We took my niece to buy her first set of D&D dice today. She's 6, and she was excited to tell people she's going to play a Wizard. When she found someone who was actually interested, they asked what spells she was planning to take. She told them "Sleep is going to be my favorite, because the monsters are grumpy and they need a nap."
@@ArgentumEmperio "The Ice Giants said that they were cold- So I promise that I'll use this spell *to make sure that they'll be warm for the rest of their lives.*
Sleep is also one of the only ways to kill a 20th level Zealot Barbarian If you can get them to the “dead man walking” stage, where they’ve failed all of their death saving throws and are standing on rage alone, a sleep spell will automatically knock them unconscious, ending their rage and instantly killing them.
+Zee Bashew Was Dm’ing for my low level party and they were facing what was supposed to be a troublesome minor encounter of 3 quasits, good attacks and saves, shapeshifting to hide, resistance to nearly all low level damage types, except i didn’t know the sorcerer took sleep, and quasits have 7 health.....
I once had a party finish off a young green dragon using Sleep. They caught it just as it was flying off and it had few enough hit points to get put to sleep, so it took all the fall damage and died instantly. Unorthodox but effective.
DM takes ages to make a highly difficult and unique challenge with few options for the players to go for against weak enemies with a strong plan. He sets the scene perfectly, describing exactly what the players would be able to see. It's all up to them now. Combat begins... And then the fucking spellca-
@@Pineapple-hx9ty i mean, im no dnd expert and im not here to argue class utility, but to be fair, martial classes can actually take a hit meanwhile sorcerers got the hit die that qui gon used to save anakin from slavery so they probably need utility for balance, it was just a joke comment afterall except when the fucking wizard decides to turn an entire group fo enemies into nice little cubes of loot by saying "i cast fireball"
@@pyrauxe3507 Any DM should be well aware of what their party is capable of. If you put a bunch of weak monsters together near a wizard who knows fireball... Well. I mean, who wouldn't? Mix it up. Have an enemy spell caster cast counterspell. Have them all carrying rings of fire resistance (Be aware that your pc would then also have rings of fire resistance after the fighting...). Naturally, this is a serious reply to a joke comment, but a dm caught off guard by something like this confuses me.
"holy shit, this series is doing way better than I ever imagined." I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I'm glad you've stuck with it. 3+ years later, and your content is still very entertaining.
My party and I were watching a play when the Drow that were hunting us found us. They attacked my bard that was on stage with crossbows, along the half-elf they were after on stage. I could not see them in the group of people to attack, but I rolled well enough to figure out about where the shot came from. I cast sleep knowing, as a half-elf that elves can't be put to sleep, but the 1/4 cr villagers could. About 8-10 of them dropped and there were the elves. My DM didn't expect this to be my plan, he was all "Uh, you know you can't put Drow to sleep right?"
A player surprised me with Sleep once. Arcane Trickster separated from his group, about to be discovered by a decently tough enemy. He backstabs on surprise round, wins initiative, then puts the enemy to sleep and gets away. Normally it would have been immune, but he dropped its current hit points enough to affect it.
@@hansolobutimdead Okay so. A sundial is a circular device that tells time using the shadow cast by a centerpiece, usually triangular in shape. So having just one big tower in the middle of an empty field like that, and it's shadow reaches all the way to the end? If it's a circle like that, add some numbers and bam, primitive timekeeping device.
@@OhNoTheFace if my DM describes a "rickety wooden tower" you could bet a platinum piece i'm using any one of the ranged fire cantrips to ignite the tower's base and then taking cover in the trees, kobolds very rarely have their variant of a caster(a scale sorcerer) with them above ground in small numbers, so lighting that tower is logical, and is probably one of the projected 'correct' outcomes to this puzzle, the other being to approach the tower from a side where the sun is at your back.
Any outdoor battle. Valor bard. Sharpshooter. Swift Quiver/Haste. Dimension door 500 feet straight up. As reaction, cast Feather Fall. You slowly drift down while having a fantastic firing position as a sharpshooter archer and can rain down death from above.
except you drop 60 feet per rounds... you'll have only 2 rounds to shoot those kobolds before they get full cover as well. and sharpshooter isn't bypassing full cover. also you consider yourself high level to have that build... for all we know those players were level 1 or 2.
@@dsoul1305 i also was talking about this battle... but mechanically... what the OP said cannot be done. as D&D is real about physics and literally tells you you drop instantly to the ground. and from xanathars, you drop 500 feet instantly then have a round and then drop again. while cinematic slowdowns are great they are unrealistic to anybody wanting a bit of immersion. Hey every DMs deals with their own shit with players. thats fine... but a DM wrongly doing stuff doesn'T make a spell overpowered. after all, sleep is a great spell... but its nowhere near combat ending for anybody. and i'm sure the players weren't expecting the DM to hand wave the fight because of a sleep spell.
@@gmradio2436 I imagine they are 1-2 lvl, because it’s only 1st level spells. So, you’d expect they don’t have money for siege equipment (imagine what fireball would do)
Something similar happened in the game I'm running yesterday. The players tracked down some goblins, who had been terrorizing a local village and stealing all their chicken. The goblins were hiding out in a local barn, and having spotted the players from afar, they shot arrows, threw eggs, and were a big pain in the ass towards the players, all while being very difficult to hit from outside. Now, one of my players have watched these videos. I know that because he's the one who showed me this video a few months ago. He was sure he could handle this situation, by using the spell Sleep. I had not thought of that possibility, but sure, why not. He rolled his dice, and... 22. Which I guess is okay for first level, and it's enough to put at least 3 of the goblins to sleep. Except... it seemingly did nothing at all. When the puzzled players finally did get inside the barn, they found 22 sleeping chicken on the floor.
Yeah, I didn't do it that way to be cruel or to punish them or anything. I was clarifying how the spell worked when it struck me the goblins weren't the lowest HP creatures inside the spell radius. My players found it hilarious too and my entire table had a good laugh about it afterwards. It's one they'll remember, and that's the important thing.
I was DMing a campaign of Waterdeep Dragon Heist for a few friends, all of whom were first time players. By second level our Bard had picked up Sleep, and he decided that using it to rob a shopkeeper was the smart play. I asked him where he wanted to center it, and he said "right on his forehead," leaving himself and the shopkeeper as the only two in the store. Another party member walked in to find him passed out half on top of the shopkeeper. He learned his lesson about making sure he reads how spells work before casting them, and everyone had a good laugh.
i remember having a very similar thing happening with my "sleep" experience where the roll was so good, i put to sleep everyone in the room including my party members LOL
"So what do you do..." "I know what my sorcerer fukin did" The subtle way he swears like, jesus holy shit dude really I planned this tower for ages and then you beat in two seconds, always cracks me up.
why wouldn't you let the sorcerer burn the tower? that sounds like an interesting and well thought out answer to the puzzle... it'd still take a while, the party would be subjected to a rain of arrows in the mean time and few low level fire spells allow you to actually light fires. what's the problem?
