a barbarian and a rougue persuaded enemies that was mind controled using just music (specifically "Pagode" a music from our country), after a few sessions, one of the enemies became a sentient hammer for the barbarian. sorry for the bad english
Paladin: “damn those fire balls, he knows i’m in this sphere of darkness” Also paladin: “but what if......I wasn’t in the sphere of darkness” Jojo level thinking right there.
I allowed my party Trickster Cleric to swallow a chicken whole b/c his homebrew race is, according to the player, like an infant version of a cosmic Devourer God. He looks like a big frog, hence his name Frog, but he's really an Eldritch horror. The only downside was, he's literally 2ft tall and having to carry the whole chicken inside of him, he had to literally roll away because he got too big to use his legs. He and the Rogue teamed up to raid a Guard Barracks to punish them for drinking and sleeping on the job, when bio-engineered Scorpion-Butterfly hybrids were stalking outside of town in the middle of the night. Currently running a "prequel" to that story, and it's hinted that Frog is in the background, following people to scavenge food. The party cleaned a dungeon out of cultists only to find the next morning, humanoid teeth marks on half-eaten bodies. Whenever something weird and unexplainable happens, we just say it's Frog.
Thats how im dming rn, although weve only had one session it went well. btw im also using this for my npcs, saying fuck npcs with classes and making them cool
note that the new Tasha's book has a feat that lets people grab in invocation from the Warlock. have some people in your party grab Devil's Sight with it and become the ultimate proveyer of Guerilla warfare!
@@plonzz Or, if your warlock is a Hexblade with the Improved Pact weapon who is also a variant Tiefling with wings. You can use this combo out doors and simply raid arrows down from 40' or higher with advantage on every shot. Yes this is a rather specific build but I was asked to make an archer. This is what I came up with.
How important is rule of cool? It took a decade for me to have a character survive a campaign. And my fellow raised the point that character's last words were frequently, "Screw it - rule of cool!"
@@hamishironside6852 You only need one level to inspire others. Lore bards can inspire themselves starting at 14th level, no other bards can at any level
my personal best use of darkness was against basilisks and hags, (the ones that can insta kill you if they look at you while you are feared). we were all averting our gaze to prevent the effects and had disadvantage anyway, my thought was literally, "lets level the playing field" covered us all in darkness, no petrification gaze/death glare for them
I always interpreted the "isn't being worn or carried" as meaning "by someone else".... especially since, immediately before that is says "an object you are holding" is a valid target, even though if you're holding it, it's being carried.... Also, the Bardic Inspiration, while technically not allowed, doesn't really change the outcome by much, so I would have allowed it for the drama
@@CalamitasDeus I'm not going to look it up right now, but I am 90% sure that 'Disguise Self' actually *isn't* a Concentration spell. It only lasts for 1 hour though. 😅
Good luck. It's an awesome campaign. Don't forget to add lulu to the encounters when you get to Avernus and let the players have 2 or 3 mad max batlles. Those were a highlight of our campaign
The casting of darkness was actually legitimate according to the 5th edition rules as written: "If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." - Player's Handbook, page 230. So by casting it on the dagger and then sticking the dagger into an enemy who is moving around is a legitimate use of the darkness spell as per the rules as written. Casting darkness on an item on you are wearing is still casting it on an item to which one can still hold onto making this application legitimate as well since holding is not more specifically defined under the spell description. This means the definition of what it means to hold an item is the default found in the definition which is as follows: hold /hōld/ verb gerund or present participle: holding 1. grasp, carry, or support with one's hands. All one has to to do is grasp onto or support an item like a breastplate and they are now considered to be holding onto their own breastplate satisfying the requirement of the darkness spell. However, the paladin would not be able to cast darkness on the generals armor under 5th edition rules, earlier editions yes. So as long as the paladin is casting darkness on their own armor, which is what is sounds like to me (though it is not entirely clear in the story) since the paladin can fight in darkness without penalty, did so before, and darkness does provide an additional defense, then what was done is legitimate. Bardic inspiration on the other hand, did break the rules as written since it only applies to others and specifically excludes being applicable to the bard themselves. So in the end, this story is not far off of what it is legitimately possible within the game and demonstrates creative thinking within the rules and mechanics of the game more so then the "rule of cool" which only bent bardic inspiration which might not have even been necessary.
In accordance with the rules as written, for a targeted object to be valid for the casting of Darkness it can't be worn, that it is held is not relevant to the restriction on the use of the spell. You sound like one of those "rules lawyers" that tries to twist the rules to fit what you want to happen.
@@shade8928 Hardly, what I stated follows the rules exactly as literally written, specifically that there are two separate conditions for how darkness may be cast which is noted by the use of the word *or* rather than the word *and*. So what is the difference between *and* and *or* since you insist on conflating these two words? Let's look it up and see what we get: "By saying *A and B*, it means BOTH A and B. you may use *and* in positive and negative sentences. *or* provides exclusiveness between choices. by saying *A or B*, it means ONLY ONE between A and B can be considered." So let's take a look at what the spell description actually states: "If the point you choose is on an object you are holding *or* one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." - Player's Handbook, page 230. Because it specifically states *or* that means the sentence can be grammatically rewritten as two separate sentences as follows: If the point you choose is on an object you are holding, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it. *or* If the point you choose is one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it. For it to mean how you have decided to interpret it, it would have to read "*and* one that isn't being worn", yet this is not what it states. You are the rule lawyer type that tries to ruin the game by falsely suggesting that the second restriction of the spell somehow applies to the first part of the spell when the language used specifically divides these into two separate concepts. Just ask Sage Advice so you can find out that darkness actually has two separate casting conditions with one being anything you can hold (what used to be known as a touch) and the other being a 60' casting on any unattended object (ranged).
I mean if that doesn't mean anything, just dart someone and cast darkness on the dart. If it hits, perfect. No sane person would consider a dart that is currently lodged in someone as being worn as clothing, and if you're desperate you can even stick yourself with one for minor damage.
@@justjoking5252 I take it you mean cast darkness on the dart before tossing it as you still cannot cast darkness at range on anything that is on an opponent, even one of your darts that managed to get lodged into that opponent. That is trying to "rule lawyer" around the spell description that prevents ranged spell casting on opponents, and only an easily baffled DM would allow such a "cheat" to get around the limitations of the spell. Why not cast it on a rain drop that lands on an opponent? Or a molecule of air? That is how ridiculous that suggestion really is.
For the bardic inspiration self casting, they may have been going on Critical Role rules cuz Scanlan used it on himself while fighting the white dragon. Super clever move overall.
@@Dragonspassage Traditionally they do and in 5e it mentions the worship of a God(s) several times in the Paladin pages in the PHB. In 5e a Paladin that breaks their Oath is expect to seek Absolution from a Cleric of the same faith to redeem themselves. You could become an 'Oathbreaker'(formerly the "anti-paladin" Blackguard), but that's a major difference from a normal Paladin. However, a DM can alter this "God Clause" if they want. Also, a Paladin can take whatever Oath they choose or might worship whatever deity they choose... including evil ones. 😅
Everybody's talking about how they wouldn't allow the bardic inspiration. But, music, or any other performance, can inspire the one doing it just as much as the audience. The best performers are the ones who embody the song they're singing or put themselves in the mindset of the role they're playing/referencing. I'd totally allow it if I were DMing.
Exactly. *The best* inspirational speakers are. That's why it's a 14th level lore bard feature. The problem is that by allowing the common Bardic Inspiration to be used on oneself, you pretty much take away an important feature from one of the subclasses and give it to the player for free - and a 14th level feature at that. I myself wouldn't allow it for that reason, but y'know, to each their own
@@SirZelean 14th! Most campaigns are lucky to get to that level! I'd bump it down to a 5th or 6th level. That seems to be around the time players really start getting a handle on their characters.
@@SirZelean 'Bardic Inspiration' is a low level feature, but does scale up with level. Also, I almost never use 'Bardic Inspiration' as a Bard and typically take a Bardic College that let's me use the "inspiration die" to power a special feature, which in my opinion, is a better feature for the player anyway. Almost any player could just take the 'Lucky' feat instead or such which I think also are better uses of your level up.
Well, attaching Darkness to an object is part of canon for the forgotten realms, even if it's not RAW. So... I guess it's good? The darkness didn't have to move for the plan to work, anyway. Well, mostly.
Indeed. My group has cast the cantrip 'Light' on copper coins for a decade to use as a source of reusable, magical light(such as then tossing the light coin down a hallway). Blindsight until recently has been sort of a rare thing, so we rarely have used 'Darkness' in this way but could. In 'Tasha's Cauldron of Everything' though, 'Blindsight' can now be taken as a feat. 😅
The casting of darkness is legitimate according to the 5th edition rules: "If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." - Player's Handbook, page 230. So by casting it on the dagger and then sticking the dagger into an enemy who is moving around is a legitimate use of the darkness spell as per the rules as written. Casting darkness on an item on you are wearing is still casting it on an item to which one can still hold onto which satisfies the requirements of the spell, like the paladins breastplate making this application legitimate as well since holding is not more specifically defined. Bardic inspiration on the other hand, did break the rules as written since it only applies to others and does specifically exclude being applicable to the bard themselves. So in the end, this story is not far off of what it is legitimately possible within the game and demonstrates creative thinking within the rules and mechanics of the game more so then the "rule of cool" which only bent bardic inspiration which might not have even been necessary.
@@craigtucker1290 @Craig Tucker the breastplate most certainly violates RAW as it is a worn item which is disallowed. the holding vs carrying thing is a matter of interpretation I feel. I've always viewed it as holding an item requires the person not to be walking, running, swimming or flying with it otherwise its a carried item. that may seem like semantics but semantics really can change the outcome cause in that case I couldn't cast it on an item while moving only while stationary and then would have to move it after by throwing, kicking, dropping etc.
