Most Broken Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2024
- Let's look at the single best spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. You might call these broken, overpowered, or flat out busted, and you'd be right. These spells are the best in the entire game of DnD 5e, and I'm going to talk about why.
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I once cast reverse gravity in a pool a lava with a beholder hovering over it. DM ruled the beholder was unaffected, but the lava flowed over it! 😁
Damn that is BRUTAL!
That's a bullshit DM.
@@LightemupWMH why? Lava is a mostly liquid form and is affected by gravity
@@TheScottishKayaker because lava flowing over the creature should hurt it. Why would it be unaffected?
@@LightemupWMH I think he meant the beholder wasn’t affected by the spell, but the lava did indeed flow upwards into the beholder
You all are nuts. Everyone knows True Strike is the most broken spell in the game. Oh, wait. I see what you mean by broken ;-)
I always wondered if true strike was made for rogues so they can give themselves advantage and sneak attack for next round. Doesn't make it much better but something I guess
@@bradleyrichard9283 as a wizard with elven accuracy I have actually found ways to use this spell and it has come up multiple times especially if u have a bonus action cast spell thing so you dont need to waste multiple spell slots to get a hit in
@@itsyaboiexplosion9377 ah could be good for sorc doing quick cast as well
@@itsyaboiexplosion9377 I do wonder though which spells do you cast that require a spell attack to hit?
@@chrisvelo2595 maybe a high level chromatic orb
I heard a great spell combo with Reverse Gravity (RG) and Prismatic Wall (PW). Toss the enemies up through PW, stop concentrating on RG, they fall back through PW and take loads of damage from fall damage and PW. (DnD Shorts here on YT)
It works. Ive used it. It can basically kill anything. I mean, anything. Terrasque, Tiamat, Orcus, anything. All things die with that combo.
It gets even worse if you have a simulacrum casting PW right below the first one.
You can choose to set the wall right in the middle of the oscillation point and hold them there until they die.
It also works with ravenous void from explorer's guide to wildemount.
I am in game with 4 high level wizards and we killed a lich boss by using this and a cleverly placed arcane gate to make him loop through it. The dm got a kick out of it.
I'm a GM and i'm kind of a asshole. I have always the last word if a player can get a particular spell. If i don't like it, the player won't get it. And if someone asks why? Because i'm the GM, that's why.
It’s a good thing counterspell and dispel magic is a thing.
I played in a one shot, and one of the druids took reverse gravity, and the other took earthquake. Once the earthquake had gone off opening the ground reverse gravity was dropped. We took out a huge army in no time. It was nuts
Brutal! That’s the stuff that makes DMs cry late at night after the game!😂😂😂
I had a player do the same thing... but he just used Create Pit.
That’s fantastically cool.
Another fun combo is reverse gravity + prismatic wall. Cast prismatic wall above your victims, reverse gravity to throw them through it and then dismiss reverse gravity to do it again (if they survived the first trip through all 7 effects)
@@dw2106 You cannot cast Prismatic Wall horizontally. You can make a 10' sphere above them, and Reverse Gravity something small enough into it.
In my game, the Druid and the Wizard team up with what I call "The Pressure Cooker". Wall of Flame as a circle with a 20-foot diameter, and Wall of Force as a dome with a 10-foot radius. 5d8 damage a round with no way out and an area big enough to turn a Kraken into a family size calamari platter
My Wizard and my buddy’s warlock did something similar at high level. He cast Maddening Darkness and I cast the dome part of Wall of Force to trap them in. It would’ve been perfect if the Death Tyrant didn’t immediately get the disintegration ray
Another something like that, thunderwave and wall of fire/prismatic wall/grease on stairs is a pretty fun combo
The problem is that, rules as written, it seems that Wall of Force blocks all damage from going through it.
@@evannibbe9375 It does, but a 10-foot radius and a 20-foot diameter are the same size, so the Wall of fire ends up just inside the wall of force. And since you pick which side of the Wall of fire that does damage, and it burns anything within 10 feet of the wall, there's no safe space to get away.
In my group we call this combo “The Incinerator”
Also this combo but with cloudkill is literally just a gas chamber
Slow pretty much ended what was supposed to be a "challenging" encounter in one of my groups. The party was working on locating a hidden Yuan-Ti city, protected by a guardian--a cryohydra. The player whose character is a wizard decided to prepare slow for the encounter, and well, it turns out Hydras are not at all scary when you drop them to just one attack per round despite the number of heads. It really had no chance--damn, bugger had a +0 for its wisdom save, and I had decided that this was just a regular hydra, nothing deserving of Legendary saves. I thought the encounter would take up half the session--they had it beat in three rounds. >_>
Yeah, the martials in my party thought I was crazy for taking Slow before Fireball, right up until we entered a room with 6 Hill and Cloud Giants. Slowed most of them and the martials proceeded to mop the floor with them.
Slow is lethal lol
Yeah I know this pain I had Essentially 1 character at level 15 wipe the floor with my cr 26 the other 2 players did like 48 damage I think as I was trying to isolate the barbarian.......he takes his attack action surges crits on 2 attacks expendes sup dice to make the ones that missed hit and it died in 2 turns
Ok. Now that Cody has covered my spells prepared list maybe he can talk about my cloak of displacement, boots of flying and helm of teleportation.
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!
🗡 🛡 🏹
I'm playing as an Artificer and I'm waiting to get to the next city (Where my Artificer works as a Blacksmith) to:
1) Buy lots of Bags of Holding
2) Create an electricity and HHO generator
3) Create pressurized cans of Hydrogen and Oxigen...
Since the setting is close to 1800, electricity, batteries, hydrogen and oxigen are available, so I can totally create a rocket, flamethrower, bombs and high temperature flames...
And I can store all of that equipment in bags of holding...
Those things are broken if you know what you're doing and use the awesome powers of SCIENCE!!!
I'm a DM, and my first TPK is when I cast counterspell on a healing word. After that things just got worse.
Chaotic Evil doesn't exist-
(reads comment)
I stand corrected.
Lol, the DM that counterspells healing spells. They exist.
Counter spelling healing spells? WHO HURT YOU?!
My DM counterspelled my 9th level Mass Heal in the main boss fight…
@@calmroseviolentwind1394 YUCK!
Before watching this I was like "he is going to mention healing word isn't he...?" 🤣
Spell no. 4 🤣
Would love to add to the mix, the 5th level spell, "Animate Objects" granting an additional 10 attacks if using only tiny objects, each attack has a +8 to hit and deals 1d4+4 all this as a Bonus action still allowing you to make use of your full action later on.
This spell is actually broken. To the point its the only one i outright ban. Though to clarify, every player ove had who wanted it is only interested in exactly this single aspect of the spell. I may allow it if it seemed the player was more interested in the spell for less min/max reasons. Otherwise its just a scarier version of the og summon spells which are already pretty annoying lol
Carry around a bag of adamantium pitons for just that spell.
