I think that the bards do t have any good 4th level spells that a bard should actually have, how the heck am I going to waste a 4th level spell slot in. A tavern to make my performance cooler with polymorph? I really wanted conjure woodland beings so I can have a band if saytrs play with me:(
@@Spiceodog you can always get it via spell secrets! YMMV but bards do have nice utility at level 4 (freedom of movement, imp. invisibility among others) and control (confusion, compulsion, charm monster).
@@haerdalis84 well yeah, they have polymorph which in my opinion is the best 4th level spell in general, but I want the spells that I can incorporate into a performance, like watery sphere to make a flying aquarium float around the tavern while I sing, and spooky tentacles that I can play in front of, and control water so I can jump into a fountain and create some awesome water work stuff like Lindsey stirling in “ master of tides” ( I used Lindsey stirling as inspiration for this character ) . I don’t care if the spells are powerful, I want the flashy loud stuff
Fire 6 sickening radiance and you insta kill the boss my party's work around when the DM punishes for having a party of full casters. 2 sorcerers, 3 warlocks, and 1 wizard. The wizard would have died otherwise. We got lucky that the boss rolled bad the entire fight 2 1's, 5,3,2, and a 18 but was changed to 4 since the wizard was a divination wizard the rolls were not in that order
I agree. Last night I saw a shadowy figure outside of my window, before I could freak out I heard Ted's sweet voice, like honeysuckle, whispering incantations to keep himself aloft and levitating while rambling about theories on what the next UA will be.
Regarding polymorph, it changes your statistics, but it doesn't say it changes your memory. Most things you can transform into are not smart enough that you won't be making any complicated battle plans anytime soon, but I would rule at my table that you usually at least know who "your people" are, and for many creatures you have at least an idea of what your objective is, although whether you can stay on task or remember for longer than a few seconds is dependent on what you're turning in to.
IMO I also base it on character too. Like I'd give Druids the ability to keep their mentality while polymorphed into a beast, since they have experience from wild shaping all of the time.
I can't believe nobody has commented. Evards black tentacles + sickening radiance. One restrains people Inside with a Str check to escape. The 1st level of exhaustion from sickening radiance gives disadvantage on ability checks. It actually snowballs like hell
Very slight correction to fire shield. It would still work against a melee spell attack (such as inflict wounds) since the wording is a "melee attack" and not "melee weapon attack" so it's just ranged or aoe :) great vid Ted!
A number of thoughts of my own, because why not: -Death Ward is more fun to me as a DM to have enemies that are going to attack the players put it on before the fight. Almost had two semi-important enemies get away thanks to a couple of death wards (keyword, "almost"). -While the Evard's Black Tentacles/Hex combo would be awesome, it would have to be two different characters since both are concentration. -Arcane Eye seems like an invisible flying familiar could do almost just as much. Maybe not slip through tiny cracks under doors, but a 2nd level slot versus a 4th level slot seems like not much contest to me. -I'm surprised, like many people are, that Polymorph is only ranked 6. The druid I dm for won't stop using it because it gives you 157 hit points and lets you giant ape all over enemies, and if he is in the paladin's aura of protection then the chances of breaking his concentration are basically nothing (especially because he has Lucky). Every now and then I include flying enemies that are hard for a giant ape to reach and people with counterspell and dispel magic to keep him from spamming it too much, but he has every right to keep using it because it is so goddamn amazing. And he's never even tried to turn an enemy into something harmless yet. On the topic of how intelligent they are, even T-rexes are at least smart enough to know what is hurting it and what isn't, and so I don't see why they would attack the party as opposed to the people attacking it. -Cape of the Mountebank is an amazing item for the once per day dimension door, but when the wizard npc got swallowed by a purple worm the same druid as earlier used a different feature to teleport *into the purple worm's mouth* so then he could teleport out with the wizard. I gave him a DC 20 perception check and he got a 22 so he found the wizard and they got out, but she could have just teleported out herself, and the group had *just* had a conversation about not doing stuff like that. But yes, fully agree, dimension door is amazing. -No arguments against the last three. My favorite combo is to have a Wizard with Greater Invisibility and then slap 5 enemies with Steel Wind Strike, making all those attack rolls with advantage, and then because you can't be seen then even though it teleports you right next to one of those enemies you can just back away without opportunity attacks. As long as you don't cast it on the tank and put it on people who are mostly making attack rolls, it's great. Sickening Radiance is something I want to start to use more often. When a party gets high enough level to deal with it, I wanna combo it with Forcecage so they can't just move out of it. Yeah, that's an ouch. I believe the Dungeon Dudes called that combo "The Microwave". And Find Greater Steed has been ridiculous to have to deal with. The paladin I run for is already hard to hit and it is already hard to get him to fail a save, and he is oath of ancients so spells don't do much, and now you are telling me he has a Pegasus so he can FLY!? That shit is so crazy difficult to deal with. I gave the party a taste of their own medicine recently with a boss who had very similar abilities to the paladin (including having a buffed griffon mount), and that was the toughest fight they've had in a long time. Maybe that says something.