@@GypsySlyp the kobolds can't see because the fire removes the shadows they need to see and becomes blindingly bright, they would just burn to death and it would be a cheap solo kill that destroys any clues or treasure. It also wouldn't allow the other players any interaction and it's supposed to be an encounter not a one-and-done trap so what's supposed to be the session for the day becomes one turn that never became combat. At that point the only person enjoying themselves is the sorcerer and you have to think of the whole party but if the kobolds are busy putting out the fire then the wizard feels like a badass for getting the party a couple more turns before the kobolds can react and doesn't automatically counter the entire encounter. Also kobolds are supposed to be cunning and smart so why wouldn't they carry a bucket of water to at least drink or even as I suggested it just happens to be damp from earlier fog or rain
@@Liam_The_Great here is the description for shatter. check the last sentence A sudden loud ringing noise, painfully intense, erupts from a point of your choice within range. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature made of inorganic material such as stone, crystal, or metal has disadvantage on this saving throw. A nonmagical object that isn’t being worn or carried also takes the damage if it’s in the spell’s area.
As Dm i would say no. A tower is no Object. A object is everything you could lift up or move with enough strength. A tower would not fall in this Category. And even if, do you really think it would have that less Hp?
@@MrTheerteen It literally says "an object that's not being worn or carried" (makes sense, a shockwave is more dangerous for objects/things that're not free to move). And I wouldn't expect a "rickety tower" built by kobolds out of scrap wood to have such a massive hp pool.
Two years later and people keep saying "why not just cast fireball?" Fireball is a 3rd level spell which can't be cast until a character is at 5th level. Considering the party is fighting kobolds and was nearly dropped in the first round, it's entirely possible that the party wasn't at that level yet. Or the sorcerer didn't want to 'waste' a third level spell slot on something like this. Or he chose to run without Fireball in the first place.
Not to mention the possibility of starting a larger fire. I tend to forget and my DM reminds me, but fire is kind of bad. Little dry weather or an urban setting and you can really fuck up a wide area with a cantrip. Your DM doesn't even need to be a dick about it, just maybe gives a player a reason to not ALWAYS be using the biggest phoar-crikey-boom-sizzle spell they have.
This also relies on fireball making a big enough fire for the fire to spread in a small number of rounds, and secondarily relies on the party having zero need for any loot from the encounter. Most loot isn't going to survive a fire large enough to burn down a bigass tower.
My party saved an NPC with sleep. He had been overtaken by an arcane force and driven to attack the party. I had planned for him to die, but my Sorcerer-rogue cast sleep when he was on his last legs. He's now a fan favorite.
_"I know what my fuck'n sorcerer did."_ It is a strange feeling to be both proud of your players for lateral thinking, yet wholly disappointed by the ease with which they bypass your challenges.
Well, I'd not blame the players. They do what they do best "Frustrate the DM at every turn." It's funny, because storytelling depends on tropes, but so many of those tropes are flawed. Have you read the list of "100 things I won't do when I become an evil villain"? It's full of these artificial things that storytellers use to either make the story more intense or create some sort of artificial difficulty that, well, a six year old can see through most of the time. (By the way, that's on the list.) So, if your players are dodging your pitfalls, chances are it's your reliance on tropes with major plot holes.
My sorcerer would've just firebolted the tower a few times and sat back and waited for the lizards to fry, but killing them in their sleep is a more elegant way to do things.
That's a proper kobold trap, right there. In the universe where my group holds their stories, kobolds are essentially the masters of long-term, well-thought-out warfare. Instead of being a thought experiment for breaking game mechanics, Pun-Pun is the world of Soma's equivalent to Sun Tzu, writing not only a treatise on the kobold methods of waging war (use of traps, ambushes, and controlling the environment, limiting your engagements to when victory can be assured, only going all-out when an absolutely vital target is threatened), but also how to achieve your goals from a position of subservience.
I put a wizard with sleep once--i never managed to use it effectively in combat, but i liked it because I'd decided he took it specifically because he needed to be able to sleep after his parents died Hence sucking at using it--he was used to using it on himself
In a scenario my group had been lost in the wilds for several days, and our food had slipped up. I the wizard still had a few spells and decided to spend one of them for sleep...on a lake. we caught about 20 big fish! and got food for about 5 extra days (rest rottened). Thank you for making me understand how this spell works!
I'm using this tower as a part of the growing adventure that involves kobolds and convinces my players that it's time to move me out from behind the DM screen for a while. Tucker would be proud.
Elven spellcasters can cast sleep centered on themselves and not have to worry about being affected by it. I've used this more than once to get out of a bad situation.
I tried pulling the tower thing with my players, only except that the tower was standing on a rock within a lake, with the players being in a boat-home. The kobolds weren’t doing much damage to the boat with their arrows, until they set them on fire, this sent the party into a panic. The wizard decided to cast Enlarge/Reduce on the rock, shrinking it to the point where it was unable to support the tower and it plunged into the lake. Unfortunately, this also created a mini-tsunami and the boat was totaled, everyone lived except the Paladin, who sank thanks to his recently acquired plate armor.
@@jessegitchell8114 Just because something ignites, does not mean it burns down immediately. It could take minutes or even hours, especially in the case of fire bolt(small impact area). So for "ending" the encounter, it would not be a solution, as you would suffer a few rounds of arrows until the Kobolds realize their tower is on fire and attempt to flee.
@@fendelphi You are correct, fire bolt alone ain't cutting it. The point was to fire bolt after putting them to sleep. Depending on where, and how many, fire bolts you place a tower like that could go up pretty quick.
@@jessegitchell8114 Ah, I see. Yes, that would be an efficient way of dealing with the "cleanup", if a bit barbaric. Also, you would lose out on potential loot, most likely.
Alright, I just ran a similar design to Rickety tower for my players and they fell for it as well. Same trick, hints of kobolds, shadow to the edge of the field... The expression on their faces when it happened was incredible. Thank you for sharing this amazing concept with us.
The only creatures immune are fey and creatures that don't sleep, so most creatures are affected. Also note the difference between "don't need sleep" and "don't sleep". An Elemental doesn't sleep, while a demon _can_ sleep, but doesn't need to. A demon would be affected, an elemental wouldn't
@@snake698 it does take a full action to wake up one character. So even if only one person is affected it still takes at least one person's action out of the round, which might just be enough to give the party time to get an advantage.
@@mattjohnhewitt That is accurate. Not only that, but waking up all of the kobolds would take many actions. However, you would get more advantage by killing even one kobold with a damaging spell in the long run. And kobolds are not resilient, if you know them.
I love the little recurring sound at 1:39. It's such a silly little tune and you've used it a lot, almost reminiscent of old medieval things, perfect for high fantasy campaigns
You haven't lived until you've cast sleep on a room full of goblins who then drop lanterns that catch the entire structure on fire and your whole party nearly burns alive.
Sleep is (Or was) also a low level party killer back in the day as well especially if said caster was bad at math. I still say my favorite spell is Magic Missile only because we use to get wands of them as treasure drops and only because my gnome artificer took 8 of them and loaded them up like a gattling gun with a crank that used the Trigger spell to fire each wand off when turned. Its also great to nail that munchkin in your game that builds for as high of an AC as they can.
I played a fledgling vamp recently that almost exclusively used sleep in all situations. I was paired with only a Barb/Warlock multiclass and we were basically playing on 2 player hard mode - every fight was overwhelming odds and we had to use strategy after strategy just to stay alive, and I found myself relying on Sleep in most situations. Dude on a slanted roof? Put em to sleep, and watch em roll to the ground. Surrounded? You can get lucky and drop an entire ambush if you upcast. I put out an entire PD at one point, and just walked in like I owned the place. Sleep is pretty OP in many situations, and damned handy in most.