@@jonsimpson6240 you can't animate objects which are being carried, RAW
@@cristiananao294 dropping stuff is a free action.
@@jonsimpson6240exactly. It's intended to not animate the swords of the 10 guardsmen you are fighting.
Levitate is very similar to his take on reverse gravity at a MUCH earlier level as long as a creature is under 500 lbs and fails the ONE Con save, they are stuck in the air for 10 min unless you lose concentration. This is a second level spell, that destroys any early game melee enemy.
oh god i had to look it up and you can actually levitate enemies
@@dogf421
And you get it at level 1 as an Air Genasi.
Yep, my dm gave me some parameters for spells I can choose as as a 4 elements monk and I am eagerly awaiting reaching lvl 6 to start doing shenanigans and have the ability to just walk upwards.
Yeah my party was about to tpk to a pyrohydra (the dm enhanced the normal hydra and did so too much and made it way too strong)
As a last ditch effort, our artificer cast levitate on the hydra. Suddenly the hydra couldn’t do anything
I mean, if it’s a melee focused enemy, a con save might not be that hard
Surprised not to see polymorph.
Great in combat offensively, defensively, and out of combat I mean really this things effectiveness is as good as your imagination
Exactly , my first thought was " Polymorph better be in this list"
While yes it is a good spell it's quite easy as a DM to circumvent it, just add more badies or make them stronger. This spells on the other hand can't be played off that easy, two of them fuck the monster economy (one fucking multiple monster economy) and one of them has no save and can flip the whole battlefield.
Take it from a DM that has a utility caster that REALLY liked slow, only way to go around it is to make monsters very spread out
@@catalin2766 slow is a good spell if allies and enemies are mixed in but other effects like hypnotic pattern are much better. Polymorph on the other hand is also the best healing spell in the game since it can give a downed player over 100 hp and they can do a lot of damage even if they spent all their resources
@@catalin2766 While maybe true slow might be better in combat you are ignoring all the amazing out of combat possibilities of polymorph
@@mrsamiam7872 this is a video about how broken spells are, I prefer polymorph is much more fun in and out of combat but slow is just more annoying
Laughed that you said Spells were “Play Tested” by WotC
Correction for reverse gravity. It does reference that you “fall” upwards and flying creatures don’t fall
Monopoly: I end friendships
Dominate Person: you’re cute.
Hypnotic Pattern has only 1 saving thown, its absolutely brutal.
Im surprised it wasnt mentioned. In a lot of cases, it is much more busted than slow.
I'm a little confused about Hypnotic Pattern--any attack on the hypnotized or charmed creature pulls them out of it. What do you do with it, why do you like it so much? Is it just so you can divide a group of attackers & deal with a few at a time?
My players put a boss to sleep, all readied their most powerful actions/spells, then nuked it simultaneously lol
It essentially grants the whole party a free turn(s) to do whatever they need before resuming.
Also, Delayed Blast Fireball is outstanding for this combo lol
@@Karina-Loves-Andreas There's a not insignificant chance that you just end the combat. Multiple times, enough creatures have failed that we only had to attack maybe 1/3 of the original enemy forces, which is the same as taking out 2/3 of the enemy forces with one spell. Then, yeah, you can very easily take the time to eliminate the remaining ones one at a time, or just have the enemy surrender if that's feasible.
Considering it takes no save for someone to be broken out by another person and that it affects party members is the balancing that makes it skirt the broken list id guess. Not worrying about Slow effecting your friends just means it can be cast more often. Plus you can attack someone who is slowed without ending the effect
Just roll boulders into the reversed gravity field to "drop" them onto the oscilating enemy
That's a great idea.
However, if I were DM, I'd rule that
1. You'd need to be able to push double the weight of the boulder in order to push it with enough momentum to his a specific target.
2. It requires a roll to hit, since you have to aim.
3. It knocks the person up out of the range of the spell. Which probably won't matter, but is worth noting.
Still, a good idea.
@@RevPirateDan I'd go at it a different way. I'd prob have the RG victim roll a dex save to avoid the falling rocks. Depending on how many there are/how big they are, the roll might be at disadvantage. Alternately, I'd roll a d100 to see if the boulders come anywhere near whomever is captured. It would be more deadly if there is a 'ceiling' as then you could rule splash damage as the boulder breaks apart. Then all those littler rocks would then fall onto the RG victim yet again at the end of the spell.
@@subduedpotato7216 That would work. I tend to think of things that depend on the active party, the subject, the "do-er" as attack rolls, and things that depend on the target, the object, the "do-ee" as saving throws.
If you shoot an arrow at me, it's up to you to hit the target. If you shoot a fireball at me, it's up to me to evade it.
Trying to push a boulder hard enough, at the exact right velocity, in the exact right direction to hit a target would be really tricky and require some skill and/or luck. Think about it like this: you're trying to throw a boulder off a roof and hit a person-sized object. That's gonna be pretty difficult, and the average person is going to take several tries, even with "boulders" the size of basketballs. Now reverse gravity, so everything about what you're doing goes against everything your brain knows about gravity.
But, that's just my reasoning. You do it how you like. I am not the boss of you!
Better yet, if you have 3 casters, have the second caster cast fly on the third caster, who then casts Wall of Fire right at the top edge of the Reverse Gravity (this then guarantees a vast amount of damage every turn as the targets keep reverse oscillating into the flames).
"rocks fall, everybody dies" is a thing of the past. "Rocks RISE, everybody dies" it's where is at!
on the dominate person spell, I only ever used it once, in a "puzzle fight" where they were already level 19, and they had to get through a prismatic wall, while the star spawn mages try to dominate person them to yeet themselves into the wall and stay there. it got very scary.
Aid can be really good when half your party is in the floor and you are in the middle of darkness or they are in the other side of a wall, because you don't need to see our touch the creature (healing word and cure wounds).
I agree a much better healing spell especially for multiple allies. I think what Cody forgets is that casting healing word isn't free. Yeah you can cast a cantrip as well but it limits that whole turn. Healing word + cantrip cannot compare to spirit guardians +spiritual weapon or polymorph + bardic inspiration. Tasha's actually hurt this too since it gave players so many options for bonus actions from commanding companions and the telekinetic feat that seems super popuar
I've never thought of casting aid that way. I've just used aid while on last shift of watch. I'm playing a vengeance/hexblade and my dm has said that I would get the spell slot back at the end of my watch at the end of the long rest bc I only need a short rest to get it. So first 7 hours of the adventuring day, everyone has +15 hp
Allow me to say that as a player, I have trivialized fights by casting Blindness/Deafness, sometimes crippling multiple targets, so I think that spell deserves a (dis)honorable mention at least.
Not one of the best spells but really good to add if you are already concentrating on another spell. Con save is pretty bad to target and some creatures have blind sense so they would effectively be immune. Still no concentration does make it really stand out
@@chrisvelo2595 At the same time, Slow also targets Wisdom, another common save proficiency, so I think for the most part we're ignoring what the spell targets.
