Lasting spell effects

Spells that last, such as Bless, Spirit Guardians or Web, stay on the board until they end: a shimmer on each creature, a ring round the caster, or an area on the map.

For: Game Masters and players · Plan: Pro · 17 minutes

Many spells aren't over the moment they're cast: they last for a minute, an hour or a day. Some only last while the caster keeps concentrating on them, which means keeping the spell going (a caster can concentrate on one spell at a time). In pen-and-paper play the table has to remember who's blessed and where the web is. RollQuest draws it for everyone instead, keeps count of how long is left, and takes it off the board when the spell ends. A lasting effect is a reminder you can see: it doesn't roll dice or change hit points by itself.

The three kinds

Kind	What you see	Spells that leave one
Ward	A glowing ring close round each creature that carries the spell, with six small hexagons travelling round it. Two wards on one creature ring outwards, so both show.	Most spells that last: Bless, Bane, Shield of Faith, Hold Person, Mage Armor, Haste, and any other spell aimed at creatures with Target that needs concentration or lasts a set time.
Aura	A dashed ring round the caster, out to the spell's radius from the edge of their token, with a faint glow inside and motes circling. It moves with the caster.	Spirit Guardians (15 ft), Holy Aura (30 ft), Antimagic Field (10 ft), and in 5.5e Aura of Life (30 ft) and Conjure Woodland Beings (10 ft).
Zone	An area on the map, drawn inside an area effect template that stays on the board. Move the template and the zone moves with it.	Black Tentacles, Cloudkill, Darkness, Entangle, Fog Cloud, Grease, Gust of Wind, Incendiary Cloud, Insect Plague, Magic Circle, Moonbeam, Silence, Sleet Storm, Spike Growth, Stinking Cloud, Storm of Vengeance, Web and Zone of Truth.

Each one is drawn in the spell's own colours. A zone looks like its spell where RollQuest has a look for it: strands for Web, drifting fog or cloud for Fog Cloud, Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud, Incendiary Cloud, Sleet Storm and Storm of Vengeance, deep shadow for Darkness, vines for Entangle, tentacles for Black Tentacles and spikes for Spike Growth. Other zones are a soft glow with drifting motes. A zone's edge is a slowly moving dashed line.

A spell leaves a lasting effect when it needs concentration, when its duration is a set time (rounds, minutes, hours or days), or when it lasts until dispelled. A spell that's over at once, such as Fireball, leaves nothing.

Lasting effects sit under the tokens, so they never hide a creature.

Leave one with a spell from your sheet

Cast the spell from your character sheet as usual (see Spells and casting). What happens next depends on how the spell is cast.

A spell you aim with Target

Spells such as Hold Person, Shield of Faith, Web or Moonbeam are aimed with Target and cast with Resolve.

• A ward lands once the saving throws are in, on each creature the spell affected. A creature that passed every save it was asked for, or that the attack missed, carries nothing. A creature with no sheet or stat block still carries the ward.
• An aura, such as Spirit Guardians in a 5e game, rings your token as you cast.
• A zone keeps the template you drew with Place area: that template is now the spell's area, and it stays when the spell is resolved. Aimed any other way, the spell asks you to place its area after the cast (below).

A spell with no Target button

Spells such as Bless, Mage Armor, Fog Cloud, Darkness, and Spirit Guardians in a 5.5e game are cast with Cast. They play their effect on the board too: from your character's token as you cast them, or, for a spell that asks where or who, once you've answered.

• An aura rings your token at once.
• A spell on yourself, one whose range is Self such as Detect Magic or Shield, puts a ward on your own token.
• A zone asks you to place its area: see Place a spell's area, below.
• A spell you cast on others, such as Bless or Mage Armor, asks who it's on: see Choose who a spell is on, below.

Some spells with no Target button leave nothing, such as Light: RollQuest can't tell who or what they're on.

The animation, an aura and a ward on yourself need your character to have a token on the board. Only the person who cast the spell is asked to place or choose, in the game window (even when the sheet is popped out), and only while they're looking at the scene where they cast it. If you reload the page first, you're asked again.

Place a spell's area

1. Cast the spell. The aim bar at the bottom of the screen says Place Fog Cloud (your spell's name) and Click where the area goes on the board. The board switches to Area Effects mode, and the spell's area follows your pointer at its own size, such as Fog Cloud's 20-foot circle or Web's 20-foot square. If the character sheet covers the board, close it: the aim bar waits for you.

2. Click the map where the area goes. The template lands with the spell's name on it, and the spell plays inside it for everyone.

To give up, click × on the aim bar or press Esc. The area isn't drawn, but the spell is still cast, and you're still concentrating on it if it needs concentration.

Choose who a spell is on

1. Cast the spell. The aim bar says Bless: who is it on? (your spell's name) and Click each creature it is on., or Click the creature it is on. for a spell on one creature. If the character sheet covers the board, close it: the aim bar waits for you.