@@dragonkingofthestars lol 2 month later sorry - we were doing a campaign that started as a 198X adaptation, but quickly went off the rail. The alien abduction got blamed on us, and we went on the run into Chicago lol Wild time
That's how you're supposed to run the spell, rules as written. "Starting with the creature that has the lowest *current* hit points, each creature affected by this spell falls unconscious until the spell ends [...]"
Sleep is an awesome spell for newbie PCs. It stops being useful when you run into monsters with more than 2 hit dice, but hopefully by then you've got more options
@@___meph___4547 Wizard's don't use known spells, they use prepared spells but are limited by their spellbook and so to make up for this they get 2 spells each level added to their spellbook.
Another (more cruel and brutal) solution is to cast a fire spell at the base of the tower and essentially recreate that one scene from The Wicker Man film. Complete with the dancing.
For our group we got Kobolds to surrender after our bard knocked 5 of the 7 out of sleep, and our paladin intimidated the other two to give up. We gave them a little food but they still ran away scared, and left the littlest one behind. My paladin "adopted" him, and during our boss fight against the orcs the Kobold, thanks to pack tactics and overcast skies, went absolute destroyer on them. So now he's Arix - Kobold Knight Initiate. Honestly, I'm new to D&D, only having played it for about 1 year now, but I keep my eyes out for narratively & thematically valid reasons to show mercy because the stories are so much more compelling then just "congrads on beating an easy/medium/curbstomp difficulty fight." Actually that last fight my Paladin reached level 3, and she naturally took Oath of Redemption; so that should keep things interesting.
My favorite spells are cantrips, can't decide between minor illusion, prestidigitation and thorn whip. Minor illusion is great for hiding things via misdirection or special effects for intimidation. Prestidigitation is great for sleight of hand and other tricks vs enemies. Thorn whip I just like to sit next to a bridge overlooking a drop and wait for enemies to cross, pulling them over the edge... Among other shenanigans. Favorite trick was to take a portable hole, fill it with fun stuff for enemies to die with, lay it down over the floor, cast minor illusion to put a square of color roughly the same color as the ground, await enemies and taunt from other side, Pull in one that doesn't fall into the pit with thorn whip.
"i know what my fucking sorcerer did" said with a mix of frustration for the encounter being one-shot and pride for a player being clever. that about sums up casters in dnd, you hate 'em you love 'em but what they can do always mixes thing up. btw i fucking love these animations.
My group was on horse drawn wagons and horseback fighting/chasing a boss in another horse drawn wagon. Not giving a care in the world I casted sleep in the middle of the 4 horses pulling the boss’s wagon. I got some crazy stares after that battle. Just imagining four horses at full speed pulling a wagon just fall asleep is a hellish thing to imagine. Killed a minion but not the boss cuz bullshit of course
Judging from the responses this video is *still* getting, may I request you do a sort of "Rickety Tower - Revisited", or a video delving into more detail about this tower, how you used it, and so on? I used it to 'test' my new players, to see if they could come up with a solution that didn't involve just blindly charging it. I was very pleasantly surprised. So the PCs at my table included a Half-Orc WM Sorcerer, a Life Domain Cleric and a Drow Rogue. The Rogue was a brand new player and he was being coached by the much more experienced players at the table (which was nice to see. Warms the soul.) The Rogue did what your rogue did, and snuck down the shadow. Unfortunately, his AC was rubbish. Surprise round for the Kobolds, and the Rogue's HP drops to zero. The Life Cleric then rushes to the Rogue - taking care NOT to enter the shadow - to cast Spare the Dying, whilst the WM Sorcerer ran in the other direction around the tower, casting Minor Illusion to try and distract the Kobolds from the other two. Clever... Then, the Drow Rogue's player did something impressive. Impressive because it was something that was perfectly valid play, very clever, and without prompt or advice from the other two. He remembered that Drow have 'Drow Magic', and used it to cast Dancing Lights in front of the arrow slits. The logic being that trying to aim through a specific gap that's being lit up by a point-source of light is going to hamper your aiming ability. Considering this (and as a reward for the clever idea), I ruled that yes, the Kobolds now have disadvantage to hit in the shadow area, and since they already have disadvantage aiming in the stark sunlight, double disadvantage equates to 'unable to target'. It bought the group enough time to close up to the tower and decide whether to blast a hole in it with Firebolt, or try and scale the tower with grappling hooks. Oh, and that WM Sorcerer? The player had actually seen this video, and knew that casting Sleep was the right play. But he wanted to try something different, and followed the lead of the others. I LOVE that. Risky, since it could easily have ended in player deaths, but eh. It was a one-shot, so it didn't matter.
@@Tigercup9 Me too. D&D suffers from a lot of the "Git gud, scrub" mentality that plagues a lot of online/social games, so it's nice to see older/better players coaching and encouraging the newer ones rather than rolling their eyes and 'huffing' in disdain. Interestingly, vets who hate new players do so because they're sick of the same basic gameplay questions being asked over and over and over again ("Do I add my modifier to this roll?" "Is it my turn yet?" "Which dice is the D20?" etc), but during this game I don't actually recall it ever being asked. Every time it was the newbie's turn, it was like he had both vets over each shoulder coaching through his moves. A lot of it was *technically* blatant metagaming but I allowed it because it is exactly the kind of positivity I want to see every game. And the newbie? We'll make a hell of a player out of him yet! :)
@@ashleygillespie-horne6429 It's not even so much "git gud scrub" as it is that they don't consider that the new players need help. And those two are my best players - they pay attention, don't interrupt, and don't point out "inconsistencies" and "plot holes" where there are none. (Seriously. At least once a session somebody says "well isn't that convenient" very sarcastically as though I just put something there for the sake of it without having reason and background for it)
In an outnumbering ambush, our party's bard waited to cast Sleep until after we had beaten some of the attackers up a bit, then he put six of the human bandits to sleep, letting up mop up the last three in the following round. The 5d8 roll makes it a better fight finisher than a fight starter against medium CR foes.
I had an invisible enemy running away from the party and the Ranger was tracking his footprints in the cave as he ran away, and they tried to catch him several times and failed. Right as the enemy was about to flee out of the cave the Arcane trickster said… "oh… I cast sleep." I looked at him and was like… that's brilliant, roll 5d8. He rolled 22, the monster's hit points exactly.
Also my favourite 1st level spell. It became the signature spell of my pacifist bard to the point where the dm started designing half of the encounters to be against undead just to stop me spamming it (undead were a theme of the campaign so no problem there). I later learned Glyph of Warding and then set up elaborate traps to catch goblin warbands in clouds of 40D8 and such.
Zee: “this tower has 6 Kobalds inside, each taking 1 attack each at the shaded area of the tower. The tower is tall too so-“ Sorcerer: “I cast sleep” Zee: “god fucking dammit!”
LOL 6 Attacks per turn, the only way to hit them is with reactions, and even then its half cover... what do you do? "I know what my fucking sorcerer did"
one of my favorite 1st level spells is catapult. not only can you use lanterns to light people on fire, and vials of acid and such, but i just love the flavor of picking a random object (say, a severed head) and flinging it across the room at an enemy
@@JayF2912 it was a rhetorical question meant to highlight how this comment thread has missed the mark. My humor doesn't kick in when there are too many fails.
