Behind the Screen - Spells and Combat

Hey everybody, hope you're all well and having as much fun as we are at your tables!!

Now that we're well into chapter 4 and Pete's characters are progressing through "our" story, we felt it was time to have another dive into how the "game" was running. 

Chapter 4 of Tyranny of Dragons can be quite a beast depending on how it plays out. The book has a number of pre written random encounters which didn't feel right for "our" campaign so we've only used a few of them. As well as telling a story we wanted to showcase what Mitz&Simz is about. To this end our story is one that tells how the actions of the "Cult of Dragon" is having an affect on the wider world and how this has lead to a wilder more dangerous Sword Coast where hordes of creatures like Orcs, undead, trolls, griffons, hill giants, Ettins, ankhegs etc can and have been encountered at any turn. 

This campaign along with Rime of the Frost Maiden are opportunities for us to relearn a "game" from our youths and this is apparent in how the rules are evolving alongside our stories as there is a lot to relearn and remember.

In previous posts we have talked about movement and how we like to use 3D modular terrain from the Dungeon Blocks range that are available on this website. I described it recently as Heroquest on Steroids. Using these models and gaming aids is fun and really helps visualise characters in combat situations. We recently implemented the movement rules for diagonal movement from the Dungeon Masters Guide.

Like I mentioned, we are relearning this game and so rules and game mechanics do get overlooked. The one we are going to explore here is actually quite a biggy! Casting spells during combat. The big thing here is the requirement for the character to have a free hand or two depending on the spells requirements for somatic, verbal and material.

So what does this mean for a character carrying weapons and shields. Well if the spell only has a verbal component nothing they can cast the spell during combat no problem. Example here is Pipp the Bard casting "Dissonant Whispers". What now if the spell has somatic components. Well the character can drop or stow 1 weapon as a free object interaction action in order to have a free hand to cast the spell. What about two handed weapons. Well they can be carried in one hand so no issue there either. Lastly there is the material components. We've opted for using Arcane focuses for those components with no monetary value and as so the hand holding the focus can also be used to perform somatic gestures. 

What does this mean for us. Well in short, luckily not that much but there is a bit more thought required when it comes to action economy and tactical thinking. The other issue that only came to light recently was that characters who gained spell casting abilities later also needed to acquire a spell casting focus. Dafnae is an arcane trickster so needs a focus. Chard became an Eldritch Knight so needs an arcane focus for his wizard spells and also for his Warlock spells.

Being able to perform somatic gestures with the same hand that is holding the arcane focus makes sense if it's a wand but actually feels a bit weak for other items like a crystal or orb. It feels more like you would be holding the focus in one hand and performing the gestures with the other hand. Same with a staff unless your swooshing it around with both hands!. 

And so to the last element of spellcasting is those material components that have a value that you need to have in order to cast a spell. Some get used up in the casting and others don't but in both instances you need both hands free to cast these spells. One to hold your focus and one to hold the component that has a value. An example of this would be "Revivify" that requires diamonds worth 300gp that the spell consumes.

One thing we did house rule for Rime was how wizards copy spells into their spell books as they seem particularly disadvantaged especially in a campaign where things can be hard to come by and that is that to copy spells only takes time. A spell book has 100 pages and there is no rule or limit as to how many spells can be copied. Having to spend money to learn a spell when you use and arcane focus seems a bit off when other classes are just provided with spells as they level up and only need to prepare them each long rest. 

So that's it for this latest behind the screen. These rules will be implemented into our next session of Tyranny and we'll see how Pete gets on with his tactical decisions between spell casting and weapon use.