This was a fun topic! I would add Misty Step to the honorable mentions. Since it only requires verbal components, I have used it countless times to escape capture, grapples or to take a shortcut. through
If you have a familiar, it also makes doors moot - dismiss the familiar, summon it on the other side of the door, use your action to see through its eyes and BA to misty step to somewhere you can see on the other side of the door.
One of my favorite memories is when I completely negated an ambush on a caravan with a cantrip. It was a mini campaign where you as you walk down the road there is only one combat absolutely set. The final one before it ends which is an ambush with wolves goblins and trolls. We had a 5 minute time to prepare for the attack on the caravan or 50 turns. In those 50 turns I used mold earth to take a 5 foot by 5 foot cube of dirt and move it up and back one square. So over the course of 5 minutes I made a 5 foot wide and deep mote with effectively a ten foot high wall of dirt. It completely negated the goblins from the fight because we were able to pick them off and made it so the troll could not kidnap one of the caravan carts. The DM was annoyed but also loved it. I also roleplayed him missing the first 4 rounds of combat because he was utterly exhausted from the sheer physical exertion that came with making effectively a wall to protect the entire caravan. Each turn was my wizard just talking smack as he recovered. In the end we won and I got given the Vicious Mockery cantrip as a bonus prize for causing metal scarring to the goblins before we killed them lol.
So anyone else *love* Speak With Animals 'cause they *enjoy* RPing every raven and bat in Barovia? It's a fun chance to tell the players things in an alien perspective. Depending on the animal and setting, they probably don't know what magic is. They don't know the names of towns. They wouldn't be able to name any creatures that aren't native to their habitat. A squirrel can't tell you "I saw a mind flayer headed to Vallaki," they'll have to say "I saw a man with wiggly tusks go to the houses by the lake." They're also just as likely to tell you "I saw a bear climbing a rock." They will definitely beg you for food.
Had a triton in one of my games, when they would try to look for information on people or creatures, he'd dive into ponds to ask questions of turtles. Then solemnly return saying the creatures of the woods knew nothing. The players would be laughing while the characters treated this with far more seriousness than they should. They weren't unknown because even the squirrels couldn't find them, they were unknown because he asked a catfish if there were caves nearby.
YES! I had player who tried to interview a spider, and the spider lived in a dark room behind a door all his life, so it didn't have a lot to tell. It was, however, very confused about words like inside and outside, and the druid kept him in her hair for the rest of the campaign, so he could learn what The Outside was.
Yes! I would probably be too self-conscious to try doing *voices* for them, but I could definitely get into the mindset of an animal friend and have a ton of fun doing it. We actually had this happen in a previous campaign I was in (as a party member, not the DM). It was our druid or ranger, can't remember which, and we were in a town and had been given instructions to meet someone at a specific location in town. Except we rushed too much and never actually asked *where* that place was. So she stops to ask a dog, and the dog goes, "Um... I... uh... I found a bone! On the side of the road! Do you want to see it?!" And she was like, "No no, please, where is [whatever building]", and he was like, "...um... what's that? I dunno. Bone! Wanna see the bone?!" We did not, in fact, ever see the bone, which in retrospect saddens me 🙃
@@IceMetalPunk I love doing voices, but I usually don’t do them for Speak With Animals because you’re not actually hearing them *speak*. I envision it working more like a translation app or something. I’ll still convey the emotions though because that’s the part that’s so exaggerated with animals.
Regarding Glibness and Identify: I notice that the spell Identify also allows you to target a living creature and determine what spells are currently affecting them. If a King or other important person was looking for completely truthful testimony, I imagine that in addition to the Zone of Truth they could have a spellcaster cast Identify on the person speaking to determine what spell effects they are under. Identify should be able to tell if someone is using stat boosting magic, is polymorphed or disguised, is being possessed or controlled, etc. So even if they didn't know about Glibness or didn't have access to a Zone of Truth, the Identify spell should be a cheap low-level way for someone to tell if a messenger is under some kind of spell before they deliver their message.
Also the thing about Zone of Truth, it makes the creature *incapable* of speaking a deliberate lie. It doesn't just detect if they would be lying, it physically makes them unable to do so.
@@echori. Tbf, I feel like if a player has used an 8th level spell to specifically get around this, it would suck for a 2nd level spell to counter it so easily. Plus, based on the wording: "On a failed save, the creature can't speak a deliberate lie while in the radius." - ZoT "No matter what you say, magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates you are being truthful" - Glibness You could make the argument that however ZoT determines if someone is telling a deliberate lie is also fooled by the Glibness spell. Makes more sense than a a powerful 8th level spell being overridden by a 2nd level one
@@jordanjamesstavrakis1683 I fully agree. In order to prevent you from lying, Zone of Truth must somehow magically determine if you're lying, then suppress your speech if you are. So Glibness would definitely fool it into letting you say anything, with the Zone magically assuming you're always telling the truth; IMHO anyway.
