Talk:Sinister Manipulation (5e Spell)

I designed this spell to act similarly to 5e SRD:Hideous Laughter, but with a few different goals. I wanted an enchantment spell that interrupts an opponent's game plan, but doesn't incapacitate, so the affected creature or character still gets to move around and take their turn. Here's a few things I'm not sure about, in terms of balancing this spell:

1. Should it only work on humanoids? Or should the spell work on any creature with a left hand, such as giants, undead, and other creatures that have a humanoid appearance (2 arms, 2 legs)?
2. Should the spell require you to give up your action, instead of your reaction? This would make it more similar to Crown of Madness (5e Spell), but I don't know if its necessary, since you're not actually using up the creature's action. You're just having the left hand take a second action of your choice.
3. Should this spell have higher level functionality? The obvious answer is to have an additional target for each level, but I don't know if that's a good idea/would work with the taking control of the target ability. Maybe higher levels take over more body parts? I just don't know.
4. Finally, if anyone thinks of a thematic material component this spell could have, let me know. I thought about it for a while, but didn't come up with anything. --Woahluigi (talk) 11:03, 15 September 2024 (MDT)

After thinking on it, I updated this spell with some of the above changes. If the spell is too powerful in its current state, I think the first change to undo would be allowing the spell to affect non-humanoids. I think the next change if its still too strong after that would be to make this spell 2nd level, but I personally don't think that's necessary (yet...). --Woahluigi (talk) 10:04, 16 September 2024 (MDT)