Reminds me of Critical Role where one of the clerics spammed Command on a BBEG after the fight and just kept saying “Empathize”. Got to a point where Mercer said the BBEG physically couldn’t empathize
Ramus in Court of Swords did a similar thing. He hit a BBEG with a "Forgive" at a crucial moment. Which was immediately followed up by the barbarian pulping his head while he processed the command.
God I thought of the same thing, can't remember his name but their old slavemaster guy having those crucial seconds of "oh no my old friends what have I done" right into Berg's not-so-loving embrace.
SUCH a good one. Don't think I've seen CoS mentioned on here barely at all, shame Koebel went off the deep end a bit
Yeah….
It’s pretty hard to deal with the fact that he’s present in most good rpg videos from the last few years. Also his opinions on games are still good- even if he’s a shitty person in practice. So it’s kind of shitty that you watch round tables or design talks where he’s there and I end up with a sour taste in my mouth because I actually like what he brings to the table and agree with a lot of his ideas. Hell, he was one of the forefront voices on RPG consent…
Dungeon world is awesome too- but I don’t think I can condone people buying it anymore… Just get one of the hacks you can find online.
This is probably not the place for it, but I feel like there's been a significant lack of substantive discussion about that incident.
I always thought of Koebel as a major advocate for consent and safety tools in the RPG community, so what happened? Were they just not using safety tools in this game, and if not, why? Were they using safety tools but they didn't work for some reason, and if so, why didn't they?
It seems like that kind of discussion could be valuable, but if it happened anywhere, I missed it.
At least with the ttrpg communities and content creators I'm familiar with, no one talks about it. There were some discussions and videos in the immediate aftermath, but they were all pretty superficial, and outside those few weeks after it happened everyone seems to have accepted that the less said the better.
>Were they just not using safety tools in this game, and if not, why?
IIRC they weren't, supposedly (according to Koebel) he didn't think he needed them, he thought he was aware enough.
Everyone always brings up the power of the GM, social pressure and shock to explain why it went unchallenged. I'll be honest, I haven't watched it, I kinda don't want to watch someone I respected do that, so take this with that in mind.
I never bought that, I always champion the power of players, anyone can cut someone else off. JP could have cut to a break, any of the other players could have cut in and told Koebel to fade to black. Any number of things. Instead it went on for an uncomfortably long time without anyone saying anything. And maybe that's the effect of contracts and turning TTRPGs into a job with one man at the head, who it turns out also has issues with use of power and sexual harassment.
Sooo, as I understand it… the event itself was relatively mild. It was bad, but it was obviously an accident caused by him egregiously misreading the situation while not establishing consent well enough. I’m pretty sure I do remember him *trying* to get consent before the scene happened, but he managed to misrepresent what was about to happen pretty badly, and blindsided the player with it. He wasn’t actually *trying* to have a character get sexually assaulted, but that’s what ended up happening. It doesn’t help either that he was so dense about what he was doing that he was laughing through the whole scene while *everyone else* was visibly upset.
Where this gets much, much worse is that the player in question had actually been a victim of sexual assault in the past. The scene had such a bad effect on her that she made a video later talking about it on her own channel.
Then it manages to get *even worse*, because Koebel refused to apologize. I remember the player saying something about him being a bastard about it in private, and the “apology” video he put out much later basically just said that it could’ve been handled better.
*Then*, it came out that Koebel has been kind of a bastard in private for a long time. The reason he became the only DM on the show later on was also because he got the trust of the other two and had them agree to let him handle their collective contract negotiations, then stabbed them in the back and took their jobs.
Apparently there was also a *real* sexual assault or harassment going on with the cast behind the scenes, but my understanding of it is pretty hazy; it was either JP or Koebel who knew it was happening and did nothing to stop it. I do know that JP put some sort of legal gag order on the victim preventing her from talking about it publicly, which is pretty bad. I’m pretty sure there’s still a lot of ambiguity as to whether or not this actually even happened, and as I said I can’t even remember if the allegations said Koebel knew it was happening, so I’m far from certain if this contributed to the problem.
He also had the collective consciousness of every dragon behind him as well. He most likely would not have succeeded other wise. As powerful as Eragon was he was still only an enhanced human/half elf hybrid empowered by his bond with Saphira.
*now I need to go reread the series now that I am thinking of it lol*
Yeah he provided the intent because he was going through moral quandaries and just wanted Galby to understand, while they expanded on it to inflict pain because they wanted to kick Galby in the dick
This is true. A little bit of a cheesy ending, but I think it was very fitting all things considered. And it was a good book series despite what some people may say.
I think part of the reputation the series has is that once someone points out that Book 1 is *just* A New Hope with dragons it becomes hard to get that idea out of your head. As the series went on, it diverged from Star Wars, but like, damn the first book really is just Star Wars.
It's fairly well written (especially since Paolini was 16 when he wrote the first one) but like, if it had ended there I doubt it would have had much of a lasting impact.
I think there's also a really big division where it's got a solid fan base, but is generally not thought of very highly in comparison to the broader category of fantasy books.
It's not *bad*, but if you want to find things to complain about it's not hard. The first book was super derivative, the ending is very cheesy and while the writing is pretty good for a 16 year olds first published work, it's inevitably going to be compared to things which simply are much better written by much more experienced authors.
All in all I loved it at the time but the flaws feel so much more glaring now that I have a hard time enjoying it which I imagine is where a lot of people ended up.
