Hold Person, Cleric & Shukenja (Level 2)

Hold Person, General Information

Hold Person, Magic-User & Wu Jen (Level 3)

Level: c2, sh2	-	Range: 6"	-	Duration: 4r + 1r*
Components: v.s.m	-	CT: 5s	-	Save: Neg.
Area: One to three creatures	-	-	-	-

Effect: This spell holds immobile, and freezes in places,
from 1-3 humans or humanoid creatures (see below) for 5 or more melee rounds.

Duration: <The level of the cleric casting the hold person spell dictates the
length of time the effect will last. The basic duration is 5 melee rounds at
1st level, 6 rounds at 2nd level, 7 rounds at 3rd level, etc.>

Save:
*** If the spell is cast at three persons, each gets a save at the normal score;
** if only two persons are being enspelled, each makes their save at -1 on their die;
* if the spell is CAST at but one person, the save die is at -2.
Persons making their saves are totally unaffected by the spell.

Creatures affected by a hold person spell are: brownies, dryads, dwarves,
elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins,
humans, kobolds, lizard men, nixies, orcs, pixies, sprites, and troglodytes.

<see Magically Sleeping and Held Opponents>

MC_ The spell caster needs a small, straight piece of iron as the material component of this spell.

SH: This spell holds immoble 1-3 human or humanoid creatures. <revise wording, extend list of persons to incl. OA persons>
All TARGET creatures get a save,
at -1 if two creatures are targeted and
at -2 if a single creature is the TARGET of the hold person.
Only humanoid creatures are affected by this spell.

SH.MC: A small sphere of iron.
 

WSG: This spell and similar magics will not suspend a
character or creature in mid-air, so that it can thereby be saved
from falling. It will only “freeze” victims so as to prevent them
from moving under their own power. Someone who is about to
lose his grip on a mountainside can be held in place by means of
this spell as long as he is still gripping handholds and footholds
when the spell takes effect, but if he has already lost his grip and
is not “attached” to the surface then the spell will not necessarily
hold him in place unless his feet are securely placed on a ledge
(in which case he probably didn’t need to be held to begin with).
For a willing or needy recipient of the spell in a case such as described
here, the saving throw should be disregarded or considered
to be automatically failed.
 
 

Saving Throw: If three or four persons are attacked, their saving throws are normal;
but if two are attacked, their saving throws are made at -1;
and if only one creature is attacked, the saving throw versus the hold person spell is made at -3 on the die.

Effect: Similar to the second level cleric hold person (q.v.),
this spell immobilizes creatures <change to persons>, within range, as designated by the magic-user.
Partial negation of a hold person spell, such as would be possible by a ring of spell turning,
causes the spell to function as a slow spell (q.v.) unless the saving throw is successful.

<see Magically Sleeping and Held Opponents>

WJ3: Except as otherwise noted, this spell is similar to the 2d-level shukenja spell of the same name.
If the spell is CAST at three or four beings, no penalty to the save is incurred.
If thrown at two creatures, each saves at -1.
If thrown at a single creature the save is at -3.
 

WSG: This spell and similar magics will not suspend a
character or creature in mid-air, so that it can thereby be saved
from falling. It will only “freeze” victims so as to prevent them
from moving under their own power. Someone who is about to
lose his grip on a mountainside can be held in place by means of
this spell as long as he is still gripping handholds and footholds
when the spell takes effect, but if he has already lost his grip and
is not “attached” to the surface then the spell will not necessarily
hold him in place unless his feet are securely placed on a ledge
(in which case he probably didn’t need to be held to begin with).
For a willing or needy recipient of the spell in a case such as described
here, the saving throw should be disregarded or considered
to be automatically failed.

