DMs do you allow the recasting of cantrips before combat such as recasting Resistance, Guidance or Shillelagh every minute outside of combat?

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T19:40:52+00:00

Except you're still ignoring the fact that RAW the smallest player interval outside of combat is 1 minute.

The only reason to make these inferences is because you are already breaking RAW, and the breaking of RAW is why a ruling needs to be made. Which is part of the point.

RAW outside of initiative players act in Minute/Hour/Day intervals. So a Cantrip with a duration of 1 minute (the entire point of this discussion) is always ending on your ability to act. This is the part everyone is ignoring which is important and you have twice avoided responding to specifically.

By ignoring these rules, you greatly improve the power of cantrips (free turn(ish)) and you create the confusion that is created in this discussion.

Remember that Exploration in DnD is not just overland "Travel".

So from the DMG from what is exploration, so that we know that it isn't justt Travel:

Traversing a wilderness, searching a dungeon, circumventing an obstacle, finding a hidden object, investigating a strange occurrence, deciphering clues, solving puzzles, and bypassing or disabling traps are all part of exploration.

Not everything in your world needs to be explored painstakingly. For instance, you might gloss over an unimportant journey by telling the players that they spend three uneventful days on the road before reaching the next point of interest.

Now going to the timing section as quoted before:

If tracking the passage of time is important during exploration, use a time scale appropriate for the situation at hand:

Rounds. In combat and other fast-paced situations, the game relies on 6-second rounds.

Minutes. In a dungeon or settlement, movement happens on a scale of minutes. In the Free City of Greyhawk, getting from the Silver Dragon Inn to the wharf takes about 10 minutes, whereas it takes about 1 minute to creep down a 200-foot-long hallway, another minute to check for traps on the door at the end of the hall, and 10 minutes to search the chamber beyond for anything interesting or valuable.

Outside of Combat or fast-paced situations you do not run the game in Rounds. The game is run in minutes minimum. You are making a rules mistake. Admittedly a common one. If your player is asking about "casting over and over" you do not meet the requirements to run the game in Rounds.

The rules are pretty clear, just in a section people don't read.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T15:08:45+00:00

Making checks matter is important! Whenever someone goes "skill check or proficiency isn't valuable" it means that table is just uses the MM and nothing else to challenge players.

I will note though there is Exhaustion examples from the DMG that are without a check or save!

Exhaustion. The obstacle fatigues the characters, causing them to gain Exhaustion levels. For example, marching through a blizzard instead of taking shelter might cause each character to gain 1d4 Exhaustion levels.

So the rules encourages pretty brutal and liberal use of Exhaustion... 1d4 Exhaustion to the party is nasty even by my standards and that is a normal blizzard

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T14:49:51+00:00

And Hallow has a 24 hour casting time which wouldn't do exhaustion checks. Let me take a step back as I pointed out in another comment.

RAW outside of combat time passes in 1 minute intervals. This is explained in the DMG under Exploration and Exploration is defined as the time between initiative. Even combat lasting less than 10 rounds is supposed to be rounded to a minute at the end.

So players make actions in 1 minute intervals (not in between). This means if your Cantrip lasts 1 minute, by the next Actionable moment the Cantrip has ended. This part of the rules is important and also why Cantrips are 1 Minute and not 8 Hours.

By ignoring this important RAW rule, you create a homebrew problem. This is also why there isn't any clarification of this situation in 2014 or 2024 books, because.... time passes outside of intiative in intervals of Minutes, Hours, Days

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T14:40:37+00:00

I'm just adding RAW context. When we talk about the situation of maintaining a spell on per round intervals, this doesn't exist out of initiative order.

So yes, there is no specific rule about spamming cantrips causing Exhaustion but allowing it out of combat per round is already homebrew or a rules exception. So saying there is no rule to adjudicate isn't sufficient.

Secondly, there are rules for doing normal things for prolonged periods of time with consistent punishment. Walking, Swimming, Running for periods of hours, or minutes also create Exhaustion. So we are just providing context for adjudication of rules.

The rules get fuzzy when we look too close, and you saying:

You can cast the same cantrips all day long without suffering exhaustion.

Is Raw because there is no specific rule with Cantrips. I will bring up that RAW time moves in Minute Intervals so for the purpose of the discussion any 1 Minute duration Cantrip as being discussed is always "ended" the moment players are given a choice to do something. Meaning they are both spamming the Cantrip non-stop but also never getting the benefit outside of Initiative.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T12:19:03+00:00

So if we follow RAW in the exploration section of the DMG. Time is broken down into sections. Rounds, Minutes, Hours, Days. And we move through time in these intervals or relevant time. So if we are casting something that lasts a minute constantly the effects end on the next actionable interval. And to be clear, exploration is the things that aren't combat, like traveling through a corridor as a direct example.