@@forfaerghus8092 The thing to remember is that most monsters have a high constitution and their saves for that continue to get better as the cr increases. Wis saves on the other hand stay relatively small for most creatures so they are better to be targeted.
@@forfaerghus8092 docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nw0QFIbTPxKSChq2Wqo7b8dhtZxHNUAt5AkyBX-qJ-I/edit?usp=drivesdk
This document I found has most monsters in it, you can go to the spell calculator put in your save dc and a monsters Cr and it will show you the chance to fail on average for that Cr rating
Reverse gravity served as an amazing environmental affect for combat encounter that affected everyone. Our party was fighting a monster that was lurking below the surface of an icy lake attacking us in our boat. The Druid cast reverse gravity, and DM decided to rule that instead of all oscillating, the boat and ice rose up with us as a group of floating platforms of difficult terrain. Definitely cinematic and still got rid of the monster's advantage of being underwater. 10/10 would reverse gravity again, possibly for an MC Escher style "off the wall" battle.
Hypnotic Pattern. The bard in my group has made nearly all of my encounters a joke because they can easily turn an encounter with 5 creatures into 5 encounters with 1 creature
same for sleep at early levels
For sleep and hypnotic pattern, group npcs on a single initiative and have them use their actions to shake each other awake. This way, even if only 1 creature in 5 makes the hypnotic save, they're all back the next round.
@@SakraIgor0qNomoko that's basically a stun on all that fail +1
@@codebrackerThere's no repeated saving throws on these spells, so using a single action this round to free up several more in future rounds is very efficient, turning an encounter-breaking effect into a balanced one.
Also, it's an action, not a stun, so you still have move actions to reposition around casters as well as bonus actions and reactions to use spells like Hellish Rebuke and Shield.
@@SakraIgor0qNomoko that's true i guess, but enemies don't often have bonus action powers
My players got their hands of a homebrew Reverse Gravity Grenade once, from a dungeon I ran. It *broke* the game in several ways.
As written in the adventure, the grenade flasks were fragile like eggs, so they had to be super careful with them (I kept track and had that bite them in the ass on several occations, one pc had his backpack fly away never to be seen again).
Whatever those grenades were thrown at would have to roll a dex save or have their gravity reversed for something like 6D10 seconds or something ridiculous like that.
So they were fighting this Hydra in an outdoors gladiator arena, and one of them had the bright idea to toss a grenade at the Hydra.
Dex save failed. It fell upwards for something like 45 to 50 seconds.
This is where the game just stopped. Everyone around the table, me as the DM included, just started calculating how far up the Hydra would go, which was pretty high when you consider things accelrating by 9,81m/s and then using sites like Splash Calculator and Nukemaps figure out how much of an impact a 1800kg object would have when dropped from that height.
The results: a pretty messy arena.
And while this wasn't Reverse Gravity as the spell written in the book, it's one of my funniest DnD memories.
It's interesting how many of the mentioned spells are in the base PHB. I guess spells have avoided power creep by always having broken options 😂
As a DM I would rule that attack rolls at range through a reverse gravity spell would be at disadvantage. The arrow/spell you fire acts contrary to how your experience in its use within normal gravity.
I agree.
Regarding flying in Reverse Gravity, I would rule that magical flying/levitating is "anchored" to the ground, in that the creature flying/levitating is doing so relative to the ground.
Winged flying would be different, but a winged flyer would, in my ruling, be able to at least TRY to escape the reversed gravity on their turn. They would fall initially, because their flying is relative to the air under their wings, and not the distance to the ground.
Gravity changes, not air currents. I would allow any flying creature to ignore this effect. The spell states unanchored creatures fall upwards. Flying creatures are unaffected by falling, unless they all together stop flying midair of course.
Hmm, a Dwarven shield wall... should I Fireball them into oblivion or take them hostage with Reverse Gravity until they swear fealty to me? 🤔
Both
All 5e needed to fix the Healing Problem was adding a single line of text to the death system. Which is: when you come back up, you gain a level of exhaustion. Or even rolling for a _chance_ at a level of exhaustion.
Idk, a smart opponent would just use some alchemists fire or a net(or even just target the healer), and a stupid one(well, more animalistic) might not even register that the Mook has stopped struggling.
Yeah. Exhaustion or lingering death saves is really needed in my opinion. I much prefer it that way even as a player.
In the case of Reverse Grav, id say if the creature has Flying speed it could use its move to fly out of the area AFTER it has initially been affected by the spell. If it was a creature with the Fly spell i would still allow it, but that is certainly a case of non damage triggered concentration check. Not sure the RAW prevents that possibility
That only applies if the flying creature is at the boundary of the two gravitational directions. I assume there is a struggle flying through air that shifts gravitational rules.
@@michaelwinter742 once you are at the top flying up even a foot would get you out of the spells effect as it takes you to the top of it al by itself. Its not defined clearly one way or the other, but this is how i suggested i would handle it.
So glad to see the Slow love! I took it on a whim on my first wizard, and was shocked by how it dominated encounters. I didn't take it with my current wizard, and my spell list has felt lacking ever since. I'll be sure to take it with my next one
I'm surprised that Telekinesis isn't on the list. It's a 5th level spell that can restrain targets, and it requires a check, not a save. It ignores legendary resistance, and it's not going to get skill bonuses on it.
My end-of-the-arc boss fight level 20 sorcerer was meant to be a very difficult boss fight with flight to avoid the melee.
The 9th level sorcerer cast telekinesis and the boss got destroyed in 2 rounds.
Maybe the most broken spell was the friends we made along the way.
The somatic component for the Friends spell is 4 quick claps 👏👏👏👏 😂
WotC: We can't give the Ranger concentrationless Hunter's Mark, that's broken!
Also WotC: *publishes these obviously broken spells*
No, concentrationless Hunter's Mark would be a bit too good.
Concentrationless HM would just make Ranger the next Hexblade: take a dip for HM.
@@godminnette2 just make it a class feature at higher ranger levels. Problem solved
Mind whip ruins GM's that only use one monster against the party at a time.
Otherwise they have to upcast it to make it work.
You generally shouldn't use non-legendary monsters as single monsters, for this reason. Also, it's on a failed save, compare to hold at the same level. That it's an Int save and that monsters don't get proficiency to all saves is the real problem.
GM: "The hydra does not move. 16 eyes give you an evil look"
Barbarian: "Ok my turn, I'll go in and attack again in a reckless offensive." *roll roll* "That's a total of 31 damage! Now I retreat"
GM: "You don't walk away immediately. After you attack the Hydra, it unleashes it's ready action, which was to attack the first target that engaged it in melee. It currently has 7 heads left. Oh look, that's 6 normal and a critical hit."
*rolling damage calculation"
Barbarian: "Oops. I am unconcious after the third hit."