This story remided me of the time I was playing in a Campaign as a Kumiho (Korean Nine-Tailed Fox) (Homebrew: Beast Variant Human) Monk. My Character's Backstory is just that she is a false Kumiho artificially made due to fascination with the mystic race. She is an amnesiac human that has bodily alterations (actually modified to bear physical traits of a Kumiho) and is infused with forest gnome blood. The forest gnome blood infusion is important as it has given my character darkvision, mental cunning, and the ability to cast the Minor Illusion Cantrip. Now, for the fun moment I had with the Minor Illusion Cantrip: Two of our Party Memebers were being pursued by a monster hunting guild. The two Party Members are a bugbear barbarian and me (for being such a foreign creature that technically got "isekai'd" into the world). My character and my barbarian comrade discovered during our run that our pursuers were going to pincer flank us (since we were running in a tunnel system). I decided that I cast Minor Illusion onto an archway where anyone who looked at it sees as if me and the barbarian are on the other side of it. The barbarian comrade picked me up and climbed up a wall to hide clinging to the ceiling. The two groups of pursuers pretty much the illusion I placed on an archway and each group is on one side of that archway. Both pursuer groups had explosive and incendiary weapons and just unloaded at the illusion which, of course, ended up in them shooting each other while the barbarian makes stregth checks to not fall with me from the ceiling. The literal fire fight lasted for just 18 seconds (3 turns) and when me and the barbarian finally went down, we were just met with the sight of singed gore and the sound of screams of those dismembered and still burning alive. Luckily the barbarian was neutral in alignment and I was chaotic neutral in alignment and we were both experienced killers so no trauma from the experience. XD Yes, I was technically playing as SCP-953. XD
THAT is a crazy Kumiho build, but if the DM allowed it(it was only the two of you anyway), then cool. 'Minor Illusion' has lately been one of my favorite cantrips, because if used right it's rather effective. 😄
I also wanted to add that she is a Long Death Monk with low charisma (for being alien to the world and being abrasive). XD BTW, I didn't say that our Party is just two people, it is just that me and the barbarian were the targets and did not want our other 4 companions involved since not only it is only us the monster hunters are after, but also all of them are lawful good and neutral good in alignments and the pursuers are not exactly evil. At least me and the barbarian got a lot more XP without the rest of the Party even knowing. XD
@@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383 Ah, I did I guess assume. I totally agree on doing "bad" things away from Good characters lest they become not-good by standing by.
Either that or they would be against what acts you are doing even if it is pure self-defense or retaliation. Lawful good characters, am I right? Would even get more annoying if metagaming is involved. XD
@@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383 My very first character was a Lawful-Good Human Monk named: 'Goku' back over a decade ago in 3.5ed. I made him Good at least to help protect and watch over my friends in the party since we were all new to D&D at the time, but I was the oldest. Much later, I was able to take all the feats to become a 'Saint' from the 'Book of Exalted Deeds' and our DM literally had to up the CR of encounters just because of him by 3 or 4 levels! 🤣 Also, I used a slight loophole around giving all my loot away by giving it to a one-eyed veteran Fighter "friend" I had that I had taken care of(eventually restored his eye, armored & weaponed him fully, and converted him to my God) and the DM let me control. Were great times! 😎 Lastly, I can tell you more about his beginnings if you want(it'd be probably lengthy). Also, check out the movies series: 'The Gamers' if you haven't. It's a tad old now, but they're great D&D movies by a small company. 😄
I was DMing and everyone but a single member of the party had night vision. Once whilst in the dark they were attacked by an order of blind monks. The mage that didn’t have night vision cast darkness because he thought the monks had night vision. Now everyone was blind, but the blind monks didn’t get a penalty. They were saved when the party Gunslinger set off a firecracker to deafen everyone in the tunnel. One short rest later the darkness had lifted and the mage got another earful of loud noises.
I DM'd a campaign recently where the party was traveling through a desert before they got ambushed by a pair of Giant Lizards. One charged towards the party, while the other latched onto the Hexblade Warlock that had tried to intercept it. The one charging the party went down in a few rounds, but that left the Warlock on his own. Failing a Strength check to unlatch the lizard's jaws from around his arm, he cast Tomb of Levistus to encase himself in ice - which had the added bonus of freezing the lizard's head inside a block of ice. I had the lizard roll a check to see if it could manage to pull itself free, but gave it disadvantage because it was still latched onto the warlock's arm inside the Tomb, and since lizards are cold-blooded, the ice-cold temperatures were already slowing it down. It failed, and proceeded to slowly suffocate inside the Tomb of Levistus, helpless to escape, as the Warlock silently celebrated.
I would allow it to happen as a DM, for it is some clever tactic. It doesn't matter what spell you use, but how you use it. I was playing a Tiefling Sorcerer who was travelling with his friends as adventurers, so he could make a name for himself. The party consisted of me, An orc barbarian, two elves - ranger and a fighter with a bow, and a human rogue who couldn't make it, but DM gave him a story reasons for his disappearance, related to his background. We were looking for thieves guild in the town sewers, because someone stole from us a book we were meant to deliver. On our way we almost died to gelatinous cubes but DM Deus-ex Machina us from TPK. As a punishment, we got captured by the thieves, as we were in no shape to fight. Our rogue found us, but rather than break us free, we decided to use an element of surprise and have him look aorund the place for our weapons. After a nice long rest in the cage, we were chained up to be brought to the bandits leader to decide our fate. I checked to see if the chains locking us up were somehow enchanted. They weren't. with my team not being able to do anything, I started to stack odds in our favor. First I used mage hand to pick pocket keys to the chains from a guard, using thaumaturgy to make a loud cough, that would cover the sound of falling keys. Then, using my tail i picked them up and passed them to my teammates, who one by one, unlocked the chains, but to not cause suspicion, kept them on. When we reached the bandit's leader, he decided to have us fight his giant pet, only for our Rogue to open the cage first, letting the angry animal roam free and cause panic, as we drop our chains, get our weapons and proper fight ensues. We won and used the same chains to lock up the bandit leader for questioning later.
One time my bard made a plank over colapsing bridge with Leomund's Hut. He created hut underneth the broken bridge and didn't let anyone inside. After that we nicknamed spell Leomund's Plank.
BBEG was in the center of the room, kinda close to us and surrounded by his guards... I'm also second in initiative. The player that's first casts Darkness to get his sneak attack, even though it meant blinding the party. It would also blind the guards and give us a turn to prepare. (They were also working against us, but didn't know it at the time) My turn is up... and I'm a human sorcerer that can't see anything. However, I did take Keen Mind. I verified with the DM that I didn't know if anyone had moved, but I knew what the layout of the room was and could recall where everyone was standing... So I resulted to the classic, Fireball. I killed the guards outright and heavily tilted the fight in our favor using Keen Mind in the first round! Twas dope.
@@timwoods2852 Yes, not every paladin has the same oath/deity; but how many gods care that the enemy was asleep? How far does the chivalrous paladin have to go? Why is that immoral? Stabbing a foe in his sleep (which is no different than killing the guy) is better than risking he goes and keeps doing evil stuff; the options don't read: Lawful Stupid, Vengeance Paladin, Oathbreaker.
@@urquanoverlord2538 It's more like a hero vs. antihero mentality. It's seen as right or honorable to give your opponent a fighting chance so no one can say you killed them for a personal or petty reason. Like how a cop can only shoot at a criminal in self defense. Whereas, the antihero doesn't care about how they'll be judged. They know what they believe to be true and act on that, society's, (or in DnD gods') opinions be damned. This is viewed as bad because there's no (or fewer) higher boundaries giving you a structure that others can agree with or vouch for. If you accociate yourself with something deemed evil or wrong, then others will judge your actions accordingly. (You killed the 'evil' general, but your diety is 'evil', maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.)
4:10 Right! I’m having a bit of trouble putting a mental image of that in me mind, is like the hilt of the knife just a silhouette of itself cause the blade would still be in the guy and unseen either way. Hmmmm, YIRBEL LIVES!
Casting darkness on an object you are holding is totally fair game RAW. Playing a Satyr college of swords pact blade warlock in an upcoming game looking forward to it.
Had a 3.5 rogue/cleric that would cast silence on herself and start fights with a charging great sword sneak attack. Turning annoying spells into WTF moments is fantastic. Silence on arrows is fun, too. Not sure it's allowed in 5e, but always remember, the rulebooks are guidelines. Do what you gotta do to have fun with your friends and family. That's sounds bad....
BRILLIANT! We need more creative solutions like the warlock/paladin/bard had. I really want to make a creative combat character for d&d, but I haven't come up with many ideas on my own. This video was an excellent idea generator.
That was amazing! I would allow it and if need to be justified then I'd allow him to make a charisma check to bend the rule of the spell.. to craft the spell of you will. Magic should be a little flexible or a lot depending on the creative mind behind it
I once used the “light“ cantrip on a deck of cards to create multiple glowing cards that would allow the rest of my party to see in the dark using the cards: the DM gave me inspiration. I was happy.
I didn't know that you could cast Darkness on an object! duuuude, there's some fun stuff you could do with that! also, due to Tasha's, there's the new feat that let's you grab an Invocation from the Warlock. grab Devil's Sight and then you can REALLY have some fun! no one will be able to stop the unstoppable force that is the Darkness pebble!
The rule at my table is this "if you can convince me, it can happen." I've expanded the magic system to be more flexible than it currently is and there's some tweaks to other stuff I've made as well. Overall I'd probably let all of this happen without much hesitation. It was definitely creative play and I love it
My sister (warlock) likes to use darkness in crossbow bolts before shooting them to her enemies, once she used it on herself to fight 3 gnolls (she killed them all)
@@mrosskne A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it. I ruled that as neither she nor them could see though it, but she attacked to the center of the darkness wherr the enemy with the darkness imbued bolt stuck in them, except the one time with the gnols where all four of them rolled with disadvantage and basically the gnols killed each other while ahe decapitated the last one
@@mrosskne Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. That's how interpreted 🤷
Darkness makes for a perfect spell if your Wizard or other squishy guy has True Sight, or, in this case, Devil's Sight. Not being able to see a target means you can't cast targeted spells on them, though AoE's will still work (but Energy Resistance/Absorption could help with those). Try casting Darkness on the arrow of your party's archer, then have them fire that arrow where you need to block LoS. It'll create perfect concealment over the area it lands.
@@mrosskne ...Uhh... Yes, it does. It creates a sphere of darkness you can't see through. If it didn't block LoS, then it would basically be Invisibility, just hiding something but not the space around it.
@@mrosskne "Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it." It stops light. Light is necessary to see. It creates a sphere of darkness. If you are standing at Point A, trying to see to Point B, and the darkness sphere is directly between those points, you cannot see Point B because something is blocking your sight. You specifically cannot see through the Darkness spell. You don't just happen to see what's on the other side of that darkness as if it were outlined, unless you have True Sight or a similar spell.
@@eltsoldier it doesn't stop light, it only stops it from illuminating things in the area. if darkness was opaque, the sun's rays couldn't travel through the darkness of space to reach Earth.
My party and I were meeting with a tribe of bandits in one session. We knew things could go poorly if we weren't careful, so I walked into the meeting prepared to throw down. Specifically, I held a sixth level spell as a reaction while our Face Player and the Bandit Boss discussed terms. Some bad rolls happened, and my reaction spell was triggered when a mob of bandits charged us. Before they could fully close the distance, I cast Blade Wall in a semicircle arrangement, horns out like a big cup. A lot of bandits got caught up in their charge and cut to pieces, and anything that made it though the wall had to then deal with our fighter and rogue, who mopped things up nicely
I played a game of Waterdeep and my character was a bugbear bard. We we at the point where we needed/ were tricked into giving a young bronze dragon a "gift" from drow pirates. It was an orb that could communicate and scry on the young dragon. Me and my party didn't trust the drows ( they were openly showing their evil sides) so while the rest of the party was wondering how to stop them from getting in contact with the dragon, I realized that I myself was a bard. I convinced the rest of the party to give the orb to the young dragon and while we were sailing away, I performed for everyone, while casting dispel magic on the orb. For those who don't know, a bard can cast spells with their instruments, so I performed and casted a spell at the same time. Not even my teammates knew until 4 sessions afterwards.
