You place a magical command on a creature that you can see within range, forcing it to carry out some service or refrain from some action or course of activity as you decide. If the creature can understand you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration. While the creature is charmed by you, it takes 5d10 psychic damage each time it acts in a manner directly counter to your instructions, but no more than once each day. A creature that can't understand you is unaffected by the spell.
You can issue any command you choose, short of an activity that would result in certain death. Should you issue a suicidal command, the spell ends.
You can end the spell early by using an action to dismiss it. A remove curse, greater restoration, or wish spell also ends it.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th or 8th level, the duration is 1 year. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 9th level, the spell lasts until it is ended by one of the spells mentioned above.
As long as you can speak your orders within a minute and they are not going to cause certain death or are suicidal in nature, then it's fair game.
Yes
I would say they are unaware. If the spell does not say that the target is aware of the spell than it is safe t assume they would not know about it unless they specifically see you cast the spell. Fr instance Charm Person specifically says the target is aware they were charmed after the effect wears off.
This spell is so messed up
This spell is not as strong compulsion wise as I had hoped it would be.
Nowhere does it say they can’t attack you unless you stipulate it in the geas. Then, if they can handle the damage for disobeying the geas, there is nothing preventing them from killing you. Therefore, if they kill you then or attempt to, they take the damage once that day. As a DM I would say that if the geas was to protect you or to not kill you or anything along those lines, until they get the geas removed they take that damage each day until the duration is up.
I feel like some stuff needs to be cleared up. At first it seems like a magical command, but nothing in the mechanics suggests that. Except for the fact that they're charmed for the duration so you'd have advantage on persuasion checks, but that seems pretty weak. Seems that the biggest thing here is the 5d10 psychic damage for disobeying. So I guess the question is, are they aware of that impending damage? Do they feel a compulsion to follow the order? I'm assuming given its duration that this is mostly a social spell, one that you cast out of combat. Which means you're probably going to be casting it on lower level NPCs. I'm imagining something like commanding a barkeep to come find you if a person of a given description enters the inn. A barkeep is likely to just be a commoner or something.
It seems like it would play something like this:
"Hey, barkeep. Me and my friends are trying to lay low and there's a pesky fellow with a bald head who carries a black hilted sword looking to start trouble with us. Be a good lad and run find us if you see someone like that come in here."
*Barkeep hears command and is charmed but even with advantage, you roll a persuasion of 6*
*Barkeep decides he can't be bothered to follow your command, sees the scallywag in black, chooses to keep running his business rather than be someone's errand boy, and dies on the spot from the 5d10 damage that he had no idea was coming*
The spell says nothing about the target feeling any compulsion beyond the damage which the spell doesn't say they are aware of. So you've got to convince them of the stick's existence, presumably with a persuasion check? So the only way to make it function as intended is to out yourself as a spellcaster and expose your geas to being dispelled? Why not just cast something lower level like charm person to get the charmed status and use the advantage to trick them into thinking they've got a geas on them? I think I get the idea of this spell but RAW, it doesn't feel like it does what it sets out to. It's listed as a control spell and it's named after a magical prohibition but all it really functions as is a way to instantly and suspiciously kill weak NPCs and mildly inconvenience strong ones. All it provides other than that is the charmed effect which tonnes of lower level spells do already. I think a better idea would be that they are compelled to follow the order unless they succeed on a WIS save which allows them to defy it, breaking the spell, but causing them 5d10 psychic damage.
It would detect an Enchantment effect, yes.
I, Lelouch Vi Britannia command you...
but what if it is cast at max level
It is pronounced "Gesh". It's a spell from Celtic mythology, although the original mythological version of the geas is usually said to be like a magical imperative which essentially ties the one under the spell's influence to his/her destiny, especially considering most geasa (pronounced "gesha" for the plural form of the word) were cast by deities. If one did anything counter to the spirit of a geas's imperative (as opposed to the exact letter thereof, unlike a contract one can successfully exploit a loophole in), it could kill them. In one myth, there was a geas that spelled out the specific and highly unlikely way its recipient could be killed, essentially making him magically invulnerable save for that specific combination of factors around which the geas was cast. For further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geas
It's not that they are actually compelled to obey like mind control. it's that they must obey or be penalized with a great deal of pain, like a hardcore migraine from the Nine Hells. Consider it like a magical shock-collar, after a kind. It's a pretty nasty spell.