GM: "The remaining hits are failed death saves then. You all watch in horror as the remaing heads bite deep into the unconcious barbarian, ripping your friend appart"
@@michaelguth4007 can a readied attack action be used to do all your attacks? I would rule that as a dm it would, but is that raw?
Mind whip can target up to 8 targets.
@@michaelguth4007 unleashing your readied action takes a reaction I believe
The only saving grace for Tasha's Whip is that it's single target... Except when upcast, twinned, or cast by a high level enchanter wizard, man screw that spell... Eh then again Hypnotic Pattern exists.
love seeing some more regular uploads brother, I hope that means life is going a little better.
Thanks for all the content
I'd say Heat Metal is situationally REALLY strong, especially if used in combination with some clever tactics from the martial class PCs or if you're fighting lots of armed undead or armored sentient enemies like guards or soldiers.
Ah yes, Easy Bake Ovening armored enemies.
My paladin definitely hurt when I got hit with it. But I was able to charge forward and smite the heathen that cast the spell on me.
Not only that but can make them drop their weapons which depending on the DM is either an action or bonus action to pick back up. Personally I say drawing a weapon is a bonus but picking it up is a full action. ik the core rules allow one free interaction per turn, but weapons I feel should be different. And Heat Metal is really powerful with the rules I use.
@@queen_nat4586 see I was thinking things like wrapping the enemy in a chain or having the Rogue stick a couple of throwing knives in them, then casting Heat Metal.
@@darklordofsword It could also theoretically be used to convince and enemy of something similar to Zone of Truth. Sort of like Wonder Woman's whip. Wrap an enemy with a chain and cast Heat Metal whenever you know they're lying to you. Could work for less intelligent enemies.
One of my players once used Reverse Gravity on my BBEG....who had surrounded the arena where they were fighting, in a giant prismatic sphere. He ended up failing most of his saves against his own sphere and died in one turn. 10 years later I still laugh so hard at Reverse Gravity.
The best combo in the game: Reverse gravity + Prismatic Wall
If you can get the wall as a sphere over your enemies does it count as them passing through the wall 4 times? Two on the way up and two on the way down?
@@davidvaccaro8883 up to him about the yjzvi I e
I'm ken.h
@@davidvaccaro8883
I would think so.
Cloud kill is not bad too.
If healing word is that amazing, then the healing light and balm of the summer court from the celestial warlock and circle of dreams Druid respectively, is god tier. Close to the same effect, without expending a spell slot, letting you fire off a full leveled spell while pulling up a party member
Celestial warlocks even get lvl+1 dice, so for the purpose of multiclassing a 2 lvl dip equals 3 usages.
I played a Circle of Dreams druid for the role play aspect and unexpectedly kept the party alive on many occasions with this. Our tank spent more time in fights on 1D6 HP than I can count (goes down, comes back on my turn, hits, goes down.... rinse and repeat). Loved it.
Every time I watch a 'most broken spells' video I always hope someone is going to mention Glyph of Warding, but no one ever does. Granted the regular trap use isn't good but the spell storing makes it insane.
Especially if you make little ones on the top of a portable hole so if its open you can activate them... To bypass the movement restrictions
@@kennethstiennon206 fill your portable hole with a library of glyphs. It bypasses concentration requirements, and you can cans metamagicly enhanced spells into the glyphs. Extended haste is pretty fun.
I don't know man, I've not had slow actually hit mobs. They're usually getting out on the save.
My players have used it pretty often in my Storm King's Thunder campaign and it works enough to be a game changer when the giants can no longer attack twice and can't use attacks of opportunity when the players move back out of their reach. To be fair, they usually pair this off with darkness though... (Warlock's imp familiar is given a stone on which darkness is cast (both have devil's sight), imp flies over a giant high enough that only the giant is in the darkness spell, thus not hindering the players attacking the giant)
@@joo1311 the players wouldn't really see the giant then though. full concealment. so a fireball inside the area ok. anything that needs a target: nope
@@thecursed01 As I said, the imp familiar carrying the stone with darkness cast on it flies so that only the top third or so of the giant is in the darkness. The spell being a sphere, its legs are very much visible to the players and thus targetable.
Slow is good when you want to give a bigger chance of winning a combat, but can't use AoE properly because your allies are in the middle of the enemies.
It's like, ideal for when you take a bad toll on initiative by still want to be useful.
Same my.dm used creatures he *tweaked*
Meaning gave them saves rivaling high level pcs multi attack blah blah.
After four levels of slow not ever working on more then one or two a cast only to have them shrug it off within two rounds made me switch to haste.
Haste is much better for those dms
Haven't finished the video, only made it to healing word, but I would like to add magic missile to the list. It's been ruled that it's 3 concentration checks. That's only DC 10 but that's still 3 checks. But that also means that it would be 3 failed death saves....
Edit: so if someone uses healing word to revive an ally, use, say, a 2nd or 3rd level magic missile to kill them outright.
I really appreciate that you’re videos are concise and have specific topics! I don’t always have hours to watch videos for maybe a few ideas or suggestions and I don’t have the patience to wait through a long description when I just need a little inspiration. Thank you for respecting our time!
Speaking of action economy. Simulacrum.
8th level spell, meaning a caster is at least 15th level. With a huge range of spells and slots. Cast it, get an extra party member with that full range of spells again?
Double up on any of the previously presented spells?
Simulacrum is 7th level, so you get it at 13th level. Even better.
@@jacobjensen7704 Thanks for the correction, can never trust my memory
@@thewelshdm Just goes to show it's even more OP haha.
If you have a spare 12 hours to cast it, sure. Then you have a double which can cast 1 7th level spell slot less than you can. Same issue from dispel magic though. All of these examples seem to hinge on easily seeing your targets, or they stand still while you do all of these spells. If a giant prismatic sphere appears over my head, there is no way its staying under it...
@@nightfall37 if you use it on yourself, it's always reliable. Probably the most common and powerful way to use it too.
Intentionally leaves out fireball.
**Nyxie has entered the chat**
Love the 1 for All reference
because while useful early, fireball falls off rapidly in usability.
Thanks, I'll be sure to throw these all at my party next campaign
"I cast healing word on the barbarian"
Great "the lich casts disintegrate on the barbarian"
I like the 3rd party rule from grim hollow that if you drop to zero and are brought back up then you are stunned for one round due to the shock to your system.
I yesterday had an AMAZING use of the spell Spike Growth... basically took out 8 skeletons in a room charging at us
Haven't ever used that spell before and it seems just decent but under the right circumstances this spell is just great
Yup, the party in my campaign has a small army trying to breach the wall of their home base and enter. They finally made a hole, ranger used Spike Growth for the first time ever, and nobody can survive entering that way.
What is ESPECIALLY DELICIOUSLY BRUTAL is that it is one of the few AOE spells that allow forced movement to cause damage.
Disclaimer if you don't use maps and keep track of movement then this won't work as described.
