#sending spell

[disastergenius]

Cad’s perception is so high, so at the Blooming Grove, he smiles and says “Hey” but doesn’t quite know why

[wherethemagichappens]

I need Essek to receive and reapond to Caleb's or Jester's Sendings on screen!!

[the-southern-cereal-king]

Larian studios missed out on the inherent hilarity of the sending spell. One in five sending spells is ever used properly, the other four times is stumbling all over yourself trying to count to 25 words and thinking of what to say

[critterfloozy]

META: Inconvenient Sendings

Thinking about the Logistics of Sendings

This was written for @critter-genfic-events's Gen Week Day 1: Inconvenient Sendings. See the rest of the days here.

You send a short message of twenty-five words or less to a creature with which you are familiar. The creature hears the message in its mind, recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, and can answer in a like manner immediately. The spell enables creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your message. You can send the message across any distance and even to other planes of existence, but if the target is on a different plane than you, there is a 5 percent chance that the message doesn't arrive.

Seems simple enough, right?

So there’s a lot that we can talk about with this - What is a word? Are there code languages set up to impart large amounts of information? Do wizards try to gamify this by learning a language that allows for compound words? But if there’s anything that Critical Role’s second campaign makes really obvious, its that there really isn’t a simple way to stop sendings.

Outside of a house ruling, of course. Nothing to stop anyone from creating a device or ruling that Sending is actually a divination spell. But in general, most anti-detection spells and devices specify that Sending is divination, and not evocation. There’s no saving throw to resist, because the writers didn’t consider that anyone would want to waste a Sending on an unwilling participant. Which really, they all had access to twitter at the time, they should have been able to figure out the damage.

Granted, it’s not quite as bad as allowing everyone to slide into your twitter DMs by default. The earliest you get sending is fifth level. I think that we’re a little used to the idea that it’s something that can be cast ridiculously often by everybody - because as a D&D campaign, Critical Role is focused on adventurers and heroes - but it’s the same level as Revivify. Level five is when you are finally not considered local heroes - it’s a ‘Captain of the Guard’ level. So it’s not super common - but there’s still plenty of people that might have it. And if you’re famous enough, you might want to have some familiarity with you - even if it’s just a quick five minute meeting.

But also, there’s the question of what familiarity means. Does it mean anyone who has heard of and has a seen a depiction of the person? Matt Mercer allows for this, but if we followed this to their logical end, any ruler wouldn’t be able to sleep. But if the depiction is necessary - there might be an easy way around that - simply have a court appearance/depiction that’s very different from their normal appearance. Would that work?

What if someone is impersonating someone else, and gives that person’s name? If someone tries to message the impersonator (having only met the impersonator) would the message go to the impersonator, the real person, or neither?

And then there’s the question of consecution - if you’re familiar with someone’s past life, can you message the current one? What if it’s before anamnesis? I personally dislike this one for logistics reasons - it makes the finding of consecuted souls too easily, and there’s still the question about depictions.

Also, what if they’re taking a nap, or you get the timezone wrong and they’re in deep sleep? Does the recipient wake up, or do they just hear it in the dream? I certainly can sleep through people trying to talk to me, and even if I respond, I might not remember it. And if they do respond, is it in the dream: sleep-talking? Or is it just snores? If someone doesn’t wake up, are they aware that they got a sending, or might they just think they dreamed a sending? Would they remember it?

The Sending isn’t auditory, after all - so the recipient isn’t going to miss the conversation just because they’re paying attention to something else (which is good, most of the time, otherwise a lot of sendings would be missed). But that also implies that the recipient is forced, whether or not they want to, to concentrate on the message, no matter what else they might be doing at the time. So - can you use Sending to break concentration? In my mind, you 100% can, at least with a roll. Especially considering the amount of other psychological work that can be used to help break it - from a catchy song to screams. Typically one would want to use a spell that does damage for the same reason, but if you’re five hundred feet away and want to stop someone nonlethally, maybe that’s a shot. Especially since, unlike many out-of-combat utility spells, the casting time is only one action.