@@echori. And this is why @gortab's idea to use Identify in conjunction with Zone of Truth is a good idea. The rules of Zone of Truth are the same as the Veritaserum Potion in Harry Potter. The person under its effects, as you stated, cannot speak a deliberate lie. But if they believe they are telling the truth because of, say, a curse or mind control, than they aren't speaking a deliberate lie even if they're not telling the truth. And, thus, the Zone of Truth, just like Veritaserum, cannot prevent the person from speaking it. I feel like a lot people don't understand this about Zone of Truth. That it only prevents people within it from lying, not that it forces anyone who speaks within it to speak the absolute truth.
I once used prestidigitation to make a mug of acid taste like a warm cup of cocoa (the enemy's favorite drink) and served it to him. It was a horrifying and agonizing death, but also ruined a really fun fight the DM had planned for us.
Counterspell: "Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you *see* a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell." Key word: "*see*". Improved Invisibility will end Counterspell, because the caster cannot be seen. This also goes for Darkness, and perhaps even lower level spells that obscure Perception checks like Fog Cloud.
Yeah but then you gotta get through Counterspell in the first place to use any of those and if your wizard npc rolls low as hell on initiative they're already getting rushed because the party recognizes that they are a huge threat.
Ok, well if I know I'm fighting something invisible, Sleet storm for the same slot, which mutually fucks casters. You could either counter or double down with silence to give anyone short of a bard a bad time.
Yeah but for most spells you have to see the target and seeing the target without the target being able to tell you are casting a spell would be tricky. Unless you know subtle spell of course
Regarding the dragon eggs: there is a mention of size and weight of black dragon eggs in hoard of the dragon queen. They are about 3 feet tall and weigh 150 pounds
i remember hearing somewhere dragons and giants do NOT get along, i imagine a giant would pay major moolah to get a dragon egg for a mega-omelette; admittedly, the party would have to be willing to make a mortal enemy of an entity big enough to lay an egg that a giant would be interested in eating
I usually DM, but once as a player I beat a zone of truth. We were in a city controlled by hell knights, and we were definitely in there working against them and we didn't want to get caught. The DM had the hell knights question us, and wanted a combat to ensue (he had prepared for the combat). As preparation for the questioning, the hell knights cast zone of truth on us. I answered every question truthfully, and the hell knights went away knowing less than they started with. When asked such questions as: What is your purpose in this city? I would answer: what I really want to do is to return to my village, and my travels took me through this city. This was true, my character did want to return home, and we were going there, after we left the city. So, zone of truth can be used from either side to ruin the DM's plans. Or if you are the DM, remember, although you have to tell the truth, you don't have to be honest 😁 😎
Recently one of my NPC badguys was captured and placed in a zone of truth. He gave away some valuable info, and they did get a bit more then he intended by using good question circle logic. But when they directly asked who hired him his response was "If I tell you his name my wife and childs life are at risk". And when one of the party threatened his life to answer he just said something like "if you must" or "i understand". In the end they garnered enough info to know who it was without hearing the name or knowing for absolute certain, and they let the assassin go with his ZoT promise to sneak back into the city after a day or two to recover his family and leave town. The spell doesnt even directly compell an answer, so it would be something of a jerk move , but an NPC could refuse to answer anything or just hurl insults, if they believe them...
@@mokane86 At one point I had a group of player trying to figure out who a bad guy was in a castle they were visiting, because they had a lead that someone was going to use mind control magic at an upcoming party.. The guards got suspicious, and called in a cleric to cast Zone of Truth. The Warlock rolled a 1, and roleplayed that as his character being overwhelmed by truth magic. It was a bit of a task failed successfully moment, because he spilled the whole story of what the party was doing there, and the guards knew they had to believe him,
@@JadeyCatgirl99 thats awesome. Definitely should consider the individuals loyalties and their strength at deception and their willpower to hold tongue vs desire to share when enabled.
I was running Curse of Strahd for my family and had prepped for a couple of weeks for the Baba Lysaga encounter by 3d printing and painting figures and terrain, even did the giant skull she flies around in as well as the hut. The time came and they got knee deep in the encounter when my wife playing the cleric asked if she could cast blindness on her, I said yes. She did and I rolled a 1 for her save, which led to a quick demise of the baddie in just a couple of rounds after. My wife had only been playing on and off for a couple of years and was still getting her feel for the cleric class, I just love her creativeness at using her spells.
Played in a CoS game and remember that fight. Monk jumped on the skull and did fisticuffs with Lysaga. Bard cast dispel magic on the hut later and the hut failed the save.
That definitely seems like good tactics, but I don't understand what's creative about it. Using Blindness to blind enemies is exactly what you're expected to do with the spell.
My players know that I run heavily home brewed campaigns and neither mind-reading or soul-trapping spells exist in my campaigns. Of course I throw in some homebrew spells for them to play around with to make up for the loss of options but they usually default to moonbeam anyway.
