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From: faustus@ucbcad.UUCP (Wayne A. Christopher)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Re: command spell
Message-ID: <80@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 20-Jul-85 18:57:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.80
Posted: Sat Jul 20 18:57:26 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jul-85 23:35:52 EDT
References: <3059@pur-ee.UUCP> <1012@mhuxt.UUCP>
Organization: UC Berkeley CAD Group, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 30

> > I would like to know what everyone thinks about the first level
> > clericial spell command. I personally thnik that it is absurd for a
> > first level spell to cause certain doom for characters and monsters
> > unfortunate enough to not have a saving throw against it. This means
> > that a first level cleric can go up to a fifth level fighter and
> > command him to "die" and then chop him to little pieces while he is
> > defenseless.
>
> Not really. The fighter would just spend one round trying to figure out how to
> go about "die"-ing.  During that round, the cleric and friends could get an
> undefended swing in on him, but that's hardly the same as chopping him to
> little pieces.  

What will happen is that the fighter will fall down as if asleep and
you can quickly cut his throat (unless it is heavily armored...). There
are rules for killing sleeping characters, so unless you are playing
(gasp) non-standard D&D it is pretty useful. The most effective command
I have heard, though, is "masturbate"...

> This spell is also useless against any being whose language you don't speak,
> of course.  So once in awhile it lets you get a free attack or two.  Not 
> unbalancing for a first level spell.

You have to try to be clever with the spell. Like, you can use a command in
conjunction with a "message" spell to cause great confusion among your
enemies... According to Gygax, a round is pretty long -- if you commanded
somebody to masturbate and he spent a minute doing it, that would be
plenty of time for his companions to notice and get pretty disgusted...

	Wayne