How many turns is 1 hour 5e

Q: How many turns in DND is a minute?

A 1 minute spell will last for 10 of the casters turns unless ended early.

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spell duration : turns or rounds?

#1 May 8, 2019
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kikdij
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Hi guys,
I'm having trouble deciding how to manage spell duration in combat, like sleep duration. My reading of RAW is that given a turn is 6 secs, it means that sleep would be effective for 10 turns. But there is a serious flaw with that : I love to throw many opponents at my players to give them tactical opportunities (and because nothing creates dramatic tension like being outnumbered :) ), so the more there are, the less efficient those spells get, to the point where the spell may go for only one round.
An alternative is to consider that all turns happen basically at the same time, so one round is still 6 sec (or maybe 10 sec, to make the time sequence a bit more realistic). Problem is : if I do that for the spells casted by my players, I have to do it for spells casted by opponents to. And we're playing by post :) So it means that if an opponent successfully casts sleep on a player, well, you're out for 10 rounds, see you next month.
One thing I considered is that I could say each PC/ally turn is 6 secs, sequentially, and then the enemy turns are 6 secs for the group of them. I love it because it strikes a good balance : if there are more allies, those spells get weaker (and gets stronger if there are less allies), and the number of opponents does not matter. But it's a bit difficult to justify through roleplay :)
In my games as a player, when I cast it, it seemed most of the time that the DM would just consider the opponents off combat for the rest of the fight, but I would like to try something a bit less op than that, without either making those spells worthless. How are you guys managing this? (especially in PbP)
Last edited by kikdij: May 8, 2019
#3 May 8, 2019
DxJxC
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Each round is 6 seconds, and each turn in the round from a narrative standpoint happen at about the same time. So for spell duration, the beginning of the caster's next turn is the end of the first 6 seconds. A 1 minute spell will last for 10 of the caster's turns unless ended early.
#4 May 8, 2019
kikdij
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Are you guys using that in PbP? It's already difficult to keep players around without telling them they won't be playing for weeks :)
#5 May 8, 2019
DMThac0
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A round = everyone's turn in a ~6 second window
A turn = location in the initiative
Sleep would resolve after 10 rounds, a minute. Everyone would get the chance to act 5-6 times before the sleeping creature(s) woke assuming no one did anything to wake it prematurely. The spell isn't particularly over powered, but it does make PbP a lot less entertaining due to the medium. To change the time frame of the spell is going to make the spell less effective at the cost of expediting things so players/dm can post.
If you're tossing multiple opponents at them, you have given yourself a way to handle the bother of sleep: use those creatures to wake the ones who are sleeping. You can use a physical touch, a Create Water spell, or simply damage them. Otherwise I wouldn't punish a tactical spell against a tactical DM.
Last edited by DMThac0: May 8, 2019
#6 May 8, 2019
kikdij
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This is perfectly fine when the victim of the spell is an enemy, but not when it's a PC. That's the real problem : if I tell them "you're out for 10 rounds", it means they won't play for weeks.