I agree. Detect Thoughts has ruined a few mysteries for my campaigns in the past. But it's easy enough to work around anymore. I usually make sure that the characters who have secrets to hide usually have nondetection or an item equipped that grants the same effect. But honestly, I only worry about that if they say they study them for longer than two minutes. By that point I usually have the npc notice the copper coin in their hand along with their gaze and realize what they're doing. That's when nondetection takes effect
Detect thoughts only gives surface level thoughts, unless they probe deeper which prompts a save, alerts the other person their mind was read, and still only returns the most pressing thing on their mind and theor emotional state. So unless they're being interrogated and asked the right questions, they might not give the party what they want to know. Also someone intelligent and with good will power, who knows the party is trying to read their mind, can try to keep their mind on some other useless thought. Still definitely a cool and powerful spell. In our campaign I used it on one of our party members to find out that there was actually no thoughts there, instead I got an image of some snowy place. He's a Draugr. My party is pretty suspicious of each other I think.
Detect thoughts can be great, but half of all the DMs will just decide that the really important surface thoughts aren't there. Or the NPC automatically knows you're reading minds. I've gone through it myself.
In my last campaign, one of my players used Dream over the course of months to induce paranoia in a powerful lord that a terrible demonic invasion was imminent and that the party were his only hope and the only people he could trust. As a DM it was pure joy to see it actually play out and shape the campaign in ways I'd never contemplated.
Such creativity is wonderful to behold - treasure those players. I've had a similarly hilarious moment in my Shadowrun campaign not too long ago. The party was tasked with taking out the supply of a certain drug sold in the city. So they got in touch with a number of people who they had keep watch for dealers. One such person happened to be a bouncer at an ...establishment in the local red-light district. Some stuff happened in the meantime and suddenly the bouncer called the party to inform them that they caught a dealer and locked him up. As it turned out when the party got there, the dealer was held in the basement of the establishment. And now here comes the fun part: Instead of just dragging the dealer to their employer (a local syndicate), they opted to ...ask some questions themselves - by way of utilizing the various "tools" available in the basement of that establishment. I'm sure you can imagine how that went even without me going onto graphic detail. Let's just say I wouldn't want to be in that dealer's place ever. Nope.
For Immovable Object, I believe they just forgot to include "object that isn't worn or carried by anyone", how they do it with most spells that affect objects, I don't think that freezing enemy clothing in place with no save is intended use. If I were a DM, I certainly would rule it that way, or at the very least require a check/attack to touch a moving enemy.
@@Taking20 Even then it's too powerful I believe. Shocking Grasp is mostly just damage. So is Heat Metal, one of the few spells that do something to the enemy with no save. A total enemy disabling (because how else would you call an enemy with clothes frozen in place if not totally disabled? They need to spend an action just to move.) for a 2nd lvl spell is too much, even if it's not 100% chance. Oh, and it's *not a Concentration,* I noticed just noticed now. Yeah, absolutely no use on enemies. One thing - creative use of spells, another - breaking the game by the snap of the fingers.
Even if you can't cast it on a worn or carried object, which I'd even restrict myself to as a player, it's still plenty broken. I'd even call for a check to attach an immovable object to someone. Ex. putting an immovable sheet over an enemy would require a grapple check, wrapping an immovable strip of cloth around someone's wrist would require a slight of hand check. Because once you take your hands off the object, what can they do? Even if it only takes one action away from the enemy in the worst case, like Otto's Irresistible Dance, immovable objects don't require spell slots or have a finite duration. In other words, it's extremely repeatable; in that worst case scenario, you have as many casts of Otto's Irresistible Dance as you have immovable objects, which only cost half as much as health potions.
@@Taking20 Or you just run it the way it's supposed to be run? There is not a single chance in the world that the spell is intended to be used on creatures to pin them down like you described.
Anton Grigoryev - Do you know if they spelled out the limits to the spell on Critical Role or did Matt Mercer specify additional limitations on the spell? If not, then it's "The spell's effects are as written". As written, the only limitation is the 10 pound limit. Now, it's your table, so you're allowed to modify the spell as you see fit. Just make sure to let your players know beforehand what changes you've made. In the combat situation that Taking20 mentioned, I would rule that if the target is a hostile combatant, the touch must be an attack roll if the target is unaware of what the player is doing, and a contested Athletics/Acrobatics check if the target is aware. (You could also make the argument for a grapple check. Bit much if all that is needed is just to touch.)
I had a massive mystery, where I had talked to one of my players and they had agreed to be the murderer for the game. We had brainstormed and discussed everything making sure stuff like Speak with Dead wouldn't give away who did it. The players exit the first murder scene, and one of the players just turns asks me to describe, scene. Then moves over to the creep growing along the wall, and casts 'Speak with plants'. The murderer had right next to the plant. (Long story short I justified, that vines can't recognize people. However it did drop them a massive hint by telling them what direction the went after the murder took place)
I mean, it's a vine. A player's use of Speak With Plants on it doesn't change the perceptions it had available to it at the time. Vines don't have eyes, they can't see - any perception of their surroundings is going to be more similar to tremorsense than anything else. So I think you were right in that call - the plant can say it sensed two medium sized bipedal animals nearby, one fell down and stopped moving and the other ran to the north.
@@mattkuhn6634 The players thankfully were very understanding (in me having to take a moment to actually think about how I wanted to do this). We had a laugh about it and occasionally bring it up. Thank you for being kind in your response! I was somewhat nervous about posting it in case people thought my ruling was stupid.
