[RPG] What exactly does Otto’s Irresistible Dance prevent

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In 5e, Otto's Irresistible Dance forces its target to do the following things:

The target begins a comic dance in place: shuffling, tapping its feet, and capering for the duration.
…
A dancing creature must use all its movement to dance without leaving its space and has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws and attack rolls.

The creature can choose to take an action to make a saving throw against this effect:

As an action, a dancing creature makes a Wisdom saving throw to regain control of itself. On a successful save, the spell ends.

However, if the creature decides to do something else instead, can it? The text clearly implies that it can make attacks, but can it cast spells? If it is flying, does it fall? Shuffling, tapping your feet, and capering are all things you can do with just your legs, so does that mean its hands are free to move at will?

A strict reading of the text would suggest that, unlike the 3.5e version, which locks down all actions, the 5e version of the spell still allows essentially all actions. Is this true?

Best Answer

It's pretty clear

The spell says exactly what it does.

Choose one creature that you can see within range. The target begins a comic dance in place: shuffling, tapping its feet, and capering for the duration. Creatures that can’t be charmed are immune to this spell.

A dancing creature must use all its movement to dance without leaving its space and has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws and attack rolls. While the target is affected by this spell, other creatures have advantage on attack rolls against it.

As an action, a dancing creature makes a Wisdom saving throw to regain control of itself. On a successful save, the spell ends.

(From SRD, emphasis mine)

  • You lose all your movement (you cannot move from that place)
  • Disadvantage to Dex saves and attacks
  • Advantage to all attack vs you
  • You may spend your action to re-do a save

That's it. It is not as ultimate as the 1-3.x version of the spell. But still hilarious. It becomes much more of a combo spell than before, especially if you can throw Dex-save spells on the enemy or can move away from it.

As an action, the spell is clear that all you do is make a new save.

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