Order's Demand - Next to Useless?

[MaxWilson]

Order's Demand works against anything not immune to charm. In fact, for your specific example, it targets fire giants' second worst save, so it's better option than DMG or BM disarm.

Ah, I see. This thread gave me the impression that Order's Demand worked only on humanoids but apparently not. As I say, I don't do UA or Ravnica.

[Kaliayev]

Did they change it from drop prone to drop weapons? That's disappointing.

Yeah, I wasn't happy with most of the changes they made for the official GGR release. Imo, they should have just reduced order's wrath to 1d8 force damage and made the bonus action enchantment spell casting modification. The official version loses its appeal at higher levels. Fortunately, my DM is letting me stick with the UA version for the high tier game I'm playing an order cleric in.

[Mellack]

For extra ironic fun have the cleric make them drop their weapons followed up with your wizard casting animate objects on them. Now they are getting attacked by their own weapons and nobody had spend any time picking them up.

[Merudo]

They can't pick up their stuff if someone else picks it up first. Which is, as you point out, very easy to do.

I gave it some thoughts, and it's not so simple.

The Order Cleric should enter the fight unarmed, so they have a free hand to pick a weapon up.

However party members likely won't be able to pick anything up, because their hands are already yielding their own weapon & shield. So the ability is effectively a single person disarm.

[JackPhoenix]

I gave it some thoughts, and it's not so simple.

The Order Cleric should enter the fight unarmed, so they have a free hand to pick a weapon up.

However party members likely won't be able to pick anything up, because their hands are already yielding their own weapon & shield. So the ability is effectively a single person disarm.

Assuming you don't have things like a horde of minions (hirelings/soldiers or unseen servants/undead/thrulls), like Azorius or Orzhov (the two guilds who do have Order clerics) do in Ravnica.

[TheFryingPen]

Order's demand is perfect for situations in which enemies ready attacks. E.g. before storming a room when you know you're being expected.

[JackPhoenix]

Order's demand is perfect for situations in which enemies ready attacks. E.g. before storming a room when you know you're being expected.

That... actually works. You don't need to see them, hearing is enough, and unlike spells, it's not blocked by full cover... If you aren't aware of the enemies, it won't work, but yeah, that's pretty good use.

[Mellack]

I gave it some thoughts, and it's not so simple.

The Order Cleric should enter the fight unarmed, so they have a free hand to pick a weapon up.

However party members likely won't be able to pick anything up, because their hands are already yielding their own weapon & shield. So the ability is effectively a single person disarm.

They could also just use their interaction to kick the unattended weapon away. Even better is there is a pit, chasm, lava, river, etc. to kick it into. Even without that, the enemy now has to move away, either using an action to disengage or taking a OA. In anything larger than a small room you could easily kick it farther than they can move out and back in one turn.

[Merudo]

They could also just use their interaction to kick the unattended weapon away.

Nice - have you seen the other thread I posted 10 minute before your post?

I wanted to make sure this use of the free interaction action is kosher before discussing it here.

[Mellack]

I hadn't seen the other thread, but I have seen that move done in other games. As it is not specifically stated the same as picking up a weapon is, there will have to be a DM ruling. That said, I think most tables would find it acceptable.

[Merudo]

Order's demand is perfect for situations in which enemies ready attacks. E.g. before storming a room when you know you're being expected.

It's not possible to ready actions outside of combat.

I hadn't seen the other thread, but I have seen that move done in other games. As it is not specifically stated the same as picking up a weapon is, there will have to be a DM ruling. That said, I think most tables would find it acceptable.

Picking the dropped weapon up, or kicking the weapon away would by RAW require the Cleric to move unto the controlled space of the creature, which is not allowed unless the Cleric is at least two sizes larger or smaller than the creature.

[Sage Tellah]

If not moving a dropped weapon away from its owner, a grappling ally could helpfully move an owner away from his weapon once dropped. Grappling an opponent is much less dangerous once they're unarmed.