In 5th edition the dagger could have darkness cast on it because he’s holding it. For the armor to be fair he is wearing it so he couldn’t, but their would be other ways and it wouldn’t really change much. For example, using it on a weapon or his spell casting focus. That is, for 5th edition at least. Edit: I forgot to mention that if he is holding his armor when he cast it then it works fine. For example, if he just grabs it while wearing it he can cast darkness.
If you don’t understand, basically rule of cool isn’t necessary here. He followed the rules just fine. Darkness says “that you are holding OR isn’t being worn or carried”.
I am a recent D&D player and have only had 4h into my first campaign, so it's bound to not be that impressive, however, my best use of a spell is using Mage Hand. We had only barely dealt with our last battle and gotten our payment from the job, when the Governor's assistant waltzed into the tabern furious demanding we finish the job. We were hired to find out why the mushroom people of the forest had stopped trading with the city and started attacking and kidnapping people even though they had always been peaceful and deal with it. We ended up fighting a painting in the middle of the mushroom people's village that was controlling them and our Blood Hunter who's our tank had just barely survived. When we destroyed it, the mushroom people came back to their senses. This bowl haired sh*t head wanted us to go back to the forest without getting paid because somehow, another child went missing and he just decided that the 2 cases had to be connected. In the midst of this he insulted my fine just awoken arcane trickster Rogue. Now now that just couldn't be so, after I persuaded him to pay us again for the job, he was waltzing out furiously. I rolled reaction, got a 17, my DM was a bit nervous thinking I was about to kill someone. I used Mage Hand to unfasten his belt and was successful on my Sleight of Hand roll. So, has the Governor's assistant was leaving the tabern furious, he uses both hands to open the Tabern's doors. As he does this, with both hands holding the doors open and everyone both in the Tabern and outside on the street could clearly see him, his pants drop to his feet revealing his undies. In amidst a mix of fury and embarassment, he clumsly pulls up his pants almost stumbling while running across town, everyone laughing at him. As a supposedly cleptomaniac and psycopathic rogue I must say, that visage was a priceless relic in itself ;-)
Casting Grease at the top of a stairwell so enemies coming down the stairs after us would fall prone at the bottom, and be subject to a flurry of melee attacks.
Cast Darkness on a weapon, hazard one might trip over, walk into the sharp end of, or get knocked off a mount by is a fun application. A Warlock player I met once threw a Darkness-emitting Javelin at an enemy squad, killing one of them with the luckiest critical ever, and chaos ensued as their party blasted the rest of the squad into smoldering goo.
Audible recommendation: chronicles of everfall: Shadow of the Conqueror by Shad Brooks. Amazing book. Because it was the final battle and the paladin was so clever I would have given it to him as a DM.
Scott Lynch is literally my favorite author the gentleman bastard trilogy is brilliant the world building in those novels is spot on really makes you feel like you're there. What's nice about the audio books is that they're all narrated by the author ❤️ It's a fucking great recommendation for anyone who wants notes on world building 🔥🔥🔥🤌
I don't really have much in the way of creative spell usage stories. The only cases I can think of, really are me taking advantage of Rope Trick a couple times. Once to provide air supply when we would otherwise have suffocated from smoke inhalation, and the other to save the party from falling to our death (it's not *my* fault the wizard didn't have Feather Fall prepared)
Interesting way I used a spell, huh? I got one. This was with a D&D 5e game that my group's been running for the last 3 years. This happened before the 2 year in-game timeskip that we used to switch to FantasyCraft. Cast is me (Silver Dragonborn Paladin/Warlock), a Tiefling Bard, a Human Fighter/Barbarian, and a Half-Elf Cleric. I should also note that the Tiefling and the Half-Elf are both DMPCs; The Tiefling, because that's what the DM wanted to actually play, and the Half-Elf because we needed a dedicated healer. Our party was attempting to liberate the kingdom that our Fighter hailed from. We had discovered that he was the crown prince of this kingdom, long thought lost after the Vampire who usurped the throne murdered his parents. Naturally, being non-native to this town, there was heavy suspicion on our group. While sneaking through the town to begin our invasion of the castle, I failed my stealth check, and was caught by the guards. In an attempt to escape non-violently, I aimed an Eldritch Blast at the ground, and used the Grasp of Hadar augment to pull the dirt and debris, flinging it into the air to make an improvised smokescreen.
Your question was would I allow? I just allow anything that can happen. If the players are capable of doing it, it'll be allowed to happen so long as the game can go on. Like, just two days ago, my party cleared a dungeon and used the respawning monster level to grind to level 20 then use their new abilities to teleport and kill the arc's final boss. Two more arcs to go, but that depends on how they finish the war arc they just started.
If it's the same monster respawning then I think that'd get old, but they did it in the anime 'Goblin Slayer' so that's up to you. Also, if you're ok with it and can manage it and the players are having fun, then who's to say different really? 😅
That darkness and fiend sight combo is absolutely vicious, I would summon in my pact weapon and cast Darkness on it then charge the enemy, or keep it at a certain spot and constantly duck in and out, jumping in if someone closes to melee with me, staying outside if someone is inside and blast them, the only person who would have advantage in that zone would be me.
I think casting darkness on an object should be fine, but I would draw the line on giving yourself bardic inspiration. The important thing is that the players have fun though. If the rules prevent the players from having as much fun as they could have, then some adjustments are needed. It only becomes a problem when the adjustments detract from the fun that the other players could be having. And that's a decision for each individual group, not something people who aren't in that gaming group can decide for them.
it isn't really rule of cool it's just drop a item "free action" cast darkness "action" pick up item "item interaction" wich is a free action but only once per turn but if it make you feel torn then make your character drop a bag of gravel and pick up only one gravel wich got darkness cast on it it's the same thing but you add a feeling of loss
While playing 3.5. I was playing a gnome bard and to help me from dieing within a hit or drowning in sewer waters i used summon instrument. So i would float around ina. Steel drum, or hidding in it sining under it
The fight against the kobold mob in tomb of anhiliation was meant to be a joke at current level (8-9) but still sharing because it was a great moment. Basically my druid casts insect plague and dm is willing to let me flavor the spell however i want. I choose coconut crabs and the end result is a room covered in kobold blood and guts. One survived because he was able to escape due to being at the edge but everyone else? Yeah, not so much....
I got a time I used a spell! Story time: Playing a long standing campaign of Vampire the Masquerade with my friends. Custom story that changes lore up a bit but all powers and abilities are standard. For those that are unaware, a lot of powers in the World of Darkness are intentionally vague, thus allowing you to use your imagination in their use. The campaign has been going on for the better part of 5 years, starting in High School. Our characters starting out at a mediocre power level in the time of Leonidas in ancient Greece and we over time became quite powerful overcoming other vampires seeking to usurp us, hunters seeking to kill us, mages seeking to use us, an the werewolves somewhere in the middle. We even managed to change history by brokering a peace between Athens and Sparta. Being immortal vampires we all got into the mind set of being methodical and slow with the implementation of our plans, some taking centuries to see to completion. I'm playing a Tremere, basically a vampire mage that focus on Thaumaturgy, a sort of blood magic, Dominate similar to compulsion in the vampire diaries, and Auspex which is super human senses. Another player, the friend of the DM is playing a Ventrue, Sort of the Regal vampires that focus on wealth and being King. My two other friends Play a True Brujah vampires that can manipulate time, and a Malkavian, ones that see order in the madness and are all mad themselves. As the centuries pass we allow ourselves to fade into obscurity directing the masses from the shadows by binding mortal kings to our will or supplanting them entirely. We see the passage of Jesus and many other prominent figures and face many threats, killing those that are to dangerous to tolerate. Come the 1400's and we have a rather large plot of land carved out for us. We've since diablerized many Vampires, which is basically committing vampire cannibalism in which you drink their soul, getting stronger in the process. Since his creation my character has learned to create illusions, manipulate emotions, and control darkness, use celerity which is super speed, control time to a degree and fortitude which is durability all while honing his magical arts. Fast forward to the 21st century. We are all Massively powerful 4th generation vampires with missive amounts of respect and control in the Unites States where we reside in New Orleans. the amount of power any one of us can use can halt armies and together we could stand toe to toe with a Legendary Werewolf pack. However with one of our friends moving away for work we finally decide to end it all by Turing the game into an End times game. (every setting in World of Darkness has an end of times apocalypse. The Vampire apocalypse is Caine, the first vampire, and the first murderer along with his childer, the 2nd generation, and their childer the 3rd generation, all rise to end the world.) The end times begin Demons rise, the Werewolves go to war to go down fighting, the mages seek to hide, and our world comes crashing down. We try to make a defense, we try to form a safe haven, but 2 clan founders arrive. 3rd generation vampires so powerful that they have powers considered to be plot devices. Its like having access to one entire branch of magic and an infinite number of spell slots to use it with. Ventrue and Brujah walk into our town and begin laying waste to everything. NPCs we've kept alive since the dark ages, ones we have grown attached to are snuffed out in an instant. My character decides to take a stand while the party and what remains of our empire retreats. I approach the street they are on and the 2 8000 year old vampires turn, amused to see someone so young stand against them as they were 6000 years my senior. I begin laying into them with magic. Having mastered enough Time manipulation I was able to take several turns at a severe cost of blood to fuel it but nothing seemed to phase them Fire, lightning, gunfire, boiling their blood it all seemed to just piss them off. Then came their retaliation, hard physical damage that sent me through a building that left me battered and near dead. But I wasn't done. They approached asking "Is that all you have for us?" I smiled. "Not even close." I An obscene amount of blood to activate a power that let me move as a blur and bumped my dexterity well beyond my usual limit just in case I needed it while using some magic to calm and focus myself. "Just die." I told them as I activated a path of magic known as the Path of Conjuring. It was a simple path that let you create simple to complex objects with knowledge, and I had much knowledge to draw from. I looked to the DM and said "I create a star right above them." The entire table was dumbfounded and he asked me to clarify and I responded "I create a star as hot as the sun that's about 1.5 meters wide as that's the limit on the size via the power, however there is no specified limit on the mass so I make it around 50 kg per cubic inch. It wont have the gravity to hold itself together so I'll explode. Some quick math later and we found that something like 11 million lbs. of matter at almost 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit or 5000 Celsius just appeared over the street. I didn't wait, I just teleported away using some of what little blood I had left. The explosion that followed turned most of Louisiana, part of Mississippi and some of the gulf into a molten creator and the resulting shockwave through the earth that were felt the world over. Had it not been clan founders I'd have never taken such measures, but we'd heard rumors for weeks that they had awoken and the entire world was going to shit. Jesus had risen, the wolves were at war, the mages were trying to jump ship into a new reality with some massive spell, and Caine had been seen on more than one occasion. Drastic measures needed to be taken. We never seen them again.