One of my favorites is Fabricate, take the skilled feat or downtime training to get proficiency in carpentry, smithing, then either leatherworking or tailor, you can make just about anything the party will ever need, not to mention making money in any town or city you get to. 10 minutes V/S spell where as long as you have the raw components you can make anything that fits into a 10 foot cube, or if you're using minerals/metals a 5 foot cube. So you can basically create a cart with trees, raw iron and the 20 minutes to cast it twice. Mundane leather or metal armor, not just a single set but as many sets as will fit into a 5 foot or 10 foot cube depending on materials used. Got someone using ranged weapons, never have the need to track basic ammo again how many arrows do you think will fit into a 10 foot cube? Been hired to clear out an encampment of monsters in the area, pack of goblins that have fallen in line under an ambitious hobgoblin or something similar, once you've scouted the area you can create a siege weapon every 10 minutes from tree's and rope then get a beefier character to bring some rocks for ammo, make the initial assault a lot easier by busting down any fortifications they've built up or at the very least scattering their forces before running in to assault their position. Basically anything you can creatively come up with as long as you can source the materials and spend the 10 minutes of handwaving and chanting to cast the spell. How many times have you been stuck in a situation where things would be a lot easier if you had transport or it would have been a lot easier if you'd been able to soften up a force before running in?
On Polymorph: “knowing if your friends are your friends” is not an INT based thing. This is definitely Wisdom, and more often than not Insight specifically
Agreed even the dumbest of animals have a hint of a family, tribe, or good relations. Ya would still know WHO the enemies are and who your friends are.
I was in a campaign a while ago that has since come to its conclusion where I played a lore bard. Our party was tasked with helping a populist uprising overthrow a general who had recently led a military coup. The day of the uprising, half our party snuck into the general's compound to find a few of his guards had turned against him and attempted to attack him in his quarters. My bard busts in and casts Suggestion: “Come with me if you want to live!!” The general fails his save and we flee the room. My bard grabs him by the wrists and asks “Do you trust me?”. Charmed, the general concurs. Dimension Doored with him right into the middle of the angry mob.
An issue with Find Greater Steed, Peryton are only Medium size which means only small PC's can ride it. If your PC is Medium sized you need Large sized mounts. There is also the long standing joke about what Steed does a centaur paladin summon :)
Yes, some love for Death Ward, I always cast it on someone pretty much when playing a cleric! I haven't watched the episode yet, but I'm hoping to see Arcane Eye, Polymorph and Wall of Fire here as they're some of my personal favorites XD Ah well, got 3 out of 4 of my favorites XD Can't argue against the rest either - planning to take Greater Invisibility with my wizard to give our monk with Elven Accuracy advantage for a few rounds at least
With the fourth spell and really any spell that induces a size or weight limit ( tensers floating dusk, bag of holding, portable hole, etc.)remember to combo it with the spell enlarge/reduce! This greatly expands what you can use them for.
Galder's Speedy Courier and Sickening Radiation surprised me as I wasn't aware of them and they're pretty good. The fire shield nomination surprised me as it always seemed like weak spell to me, considering that most with access to it don't want to get hit and/or waste an action on it. I wish it'd at least work based on proximity or attempted melee attacks. For the resistance you can instead go with Protection from Energy. Solid video!
31:45 PHB/Crawford say no, since you aren't using your movement. It doesn't come up a ton anyway since it's a medium size creature and you have to play a small race to mount it. Page 195.
I love sickening radiance. I remember I was playing an abjuration wizard with a godly con save, so what I would do is I would run into the center of the battle field and drop it on my self. Now no one will ever get within 30ft of me and I'm safe from all but the best of ranged attacks cause shield.
It's been extremely helpful to my Celestial Warlock. Good radiant damage & then the debuff is mean. The only thing I don't like about it is that it also affects friendly creatures when they enter its aoe.
Given that basically every animal can recognize its friends I think it's completely fair for anyone polymorphed to recognize who to fight and who to protect
I had a Divine Soul Sorcerer who would cast an Extended Death Ward on as many people in the party as he could before the long rest, making it run for 16 hours. Saved a few people a few times.
When my bard cast greater invisibility on the paladin and the dm never heard of this variation was great. He had no idea there was a spell that worked in combat like that.
The seemless fighting unit part makes me think of who controls the mount where the Find Steed is controlled by the player, the Find Greater Steed is a DM controlled npc that can take direction from the player but has a mind of its own as indicated by the raised Int
In my home game, the wizard in the party hit 7th level and got access to 4th level spells. When I asked him what spells he took, he responded with “control water and greater invisibility.” Don’t underestimate control water. It has actually been really useful.
Regarding find steed and Find Greater steed: Find steed key lines - "You summon a spirit that assumes the form of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed, creating a long-lasting bond with it".... "Your steed serves you as a mount, both in combat and out, and you have an instinctive bond with it that allows you to fight as a seamless unit. While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed" Greater steed key lines - "You summon a spirit that assumes the form of a loyal, majestic mount." so, but using the word "loyal," XGE shortened a bunch of text out of the previous spell, implying that the greater steed works seamlessly in combat as well... but the greater steed can't be a target of "self" or spells that target the Paladin riding it. The normal steed CAN be the shared target. This does not specify that the paladin must be the caster, someone else could cast Greater invisibility on the Paladin. However it wouldn't make the Griffon invisible too.
"An inch in diameter is like a (skip) or like a keyhole or something like that." What kind of massive keys have you been using 0.0 All jokes aside, loving the videos!