@@anormalusername2748 Yes but anywhere but the 20 degree cone is bright daylight and the kobolds get disadvantage to fire on anything in the daylight, so they've cleared a huge swath of ground.... so that targets approaching them are very difficult to hit for a kobold?
@@jameswatson2219 Until a spellcaster with the Firebolt cantrip shows up, blasts the tower ONCE, and then hangs out in full cover behind a tree while they roast alive in their kindling tower.
our party ran into a puzzle once in a cave. we were looking for a missing kid who'd wandered into the cave, and there were tales of monsters deep within. well, we get deeper down, and there are five kids, all identical, all cowering from the other and claiming that they are the child we are looking for, and that the others are monsters. we're at a loss of what to do, as an attempt to read their minds yields no results. well, our rogue/sorcerer figures that, unsurprisingly, children have low health pools, and casts sleep, knocking him out while the creatures change shape and attack. I'm a paladin, so I swiftly cast a spell that turns fiends, the monsters fuck off, and we take the kid back safely without ever having to swing.
my folks played DnD since 1st ed and they told me; "sleep is a death spell without a save if the target is over a cliff". grease is also a fun spell: deny an area and light the zone on fire with a torch or cantrip. then there's warp wood; for dropping bell towers on enemies and sinking ships. Bind from 2nd ed can be used to unfasten someone's armor, bow, or saddle as well. Remember folks, it's not the power of the spell, it's how it's used.
A lot of cantrips and low level spells solve these kinds of situations really well. Starting out, it always felt bad to disarm groups of monsters so quickly and efficiently, that I would worry about deflating the GM. It's great to see that you celebrated the players doing this and treating the encounter like a puzzle.
Кино
..... that was a magnificent play, and it only cost most of a rogue.
N Dub
so no cost then?
Rouges are one of those types of creatures that either don't get hit, mostly die, or insta die.
@@jacobford3452 if the rouge dies they have bad luck, or they are doing rouge wrong.
worth it
@@LockCard well then, do you have any tips on how to apply rouge? I'm a newbie to make-up
We took my niece to buy her first set of D&D dice today. She's 6, and she was excited to tell people she's going to play a Wizard. When she found someone who was actually interested, they asked what spells she was planning to take.
She told them "Sleep is going to be my favorite, because the monsters are grumpy and they need a nap."
That is one of the single most wholesome things I think I've ever heard, thank you for sharing
1. That is so wholesome ^^
2. I am ... let's say curious what she will/would say when/if she learns of fireball ^^'
@@ArgentumEmperio "The Ice Giants said that they were cold- So I promise that I'll use this spell *to make sure that they'll be warm for the rest of their lives.*
@@bodaciouschad after all, their deaths would come soon after the fireball!
“I know what my fuckin’ sorcerer did...” common words of a dm for an experienced sorcerer
Hellish rebuke
HA! I know my DM hates me. My go to move is to use Careful Spell to exclude my party, then drop a Sickening Radiance on the room.
The line "I know what my fucking sorcerer did..." has such DM energy
Sleep is also one of the only ways to kill a 20th level Zealot Barbarian
If you can get them to the “dead man walking” stage, where they’ve failed all of their death saving throws and are standing on rage alone, a sleep spell will automatically knock them unconscious, ending their rage and instantly killing them.
He wasn't a Zealot, but I legit played a half-elf barbarian for a while.
Laughs in elf zealot
@@pandacakes6613 calm emooootioooons
@@GMeneze800 Advantage against charm saves tho
@@pandacakes6613 what can those do with a wis score of 10-12 anyways and probably no Prof on Wisdom Saves
The one dislike: a kobold.
That made me legitimately laugh.
+Zee Bashew Was Dm’ing for my low level party and they were facing what was supposed to be a troublesome minor encounter of 3 quasits, good attacks and saves, shapeshifting to hide, resistance to nearly all low level damage types, except i didn’t know the sorcerer took sleep, and quasits have 7 health.....
I just realized i had this disliked by mistake
I once had a party finish off a young green dragon using Sleep. They caught it just as it was flying off and it had few enough hit points to get put to sleep, so it took all the fall damage and died instantly. Unorthodox but effective.
Definitely, that's awesome.
"Unorthodox but effective" sums up a lot of DnD encounters, I feel.
A win is a win, even if you failed to actually win.
I thought it was max hp you roll against
@@NorroTaku nah current hp
DM takes ages to make a highly difficult and unique challenge with few options for the players to go for against weak enemies with a strong plan. He sets the scene perfectly, describing exactly what the players would be able to see. It's all up to them now. Combat begins...
And then the fucking spellca-
Ok but what do you expect the martial classes to do? Most tools they're given are basically useless in a surprising amount of normal scenarios.
@@Pineapple-hx9ty i mean, im no dnd expert and im not here to argue class utility, but to be fair, martial classes can actually take a hit meanwhile sorcerers got the hit die that qui gon used to save anakin from slavery so they probably need utility for balance, it was just a joke comment afterall
except when the fucking wizard decides to turn an entire group fo enemies into nice little cubes of loot by saying "i cast fireball"
@@pyrauxe3507 Any DM should be well aware of what their party is capable of. If you put a bunch of weak monsters together near a wizard who knows fireball... Well. I mean, who wouldn't?
Mix it up. Have an enemy spell caster cast counterspell. Have them all carrying rings of fire resistance (Be aware that your pc would then also have rings of fire resistance after the fighting...).
Naturally, this is a serious reply to a joke comment, but a dm caught off guard by something like this confuses me.
"holy shit, this series is doing way better than I ever imagined."
I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I'm glad you've stuck with it. 3+ years later, and your content is still very entertaining.
My party and I were watching a play when the Drow that were hunting us found us. They attacked my bard that was on stage with crossbows, along the half-elf they were after on stage. I could not see them in the group of people to attack, but I rolled well enough to figure out about where the shot came from. I cast sleep knowing, as a half-elf that elves can't be put to sleep, but the 1/4 cr villagers could. About 8-10 of them dropped and there were the elves. My DM didn't expect this to be my plan, he was all "Uh, you know you can't put Drow to sleep right?"
This is the most effective use of sleep I've heard. Well done you clearly are a table top player kudos.
A player surprised me with Sleep once. Arcane Trickster separated from his group, about to be discovered by a decently tough enemy. He backstabs on surprise round, wins initiative, then puts the enemy to sleep and gets away. Normally it would have been immune, but he dropped its current hit points enough to affect it.
_Did nobody notice the sundial functionality_
Lost Melody sry my brother’s brother is an idiot could u explain it to him?
@@hansolobutimdead Okay so. A sundial is a circular device that tells time using the shadow cast by a centerpiece, usually triangular in shape. So having just one big tower in the middle of an empty field like that, and it's shadow reaches all the way to the end? If it's a circle like that, add some numbers and bam, primitive timekeeping device.
Lost Melody Thank you he know understands
@@hansolobutimdead good on you Han solo for helping your brother's brother understand sundials
_No, they didn't_
uh yeeeaahhh,
So...
I'm stealing your tower idea, thanksbye!
Its not “stealing” its “creative inspiration”
He stole it from samurai Jack, so that's fine
I just thought the same thing lol
Found the rogues
Is that a Penelope PFP? Ukyu!
