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The Planar Binding spell is the answer to the classic trope of dark mages summoning and binding demons to their service. But what is the extent of this spell’s capacities in 5e?

  1. What scope of orders can be given?
    Can suicidal orders be given? Even further, could you order the being to repeatedly attack itself until death (the closest thing to suicide in 5e)? Can you order a bound creature to be a “willing” participant in a spell? Spells like Plane Shift and True Polymorph depend on the willingness of the target to avoid saves.

  2. Can truly any fey, celestial, fiend, or elemental be bound?
    MToF added stats for demon princes and a lord of hell; could such fiends (assuming you could beat the resistances) be bound?

  3. Does a creature need to understand your orders to obey?
    This might seem like a dumb question, but certain beings might have too low intelligence to understand language; what kind of orders can they be given?

V2Blast
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Attonwizard
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    Your third question seems a bit different from the rest, and already has an answer: "When wish is used to emulate a spell, what is the casting time?", I think it can safely be removed which would make your questions feel more like a single question – Exempt-Medic May 08 '20 at 17:12
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    You’re right! Will do. – Attonwizard May 08 '20 at 17:16
  • I think the question is too broad in its current state. Even the "first" question is actually a pack of three distinct questions. We have a separate question just for "how can I make a creature willing": Can you make an unwilling creature willing? In other words, what defines “willing”? – enkryptor May 08 '20 at 17:37
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    I think the three questions are pretty distinct, and could probably each be asked separately (i.e. #2 and #3 could be edited out and asked separately, with this question focusing solely on #1). #1 itself is asking multiple different questions, with the "willing" part covered by the question enkryptor linked - so this question could focus just on the suicidal/self-attacking orders issue. – V2Blast May 08 '20 at 19:23
  • Your questions are good questions, but the question's very broad as-is, and it's very hard for a single answer to address all of them adequately - each of them is distinct enough to be its own separate Q&A. The answer to any one of the questions is not dependent on or closely related to the answers to the others, which seems like a good reason to ask them as separate posts (i.e. one post for the "suicidal orders"/"repeatedly attack itself" part of #1, one post for #2, one post for #3 (if it's not already covered by an existing Q&A)). – V2Blast May 08 '20 at 19:27

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