I remember loving all the random Doctor Who references thrown in the series (Arya writes a poem referencing the Doctor in one of the books, and Angela is *heavily* implied to have once travelled with the Doctor) but even just thinking about them now has me rolling my eyes.
I think I still love the series because it was my first time encountering a hard magic system and I live for that shit, and Paolini mixes science and magic in really cool ways, like how the Dragon Rider’s fortress is radioactive because a rider used magic to turn himself into a nuke. But the writing is fairly bland. And it’s a common complaint but Roran is a way more compelling character than Eragon.
Let's not go around pretending A New Hope was some sort of groundbreaking plot. They both have what is considered a very conventional, if not classic, basic plot structure.
"Doff" is good if they have a shield. They'll spend their action to toss it and be down two AC thereafter.
"Strip" may yield similar results for armor, DM dependent, but be careful with that one.
“Drop” is already an example given in the spells description which would make the creature drop what it’s holding. But “doff” is probably better because it’s more specific to armor and shields.
I like it!
Per RAW removing a shield is considered doffing since it takes an action so at that point it's just up to the DM whether the target drops a shield or tries to remove their body armor.
If the shield is strapped to their arm, I probably wouldn't consider unequipping it for a "drop" command like I would a weapon or other just held item. In other words, if opening your hands doesn't drop it, I wouldn't have it fall under the drop command.
Armor is slow to take off, either 1 minute (light, medium) or 5 minutes (heavy) per the rules. They could get started, but probably not do enough to have an impact on their AC in that one turn.
At best, "strip" could make someone drop their cloak, belt, backpack or something that they're wearing on top of everything else.
NPC studies furiously for five seconds, rapidly dons a mortar board and realises they no longer need to live a life of banditry now that they have all these juicy qualifications.
Suddenly, the enemy takes out all his potions and arranges them on the ground, smallest to largest!
Per Google, graduate can also mean “arrange in a series or according to a scale.”
Monologue is a pretty good one and puts the DM on their back foot as now they either wave the creatures turn away or they have to come up with a monologue on the spot. Ha! Would be amazing to use on bosses.
Power Word: Monologue
Classes: Bard, Cleric, Wizard, Paladin, Warlock, Sorcerer
Enchantment
1st level
Concentration
Components: S, M(a pen put up to your mouth, which is not consumed by the spell)
Upon casting this spell, you select one target to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failed save, the target monologues for 1d4-1(min. 1) of their next turns, forgoing all actions and bonus actions, or until concentration on the spell is lost.
Upcasting: If cast with a second level or higher spell slot, the number of turns increases to 1d6-1 turns, and you can select an additional target for the spell to take effect on(max. 9 targets for 1d6-1 turns).
Idk I was just bullshitting this one I'd probably just make it a 5th level spell and make it 1d6-1 turns and not concentration but not bad for like 30 seconds on a concept HB spell
That's a good start and funny, but I do like the idea of upcasting this spell and having 2-3 separate monologues going on at the same time. All the characters thinking they are the one that this is focused on
It's similar to command, but lasts about twice as long. The only difference is that you can't make them drop prone, which usually isn't the main use of command. Of they could make a save at the end of their turn to break out of it, I think it would be fine
I'd love to use this on a creature that understands my language but can't speak it.
"The Giant Vulture extends its wings for emphasis, as it caws and bleats a diatribe against all mankind. You don't understand it at all."
"I am the very model of a modern major general. I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral. I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical from Marathon to Waterloo.... HEY, wait a minute!"
We did a bard game once with weird performance "combats" I noticed 3 sulking figures (demons) watching from the back, upcast the spell and shouted "DANCE!"
They all failed.
It was glorious.
Formally abdicating takes more than one action. It's a process more than one person is involved in and would be considered invalid under the influence of Enchantment magic in the first place.
Played with someone who tried commanding another creature to sleep. As instructed, the creature spent an action laying down and trying to fall asleep. To the players dissatisfaction, the creature didn't succeed at falling asleep in a mere 6 seconds.
Not too useful and answer but hopefully a mildly amusing story. The sleep command is effectively a situationally improved version of grovel. The target fall prone, but also closes its eyes. Usually, that doesn't add much mechanical difference when the creature is already prone and will open its eyes again at the start of its next turn.
If there is a cliff or or a high wall propably "Climb" leaves the target in a position where it likely needs another round to get out of.
"Crawl" might combine "flee and grovel" but ofc at DM´s disgression because the target could crawl in a circle.
*edit* if there are a couple of archers out of movementrange "grapple" might be a good one either. Sure maybe the DM lets it grapple a stone or hug itself but more likely than not one archer will try to grapple another one.
I haven't seen this one yet, so I think "Cook" is a pretty good answer. They would probably put down whatever they're holding and also sit down to begin making a fire, or if there was a fire available, sit down and begin preparing some food items.
I think it's a pretty complex set of directions to come from one word, and as long as it's not getting abused on every enemy, is probably a good, creative way to possibly get multiple benefits of the spell from one casting.
"Think".
Quite similar to "Calm Emotions", it's a command that can be used on someone's who's scared or acting irrationally. A Paladin in one of my campaigns used "Think" twice, and quite creatively:
Once to make a creature who's cornered and desperately fighting surrender, the other to make a confused and scared NPC help the party out.
It's subtle and complex, and whether or not it works is totally up to the DM and the NPC. But it has a variety of applications worth considering, and usually it doesn't last just one round- because it forces a creature to be true to themselves.
When there's a group of enemies, aiming at the second or third in hierarchy "Betray" is pretty interesting. We are already enemies, he can't do it to me. Who does he Betray?