13:40 I believe that Opportunity Attacks cannot be forced onto another creature, like if I used Thorn Whip to pull an enemy away from the Barbarian. It has to be movement made by the creature itself. And since the mount is the one who is moving, I'd say that Flyby ability would also work on whoever was riding it's back
I used sickening radiance twice on a warlock who thought it would be really cool. It was a campaign in open areas quite often though, and the DM would often just have creatures retreat or go around or any number of other options if I cast it. We didn't have a lot of other people with ranged immobilizing effects to combine with it, so I ended up disappointingly dropping it at the first opportunity and haven't touched it since.
I used Sickening Radiance in two campaigns. With a Warlock most of the party including me had knockback abilities or high athletics so we could throw enemies running out of the radiance back into it. With evoker wizard i could just cast it atop us and shape the spell around allies.
Always appreciate the content. You know when you need a break. If you want to flood us with awesome content, you do it. You wanna sleep. Sleep. We’ll be here 👍
I find 4th level to be a really awkward level for most casters. Sure, getting that next tier is great, but spell choices aren't as great as the ones before or after. I personally really love Divination for both RP and to get DM insight into upcoming events. It's like legal metagaming.
As far as find steed goes I allow my Players to pick any creature with a cr reading of 1/2 ( in line with the warhorse option) or lower as the steed (if they can give me a reason for it but I'm pretty open to ideas. For example I have a kobold position with an ambush Drake as his steed). For find greater steed I allow creatures up to cr 2 rating ( in line with griffon option). I also allow them to cast find steed with a 3rd level slot for a cr 1 creature.
Maybe I'm just completely wrong here, but the way I interpret the Find Steed/Greater Steed debate is that with Find Steed, the wording implies that the mount acts on your initiative order as you are seamless, while greater allows the mount to have it's own initiative. Don't know WHY it would really matter, but there it is.
I'd definetly say that Polymorph is the best 4th level spell. It simply does too much. Save an ally by turning them into something with more health and the ability to get away. Buff an ally by turning them into a massive beast. Incapacitate an enemy by turning them into something weak. Assist travel by tunring into something fast or something flying. Improve sneakyness by turning into something smaller, sneakier, and with wall climbing. Improve skill checks by turning into creatures that are good at certain check types.
Both that and careful spell metamagic say "when the spell is cast" they make their save. But the damage from SR comes later, so RAW it probably doesn't work like that.
I use sickening radiance often. As my group fights bigger groups of enemies often, and I can always find a good choke point or enemy exit point to block off. A psuedo wall? or "enemy you better not stand here" zone.
How is Shadow of Moil not #2 here? It's Greater Invisibility and Fire Shield rolled into one spell. Also, I submit that Banishment should be #1. Taking the big bad out of combat for up to a minute is insane.
Theirs a really fun spell my wizard made up in our home games where you cast it in conjunction with another spell to make it so another creature is the target (cast Shield on an ally or Misty Step on a for). Fire Shield on an ally would be awesome
If you're ridding any mount enemies can only make opportunity attack against the mount not you. Because YOU aren't using YOUR movement to leave their space, you don't provoke opportunity attacks the same way you don't if you fall, teleport, are pushed or carried out of a creatures range. This is one of the main benefits of mounted combat
Polymorph: We just generally let people play without some mental hinderance. You can't speak, obviously, but you don't suddenly become incapable, stupid, or what have you. While it may not be 'as-intended' people are far more happier with us being able to turn into hawks for long-distance travel and not turning into hawks and getting distracted hunting rabbits. Or giant apes and fighting/wearing ties instead of giant apes and potentially turning on the party. So much of the nice utility comes from being able to turn into a mouse to slip by enemies instead of turning into a mouse and hiding in a dark place because we're now terrified of our own party members.
Agreed that 4 is the really weird level for spells. For some reason aside from like 8 and 9 it has the least spells, and so many of them are really situational. But there are some real standouts. Also hell yes Find Greater Steed. My paladin had a griffin from that spell who was so wildly useful. It was great. Honorable mentions to blight. A simple damage spell but 8d8 is solid
I have a question about Polymorph, would Changelings and or druids be immune to the effects as both are Shapechangers? Also with the teleportation and Courier would putting things and people into a Bag of Holding or some such remove some of the restrictions? Also wonder where some Dinosaurs fall between Find Steed and Find Greater Steed, like would a Clawfoot be a Greater Steed?
Death award doesn’t stop Power Word kill. In a sage advice it explained the same thing about polymorph and power word kill, power word kill does not bring you to 0 hp, it kills you outright meaning death ward wouldn’t trigger.
Always liked the idea of some kinda super-store run by Wizards, where adventurer's across the world can contact them via Sending and ask for items/potions etc that is then sent across the world instantly with Speedy Courier. Edit: As to the subject of Find Steed control, Crawford has said in a mounted combat sage advice that the Paladin has full control over their steed, and its up to the Paladin player to choose if their mount acts as a mount would (sharing your initiative, only able to Dash/Dodge/Disengage), or as a seperate fighting unit where initiative is split and it can attack freely.
@@Ricardo-zo1ti Setup a tab that you pay when you get to the next town where they will have a small outpost or the like, its unwise to owe money to a group of wizards for very long.