2. Click each creature's token. The aim bar counts them: 2 picked. Press Done when you have them all.

3. Click Done on the aim bar (hover: Done (Enter)), or press Enter. The pick also ends by itself when you reach the spell's number, and straight away for a spell on one creature.

The spell plays on the creatures you picked, and each gets a ward. A click on the floor puts the spell on nobody but still counts towards the number, so click only tokens; a pick that ends with no creature in it is given up. To give up, click × or press Esc: nothing is drawn, and the spell stays cast.

RollQuest doesn't roll saving throws for these spells. For one that creatures can resist, such as Bane or Slow, pick only the creatures that failed.

How many you can pick	Spells
Up to 10	Water Breathing, Water Walk
Up to 6	Beacon of Hope, Calm Emotions, Compulsion, Slow
Up to 3	Aid, Bane, Bless
One	Barkskin, Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Darkvision, Death Ward, Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Fly, Freedom of Movement, Guidance, Haste, Heroism, Hunter's Mark (5e), Jump, Levitate, Longstrider, Mage Armor, Mind Blank, Protection from Energy, Protection from Evil and Good, Protection from Poison, Resistance, Sanctuary, Spider Climb, Stoneskin (5e), Suggestion, Warding Bond

The number stays the same when you cast the spell at a higher level.

Keep an effect with the Spell FX tool

The Spell FX tool can leave its effect on the board too, for a spell nobody cast from a sheet, such as a monster's aura or a trap's lingering cloud.

1. Hover over the Mode menu, the tab at the top of the board, and choose Spell FX.

2. Under Effect, choose the effect, such as Spirit Guardians or Web.

3. Under Aim, choose Selected, Place or Chain. A → B can't keep its effect, so the switch isn't there for it.

4. Turn on Keep on the board.

5. To have it end by itself, type how long it lasts in Lasts and choose rds (battle rounds), min (in-world minutes) or hr (in-world hours). Leave it empty to keep it until someone ends it.

6. Cast it as usual.

What it leaves depends on the aim:

Aim	What stays
Selected	A ward on each selected token, up to 24. An aura effect, such as Spirit Guardians, puts an aura round the first token instead.
Chain	A ward on each target, but not on the first token you clicked, which is the caster. An aura effect puts an aura round the caster.
Place	A zone. Pick a spot asks you to place its area, as a spell from a sheet does (Place Web, then a click on the map), and the effect plays once the area lands. The area is the spell's own, such as Web's 20-foot square, or a circle as big as the effect for anything else (15 feet for a custom effect, a weapon or technology).

An effect kept with the tool isn't tied to anyone's concentration: it lasts for its Lasts time, or until someone ends it or deletes its template.

Where they show

• On the board, for everyone at the table. Each effect belongs to the scene it was cast in, and the board shows the scene on screen.
• The Spell FX panel, in the On the board list at its foot (below).
• The token editors: Edit Character, Edit Enemy and Edit NPC have a Spell effects card on the Status tab when a spell lasts on that creature: every ward on it and every aura round it.
• The Area of Effect editor: a template that is a spell's zone shows Spell effect at the top of its editor. See Area effect templates.
• The initiative tracker: in a battle, each row names the wards on that creature and the aura round it, beside its condition badges. Hover over an aura's name to see it marked (round them).

Someone who has turned off Show spell effects in their profile, or set their device to reduce motion, still sees lasting effects, standing still instead of moving: they show who carries what.

The On the board list

The list sits at the bottom of the Spell FX panel, and shows only when there's something on it.

Part	What it shows
Name	The spell or effect's name, such as Bless.
Line under the name	Where it is, whether it needs concentration and how long is left, joined by dots, such as on Wren, Brakka · concentration · 8 rounds left, 15 ft round Brakka · concentration, or an area on the board · 9 min left. A spell still being set up says waiting to be placed or waiting for its creatures.
· on and a scene's name	GM only: an effect on another scene than the one on screen (another scene when that scene has been deleted). The GM's list holds every scene's effects, so none is forgotten.
End	Ends it (see How one ends, below). Only for those who may end it.

The Spell effects rows

The token editors' Spell effects card and the template editor's Spell effect use the same rows:

Part	What it does	Default and limits
Name and line	As in the list above. A template's row leaves out where it is. With nothing else to say, the line reads Until ended.
End	Ends it. Hover: End the spell: its caster stops concentrating on it for a concentration spell, End the spell for any other.
Lasts	A new length: a number, then rds, min or hr. Empty, or 0, means until someone ends it.	Filled with its length now, in the largest whole unit: Bless's 10 rounds show as 1 min
Set	Saves the new length, counted from now (see How long one lasts).	Up to 144000 rounds, which is 10 days at 6 seconds a round

End, Lasts and Set show only to those who may end the effect. Everyone else can read the row.