They can't attack the person who Geas'd them. "If the creature can understand you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration.". The charmed condition pretty clearly states that those affected can't attack the charmer.
Sorry my bad I forgot the charmed condition (hides in the corner chastising self for missing it). I guess your best hope is that someone saw them cast on you and can aid in its removal…
"Bestoy all your loyalty to me, and act only in full support of my goals"
There's you're fun geasa.
Keep in mind, this is a plot device spell, not a 'Take over the PC and turn them to the dark side for a month" spell. 5d10 damage will kill 95% of everyone in the world, and even if you rolled a 1 on each die, that 5 damage is still enough to put most people on their knees and teach them never to ever attempt to disobey again. Even if they did try it again the next day, it won't be five 1s every time.
It doesn't take many times being hit with excruciating pain to condition someone to be obedient. Plus, how many people know the details of the spell? Only someone who knows the same spell themselves or has high INT and proficiency at Arcana should have any chance of knowing that disobeying the second and subsequent times per day will have no effect. If you stubbed your bare toe on a chair made of Lego D4s, that wouldn't compare to 5d10 damage, and if you were told that slamming your foot into it a second time wouldn't hurt, would you be likely to believe it? Then why would anyone take a chance after (barely) surviving a titanic agony like 5d10 psychic damage?
Anyone with 50 HP is a juggernaut compared to the vast number of people, especially wealthy merchants, gate guards, courtiers, government paper pushers, minions, servants, nobles, and even most wizards and sorcerers.
You can't just look at the mechanics of the spell and make a judgment call on the spell's usefulness. You need to look at it diegetically, how would a character knowing a reasonable amount about it (almost nothing for all but a tiny few) react after being hit with pain like that? Your PCs are accustomed to that kind of punishment, and can endure it. But adventurers are rare. No, this spell works fine for its intended purpose, which is not to destroy PC agency, but as a plot device, to sow mistrust, betrayal, and torment on NPCs, to advance the storyline, and to showcase how evil the villain is.
The way this spell is constructed seems to me that its best usage is as a sort of "Magical contract" more than it is a mind control spell like some people seem to assume it is.
Trying to be sneaky completely sneaky about it would be pointless, as they definitely need to be able to hear the command (as specifically mentioned in the description). You might subtle cast it just to get the drop on somebody, give the command, and then use the damage from the inevitable disobeyal as an intimidation tactic, but that's probably as "Sneaky" as you'll be.
Rather, I like to imagine using it on a mercenary you just hired or the enemy that's claiming to have had a change of heart, being very upfront about the curse. A sort of "Don't betray me or else". You could also use it as a particularly nasty punishment: commanding somebody to refrain from sleeping. Exhaustion will eventually lead in death, but since it requires a saving throw it isn't considered "Certain death". If they have enough hit points, they'd obviously opt to take the damage, which they're essentially guaranteed to take once a day for the duration.
Plus, its 30+ days of concentration free Charmed that works on ANY creature. Charmed Monster makes them friendly and is quicker, but it only lasts an hour.
Lamiam bbeg potentissimum creavi propter expeditionem meam theros, qui sub terra imperium cucurrerunt et servos collegit ut ascendere posset, praepotentem tactum inebriantem habuit quae poenae -5 positis servatis WIS, quae Geas habuit, sed non fecit. modo eam circum iactare, eam 5 per diem valde opportune usa est, plerumque id quod dico esse, ne sis homo fabulae horroris et iustus dm esse qui hoc carmine abutitur, sapienter utere, ut ingenia tua enucleare possint. pro modo esse sicut "tuos mores nunc possideo", mores suos iocose habent! non solum esse medium! (Hoc ex DM btw)
yes thats in latin
Let me guess, the designer watched Code Geas the night before approaching Crawford about their new spell idea.