Honestly Gumshoe is really great for mysteries. Players will get certain clues by default. Then they can spend points from pools determined by their skills to get additional clues. I.E. all players may get the idea that the victim was attacked from behind, but the forensic expert spends points from their forensics skill pool to find out that a blunt weapon was used. Another player may spend points from the interrogation pool to discover a hole in an alibi etc....
I had a situation where some apprentice wizards had accidentally opened up some sort of fire plane portal that let an efreeti through. But instead of fighting it, one player polymorphed it into a goldfish, then I cast otiluke's resilient sphere and tossed it back through the portal and shut it down avoiding the boss fight entirely.
Funny enough, the best way to use Glibness is to pair it with your party cleric casting Zone of Truth overtly while your Bard uses Glibness covertly. Just so that everyone KNOWS there is a zone of truth and lending even more credence to the Glibness.
This is why I advocate for any charismatic character to have Subtle Spell metamagic. It's an always-pick for me as a sorcerer, and I've taken it on a bard through metamagic adept feat for hilarious shenanigans as well. S-tier metamagic for roleplay purposes.
No, the range is not for the object being tracked. The range is who or what the spell can be cast upon. You can only cast the spell upon yourself. Once the spell is cast, you can track an object that is within 1,000 feet of you. That part is spelled out in the spell's description. EDIT: With that being said, all a party needs to do is slip an object the spellcaster's familiar with on the target and then have the spellcaster track that object. I'd rule coins to be to generic to be tracked individually, thus having various false pings on the spell. But a simple broach or other piece of jewelry would work wonders.
@@jackielinde7568 The Locate Object spell is not cast upon the object being sought after. It is cast on yourself. By casting the spell, you are imbibing yourself with the ability to sense an object with which you are familiar. The spell itself has no range and is ineligible for Distant Spell. For another example: You can use Distant Spell on Fireball. It does not double the size encompassed by the blast, but instead doubles the range at which you can center the blast. The range of the fireball spell only applies to how far away you can place the center. The blast radius is an effect caused by the spell. Likewise, the distance at which you can detect the object in question is also an effect caused by the spell and not the range at which it is cast.
@@Schmeethe88 Technically Locate Object does have a Range. It has a Range of Self (check the Spell Description, it's there) as @Jim Wolford mentioned in the original post. Because you're casting it on yourself. So, yeah, ineligible for Distant Spell, as you mentioned.
@@michaelbohannon527 I'm not so sure about that. There are three problems that I see, but I'm not a walking D&D 5E Encyclopedia, so I could be wrong. The first problem is, according the Spell Description, you can only ever have ONE Familiar in existence at any given time. Furthermore, if you try to cast a second familiar, it will replace your first familiar. So, unless I am mistaken, if you Twin Spell Familiar, you'll still only end up with one Familiar in the shape of the second being that you picked. The second problem I see is that, again, according to the Familiar Spell Description, you can only cast Spells with a Range of Touch through your Familiar. As we established through the conversation above, Locate Object has a Range of Self, not Touch, therefore, I believe Locate Object would not be a Spell you could cast through your Familiar. The third problem arises if, for the sake of argument, you are actually able to Twin Spell Find Familiar and actually able to cast Locate Object through said Familiars. That problem is the fact that it is not your Familiar that casts the Spell. It is YOU who casts the Spell. Locate Object is Concentration Spell. And last I checked, you can only Concentrate on one spell at any given time. Now, as I said at the top of the comment, I could be wrong. And if I am, please correct me. I don't know everything and am always willing to learn more about D&D.
I picked a random mine map with green goo and machinery for a location that had very little to do with the adventure. It was just a side bit from a rumor. The whole party got super interested and I had to make up that they found a place where dwarves had once fashioned an apparatus to mass produce potions of animal friendship. Fun stuff ^_^
I was just explaining to my DM yesterday why Immovable Object cast at 6th level is absurdly broken. (Very flexible use: cast on a sheet, where you can move it normally, and it becomes a portable, permanent, moldable wall of force. Cover a door, give it to a fighter to grapple someone with and just leave them under it, make it into an immovable tent Leomund would approve of.)
I would argue that “immovable” doesn’t necessarily mean “indestructible.” Per the text of the spell, this sheet you’re using can hold a lot of weight, but that doesn’t mean it could stop an arrow, for example, or some other piercing weapon that could just go right through. Or maybe someone could burn it with a spell.
@@goldfencer I think burning or acid works better than cutting or piercing as you could argue that cutting/piercing need to move the fabric threads in order to penetrate it.
The Bard/Cleric in my group used Locate Object to hone in on the Sword of Zariel as we speed ran The Scab. My DM was like, "Okay we're skipping this, this, & this..., cool."
Yeah divination is not very useful in combat but is completely broken for a cool narration. As i DM i would rule locate object more like a mysterius suggestion where to find the item.
We knew where the sword was, we just didn't know how to get to the location until completing another quest. Once we got to the Bleeding Citadel/The Scab, our DM couldn't really finesse much. So once the spell was cast, he was like "Here's the highest concentration of divine energy". If the spell was used prior to us discovering all this knowledge and we were still looking for answers, he could've easily been a little more vague.