It sounds like there needs to be an earnest discussion over why the darkness spell shouldn't work on things that are worn - and go from there. There are various ways that mechanics could be altered to make such applications less objectionable - such as having levels of darkness depending on the duration of being in one location. Another possibility is having magical enchantments interfere with such a spell - and require concentration checks with just the + enchantment as modifier to maintain it. There is always a way - if it should be determined that there should be a will.
@@bryceio You can apply it either to a point, or an object. Though it has to be an object that's held by you, or not worn, or held by anyone else. You could target your weapon per se, but not someone elses weapon, or armor.
That Paladin/Warlock just solo'd the final boss. Pretty epic, but if I was another person at the table watching him go off on his own to solo the boss, I'd be a bit disappointed it wasn't a team effort.
also involving darkness but instead it was a missstep by the DM. I'm playing a GOW warlock in a short lvl 3 campaign, my character had been experimented on by alien beings which gave him magic powers and a squid like familiar (imp reflavor) but no memory of how he got them. the campaign began party waking up with no idea where they were (something my character was all too familiar with) it turned out to be a dungeon of a cult and we were working our way out of it. a cast of suggestion on the 1st cultist we found lead us to their leader, a strigoi (vampire) when we walked in the leader cast darkness at the doorway to prevent us from seeing him, but made 1 mistake, he cast it on my warlock, who's familiar can see through the magic darkness. I had specifically chosen not to use the devilsight darkness combo when creating the character, but the cards fell into place too perfectly not to use them. my 1st turn I used my action to see through my familiar so my character would even know where to go, sidestepping the doorway to let the rest of the party though. then on my 2nd turn I began firing off eldritch blasts with advantage because the enemies couldn't see though the darkness either. the rest of the party moved in and focused on the leader, while I blasted away at him and the ghost monster he had summoned. meanwhile the rest of the cult members at the door didn't know where to move in the darkness, leaving them unable to fight. the session ended with us defeating the leader while the ghost fled through the walls. the death of the leader also dropped the darkness so we'll have to deal with the other cultists, but both I and the bard are disguised as them, so we may be able to talk our way out next time
I played a game that had guns in it (muskets that took a full turn to reload so I didn’t use it much). We got shot at and took cover. Looking in the direction the shot came from we saw nothing. I took my musket, cast light on a bullet, and shot in the general direction. Thanks to the light we managed to locate our attacker.
Pathfinder campaign: The spell mount (1st level) lets you summon a light horse within 30 ft. So you summon the mount 20 ft in the air above your target. That translates to 4d6 damage for a level 1 spell. Although, they get a reflex save to dodge.
Considering this was the final session, half the party died, and the paladin was clever with his encounter with the BBEG (whom he had a history with), yes I would allow this.
My favorite method of using Darkness is when playing a Warlock. Get Darkness, get ability to see through Darkness, get a method of flying. With these powers combined with a buffed Eldritch Blast, you can create the almighty sniper's nest, and you the almighty sniper.
One of the best uses of a spell my DM had ever done to our party. It was all for the meme. Or rather large party of 6 to 8 adventures on any given night we're reaching the end of our adventure going into the evil artificers tower. We were playing 3.5. As the party walks into a room full of greater darkness, a much higher level version of the darkness spell, I decided to have my arch mage wizard cast greater missile storm at the darkness. Laughing and smiling the entire party giggled at me magic missilling the darkness. Then my DM laughed. As the magic missiles made contact destroying the living spell greater darkness and dissipating the magic. Revealing an epic room sizes wall of mirror of opposition. Dumbfounded our party now stood with an exact duplicate of our party to fight against us and no way out of the room. This was an epic troll from the DM and allowed us to practice fighting against ourselves in an oddly brief battle. Almost as a badge of honor, my arch mage who still had 3.0 fate spinner class and a habit of writing contingencies for everything was elected as the most dangerous player to be left alive. My other party members took him out in a single turn. I shall now always think twice before magic misselling the darkness.
In my current campaign, considering the season of Halloween, we are on a ship as pirates. I happen to be able to cast mage hand at will as the simple cook. I do my level best to make everyone think the ship is haunted by moving lanterns and knocking over small objects, or making thumps.
The rule is mostly there so you can't just cast it and keep it moving with you as a 'cast and forget' you have to worry about dropping it to keep it with you. Also so you cant just cast it on someone else like some pseudo 'heat metal' debuff.
As a forever DM, I rule that if a magic item is sentient then it can be the source of a spell that it casts itself. If you want to gain a sentient magic item, you can find one of many legendary artificers that are in key areas and pay 250,000gp to get it. My world is before the cataclysmic collapse that turns the existing areas into ruins that hide magic items and random abundance of gold.
This video made a question cross my mind that I don't think anyone in the comments has considered: is multiclassing OP? Because none of this would've been possible if the paladin hadn't multiclassed. I know it's in the rules, but is it broken?
As a DM, I don't let player's multi-class unless they can give me a good reason their character would actually do it- other than "I just want all the cool abilities of the classes." Once players start looking at the spells and abilities of different classes as "ala-carte" selections they can pick and choose, you've begun a downward spiral of ridiculousness. If I did the same thing as a DM the players would rightfully cry foul when I whip out my Ogre Barbarian-Druid with just enough levels of Druid to shapeshift into a T-Rex...
If it is the finale of the campaign, let the Rule of Cool trump Rules As Written. The finale is the victory lap and a celebration of the story your group made.
You're wrong; no rule was broken as described. The spell allows you to cast it on a point in space or a point on an object. You misread the second paragraph: "If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." This is an "if 1 or if not 2" statement and remains true as long as one of the conditions is met. Meaning, if you're holding the object, you can cast darkness on it. Alternatively, if it's an object within range that isn't being worn nor carried, you can also cast darkness on it. Your pally is "holding" the knife when he casts darkness (so he needs a hand free unless he has war caster, which he does). As the DM, you also get to define "holding" more liberally than I do. There is no requirement for him to retain a hold on said knife. You might have broken a rule with that bardic inspiration, though. Under official rules, Bardic inspiration can't be granted to oneself, but there might be a house rule or non-official subclass allowing it that I'm not aware of.
I cast the Darkness spell on my bat familiar after looking at the way the spell was written. It blocks all creatures that can "see", as a bat does not use eyes to figure out what is around it... It was immune. It flew over the upper half of some Orcs that would have caused a TPK, instead as the Orcs were confused as to how the lights got turned out on them, and how the darkness kept following them so they could not see. It gave my players time to shoot them to death with bow and crossbows.
Clerics in 5th edition can hide like most classes. If their wearing heavy armor it’s harder. Rouges are better at it because of certain abilities like expertise and cunning action.
@@harmonicaman4782 It also MOSTLY depends on the armor type, whether you have Stealth as a proficiency(or double), and if you make Dexterity one of your main stats. Rogues are definitely more suited to Hiding, because of these traits, but not exclusive to it. (I basically just expanded on what you said some.) 😅
If you were the DM would you have allowed it? How important is the “rule of cool” at your table?
It depends on what they are trying to do
And that character I was talking about last video took out the whole monster manual + the aviator of death
Rule of cool rules the tables I play at normally besides when helping a fledgling learn to spread his DM-ing wings
a barbarian and a rougue persuaded enemies that was mind controled using just music (specifically "Pagode" a music from our country), after a few sessions, one of the enemies became a sentient hammer for the barbarian. sorry for the bad english
Rule of cool for the end of the campaign is fine in my book
Paladin: “damn those fire balls, he knows i’m in this sphere of darkness”
Also paladin: “but what if......I wasn’t in the sphere of darkness”
Jojo level thinking right there.
your next line is, there is no way he could have survived this.
vsauce micheal here
@@somehowviable7696 "I'm in the Sphere Of Darkness...or am I?" - Paladin.
@@gecodo there is no way he could've survived this! Huh!?
If I was ever running a game, the "rule of cool" would be applicable, but you gotta justify every little thing you do.
exactly
I allowed my party Trickster Cleric to swallow a chicken whole b/c his homebrew race is, according to the player, like an infant version of a cosmic Devourer God. He looks like a big frog, hence his name Frog, but he's really an Eldritch horror. The only downside was, he's literally 2ft tall and having to carry the whole chicken inside of him, he had to literally roll away because he got too big to use his legs.
He and the Rogue teamed up to raid a Guard Barracks to punish them for drinking and sleeping on the job, when bio-engineered Scorpion-Butterfly hybrids were stalking outside of town in the middle of the night.
Currently running a "prequel" to that story, and it's hinted that Frog is in the background, following people to scavenge food. The party cleaned a dungeon out of cultists only to find the next morning, humanoid teeth marks on half-eaten bodies. Whenever something weird and unexplainable happens, we just say it's Frog.
I once somehow decapitated someone with a rapier stab 'cause I rolled a nat 20
Thats how im dming rn, although weve only had one session it went well. btw im also using this for my npcs, saying fuck npcs with classes and making them cool
@@KenderGuy I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible for the type of sword and going a little far even for the rule of cool but alright.
I am looking forward to casting Darkness with my Warlock. Devil's sight will be ... awesome.
free advantage, but your party suffers
glorySuffer
@@plonzz And even then, there are enemies that just say no to Darkness.
I'm pretty sure at higher levels warlocks can get an evocation that lets them cast darkness at will.
note that the new Tasha's book has a feat that lets people grab in invocation from the Warlock. have some people in your party grab Devil's Sight with it and become the ultimate proveyer of Guerilla warfare!
@@plonzz Or, if your warlock is a Hexblade with the Improved Pact weapon who is also a variant Tiefling with wings. You can use this combo out doors and simply raid arrows down from 40' or higher with advantage on every shot. Yes this is a rather specific build but I was asked to make an archer. This is what I came up with.
"Ok, the dragon is too big for it to be pulled towards me with thorn whip. But can I pull me towards it with it?"
Same thing with rope of climbing.
How important is rule of cool?
It took a decade for me to have a character survive a campaign. And my fellow raised the point that character's last words were frequently, "Screw it - rule of cool!"
This was by far a smart plan, and thankfully the dice gods deemed it so. I probably wouldn't have let them cast bardic inspiration on themselves.