Meanwhile as soon as your say wooden tower, any other Sorceror would burn it down
Any DM worth their salt would have it fail. It's a puzzle for a reason
@@OhNoTheFace ah so Any dm who just shits on player agency and doesn't let them do logical things, seems legit
@@OhNoTheFace if my DM describes a "rickety wooden tower" you could bet a platinum piece i'm using any one of the ranged fire cantrips to ignite the tower's base and then taking cover in the trees, kobolds very rarely have their variant of a caster(a scale sorcerer) with them above ground in small numbers, so lighting that tower is logical, and is probably one of the projected 'correct' outcomes to this puzzle, the other being to approach the tower from a side where the sun is at your back.
"I know what my fucking sorcerer did. ¬_¬"
Haha that line tickled me.
Same, been in that spot a few times.
“I know what my fucking sorcerer did”
*F U Z Z L E* *P A I L E D*
Han Solo just shot first
Any outdoor battle. Valor bard. Sharpshooter. Swift Quiver/Haste. Dimension door 500 feet straight up. As reaction, cast Feather Fall. You slowly drift down while having a fantastic firing position as a sharpshooter archer and can rain down death from above.
side effects : may also getting shot at from all directions once in range
Duuuuuuude. He lives! I hadn't seen any videos from your channel in a long time. I just checked and you're back at it! Yay!
Long live the fwap-a-derp!
except you drop 60 feet per rounds... you'll have only 2 rounds to shoot those kobolds before they get full cover as well. and sharpshooter isn't bypassing full cover. also you consider yourself high level to have that build... for all we know those players were level 1 or 2.
@@dndbasement2370 He was talking about this battle.
@@dsoul1305 i also was talking about this battle... but mechanically... what the OP said cannot be done. as D&D is real about physics and literally tells you you drop instantly to the ground. and from xanathars, you drop 500 feet instantly then have a round and then drop again. while cinematic slowdowns are great they are unrealistic to anybody wanting a bit of immersion. Hey every DMs deals with their own shit with players. thats fine... but a DM wrongly doing stuff doesn'T make a spell overpowered. after all, sleep is a great spell... but its nowhere near combat ending for anybody. and i'm sure the players weren't expecting the DM to hand wave the fight because of a sleep spell.
I'm gonna be completely honest, I thought he was going to throw a fire ball
to be fair fireball is really usefull when you realize that it burns wood made towers
Fireball is the best 1st level spell
@@fandomtraveler7953 he said flimsy tower
My mind said: Ha ha, fire ball make tower go kaboom
@@heatedquid9496 it's essentially just giving a level 1 character an rpg
The sincerity of "I know what my fuckin' sorcerer did" is incredible.
“What do you do?”
My players probably would wait it out in the outskirts for kobolds to get hungry and leave the tower
Mine would revert to siege warfare. Towers, rams, and trebuchets.
@@gmradio2436 I imagine they are 1-2 lvl, because it’s only 1st level spells. So, you’d expect they don’t have money for siege equipment (imagine what fireball would do)
@@Sanches7557 If there is a forest, they will make siege equipment. Topple the tower, loot the rubble, and sell the siege equipment for profit.
@@gmradio2436 Players after my own heart! If it's material, it can be sold! If it's not yours? Make it so.
@@Anteman "Guys, stop building Gustov and just stab the six goblins."-Said many a time at the table.
Something similar happened in the game I'm running yesterday.
The players tracked down some goblins, who had been terrorizing a local village and stealing all their chicken. The goblins were hiding out in a local barn, and having spotted the players from afar, they shot arrows, threw eggs, and were a big pain in the ass towards the players, all while being very difficult to hit from outside.
Now, one of my players have watched these videos. I know that because he's the one who showed me this video a few months ago.
He was sure he could handle this situation, by using the spell Sleep.
I had not thought of that possibility, but sure, why not.
He rolled his dice, and... 22. Which I guess is okay for first level, and it's enough to put at least 3 of the goblins to sleep.
Except... it seemingly did nothing at all.
When the puzzled players finally did get inside the barn, they found 22 sleeping chicken on the floor.
Oh, that's cruel...
That sounds almost exactly like something my DM would do. And I find it hilarious.
Yeah, I didn't do it that way to be cruel or to punish them or anything. I was clarifying how the spell worked when it struck me the goblins weren't the lowest HP creatures inside the spell radius.
My players found it hilarious too and my entire table had a good laugh about it afterwards. It's one they'll remember, and that's the important thing.
The characters from Chicken Run were spared from terrible horrors that day.
I was DMing a campaign of Waterdeep Dragon Heist for a few friends, all of whom were first time players. By second level our Bard had picked up Sleep, and he decided that using it to rob a shopkeeper was the smart play.
I asked him where he wanted to center it, and he said "right on his forehead," leaving himself and the shopkeeper as the only two in the store. Another party member walked in to find him passed out half on top of the shopkeeper.
He learned his lesson about making sure he reads how spells work before casting them, and everyone had a good laugh.
i remember having a very similar thing happening with my "sleep" experience where the roll was so good, i put to sleep everyone in the room including my party members LOL
Lol I can see the PCs and monsters waking up & everyone's spooning. The ogre has his teddy bear made from human skin. 😅
To all the "why not fireball?" guys, maybe they just weren't level 5 yet?
Just use fireball as a cantrip instead then, problem solved
I am DEFINITELY going to be using Rickety Tower
"So what do you do..."
"I know what my sorcerer fukin did"
The subtle way he swears like, jesus holy shit dude really I planned this tower for ages and then you beat in two seconds, always cracks me up.
"I know what my fucking sorcerer did" is the best line of the video.
If you cast it on a flying creature, it can be used to do damage
In my first session I remember religiously using “detect evil”
How to stop the sorcerer from burning the tower. The kobolds have a well for water, and some buckets.
Or just say it's made of metal that doesn't burn...problem solved. Though then you have a whole different problem
Y'all are overthinking this, it's rained recently and it's too wet to burn
why wouldn't you let the sorcerer burn the tower? that sounds like an interesting and well thought out answer to the puzzle... it'd still take a while, the party would be subjected to a rain of arrows in the mean time and few low level fire spells allow you to actually light fires. what's the problem?
@@GypsySlyp
The explosion making the kobolds fly out of the tower
@@GypsySlyp the kobolds can't see because the fire removes the shadows they need to see and becomes blindingly bright,
they would just burn to death and it would be a cheap solo kill that destroys any clues or treasure.
It also wouldn't allow the other players any interaction and it's supposed to be an encounter not a one-and-done trap so what's supposed to be the session for the day becomes one turn that never became combat.
At that point the only person enjoying themselves is the sorcerer and you have to think of the whole party but if the kobolds are busy putting out the fire then the wizard feels like a badass for getting the party a couple more turns before the kobolds can react and doesn't automatically counter the entire encounter.
Also kobolds are supposed to be cunning and smart so why wouldn't they carry a bucket of water to at least drink or even as I suggested it just happens to be damp from earlier fog or rain
>i know what my fucking sorcerer did
That line had so much hidden anger in it
Oh look a rickety tower. Lemme just cast shatter at the base and... **sextuple kill** there.
Shatter is just a really loud noise.
@@Liam_The_Great
here is the description for shatter. check the last sentence
A sudden loud ringing noise, painfully intense, erupts from a point of your choice within range. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature made of inorganic material such as stone, crystal, or metal has disadvantage on this saving throw. A nonmagical object that isn’t being worn or carried also takes the damage if it’s in the spell’s area.
