Geas is a 5th-level enchantment spell for Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Wizards. Over 1 minute, you give a creature within 60 feet a command: a service to perform or something to stop doing. If it understands you and fails a Wisdom save, it is charmed for 30 days and takes 5d10 psychic damage when it acts directly against your command, no more than once per day. A 7th- or 8th-level slot extends it to a year.
Geas is the spell for binding promises. It doesn't control a creature's every move like Dominate Person. It sets one rule, "guide us to the vault" or "never speak of what you saw here," and attaches a painful price to breaking it. The creature keeps its own mind, its own judgment and its freedom to do anything the command doesn't cover.
The 1-minute casting time keeps it out of combat. You cast it on a prisoner, a defeated enemy or a creature that has agreed to talk, from up to 60 feet away, with only a verbal component.
The enforcement is real but limited. The creature takes 5d10 psychic damage (average 27.5) when it acts directly against your command, at most once per day. A creature with plenty of hit points can decide the damage is worth it. And the wording "directly counter" leaves room: what counts as direct defiance is the DM's call. Write commands that are short, specific and hard to sidestep.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Level | 5 |
| School | Enchantment |
| Casting Time | 1 minute |
| Range | 60 feet |
| Components | V |
| Material | None |
| Duration | 30 days |
| Concentration | No |
| Ritual | No |
| Save/Attack | WIS |
| Classes | Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Wizard |
| Metric | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Slot Efficiency | Excellent. One slot can settle a story problem for a month. |
| Action Economy | Irrelevant in combat. It's a 1-minute cast for downtime and negotiations. |
| Opportunity Cost | A 5th-level slot, but no concentration. It runs for 30 days while you cast everything else. |
When worth the slot: Securing a captured spy's silence, binding a defeated villain to leave the region, or forcing a guide to lead you honestly.
When NOT worth the slot: When a Zone of Truth interrogation or a good Persuasion check gets you what you need.
With a 7th- or 8th-level slot, the duration becomes 1 year (365 days in the 2024 text). With a 9th-level slot, the geas lasts until it is ended by Remove Curse, Greater Restoration or Wish. The save and the damage don't change.
Why it works: The damage only applies when the creature acts "in a manner directly counter" to your instructions. A vague command ("help us") leaves a lot of room to drag its feet. A narrow command ("lead us by the shortest safe route to the temple and warn us of every trap you know") is harder to dodge.
This avoids the mistake of: Arguing with your DM later about whether stalling counts as defiance.
Why it works: A prohibition is easy to judge. Either the creature returned to the town or it didn't. An open-ended service invites half-hearted effort that never quite counts as acting against you.
This avoids the mistake of: A geased guide who technically helps and never gets you anywhere.
Why it works: The 1-minute casting time needs a creature that stays put. A restrained, surrendered or bound prisoner is the ideal target. Charmed also means it can't attack you for 30 days.
This avoids the mistake of: Starting the casting in front of a creature that walks away halfway through.
Why it works: A 7th-level slot turns 30 days into a year. That's enough to bind a defeated warlord to keep a peace treaty or a thieves' guild to stay out of your town.
This avoids the mistake of: Geasing someone for 30 days and having them break the deal on day 31.
Why it's bad: The spell caps the damage at once per day. After the creature takes 5d10 once, further defiance that same day costs it nothing more.
Do this instead: Use commands where one act of defiance matters. A single betrayal is what the damage is meant to deter.
Why it's bad: A creature that can't understand you is unaffected (2014) or automatically succeeds (2024). A hill giant speaks only Giant.
Do this instead: Check the target's languages. Cast it on an ogre in Common, or bring someone who speaks Giant and use Comprehend Languages to understand the reply.
Why it's bad: Geas compels a service or forbids an action. It doesn't make the creature tell the truth unless your command says so, and even then lying has to count as directly acting against it.
Do this instead: Pair it with Zone of Truth to verify answers.
Why it's bad: Remove Curse (3rd level) ends it. So does Greater Restoration or Wish. An enemy with access to a cleric can undo your work.
Do this instead: Upcast to 9th level only if you need it permanent. Otherwise, assume a powerful enemy can buy its way out.
The 2024 Player's Handbook keeps Geas as a level 5 enchantment spell for Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Wizards. The 1-minute casting time, 60-foot range, verbal component, 30-day duration, Wisdom save and 5d10 psychic damage are all the same.
What changed in the text:
The 2024 Charmed condition works the same way for Geas: the creature can't attack you or target you with damaging abilities or magical effects, and you have Advantage on ability checks to interact with it socially. In the 2024 Fey Ancestry trait, elves have Advantage on saves to avoid or end the Charmed condition.
Geas gives a creature a magical command for 30 days. If it understands you and fails a Wisdom save, it is charmed by you and takes 5d10 psychic damage when it acts directly against your command, no more than once per day.
5d10 psychic damage, an average of 27.5, when the creature acts directly counter to your command. It can take this damage only once per day.
Remove Curse, Greater Restoration or Wish ends it. In the 2014 rules the caster can also dismiss it with an action. Dispel Magic can end it as well, like any spell, with an ability check if the Dispel Magic slot is lower than the Geas.
No. You can't issue a command that would result in certain death. If you do, the spell ends.
No. It lasts its full duration without concentration.
In the 2014 rules, it is unaffected. In the 2024 rules, it automatically succeeds on the save. Either way, the spell does nothing to it.
Yes, with a 9th-level slot. The geas then lasts until Remove Curse, Greater Restoration or Wish ends it.
Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Wizards have it on their lists in both rule sets. In the 2024 rules, Fiend warlocks always have it prepared from level 9.
Citations: SRD 5.1 (2014 rules), SRD 5.2.1 (2024 rules)
Includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
This page includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Loreify is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.
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