This spell could've been buffed or reworked, it feels like a wasted opportunity.

It's a 9th level spell that lets you buff or escape for maybe 2-5 turns. Incredibly disappointing that it wasn't reworked or buffed in any way

Running Time Stop without the second paragraph is really fun. 

I think you can use the last turn to cast a big spell like mass suggestions or earthquake or whatever. And I think you can also use your second to last turn to ready an action to cast a spell as a reaction?

So say you got 4 turns. First two turns do stuff like buff yourself or summon monsters, then 2nd to last turn, ready an action to cast a spell with the trigger being, an enemy takes it's turn, and then with your last turn cast an offensive spell, ending the time stop right when it would haven ended anyway. then fire off the prepared spell the next time an enemy acts.

I might be off on all that though.

I don't think the prepared spell thing is intended. Since you're the only one taking turns, it's essentially a round passing which prevents your reaction prepared spell from firing off. Best you can do I'd say is make a wall of force (or some other dangerous barrier) around an enemy and cast buffs, but buffs and wall spells both tend to be concentration so you can probably only cast one before making your big attack. Maybe the new sorcerer could get some value out of it by activating their powered up state during the turns. Still, even it let you take 4 actions where you can effect everyone normally and they can't counter it, it still wouldn't be anywhere close to the strongest 9th level spell.

I’m not asking for a lot. Just one example of this spell used well. And by the rules. That’s it. 

Once it comes back to your turn the held action is lost. If you are concentrating on a spell it will be lost because holding a magic action requires concentration.

Quote from Dangerdane >>

I’m not asking for a lot. Just one example of this spell used well. And by the rules. That’s it. 

Player or BBEG using time stop to drink potions (healing or otherwise). Essentially giving themselves a free life with the amount of healing you can do in 2-5 rounds.

If "You briefly stop the flow of time for everyone but yourself" I dont see how that doesnt give everyone but you the Paralyzed condition effectively. Meaning, 2-5 rounds to set up a massive free crit (in my games, you roll double dice for everything AKA double Sneak attack and double smite, etc). 

If youre trying to protect or attack something, Time Stop gives you free rounds to deal with that without interference. Like trying to break the BBEG's evil orb or the player's trying to protect a certain NPC. 

Time Stop sure isnt the best spell ever, but it offers a ton of utility!

「Insert Stand Name」

Who else is going to just ignore that part of the spell

I think critical role s2 used it by the book when they fought against liams teacher. but i could be misremembering 

D&D developers are chicken. 

They love to take the most useful aspects of a spell and specifically nerf those things. Sure, game balance means that casting five 'Meteor Swarm" spells or taking 20 swings with a Vorpal Sword would be broken, but as written, you can't plant things on anyone's person, steal their stuff, curse them, or anything fun like that. Honestly, all that needs to be said is 'no actions taking during this turn may cause any damage or HP loss to other creatures during the Time Stop, or else the effect ends immediately' and leave it at that.  

Quote from Dangerdane >>

I’m not asking for a lot. Just one example of this spell used well. And by the rules. That’s it. 

 Five uses of Summon Fiend, with orders to attack the party immediately. Then nope out. 

questions:

a) Are these additional turns, or do they include the turn in which this spell is cast? i.e. I cast time stop, and roll a 1, giving me 2 turns in a row.  Does the turn in which i cast Time Stop count as the first of these 2 turns?

b) does the caster know how many turns they have?

thanks!

Quote from Druidduo >>

questions:

a) Are these additional turns, or do they include the turn in which this spell is cast? i.e. I cast time stop, and roll a 1, giving me 2 turns in a row.  Does the turn in which i cast Time Stop count as the first of these 2 turns?

b) does the caster know how many turns they have?

thanks!

a. The way it's written is pretty ambiguous, so I'd say it's up to the DM. As long as it's consistent it probably doesn't matter a whole lot.

b. I would say yes, just because this spell would be weirdly unreliable and difficult to use if it were otherwise.

As a draconic sorcerer, you could cast time stop and use all of your turns casting Summon Dragon 2-5 times. You could cast a spell that deals damage at the start of another creature's turn. Delayed Cast Fireball anyone? Lastly sense deal damage ends the spell, you can always just end the spell with a fireball.

Quote from kingofclovers >>

As a draconic sorcerer, you could cast time stop and use all of your turns casting Summon Dragon 2-5 times. You could cast a spell that deals damage at the start of another creature's turn. Delayed Cast Fireball anyone? Lastly sense deal damage ends the spell, you can always just end the spell with a fireball.

I'm not sure about casting Summon Dragon. One could argue that does affect a creature other than you (i.e., the dragon you summon with it).

Quote from MasonMiller >>

I think critical role s2 used it by the book when they fought against liams teacher. but i could be misremembering 

This is correct. It was also used in Season 3 by Caleb to prep a couple of buffing spells on him and cast a Delayed Fireball and an actual fireball in the same spot. Did some real work that fight.

Quote from Dangerdane >>

I’m not asking for a lot. Just one example of this spell used well. And by the rules. That’s it. 

  Here's my take:

Time Stop:
1- Action: Delayed Fireball (7th)
2- Action: Potion of Haste, Hasted: Place explosive material
3- Action: Crown of Stars, Hasted: Place explosive material
4- Hasted: Place explosive material, Action: Forcecage (cage form)
5- Hasted: Legendary or Artifact quality weapon ranged attack, Action: Incendiary Cloud,  Bonus action: Crown of Stars

Total:
D. Fireball (delayed 4 turns) 16d6
Explosive material (Powder Horn) x3 : 9d6
OR Powder Keg x3: 21d6 (depends on your DM)
Incendiary Cloud: 10d8 (can affect if the Forcecage is in cage form)
Light Crossbow+3 w/ bolt of slaying: 1d8+3+Dex mod+6d10
Crown of Stars: 4d12

Placing a keg could potentially be considered too much by some GMs, even if you take them out of a bag of holding or with some other magical means. Hence why I put Powder Horns as default. This is obviously all if you get a 4 on your D4, but you could probably shorten it up by removing step 3 first, then 2 then 1? It all depends on your order of priority and situation too. Overall this can potentially deal more than Meteor Swarm and has the added benefit of putting your enemy inside a force cage with an ongoing very powerful spell that will keep damaging it and you coming out of this buffed.

Bonus: If you want to take things a step further, and this is very much playing with ruling, you could use a ring of wish instead of the first placing of an explosive and cast Simulacrum. The wording of Simulacrum says "the illusion uses all the statistics of the creature it duplicates, except that it is a construct." It could be argued that the illusion created is also affected by your timestop and haste potion exactly as you were when it was created. Obviously, like I said earlier, this is very much stretching the rules and all depends on your DM. Some might argue that the Simulacrum is another creature being affected and would end the Time Stop

The most devastating way I've (as a DM) ever used this spell was during a fight against Orcus (using the statblock from MToF). The extra turns allowed him to summon a massive army of undead with a combination of create undead and the wand of Orcus ability.