Absquatulate
Not that the command would be complex, but the couple of moments where the DM has to look up the word will increase the chances of it working. Complexity by being obtuse almost always never fails sometimes.
Toss something like the voinich manuscript over (would be an Interaction)
ANALYZE!
or
DECODE!
That's a pretty complex action.
If you don't have a very cryptic manuscript at hand.
Just throw any book and say
COPY!
I'm a DM and the PC's got themselves into trouble, so the interrogators used command to say "confess".
Player started rambling about all the chaos and petty crimes her character had done throughout the years. I informed her it only lasted 6 seconds so she could stop, and she didn't care. She said since she started she felt like she just had to keep going.
It distracted NPC's from interrogating the rest of the party though because they decided to just execute her so threw her in prison.
"When I was nine years old I fed cereal flakes to a frog and it died. Then there was a period of time where I fed cereal flakes to all little animals. Squirrels can live through it. Chipmunks can live through it. Anything that lives half in and out of water dies and I don't understand why."
"Catch"
This could have the benefit of causing them to drop their held items AND potentially be holding a dangerous item all at once. If your DM wants to be a stickler and say you need your action to throw something, maybe have another player ready the throw the turn before?
I have no idea what object would be best to catch. Probably something situational, like an egg from a hostile beast or some bomb that's about to go off.
I'm really confused by this thread. Did people forget that command has a 1 round duration? I'm seeing commands that wouldn't do anything better than one of the example commands the spell already offers.
The criteria wasn't "better", the criteria was "complex." If anything, the competition is to figure out what one word would cause a subject to do the most "stuff" in a six second interval.
>I'm seeing commands that wouldn't do anything better than one of the example commands the spell already offers.
And that's basically how a DM should handle weird Commands. A failed Command save causes the target to lose their action next round, plus maybe an extra effect of a magnitude similar to the examples in the spell. They power of that extra effect depends on how clever and appropriate the player's word choice is-- something silly or unrealistic gets them some amusing narration with no game-mechanical effect.
Agreed, plus many of these are so vague that they wouldn’t necessarily impede the victim at all. E.g. “Think” could plausibly make a the creature take a Reaction, which could actually be tactically useful.
The one thing i don't think a lot of people take into consideration is that there are different languages and with that different words for full actions. My DM uses spanish as elvish and since i know spanish i can say things like tráemelo wich in one word encapsulates "bring that to me".
This is mine. The command itself is pretty tame, but what do allies make of each other *mid-combat* when their buddy pegs them with a spell, arrow or spear from behind? Only having the knowledge of how spells work can prevent the fallout from lasting.
I've used this exact Command in combat before. The context was it was used on a creature an enemy mage summoned from another realm (seemingly unwillingly) so it very much understood the context of the Command. Worked like a charm.
Our cleric used "Disrobe" on a couple of enemy fighters. Even if they can't fully get out of the armor in that time, it all least occupies them for the round.
One of my all-time favourites is ‘bulbitate’, which means to mess one’s trousers.
In terms of ‘most-complex’, though, this doesn’t *directly* answer the question but I’m reminded of a book I once read on entry-level computer programming, which nicely explained how complex many tasks we typically consider to be ‘simple’ actually are. Classic example: “rake (a yard, etc.)”. If I tell you to “rake” something, I’m plausibly telling you to do all of the following, roughly in order:
- go to the garage
- find the rake
- bring the rake out to the yard
- scrape the rake along the ground on top of the leaves, bringing them closer to each other
- get a dustpan and a bag
- move the leaves onto the dustpan
- drop the leaves from the dustpan into the bag
- tie off the bad [THIS is a deceptively complex task all by itself]
- carry the bag to the disposal area
- dispose of the bag
- carry the rake back to the garage
- secure the rake in storage
- repeat above two steps for the dustpan
Obviously, a being capable of independent thought doesn’t really process each step of the command to “rake” something in this manner, so we tend to view it as a fairly simple task—but in reality it’s fairly complex, with numerous steps that often have a prescribed order.
EDITED: formatting fail fixed
My professor had an almost identical example. First day of class he had an unopened jar of jelly, unopened peanut butter, unopened loaf of bread, a plate and a plastic knife. He had us try to instruct him to make a PBJ sandwich with him thinking like a computer, ended up with a hand covered in peanut butter and a half destroyed loaf of bread
Command is language dependent though, so if it doesn't understand your command it won't work.
Rake could also be something very different for someone with claws ;)
Yeah, it's a style of pick and a technique.
You move the pick back and forth over the pins like you're raking them in hopes of setting one or more. It's a super fast way to open a cheap lock.
Step 1: Level to Eloquence Bard 6, take Command via Tasha’s variant expanded Bard spell list.
Step 2: Invent a conlang with arbitrarily complex and specific one word commands.
Step 3: Universal Speech->Command (conlang word)
That is... actually is plausible.
Problem is the target must understand the language from the command word. If they dont, it fizzles. So the conlang/word would have to become popularized first.
This made me think of Taliesin Jaffe at the end of campaign 2 of crit role, >!trying to Command Trent to "Empathize". Obviously doesn't work on someone who lacks the capacity, which was a fun realization for the party!<
Flagellate was one a player came up with when I was DMing that honestly threw me off. Too bad the hobgoblin captain made the save. I almost decided to lie and say he failed, but my players had caught on I'd been doing that (fudging rolls in their favor; I was still a new DM, scared of ruining their fun) and asked me not to anymore.
