D&D 5E players discover that divorce was prevented from being OP
D&D 5E players have noticed that the concept of divorce had to be taken out of a certain spell to prevent adventurers from benefiting from shotgun weddings.
Dungeons & Dragons adventures usually involve conflicts between good and evil, but sometimes, love can bloom on the battlefield. Inter-party romances aren’t just a thing in Baldur’s Gate 3, as D&D characters will date each other, as well as NPCs.
It’s somewhat unlikely for D&D characters to get married and have kids. This is due to most campaigns only lasting a few weeks or months in terms of game time, with the party usually busy saving the world and not having time to plan a wedding and come up with seating plans.
One spell in D&D 5E turns marriage into a game element. The Ceremony spell from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything provides a +2 Armor Class bonus for one week to two married individuals, so long as they’re within 30 feet of each other. The spell was worded in such a way as to nerf the concept of divorce.
Wizards of the CoastD&D 5E had to nerf the concept of divorce for one spell
A user on the DnD Reddit named demogobblin pointed out in a thread that the Ceremony spell had to preclude divorce from its rules. The spell states that characters can only benefit from the Wedding aspect of Ceremony again if they become widowed.
This means that characters cannot spam the Ceremony spell by using it for a week, getting a divorce, and then casting it again. D&D players would use this strategy if they thought they could get away with it, with the whole party married to each other for the +2 Armor Class bonus.
“Makes sense, otherwise you get a weekly wedding ceremony to give a permanent bonus to the couple” one user writes, while another states, “Probably because it would be exploitable otherwise. Marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, perpetual +2 AC.”
There is technically a way around the spell, as the player could murder their spouse, becoming a widower, and then bring them back to life using a spell like Revivify or Raise Dead. Whether their partner would agree to this is another matter.
It’s funny to think of the Wizards of the Coast staff needing to plan around players using loopholes to get out of their holy matrimony, all for a single bonus. Then again, if the party is going to the Temple of Elemental Evil or the Tomb of Annihilation, maybe a quick wedding wouldn’t be a bad idea.