Have some type of choke point like Robert's breach wall. Druid or ranger (anyone that can it) cast Spike Growth just outside the hole in the wall. And now your Battle Master fighter Push Attack creature back throw the spikes. Warlock with Repelling Blast tacked one to Eldritch Blast. Heck even someone with the Crusher feat becomes way more deadly.
Crusher FORCES movement and there is NO SAVE, it just moves 5 feet. Boop it on the snoot, move 5 feet and take 2d4 damage. Does it move closer to re-engage? Another 5 feet and take 2d4 damage. Try to move out of the spikes? 15 feet and it takes 6d4 damage.
I once sent an army(a couple hundred) goblins at a group and they stopped the whole force from chasing them by casting Spike Growth at the mouth of a tunnel and it does so much damage each 5ft square no goblin could survive, it was a meat grinder until the gave up and the pcs were long gone by then lol
I have never thought about "Prohibited Spells" from Harry Potter in D&D.
What are other spells that you guys think would make this list in a D&D world?
Obviously Dominate Person and Power Word: Kill, following the same premisses of the movies.
But what if we completed the list with spells that "change time and reality" and "influence the free will".
What spells would be in that list?
power word pain of course
Definitely sickening radiance(yeah, if anything is a war crime) and anything that will summon demons.
@@williamwontiam3166 Ah, Sickening Radiance, what my party used to "microwave a giant ice owl" after one of the bards got it dancing with Otto's Irresistible Dance.
We can't forget finger of death and disintegrate.
@@rowanchurch702 eh, I’d argue that disintegrate is just assault/murder. Hell, it’s probably less painful than a lot of other options and less viable for terrorist attacks than a fireball or a lightning bolt. Besides, how do you remove creations of force used to close off roadways(first thoughts wall of force, but I think there’s a few others)? Finger of death should definitely be illegal though(to use, I’d imagine a license could work for something like this to own)
I had a 5th level party take out a dragon with ease within its lair by casting Faerie Fire. It glowed in the dark, it couldn't go invisible and it went from a potentially terrifying encounter in the dark mountain cavern to whack-a-mole with advantage. Definitely broken, especially at first level
Always a good use of a low level spell slot
Simulacrum + Wish in a RAW setting is literally campaign ending. You get to make infinite copies of yourself by casting simulacrum, and then having that simulacrum cast wish (using it to copy the simulacrum spell instantly instead of 12 hours) and create another simulacrum which repeats this process.
Oh, and you can use simulacrum normally so that your clone buddy can suffer the negative effects of wish instead of you.
These two spells are both good, but when you have them at the same time they are literally the best thing you can do in the game.
And if the simulacrum ends up being unable to cast wish ever again, who cares? They cant regain spell slots, and you only get 1 9th level slot.
RAW, Simulacrum creates a copy of a creature at the moment you cast it. So, if you just blew a 9th level spell slot to cast Simulacrum, the duplicate no longer has a slot to cast Wish, and since it can’t regain spell slots, it never will. So you would need to have someone else cast Simulacrum on you or you cast it on someone who knows Wish in order for this to work.
If you want to do it by yourself:
You could try using Wish to give yourself an extra 9th level slot, then take a long rest to replenish both slots for the Simulacrum. However, since this isn’t a listed option, the DM is free to interpret the Wish. If they allow it, you might also want to wait the 2d4 days for your Strength to come back from 3 if that matters for your duplicate. There’s also the 33% chance you can no longer cast Wish, which means neither could your Simulacrum. It could still cast its own Simulacrum spell, you just have to pay the 1500gp for each copy.
@@morotr_co You can definitely do it yourself. Cast simulacrum on yourself, then that simulacrum can cast wish. I said this in the previous comment.
@@kianholden7387 What I'm saying is that the Simulacrum copies you exactly as you are in that moment. So if your 9th level spell slot is exhausted, so is the copy's. If you cast simulacrum, your double can't cast wish, because it doesn't have an unused spell slot for it and can't regain them. Unless, of course, you go through the rigamarole of getting two 9th level spell slots (another wish, epic boon, or even just a spell scroll) or just have someone else with a 9th level spell slot help you get the chain started. Once it's started, yes, it's very broken, but there are plenty of ways to get around it. I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out it's a little more situational than just having both spells.
@@morotr_co And I'm saying you don't need anybody else to help you. It's absolutely not more situational than having both spells. You just cast simulacrum, and then your simulacrum casts wish. That's it, then you get the infinite clones + 1 wish with no downside. Simulacrum is a 7th level spell.
And you can also do something else by casting them in the other order, essentially using wish to create a bunch of extra spell slots and double actions for your 9th level spell.
Reverse Gravity isn't as broken it seems I think.
First, it's a 50 ft radius without the ability to choose affected creatures. It's a *huge* area, and you'll rarely be able to place it without affecting your party members. And if you *do* affect them, what's the point if reversed-gravity enemies can just attack reversed-gravity allies as normal?
Second, fall damage is capped at 10d6, so even if you do it twice, it's 20d6 damage, and that is only if you have a 100ft tall ceiling. Which is a big amount, sure, but not game-breaking for a 7th lvl spell that uses Concentration I think.
Third, yes, you can beat Tarrasque with it, but so you can with Fly spell. At these levels, I'm not sure why would you ever be fighting enemies without any ranged attacks, there are a ton of ways to abuse melee-only enemies.
Forth, yes, the RAW thing about flying creatures *is* broken, but I'm not sure if any DM would actually rule it that way. Why wouldn't they be able to fly in reversed gravity? The spell doesn't say that this gravity field is stronger or something.
I think fall damage caps at a maximum of 20d6 not 10d6
@@llewelyn7966 Right, the maximum is 20d6. But it's 1d6 per 10ft, and the spell is 100ft tall, so for this spell, it's 10d6.
I believe the cap for fall damage in 5E is 20d6, though your point still stands that at the level you’re dropping that, if it’s enough damage to floor the enemy, it’ll likely floor your effected party members also.
Mind whip is extra broken because it's only 2nd level and you can target additional creatures with an upcast, plus it's a sorc spell... so quicken lol.
Omg you are back ☺️ glad to see more videos from you
Glyph of warding.
Simply going by the RAW, Glyph of Warding allows a player to Rest Trick any long duration buffing spell.
Mage Armor, Distort Value, False Life, Gift of Alacrity @ 1st lvl are good options.
Aid, Dark Vision, Flock of Familiars, Gentle Repose, Nystul's Magic Aura, Thought Shield are my suggestions for 2nd level.
All of the mentioned spells have durations that run an hour or more, meaning that simply having glyph of warding potentially puts these spells into play without counting against the players spell slot usage in a single day.
There are also 3rd level spells that this enables, but y'all get the point.
As broken as Healing Word is, he forgot to mention how much more broken it is on a Divine Soul sorcerer (Xanathar's Guide to Everything); sorcery points and metamagic just ends up being busted.