I mean if an enemy has taken 6 turns of Sickening Radiance damage that means they've taken 24d10 radiant damage (an average of 132). It's certainly a survivable amount of damage for very powerful enemies (or weaker ones if they can heal from some of that). But the enemies that can survive that are very likely to either make those saves. Especially with magic resistance or legendary resistances being more common.
I know this video is a bit old, but if you’re a DM and you don’t make someone rampage or lose focus as a bear, horse, owl, or a little lizard; you can’t do it to them as a t-Rex or a giant ape. All those beasts except the lizard and giant ape have a 2 in intelligence, the lizard has a 1, the giant ape has an 8 (the same as some players).
Probably said already but Attacks of Opportunity can only be targeted on creatures using THEIR movement to leave your attack range, making mounts with flyby disastrously powerful!
Sickening Radiance also has the benefit that once they start failing, they will eventually have disadvantage on con saves. If you have a friend web them, they will also have disadv against the webs after a fail
Evoc wizard drop sickening radiance around the party while making the party immune to it, if it's a melee eventually you will win, just straight up all you need to do is outlast the opposition, oh that be great in a siege scenario, make an access point into a death pit.
I would think they'd die from the 24d10 radiant damage they took over those 6 failed saving throws vs Sickening Radiance regardless of the 6 levels of exhaustion.
Druids get fire sheild as of Tasha's which is super useful because moon druids are already tanky front liners! Between Fire Shield and Enlarge I feel like WOTC just wants Moon druids to shit on all other druids
Power word kill does not state that it does damage rather that the creature just dies, I don't think that Death ward would protect you from PWK but that's arguably DM fiat
I've heard of sickening radiance being used with either a wall of force or force cage spell to basically make a microwave with a person inside. Effective as hell but ethically questionable.
Most creatures can recognize friend and for even if they are dumb creatures so I generally think it's fair, even if you can't remember what exactly you were supposed to do in polymorph to at least recognize friend vs foe. At least where it's already pretty clear like in a fight. To me, "keeping personality and alignment" at least gives that much.
"the undying warlock which is the worst warlock in the game and no one plays it" Me: "i guess im nobody since i play an undying warlock and i am able to make it work well"
If you can keep a creature inside Sickening Radiance for 6 rounds plus failing all those saves, that’s 24d10 damage. Being exhausted is the least of their worries. 😂
For Polymorph I try to just erase "knowledge/reason" and just go by how my character feels. If they like all their party members before changing, then knows enemies. If they just got into a fight with a teammate or someone blasts them with a fireball, I have no reason to understand "why" only that I'm mad at them and a blood-hungry beast.
Both that and careful spell metamagic say "when the spell is cast" they make their save. But the damage from SR comes later, so RAW it probably doesn't work like that.
Top 10 D&D 5e 4th Level Spells
10. Death Ward 01:08
9. Fire Shield 02:44
8. Arcane Eye 05:12
7. Evard's Black Tentacles 07:53
6. Polymorph 10:20
5. Dimension Door 13:33
4. Galder's Speedy Courier 16:39
3. Greater Invisibility 20:26
2. Sickening Radiance 22:31
1. Find Greater Steed 27:09
I think that the bards do t have any good 4th level spells that a bard should actually have, how the heck am I going to waste a 4th level spell slot in. A tavern to make my performance cooler with polymorph? I really wanted conjure woodland beings so I can have a band if saytrs play with me:(
@@Spiceodog you can always get it via spell secrets! YMMV but bards do have nice utility at level 4 (freedom of movement, imp. invisibility among others) and control (confusion, compulsion, charm monster).
@@haerdalis84 well yeah, they have polymorph which in my opinion is the best 4th level spell in general, but I want the spells that I can incorporate into a performance, like watery sphere to make a flying aquarium float around the tavern while I sing, and spooky tentacles that I can play in front of, and control water so I can jump into a fountain and create some awesome water work stuff like Lindsey stirling in “ master of tides” ( I used Lindsey stirling as inspiration for this character ) . I don’t care if the spells are powerful, I want the flashy loud stuff
Fire 6 sickening radiance and you insta kill the boss my party's work around when the DM punishes for having a party of full casters. 2 sorcerers, 3 warlocks, and 1 wizard. The wizard would have died otherwise. We got lucky that the boss rolled bad the entire fight 2 1's, 5,3,2, and a 18 but was changed to 4 since the wizard was a divination wizard the rolls were not in that order
No love for Shadow of Moil? Great Hexblade spell.
Whenever I think I'm alone at three A.M Ted is always there
Why is this so correct, he’s like the Reddit Denys of dnd
You should start locking your door.
Didn't you guys know? He's a level 6 warlock with pact of the tome. He doesn't require sleep.
I agree. Last night I saw a shadowy figure outside of my window, before I could freak out I heard Ted's sweet voice, like honeysuckle, whispering incantations to keep himself aloft and levitating while rambling about theories on what the next UA will be.
Read this during the arcane eye segment and I was cracking up XD
"What person would want a Nerd Immersion video at 3 in the morning?"