The closest my group has gotten to derailing my plans is starting the evil guys plan early. Like, they saw something, where noticed, and forced them to improvise. This is mainly because they haven't really tried to do anything, but still.
Mundane net/ rope trap + Immovable Object + Programmed Illusion Set one of those mundane, early game traps (Snare won't work), make the net or rope an immovable object with a password, and have a programmed illusion whisper the password whenever someone comes within 120' while the trap isn't sprung. The net or rope is movable for a minute, during which time the enemy might spring it, and they only have the remaining time to get out before the object becomes immovable again. Tom and Jerry shenanigans just got an upgrade.
Enlarge/Reduce: I had a Gnome Wizard literally Reduce themselves, then used Mage Hand to carry them across (what I thought was) an impassable chasm. Polymorph: When faced with a Medusa mini-boss, he was Polymorphed into a stink bug, carried by a familiar up as high as the spell could be maintained, then dropped the spell, dropping the creature to it's death. I had miniature metal coffins also made for this use such that the container could be dropped at sea. Imagine coming back to normal size while trapped in sealed iron box....then possibly drowning even IF you got out. Magic Missile: Basically discounts Blur, Mirror Image, illusory creatures, traps based on reflections in mirrors and similar tricks of the eye. It hits a creature, and nothing else. If it fires, it hits. If it doesn't fire, it's fake. Mold Earth: The cantrip that keeps on giving. Allows walls to be undermined, creates minor pits that can trip targets, blocks doorways with debris, upsets/imbalances siege engines, and more. And it's a Cantrip. So you can spam it. Spamming it twice with the same effect means you can create a 5'x5x10'deep pit...which a clever party will mask. Since it lasts for 1 hour, even a Minor Illusion can cover it.
Mage Hand has a 10 lbs limit. While Reduce reduces your weight to an eighth, that includes your armor, weapons, gold and equipment. So all of that plus your original body weight cannot exceed 80 lbs. This is a known exploit, and as a DM you need to decide whether or not to allow it.
@@DvirPick The character was already small for a Gnome, was a Wizard, and therefore no armor. I *did* rule, thank you. I allowed it. Keep in mind, that reduction to an eight INCLUDED your equipment, so everything you mentioned was also a fraction of the weight. I think my assessment was fair and true.
My party was level 5, in a full 20 level campaign centered around a big bad who was supposedly leveling up with us over time. My DM decided to let us meet the big bad face to face early on in the campaign. His plan was to let us fight, but use Tree Stride to make his escape before we killed the boss. He then planned to never let us meet again until lvl 20. However, my Vengeance Paladin casted Locate Object on the big bad’s ring as soon as he teleported away. Since the range of teleportation was limited to 500ft, we were easily able to locate the almost dead boss. Of course we proceeded to swiftly decapitate the big bad and make our way to the nearest tavern for a celebratory drink. The utter shock on the DM’s face when I casted Locate Object was absolutely priceless.
Definitely sounds like a fun moment, and would have shocked me too if I had been the DM for that, though it would not have taken me long to put the pieces back together to keep my original idea going without taking anything away from the players' victory. Either someone restores the BBEG to life, and now they are more cautious (thus the reason you never see them again until level 20) or an underling or sibling or someone else close to the BBEG assumes their mantle and works behind the scenes, waiting for the right moment to exact their revenge upon the party. Regardless of how the villain returns later, the party is left with the impression that they are dead.
how did you cover the distance? in 3 rounds someone tree striding is out of range locate object leaving you with a general idea of the direction they were going and 1000+ feet of forest between you and them.
@@acember we simply walked. With the BBEG being on the brink of death, and under the assumption he had escaped successfully, it’s only realistic to find him laying in the dirt at the spot he teleported to. Don’t get me wrong, my DM totally had the chance to take that victory from us, but he’s a fantastic game master and all around a good human being. So he decided to reward our creativity instead of prioritizing his own plot line. I wouldn’t trade my DM for anybody. He truly makes D&D an incredible experience every single session. We’ve been playing this campaign now for 2.5 years and I have yet to feel any amount of dissatisfaction after a session.
Our party was escaping in a small boat while being chased by enemies in a same sized boat. I cast Control Water using the Part Water option, enemy boat fell in to the trench that was created, then I ended the spell and water filled in the area over the enemy boat.
For Instant Summon, this could also be used to find out the true name of say a demon or devil, simply hand them the item and activate the spell. Anyone impersonating someone and you are suspicious (and you are rich), then bam, easy name drop. Expensive play but still cool
@@knurspgaming1681 That is what the spell does. If another creature is holding the item when you activate the spell (ie summon the item), then instead of summoning the item, you learn that creatures name and location. Sooooooo, give someone the item, activate the spell and you now know the name.
I had my party meet a faerie dragon locked in a cage… I had an entire session planned around them finding the key, freeing the dragon, etc… and as I’m describing the cage I hear my artificer say: “Enlarge/reduce?” So I adlibbed an entire session
If you want a little more speed, Phantom steed is also an option, because you can cast while riding, you can replace horses on the go and serve a party of 5 to 80 miles of travel, normal speed 8 hours of travel time, other than the normal 24 miles with walking, also 100 feet +dash or disengate for free in combat as long as you are not hit (which you won't if you stay out of range).
