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Old 08-31-2017, 04:45 AM   #4
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: [Spells] Why is Command a blocking spell, and how does it work?

Quote:
Originally Posted by finn View Post
Why is Command (Spells, page 53) a blocking spell, and how does it work?
It's a blocking spell because its description is broken.

The intent here (ever since the spell first appeared as a 1st level D&D Clerical spell) has always been it lets you give a command that causes the target to waste his round on something useless, or at best end a fight, but it's worded as lets you give a command that causes the target to use his turn to do anything at all, which is vastly more powerful. The D&D version tried to get around that with one word and parts of speech restrictions (that depended on the players being English speakers to the limited extent they helped at all). The GURPS version, which like most of GURPS more poorly written or playtested spells first appeared in Grimoire, tried to limit that with that "immediate" verbage, which doesn't work either.

Effectively it's always been aiming at being a kiai, or a coercive version of a police officer's shouted command to "freeze", but never actually *said* that.

Edit: And incidentally "Wait" as a command is not intended to be read as a command to take the "Wait" maneuver, but to pause for a moment.
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Last edited by malloyd; 08-31-2017 at 05:57 AM.
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