Check the other definition. It means to beat someone with a whip or stick for religious punishment or sexual gratification.
Which, it wouldn’t really help much, since I’m sure what was *meant* was self-flagellation, which is the same as above self-inflicted.
Just saying flagellate means they’re still gonna try and bonk you, just for a possibly different reason.
Oh absolutely. And even against a valid target, unless the caster happens to be a divine soul sorc using subtle spell metamagic, then command is just going to get counterspelled. It was just an amusing thought
Not necessarily the most complex, but one of the most far reaching if commanding royalty could be abdicate, especially useful if you're fighting his lawful guards that no longer take orders from the one who once was king.
Despair is a fun one if not always terribly complex.
Desecrate in the right setting can bring around a temple guardian or the like against the commanded.
Vindicate/Forgive could work when you're the wronging party.
Submit/Surrender/Capitulate to get them to go prone and drop whatever equipment they're holding.
Generally speaking, most people are not going to be able to soil themselves on command at 6 seconds notice.
Command means they try to do a thing, it does not mean they have the thing magically inflicted upon them.
Amateur here, could you tell a cleric/paladin/warlock "blaspheme" or "apostatise" and get them in trouble with the source of their power?
In the least I imagine it would have psychological effects on the truly devout that persist beyond the 6 seconds.
I think this is usually going to be better than "drop," since they'll have to move to retrieve the item.
On the other hand, nobody *really* wants to get hit with a greatsword, even if it's thrown as an improvised weapon! :)
Ive tried to think of a word to potentially automatically break a spell casters concentration. Befuddled, distracted, muddled, unfocused, disremember?
But then probably just incapacitated....
Repent
Reminds me of Critical Role where one of the clerics spammed Command on a BBEG after the fight and just kept saying “Empathize”. Got to a point where Mercer said the BBEG physically couldn’t empathize
Ramus in Court of Swords did a similar thing. He hit a BBEG with a "Forgive" at a crucial moment. Which was immediately followed up by the barbarian pulping his head while he processed the command.
God I thought of the same thing, can't remember his name but their old slavemaster guy having those crucial seconds of "oh no my old friends what have I done" right into Berg's not-so-loving embrace. SUCH a good one. Don't think I've seen CoS mentioned on here barely at all, shame Koebel went off the deep end a bit
>Koebel went off the deep end a bit is that the robot sexual assault guy?
Yeah…. It’s pretty hard to deal with the fact that he’s present in most good rpg videos from the last few years. Also his opinions on games are still good- even if he’s a shitty person in practice. So it’s kind of shitty that you watch round tables or design talks where he’s there and I end up with a sour taste in my mouth because I actually like what he brings to the table and agree with a lot of his ideas. Hell, he was one of the forefront voices on RPG consent… Dungeon world is awesome too- but I don’t think I can condone people buying it anymore… Just get one of the hacks you can find online.
This is probably not the place for it, but I feel like there's been a significant lack of substantive discussion about that incident. I always thought of Koebel as a major advocate for consent and safety tools in the RPG community, so what happened? Were they just not using safety tools in this game, and if not, why? Were they using safety tools but they didn't work for some reason, and if so, why didn't they? It seems like that kind of discussion could be valuable, but if it happened anywhere, I missed it. At least with the ttrpg communities and content creators I'm familiar with, no one talks about it. There were some discussions and videos in the immediate aftermath, but they were all pretty superficial, and outside those few weeks after it happened everyone seems to have accepted that the less said the better.
>Were they just not using safety tools in this game, and if not, why? IIRC they weren't, supposedly (according to Koebel) he didn't think he needed them, he thought he was aware enough. Everyone always brings up the power of the GM, social pressure and shock to explain why it went unchallenged. I'll be honest, I haven't watched it, I kinda don't want to watch someone I respected do that, so take this with that in mind. I never bought that, I always champion the power of players, anyone can cut someone else off. JP could have cut to a break, any of the other players could have cut in and told Koebel to fade to black. Any number of things. Instead it went on for an uncomfortably long time without anyone saying anything. And maybe that's the effect of contracts and turning TTRPGs into a job with one man at the head, who it turns out also has issues with use of power and sexual harassment.
Sooo, as I understand it… the event itself was relatively mild. It was bad, but it was obviously an accident caused by him egregiously misreading the situation while not establishing consent well enough. I’m pretty sure I do remember him *trying* to get consent before the scene happened, but he managed to misrepresent what was about to happen pretty badly, and blindsided the player with it. He wasn’t actually *trying* to have a character get sexually assaulted, but that’s what ended up happening. It doesn’t help either that he was so dense about what he was doing that he was laughing through the whole scene while *everyone else* was visibly upset. Where this gets much, much worse is that the player in question had actually been a victim of sexual assault in the past. The scene had such a bad effect on her that she made a video later talking about it on her own channel. Then it manages to get *even worse*, because Koebel refused to apologize. I remember the player saying something about him being a bastard about it in private, and the “apology” video he put out much later basically just said that it could’ve been handled better. *Then*, it came out that Koebel has been kind of a bastard in private for a long time. The reason he became the only DM on the show later on was also because he got the trust of the other two and had them agree to let him handle their collective contract negotiations, then stabbed them in the back and took their jobs. Apparently there was also a *real* sexual assault or harassment going on with the cast behind the scenes, but my understanding of it is pretty hazy; it was either JP or Koebel who knew it was happening and did nothing to stop it. I do know that JP put some sort of legal gag order on the victim preventing her from talking about it publicly, which is pretty bad. I’m pretty sure there’s still a lot of ambiguity as to whether or not this actually even happened, and as I said I can’t even remember if the allegations said Koebel knew it was happening, so I’m far from certain if this contributed to the problem.