Yeah, I find it highly unlikely that they had enough bard levels to do that
@@skynyrdjesus u only need one lvl of bard for bardic inspiration
@@hamishironside6852 You only need one level to inspire others. Lore bards can inspire themselves starting at 14th level, no other bards can at any level
my personal best use of darkness was against basilisks and hags, (the ones that can insta kill you if they look at you while you are feared). we were all averting our gaze to prevent the effects and had disadvantage anyway, my thought was literally, "lets level the playing field" covered us all in darkness, no petrification gaze/death glare for them
I always interpreted the "isn't being worn or carried" as meaning "by someone else".... especially since, immediately before that is says "an object you are holding" is a valid target, even though if you're holding it, it's being carried....
Also, the Bardic Inspiration, while technically not allowed, doesn't really change the outcome by much, so I would have allowed it for the drama
Indeed, I would allow the Bardic Inspiration also, since the most inspirationally speaking people are those that believe in what they say. 😄
There is a bardic college that allows it, actually. The main thing is casting disguise self while also concentrating on darkness for me.
@@CalamitasDeus I'm not going to look it up right now, but I am 90% sure that 'Disguise Self' actually *isn't* a Concentration spell. It only lasts for 1 hour though. 😅
Story starts at 1:30
Sup my friend, I am running decent into avernus today, wish me luck
Good luck. It's an awesome campaign. Don't forget to add lulu to the encounters when you get to Avernus and let the players have 2 or 3 mad max batlles. Those were a highlight of our campaign
Fish wishes thee luck
fish Thank you o Fish of Luck
Good luck
You got this good luck m8
The casting of darkness was actually legitimate according to the 5th edition rules as written:
"If the point you choose is on an object you are holding
or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." - Player's Handbook, page 230.
So by casting it on the dagger and then sticking the dagger into an enemy who is moving around is a legitimate use of the darkness spell as per the rules as written. Casting darkness on an item on you are wearing is still casting it on an item to which one can still hold onto making this application legitimate as well since holding is not more specifically defined under the spell description. This means the definition of what it means to hold an item is the default found in the definition which is as follows:
hold
/hōld/
verb
gerund or present participle: holding
1. grasp, carry, or support with one's hands.
All one has to to do is grasp onto or support an item like a breastplate and they are now considered to be holding onto their own breastplate satisfying the requirement of the darkness spell. However, the paladin would not be able to cast darkness on the generals armor under 5th edition rules, earlier editions yes. So as long as the paladin is casting darkness on their own armor, which is what is sounds like to me (though it is not entirely clear in the story) since the paladin can fight in darkness without penalty, did so before, and darkness does provide an additional defense, then what was done is legitimate.
Bardic inspiration on the other hand, did break the rules as written since it only applies to others and specifically excludes being applicable to the bard themselves.
So in the end, this story is not far off of what it is legitimately possible within the game and demonstrates creative thinking within the rules and mechanics of the game more so then the "rule of cool" which only bent bardic inspiration which might not have even been necessary.
In accordance with the rules as written, for a targeted object to be valid for the casting of Darkness it can't be worn, that it is held is not relevant to the restriction on the use of the spell.
You sound like one of those "rules lawyers" that tries to twist the rules to fit what you want to happen.
@@shade8928 Hardly, what I stated follows the rules exactly as literally written, specifically that there are two separate conditions for how darkness may be cast which is noted by the use of the word *or* rather than the word *and*. So what is the difference between *and* and *or* since you insist on conflating these two words? Let's look it up and see what we get:
"By saying *A and B*, it means BOTH A and B. you may use *and* in positive and negative sentences. *or* provides exclusiveness between choices. by saying *A or B*, it means ONLY ONE between A and B can be considered."
So let's take a look at what the spell description actually states:
"If the point you choose is on an object you are holding
*or* one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." - Player's Handbook, page 230.
Because it specifically states *or* that means the sentence can be grammatically rewritten as two separate sentences as follows:
If the point you choose is on an object you are holding, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it.
*or*
If the point you choose is one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it.
For it to mean how you have decided to interpret it, it would have to read "*and* one that isn't being worn", yet this is not what it states. You are the rule lawyer type that tries to ruin the game by falsely suggesting that the second restriction of the spell somehow applies to the first part of the spell when the language used specifically divides these into two separate concepts. Just ask Sage Advice so you can find out that darkness actually has two separate casting conditions with one being anything you can hold (what used to be known as a touch) and the other being a 60' casting on any unattended object (ranged).
I mean if that doesn't mean anything, just dart someone and cast darkness on the dart.
If it hits, perfect. No sane person would consider a dart that is currently lodged in someone as being worn as clothing, and if you're desperate you can even stick yourself with one for minor damage.
@@justjoking5252 I take it you mean cast darkness on the dart before tossing it as you still cannot cast darkness at range on anything that is on an opponent, even one of your darts that managed to get lodged into that opponent. That is trying to "rule lawyer" around the spell description that prevents ranged spell casting on opponents, and only an easily baffled DM would allow such a "cheat" to get around the limitations of the spell. Why not cast it on a rain drop that lands on an opponent? Or a molecule of air?
That is how ridiculous that suggestion really is.
@@craigtucker1290 dunno about the rules part but you sure do sound like a lawyer...
For the bardic inspiration self casting, they may have been going on Critical Role rules cuz Scanlan used it on himself while fighting the white dragon. Super clever move overall.
Scanlan was a Lore bard of 14th level. He could.
Paladin warlock bard....not a combo the jedi ever told me about
Lol, was gonna say. Paladin and warlock. Someone is lying to two very powerful someone elses
I'm joining a gestalt game that's starting in the new year. Cleric/Warlock. My character is screwed.
@@j.michaelcherry8330 paladins don't get power from other beings it comes from their own belief in an oath they make to themselves.
@@Dragonspassage well, I think varies a bit version to version. But fair point.
Edit: actually that could just be a house rule in retrospect
@@Dragonspassage Traditionally they do and in 5e it mentions the worship of a God(s) several times in the Paladin pages in the PHB. In 5e a Paladin that breaks their Oath is expect to seek Absolution from a Cleric of the same faith to redeem themselves. You could become an 'Oathbreaker'(formerly the "anti-paladin" Blackguard), but that's a major difference from a normal Paladin. However, a DM can alter this "God Clause" if they want. Also, a Paladin can take whatever Oath they choose or might worship whatever deity they choose... including evil ones. 😅
Everybody's talking about how they wouldn't allow the bardic inspiration. But, music, or any other performance, can inspire the one doing it just as much as the audience. The best performers are the ones who embody the song they're singing or put themselves in the mindset of the role they're playing/referencing. I'd totally allow it if I were DMing.
Exactly. The best inspirational speakers are those that believe what they say. 😃
Exactly. *The best* inspirational speakers are.
That's why it's a 14th level lore bard feature. The problem is that by allowing the common Bardic Inspiration to be used on oneself, you pretty much take away an important feature from one of the subclasses and give it to the player for free - and a 14th level feature at that. I myself wouldn't allow it for that reason, but y'know, to each their own
@@SirZelean 14th! Most campaigns are lucky to get to that level! I'd bump it down to a 5th or 6th level. That seems to be around the time players really start getting a handle on their characters.
@@SirZelean 'Bardic Inspiration' is a low level feature, but does scale up with level. Also, I almost never use 'Bardic Inspiration' as a Bard and typically take a Bardic College that let's me use the "inspiration die" to power a special feature, which in my opinion, is a better feature for the player anyway. Almost any player could just take the 'Lucky' feat instead or such which I think also are better uses of your level up.
Well, attaching Darkness to an object is part of canon for the forgotten realms, even if it's not RAW. So... I guess it's good? The darkness didn't have to move for the plan to work, anyway. Well, mostly.
You can cast it on object just not worn objects.
You can cast darkness on an object you are holding as well.
Indeed. My group has cast the cantrip 'Light' on copper coins for a decade to use as a source of reusable, magical light(such as then tossing the light coin down a hallway). Blindsight until recently has been sort of a rare thing, so we rarely have used 'Darkness' in this way but could. In 'Tasha's Cauldron of Everything' though, 'Blindsight' can now be taken as a feat. 😅
The casting of darkness is legitimate according to the 5th edition rules:
"If the point you choose is on an object you are holding
or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." - Player's Handbook, page 230.
So by casting it on the dagger and then sticking the dagger into an enemy who is moving around is a legitimate use of the darkness spell as per the rules as written. Casting darkness on an item on you are wearing is still casting it on an item to which one can still hold onto which satisfies the requirements of the spell, like the paladins breastplate making this application legitimate as well since holding is not more specifically defined. Bardic inspiration on the other hand, did break the rules as written since it only applies to others and does specifically exclude being applicable to the bard themselves.
So in the end, this story is not far off of what it is legitimately possible within the game and demonstrates creative thinking within the rules and mechanics of the game more so then the "rule of cool" which only bent bardic inspiration which might not have even been necessary.
@@craigtucker1290 @Craig Tucker the breastplate most certainly violates RAW as it is a worn item which is disallowed. the holding vs carrying thing is a matter of interpretation I feel. I've always viewed it as holding an item requires the person not to be walking, running, swimming or flying with it otherwise its a carried item.
that may seem like semantics but semantics really can change the outcome cause in that case I couldn't cast it on an item while moving only while stationary and then would have to move it after by throwing, kicking, dropping etc.
This story remided me of the time I was playing in a Campaign as a Kumiho (Korean Nine-Tailed Fox) (Homebrew: Beast Variant Human) Monk. My Character's Backstory is just that she is a false Kumiho artificially made due to fascination with the mystic race. She is an amnesiac human that has bodily alterations (actually modified to bear physical traits of a Kumiho) and is infused with forest gnome blood. The forest gnome blood infusion is important as it has given my character darkvision, mental cunning, and the ability to cast the Minor Illusion Cantrip.
Now, for the fun moment I had with the Minor Illusion Cantrip:
Two of our Party Memebers were being pursued by a monster hunting guild. The two Party Members are a bugbear barbarian and me (for being such a foreign creature that technically got "isekai'd" into the world). My character and my barbarian comrade discovered during our run that our pursuers were going to pincer flank us (since we were running in a tunnel system). I decided that I cast Minor Illusion onto an archway where anyone who looked at it sees as if me and the barbarian are on the other side of it. The barbarian comrade picked me up and climbed up a wall to hide clinging to the ceiling. The two groups of pursuers pretty much the illusion I placed on an archway and each group is on one side of that archway. Both pursuer groups had explosive and incendiary weapons and just unloaded at the illusion which, of course, ended up in them shooting each other while the barbarian makes stregth checks to not fall with me from the ceiling. The literal fire fight lasted for just 18 seconds (3 turns) and when me and the barbarian finally went down, we were just met with the sight of singed gore and the sound of screams of those dismembered and still burning alive.
