick..."
Of course, Druids are the caster class that also is potentially using Wild Shape to turn off their casting for some or all of a fight after putting up a concentration spell, so it makes a little bit of sense that they'd have so many. But a Wizard has a lot more interesting spells to throw around after their Fog Cloud than the Druid does.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
There are many combinations of spells that still work, without worrying about concentration. I believe you will find many creative ways to combine spells if you put some effort into it.
Also, 5e is balanced with concentration in mind - house rule that away and your melee characters will feel drastically underpowered while a single spellcaster ruins every encounter. Be prepared to add some more house rules to balance it all out if it comes to that.
It's important to remember that while you're concentrating on one spell, you can still cast non-concentration spells.
Concentration spells are usually much more powerful than non-concentration spells; Banishment can (permanently if you're luck) remove an enemy from the field. Fly can put you in the most advantageous positions for your fireball. Antimagic field can shut down an enemy caster.
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