Lord knows how many times I've used Heat Metal to mess with my DM. I even use it to cook food or heat things up at camp at night so that a fire doesn't need to be lit and thus can't alert enemies to our location.
Campaign Killer: For set-up, We started at level 3 and this took place at level 17. I was playing a Battlefield Control Wizard. I would also, let the DM know (99% of the time) when I was even thinking about doing something crazy, or taking certain spells (DM approval for spells like Simulacrum, etc). Anyway, major baddie of the campaign was this Ancient Undead King guy. Lots of undead. LOTS of undead. Armies of them. Eventually, we annoyed the BBEG enough that he sent the entire army to our capital city. Thanks to scrying and other magical means, we knew roughly the where's and when's. So, I set up an Alarm spell at a very specific spot. In and of itself, completely harmless... except for the reason I set it there. That was my "Start Casting Right Now" Alarm... So there I was... standing on the rampart walls. A city of archers (some real archers, mostly just towns people with bows) up there with me. And I'm just casting 1 spell. For 10 minutes. I had given instructions to not go out to attack.... stay inside the walls, etc. But only attack if they get close.... they never did. That 10 minute casting for 1 spell... DM had approved it levels ago... and I never used it. Until right now. The ground under the Undead Army erupted in lava. 1 square mile of lava spraying into the air. And thanks to a previous rules by Jeremy Crawford (not the 1st time we'd consult prior rulings to know if something worked or not), the End of the World BBEG Undead Army was... just gone. Destroyed in lava. Mirage Arcane, with just a single casting, destroyed a major plot point/story arc that the DM set up for at least 7 levels.
Great vid. Just one note: Identify has been a spell for ages. It's in my AD&D Players Handbook from 1978, and my players have been using it since 1980.
I recommend casting Darkness on a BBEG, rendering them at the same time a moving target and a blind target. Casting Darkness on people's hair, beard, eyelashes is perhaps my mage's greatest pleasure in life. The number of quests derailed by this spell has been astonishing.
I mean, find familiar has been used so many times for recon missions. I think the best use was we were trying to locate an object and steal it from the black market auctioneers who had it. We located it using locate object, but it was behind several large sections of guards, traps, etc. while also being underground. Thankfully, we were able to use find familiar to sneak past enough guards to get a good idea of the defenses of the auction house and formulate a plan to get around the DM's intended route.
This spell is OP, especially with a Pact of the Chain warlock with Voice of the Chain Master invocation; "You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar’s senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence."
A low level group (3), An NPC that was supposed to be kidnapped. Bad guy caster lays down a a cloudkill spell to cut off the PCs. PC's don't want to enter it of course as it will probably kill them as they had already been fighting this guys goons and were fairly low HP. PC wizard Vortex Warps NPC hostageto them. Bad Guy and goons have no recourse at this point and have to flee. Turning my hostage scenario that spirals into the rest of the campaign into a hunt the bad guys scenario that my PC's may or may not do as it's far less pressing a matter now lol.
I had to roleplay squirrels thanks to the druid, several times a couple campaigns ago. Both my current campaigns has a druid. So far, they haven't used speak with animals... but I know it is coming. One of the groups has a mule and I'm sure they are going to talk to it soon.
I had a 2e game I was running and the PCs were travelling from one continent to another. I had looked up and modified a whole system for ship to ship battles since the NPC captain they were on the ship of had a ton of enemies (and the PCs were 100% aware of this). I had a whole encounter using those rules set up against a massive pirate galleon and once it was underway, on the second round of combat my wife looks at me and asks "What would happen if I cast Passwall on the enemy ship's hull?" Needless to say, encounter over. All that work for that encounter for absolutely no reason lol.
In 2e it was a touch spell. "You dive into the water and swim to the hull of the ship. You touch the hull and cast your spell. You are immediately sucked inside as water moves in to fill the void... The entire ship's crew you saved will never forget your selfless actions. Roll up a new character.
I still love the Taliesin Jaffe method of negating a sea battle. "I cast Control Water, create a 20 foot tidal wave, and slam it into the enemy ship causing it to capsize into the nearby jagged rocks." And the enemies, being standard pirates, didn't have a caster on board so they couldn't do anything. Matt was like, "Ok... well we're out of combat. What do you guys want to do?"
Funny thing is, I thought of using Dream as a way for the bad guy to talk/threaten the party, but using it to trick them sounds like a good idea, too. Thanks Cody!
