D&D 5E Skywrite: a weapon of mass communication/coordination


log in or register to remove this ad




jgsugden

Legend
Speaking of insane uses of communication spells - how about using Message cantrips and Sending spells every 50 minutes to deprive people of sleep and kill them with exhaustion. I designed "4 Elements" of Flameskulls for an Elemental Themed adventure and I gave the air themed Skull the message cantrip. When they PCs decided to rest near the place it was guarding I had it disrupt their rest by constantly messaging them - and it really messed them up by providing them with false information about the dungeon.
 

greg kaye

Explorer
Speaking of insane uses of communication spells - how about using Message cantrips and Sending spells every 50 minutes to deprive people of sleep and kill them with exhaustion. I designed "4 Elements" of Flameskulls for an Elemental Themed adventure and I gave the air themed Skull the message cantrip. When they PCs decided to rest near the place it was guarding I had it disrupt their rest by constantly messaging them - and it really messed them up by providing them with false information about the dungeon.
Maybe, but it may depend on how deeply the target sleeps. Message just allows you to "whisper a message" and Sending only says that "The creature hears the message in its mind". It doesn't say specify that it wakes them up.
 




Maybe, but it may depend on how deeply the target sleeps. Message just allows you to "whisper a message" and Sending only says that "The creature hears the message in its mind". It doesn't say specify that it wakes them up.
Indeed, and while I might rule-of-cool Message to work like this with the right overall circumstances, Dream is the communication spell that actually has a "interrupt their sleep" option, and Message should not be allowed to generally be more effective at exhausting people than the 5th level spell actually intended to have that as an option.

I would like to note that any DMs out there who have never had a big bad or powerful NPC contact or taunt the party through the Dream spell, that you should totally do so. I think because it has the "lost sleep and psychic damage" option, a lot of people miss that, if you don't use that option, you can have a conversation unlimited by word count, with infinite visual variation, with anyone sleeping on the plane, against which they get no save. No reason to have the big bad meet the party early and risk a fight that screws up your whole campaign, when they can instead just have a party member dream about being in a monumental throne room, where they have to listen to the villain's whole monologue with visual aids, long before they've even figured out where the lair is located. Basically in the dream world the spell can give an NPC (or a PC) full "Q on Next Generation" whimsical exposition, taunting, and entertainment skills with the spell's target for as long as you could reasonably want.
 
Last edited:

Remove ads

Top