<Creatures affected by the spell are: brownies, dryads, dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, kobolds, lizard men, nixies, orcs, pixies, sprites, and troglodytes.>

<
<Persons are:

Aarakocra
Atomie
Azer
Booka
Brownie
Buckawn
Bullywug
Dark Creeper
Derro
Draconian (131.63)
Dryad
Duergar
Dwarf
Elf
Firenewt
Flind
Forlarren
Frost Man
Gibberling
Githyanki
Githzerai
Gnoll
Grig
Gnome
Goblin
Grimlock
Halfling
Half-elf
Half-orc
Hobgoblin
Jermlaine
Kenku
Killmoulis
Kobold
Korred
Lizard King
Lizard Man
Meazel
Men
Mite
Mongrelman
Nereid
Nixie
Norker
Ogrillon
Orc
Pech
Pixie
Quaggoth
Quickling
Qullan
Shade
Sirine
Syad
Spriggan, size S
Sprite
Svirfneblin
Swanmay
Taer
Tasloi
Troglodyte
Xvart
>

<add monsters from OA and DLA and MP to the list>

Q: Are creatures affected by one of
the hold spells held immobile or
simply paralyzed?
A: Hold spells are similar to paralysis except
that the effect is mental, not physical.
A held creature cannot move, fight, or
communicate in any way. The creature
can, however, be moved by others.
(153.7)

Question: Can a person TALK under the influence of a Hold Person spell?

Answer: No, because talking or making vocal sounds of any sort
requires movement, even if only the vibration of a set of vocal
cords. Any character or creature under the influence of a Hold
Person or Hold Animal or Hold Monster spell literally can’t
move a muscle, and it takes muscles to form sounds and to
expel the breath that carries the sound forth from its source.
This would seem to hold true even for creatures that don’t
produce sounds the same way human vocal cords do. Sounds
are vibrations, and vibrations are created only when something
is set in motion. If a creature can make no motion or movement,
it can make no sound.
    Interestingly enough, the only occasion when sound is men-
tioned in the description of a Hold spell is for the Hold Plant spell.
That spell “prevents vegetable matter from making any
sound or movement which is not caused by wind,” according to
the PH. It stands to reason that this would apply
to other Hold spells and other types of living matter as well.
 

Question: Also, can a character cast a hold
person on a character who has just
gone over a waterfall to hold him
under water and drown him?
 

James: 14. You created a large number of spells for OD&D for Supplement I: Greyhawk, various PC/NPC character classes and spells in fanzines, as well as the whole of the Suel Pantheon for the published Greyhawk campaign. Your contributions to the game via "Leomund's Tiny Hut" were also quite extensive. What do you consider your most valuable additions to the game, and why?

Len Lakofka: Actually it's something that didn't happen. In the orginal AD&D manuscript (typed double space -- about 800 pages or so) Gary had said that if a person was held (via hold person) he/she had to make a system shock roll! I said to Gary that this would become a "Little Finger of Death." Certainly many NPCs as well as a few characters would have a Constitution score of 14 or lower. A system shock would kill quite a few folks. Since hold person is a 2nd-level cleric spell and 3rd-level magic-user spell, those spell casters needed very little experience to gain access to the prayer/spell. A gaggle of four 3rd-level clerics all throwing hold person at once on the same person would have a very high chance of not only holding him but killing him/her as well. I talked Gary out of it. - Grognardia

OUT ON A LIMB

Hold that answer!

Dear Editor:
In DRAGON #62, Sage Advice, you said,
“Any character or creature under the influence
of a Hold person, animal, or monster
spell, literally can’t move a muscle. . . .” If you
can’t move a muscle for a minimum of 6
rounds, you would die because you could not
breathe, and your heart would not beat.
I suggest you revise it [the answer]. Maybe
say “he cannot talk understandably because
his facial muscles don’t move, but otherwise
the spell does not affect interior muscles.” Or,
move the spell up to higher levels because it
is, as you interpret it, a lethal spell.
Alexander Powers
Niantic, Conn
(Dragon #66)



Speaking for the Sage, I can suggest this:
The AD&D world is a place where magic
works, a world not bound by the rules of physical
and natural sciences. Nothing says the
victim of a “Hold” spell has to be able to
breathe — or needs to — while under the
influence of the spell. It’s pointless to try to
refute magic by citing scientific “fact.” 

— KM
(Dragon #66)