Recently we've had a LOT of fun with Dispel Magic !! First it saved our butts in the Rezmir fight in Castle Sky Reach -- our bard dispelled her darkness Every Single Turn and forced her to use 2/3s of her legendary actions if she still wanted it up. Literally saved our fighters life. However, the more CHEEKY use was the next day -- we rolled into a fight with the two wizards on the castle: Azbara Jos and Rath Modar. We'd tangled with Jos before and had a bit of a rapport (I also play a necromancer, we didn't know he was part of the cult at the time, he spoke up for us not getting IMMEDIATELY killed when we were captured...) and we thought we had a good chance of either taking him or convincing him that it wasn't worth it to fight -- but the boss was a problem since we had never seen or met him before. However, we WERE told from some clever info gathering that he was currently in a simulacrum of sorts -- that he was not actually on the castle. SO instead of trying to fight him we decided to throw a little Dispel magic at the problem! Right out the gate if we had a surprise round, no one could counterspell with no reaction, and between our Bard with Lucky and a Warlock with said Bards Inspiration... we had decent odds even if it was said 7th level spell. And even then, we were completely prepped to spend several rounds trying to hit that coinflip. HILARIOUSLY, apparently he WASN'T using the high level spell Simulacrum... he was using some unknown 3rd level divination spell and a Flesh Golem. So needless to say the first counterspell took him out without even the need for a roll -- the golem just slumped to the ground while we turned around and had a ... friendly talk with a very surprised Jos. Needless to say, he took the offered way out (literally Dimension Doored *OFF THE FLYING CASTLE* lmaooo) and when the Flesh Golem stood up... well we had a nice little platform to hit it at range from and it no longer had its scary spell casting abilites lol. Our DM literally let us skip ahead the few rounds it would have taken to burn it down with cantrips and arrows lol.
Favorited and saved this video. I love that all of the spells you cover aren't inherently super mega awesome ultimate abilities of dungeons and dragons but rather just normal spells with creative applications. I don't know how many times I myself and other players have completely passed over immovable object or The limited times I've prepared to locate object. This is clever
The group I was DMing for was being hunted by an Invisible Stalker (one of the players used a cursed magic whistle and summoned it). They were walking thru the woods while the stalker was following and waiting for them to rest at night. As a joke, the party had bought a bag of Infinite Manure (it was a prank on my end, they bought it from a mage shop but they rolled to see what item they got). I thought it was a funny item that they'd have no use for. Noooo. They built a 10ft wall around their campsite at night. Pretty much making it unable for the stalker to claim its prey successfully
…how was the wall not a pile? Manure doesn’t make great walls without a bunch of mechanical stabilizers (mixing it with straw) and a time consuming drying process. And then you have to stack all those bricks.
@@demonzabrak they spent about 3 hours in game time. They explained how they did it and I went with it. It wasn't a literal wall. Just a giant mound that circled the camp but a wall of manure is easier to explain
@@CWayneMartin sure, but a mound doesn’t stop things, it just makes it a bit easier to notice an invisible thing that moves over said mound. That’s neutral at best with 5e rules, right? Advantage on stealth, invisible, disadvantage on stealth, terrain, and that’s that. Advantage and disadvantage just cancel out regardless of how many of each you have. It just seems like one of those plans that players think is good, but logic and the rules make it absurd. Strings with bells would have done the same things without sleeping surrounded by shit lol. Better sight lines too. Doesn’t give the attacker high ground. Really, just because it’s creative doesn’t make it good. It isn’t terrible either, just… silly. Absurd. Not something that most people would choose if they had to actually do the work and smell the smells.
"I thought it was a funny item that they'd have no use for. Noooo." Matt Mercer thought the same thing about the Dust of Deliciousness... he, like you, will never make that mistake again 😂
I recently used Sequester as a DM. The villain (a 13th level spellcaster) had both contingency and sequester, and as soon as she dropped below 50 HP, she just disappeared, with no indication of where she'd gone.
Very cool use of the spells, although if you have any rules lawyers in your party you should be careful about how you reveal how it worked. Since Contingency can only store spells of 5th level or lower, maybe drop them a homebrew spell scroll of the villain’s creation for her Improved Contingency/Greater Contingency/Contingency Part 2/whatever
@@poe_slaw I mean generally the enemies don't have to follow the same rules as the PCs. That's why they have per-encounter spells instead of spellslots
Wow, that's an interesting idea! Imagine if a lich was getting attacked and had sequester cast on him, to end early "when my enemies are gone" or similar words. The party could then fight through a lich's lair, now filled with mind flayers or something. They kill the mind flayers and that ends sequester on the lich. The party have now released the bbeg for the campaign.
In the campaign I run, the spells that have been the most devastating have been Counterspell (with Subtle spell), Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, and Scorching Ray + Hex
I have a funny story about remove curse. They found a kitsune child that was cursed to kill she touched and the cleric was excited that he could cast remove curse. I’m thinking “oh no this will be too easy” while he double checks that he has everything to cure the curse and then he just is like “oh hey guys. Remove curse, range: touch.”
PCs Attacked by a group of greater invisible Owlin assassins flying at 200 feet. My wizard got within range and used hypnotic pattern. All of them failed the save, became incapacitated, therefore unable to fly, fell 200 feet to their deaths.