Me: "OH BOY 3 AM!" *clicks video
Lul
Regarding polymorph, it changes your statistics, but it doesn't say it changes your memory. Most things you can transform into are not smart enough that you won't be making any complicated battle plans anytime soon, but I would rule at my table that you usually at least know who "your people" are, and for many creatures you have at least an idea of what your objective is, although whether you can stay on task or remember for longer than a few seconds is dependent on what you're turning in to.
IMO I also base it on character too. Like I'd give Druids the ability to keep their mentality while polymorphed into a beast, since they have experience from wild shaping all of the time.
Ted thank you for introducing me to Galder’s Speedy Courier, I am instantly in love with this spell.
Man, I respect the hell out of you for still coming through with a top 10! Now please get some rest, you've made enough videos for the day :)
I can't believe nobody has commented. Evards black tentacles + sickening radiance. One restrains people Inside with a Str check to escape. The 1st level of exhaustion from sickening radiance gives disadvantage on ability checks. It actually snowballs like hell
Very slight correction to fire shield. It would still work against a melee spell attack (such as inflict wounds) since the wording is a "melee attack" and not "melee weapon attack" so it's just ranged or aoe :) great vid Ted!
Remember guys we also want a screenshot of 69,420 subscribers
For, no particular reason
A number of thoughts of my own, because why not:
-Death Ward is more fun to me as a DM to have enemies that are going to attack the players put it on before the fight. Almost had two semi-important enemies get away thanks to a couple of death wards (keyword, "almost").
-While the Evard's Black Tentacles/Hex combo would be awesome, it would have to be two different characters since both are concentration.
-Arcane Eye seems like an invisible flying familiar could do almost just as much. Maybe not slip through tiny cracks under doors, but a 2nd level slot versus a 4th level slot seems like not much contest to me.
-I'm surprised, like many people are, that Polymorph is only ranked 6. The druid I dm for won't stop using it because it gives you 157 hit points and lets you giant ape all over enemies, and if he is in the paladin's aura of protection then the chances of breaking his concentration are basically nothing (especially because he has Lucky). Every now and then I include flying enemies that are hard for a giant ape to reach and people with counterspell and dispel magic to keep him from spamming it too much, but he has every right to keep using it because it is so goddamn amazing. And he's never even tried to turn an enemy into something harmless yet. On the topic of how intelligent they are, even T-rexes are at least smart enough to know what is hurting it and what isn't, and so I don't see why they would attack the party as opposed to the people attacking it.
-Cape of the Mountebank is an amazing item for the once per day dimension door, but when the wizard npc got swallowed by a purple worm the same druid as earlier used a different feature to teleport *into the purple worm's mouth* so then he could teleport out with the wizard. I gave him a DC 20 perception check and he got a 22 so he found the wizard and they got out, but she could have just teleported out herself, and the group had *just* had a conversation about not doing stuff like that. But yes, fully agree, dimension door is amazing.
-No arguments against the last three. My favorite combo is to have a Wizard with Greater Invisibility and then slap 5 enemies with Steel Wind Strike, making all those attack rolls with advantage, and then because you can't be seen then even though it teleports you right next to one of those enemies you can just back away without opportunity attacks. As long as you don't cast it on the tank and put it on people who are mostly making attack rolls, it's great. Sickening Radiance is something I want to start to use more often. When a party gets high enough level to deal with it, I wanna combo it with Forcecage so they can't just move out of it. Yeah, that's an ouch. I believe the Dungeon Dudes called that combo "The Microwave". And Find Greater Steed has been ridiculous to have to deal with. The paladin I run for is already hard to hit and it is already hard to get him to fail a save, and he is oath of ancients so spells don't do much, and now you are telling me he has a Pegasus so he can FLY!? That shit is so crazy difficult to deal with. I gave the party a taste of their own medicine recently with a boss who had very similar abilities to the paladin (including having a buffed griffon mount), and that was the toughest fight they've had in a long time. Maybe that says something.
One of my favorites is Fabricate, take the skilled feat or downtime training to get proficiency in carpentry, smithing, then either leatherworking or tailor, you can make just about anything the party will ever need, not to mention making money in any town or city you get to.
10 minutes V/S spell where as long as you have the raw components you can make anything that fits into a 10 foot cube, or if you're using minerals/metals a 5 foot cube.
So you can basically create a cart with trees, raw iron and the 20 minutes to cast it twice. Mundane leather or metal armor, not just a single set but as many sets as will fit into a 5 foot or 10 foot cube depending on materials used. Got someone using ranged weapons, never have the need to track basic ammo again how many arrows do you think will fit into a 10 foot cube? Been hired to clear out an encampment of monsters in the area, pack of goblins that have fallen in line under an ambitious hobgoblin or something similar, once you've scouted the area you can create a siege weapon every 10 minutes from tree's and rope then get a beefier character to bring some rocks for ammo, make the initial assault a lot easier by busting down any fortifications they've built up or at the very least scattering their forces before running in to assault their position.
Basically anything you can creatively come up with as long as you can source the materials and spend the 10 minutes of handwaving and chanting to cast the spell. How many times have you been stuck in a situation where things would be a lot easier if you had transport or it would have been a lot easier if you'd been able to soften up a force before running in?
Fabricating siege weapons is *chef's kiss*
On Polymorph: “knowing if your friends are your friends” is not an INT based thing. This is definitely Wisdom, and more often than not Insight specifically
Agreed even the dumbest of animals have a hint of a family, tribe, or good relations. Ya would still know WHO the enemies are and who your friends are.