Luckily the barbarian was neutral in alignment and I was chaotic neutral in alignment and we were both experienced killers so no trauma from the experience. XD
Yes, I was technically playing as SCP-953. XD
THAT is a crazy Kumiho build, but if the DM allowed it(it was only the two of you anyway), then cool. 'Minor Illusion' has lately been one of my favorite cantrips, because if used right it's rather effective. 😄
I also wanted to add that she is a Long Death Monk with low charisma (for being alien to the world and being abrasive). XD
BTW, I didn't say that our Party is just two people, it is just that me and the barbarian were the targets and did not want our other 4 companions involved since not only it is only us the monster hunters are after, but also all of them are lawful good and neutral good in alignments and the pursuers are not exactly evil. At least me and the barbarian got a lot more XP without the rest of the Party even knowing. XD
@@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383 Ah, I did I guess assume. I totally agree on doing "bad" things away from Good characters lest they become not-good by standing by.
Either that or they would be against what acts you are doing even if it is pure self-defense or retaliation.
Lawful good characters, am I right? Would even get more annoying if metagaming is involved. XD
@@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383 My very first character was a Lawful-Good Human Monk named: 'Goku' back over a decade ago in 3.5ed.
I made him Good at least to help protect and watch over my friends in the party since we were all new to D&D at the time, but I was the oldest. Much later, I was able to take all the feats to become a 'Saint' from the 'Book of Exalted Deeds' and our DM literally had to up the CR of encounters just because of him by 3 or 4 levels! 🤣
Also, I used a slight loophole around giving all my loot away by giving it to a one-eyed veteran Fighter "friend" I had that I had taken care of(eventually restored his eye, armored & weaponed him fully, and converted him to my God) and the DM let me control. Were great times! 😎
Lastly, I can tell you more about his beginnings if you want(it'd be probably lengthy). Also, check out the movies series: 'The Gamers' if you haven't. It's a tad old now, but they're great D&D movies by a small company. 😄
My favorite thing to do is be creative with my spells. Plant growth a seed trown into armor, stone shape an oven, etc.
My friends and I would allow this but we play our game with this in mind: if the heroes can do it, co can the bad guys. Be careful what you unleash!
Man that good plan right there and the dice is infavour too
I would've allowed the Darkness, but wouldn't have allowed the Bardic Inspiration personally.
Yeah, just give them the Luck feat instead. Would be even better than Bardic Inspiration! 😄
I was DMing and everyone but a single member of the party had night vision. Once whilst in the dark they were attacked by an order of blind monks. The mage that didn’t have night vision cast darkness because he thought the monks had night vision. Now everyone was blind, but the blind monks didn’t get a penalty. They were saved when the party Gunslinger set off a firecracker to deafen everyone in the tunnel. One short rest later the darkness had lifted and the mage got another earful of loud noises.
I DM'd a campaign recently where the party was traveling through a desert before they got ambushed by a pair of Giant Lizards.
One charged towards the party, while the other latched onto the Hexblade Warlock that had tried to intercept it. The one charging the party went down in a few rounds, but that left the Warlock on his own. Failing a Strength check to unlatch the lizard's jaws from around his arm, he cast Tomb of Levistus to encase himself in ice - which had the added bonus of freezing the lizard's head inside a block of ice.
I had the lizard roll a check to see if it could manage to pull itself free, but gave it disadvantage because it was still latched onto the warlock's arm inside the Tomb, and since lizards are cold-blooded, the ice-cold temperatures were already slowing it down.
It failed, and proceeded to slowly suffocate inside the Tomb of Levistus, helpless to escape, as the Warlock silently celebrated.
On lunch break watchimg this
Have a nice lunch
Me: trying to find my first DnD campaign
My friends: do nothing
Me: screw it! To the youtube comment section
Roll20 and discord are your friends in finding games online.
I would allow it to happen as a DM, for it is some clever tactic. It doesn't matter what spell you use, but how you use it.
I was playing a Tiefling Sorcerer who was travelling with his friends as adventurers, so he could make a name for himself. The party consisted of me, An orc barbarian, two elves - ranger and a fighter with a bow, and a human rogue who couldn't make it, but DM gave him a story reasons for his disappearance, related to his background. We were looking for thieves guild in the town sewers, because someone stole from us a book we were meant to deliver. On our way we almost died to gelatinous cubes but DM Deus-ex Machina us from TPK.
As a punishment, we got captured by the thieves, as we were in no shape to fight. Our rogue found us, but rather than break us free, we decided to use an element of surprise and have him look aorund the place for our weapons. After a nice long rest in the cage, we were chained up to be brought to the bandits leader to decide our fate. I checked to see if the chains locking us up were somehow enchanted. They weren't. with my team not being able to do anything, I started to stack odds in our favor. First I used mage hand to pick pocket keys to the chains from a guard, using thaumaturgy to make a loud cough, that would cover the sound of falling keys. Then, using my tail i picked them up and passed them to my teammates, who one by one, unlocked the chains, but to not cause suspicion, kept them on.
When we reached the bandit's leader, he decided to have us fight his giant pet, only for our Rogue to open the cage first, letting the angry animal roam free and cause panic, as we drop our chains, get our weapons and proper fight ensues. We won and used the same chains to lock up the bandit leader for questioning later.
Never thought I’d like podcasts, til I met this channel.
That was absolutely dope AF hands down
One time my bard made a plank over colapsing bridge with Leomund's Hut. He created hut underneth the broken bridge and didn't let anyone inside. After that we nicknamed spell Leomund's Plank.
The hut appears around the caster and ends early if he leaves it. So how was he suspended under the bridge, was he levitating?
BBEG was in the center of the room, kinda close to us and surrounded by his guards... I'm also second in initiative.
The player that's first casts Darkness to get his sneak attack, even though it meant blinding the party. It would also blind the guards and give us a turn to prepare. (They were also working against us, but didn't know it at the time)
My turn is up... and I'm a human sorcerer that can't see anything. However, I did take Keen Mind. I verified with the DM that I didn't know if anyone had moved, but I knew what the layout of the room was and could recall where everyone was standing... So I resulted to the classic, Fireball.
I killed the guards outright and heavily tilted the fight in our favor using Keen Mind in the first round! Twas dope.
Stabbing someone while they sleep, not very Paladin like.
Also props to the DM for running it well as far as I can tell.
The Bardic WARLOCK part makes me think he's probably not a 'good'/honorable paladin.
@@timwoods2852 Yes, not every paladin has the same oath/deity; but how many gods care that the enemy was asleep? How far does the chivalrous paladin have to go? Why is that immoral? Stabbing a foe in his sleep (which is no different than killing the guy) is better than risking he goes and keeps doing evil stuff; the options don't read: Lawful Stupid, Vengeance Paladin, Oathbreaker.
@@urquanoverlord2538 It's more like a hero vs. antihero mentality. It's seen as right or honorable to give your opponent a fighting chance so no one can say you killed them for a personal or petty reason. Like how a cop can only shoot at a criminal in self defense. Whereas, the antihero doesn't care about how they'll be judged. They know what they believe to be true and act on that, society's, (or in DnD gods') opinions be damned. This is viewed as bad because there's no (or fewer) higher boundaries giving you a structure that others can agree with or vouch for. If you accociate yourself with something deemed evil or wrong, then others will judge your actions accordingly. (You killed the 'evil' general, but your diety is 'evil', maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.)
@@timwoods2852 nice points.
4:10 Right! I’m having a bit of trouble putting a mental image of that in me mind, is like the hilt of the knife just a silhouette of itself cause the blade would still be in the guy and unseen either way. Hmmmm, YIRBEL LIVES!
I've played as a warlock with devils site. Casting darkness on my character has been a thoroughly critical aspect of my characters.
It's soooo good.
This is giving me ideas for my own paladin/warlock.
Casting darkness on an object you are holding is totally fair game RAW. Playing a Satyr college of swords pact blade warlock in an upcoming game looking forward to it.
Had a 3.5 rogue/cleric that would cast silence on herself and start fights with a charging great sword sneak attack. Turning annoying spells into WTF moments is fantastic. Silence on arrows is fun, too. Not sure it's allowed in 5e, but always remember, the rulebooks are guidelines. Do what you gotta do to have fun with your friends and family. That's sounds bad....
Exactly Simon! Using spells in unexpected ways is the best way to thwart a DM's plans! 😆
@@megamanx466 yeah, man. As long as everyone is having fun, bring on the shenanigans!
BRILLIANT! We need more creative solutions like the warlock/paladin/bard had. I really want to make a creative combat character for d&d, but I haven't come up with many ideas on my own. This video was an excellent idea generator.
I can't wait to use darkness as effectively as this guy.
Talk to your dm if darkness in a worn or carried object is right for you
@@jamescampbell2353 Side effects may include blindness, terrible timing, and disapproval from teammates.
@@benkayvfalsifier3817 be aware that once a house rule is made, expect it to be used against you.
@@jamescampbell2353 That's half the fun. 😅
That was amazing! I would allow it and if need to be justified then I'd allow him to make a charisma check to bend the rule of the spell.. to craft the spell of you will. Magic should be a little flexible or a lot depending on the creative mind behind it
I once used the “light“ cantrip on a deck of cards to create multiple glowing cards that would allow the rest of my party to see in the dark using the cards: the DM gave me inspiration. I was happy.
I didn't know that you could cast Darkness on an object! duuuude, there's some fun stuff you could do with that! also, due to Tasha's, there's the new feat that let's you grab an Invocation from the Warlock. grab Devil's Sight and then you can REALLY have some fun! no one will be able to stop the unstoppable force that is the Darkness pebble!
I play a half orc way of the shadow monk/wizard. I use darkness regularly as a reverse flashbang when a speedy retreat is necessary
Words of support.
You're giving me ideas as a Drow Swashbuckler Rogue...
I’m here as a Tiefling Light Cleric.
The rule at my table is this "if you can convince me, it can happen." I've expanded the magic system to be more flexible than it currently is and there's some tweaks to other stuff I've made as well.
Overall I'd probably let all of this happen without much hesitation. It was definitely creative play and I love it
I've read the lies of Locke Lamore and can confirm that it is a great story about rogues
That went dark.
My sister (warlock) likes to use darkness in crossbow bolts before shooting them to her enemies, once she used it on herself to fight 3 gnolls (she killed them all)
so she liked to make her enemies harder to see while having no effect on their ability to see her? why?
@@mrosskne A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it. I ruled that as neither she nor them could see though it, but she attacked to the center of the darkness wherr the enemy with the darkness imbued bolt stuck in them, except the one time with the gnols where all four of them rolled with disadvantage and basically the gnols killed each other while ahe decapitated the last one
@@jorge9604 So basically you think darkness is an opaque fog? why?
@@mrosskne Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners.
That's how interpreted 🤷
@@jorge9604 ok, so where in there do you see the word "opaque"? are you hallucinating?
Darkness makes for a perfect spell if your Wizard or other squishy guy has True Sight, or, in this case, Devil's Sight. Not being able to see a target means you can't cast targeted spells on them, though AoE's will still work (but Energy Resistance/Absorption could help with those). Try casting Darkness on the arrow of your party's archer, then have them fire that arrow where you need to block LoS. It'll create perfect concealment over the area it lands.
darkness doesn't block line of sight.