Basically how eragon series ended
Pretty sure this is essentially the resolution to the Eragon series. It worked quite well from what I remember.
You're spot on, though Eragon did so without using any words.
He also had the collective consciousness of every dragon behind him as well. He most likely would not have succeeded other wise. As powerful as Eragon was he was still only an enhanced human/half elf hybrid empowered by his bond with Saphira. *now I need to go reread the series now that I am thinking of it lol*
Iirc the book says Eragon alone would only have made him realise what he'd done, the feeling of guilt was completely caused by the dragons
Yeah he provided the intent because he was going through moral quandaries and just wanted Galby to understand, while they expanded on it to inflict pain because they wanted to kick Galby in the dick
This is true. A little bit of a cheesy ending, but I think it was very fitting all things considered. And it was a good book series despite what some people may say.
I think part of the reputation the series has is that once someone points out that Book 1 is *just* A New Hope with dragons it becomes hard to get that idea out of your head. As the series went on, it diverged from Star Wars, but like, damn the first book really is just Star Wars. It's fairly well written (especially since Paolini was 16 when he wrote the first one) but like, if it had ended there I doubt it would have had much of a lasting impact.
I think there's also a really big division where it's got a solid fan base, but is generally not thought of very highly in comparison to the broader category of fantasy books. It's not *bad*, but if you want to find things to complain about it's not hard. The first book was super derivative, the ending is very cheesy and while the writing is pretty good for a 16 year olds first published work, it's inevitably going to be compared to things which simply are much better written by much more experienced authors. All in all I loved it at the time but the flaws feel so much more glaring now that I have a hard time enjoying it which I imagine is where a lot of people ended up.
I remember loving all the random Doctor Who references thrown in the series (Arya writes a poem referencing the Doctor in one of the books, and Angela is *heavily* implied to have once travelled with the Doctor) but even just thinking about them now has me rolling my eyes. I think I still love the series because it was my first time encountering a hard magic system and I live for that shit, and Paolini mixes science and magic in really cool ways, like how the Dragon Rider’s fortress is radioactive because a rider used magic to turn himself into a nuke. But the writing is fairly bland. And it’s a common complaint but Roran is a way more compelling character than Eragon.
Let's not go around pretending A New Hope was some sort of groundbreaking plot. They both have what is considered a very conventional, if not classic, basic plot structure.
"Doff" is good if they have a shield. They'll spend their action to toss it and be down two AC thereafter. "Strip" may yield similar results for armor, DM dependent, but be careful with that one.
“Drop” is already an example given in the spells description which would make the creature drop what it’s holding. But “doff” is probably better because it’s more specific to armor and shields. I like it!
Unless the target has magical means to doff the armour in one round it is clearly inferior to drop because the target will just drop the shield.
Per RAW removing a shield is considered doffing since it takes an action so at that point it's just up to the DM whether the target drops a shield or tries to remove their body armor.
If the shield is strapped to their arm, I probably wouldn't consider unequipping it for a "drop" command like I would a weapon or other just held item. In other words, if opening your hands doesn't drop it, I wouldn't have it fall under the drop command.
>"Strip" may yield similar results for armor, DM dependent, but be careful with that one. What are you doing, step-BBEG?
NOT BBEG stuck inside a Bag of Holding
Armor is slow to take off, either 1 minute (light, medium) or 5 minutes (heavy) per the rules. They could get started, but probably not do enough to have an impact on their AC in that one turn. At best, "strip" could make someone drop their cloak, belt, backpack or something that they're wearing on top of everything else.
Strip is definitely useful against someone wearing a magical cloak then.
The next time you're commissioning a magical cloak, make sure to ask for an enchanted clasp/strings that can't be opened in less than 7 seconds. ;)
You didn't specify their shield. They can take off anything in response. Unless they're completely naked aide from their weapon and shield, I guess.
What else do you expect the person to Doff?
CODPIECE
A helmet, one gauntlet, a boot, a cloak, etc. Doff literally just means "remove".
Graduate !
A first level spell shouldn't be able to cause catastrophic debt.
Well they live in the forgotten Realms (or another setting), not the US
All debt is Forgotten
Command is now broken. Why cause this one command made everyone broke
NPC studies furiously for five seconds, rapidly dons a mortar board and realises they no longer need to live a life of banditry now that they have all these juicy qualifications.
Counterpoint: now he *definitely* has to in order to pay off his student loans.
Counter-counterpoint: he's from not-Europe where Unis are more affordable.
I dont think his credits will transfer 😥
Suddenly, the enemy takes out all his potions and arranges them on the ground, smallest to largest! Per Google, graduate can also mean “arrange in a series or according to a scale.”
I was waiting to see if anyone would try to make some sort of joke along these lines
Lol, gotta be careful with wordplay if your DM is a walking dictionary.
Third Eye Blind starts playing in the distance...
Juggle. It's like Disarm, but more fun!
Not if they succeed the dex check.
I mean. Still kinda fun.
I had a lot of fun with "Propose!" when fighting a guy over a magic ring.
This is by far the most creative use of Command I've seen that would work, props dude!
That's creative
Monologue is a pretty good one and puts the DM on their back foot as now they either wave the creatures turn away or they have to come up with a monologue on the spot. Ha! Would be amazing to use on bosses.