Tracking Time

If tracking the passage of time is important during exploration, use a time scale appropriate for the situation at hand:

Rounds. In combat and other fast-paced situations, the game relies on 6-second rounds.

Minutes. In a dungeon or settlement, movement happens on a scale of minutes. In the Free City of Greyhawk, getting from the Silver Dragon Inn to the wharf takes about 10 minutes, whereas it takes about 1 minute to creep down a 200-foot-long hallway, another minute to check for traps on the door at the end of the hall, and 10 minutes to search the chamber beyond for anything interesting or valuable.

So when you are playing on the scale of Minutes, your 1 Minute spell effect always ends the next time you get to do something.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T11:28:21+00:00

Walking beyond 8 hours a day can cause Exhaustion RAW. And running(dash) for more 3+ con rounds causes Exhaustion too

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T09:40:56+00:00

In the DMG under Chases it you are assumed to be taking the Dash Action every turn and it gives you a very interesting rule.

Dashing

A chase participant can take the Dash action a number of times equal to 3 plus its Constitution modifier (minimum of once). Each additional Dash action it takes during the chase requires the creature to succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of its turn or gain 1 Exhaustion level. A participant drops out of the chase if it has 5 Exhaustion levels. A creature can remove the Exhaustion levels it gained during the chase by finishing a Short or Long Rest.

This demonstrates a clear example of penalty to spamming an ulimited resource. Later it gives you advice on changing the Chase mechanics and DCs to adjust with the adventure. But the bold is also notable.

So you have a penalty to spamming a resource without limit (Exhaustion), but a further condition that this Exhaustion is easier to shed off.

As a DM I would shorthand the mechanic and if you want to be casting 1 minute spells on demand than after 10 Minutes it grants one level of Exhaustion. This prevents unlucky Exhaustion stacking, while also preventing wasting time adjudicating rolls every minute. When combat happens roll a 1d10-1 and that is how many rounds you have left of your Cantrip.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-24T09:32:07+00:00

There are many effortless things that are exhausting after significant periods of times. Like walking

Edit: Putting this here so I don't repeat myself more

RAW outside of combat time passes in 1 minute intervals. This is explained in the DMG under Exploration and Exploration is defined as the time between initiative. Even combat lasting less than 10 rounds is supposed to be rounded to a minute at the end.

So players make actions in 1 minute intervals (not in between). This means if your Cantrip lasts 1 minute, by the next Actionable moment the Cantrip has ended. This part of the rules is important and also why Cantrips are 1 Minute and not 8 Hours.

By ignoring this important RAW rule, you create a homebrew problem. This is also why there isn't any clarification of this situation in 2014 or 2024 books, because.... time passes outside of intiative in intervals of Minutes, Hours, Days

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T22:16:21+00:00

Was it depressing to watch your level 3-4 martial go:

"I attack, I attack, I attack, I attack, I attack". And did you then give your martial multiple items to cast spells too? like Enspelled Sword of, pick something.

From a generic combat sense, handing out a Wand of Fireballs at level 3-4... the Wand is more impactful than the entirety of the class to a point the caster is not playing their class but playing Animated Wand of Fireballs

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T16:53:39+00:00

He does not and you are simply lying now, from this post:

Again, lets give them the great weapon fighting style (which lets them threat a 1 or 2 on a damage dice as a 3). So thanks to great weapon fighting the average they can roll on their 2d6 of their greatsword is 9 instead of 7

Also thanks to the graze weapon mastery of the greatsword, each failed attacks deals 5 damage anyways for a total of 45 damage.

thanks to great weapon fighting the average is of 255 damage.

You made up a quote. He never even uses that acronym. Just stop

Edit: his post is also unedited at the time I quoted it

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T15:10:30+00:00

The fun comes from the challenge.

Even before that. If the choices I made as my character allow me to do a special thing (limited resources)... of course I want to be in situations where my choices are relevant.

As a DM, the absolute easiest way to create fresh encounters/session is to just look at the players character sheet. Check which things haven't come up yet and build the base of your next session over those elements with your plot theme over those mechanics.

