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

[W'rkncacnter]

All of D&D's communications spells become top-tier spells in the right hands and in the right campaign.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Just as Sun Tzu wrote.

 

[greg kaye]

Just as Sun Tzu wrote.

Yeah, but lots of others have also plagiarized Gi Joe!

 

[AmandaBarbarian]

Skywrite is a 2nd level spell, so an apprentice shouldn't be able to cast it, unless he managed to get hold of a scroll and passed the check to use it.

do your mage schools end at 1st level spells? I mean I expect this isn't a first year, but I read Strixhaven and it seemed to have 3rd level students.

 

[jgsugden]

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]

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.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I change skywrite to 4th level and sending to 5th level, because I believe they otherwise are too world-changing.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

do your mage schools end at 1st level spells? I mean I expect this isn't a first year, but I read Strixhaven and it seemed to have 3rd level students.

They absolutely do! If you want to learn anything above 1st level you have to go out there and kill goblins.

 

[Lanefan]

They absolutely do! If you want to learn anything above 1st level you have to go out there and kill goblins.

Ah, but if you have training requirements one could say magic school never ends...

 

[Benjamin Olson]

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.