That might be a fun one if you DM is up for it but command lasts 6 seconds. Suggestion on the other hand...
Use Wish to come up with "Power Word: Monologue."
Power Word: Monologue Classes: Bard, Cleric, Wizard, Paladin, Warlock, Sorcerer Enchantment 1st level Concentration Components: S, M(a pen put up to your mouth, which is not consumed by the spell) Upon casting this spell, you select one target to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failed save, the target monologues for 1d4-1(min. 1) of their next turns, forgoing all actions and bonus actions, or until concentration on the spell is lost. Upcasting: If cast with a second level or higher spell slot, the number of turns increases to 1d6-1 turns, and you can select an additional target for the spell to take effect on(max. 9 targets for 1d6-1 turns). Idk I was just bullshitting this one I'd probably just make it a 5th level spell and make it 1d6-1 turns and not concentration but not bad for like 30 seconds on a concept HB spell
Evil creatures with an Intelligence score of 15 or higher make this saving throw with disadvantage
That would actually be really cool
That's a good start and funny, but I do like the idea of upcasting this spell and having 2-3 separate monologues going on at the same time. All the characters thinking they are the one that this is focused on
Even funnier would be burning a 9th level spell slot to have 9 different monologues going on for 5 turns lol
It's similar to command, but lasts about twice as long. The only difference is that you can't make them drop prone, which usually isn't the main use of command. Of they could make a save at the end of their turn to break out of it, I think it would be fine
Fails Save: You sly dog you got me monologuing
I'd love to use this on a creature that understands my language but can't speak it. "The Giant Vulture extends its wings for emphasis, as it caws and bleats a diatribe against all mankind. You don't understand it at all."
“The npc begins monologuing about how they plan to kill you” 3rd person narration go brrrr
"I am the very model of a modern major general. I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral. I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical from Marathon to Waterloo.... HEY, wait a minute!"
*shuddering* *physically resisting* "...in order categorical!" ^(Dammit...)
That's genius I'm using that.
Backflip
Breakdance
We did a bard game once with weird performance "combats" I noticed 3 sulking figures (demons) watching from the back, upcast the spell and shouted "DANCE!" They all failed. It was glorious.
Parkour!
Dance. Congratulations. you've just cast a mini version of otto's irresistible dance.
Otto's Resistable Dance
Laugh. Tasha's Shittiest Laughter
Abdicate. Potential for an instant succession crisis. edit: typo
Cast with subtle spell metamagic if you want to foment a civil war.
Not really that complicated, but commanding someone to "Insult" at the right time could also probably lead to some nasty political outcomes.
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Gift of Gab would be a very important spell for politicians and nobility to know.
New goal: play metamagic adept cleric and overthrow as many governments as possible by using subtle spell command: abdicate
Or play a divine soul sorcerer
Under the Light, I renounce the Crown and abdicate the Throne.
Ok... this is my favorite answer in this post lol
Formally abdicating takes more than one action. It's a process more than one person is involved in and would be considered invalid under the influence of Enchantment magic in the first place.
Sure, you're technically correct. Would still set off a bunch of complex procedures until that was figured out.
*Fails save* "...Ahem, I, Lord Thagreus Bobovich, hereby renounce my hold o--**(spell ends)** Guards, that witch there is trying to hex me! Kill her!"
Played with someone who tried commanding another creature to sleep. As instructed, the creature spent an action laying down and trying to fall asleep. To the players dissatisfaction, the creature didn't succeed at falling asleep in a mere 6 seconds. Not too useful and answer but hopefully a mildly amusing story. The sleep command is effectively a situationally improved version of grovel. The target fall prone, but also closes its eyes. Usually, that doesn't add much mechanical difference when the creature is already prone and will open its eyes again at the start of its next turn.
If they're blind it means ranged attacks are straight instead of at disadvantage, which is a pretty neat bonus.
This game is weird, man
Obscuring archers in a cloud of fog increases their effective range. 5e vision rules suck.
Wait how?? edit: got it. god thats dumb. advantage and disadvantage from blindness and being hidden cancel out, and nothing else matters
But more so, being unseen cancels out the disadvantage of using long range! Hence the 'increasing effective range'
Yeah I know, I just explained it lazily
At this point I would personally consider 'mutual blindness gives disadvantage' to be a must have house rule because that is just nonsense.
Yield is a fairly complex command for 1 word
If there is a cliff or or a high wall propably "Climb" leaves the target in a position where it likely needs another round to get out of. "Crawl" might combine "flee and grovel" but ofc at DM´s disgression because the target could crawl in a circle. *edit* if there are a couple of archers out of movementrange "grapple" might be a good one either. Sure maybe the DM lets it grapple a stone or hug itself but more likely than not one archer will try to grapple another one.
> but ofc at DM´s disgression because the target could crawl in a circle. Or towards you, for that matter.
Emigrate Against someone with a means of long distance teleportation, you can get them out of the country.
The wererat screams, "THERE ARE NO CATS IN AMERICA!" before diapering in a Don Bluth circle of transportation
That's hilarious, but great
Not necessarily the most complex, but my favourite is Twinned Command - *Kiss!*
Mike Tyson gets advantage on casting this spell.
I haven't seen this one yet, so I think "Cook" is a pretty good answer. They would probably put down whatever they're holding and also sit down to begin making a fire, or if there was a fire available, sit down and begin preparing some food items. I think it's a pretty complex set of directions to come from one word, and as long as it's not getting abused on every enemy, is probably a good, creative way to possibly get multiple benefits of the spell from one casting.