Healing word is why I have an additional rule for my group that anytime they go down and get healed in combat they get one level of exhaustion. Which can end up killing their player outright.
same! i do this rule too, and it definitely prevents Healing Word spam
This does prevent healing work or the infamous paladin giving out 1 hp
I actually like to combine it with all exhaustion is recovered on a long rest since if they go down multiple times, they could be affected for 2-3 weeks in real time
I do this. I think I will start doing lingering (until long rest) death save failures...kinda like Doom in PF2e. So they lose a death save on revive. This means they can only get brought back three times before they just insta die. Dunno, we'll see which my players prefer.
giving exhaustion is awful as if they get picked up and go down again, even if they get picked up a second time, they're fucking useless with everything at disadvantage. Giving some sort of penalty or needing resources spent is a great idea, exhaustion isn't.
Take a shot every time he says "YEET" in the video XD
Summon fey. It brings in a teleporting extra thing on the player’s side that scales as the caster gains levels. It lasts an hour which may be enough to clear more than one encounter in a given environment using a single spell slot.
AC: 12 + spell slot used min 3
HP: 30 + 10 for each slot above 3
Speed: 40 plus a bonus action 30ft teleport every single round.
Multi attack when cast with a 4th or above spell slot. Half the spell slot in attacks (6th level slot means 3 attacks)
Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit
1D6+3+spell level (min 3) piercing + 1D6 force damage (its basically a greatsword with +6 or more to damage)
You pick an attitude for the fey. Each gives different abilities.
Fuming: after it teleports advantage on one attack roll
Mirthful: 10ft ranger charm vs wisdom against your DC. Target charmed by you and the fey for 1 min or until it takes damage.
Tricksy: 5ft cube in adjacent square filled with magic darkness lasting until the end of the fey’s next turn. For a warlock with devil’s sight you have advantage on those attack rolls and it can keep doing this every round. And it isn’t as detrimental to the party as a giant darkness or hunger of hadar.
When you get this at level 5 this is practically an extra party member. Basically medium armor wearing, greatsword wielding, teleporting pain in the ass. At level 7 with an extra spell slot it gets +1AC, +10HP, +1 damage, and a second attack for nearly double the damage output.
One of my favorite spells to use is Heat Metal. Damage and can make them drop their weapon seems kinda OP in the right situation.
Even better for armor, or something with metal as part of it.
I would *love* a list of the most underpowered spells (and maybe fix suggestions). I get so disappointed when I see something with the coolest flavor but it actually has both a save in a commonly high stat and low damage, for instance. So in actual play it's really disappointing and feels like a trap. *Sigh*
Witch Bolt. "Most spells are better than Witch Bolt." -Monty Martin
Yeah, I'm probably going to take a spell because of flavor that is pretty much useless. Feign Death.
Something to consider with Reverse Gravity, which I love, has something to do with what you said. It isn't oppressive gravity, it just changes where the pull is. Flying, hovering, even arguably even gliding creatures wouldn't really have much of an issue with it. They don't stop defying gravity just because the spell was cast. If specific beats general, they specifically defy gravity when they fly. They wouldn't ever reach the top of the cylinder to oscillate unless by choice. It seems like they wouldn't have mentioned gravity defying creatures because most wouldn't consider using it on gravity defying creatures because it would be a high level spell to use on the off chance a flying creature couldn't re-enter themselves.
My favorite act as a level 1 character (Cleric for those curious) was to stop the DMs random attack by a group of street urchins and thieves by being a cleric. Proudly holding up my holy symbol and my alms box, I rattle the box as I walked forward with my bright, shiny level 1 face as I looked hopefully at all the humans coming towards me.
So ... you cast "Big Brass Ones" at level 1?
No mention of conjure spells? For shame! I'm a salty druid now.
He's a DM and secretly feels sorry for his fellows.
@@johnno4127 Yeah, including conjuration spells would lead to caster players taking those spells and destroying encounters through massive action economy (particularly with Conjure Animals and Conjure Woodland Beings).
Tashas Mind Whip may be the best spell for upcasting in the whole game. If your party understands how to exploit the spells debuffs. Yikes. Also it’s so devastating that legendary monsters would want to burn legendary resistance to succeed, but it’s only a level 2 spell, so also a great way to burn through resistances.
I gave this spell to Acererak when my party fought him at the end of ToA (he casts 1-3rd at will). Significantly changed the balance of it to being a much more scary and tough fight
Our Wizard has been using slow to great effect. Just had an encounter with 8 Humaniod Knights. Each with 3 attacks. I pinned down 4 of them on one side and the Wizzard cast slow. This meant I instead of taking 12 Attacks in a turn I took 4 which was very surviveable. Very Strong Spell.
Man I remember thinking slow was good, but you going over it right now just reminded me how good it was. I've never had the pleasure of being a spellcaster, maybe I should change that
Given how many people complain (and rightfully so) about the "death" rules, I really don't understand why they didn't add an alternative in Tasha's which added _so_ many optional mechanics to the game.
Tashas seemed more focused on player options i feel like. They really need to release another DM resource book with these sorts of things; Filling in ruling gaps (good place to publish sage advice rulings), optional rules, some random tables for stuff and some better exploration rules pretty please! Lol
@@buttmunchmcnugget328 True, but given how this one is probably the big flaw with 5E that people have complained about since play-test, I think they could have found a way to get it in there. ;)
@@andrewshandle Hard agree, we have needed more DM resources in any capacity for awhile. Especially considering how many options players are getting. And thats not mentioning the power creep that has happened
Shout out to the Silence spell! It can shut down almost every spell in the game. BBEG has power word kill? Silence can stop it. Wish? Not if you're silenced. Healing word? I didn't hear any word.
Silence can also feel really bad since often times the spellcaster can just walk right out of the effect and then cast their spells
@@chrisvelo2595 while true, that's probably why it's only 2nd lvl. Also many combats take place in dungeons or other confined areas, making this concern less of an issue.
Phantom steed.
ritual spell no consentration last an hour so you can make 5 of them
this gives your entire party a speed of 100 and also dodge dash or disengage once per turn as a free action
With Reverse Gravity, you could turn it on its side, pulling a group of enemies down a hallway, killing most of them, then drop either a Delayed Fireball or boulder. Or just you're Barbarian. Whichever one you want. Also, as a DM, I would use Dominate Person, but I would edit it so that certain acts could cause it to break.
One of my favorite mid level strats to do with Gish characters is to cast Slow on 4-5 targets, and then follow up with Steel Wind Strike. Since they can't react and take a -2 to AC, SWS becomes that much stronger. No Counterspell, no Shield, no nothing. Straight up Judgment Cut End.
I would say greater invisibility + sws is just as if not slightly more potent. It does allow for shield to get in the way but on the flip side, you are rolling with advantage and enemy saving against your debuff isn't a worry
@@haerdalis84 that us true. I just find it to be more badass to slow time to a crawl around my enemies and Strike faster than they can react.