There’s also no way of knowing who a sending is from if they don’t know the person and the person doesn’t announce themselves. Which might make for an interesting adventure hook on its own: someone has been threatening the Town Special Person through sendings, maybe even blackmailing them. It’s up to the adventuring party to try and find the person and stop them - possibly by recognizing their voice secondhand.

This is also assuming that some aspect of the voice gets transmitted - though the spell doesn’t require the recipient to speak the same language as the sender. Does that mean the recipient receives comprehension of the sender’s language, does the recipient hear the message in their language, or do they simply know what the message is and who sent it - and any sort of auditory information is made up by their brain?

There’s no real right answers to this, only rulings for whatever fanfic or campaign you’re playing in.

[octy-in-boots]

Got some copper wire? Why not send a little message to your friend, acquaintance, or stranger you happen to know the name of? Try the Sending* spell today!

*this version may not be able to fit 25 words in it, but it sure looks cute to me!

[bath-creek-lake]

"Creek on Higher Education"

"Lake on Sending"

"Lake on Traveling Through Hell"

[hopiufame]

Me when i dissociate

[imclou]

there's no way he said that so confidently

|| Bonus ||

[neutral-towards-mindmaps]

jester lavorre character of all time. she's a cleric but she doesn't heal people. she grew up in a brothel. she vandalizes churches. she broke a witches curse with a cupcake. she believed in a guy so much he became a god. she beats people up with a giant lollipop. she pulled off a successful parent trap. half of her adventuring party fell in love with her. shes even blue.

[wyvernity]

been thinking about the sinnohtrio lately......plus misc other stuff

also, casual ko-fi drop!! get something in this sketchy style starting at $10 woop woop

[jeeaark]

Ok but imagine. greygold porting back and finds the emps panicking and trying to figure out to locate them and then turns around and sees they are completely fine. Except for a now beautiful full stash on their squid face.

Aight, I imagined, I loved, and I'm ✨inspired✨ Although perhaps not the cute stash bit as Greygold got a lil too GloomGold saying goodbye to Lae'zel, but have a silly nonetheless-

Bonus when Greygold's feeling better again:

[justaz]

somehow some time magic goes wrong and young arthurs from different points in time are pulled into king arthur era. everyone kinda has this back and forth of who is going to watch the literal 8 month old. gwen and lancelot are pretty good at taking care of him, so is percival but he doesnt seem comfortable with it so no one forces him. elyan tried to hold him but baby!arthur started wailing after three seconds. leon is sorta good but he has like no idea how babies work or what they need so when baby!arthur found his sword and almost lobbed his own head off, leon was forbidden from taking care of the child. gaius is too old and busy researching how to reverse the issue. who the HELL would trust gwaine with a child? arthur has this Odd aversion to the child but no one pushes him on it. ofc merlin, magic incarnate, has this like aura or energy that draws all these innocent woodland creatures to him so obviously little arthur is also drawn to him. in fact, merlin seems to be the person he likes the most. and merlins a natural w kids apparently so hes often the one that baby!arthur is handed off to.

he complains about it at first but when baby!arthur breaks into a fit of giggles after merlin calls adult!arthur a clotpole, he has merlin wrapped around his little finger. merlin stops complaining but does let arthur know that the one thing he Will Not Do is change his diaper. arthur laughs and walks away. merlin talks to baby!arthur like they’ve been friends for years (bc they have). arthur points out that baby!arthur cant understand him and merlin retorts that its like how it normally is. merlin gets to perform magic in front of baby!arthur and he LOVES it

my point to this was merlin dotting on little versions of arthur is a way that no one ever really did for him growing up and adult!arthur seeing it and healing little pieces of his inner child as he watches merlin play games with baby!arthur and make sure he’s taken care of. it especially hits him when gaius finally finds a way to send baby!arthur back and while everyone seems torn between upset they have to say bye, they’re also relieved to get the baby back where hes supposed to be,, merlin is like choking back fat tears. everyone backs off to give them privacy and merlin just kisses baby!arthur’s forehead and whispers some encouraging and heartachingly sincere words that have adult!arthur choking back tears.