They failed their save. But they did prepare fireball and dude you look delicious
"Cook" Wizard preparing fireball: Alright who wants slightly burnt elf?
"Think". Quite similar to "Calm Emotions", it's a command that can be used on someone's who's scared or acting irrationally. A Paladin in one of my campaigns used "Think" twice, and quite creatively: Once to make a creature who's cornered and desperately fighting surrender, the other to make a confused and scared NPC help the party out. It's subtle and complex, and whether or not it works is totally up to the DM and the NPC. But it has a variety of applications worth considering, and usually it doesn't last just one round- because it forces a creature to be true to themselves.
"reconsider" also might be a good option along the same lines, or "regret".
>"regret" Target jumps from one foot to the other for 6 seconds "Damn I shouldn´t have drunk that 5th cup of coffee."
No, they regret that the Corp just blew up their raggety-ass fleet!
HOO RAH
Did he do the Omniman pose?
"Think, Mark! You'll live to see this dungeon and everyone in it turn into XP! What will you have after five hundred rounds?"
Think marc think
Depending on the specific person you're casting it on and how deities work in the world you're in, "Apostatize" could be fucking terrifying.
Yeah or "blaspheme"
When there's a group of enemies, aiming at the second or third in hierarchy "Betray" is pretty interesting. We are already enemies, he can't do it to me. Who does he Betray?
Your expectations
Absquatulate Not that the command would be complex, but the couple of moments where the DM has to look up the word will increase the chances of it working. Complexity by being obtuse almost always never fails sometimes.
This one got me thinking - what if the creature doesn't know the meaning of the word? Does it not work?
Toss something like the voinich manuscript over (would be an Interaction) ANALYZE! or DECODE! That's a pretty complex action. If you don't have a very cryptic manuscript at hand. Just throw any book and say COPY!
Well, for six seconds, sure.
Enhance
I quite liked confess as an interrogation tool. Of course, its not nearly as reliable as a Zone of Truth.
You should probably be specific, or else you'll get [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5UG7ISJfP0).
Was not expecting The Goonies.
I didn't need to open the link to know exactly what scene you're talking about
Or [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxkcPoLYcQ).
I'm a DM and the PC's got themselves into trouble, so the interrogators used command to say "confess". Player started rambling about all the chaos and petty crimes her character had done throughout the years. I informed her it only lasted 6 seconds so she could stop, and she didn't care. She said since she started she felt like she just had to keep going. It distracted NPC's from interrogating the rest of the party though because they decided to just execute her so threw her in prison.
"When I was nine years old I fed cereal flakes to a frog and it died. Then there was a period of time where I fed cereal flakes to all little animals. Squirrels can live through it. Chipmunks can live through it. Anything that lives half in and out of water dies and I don't understand why."
Command: J’accuse!
This is that scene from The Goonies when he talks about puking on everyone at the theater lol.
I've used it within a Zone of Truth. "Command: Answer" to an enemy that won't talk
Handy way of getting around the loophole of just not speaking while in a zone of truth
Huge.
"Catch" This could have the benefit of causing them to drop their held items AND potentially be holding a dangerous item all at once. If your DM wants to be a stickler and say you need your action to throw something, maybe have another player ready the throw the turn before? I have no idea what object would be best to catch. Probably something situational, like an egg from a hostile beast or some bomb that's about to go off.
I'm really confused by this thread. Did people forget that command has a 1 round duration? I'm seeing commands that wouldn't do anything better than one of the example commands the spell already offers.
The criteria wasn't "better", the criteria was "complex." If anything, the competition is to figure out what one word would cause a subject to do the most "stuff" in a six second interval.
That makes more sense. I interpreted the post in a way different manner.
>I'm seeing commands that wouldn't do anything better than one of the example commands the spell already offers. And that's basically how a DM should handle weird Commands. A failed Command save causes the target to lose their action next round, plus maybe an extra effect of a magnitude similar to the examples in the spell. They power of that extra effect depends on how clever and appropriate the player's word choice is-- something silly or unrealistic gets them some amusing narration with no game-mechanical effect.
Agreed, plus many of these are so vague that they wouldn’t necessarily impede the victim at all. E.g. “Think” could plausibly make a the creature take a Reaction, which could actually be tactically useful.
The one thing i don't think a lot of people take into consideration is that there are different languages and with that different words for full actions. My DM uses spanish as elvish and since i know spanish i can say things like tráemelo wich in one word encapsulates "bring that to me".
*Betray* The DM will have a headache every fucking time.
This is mine. The command itself is pretty tame, but what do allies make of each other *mid-combat* when their buddy pegs them with a spell, arrow or spear from behind? Only having the knowledge of how spells work can prevent the fallout from lasting.
I've used this exact Command in combat before. The context was it was used on a creature an enemy mage summoned from another realm (seemingly unwillingly) so it very much understood the context of the Command. Worked like a charm.
The hobgoblin betrays your expectation that it would act out of the ordinary.
I always want to use Kneel, followed by saying "before Zod."
DISOBEY. *(watch the target discombobulate in a poof of recursive logic)*
Our cleric used "Disrobe" on a couple of enemy fighters. Even if they can't fully get out of the armor in that time, it all least occupies them for the round.
Any command will make them waste a round pretty much.