This makes me think, maybe what I need is a good incentive for having other PCs wake up the one that is down. When a PC reaches 0 hp, there is a serious incentive to heal them : they may die (and if they are only stabilized, well, there's a good chance they fell nearer to the end of the battle anyway). Hmmm, I guess granting inspiration could work.
#7 May 8, 2019
The second interpretation is the only one that makes any sense to me at all. 1 minute is 10 rounds.
It is easy to wake up a sleeping character, if the party are not making any attempt to play tactically then the chances of them all getting wiped out jump up dramatically, I would hope that avoiding a TPK was enough incentive for at least 1 person to wake the sleeping characters.
#8 May 8, 2019
Jhfffan
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Any damage that occurs to the sleeping character wakes it. If you have some less tactically inclined enemies, they can attack the sleeping characters. Otherwise, a character can slap or shake the character awake. Your interpretation as to whether that is a full action, a bonus action, a reaction, or no action at all. If the character is in melee, another character could shove an enemy to try to prone it and jostle the sleeper at the same time.
#9 May 8, 2019
TexasDevin
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All turns in a round are simultaneous, a round is 6 seconds long.
Well, they are kind of simultaneous and kind of not. If you kill a goblin before his turn, it doesn't get its turn that round.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
#10 May 9, 2019
I'm not sure I understand what the problem is here. Spell duration and it's interactions with combat are pretty clearly spelled out through the rules. Each creature takes it's turn in order of Initiative. Each cycle through the whole Initiative order is 1 round. And 1 round is 6 seconds. Spells with a duration all clearly state that duration, so you can just divide it by 6 to find out how many rounds the effect will last.
You've already said that you prefer to throw large volumes of small to medium monsters at your players. This should greatly incentivize both AoE damage spells, and crowd control effects. So these are concepts your players should be very familiar with. Which means that, when your players are subjected to the same crowd control effects, they should already know what to do (and not do) to play around, escape from, or aid each other in overcoming. The players who themselves cast those same spells (ie Sleep) should probably take the time to educate the others on what sort of things to do to break the CC effect.
Sometimes this is a bit of a monkey-see-monkey-do thing. The next time one of your players uses Sleep on a cluster of your monsters, have some of the unaffected monsters wake up the affected ones. Some of your players will catch on. This paired with actual communication of how the spells work between players should get the tactics through to enough of the party to make it through.
And what's with this "won't play for weeks" thing? If combat is actually lasting for the whole 10 rounds, I would say that either you're throwing too many monsters at your party, or their damage output is too low or too single target. To a point, that might be unavoidable simply due to party make-up. A Fighter, a Life Cleric, a Hexblade Warlock, and Rogue, for example, will likely have little problem surviving a hoard of goblins, but it will take them forever to actually chew through them. For such a party makeup, it might be better to have fewer enemies of a tougher nature. Then again, if there are 2 Wizards, a Sorcerer, and a Barbarian protecting them, you may need to inflate a given encounter with a lot of meat shields just to keep their attention divided long enough for the big bad guy to do some things before he gets focus fired.

