Talk:D&D 5e spell changes

Compelled Duel Changes

TLDR: I believe the paladin spell "Compelled Duel" does not have 30 ft distance requirement and other riders attached to it as it does in 5e. In BG3, I believe it is only the disadvantage on attacks against everyone but you.

Also, the duration is shorter in BG3

Fear

It says on Fear under Other Changes that enemies drop their enemies. Not sure that's correct. I suppose they drop their weapons but that wouldn't be a change so idk. Maybe it is correct.

- Dropping enemies was a mistake. And you are right that dropping their weapons is as per 5e so I removed that comment. /s/ Phantomsplit

Scrolls

In DnD wizards can create scrolls. I don't think that's possible in BG3 but I'm unsure. Would be useful if this could be confirmed or the contrary somewhere, maybe both here and on pages for Spells/Scrolls?

Style edits

Explaining my reverts to style changes because there isn't space in the edit summary:

• Reaction spells: several uses of "players" or "the player" → "playable characters" or "the character" – incorrect, the UI is being shown to the player and they are the one making decisions, not the character.
• Compelled Duel: "the player loses control of the target character" → "control of the target character is lost" – passive voice is rarely an improvement and it certainly isn't here. Again the player is losing control, it is a UI issue.
• Smite spells: "The concentration" → "Concentration" – "the" because it's referring to the concentration on this spell, not concentration generally.
• Find Familiar: "The player who controls the summoner" → "The caster who controls the summoner" – Just facially absurd.
• Gust of Wind: "targets'" → "target's" – incorrect, there can be more than one. (But "target" is incorrect anyway, it's an area spell that doesn't have targets.)
• Ray of Enfeeblement: "The creature doesn't get to make a save to end the effect" → "The creature cannot make a save to end the effect" – This suggests it would otherwise have a choice, which is wrong – it gets a save or it doesn't. (Removed "to make", now just "get a save".)
• Warding Bond: "Doesn't end if the caster and the target move too far apart" → "Does not end at any range once cast" – A static description is much less clear than an active one.
• Daylight: "which affects creatures that have e.g. Sunlight Sensitivity such as drow" → "this affects creatures such as drow, who have Sunlight Sensitivity" – admittedly this was a clumsy way of wording it, but the new wording is too specific (it also affects vampires, who have a different trait, but I wanted to avoid an unnecessary spoiler). Changed to "this is relevant for certain creature traits such as Sunlight Sensitivity".
• Gaseous Form: "The target becomes tiny in size, which is how the game mechanically allows them to fit through small spaces" → "The target becomes tiny in size, and allows them to fit through small spaces" – The reason for this wording is to clarify that being Tiny is an implementation detail. The cloud of a Medium creature is pretty clearly still Medium even if the game treats it as Tiny. Changed to "The game considers the target to be Tiny in size, which...".
• Plant Growth: "The caster can only choose the option that causes creatures to use quadruple movement" → "Causes creatures to use quadruple movement" – The entire point of this page is to highlight changes from 5E. There is another option in 5E, there is not in BG3.
• Revivify: "Decedent" is an extremely obscure word that in my experience is only used in probate proceedings. Use plainer language.
• Speak with Dead: "Corpses that have meaningful conversations" → "Corpses with which one can have meaningful conversations" – I don't like using "with which", it's unnecessarily hard to understand. Changed to "Corpses that have substantial dialogue". "if it was killed by acid [etc.]" → "if it is killed by acid" – the killing is in the past, it's illogical and unnatural to use present tense.
• Create Undead: "Creates a single undead mummy out of nothing" → "Creates a single undead mummy" – Loses the information that, unlike 5E and unlike Animate Dead, no corpse is needed. Changed "out of nothing" to "without needing a corpse".

I also disagree with getting rid of contractions, in fact my big edit went out of the way to introduce them where possible. This isn't Wikipedia, there's no reason for such stilted language. I also disagree with changing every relative pronoun "that" to "which". But I'm not going to start an edit war over these quibbles. Thrawcheld (talk) 18:27, 2 September 2026 (CEST)