@@mrosskne ...Uhh... Yes, it does. It creates a sphere of darkness you can't see through. If it didn't block LoS, then it would basically be Invisibility, just hiding something but not the space around it.
@@eltsoldier no, it doesn't. it makes the area dark, because that's what the spell says it does.
@@mrosskne "Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it."
It stops light. Light is necessary to see. It creates a sphere of darkness. If you are standing at Point A, trying to see to Point B, and the darkness sphere is directly between those points, you cannot see Point B because something is blocking your sight. You specifically cannot see through the Darkness spell. You don't just happen to see what's on the other side of that darkness as if it were outlined, unless you have True Sight or a similar spell.
@@eltsoldier it doesn't stop light, it only stops it from illuminating things in the area.
if darkness was opaque, the sun's rays couldn't travel through the darkness of space to reach Earth.
My party and I were meeting with a tribe of bandits in one session. We knew things could go poorly if we weren't careful, so I walked into the meeting prepared to throw down. Specifically, I held a sixth level spell as a reaction while our Face Player and the Bandit Boss discussed terms.
Some bad rolls happened, and my reaction spell was triggered when a mob of bandits charged us. Before they could fully close the distance, I cast Blade Wall in a semicircle arrangement, horns out like a big cup. A lot of bandits got caught up in their charge and cut to pieces, and anything that made it though the wall had to then deal with our fighter and rogue, who mopped things up nicely
I played a game of Waterdeep and my character was a bugbear bard. We we at the point where we needed/ were tricked into giving a young bronze dragon a "gift" from drow pirates. It was an orb that could communicate and scry on the young dragon. Me and my party didn't trust the drows ( they were openly showing their evil sides) so while the rest of the party was wondering how to stop them from getting in contact with the dragon, I realized that I myself was a bard. I convinced the rest of the party to give the orb to the young dragon and while we were sailing away, I performed for everyone, while casting dispel magic on the orb. For those who don't know, a bard can cast spells with their instruments, so I performed and casted a spell at the same time. Not even my teammates knew until 4 sessions afterwards.
In 5th edition the dagger could have darkness cast on it because he’s holding it. For the armor to be fair he is wearing it so he couldn’t, but their would be other ways and it wouldn’t really change much. For example, using it on a weapon or his spell casting focus. That is, for 5th edition at least.
Edit: I forgot to mention that if he is holding his armor when he cast it then it works fine. For example, if he just grabs it while wearing it he can cast darkness.
If you don’t understand, basically rule of cool isn’t necessary here. He followed the rules just fine. Darkness says “that you are holding OR isn’t being worn or carried”.
The bardic inspiration part doesn’t work though.
Now that is some quality vengeance!
I am a recent D&D player and have only had 4h into my first campaign, so it's bound to not be that impressive, however, my best use of a spell is using Mage Hand. We had only barely dealt with our last battle and gotten our payment from the job, when the Governor's assistant waltzed into the tabern furious demanding we finish the job.
We were hired to find out why the mushroom people of the forest had stopped trading with the city and started attacking and kidnapping people even though they had always been peaceful and deal with it. We ended up fighting a painting in the middle of the mushroom people's village that was controlling them and our Blood Hunter who's our tank had just barely survived. When we destroyed it, the mushroom people came back to their senses.
This bowl haired sh*t head wanted us to go back to the forest without getting paid because somehow, another child went missing and he just decided that the 2 cases had to be connected. In the midst of this he insulted my fine just awoken arcane trickster Rogue. Now now that just couldn't be so, after I persuaded him to pay us again for the job, he was waltzing out furiously. I rolled reaction, got a 17, my DM was a bit nervous thinking I was about to kill someone. I used Mage Hand to unfasten his belt and was successful on my Sleight of Hand roll. So, has the Governor's assistant was leaving the tabern furious, he uses both hands to open the Tabern's doors. As he does this, with both hands holding the doors open and everyone both in the Tabern and outside on the street could clearly see him, his pants drop to his feet revealing his undies. In amidst a mix of fury and embarassment, he clumsly pulls up his pants almost stumbling while running across town, everyone laughing at him.
As a supposedly cleptomaniac and psycopathic rogue I must say, that visage was a priceless relic in itself ;-)
Very Epic
Casting Grease at the top of a stairwell so enemies coming down the stairs after us would fall prone at the bottom, and be subject to a flurry of melee attacks.
I love this channel. Keep up the good work!~
Thanks
Cast Darkness on a weapon, hazard one might trip over, walk into the sharp end of, or get knocked off a mount by is a fun application. A Warlock player I met once threw a Darkness-emitting Javelin at an enemy squad, killing one of them with the luckiest critical ever, and chaos ensued as their party blasted the rest of the squad into smoldering goo.
darkness on enemies makes it harder for you to see them. it has no effect on their ability to see you.
Audible recommendation: chronicles of everfall: Shadow of the Conqueror by Shad Brooks. Amazing book.
Because it was the final battle and the paladin was so clever I would have given it to him as a DM.
Shad Brooks? That's Shadiversity isnt it? Jazza's brother?
@@Wookie_oo7 the same
Scott Lynch is literally my favorite author the gentleman bastard trilogy is brilliant the world building in those novels is spot on really makes you feel like you're there. What's nice about the audio books is that they're all narrated by the author ❤️
It's a fucking great recommendation for anyone who wants notes on world building 🔥🔥🔥🤌
I don't really have much in the way of creative spell usage stories. The only cases I can think of, really are me taking advantage of Rope Trick a couple times. Once to provide air supply when we would otherwise have suffocated from smoke inhalation, and the other to save the party from falling to our death (it's not *my* fault the wizard didn't have Feather Fall prepared)
Interesting way I used a spell, huh? I got one.
This was with a D&D 5e game that my group's been running for the last 3 years. This happened before the 2 year in-game timeskip that we used to switch to FantasyCraft. Cast is me (Silver Dragonborn Paladin/Warlock), a Tiefling Bard, a Human Fighter/Barbarian, and a Half-Elf Cleric. I should also note that the Tiefling and the Half-Elf are both DMPCs; The Tiefling, because that's what the DM wanted to actually play, and the Half-Elf because we needed a dedicated healer. Our party was attempting to liberate the kingdom that our Fighter hailed from. We had discovered that he was the crown prince of this kingdom, long thought lost after the Vampire who usurped the throne murdered his parents. Naturally, being non-native to this town, there was heavy suspicion on our group. While sneaking through the town to begin our invasion of the castle, I failed my stealth check, and was caught by the guards. In an attempt to escape non-violently, I aimed an Eldritch Blast at the ground, and used the Grasp of Hadar augment to pull the dirt and debris, flinging it into the air to make an improvised smokescreen.
Your question was would I allow?
I just allow anything that can happen. If the players are capable of doing it, it'll be allowed to happen so long as the game can go on.
Like, just two days ago, my party cleared a dungeon and used the respawning monster level to grind to level 20 then use their new abilities to teleport and kill the arc's final boss.
Two more arcs to go, but that depends on how they finish the war arc they just started.
If it's the same monster respawning then I think that'd get old, but they did it in the anime 'Goblin Slayer' so that's up to you. Also, if you're ok with it and can manage it and the players are having fun, then who's to say different really? 😅
That darkness and fiend sight combo is absolutely vicious, I would summon in my pact weapon and cast Darkness on it then charge the enemy, or keep it at a certain spot and constantly duck in and out, jumping in if someone closes to melee with me, staying outside if someone is inside and blast them, the only person who would have advantage in that zone would be me.
That is a good combo.
I think casting darkness on an object should be fine, but I would draw the line on giving yourself bardic inspiration. The important thing is that the players have fun though. If the rules prevent the players from having as much fun as they could have, then some adjustments are needed. It only becomes a problem when the adjustments detract from the fun that the other players could be having. And that's a decision for each individual group, not something people who aren't in that gaming group can decide for them.
it isn't really rule of cool it's just drop a item "free action" cast darkness "action" pick up item "item interaction" wich is a free action but only once per turn
but if it make you feel torn then make your character drop a bag of gravel and pick up only one gravel wich got darkness cast on it it's the same thing but you add a feeling of loss
While playing 3.5. I was playing a gnome bard and to help me from dieing within a hit or drowning in sewer waters i used summon instrument. So i would float around ina. Steel drum, or hidding in it sining under it
The fight against the kobold mob in tomb of anhiliation was meant to be a joke at current level (8-9) but still sharing because it was a great moment. Basically my druid casts insect plague and dm is willing to let me flavor the spell however i want. I choose coconut crabs and the end result is a room covered in kobold blood and guts. One survived because he was able to escape due to being at the edge but everyone else? Yeah, not so much....
ten bucks says he's fucking terrified of druids
I got a time I used a spell!
Story time:
Playing a long standing campaign of Vampire the Masquerade with my friends. Custom story that changes lore up a bit but all powers and abilities are standard. For those that are unaware, a lot of powers in the World of Darkness are intentionally vague, thus allowing you to use your imagination in their use.
The campaign has been going on for the better part of 5 years, starting in High School. Our characters starting out at a mediocre power level in the time of Leonidas in ancient Greece and we over time became quite powerful overcoming other vampires seeking to usurp us, hunters seeking to kill us, mages seeking to use us, an the werewolves somewhere in the middle. We even managed to change history by brokering a peace between Athens and Sparta. Being immortal vampires we all got into the mind set of being methodical and slow with the implementation of our plans, some taking centuries to see to completion.
I'm playing a Tremere, basically a vampire mage that focus on Thaumaturgy, a sort of blood magic, Dominate similar to compulsion in the vampire diaries, and Auspex which is super human senses. Another player, the friend of the DM is playing a Ventrue, Sort of the Regal vampires that focus on wealth and being King. My two other friends Play a True Brujah vampires that can manipulate time, and a Malkavian, ones that see order in the madness and are all mad themselves.
As the centuries pass we allow ourselves to fade into obscurity directing the masses from the shadows by binding mortal kings to our will or supplanting them entirely. We see the passage of Jesus and many other prominent figures and face many threats, killing those that are to dangerous to tolerate. Come the 1400's and we have a rather large plot of land carved out for us. We've since diablerized many Vampires, which is basically committing vampire cannibalism in which you drink their soul, getting stronger in the process. Since his creation my character has learned to create illusions, manipulate emotions, and control darkness, use celerity which is super speed, control time to a degree and fortitude which is durability all while honing his magical arts.
Fast forward to the 21st century. We are all Massively powerful 4th generation vampires with missive amounts of respect and control in the Unites States where we reside in New Orleans. the amount of power any one of us can use can halt armies and together we could stand toe to toe with a Legendary Werewolf pack. However with one of our friends moving away for work we finally decide to end it all by Turing the game into an End times game. (every setting in World of Darkness has an end of times apocalypse. The Vampire apocalypse is Caine, the first vampire, and the first murderer along with his childer, the 2nd generation, and their childer the 3rd generation, all rise to end the world.)