I'm creating a guild of battlemages in my campaign, and their leader is a level 15 bladesinger/fighter/sorcerer whose signature move is to action surge and double SWS. I've been trying to think of ways to make this more powerful and cool. I like the slow and the greater invisibility idea, but they don't fit his fighting style in my head. Is there any other spells that stack well with SWS?
@@feral_orc If you're able to get Fearie Fire somehow, and target all the affected creatures, you'd have advantage on every attack. So a double SWS with advantage is mean as hell. Oh and don't forget Elven Accuracy. Assuming an Elven character, that is.
@@feral_orc Bless certainly comes to mind as does seeking spell metamagic.
Strange to see Slow on the list over Hypnotic Pattern (though there are trade offs between them).
During the first session of a campaign that started recently with me as a player, the party's bard cast Slow on quite a few ghasts we were fighting, leaving just the Ghoul King and one ghast unaffected. It definitely helped because the big melee damage dealer kept moving around, the bard (a fairy) stayed up in the air and I (a sorcerer) kept my distance for a good part of the fight while launching off spells. It took them several turns just to get closer to us and by then, most of them were already killed or very low on hp.
Monty, the DM for the unexpectables, did a fantastic job using dominate person on her players. There has to be a lot of trust with the DM and the players, but it was a great little Arc.
Dominate person should change the alignment of the caster towards evil.
You missed FORCECAGE. Forcecage is #1 most broken spell, by far.
It's a good one, but I wouldn't give it a #1 spot. It requires a 500gp ruby that is consumed every time to cast it, and the cage version can be countered by wild shape, misty step, dimension door, polymorph, disintegrate, and a number of others.
@@torinsmith9867 The ruby is not consumed with each cast. It can be countered with teleports, but only if a) the Forcecaged creature HAS a teleport and b) they succeed on a Charisma saving throw, which is a pretty uncommon saving throw to begin with. The ruling on whether Polymorph or Shapechange can be retroactively used to counter Forcecage is pretty ambiguous RAW and is up to the DM.
More importantly, Forcecage can instantly shut down extremely powerful monsters (such as a Pit Fiend) that don't have teleports. The problem with Forcecage is that it doesn't let the monster make a saving throw. There are a lot of "save or suck" spells that mages can get, all the way from the level 1 Tasha's Hideous Laughter up to the level 9 Psychic Scream. But high level monsters have extremely good saving throws (and often legendary resistance) to counter these spells. The whole system breaks when a spell can take out a monster without allowing them a saving throw. ESPECIALLY when that spell doesn't require concentration.
one spell I find to be super powerful is synaptic static. firstly, it's an INT save, very rare, and often a generally weak save in all situations, deals with reactions in an AOE and doesn't lock up concentration while you do it. and deals damage, just to ice the cake.
I think it's a good effect to cast while concentrating on other things like your hypnotic pattern or wall of forcd
My party incapacitated my tarrasque during our Tarrassic Park one shot with reverse gravity
Bruh what about animate objects? Literally a mass disarm and damaging spell at the same time.
Animate Objects can't be used on carried items. It can be used to "disarm" only if enemies dropped their weapons first.
Though yes, for damage is quite broken. You need to remember though that it deals non-magical damage and to hit bonus isn't increased with level.
@@antongrigoryev6381 lol just gave me a combo idea with an order cleric using their channel divinity to disarm a bunch of people and then someone else casts animate objects
personally i would not quallify healing word as broken simply do to efficency, cuz it a lot of the times in my experiance has still led to player deaths rather easily
Catapult:
"No littering!" Chucks a dropped sword from a dead enemy into the back of their ally.
Javelins become cruise missiles.
Launch breakable containers filled with questionable materials at high velocity.
"You want your Bag of Holding back? Catch!"
The only RAW solution to healing word I’ve found is monsters that swallow/engulf etc. targets or the usual anti caster spells like silence and darkness.
I'm suprised that you didn't put Shield and Absorb Elements here. Amount of "NOPE" moments artificer and any medium-heavy armor caster can pull off with shield is broken. Your BBEG is axe wielding monster or attack base? Good luck attacking 30 AC person.
Or don't let me start what Sorcadin can pull off with shield, shield of faith, sword and shield and aura of protection on top of that as divine sorcerer/crown pala who can put another die to saves and artificer with flash of genius and bard with inspiration standing right next to him and when all three just laugh at Ancient Dragon poking him with fingers.
I agree, especially since they are level 1 spells and use a reaction.
Healing Word isn't broken. Death and Dying mechanics are. PCs that can endlessly yo yo from 0 hp is an issue. Players that heal 85hp damage from an overnight nap is a problem. Players who fear death in 5E have likely never dropped to 0 only to be raised by 1hp of healing.
Healing Word isn't a problem. The joke of 0hp is the problem. Solution? End healing everything overnight. Make it all about Hit Dice.
May I add that Suggestion is massively OP for a level 2 spell. The target thinks the Suggestion was their idea all along. They may not act in a way that obviously endangers themselves, but they can CERTAINLY unwittingly endanger OTHERS. Creating Manchurian Candidates like Tic Tacs is VERY powerful for a level 2 spell.
I'll also add the fact that Grease is an underappreciated and powerful spell. Knocking low-dex Giant targets prone over and over, then gang tackling them in melee is brutal. Level. One. Spell.
Feeblemind just ends threats with one action. And it's an Intelligence save. Just peruse the number of targets with low Intelligence. Now, end that threat at 150' in 6 seconds. Collect XP. Go home. Yes, I know it's high level, but it renders AC, Hp, # of attacks, special attacks (etc) irrelevant. It just ends combat. You could take the 4d6 Psychic damage out of the spell and it would still stop an it would still be good. Shutting down a Grey Slaad, Giant, Mouth of Grolantor, etc, in one action is huge.
Absolutely agree with that first part. Our group uses a system where you use hot die on short rests like normal, and then use what's left from your pool during long rests. Also, they can't long rest in dangerous areas without something like the instant fortress or tiny home or something like that. Plus, when they go to 0, they roll con saves every round after healing to wake up, but before that they are totally unconscious. We also use lingering injuries, but that's only with massive damage.
My first time DMing, I used Dominate Person against the players... almost caused a TPK using the Fighter.
I used a Brain in the Jar in a lab.
You missed the Conjure Woodland Beings spell - summon 8x 1/2 CR Pixies who cast polymorph to turn your entire party into T-Rexes. All just for a 4th level spell slot too! LOL fun times there!
take ✍🏽 spells ✍🏽 to ✍🏽 annoy ✍🏽 dm ✍🏽
Good morning! Always happy to have some good DnD content to listen to at work! Also, first :)
You literally weren’t first
@@themostdiabolicalhater5986 I mean, if you look at the timestamps of comments, I was. But who cares, it was just a fun thing to throw on there, not an award or anything
I haven't had a chance to play 5e, yet, but haste used to be just crazy. I mean, it aged the pc a year (which isn't even an issue with elves or something), but basically let them take back to back turns was incredible.
