Teleport/Word of Recall

[Scott]

Both of these spells have verbal components only. This almost came up with the tentacle wall in G3, what are your thoughts on using the spells to escape from a situation like this, or in general where the caster is otherwise grappled but able to speak?

[GRWelsh]

It's a judgment call, and I would base it on casting time. Spell casting must be uninterrupted and to be grappled is to be in a state of constant interruption. But a fast casting verbal component only spell is made for situations like this. So I can see both sides. Word of recall and teleport without error should either succeed outright or have a very good chance to succeed, since they only take one segment to cast. Teleport requires two segments and should not have as good a chance to succeed, but I would still give it a chance. Perhaps it could be tied to initiative. The way we've been doing initiative is d6 lowest wins and spell casters add casting time and that is the segment when the spell goes off in the round.

If one segment is six seconds then word of recall and teleport without error each take six seconds to cast and teleport takes twelve seconds to cast. Nowhere is it stated that the word of recall is a short word; it may be like one of those German compound words that takes few seconds to say.

"Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz" at 63 letters used to be Germany's longest word. It was a word for beef law labeling, but was struck from their dictionaries when the law was repealed in 2013. From what I can tell, the longest word in the world now is 189,819 letters -- it’s the chemical name for the largest known protein, abbreviated as titin, and takes around three hours to say it in full.

So, the question is can a spell caster utter a long, agglutinative word or incantation for six (or twelve) seconds without making any mistakes or interruptions while being crushed in the tentacles of a magical squid monster or similar situation.

[Scott]

My initial thoughts were that in situations where no damage is inflicted, the caster would be able to cast the spell. I'm up in the air about cases where damage is inflicted. I've considered using initiative, but in most cases it really is a state of constant interruption, and the damage is the cumulative effect of the grapple, and not a single would that the caster might be able to beat by winning initiative. The more I think about it, the less likely I am to allow it.

[grodog]

I think that's the right call. Gary mentioned in passing that the drow Noquar noble prisoner in D2 wasn't able to use her at will magical abilities while chained up, which suggests that even at-will abilities may have somatic components (which is not at all how I interpret or play them; they are the speed of thought in my games). Being chained up is a far cry from being grappled while casting a standard spell, so I definitely wouldn't allow it (although I would allow an at-will ability in my ruling for how they work ).

Allan.

[GRWelsh]

Spell-like abilities usable at will implies they could be used instantly and activated with but a thought and therefore cannot be interrupted, but another interpretation is that they are more like bonus spells that do not need to be memorized or prayed for but perhaps still have their verbal and/or somatic components and casting times and therefore can be interrupted. I've seen this played both ways in the past. For certain god-like beings I prefer the former, but for the Dark Elves I think I prefer the latter. Monsters like demons and devils are much more powerful if they operate like the former. I've even seen some DMs allow monster at will abilities to be used in conjunction with other actions like physical attacks. That makes them much more formidable when getting ganged up on by a high level party, for example, with demons teleporting around and casting darkness while simultaneously attacking... Pretty nasty!

[vandersaniel]

I don't believe that dark elven magical spells are "at will." They must be cast as any other spell is normally cast by mortals (I do not think they need material components). They may be innate, but not at will. I think only preternatural and supernatural beings can cast some spells at will. But I haven't looked at my books in some time. Perhaps I'm mistaken.