Personally, I think you might be overthinking this. Have you had any complaints? Pointed comments? Your players may not be having any issues with how things are going.
#11 May 9, 2019
I don't understand why a Sleep spell would get less efficient and last only one round against multiple monsters. It will still have the same one minute duration for the creatures that are effected. In a large group some will be effected and some won't is all. The same goes for the PCs. A Sleep spell will put a PC out of action for one full minute, unless someone or something wakes them up. Yes, that can be a long stretch of real time in a play-by-post, but it is very easy to wake someone up from a Sleep spell, so they need not be out for the full duration.
This is an inherent problem with Play by Post games. Everything takes much longer than it does at the tabletop. Combat is an especially long and drawn out affair. Each character's actions within their turn must be resolved by a series of posts, for each and every character involved in the fight, each and every round.
A one minute duration spell will last for 10 rounds. During each of those rounds everybody involved in the combat will get a turn in initiative order, during their turn each gets an action as well as possible reaction and bonus action. Each of these needs to be resolved, multiple attacks Ean multiple resolutions.
You can streamline things a bit by having all the monsters act on the same initiative and making one post for all their actions. But there is nothing you can do except wait fr each player in turn to post their actions, then you post the resolution, then on to the next player.
The other approach is to not play out each action in each turn, and each turn in each round, and to play out several rounds of action at once. Have each player give you a couple of rounds of declared actions, resolve those in a single post, then ask for the next couple of declared rounds. This does require increased trust on the part of the players. Games with a lot of tactical detail are not the best suited to play-by-post format for exactly the reason you are discovering. Play slows to an absolute crawl in combat, especially if a character is restrained from acting for some reason.
#12 Oct 30, 2020
RichMayo
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This is a problem with DnD... the rounds are not concurrent, we narrate them in sequence, we resolve actions in sequence, and we get acted upon in sequence. If you are fighting 100 Ogres each Ogre can pick up your character and carry them 20'. They can do this in sequence. So, you could be moved 2,000 feet in that six-second interval using the RAW. How can you say that the round is concurrent just because the player's handbook says it is? The book violates the nature of the game. Why is this so hard to grasp for so many players (and game designers)?
So, find whatever solution gives you comfort and lets you have fun -- and stop telling other people how things DO or DON'T work. The game is a mess of logical contradictions, not some holy religious tome.
#13 Oct 30, 2020
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I agree with Rich. Very clearly the actions in a round happen in a particular sequence, and NOT simultaneously. If a character is hit and takes damage early in a single round, and then the cleric heals him later in the round, the healing clearly had to come after, and not simultaneous with, the attack. The cleric wouldn't have known to cast the heal, had he not seen the damage occur (you don't heal non-wounded characters - it's a waste of a spell). Similarly, if an attack early in the round causes a character to be knocked prone, and then on his turn, the character stands up from the prone position, this clearly had to occur after being knocked down. It is simply not possible, even in the D&D world, that one could simultaneously fall down and get up.
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#14 Oct 21, 2021
7achyon
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My friend and I started DnDing this year, and its everyone's first time. Me also being the 1st time DM, it is stressful.
Regarding about the spell duration and the Round/turn. I kinda figures that the book and actual gameplay is hard to come together.
So some level of customization (I not sure if that is the right word) is required.
So for my game/campaign. I set the duration for each round to be 12sec, 6 for the player, 6 for the enemies. So an one minute spell will last 5 turns.
You have the Players' turn, and the Enemies'.
It does not really make sense and probably don't have to? Since as mentioned here by Rich and Bio. Player/Enemy don't moves at the same time.
But if you think about it, if everyone move in sequence one after another (each 6 sec). If there is 10 entities, the spell is over in one round. Which is ridiculous.
I like the kikdij's idea, but it feels underwhelming if you are in a party of 6 player, your spell barely last 2 turns.
I share my reasoning with my players that One Minute=5turns and they are ok with it.
And overall, we had fun and that's the main idea.
#15 Oct 21, 2021
Jhfffan
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My friend and I started DnDing this year, and its everyone's first time. Me also being the 1st time DM, it is stressful.
Regarding about the spell duration and the Round/turn. I kinda figures that the book and actual gameplay is hard to come together.
So some level of customization (I not sure if that is the right word) is required.
So for my game/campaign. I set the duration for each round to be 12sec, 6 for the player, 6 for the enemies. So an one minute spell will last 5 turns.
You have the Players' turn, and the Enemies'.
It does not really make sense and probably don't have to? Since as mentioned here by Rich and Bio. Player/Enemy don't moves at the same time.
But if you think about it, if everyone move in sequence one after another (each 6 sec). If there is 10 entities, the spell is over in one round. Which is ridiculous.
I like the kikdij's idea, but it feels underwhelming if you are in a party of 6 player, your spell barely last 2 turns.
I share my reasoning with my players that One Minute=5turns and they are ok with it.
And overall, we had fun and that's the main idea.
The entire round is 6 seconds and a 1 minute spell will last 10 rounds. Essentially everything is happening at the same time with initiative determining who moves and acts first. Of course, when playing a game of this format, the rules change a bit to reign in the chaos a touch.
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spell duration : turns or rounds?

How long is an hour in 5e?

1 Simple task = 15 mins/. 25 hours & 1 complex task = 1 hour.

How long is a turn in dnd5e?

In Dungeons & Dragons, turns are essential when it comes to combat since you can't do much until it's your turn. In combat, a turn only takes 6 seconds; this includes the turn for every creature in the initiative order.

How many turns is a minute in 5e?

There are 10 rounds/turns in a minute. So Rage lasts 10 rounds. A spell with a duration of 1 min lasts 10 rounds. This actually came up in the last session I DMed a week ago.