In 5e it's much weaker, but still strong. Speed boost And one extra action. But that action can only be used to do a few specific things. It's also a concentration, so you can't do anything else while you're using it.
Confession time: I have used Dominate Person on my players.
In my defence, it was only to end the Bard constantly casting polymorph (T-rex) and then staying in cover at range. And I only managed to get them to drop concentration on the spell before my monster died.
I always houserule that "Cure Wounds" heals much more HP. It is an absolute joke to compare Cure Wounds to Healing Word. Seeing that many people have issues with the dying mechanics and the yo-yoing of health (which I personally have no problem with) I really think negative HP should comeback. If a player gets a big hit and drops to -9 HP then Healing Word would be a lot more broken as you would need to burn more resources to get them above 0.
I have a simpler homebrew- every time a player falls unconscious in combat, they suffer a cumulative -1 to their proficiency bonus until they take a long rest. Healing in combat BEFORE they drop to zero becomes more useful without completely destroying the usefulness of healing them up from unconsciousness.
Using Reverse Gravity against a bunch of guards? Boring. Use it against an enemy ship
I almost tpk'd a party once with a vampire, who at the time was actual under-CR for the group... he managed to Dominate the Paladin, and the Pally downed all but one character. They ended up being able to make it through, but one character did end up needing resurrection. It was pretty epic... and completely avoidable because they KNEW there was a vampire down there, rofl.
I have a few tips for DMs to deal with those spells. It isn't meant to say that the video is wrong (it isn't), and I do not recommend DMs to abuse counters to the party's spells, either:
Reverse Gravity: objects anchored to the ground aren't necessarily hard to find. Trees, roots, rocks, doors, in some dungeons even the furniture may be fixed for some reason, crannies in a solid floor may work. It also won't prevent ranged attacks from the affected targets, so do not underestimate the benefits of this option.
Tasha's Mind Whip: ranged attacks are again a must, and low level support enemies spread through the combat may prevent the party from getting too much out of a single spell, but the greatest weak spot here is duration. Defensive tactics and positioning, running to regroup, anything that extends the battle will make characters abusing this spell to burn quick.
Dominate Person: first keep in mind that such a spell will take a legend of its own if abused so people will probably take it into account. If the players aren't careful even their allies may become paranoid around them, and people will start to look for charms and protections against its effects, along with creative strategies to avoid being in a position to be abused.
Healing Word: spread damage and/or spread the party. Be it through AoE or by changing attack targets. The thing that makes HW so powerful is the HP floor, so avoid it until it is too late. If taking down the healer isn't an option, then overworking them is, and spreading the party will make it easier since it starts to also cost moves to get to everyone.
Slow: aside from limiting your party access to molasses, which would be quite a childish move if done more than once, general strategies against AoE apply, spreading the enemies. But more than any other spell in this list, Slow is ripe for use against the players without taking out the fun of the game, so if the players abuse it, do the same! And of course, if it really gets out of hand it CAN start to actually affect the supply of molasses...
My lukewarm take is that 5E's silly "spell preparation" rules kills a lot of the creativity in the game. Due to the limited spells players can prep, they focus on the powerful ones and players just use those over and over again.
These rules aren't from 5th Edition. They have been in the game since the beginning, because Dungeons and Dragons is loosely based on Vancian Magic. If the limitation on spell preparation wasn't in place, then the problem would persist because players would just cast the most powerful spells that their class gives them.
@@GuardianTactician instead, they just do that anyway and lose all the ability to cast non-powerful, more niche spells. You can still use the Vancian system to limit how many spells you can cast, but the spell prep rules are silly and antiquated.
"Hey, this guy speaks a language we don't know...wait, our Wizard has a spell where they can understand every language."
"Yeah, sorry guys, I can't cast that today...can we wait until tomorrow?"
"But why? You haven't done anything today."
"Oh, I didn't prep that spell when we broke camp."
Such horrible design.
(Yes, I know Comprehend Languages is a Ritual, let's just assume for my example they don't have 10 minutes to wait because the planet is going to explode in 9 minutes).
I don't think 5e has any different spell prep than earlier editions. In fact, with rituals, it seems far more flexible. If you really want to do what you're describing, that's for sorcerers.
@@HappyFunNorm Spell Prep has _always_ been stupid in D&D, even before Sorcerers existed, so "being a sorcerer fixes this issue" isn't a solution. It forces players to focus on just a few spells that are considered best in slot resulting in so many fun, non-optimal spells never been used.
It's bad design.
So whats your solution? Give everyone access to their classes complete spell list?
D&D's most abused spells:
Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ice Storm, Charm Person/Monster, Meteor Storm
For meteor storm: I mean, if I slaved through at least 17 levels to get that spell, you’re DAMN sure I’m gonna take every opportunity to use it
Honestly higher level spells like maze are just better or true polymorph. Lower level spells like hypnotic pattern, suggestion, polymorph, spirit guardians, even spells like command and faerie fire are better than charm person or charm monster
From all this, I can see why so many enemies have Magic Resistance, Spell Immunity or Fey Ancestry.
I told this on another channel but I still say this was one of the best stories I had playing DnD 2ed edition.
I was playing a side quest (almost a one shot) for my wizard and a buddy playing a death cleric. It was in a desert, and we found a temple. After using Fireball to clear the front door (my character was tired of all the sand and glass is prettier), we entered the temple to find mostly broken stonework, a large hole in the corner, and one Bad Ass Mother F@&√er demon.
This thing was fast, sturdy, and had magic skin that not only had a 50/50 to reflect magic but also can break anything else that hits it by the same save.
My friend was using a few of his undead thralls to keep it distracted but anything we used on it broke after a few hits. NOW was the time to get Creative! I whipped out a scroll of Levitation and prayed it would stick. Just as the creature jumped for an attack, my scroll smacked him in the face, and killed his momentum. So there was the demon, floating in the air like a sad, grotesque pinta. So me and my cleric friend took what we had and Wacked it, but I knew the spell wouldn't last forever.
Looking at the map, I had an idea! I took a leap and Wacked that demon so hard my favorite staff broke (by force or by it's skin, I don't know) and sent him flying just as the spell ended.
It sailed right into the corner and the dropped down into a over 60f deep hole. But Wait, it wasn't over! We heard it thud at the bottom and then screaming/scratching it's way back up! With another quick idea and a little elbow grease, me and my friend managed to push a broken piece of wall over the hole just as the demon reach the lip of it. Que Goofy scream!
After a short rest, I did go down to finish it off, it did try to hide behind a force field of death magic. One cast of Anti-magic spell, and I walked out of that temple with a few more levels and some descent loot.
Thinking back now, I should have tried to skin that demon, would have made a awesome magic reflecting cloak.