@@curtisbrown547 huh. Didn't know that
As Dm i would say no. A tower is no Object. A object is everything you could lift up or move with enough strength. A tower would not fall in this Category. And even if, do you really think it would have that less Hp?
@@MrTheerteen It literally says "an object that's not being worn or carried" (makes sense, a shockwave is more dangerous for objects/things that're not free to move).
And I wouldn't expect a "rickety tower" built by kobolds out of scrap wood to have such a massive hp pool.
god... i do miss this fast format of "highlight and roll with a story"
Two years later and people keep saying "why not just cast fireball?" Fireball is a 3rd level spell which can't be cast until a character is at 5th level. Considering the party is fighting kobolds and was nearly dropped in the first round, it's entirely possible that the party wasn't at that level yet. Or the sorcerer didn't want to 'waste' a third level spell slot on something like this. Or he chose to run without Fireball in the first place.
Not to mention the possibility of starting a larger fire. I tend to forget and my DM reminds me, but fire is kind of bad. Little dry weather or an urban setting and you can really fuck up a wide area with a cantrip. Your DM doesn't even need to be a dick about it, just maybe gives a player a reason to not ALWAYS be using the biggest phoar-crikey-boom-sizzle spell they have.
Also you don't always want to murder everyone. Frequently, sure. But there's times when you need a prisoner or to rescue someone or what have you.
I would probably try to befriend the kobolds
This also relies on fireball making a big enough fire for the fire to spread in a small number of rounds, and secondarily relies on the party having zero need for any loot from the encounter. Most loot isn't going to survive a fire large enough to burn down a bigass tower.
Impossible. A sorcerer would never pass up on a sweet fireball
My party saved an NPC with sleep. He had been overtaken by an arcane force and driven to attack the party. I had planned for him to die, but my Sorcerer-rogue cast sleep when he was on his last legs. He's now a fan favorite.
Because of you, more than half of my group is obsessed with using sleep, even in situations where literally any other play would be better. Thank you.
_"I know what my fuck'n sorcerer did."_
It is a strange feeling to be both proud of your players for lateral thinking, yet wholly disappointed by the ease with which they bypass your challenges.
Well, I'd not blame the players. They do what they do best "Frustrate the DM at every turn." It's funny, because storytelling depends on tropes, but so many of those tropes are flawed. Have you read the list of "100 things I won't do when I become an evil villain"? It's full of these artificial things that storytellers use to either make the story more intense or create some sort of artificial difficulty that, well, a six year old can see through most of the time. (By the way, that's on the list.)
So, if your players are dodging your pitfalls, chances are it's your reliance on tropes with major plot holes.
My sorcerer would've just firebolted the tower a few times and sat back and waited for the lizards to fry, but killing them in their sleep is a more elegant way to do things.
I believe you mean "evil _overlord."_
And yes, I love it. :D
That's a proper kobold trap, right there.
In the universe where my group holds their stories, kobolds are essentially the masters of long-term, well-thought-out warfare. Instead of being a thought experiment for breaking game mechanics, Pun-Pun is the world of Soma's equivalent to Sun Tzu, writing not only a treatise on the kobold methods of waging war (use of traps, ambushes, and controlling the environment, limiting your engagements to when victory can be assured, only going all-out when an absolutely vital target is threatened), but also how to achieve your goals from a position of subservience.
That's fucking rad
I put a wizard with sleep once--i never managed to use it effectively in combat, but i liked it because I'd decided he took it specifically because he needed to be able to sleep after his parents died
Hence sucking at using it--he was used to using it on himself
"I know what my *fuckin sorcerer* did"
sleep is one of what my dad likes to call a "low level death spell".
I like your dad
Your dad seems awesome.
In a scenario my group had been lost in the wilds for several days, and our food had slipped up. I the wizard still had a few spells and decided to spend one of them for sleep...on a lake. we caught about 20 big fish! and got food for about 5 extra days (rest rottened).
Thank you for making me understand how this spell works!
That's such a smart move, well done!
I love how the music pauses as he quickly says "I know what my fuckin' sorcerer did" in the slightly salty DM tone
He talks about how this is the last episode of season 1 of animated spellbook, but it's the first video on the channel...
Most of his videos got removed after COPPA
some of his videos got removed
@@TheDragonMasterChannel anyone knows where we can watch them?
@@icevlad148 pay for his patron, sadly only answer I've found
@@TheDragonMasterChannel fuckin' government
I'm using this tower as a part of the growing adventure that involves kobolds and convinces my players that it's time to move me out from behind the DM screen for a while.
Tucker would be proud.
Idk why but I love the “I know what my fuckin sorcerer did” line
"I know what my fucking sorcerer did" ...
Elven spellcasters can cast sleep centered on themselves and not have to worry about being affected by it.
I've used this more than once to get out of a bad situation.
I tried pulling the tower thing with my players, only except that the tower was standing on a rock within a lake, with the players being in a boat-home. The kobolds weren’t doing much damage to the boat with their arrows, until they set them on fire, this sent the party into a panic. The wizard decided to cast Enlarge/Reduce on the rock, shrinking it to the point where it was unable to support the tower and it plunged into the lake. Unfortunately, this also created a mini-tsunami and the boat was totaled, everyone lived except the Paladin, who sank thanks to his recently acquired plate armor.
Idk, rickety wooden tower, large radius away from the tree line…. Sounds like the answer to me is FIREBALL
First level?
@@rodrigonoffs1369 Firebolt, light that sucker up. The kobolds will never wake up now.
@@jessegitchell8114 Just because something ignites, does not mean it burns down immediately. It could take minutes or even hours, especially in the case of fire bolt(small impact area).
So for "ending" the encounter, it would not be a solution, as you would suffer a few rounds of arrows until the Kobolds realize their tower is on fire and attempt to flee.
@@fendelphi You are correct, fire bolt alone ain't cutting it. The point was to fire bolt after putting them to sleep. Depending on where, and how many, fire bolts you place a tower like that could go up pretty quick.
@@jessegitchell8114 Ah, I see. Yes, that would be an efficient way of dealing with the "cleanup", if a bit barbaric. Also, you would lose out on potential loot, most likely.
Alright, I just ran a similar design to Rickety tower for my players and they fell for it as well. Same trick, hints of kobolds, shadow to the edge of the field... The expression on their faces when it happened was incredible. Thank you for sharing this amazing concept with us.
I used this on a group of winged kobolds midflight. They ambushed us in a mountain pass. They all died from fall damage.
The only creatures immune are fey and creatures that don't sleep, so most creatures are affected. Also note the difference between "don't need sleep" and "don't sleep". An Elemental doesn't sleep, while a demon _can_ sleep, but doesn't need to. A demon would be affected, an elemental wouldn't
Any creature immune to charm is also immune to the Sleep spell, which iirc is one of the more common status immunities.
Half time dragons are immune to it too
And don't forget that as long as one creature stays awake, it will wake up everybody else, it won't work like this video claims
@@snake698 it does take a full action to wake up one character.
So even if only one person is affected it still takes at least one person's action out of the round, which might just be enough to give the party time to get an advantage.
@@mattjohnhewitt That is accurate. Not only that, but waking up all of the kobolds would take many actions. However, you would get more advantage by killing even one kobold with a damaging spell in the long run. And kobolds are not resilient, if you know them.