I was in a campaign a while ago that has since come to its conclusion where I played a lore bard. Our party was tasked with helping a populist uprising overthrow a general who had recently led a military coup.
The day of the uprising, half our party snuck into the general's compound to find a few of his guards had turned against him and attempted to attack him in his quarters. My bard busts in and casts Suggestion: “Come with me if you want to live!!” The general fails his save and we flee the room.
My bard grabs him by the wrists and asks “Do you trust me?”. Charmed, the general concurs.
Dimension Doored with him right into the middle of the angry mob.
I am so glad a Galder spell gets representation! No one knows about those spells at all and they're always surprised when I use them
Genuinely hilarious how entertaining these videos are even though I have never played D&D
Death ward actually doesn't protect from power word kill. This is because of two things, it doesn't deal damage, and it outright kills you.
An issue with Find Greater Steed, Peryton are only Medium size which means only small PC's can ride it. If your PC is Medium sized you need Large sized mounts.
There is also the long standing joke about what Steed does a centaur paladin summon :)
combining sickening radiance and wall of force is a nasty combo and i love it
Yes, some love for Death Ward, I always cast it on someone pretty much when playing a cleric!
I haven't watched the episode yet, but I'm hoping to see Arcane Eye, Polymorph and Wall of Fire here as they're some of my personal favorites XD
Ah well, got 3 out of 4 of my favorites XD Can't argue against the rest either - planning to take Greater Invisibility with my wizard to give our monk with Elven Accuracy advantage for a few rounds at least
Ted after being told by his viewers to take a break: "No, I don't think I will."
I cant like this enough
With the fourth spell and really any spell that induces a size or weight limit ( tensers floating dusk, bag of holding, portable hole, etc.)remember to combo it with the spell enlarge/reduce! This greatly expands what you can use them for.
Galder's Speedy Courier and Sickening Radiation surprised me as I wasn't aware of them and they're pretty good.
The fire shield nomination surprised me as it always seemed like weak spell to me, considering that most with access to it don't want to get hit and/or waste an action on it. I wish it'd at least work based on proximity or attempted melee attacks. For the resistance you can instead go with Protection from Energy.
Solid video!
31:45 PHB/Crawford say no, since you aren't using your movement. It doesn't come up a ton anyway since it's a medium size creature and you have to play a small race to mount it. Page 195.
I love sickening radiance. I remember I was playing an abjuration wizard with a godly con save, so what I would do is I would run into the center of the battle field and drop it on my self. Now no one will ever get within 30ft of me and I'm safe from all but the best of ranged attacks cause shield.
It's been extremely helpful to my Celestial Warlock. Good radiant damage & then the debuff is mean. The only thing I don't like about it is that it also affects friendly creatures when they enter its aoe.
@@GunnerM60 That spell would be completely broken without the risk of friendly fire.
@@hammert0es Not really because there other aoe spells where the caster can designate who the spell does & doesn't affect.
Even though they don't post it on Dnd beyond, Tasha's made it so that sorcerers and druids get fire shield too.
Polymorph: be an awaken beast ;)
Galder's Speedy Courier: enter in a bag of holding and go wherever you want if you know someone on that place.
Find greater steed just shortens the sentence you said is missing. It states “you control the mount in combat”
Given that basically every animal can recognize its friends I think it's completely fair for anyone polymorphed to recognize who to fight and who to protect
Evard's Tentacles is available for free for the Aberrant Sorcerer too, part of psyonic spell list
I had a Divine Soul Sorcerer who would cast an Extended Death Ward on as many people in the party as he could before the long rest, making it run for 16 hours. Saved a few people a few times.
4th level spells are some of the coolest spells in the game for sure. Such a huge jump from 3rd level
Fire shield is neat if you put it on a ring of spell storing and give it to the front line fighter
When my bard cast greater invisibility on the paladin and the dm never heard of this variation was great. He had no idea there was a spell that worked in combat like that.
Could you eventually do a top ten for each warlock patron, listing 10 different options for each subclass?
You can use a portable hole and climb inside and send it by using the courier. Can be a cheap kind of teleport.
The seemless fighting unit part makes me think of who controls the mount where the Find Steed is controlled by the player, the Find Greater Steed is a DM controlled npc that can take direction from the player but has a mind of its own as indicated by the raised Int
In my home game, the wizard in the party hit 7th level and got access to 4th level spells. When I asked him what spells he took, he responded with “control water and greater invisibility.” Don’t underestimate control water. It has actually been really useful.
My boy Ted, back at ‘Em again with the top 10
Regarding find steed and Find Greater steed:
Find steed key lines - "You summon a spirit that assumes the form of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed, creating a long-lasting bond with it".... "Your steed serves you as a mount, both in combat and out, and you have an instinctive bond with it that allows you to fight as a seamless unit. While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed"
Greater steed key lines - "You summon a spirit that assumes the form of a loyal, majestic mount."
so, but using the word "loyal," XGE shortened a bunch of text out of the previous spell, implying that the greater steed works seamlessly in combat as well... but the greater steed can't be a target of "self" or spells that target the Paladin riding it. The normal steed CAN be the shared target. This does not specify that the paladin must be the caster, someone else could cast Greater invisibility on the Paladin.