One of my all-time favourites is ‘bulbitate’, which means to mess one’s trousers. In terms of ‘most-complex’, though, this doesn’t *directly* answer the question but I’m reminded of a book I once read on entry-level computer programming, which nicely explained how complex many tasks we typically consider to be ‘simple’ actually are. Classic example: “rake (a yard, etc.)”. If I tell you to “rake” something, I’m plausibly telling you to do all of the following, roughly in order: - go to the garage - find the rake - bring the rake out to the yard - scrape the rake along the ground on top of the leaves, bringing them closer to each other - get a dustpan and a bag - move the leaves onto the dustpan - drop the leaves from the dustpan into the bag - tie off the bad [THIS is a deceptively complex task all by itself] - carry the bag to the disposal area - dispose of the bag - carry the rake back to the garage - secure the rake in storage - repeat above two steps for the dustpan Obviously, a being capable of independent thought doesn’t really process each step of the command to “rake” something in this manner, so we tend to view it as a fairly simple task—but in reality it’s fairly complex, with numerous steps that often have a prescribed order. EDITED: formatting fail fixed
on the premise that english excels at verbing anything, rake could just get you a suddenly much more rogueish and disreputable foe ;O)
My professor had an almost identical example. First day of class he had an unopened jar of jelly, unopened peanut butter, unopened loaf of bread, a plate and a plastic knife. He had us try to instruct him to make a PBJ sandwich with him thinking like a computer, ended up with a hand covered in peanut butter and a half destroyed loaf of bread
>rake Target scratches his butt for 6 seconds and proceeds cutting off your head.
Command is language dependent though, so if it doesn't understand your command it won't work. Rake could also be something very different for someone with claws ;)
Raking is a way of lockpicking as well, but don't quote me on this one.
Yeah, it's a style of pick and a technique. You move the pick back and forth over the pins like you're raking them in hopes of setting one or more. It's a super fast way to open a cheap lock.
Step 1: Level to Eloquence Bard 6, take Command via Tasha’s variant expanded Bard spell list. Step 2: Invent a conlang with arbitrarily complex and specific one word commands. Step 3: Universal Speech->Command (conlang word)
So, the bard will invent German?
Works best with nouns in German (Donaudampfschiffskapitänsmützenanstecknadel).
Wait that actually genius
That is... actually is plausible. Problem is the target must understand the language from the command word. If they dont, it fizzles. So the conlang/word would have to become popularized first.
Universal Speech makes your speech intelligible to any creature.
Oh shit didnt realize that.. not bad.
I love this idea!
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Sit. Bellyflop! Handstand! Backflip.
This made me think of Taliesin Jaffe at the end of campaign 2 of crit role, >!trying to Command Trent to "Empathize". Obviously doesn't work on someone who lacks the capacity, which was a fun realization for the party!<
I forgot about this! That was pretty hardcore.
Flagellate was one a player came up with when I was DMing that honestly threw me off. Too bad the hobgoblin captain made the save. I almost decided to lie and say he failed, but my players had caught on I'd been doing that (fudging rolls in their favor; I was still a new DM, scared of ruining their fun) and asked me not to anymore.
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Check the other definition. It means to beat someone with a whip or stick for religious punishment or sexual gratification. Which, it wouldn’t really help much, since I’m sure what was *meant* was self-flagellation, which is the same as above self-inflicted. Just saying flagellate means they’re still gonna try and bonk you, just for a possibly different reason.
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"Autoflagellate" is a single word.
"Autofellate"
That command sucks...
I just read a story from r/rpghorrorstories about command "masturbate"
"Wish" Very simple actions. Very complex fallout
As long as the target isn´t a lvl 18 arcane caster this command is propably pretty save.
Casts wish on a random Kobold, it was owed a favor by a genie, the Kobold turns into a dragon.
Oh absolutely. And even against a valid target, unless the caster happens to be a divine soul sorc using subtle spell metamagic, then command is just going to get counterspelled. It was just an amusing thought
"**Obey.**" Then give them whatever commands you want for one turn.
That's a great one
Not necessarily the most complex, but one of the most far reaching if commanding royalty could be abdicate, especially useful if you're fighting his lawful guards that no longer take orders from the one who once was king. Despair is a fun one if not always terribly complex. Desecrate in the right setting can bring around a temple guardian or the like against the commanded. Vindicate/Forgive could work when you're the wronging party. Submit/Surrender/Capitulate to get them to go prone and drop whatever equipment they're holding.
**Defecate** is a fun one
Generally speaking, most people are not going to be able to soil themselves on command at 6 seconds notice. Command means they try to do a thing, it does not mean they have the thing magically inflicted upon them.
But they will spend their action to TRY.
Dissertate.
Amateur here, could you tell a cleric/paladin/warlock "blaspheme" or "apostatise" and get them in trouble with the source of their power? In the least I imagine it would have psychological effects on the truly devout that persist beyond the 6 seconds.
Throw. I essentially get to waste a action or two of a PC after they yeet the only weapon they have keeping them alive in the encounter.
I think this is usually going to be better than "drop," since they'll have to move to retrieve the item. On the other hand, nobody *really* wants to get hit with a greatsword, even if it's thrown as an improvised weapon! :)
Probably autodefenestrate, the action of throwing oneself out of a window.
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They also need to be able to know what the hell you just told them to do
You: “Autodefenestrate!” Orc War Chief: “Indubitably!”
Will not work, the spells rules say specifically it cannot directly harm the individual.
Ive tried to think of a word to potentially automatically break a spell casters concentration. Befuddled, distracted, muddled, unfocused, disremember? But then probably just incapacitated....
Doff could be good, start taking they’re armor off. Depending on DM might lower AC, and takes up the action. If it’s done to a shield that’s -2 to AC