The guy who introduced me to CF thought of the idea for a solution to dealing with the inherent flaw in the lag system.

Or lag imposes limited command denial but full movement denial.
Increase or keep time the same, but make it so the guy bashed has an opportunity to at least attempt to counter.
Doesn't solve mages that can word in combat, but imagine a system where if you are bashed, you can still fight back, but at the same time you're unable to flee.
I know it overlaps with things like cutoff-entwine, but those would still have there big uses in that they either fire automatically, or they prevent fleeing for a set duration instead of a round or two.
If I look at a pincer, it's good damage, and lag 2 rounds. It's pretty stupid for an axe spec not to use pincer to the exclusion of anything else because it hits hard, prevents him from doing anything to you from two rounds, and prevents him from fleeing for two rounds. Why would you bother using much else in the majority of situations?

Require word to be the same as teleport, can not be used in combat. It still very much has it's place as it's not random. It never really made sense that you can use one but not the other in combat.

Look at it this way. I'm far more likely to engage in a PK when I have my full repertoire of class abilities at my disposal. Whereas when fighting someone that can grant complete command denial, I have no incentive to take on that fight because the whole basis of my PK efficacy is stripped from me. The flaw in command denial is it's just not fun for either party to a large extent. If you want PK to be more fun, give people a way to always meaningfully participate in it. Command denial does the opposite, it limits the user ability to impact the outcome, which reduces fun and makes it more routine and monotonous.

I would say make lag impose limited command denial, no more than a round, and existing or increased movement denial. Now you have to be judicious with when lag is the go to move. But by lumping movement in with command denial, the flaws become apparent, and the tactics narrowed. Now the axe spec may switch weapons, go for some maledictions, because while he can spam lag to hold the guy in place, he can't prevent the opponent from going for more damage through burst, or maledicting him to swing the fight in his favor. The fight becomes far less predictable, and far more engaging for each party.

I'm conservative as hell, but I'm not risk averse. It's just that when you play long enough, you know the fights that favor you and the ones that don't. But that dynamic shifts greatly when you say you'll be able to use your abilities to try and counter your opponent.

I will say this with 100% certainty. If bash prevented me from fleeing, but not singing, the fights between Krunk and Salyeris still would have been to the death (well mine, I still would have had a very difficult time pinning you down), but I would also wager they would have been far more entertaining for both of us. Moreover, I would have gone more out of my way to bring the fight to you, because it would not have felt as nearly one sided as it was in the current system, even if the end results were just as many elf corpses.