Lesser Geas — The Binding Command
At a Glance
| Spell | Lesser Geas |
|---|---|
| School | Enchantment; magical compulsion |
| Purpose | Bind a creature that understands the caster to a command or prohibition |
| Range | Within speaking distance, as specified by the chosen rules |
| Protection | Saving throw, removal magic, precise wording and the target’s capacity to interpret a command |
| Danger | A command may be obeyed to the letter while its purpose is betrayed |
| Most often used by | Manipulative courtiers, witches, warlocks and oath-binding magicians |
At midnight, the duchess orders her captain to guard the sealed door. At dawn, the prisoner is gone. The captain has not disobeyed. He stood before the door all night while the prisoner escaped through the hearth. The command still burns behind his eyes, and his mistress has learned the difference between obedience and loyalty.
Lesser Geas places a command inside the target’s mind. It can force a servant to deliver a letter, prevent a witness from revealing a secret, or require a sworn messenger to return with evidence. It does not grant affection, rewrite memories or make the impossible possible. A malicious caster must reckon with what the victim can understand and what the command actually says.
What Is Happening Right Now?
The sealed correspondence. A noble in Naples cannot admit why he keeps delivering letters to his rival. A sorcerer bound him to carry every message marked with a black ribbon; he has begun looking for messages without ribbons.
The devil’s tutor. A former student of the Scholomance returns to his family with wealth and an unnerving habit of asking permission before speaking. His relatives can free him only if they identify the exact command he was given.
A vow freely made. A champion keeps a geis that forbids retreat from battle, though no hostile spell compels it. Their oath may have supernatural consequences, but that tradition is not automatically the same effect as a lesser geas imposed upon an unwilling subject.
Game Statistics
Lesser Geas
Level 4 Enchantment (original campaign spell; Bard, Wizard)
Casting Time 1 minute
Range 60 feet
Components V
Duration 7 days
Saving Throw Wisdom
You speak a single achievable command to one creature you can see within range. The creature must understand your words. It makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it has the Charmed condition for the spell’s duration and is compelled to pursue the stated command or avoid the prohibited action. It retains its judgment in matters not covered by the command. It can interpret the instruction literally and seek ways around it.
Disobedience. If the target knowingly acts directly against the command, it takes 3d10 Psychic damage, at most once per day. The spell doesn’t compel an act certain to cause the target’s death; issuing such a command ends the spell.
Ending the Spell. Completing a definite task ends the spell. You can dismiss it as a Magic action. Remove Curse, Greater Restoration or Wish also ends it. A target that succeeds on the initial save is unaffected.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. A level 5 or higher slot extends the duration to 30 days, but otherwise does not strengthen the command.
Lesser Geas
4th-level enchantment (original campaign spell; bard, wizard)
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: 7 days
You give a spoken command to one creature you can see within range. If it can understand you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration and compelled to carry out the instruction. The command must be possible and cannot require an action certain to cause the creature’s death; such an instruction ends the spell. The creature otherwise retains its own intentions and can satisfy the precise wording without fulfilling your broader wishes.
When the creature knowingly acts directly contrary to the command, it takes 3d10 psychic damage, but no more than once each day. Completing a specific task ends the spell. You can dismiss it as an action. Remove curse, greater restoration or wish ends it.
At Higher Levels. Casting with a 5th-level or higher slot extends the duration to 30 days but does not change the damage or command.
Lesser Geas
School enchantment (compulsion) [language-dependent, mind-affecting]; Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 round; Components V
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one living creature of 7 HD or fewer
Duration 1 day/level or until discharged (D)
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
The caster imposes a duty or restriction on a creature able to understand the order. The instruction cannot demand certain death. A defined task lasts until completed, while an ongoing duty cannot persist beyond the duration. A clever target can carry out the actual words while frustrating the caster’s intent.
Defiance. After a full 24 hours unable to follow the geas, the target suffers a –2 penalty to each ability score. An additional –2 accrues per further 24 hours, to a maximum penalty of –8; no ability score drops below 1 from this effect. The penalties disappear after 24 hours of renewed obedience.
Removal. Break enchantment, remove curse, limited wish, miracle or wish ends the spell and penalties. Dispel magic does not end it.
Geas, Lesser
Enchantment (Compulsion) [Language-Dependent, Mind-Affecting]; Level Brd 3, Sor/Wiz 4
Components V
Casting Time 1 round
Range Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target One living creature with 7 HD or fewer
Duration One day/level or until discharged (D)
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance Yes
Give a living creature capable of understanding you an achievable order or prohibition. The creature is compelled to pursue the stated task but may exploit its precise wording; it cannot be forced to undertake an action certain to kill it. A completed specific task discharges the spell. An indefinite order cannot continue beyond the listed duration.
Consequences. If the creature has been kept from compliance for 24 hours, each ability score suffers a –2 penalty. Further days add –2 per day to a maximum penalty of –8. Scores cannot fall below 1 from the geas, and penalties disappear after 24 hours of compliance.
Breaking the Binding. Break enchantment, remove curse, limited wish, miracle and wish can end this enchantment. Dispel magic cannot.
How a Lesser Geas Changes an Adventure
The Noble’s Promise
A duchess orders her champion never to draw his sword against her household. He obeys, but hires someone else to investigate a murderous cousin. The party can prove who cast the command, persuade the champion to exploit its wording, or seek a priest capable of ending it.
The Velvet Messenger
At an extravagant feast, a courier delivers a jeweled invitation to an infernal masquerade. A lesser geas prevents her from admitting who paid her. She asks the characters to examine the wax seal instead. Its emblem belongs to the Hellfire Club, whose host has also invited their most dangerous enemy.
Return Before the Third Bell
At the Scholomance, a tutor orders a pupil to return a stolen manuscript before the third bell. The manuscript has already been destroyed, but a perfect copy survives in the school archive. The party can recover it, expose the tutor’s cruelty or persuade the master that an impossible demand has no rightful force.
Running Commands Fairly
Write the command down exactly when it is given. Keep its stated limits visible: understanding, the initial save, completion, removal and the danger of literal interpretation. A magical command is not a tool for rewriting a player’s character or bypassing player decisions without the rules of the chosen edition. Enchantment does not make an evil act morally innocent.
The Geis Beyond the Spell
In Irish heroic storytelling, a geis (plural geasa) can be a taboo, duty or deeply consequential vow. It may be freely accepted or laid on a hero by a supernatural authority. Breaking it may bring disaster without anybody casting this particular spell. Those obligations belong to story and culture as well as magic: an oath freely kept can define a champion more strongly than a spell imposed by a tyrant.
The Aengus traditions and the wider Celtic pantheon offer other paths into supernatural obligation, patronage and desire. An imposed lesser geas and a voluntarily embraced geis are not interchangeable.
Related Magic and Powers
Geas / Quest — the more powerful binding · Compulsion · Domination Domain · Hellfire Club · Scholomance.
Sources and Licensing
For legacy game mechanics consult the D&D 3.5 SRD and Pathfinder 1e Core Rulebook spell reference. The D&D 2024 and 2014 variants here are original lesser versions designed for play below the official fifth-level Geas; they are not published official spells. Historical geasa and game mechanics are distinct.
The Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e rules summaries are based on their respective Open Game Content sources. D&D 2024 terminology derived from SRD 5.2.1 is attributed under CC BY 4.0. The modern Lesser Geas variants and narrative examples are original campaign material, not official 2024 or 2014 spells.
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