The end times begin Demons rise, the Werewolves go to war to go down fighting, the mages seek to hide, and our world comes crashing down. We try to make a defense, we try to form a safe haven, but 2 clan founders arrive. 3rd generation vampires so powerful that they have powers considered to be plot devices. Its like having access to one entire branch of magic and an infinite number of spell slots to use it with. Ventrue and Brujah walk into our town and begin laying waste to everything. NPCs we've kept alive since the dark ages, ones we have grown attached to are snuffed out in an instant.
My character decides to take a stand while the party and what remains of our empire retreats. I approach the street they are on and the 2 8000 year old vampires turn, amused to see someone so young stand against them as they were 6000 years my senior. I begin laying into them with magic. Having mastered enough Time manipulation I was able to take several turns at a severe cost of blood to fuel it but nothing seemed to phase them Fire, lightning, gunfire, boiling their blood it all seemed to just piss them off. Then came their retaliation, hard physical damage that sent me through a building that left me battered and near dead.
But I wasn't done. They approached asking "Is that all you have for us?"
I smiled. "Not even close."
I An obscene amount of blood to activate a power that let me move as a blur and bumped my dexterity well beyond my usual limit just in case I needed it while using some magic to calm and focus myself. "Just die." I told them as I activated a path of magic known as the Path of Conjuring. It was a simple path that let you create simple to complex objects with knowledge, and I had much knowledge to draw from. I looked to the DM and said "I create a star right above them."
The entire table was dumbfounded and he asked me to clarify and I responded "I create a star as hot as the sun that's about 1.5 meters wide as that's the limit on the size via the power, however there is no specified limit on the mass so I make it around 50 kg per cubic inch. It wont have the gravity to hold itself together so I'll explode. Some quick math later and we found that something like 11 million lbs. of matter at almost 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit or 5000 Celsius just appeared over the street. I didn't wait, I just teleported away using some of what little blood I had left.
The explosion that followed turned most of Louisiana, part of Mississippi and some of the gulf into a molten creator and the resulting shockwave through the earth that were felt the world over. Had it not been clan founders I'd have never taken such measures, but we'd heard rumors for weeks that they had awoken and the entire world was going to shit. Jesus had risen, the wolves were at war, the mages were trying to jump ship into a new reality with some massive spell, and Caine had been seen on more than one occasion. Drastic measures needed to be taken. We never seen them again.
It sounds like there needs to be an earnest discussion over why the darkness spell shouldn't work on things that are worn - and go from there.
There are various ways that mechanics could be altered to make such applications less objectionable - such as having levels of darkness depending on the duration of being in one location.
Another possibility is having magical enchantments interfere with such a spell - and require concentration checks with just the + enchantment as modifier to maintain it.
There is always a way - if it should be determined that there should be a will.
Darkness doesn’t get applied to an object like Light does. It’s applied to a point in space, and doesn’t move once cast.
If Light applies to objects, I see no issue with it working with Darkness
@@bryceio You can apply it either to a point, or an object. Though it has to be an object that's held by you, or not worn, or held by anyone else.
You could target your weapon per se, but not someone elses weapon, or armor.
@@tommynator97 Oh, I missed the stipulation that it could be on an object you are carrying
Fantastic book recommendation! The Gentlemen Bastards series is soo good.
That Paladin/Warlock just solo'd the final boss.
Pretty epic, but if I was another person at the table watching him go off on his own to solo the boss, I'd be a bit disappointed it wasn't a team effort.
also involving darkness but instead it was a missstep by the DM.
I'm playing a GOW warlock in a short lvl 3 campaign, my character had been experimented on by alien beings which gave him magic powers and a squid like familiar (imp reflavor) but no memory of how he got them. the campaign began party waking up with no idea where they were (something my character was all too familiar with) it turned out to be a dungeon of a cult and we were working our way out of it.
a cast of suggestion on the 1st cultist we found lead us to their leader, a strigoi (vampire)
when we walked in the leader cast darkness at the doorway to prevent us from seeing him, but made 1 mistake, he cast it on my warlock, who's familiar can see through the magic darkness. I had specifically chosen not to use the devilsight darkness combo when creating the character, but the cards fell into place too perfectly not to use them. my 1st turn I used my action to see through my familiar so my character would even know where to go, sidestepping the doorway to let the rest of the party though. then on my 2nd turn I began firing off eldritch blasts with advantage because the enemies couldn't see though the darkness either.
the rest of the party moved in and focused on the leader, while I blasted away at him and the ghost monster he had summoned. meanwhile the rest of the cult members at the door didn't know where to move in the darkness, leaving them unable to fight.
the session ended with us defeating the leader while the ghost fled through the walls.
the death of the leader also dropped the darkness so we'll have to deal with the other cultists, but both I and the bard are disguised as them, so we may be able to talk our way out next time
I played a game that had guns in it (muskets that took a full turn to reload so I didn’t use it much). We got shot at and took cover. Looking in the direction the shot came from we saw nothing. I took my musket, cast light on a bullet, and shot in the general direction. Thanks to the light we managed to locate our attacker.
Friend: Was he a Palladin or an assasin?
Me: He was a Pall-assasin!
I prefer Assadin myself
Pathfinder campaign: The spell mount (1st level) lets you summon a light horse within 30 ft. So you summon the mount 20 ft in the air above your target. That translates to 4d6 damage for a level 1 spell. Although, they get a reflex save to dodge.
Considering this was the final session, half the party died, and the paladin was clever with his encounter with the BBEG (whom he had a history with), yes I would allow this.
The title reminded me of Puffin Forest's video about a warlock who caused issues for the party after casting darkness on a dragon.
My favorite method of using Darkness is when playing a Warlock. Get Darkness, get ability to see through Darkness, get a method of flying. With these powers combined with a buffed Eldritch Blast, you can create the almighty sniper's nest, and you the almighty sniper.
One of the best uses of a spell my DM had ever done to our party. It was all for the meme. Or rather large party of 6 to 8 adventures on any given night we're reaching the end of our adventure going into the evil artificers tower. We were playing 3.5. As the party walks into a room full of greater darkness, a much higher level version of the darkness spell, I decided to have my arch mage wizard cast greater missile storm at the darkness. Laughing and smiling the entire party giggled at me magic missilling the darkness. Then my DM laughed. As the magic missiles made contact destroying the living spell greater darkness and dissipating the magic. Revealing an epic room sizes wall of mirror of opposition. Dumbfounded our party now stood with an exact duplicate of our party to fight against us and no way out of the room. This was an epic troll from the DM and allowed us to practice fighting against ourselves in an oddly brief battle. Almost as a badge of honor, my arch mage who still had 3.0 fate spinner class and a habit of writing contingencies for everything was elected as the most dangerous player to be left alive. My other party members took him out in a single turn. I shall now always think twice before magic misselling the darkness.
Lies of lock lamora and the whole gentlemen bastards series is freaking amazing
In my current campaign, considering the season of Halloween, we are on a ship as pirates. I happen to be able to cast mage hand at will as the simple cook. I do my level best to make everyone think the ship is haunted by moving lanterns and knocking over small objects, or making thumps.
The rule is mostly there so you can't just cast it and keep it moving with you as a 'cast and forget' you have to worry about dropping it to keep it with you. Also so you cant just cast it on someone else like some pseudo 'heat metal' debuff.
Tiefling: I cast Darkness on the dragon!
As a forever DM, I rule that if a magic item is sentient then it can be the source of a spell that it casts itself. If you want to gain a sentient magic item, you can find one of many legendary artificers that are in key areas and pay 250,000gp to get it.
My world is before the cataclysmic collapse that turns the existing areas into ruins that hide magic items and random abundance of gold.
This video made a question cross my mind that I don't think anyone in the comments has considered: is multiclassing OP? Because none of this would've been possible if the paladin hadn't multiclassed. I know it's in the rules, but is it broken?
As a DM, I don't let player's multi-class unless they can give me a good reason their character would actually do it- other than "I just want all the cool abilities of the classes." Once players start looking at the spells and abilities of different classes as "ala-carte" selections they can pick and choose, you've begun a downward spiral of ridiculousness. If I did the same thing as a DM the players would rightfully cry foul when I whip out my Ogre Barbarian-Druid with just enough levels of Druid to shapeshift into a T-Rex...
If it is the finale of the campaign, let the Rule of Cool trump Rules As Written. The finale is the victory lap and a celebration of the story your group made.
This makes me appreciate that disguise self doesn't require concentration too
This has "dnd veteran who has pushed the DM to his limits many times" written all over it
Charisma casters tend to do that. Wizards do too when they hit the 17th level.
I cast darkness!
-Some guy fighting a dragon
Ok, that was pretty awesome.
I HAD to watch this one because one of our bosses used Darkness against us last week.
Video: 399 likes
Me: I have so much power
Man I would love to see a trick like that animated
Story starts at 1:32
You're wrong; no rule was broken as described. The spell allows you to cast it on a point in space or a point on an object. You misread the second paragraph: "If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it." This is an "if 1 or if not 2" statement and remains true as long as one of the conditions is met. Meaning, if you're holding the object, you can cast darkness on it. Alternatively, if it's an object within range that isn't being worn nor carried, you can also cast darkness on it. Your pally is "holding" the knife when he casts darkness (so he needs a hand free unless he has war caster, which he does). As the DM, you also get to define "holding" more liberally than I do. There is no requirement for him to retain a hold on said knife.
You might have broken a rule with that bardic inspiration, though. Under official rules, Bardic inspiration can't be granted to oneself, but there might be a house rule or non-official subclass allowing it that I'm not aware of.
Galstaff: I attack the darkness!
The Paladin: *I am the darkness*
I cast the Darkness spell on my bat familiar after looking at the way the spell was written. It blocks all creatures that can "see", as a bat does not use eyes to figure out what is around it... It was immune. It flew over the upper half of some Orcs that would have caused a TPK, instead as the Orcs were confused as to how the lights got turned out on them, and how the darkness kept following them so they could not see. It gave my players time to shoot them to death with bow and crossbows.
Why was the cleric hiding bruh, they are a bit op.
You mean the cleric lol?
Depends on how you build your Cleric. And, what edition of DnD they're playing.
Clerics in 5th edition can hide like most classes. If their wearing heavy armor it’s harder. Rouges are better at it because of certain abilities like expertise and cunning action.
@@harmonicaman4782 It also MOSTLY depends on the armor type, whether you have Stealth as a proficiency(or double), and if you make Dexterity one of your main stats. Rogues are definitely more suited to Hiding, because of these traits, but not exclusive to it.
(I basically just expanded on what you said some.) 😅