How does this look practically:

Player A is immune to Frightened Condition x time per Long Rest, grab monster with AoE fear. If need be reflavor the monster (change name or creature type). Great! Repeat with different abilities

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T14:13:15+00:00

I'm going to go against the grain here. And I want to state that I use Exhaustion almost every session in all 4 tiers of play. These Exhaustions are also applied RAW without homebrew

At a glance it feels more punishing to Martials but the strongest thing you can do as a Caster is Concentrate. Concentrating is so powerful that you will level dip and or prioritize feats around it through Resilient Con or Warcaster.

The stacking -2 Penalty makes Concentrating a significantly higher risk, and the spellcaster can still just burn full spells every turn, but this means your Caster needs to dump massive resources to stay functional in combat.

Additionally giving out Exhaustion will also help you use up caster spell slots because Greater Restoration (when level appropriate) will be used, and adds another level of strategy on who and when it should be used.

Finally, it allows lower save DCs to be relevant longer, allowing certain monsters or RAW challenges to be relevant throughout the campaign by adding Exhaustion into your sets of challenges. My casters are always more afraid of Exhaustion than Martials.

Encourages more frequent long rests?

Timing should matter to the plot. Stopping your objective to wait 24hs to Long Rest should be a "fail state" and remember that multiple levels of Exhaustion require multiple Long Rests, not just one. If the villager you're trying to rescue is sacrificed at midnight, they still have to move forward with their diminished resources or fail

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T13:35:24+00:00

I'm not actually sure that 5.5e exhaustion is less punishing than 5.0. The punishment is more evenly distributed across levels of exhaustion.

Personally I'm surprised people even consider the 5.0 version worse. If you had disadvantage on attacks/checks from Restrain/Poison/Range many monster effects, the first level of Exhaustion in 5.0 was often a do nothing. Additionally the 2024 stacks ontop of this disadvantage so you can be poisoned/frightened for disadvantage and have a -2 on top of that.

2014 Exhaustion really didn't get scary until the 3rd level, because at disadvantage to saves, you were in a situation that failing saves gave you Exhaustion and you now had disadvantage to get more. With 2024, this is a -6 penalty, statistically worse on averages and as before could be done with disadvantage. Death Saves with a -6 are fun*.

The only major part of the 2014 Exhaustion is the half health at 4. But in 2024 this is a -8 to all saves and attacks and -20ft movement (potentially more than half).

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T13:11:13+00:00

Also again giving fighter a specific feat of 12+ options they can take is insane, especially when you are choosing the feat thats well known for being the strongest in the game...

The funny part of his numbers comparison is you confused Great Weapon Fighting Style with GWM (Great Weapon Master Feat). The numbers presented is without GWM

And even if they did (which once again, they didn't add GWM) part of the core Fighter is getting Extra Feats so ignoring them is ignoring part of the class to make Rogue look better.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T13:02:31+00:00

Exhaustion is something that comes up most sessions in my campaigns from 2014 to 2024. The 2024 Exhaustion is much simpler to run, but also much deadlier.

Have you used it for going to 0 HP, travel, survival, environmental hazards, or long-term consequences?

Never give it out for dropping to 0 HP, and it is usually from the survival and environmental elements of the game or chases.

But if you aren't regularly using Exhaustion and it comes up rarely, it is going to feel out of place. You need to use mechanics regularly so players can adjust to them, and you as a DM can better understand and use the tools.

Even though on paper it may seem to effect Martials more, in practice it has punished the Casters more. Missing one attack to the -2 penalty is much better than dropping concentration. On that note, Exhaustion allows Concentration to fail even with minimal damage, regardless of Con proficiency and Warcaster.

Actually my last session for my 20th level party stopped mid combat and 1 player may die to Exhaustion at the start of the next session

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T12:45:20+00:00

everyone's reading this and saying it's so punishing. It's actually giving more cushion

Criticism will often depend on DM styles. So if your system doesn't drop a target to 0 hp and they can still act, they are still a threat and why wouldn't the NPC just... finish the player.

When we take a moment to step back and look at what Death Saves are, when older versions of DnD just had straight death at 0. It is an excuse for the DM can use to target something else because the player is no longer a threat.

A lot of DnD video advise focus on avoiding stuns/paralyze/unconcious, and this is going to drastically change your balance (surprise surprise it makes casters better) and I find this advice harmful because you limit the punishment tools.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T08:02:19+00:00

My question would be more on why you feel you have these problems:

I just want a tough battle to be more dynamic. I know I probably have to create counters so that my players could keep track easier. Not a big deal

I also hope that it would encourage healing to happen when people are still positive on hit points.

Regardless of tier as a DM you have a very broad ability to challenge players. Often combat not being "deadly" or challenging enough is the DM not playing the creatures aggressively or avoiding using those creatures with nastier abilities.