I love the little recurring sound at 1:39. It's such a silly little tune and you've used it a lot, almost reminiscent of old medieval things, perfect for high fantasy campaigns
You haven't lived until you've cast sleep on a room full of goblins who then drop lanterns that catch the entire structure on fire and your whole party nearly burns alive.
Sleep is (Or was) also a low level party killer back in the day as well especially if said caster was bad at math. I still say my favorite spell is Magic Missile only because we use to get wands of them as treasure drops and only because my gnome artificer took 8 of them and loaded them up like a gattling gun with a crank that used the Trigger spell to fire each wand off when turned. Its also great to nail that munchkin in your game that builds for as high of an AC as they can.
I played a fledgling vamp recently that almost exclusively used sleep in all situations. I was paired with only a Barb/Warlock multiclass and we were basically playing on 2 player hard mode - every fight was overwhelming odds and we had to use strategy after strategy just to stay alive, and I found myself relying on Sleep in most situations. Dude on a slanted roof? Put em to sleep, and watch em roll to the ground. Surrounded? You can get lucky and drop an entire ambush if you upcast. I put out an entire PD at one point, and just walked in like I owned the place. Sleep is pretty OP in many situations, and damned handy in most.
The Dm should have had you start fighting elves.
@@dragonkingofthestars lol 2 month later sorry - we were doing a campaign that started as a 198X adaptation, but quickly went off the rail. The alien abduction got blamed on us, and we went on the run into Chicago lol Wild time
"I know what my fucking [player] did" is always the lead-in to a great story.
**record scratch** Hey, your probably wondering how i got into this situation. The short answer? Fucking (PC Class)'s
I also run this spell with actual HP instead of max HP.
When my table tried to capture a hill giant, and they chipped his HP until it reached the 20s
That's how you're supposed to run the spell, rules as written. "Starting with the creature that has the lowest *current* hit points, each creature affected by this spell falls unconscious until the spell ends [...]"
Sleep is an awesome spell for newbie PCs. It stops being useful when you run into monsters with more than 2 hit dice, but hopefully by then you've got more options
Plus, every class that has you learn spells allows you to trade them in when they're no longer relevant. Really helps with the early experimentation.
@@___meph___4547 Wizard's don't use known spells, they use prepared spells but are limited by their spellbook and so to make up for this they get 2 spells each level added to their spellbook.
The happy/anger in your voice describing your sorcerer player made me laugh so much.
Another (more cruel and brutal) solution is to cast a fire spell at the base of the tower and essentially recreate that one scene from The Wicker Man film. Complete with the dancing.
But then what's the point? You burned all the loot.
For our group we got Kobolds to surrender after our bard knocked 5 of the 7 out of sleep, and our paladin intimidated the other two to give up. We gave them a little food but they still ran away scared, and left the littlest one behind. My paladin "adopted" him, and during our boss fight against the orcs the Kobold, thanks to pack tactics and overcast skies, went absolute destroyer on them.
So now he's Arix - Kobold Knight Initiate.
Honestly, I'm new to D&D, only having played it for about 1 year now, but I keep my eyes out for narratively & thematically valid reasons to show mercy because the stories are so much more compelling then just "congrads on beating an easy/medium/curbstomp difficulty fight." Actually that last fight my Paladin reached level 3, and she naturally took Oath of Redemption; so that should keep things interesting.
I love the subtle callout to the foreshadowing done by the DM. A well placed trap within a puzzle.
FUZZLE PAILED!
'I know what my fking sorcerer did'
The mix of 'well shit' and 'that was awesome' in that is perfect.
Use create bonfire on the base of the tower, watch them burn alive.
Possibly losing loot and becoming evil.
@@dsoul1305 worth it to see them cook
If I had the sleep spell, I would just use it on myself
Another good spell you could possibly want would be catnap. Take an hour's worth of rest in 10 minutes!
@@PaladinNull ooh, fuck the sleep spell, gimme this!
@@PaladinNull Preach brother!
Unfortunately
You wake up after 1 minute by RAW
But all DMs everywhere should home-rule it as if they are already sleepy, they stay asleep.
Wise words of jake the dog.
I learned the greatest spell of all. Sleep
I want that voice clip of “puzzle failed” to play in real life when I fail at a simple task because I’m stupid
Actually it was "fuzzle pailed"
Elliot "Fuzzle Pucker" Randall
A wooden tower? Firebolt it and break out the marshmallows.
but what if there's LOOT in there???
Fun to go back to these old ones and compare
My favorite spells are cantrips, can't decide between minor illusion, prestidigitation and thorn whip.
Minor illusion is great for hiding things via misdirection or special effects for intimidation.
Prestidigitation is great for sleight of hand and other tricks vs enemies.
Thorn whip I just like to sit next to a bridge overlooking a drop and wait for enemies to cross, pulling them over the edge... Among other shenanigans.
Favorite trick was to take a portable hole, fill it with fun stuff for enemies to die with, lay it down over the floor, cast minor illusion to put a square of color roughly the same color as the ground, await enemies and taunt from other side, Pull in one that doesn't fall into the pit with thorn whip.
"i know what my fucking sorcerer did" said with a mix of frustration for the encounter being one-shot and pride for a player being clever. that about sums up casters in dnd, you hate 'em you love 'em but what they can do always mixes thing up.
btw i fucking love these animations.
arcane castors have the dakka, but I prefer my divine castors. sure we are heal bots half the time. but we can do more things than just cast ;)
My group was on horse drawn wagons and horseback fighting/chasing a boss in another horse drawn wagon. Not giving a care in the world I casted sleep in the middle of the 4 horses pulling the boss’s wagon. I got some crazy stares after that battle. Just imagining four horses at full speed pulling a wagon just fall asleep is a hellish thing to imagine. Killed a minion but not the boss cuz bullshit of course
Judging from the responses this video is *still* getting, may I request you do a sort of "Rickety Tower - Revisited", or a video delving into more detail about this tower, how you used it, and so on?
I used it to 'test' my new players, to see if they could come up with a solution that didn't involve just blindly charging it. I was very pleasantly surprised.
So the PCs at my table included a Half-Orc WM Sorcerer, a Life Domain Cleric and a Drow Rogue. The Rogue was a brand new player and he was being coached by the much more experienced players at the table (which was nice to see. Warms the soul.) The Rogue did what your rogue did, and snuck down the shadow.
Unfortunately, his AC was rubbish. Surprise round for the Kobolds, and the Rogue's HP drops to zero. The Life Cleric then rushes to the Rogue - taking care NOT to enter the shadow - to cast Spare the Dying, whilst the WM Sorcerer ran in the other direction around the tower, casting Minor Illusion to try and distract the Kobolds from the other two. Clever...
Then, the Drow Rogue's player did something impressive. Impressive because it was something that was perfectly valid play, very clever, and without prompt or advice from the other two. He remembered that Drow have 'Drow Magic', and used it to cast Dancing Lights in front of the arrow slits. The logic being that trying to aim through a specific gap that's being lit up by a point-source of light is going to hamper your aiming ability. Considering this (and as a reward for the clever idea), I ruled that yes, the Kobolds now have disadvantage to hit in the shadow area, and since they already have disadvantage aiming in the stark sunlight, double disadvantage equates to 'unable to target'. It bought the group enough time to close up to the tower and decide whether to blast a hole in it with Firebolt, or try and scale the tower with grappling hooks.