How long one lasts

A spell from a sheet lasts as long as the spell says: Bless for 1 minute (10 rounds), Shield of Faith for 10 minutes, Fog Cloud for an hour, Mage Armor for 8 hours. A spell that lasts until dispelled, or that only names concentration, lasts until it's ended. An effect from the Spell FX tool lasts for its Lasts time.

It counts down on the clocks the game has, like a condition:

• In a battle, in rounds. It ends as the round counter reaches the round it was cast in plus its length: 10 rounds cast in round 3 end as round 13 begins.
• On the world clock, when the game has one, in a battle or out of one. Rounds are turned into story time at the length of a round (6 seconds in 5e, or what A battle round is worth says), and minutes and hours count as they are. In a battle it ends on whichever comes first: its last round or its time on the clock.
• With neither, outside a battle with no world clock, it waits. Its line says so, such as 10 rounds, from the next fight, and it starts counting at round 1 of the next battle, or when the world clock is switched on.

A spell counted in rounds that outlasts its battle says when it ends, such as ends at round 13, and stays until the next battle: that battle counts its rounds again from round 1. With the world clock on, the clock usually ends it first.

The time left is checked at every turn in a battle, when someone joins the game, when the GM moves the clock, and when a board sees the clock pass its end.

How the line under a name says the time left:

Line	Means
8 rounds left, 1 round left	In a battle, counted in rounds.
45 min left, 1 hr 30 min left, 2 hr left, under a minute left	On the world clock.
ends at round 13	Counted in rounds, and the battle is over.
10 rounds, from the next fight	Waiting for a battle or the world clock to start counting.
Nothing	It lasts until it's ended.

Outside a battle, a player who can't see the world clock (the GM has Show the clock to players off) sees no time left for an effect counted on it.

How one ends

• Its caster stops concentrating. That's when they cast another concentration spell, cast the same spell again, drop concentration (with the C pip in the battle tracker or on their sheet), or are incapacitated, such as by dropping to 0 hit points. Everything the spell left on the board goes at once.
• Its time runs out.
• Someone clicks End in the On the board list, a token editor or the template editor.
• Its template is deleted, for a zone. The caster keeps concentrating, though: click End to end the spell itself.
• The same spell is cast again from the same sheet on the same creature, such as Mage Armor after a long rest: the new one replaces the old one instead of adding a second.

Ending a zone deletes its template too.

Ending a spell that needs concentration ends the concentration, so whatever else the spell did ends with it, such as the +2 AC from Shield of Faith, and the caster's Concentrating badge comes off.

Who can end or change one

• The GM, any of them.
• The player who cast it, and the player whose character cast it.
• Whoever kept it with the Spell FX tool.

Everyone else sees the effect and its time, with no End, Lasts or Set.

What players see

Players see every lasting effect on the scene they're on, on the board, in the On the board list and in the battle tracker, with these exceptions for tokens the GM has hidden:

• An effect on a hidden creature isn't drawn on a player's board.
• The list leaves out an effect that only hidden creatures carry, and one whose caster is hidden, and doesn't name hidden creatures in a ward's line.

A player can open Edit Character on their own character to see the Spell effects card for it.

Limits

• A game holds up to 100 lasting effects. Each person can keep up to 20 with the Spell FX tool, and keep up to 8 in any 10 seconds.
• A ward kept with the Spell FX tool goes on up to 24 tokens.
• An area or radius can be up to 300 feet.
• A length set with Lasts can be up to 144000 rounds, which is 10 days at 6 seconds a round. More is cut to that.
• RollQuest draws the effect but doesn't play the rules for you: a creature that starts its turn in Spirit Guardians or Moonbeam, difficult ground in a Web or a Spike Growth, and what a Fog Cloud hides are for the GM to rule on. Bless doesn't add its d4 by itself: the blessed creature's player turns on Bless in their roll options (see Your sheet at the table).
• Keep on the board isn't saved with a cast: a Recent card cast from the panel keeps its effect only while the switch is on, and a Shortcut Bar slot or a held action step plays its effect without keeping it.
• A kept Place cast plays the effect alone once its area lands, without the sounds, charge-up or debris set in the panel, and it isn't added to Recent.

What the messages mean

Message	Why
There are too many lasting effects on the board. End one first.	The game has 100 lasting effects, or you've kept 20 with the Spell FX tool. End one in the On the board list.
The effect played, but could not be kept on the board.	The cast worked but keeping it didn't, for example after more than 8 in 10 seconds. Wait a moment and cast it again.
Only the GM or its caster can end that.	You clicked End on an effect that isn't yours to end.
Only the GM or its caster can change that.	You clicked Set on an effect that isn't yours to change.
Could not end it. Try again.	Ending didn't reach RollQuest, or the effect had already ended.
Could not set how long it lasts. Try again.	The new length didn't reach RollQuest.

Related

Spell FX · Spells and casting · Area effect templates · Conditions · World clock