How do you cast the Shield spell on an NPC?

[kyleeliason]

In battle, I'd like a Drow Mage to cast shield on himself, but unlike the players where they just click on the dice button in actions, I have no idea how the Drow Mage can cast that on himself to give him the +5AC bonus effect for the round? How does one do that?

[Griogre]

Assuming the Mage NPC is set up correctly drag the Shield effect from the Mage on the combat tracker and drop it back onto the mage. Same with Mage Armor.

[kyleeliason]

How exactly? Unlike other spells like Magic Missile where the cursor turns to a hand and highlights the draggable text (i.e. "1d4 + 1 force damage"), there is nothing draggable from the Shield spell under an NPC like Drow Mage. I would think that something like "+5 bonus to AC" could be dragged to the NPC on the combat tracker, but it can't.
shield.jpg

[kyleeliason]

Oh wait! I see! The key is not necessarily that you drag it to the NPC, it's that you have to drag it from the stats on the combat tracker to the NPC on the combat tracker. I was trying to find something to drag from the NPC stat block when you pull it up outside of the combat tracker.

[Griogre]

Glad you got it sorted out. Yes you want to use from and to the combat tracker. Just a FYI the spell descriptions in the NPC are completely not needed by the combat tracker - all the spells and effects on the combat tracker are built from the NPC's Spellcasting trait. This means for things like NPC casters you need the PH open so the combat tracker can pull the spells.