4 Answers
- Wielding a weapon or a shield. If the caster has a weapon in hand, he is unable to use his hands to also cast a spell.
- Not having hands. This applies to druids, as they can still cast spells in their Wild Shape at high enough level.
- Completely immobilized.
Do manacles prevent somatic components?
If they think being bound in manacles doesn’t stop a caster from casting with the somatic component then you’d just have to bind their hands in another way.
How do you imprison a wizard in D&D?
There are no special mechanics to keep a mage in jail. None at all. None but a legal deal. If a person escapes prison using magic in the course of the escape then whatever their punishment would have been it is now upped to the death penalty.
How to keep spell casters from casting while in jail?
Place the spell caster in some kind of suspended animation (e.g., the vanish sink spell of 1st edition AD&D). Drug the spell caster so that they are incapable of casting (per orlp’s excellent comment). Have the jail include guardians who are practiced at containing spell casters.
How to keep spellcasters from casting while in DND?
Basic measures like removing a spell book, holy/arcane focus, and spell components would prevent use of any spells with a material component. A gag would stop verbal spells and being bound would stop somatic spells.
What can cause a spell caster to stop concentrating?
A Suggestion or Charm spell, or an effect similar to those spells, could induce a caster to stop concentrating in a spell. Out of combat, something like a bribe or a persuasion attempt, or an intimidation attempt, could do similarly.
What happens if a spell caster misses a save?
The following Conditions (Basic Rules, Appendix A) create Incapacitation as a part of the Condition: Therefore, if the caster misses a save versus Petrification or Paralysis, or is subject to a sleep spell/sleep effect, whatever spell the caster is concentrating on ends.