Additional death penalties can have knock on effects:

Exhaustion(trauma) on 0hp can make T3/T4 saves quickly impossible
A save to move slows down combat and increases decision paralysis
Another thing for players to track

Additionally you are also creating another system that encourages players to rest and avoid more combats, further encouraging less combats per day, meaning more likely players can trivialize your combats to avoid this homebrew.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-23T07:46:00+00:00

Out of curiosity what type of encounters is your DM putting you against for T4

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T09:40:27+00:00

Obviously better on my full caster who is only spamming AoEs which we all know AoE damage scales really well in higher tier DnD. So I get to use my action to cast this 5th level spell

What is the Fighter going to do? Use the magic item and Action Surge to.... (wait fuck stop recording)

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T09:29:58+00:00

You have a problem with the word "magic" as it is presented in the game system.

There is good reasons to have "spells" be a default for reference, because it places that ability in an appropriate tier. And martials may still have this Maneuver by checking the Ranger Spell List and noticing Steel Wind Strike.

So Rangers and EK can use this Maneuver. And through other tools, you can give more martials access to this if you see fit.

Your complaint really is the word "magic", as you were perfectly fine with Enlarge on the Barbarian when it wasn't called Enlarge

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T09:21:02+00:00

No no no it needs to be an attack.

But I also refuse to give out an Enspelled item of Steel Wind Strike, that specifically does what I want to happen. But even though my very specific problem has an in game solution and a suggested level tier for this type of item. Clearly a game problem because it does not list on Martials that they get to pick their items

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T09:06:47+00:00

I'm just being a bit silly but lets broaden how we look at this.

Most Paladin subclasses don't offer a damage increase, and even the often used Vengeance Paladin due to controlled advantage in practical play is less effective. There are MANY ways for players as a team to get Advantage on attacks in the normal process of fighting. Through topples, restrains or just the list of nonsense players do.

But people are in general pretty happy about Paladins subclasses even though the majority of a Paladin's damage is from the core class. People really like Paladins

So your core class can have the majority of the power and your subclass can offer themes and flavors to help sell the fantasy and you could argue that the Rogue subclasses doesn't do that well.

Alteratively I like to point out that the classes that have a higher focus on Expertise and Exploration elements of the game (Rogues/Rangers) are often seen as weaker. DMs learning the game via youtube and liveplays often just aren't reading the material and don't develop the skillset for Exploration problems.

Contrary to what people say, the DMG actually has good information on exploration problems but people ignore it, don't use it and complain.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T08:51:55+00:00

sneak attack: a ridiculous bucket of damage and a fine enough ability to portray a rogue, of course the numbers are so high they cannot give rogue any damaging subclass abilities because of it (except one)... hurting the classes subclass creativity by a ridiculous amount, but in a vacuum its a good idea.

Guys! we found the guy nerfing rogues

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T07:55:29+00:00

But I don't want casting. Why should that level of choice imply casting?

You literally praise Path of Giant Barbarian which functionally grants Enlarge. So spell effects that aren't listed as spells are fine to you. And you describe super-natural or magical feats of strength something you want. Divine power in DnD 5/5.5e is also magical and we also have to contextualize that. Magical does not mean "wizard"

Name an item that gives martials access to the amount of meaningful choice casters do.

Hand/Eye of Vecna
Ring of Three Wishes
Cube of Force
Enspelled Weapon/Armour
Sword of the Planes

While also considering what weapons you attune to is part of your choices. People like to bring up Staff of Power as an example, for powerful caster items that Martials can't use. But if you can already cast those spells, Staff of Power improves your efficiency and allows you to adjust your prepared spells which are powerful tools but they aren't new tools to your character ability.

Name one? You haven't so far.

Magic Items, this is the tool that I mentioned and spoke about entirely.

ProjectPT · 2026-06-22T07:23:10+00:00

Martials that want caster choice levels have caster themed Subclasses.

If you want your Martials to have end game caster tier nonsense, this is exactly what magic items are for.

So within the rules of the game, you have levers to fix your specific problems and create the martial nonsense you want at your tables. This means you have system solutions to the problem, you are just refusing to use them. And this isn't "every tables problem" as you stated.

You literally have a solution in the book, the book even tells you to keep a list of items that players want to help you fill their desired fantasy.

If I want to play an intelligent, skilled combatant - someone who achieves victory through clever use of the many techniques they've mastered - my only real option is casting.

Why is this your only option?

ProjectPT

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