then BOOM the spell also backfires and while yes baby!arthur got back to where hes supposed to be, now theres toddler!arthur. he has this gravitational pull to gaius (can recognize him) and merlin (magic soulmates ofc he has an innate trust in the man). merlin is happy to have his little friend back and gaius goes back to the drawing board. now they have this little 2-3 year old toddling after them and blabbering something that sounds like english if you’re patient enough

(merlin makes another comment about how little arthur has changed over the years)

the cycle repeats, merlin and toddler!arthur get attached and adult!arthur watches and heals a bit more of his inner child. gaius finds another cure that falls through the same way and now they have child!arthur. he has a bit more of uther’s influence in him but hes still a child. he gets hurt and tries to fight back tears but merlin sees he’s in pain and tells him it’s okay to be hurt, to feel pain, to cry. child!arthur says in that stutter cry children do when they’re fighting back tears that his father says boys shouldn’t cry. merlin wipes a tear that slips down child!arthur’s face and whispers about how he cries and lets himself feel his sadness before picking himself back up and dusting himself off before getting back to it, that it doesn’t make him weak but stronger. adult!arthur hears this and this may not be the beginning of his deconstruction but it makes a tremendous amount of progress in him rewiring his brain away from his father’s toxic ways of thinking.

idk if they’d get a teen!arthur since gaius probably would’ve learned his lesson by then but if they did, we’d get to watch Merlin vs Arthur Showdown 2.0 as merlin humbles the young prince and i think that’d be funny. especially for gwaine since he didn’t get to see it happen the first time.

[askmarcille]

I don't care if my dad will be mad

How to do magic 101?

Step 1: Have a good haircare routine. It's very important when doing magic. Maintaining your hair is crucial!

Step 2: Do some sort of warmup before casting. Recommended methods include meditating or braiding your hair. (Don't do alcohol or drugs, your dad told me about that experience you had one time and it didn't sound fun).

Step 3: When casting a spell, recite the words clearly and try to sound confident. Even if you make a mistake, don't fret. You're still learning.

Step 4: If you have mana sickness after casting, lie down and get some rest. If you start seeing ghosts...we'll cross that bridge if we get there.

Step 5: Use a spell book and start small. You won't be casting massive explosion spells on the first day of learning and none of us want you getting hurt.

Step 6: DON'T overdo it. Be mindful of your mana levels after each spell cast. If you're getting low, talk to Senshi, Falin, or myself, and we can make you something that restores mana.

Step 7: When and doubt or in a pinch, hairspray and a lighter work wonders.

[essektheylyss]

I know we've been clowning on Caleb for the potential that he hasn't learned Sending in six years despite access to the most extensive libraries in Wildemount and also a long-distance relationship, but I think there's an easier explanation. Considering that Caleb canonically has cast Mind Blank to keep a bitchy Assembly archmage from calling him, it's fairly reasonable to believe he's using it now.

As such it would be very on brand for him to be handing out Sending Stones because he's not about to put any random group of heroically-minded chucklefucks on his contact whitelist. He's been friends with Jester since she learned Sending. He knows better. The Hells can leave a message.

[thaparasite]

w(b)itches be like, "I've sent you a brief message on a scroll with short instructions for the incantation you need

and its this shit

My beloved blood bonded sibling, practitioner of the occult arts, partner of craft

BY WHATEVER DEITY YOU PRAY TO

I AINT READING ALL THAT!!!

[halflifebutawesome]

guy crazy about tomrey here thank you thank you thank you thank you

HAPPY TO DO MY PART