Oh, and that WM Sorcerer? The player had actually seen this video, and knew that casting Sleep was the right play. But he wanted to try something different, and followed the lead of the others. I LOVE that. Risky, since it could easily have ended in player deaths, but eh. It was a one-shot, so it didn't matter.
Ashley Gillespie-Horne that’s super cool. Really glad to hear about the veteran players teaching the noob, wish I saw that more at my table
@@Tigercup9 Me too. D&D suffers from a lot of the "Git gud, scrub" mentality that plagues a lot of online/social games, so it's nice to see older/better players coaching and encouraging the newer ones rather than rolling their eyes and 'huffing' in disdain.
Interestingly, vets who hate new players do so because they're sick of the same basic gameplay questions being asked over and over and over again ("Do I add my modifier to this roll?" "Is it my turn yet?" "Which dice is the D20?" etc), but during this game I don't actually recall it ever being asked. Every time it was the newbie's turn, it was like he had both vets over each shoulder coaching through his moves. A lot of it was *technically* blatant metagaming but I allowed it because it is exactly the kind of positivity I want to see every game.
And the newbie? We'll make a hell of a player out of him yet! :)
@@ashleygillespie-horne6429 It's not even so much "git gud scrub" as it is that they don't consider that the new players need help. And those two are my best players - they pay attention, don't interrupt, and don't point out "inconsistencies" and "plot holes" where there are none. (Seriously. At least once a session somebody says "well isn't that convenient" very sarcastically as though I just put something there for the sake of it without having reason and background for it)
my favorite spell cause you can use it on a screaming dying teammate so they dont blow your cover
@@Nyiati i dont want to be surronded by big warriors with a rogue screaming bloodly murder after getting spiked in the foot forcing naptime
Sneak over to the tower in the LIGHT instead.
Samurai Jack intensifies.
Wow it’s almost like he said that in the video
In an outnumbering ambush, our party's bard waited to cast Sleep until after we had beaten some of the attackers up a bit, then he put six of the human bandits to sleep, letting up mop up the last three in the following round. The 5d8 roll makes it a better fight finisher than a fight starter against medium CR foes.
I care. No need to project your bitterness and egotism, Alien.
@Alien Alien Good! Use your hatred and strike me down!
@Alien Alien did you get anything from this exchange
@@constrruxt_6199 A chance to argue with people, Im guessing
i know what my fucking sorrcer did is one of the best lines i have ever herd
Got an advert for sleeping medicine ... nice.
I had an invisible enemy running away from the party and the Ranger was tracking his footprints in the cave as he ran away, and they tried to catch him several times and failed. Right as the enemy was about to flee out of the cave the Arcane trickster said… "oh… I cast sleep."
I looked at him and was like… that's brilliant, roll 5d8. He rolled 22, the monster's hit points exactly.
Also my favourite 1st level spell.
It became the signature spell of my pacifist bard to the point where the dm started designing half of the encounters to be against undead just to stop me spamming it (undead were a theme of the campaign so no problem there).
I later learned Glyph of Warding and then set up elaborate traps to catch goblin warbands in clouds of 40D8 and such.
I really wish I had someone in my D&D group that could narrate/animate all of our hilarious shenanigans...
not the animating part but isnt dm... narrating it?
Zee: “this tower has 6 Kobalds inside, each taking 1 attack each at the shaded area of the tower. The tower is tall too so-“
Sorcerer: “I cast sleep”
Zee: “god fucking dammit!”
k
kobald
LOL
6 Attacks per turn, the only way to hit them is with reactions, and even then its half cover... what do you do?
"I know what my fucking sorcerer did"
"i know what my fuckin sorcerer did" sounds like my dm after a session anytime i use minor illusion
Sounds like me after my pyromancer sorcery player does anything.
The answer is always fireball.
@@deadseven3474 hhahah
Will soon be implementing the sinister field tower
one of my favorite 1st level spells is catapult. not only can you use lanterns to light people on fire, and vials of acid and such, but i just love the flavor of picking a random object (say, a severed head) and flinging it across the room at an enemy
Everyone: this fireball is about to end their whole career
Sleep spell: hold my beer
Even when it isn't, Fireball is always the answer to your problems.
@@Mechagodzilla128 creature: **immune to fire**
Wizard: "i target the chandelier above him"
Fireball is a 3rd level spell isn't it?
@@wittyjoker4631 yes
@@JayF2912 it was a rhetorical question meant to highlight how this comment thread has missed the mark. My humor doesn't kick in when there are too many fails.
Are we gonna ignore the fact these kobolds built a tower that fucks them over if enemies approach it from anywhere except one 20 degree cone?
Probably less built and more infested.
They can shoot from any of the 8 slits around the tower: the rouge tried to use the towers shadow to sneak close.
@@anormalusername2748 Yes but anywhere but the 20 degree cone is bright daylight and the kobolds get disadvantage to fire on anything in the daylight, so they've cleared a huge swath of ground.... so that targets approaching them are very difficult to hit for a kobold?
Well, isn't a better idea to sneak up in the shadow than walk through direct sunlight?
Sneaky, Clever Kobolds
@@jameswatson2219 Until a spellcaster with the Firebolt cantrip shows up, blasts the tower ONCE, and then hangs out in full cover behind a tree while they roast alive in their kindling tower.
Reminds me of that Samurai Jack episode with the anubis archers.
Was just thinking that also.
Im gonna steal that tower😂
Clean, quick, clear demonstration. Awesome art. Stellar narration. Really great way to learn D&D.
our party ran into a puzzle once in a cave. we were looking for a missing kid who'd wandered into the cave, and there were tales of monsters deep within. well, we get deeper down, and there are five kids, all identical, all cowering from the other and claiming that they are the child we are looking for, and that the others are monsters. we're at a loss of what to do, as an attempt to read their minds yields no results. well, our rogue/sorcerer figures that, unsurprisingly, children have low health pools, and casts sleep, knocking him out while the creatures change shape and attack. I'm a paladin, so I swiftly cast a spell that turns fiends, the monsters fuck off, and we take the kid back safely without ever having to swing.
I'm also a paladin in my campaign and let me just say divine smite is the shit
Thats good play mate
Was I the only one that thought they'd burn the tower down with the Kobolds inside?
Miguel Braga nope
You can also burn any loot with it and slow burn beings can be a hell of a shift in alignment.
I had to stop using this spell because I just kept kidnapping people…
I still use it though because it’s funny
Alternatively: fire.
Naw, just cast light and you blind them.
my folks played DnD since 1st ed and they told me; "sleep is a death spell without a save if the target is over a cliff".
grease is also a fun spell: deny an area and light the zone on fire with a torch or cantrip. then there's warp wood; for dropping bell towers on enemies and sinking ships. Bind from 2nd ed can be used to unfasten someone's armor, bow, or saddle as well.
Remember folks, it's not the power of the spell, it's how it's used.
In 5e, the grease spell doesn’t let you light the area on fire. Web does, though
A lot of cantrips and low level spells solve these kinds of situations really well. Starting out, it always felt bad to disarm groups of monsters so quickly and efficiently, that I would worry about deflating the GM. It's great to see that you celebrated the players doing this and treating the encounter like a puzzle.
A clever way to beat the encounter for sure but consider: Fire Bolt. Just light the damn tower on fire