However it wouldn't make the Griffon invisible too.
"An inch in diameter is like a (skip) or like a keyhole or something like that."
What kind of massive keys have you been using 0.0
All jokes aside, loving the videos!
13:40 I believe that Opportunity Attacks cannot be forced onto another creature, like if I used Thorn Whip to pull an enemy away from the Barbarian. It has to be movement made by the creature itself. And since the mount is the one who is moving, I'd say that Flyby ability would also work on whoever was riding it's back
I used sickening radiance twice on a warlock who thought it would be really cool. It was a campaign in open areas quite often though, and the DM would often just have creatures retreat or go around or any number of other options if I cast it. We didn't have a lot of other people with ranged immobilizing effects to combine with it, so I ended up disappointingly dropping it at the first opportunity and haven't touched it since.
I used Sickening Radiance in two campaigns.
With a Warlock most of the party including me had knockback abilities or high athletics so we could throw enemies running out of the radiance back into it.
With evoker wizard i could just cast it atop us and shape the spell around allies.
Always appreciate the content. You know when you need a break. If you want to flood us with awesome content, you do it. You wanna sleep. Sleep. We’ll be here 👍
I find 4th level to be a really awkward level for most casters. Sure, getting that next tier is great, but spell choices aren't as great as the ones before or after.
I personally really love Divination for both RP and to get DM insight into upcoming events. It's like legal metagaming.
As far as find steed goes I allow my Players to pick any creature with a cr reading of 1/2 ( in line with the warhorse option) or lower as the steed (if they can give me a reason for it but I'm pretty open to ideas. For example I have a kobold position with an ambush Drake as his steed). For find greater steed I allow creatures up to cr 2 rating ( in line with griffon option). I also allow them to cast find steed with a 3rd level slot for a cr 1 creature.
find greater steed is the best when chosen as a bard class spell
I'm glad I'm not the only one who knows the amazingness of _Galder's speedy courier._
Now that Druids get Fire Shield thanks to Tasha's... Casting Fire Shield, then Wildshaping and going into melee is an awesome thing to do.
I homebrewed fire shield once per day onto a nightmare style elk for a paladin because i like it too
I mean... You can fit your friends in a bag of holding for a few minutes and dimension door. Just remember to get them out. XD
Maybe I'm just completely wrong here, but the way I interpret the Find Steed/Greater Steed debate is that with Find Steed, the wording implies that the mount acts on your initiative order as you are seamless, while greater allows the mount to have it's own initiative. Don't know WHY it would really matter, but there it is.
No Shadow of Moil or Banishment... interesting!
I'd definetly say that Polymorph is the best 4th level spell. It simply does too much.
Save an ally by turning them into something with more health and the ability to get away.
Buff an ally by turning them into a massive beast.
Incapacitate an enemy by turning them into something weak.
Assist travel by tunring into something fast or something flying.
Improve sneakyness by turning into something smaller, sneakier, and with wall climbing.
Improve skill checks by turning into creatures that are good at certain check types.
No banishment? But the rest make plenty of sense
Conjure Woodland Being: You can have 4 flying T-rex rampaging BBEG
Evocation Wizard with Sickening Radiance can cast it and keep their party members safe.
Both that and careful spell metamagic say "when the spell is cast" they make their save. But the damage from SR comes later, so RAW it probably doesn't work like that.
Love the work! Keep it up!
I use sickening radiance often. As my group fights bigger groups of enemies often, and I can always find a good choke point or enemy exit point to block off. A psuedo wall? or "enemy you better not stand here" zone.
How is Shadow of Moil not #2 here? It's Greater Invisibility and Fire Shield rolled into one spell. Also, I submit that Banishment should be #1. Taking the big bad out of combat for up to a minute is insane.
Theirs a really fun spell my wizard made up in our home games where you cast it in conjunction with another spell to make it so another creature is the target (cast Shield on an ally or Misty Step on a for). Fire Shield on an ally would be awesome
If you're ridding any mount enemies can only make opportunity attack against the mount not you.
Because YOU aren't using YOUR movement to leave their space, you don't provoke opportunity attacks the same way you don't if you fall, teleport, are pushed or carried out of a creatures range. This is one of the main benefits of mounted combat
Polymorph: We just generally let people play without some mental hinderance. You can't speak, obviously, but you don't suddenly become incapable, stupid, or what have you. While it may not be 'as-intended' people are far more happier with us being able to turn into hawks for long-distance travel and not turning into hawks and getting distracted hunting rabbits. Or giant apes and fighting/wearing ties instead of giant apes and potentially turning on the party. So much of the nice utility comes from being able to turn into a mouse to slip by enemies instead of turning into a mouse and hiding in a dark place because we're now terrified of our own party members.
I might use magical secrets for find great er steed
Warlocks can get Arcane Eye at-will as an invocation.
Agreed that 4 is the really weird level for spells. For some reason aside from like 8 and 9 it has the least spells, and so many of them are really situational. But there are some real standouts. Also hell yes Find Greater Steed. My paladin had a griffin from that spell who was so wildly useful. It was great. Honorable mentions to blight. A simple damage spell but 8d8 is solid
I have a question about Polymorph, would Changelings and or druids be immune to the effects as both are Shapechangers? Also with the teleportation and Courier would putting things and people into a Bag of Holding or some such remove some of the restrictions? Also wonder where some Dinosaurs fall between Find Steed and Find Greater Steed, like would a Clawfoot be a Greater Steed?
