Short Version: Some characters have cantrips (or unlimited-used abilities) that they would like to have in combat, like Shillelagh. Has anyone tested or experienced methods of allowing these to be ready in advance?
Long Version: I have a player who wants to build an Arcana Cleric who uses Shillelagh, a non-concentration cantrip with a 1-minute duration, for melee combat. She would like to have it ready when combat begins for action economy (to do such other things as casting Spiritual Weapon on the first turn). She figures she can simply cast it continuously while walking around between fights.
I was considering allowing this, with a few caveats. My thoughts were:
- Constantly casting a cantrip will give Disadvantage to be aware of surroundings, giving a -5 to Passive Perception/Investigation.
- Since it has a Verbal component, she will be constantly emitting noise, possibly giving enemies some advance warning of the party's approach.
- Originally I was going to have her roll a d10 at the start of any battle to see how much time was left on the 1-minute cantrip (since it's conveniently 10 rounds of duration), but technically she could recast it every 6 seconds to restart the timer, RAW, rather than waiting until it expired.
There are other potential factors, such as aggravating any NPCs that travel with them (imagine someone repeating the same 6 seconds of magic words over and over. ALL. DAY. LONG.), and not being able to renew it while her focus was required elsewhere (like solving a tricky puzzle, or while hiding, or while having a conversation).
Here are my questions:
- Are there any other factors that need to be weighed, mechanically-speaking?
- Is there any problem with my interpretation of the ability to recast it every 6 seconds?
- Has anyone used or witnessed their own method of handling a PC constantly re-using a similar spell or ability?
Best Answer
This is the norm
You can normally cast spells and take other actions out of combat. Cantrips are no exception, and so you won't break anything or unbalance anything by allowing this, since rules and published modules already expect it.
From personal experience, attempts to not do this do badly. Trying to limit a character's abilities to only being usable in-combat works okay with a 4e mentality, but really doesn't with a 5e one. The narrative dissonance is problematic enough, but also it inevitably disfavors certain classes (whichever the GM trying to do this is hobbling most, in your case full-casters) and thus leads to balance issues.
Furthermore, always-on buff spells in general and Shillelagh in particular are weak options in 5e. They already struggle to keep up with shorter-duration spells much of the time, and a cantrip selection is a pretty major resource. There's no problem with letting her have this spell active all of the time, and significant problems with restricting it. Just note that she isn't sneaking (it has verbal components) and move on, is what I suggest.