Death award doesn’t stop Power Word kill. In a sage advice it explained the same thing about polymorph and power word kill, power word kill does not bring you to 0 hp, it kills you outright meaning death ward wouldn’t trigger.
Always liked the idea of some kinda super-store run by Wizards, where adventurer's across the world can contact them via Sending and ask for items/potions etc that is then sent across the world instantly with Speedy Courier.
Edit: As to the subject of Find Steed control, Crawford has said in a mounted combat sage advice that the Paladin has full control over their steed, and its up to the Paladin player to choose if their mount acts as a mount would (sharing your initiative, only able to Dash/Dodge/Disengage), or as a seperate fighting unit where initiative is split and it can attack freely.
That sounds cool, but how would you pay the messenger?
@@Ricardo-zo1ti Setup a tab that you pay when you get to the next town where they will have a small outpost or the like, its unwise to owe money to a group of wizards for very long.
I mean if an enemy has taken 6 turns of Sickening Radiance damage that means they've taken 24d10 radiant damage (an average of 132). It's certainly a survivable amount of damage for very powerful enemies (or weaker ones if they can heal from some of that). But the enemies that can survive that are very likely to either make those saves. Especially with magic resistance or legendary resistances being more common.
Arcane Eye - The peeping tom spell
I also like Banishment and Blight spell. Blight is really good when you want to annoy Druids.
Our bard and our wizard liked to combo sickening radiance and wall of force to trap enemies in the area.
Microwave go brrrr
Flyby is actually great. Flyby works because you aren't moving out of the area, you are carried out of the area.
I know this video is a bit old, but if you’re a DM and you don’t make someone rampage or lose focus as a bear, horse, owl, or a little lizard; you can’t do it to them as a t-Rex or a giant ape.
All those beasts except the lizard and giant ape have a 2 in intelligence, the lizard has a 1, the giant ape has an 8 (the same as some players).
Probably said already but Attacks of Opportunity can only be targeted on creatures using THEIR movement to leave your attack range, making mounts with flyby disastrously powerful!
Sickening Radiance also has the benefit that once they start failing, they will eventually have disadvantage on con saves. If you have a friend web them, they will also have disadv against the webs after a fail
They have disadvantage on *ability checks, not *saving throws*, so they don't have disadvantage on them just yet
@@aweseman correct, editing my comment
We all love you ted you are the best
you should do top 10 minis that you own
It's on the list!
I visualize getting the information from Arcane Eye as basically a HUD map.
Same!
Does fireshield give you +2 ac?
My sleep schedule < knowing what spells to take
Sick rad. Vs. Globe of darkness
Evoc wizard drop sickening radiance around the party while making the party immune to it, if it's a melee eventually you will win, just straight up all you need to do is outlast the opposition, oh that be great in a siege scenario, make an access point into a death pit.
I would think they'd die from the 24d10 radiant damage they took over those 6 failed saving throws vs Sickening Radiance regardless of the 6 levels of exhaustion.
I usually think of radiant damage as a holy heat but without Any fire . Melting skin instead of burning it
I've always liked Freedom of Movement, though it is admittedly a little niche.
Druids get fire sheild as of Tasha's which is super useful because moon druids are already tanky front liners! Between Fire Shield and Enlarge I feel like WOTC just wants Moon druids to shit on all other druids
Oo! That's great actually.
Power word kill does not state that it does damage rather that the creature just dies, I don't think that Death ward would protect you from PWK but that's arguably DM fiat
I've heard of sickening radiance being used with either a wall of force or force cage spell to basically make a microwave with a person inside. Effective as hell but ethically questionable.
I love sickening radiance! Im trying to incorporate it into a trap to use on my players
Most creatures can recognize friend and for even if they are dumb creatures so I generally think it's fair, even if you can't remember what exactly you were supposed to do in polymorph to at least recognize friend vs foe. At least where it's already pretty clear like in a fight. To me, "keeping personality and alignment" at least gives that much.
"the undying warlock which is the worst warlock in the game and no one plays it"
Me: "i guess im nobody since i play an undying warlock and i am able to make it work well"
Ted your the best thanks.
Banishment, Wall of Fire, and Resilient Sphere (as a fun one) are my favorites that didn't make the list.
What no unicorn/ nightmares /drakes with GRT steed
If you can keep a creature inside Sickening Radiance for 6 rounds plus failing all those saves, that’s 24d10 damage. Being exhausted is the least of their worries. 😂
For Polymorph I try to just erase "knowledge/reason" and just go by how my character feels. If they like all their party members before changing, then knows enemies. If they just got into a fight with a teammate or someone blasts them with a fireball, I have no reason to understand "why" only that I'm mad at them and a blood-hungry beast.
I like sickening radiance since its a evocation an evoker can drop it and make all the PCs immune to it
Both that and careful spell metamagic say "when the spell is cast" they make their save. But the damage from SR comes later, so RAW it probably doesn't work like that.
If you have two casters in the party you could combo sickening radiance with wall of force.
Fire shield on a barbarian is badass