Well it wasn’t a throw of plans but I do wanna share some fun uses I had with a spell I think it was wavering winds or something? Basically you know when aang goes into the avatar state and there’s the orb of wind around him, yeah the spell does that. It had 2 big uses. 1 was in a carriage where it got hit with flaming arrows, I used the spell and it stopped the fire from spreading aswell as it was big enough to just barely protect the whole carriage. It gave our party just the edge we needed to not be on the losing side. And in a second instance was when a Molotov or fireball landed in a hotel room and lit it ablaze I was able to go in there and activating the spell extinguish all of the fire that was in the room, May have been some tiny help from another player in that scenario but it was a while ago and I mainly just remember being proud of myself for having the spell to win over the scenario, plus I fight happened immediately after so I’m sorry I’m fuzzy on the details
I'm currently playing a Graviturgy Wizard in a campaign and I did Immovable Object on a boss character in a dungeon my DM set up. We found out after that the boss was supposed to be able to travel between shadows and would throw daggers as they teleported around the room. I locked the boss under the chandelier in the room by casting this on the shirt under their chainmail, after the bard did a wombo-combo to temporarily incapacitate them.
Once I revealed that an ex-patron of a party member that was hiring us to escort him to Yartar was a Zentharim by spontaneously using zone of truth, which got him kicked out of the city, and since he was the one who provided food to the rest of the organization for a low price, kind of starved the Zentharim a bit, and got my group of The Munchies of the Zentharim lol
I think that by RAW Glibness doesn't actually work vs Zone of Truth considering the wording of both spells (Glibness doesn't let people find out if you are lying, Zone of Truth just doesn't let you lie). That being said, I'd 100% overrule it and have the 8th level spell that has a very specific purpose do the thing it's supposed to do.
By RAW Glibness states "...magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates that you are being truthful." It specifically bypasses Zone of Truth.
@@theochatzimaris2514 Exactly. The zone of truth spell itself is even convinced you're telling the truth, and therefore cannot prevent you from saying it.
Ivan is actually correct on both counts. It seems that Glibness is meant to overrule Zone of Truth (as well as spells or effects like Discern Lies) but it is poorly written if it is actually intended to do so. It has to do with order of operations and basic logic: ZoT is cast; then, under those conditions, a statement can be spoken IF AND ONLY IF it is not a deliberate lie. Glibness, as written, does not prevent ZoT from preventing a deliberate lie from being spoken. As an example in which Glibness works as written, a lie could be spoken (outside a ZoT) but Glibness would ensure that Discern Lies would, AFTER the statement is made, determine and then indicate truthfulness. The specific wording in Zone of Truth says that "a creature can’t speak a deliberate lie." That is absolute; and, read as written, they literally cannot even speak a deliberate lie, even one that would later be determined and then indicated as truth by using Glibness under other circumstances. Glibness says "no matter what you say," which does NOT mean "you can say anything you want whether a deliberate lie or not, under any circumstances." You cannot say a deliberate lie if you cannot say a deliberate lie, even if later, by some other means, it would be determined as truthful. Anyway, Glibness and/or Zone of Truth need to be rewritten to be used RAW, as implied in this vid. Also, a trickier and cooler work around could be to make it so someone lies without doing so deliberately.
@@jc6226 I mean, it could be argued that in order for Zone of Truth to prevent you from speaking a lie, it must first magically determine if what you're about to say is a lie. In which case, Glibness would cause Zone of Truth to determine that everything you say is true, and you'd be able to say it.
@@IceMetalPunk Glibness says "no matter what you say" not "no matter what you might say/think." As written, it has to be spoken before Glibness takes effect, which is why it works for Discern Lies but not ZoT.
im allways proud when my players outsmart me. last week the just tore appart an ecounter and thwarted both my contingencies, turning a most likely very deadly encounter into a pushover. it was very frustrating on one hand but also amazing to watch :D
During the end of the first story of our campaign, our poor DM had built up an underwater fight with a powerful Saugwen mage wielding a scepter. Being mere lvl 2s, he was floored when his BBEG saugwen ended up getting one shot by ‘destroy water’ making a vacuum deep underwater. One numbers crunch later and he realized the saugwen just got hit with the equivalent force of a falling house.
Side note for Immovable Object, if the cave, building or something is falling down on your party. You can just take out that loose fabric thin long wide custom stitched blanket unfurl it, wave it around like your looking for your keys tangled in the blankey and cast Immovable Object, Bam instant room that can handle the weight
I had a high level wizard/artificer who used immovable object cast at 6th level pretty much every night before resting to create a whole arsenal of immovable objects that he used in creatine ways. Immovable blanket can be instant shelter, a comfy hammocklike bed... An inescapable net. Immovable rope was really useful, zigzagging it across a door we need to secure, tying people up, anchoring a climbing line, 'sculpting' it into different shapes to act as a structural support or similar. Everyone got an immovable coin purse to prevent pickpocketing since only the owner can move it. Immovable shoes/armor can make it incredibly hard to push someone back or knock them down. Immovable arrows... The archer can move them, but once they stop moving (say, inside your chest) they stop. It kind of became his thing. When he eventually made boots of flying we explained it as an offshoot of his immovable object technique letting him walk on air (read as fly equal to his walking speed) by subcutaneously switching the immobility effect on and off. Even ended up working with the DM to come up with a magic item he invented that was essentially a set of 7 hexagonal tiles that slid against each other and locked together on the edges in any configuration you want so long as at least one edge is in contact with another and it could become immovable. So on a basic level it's a shield that negates pushback, but it can become a short staircase, a platform, a barrier, etc. It was super fun and by the time he got 6th level spell slots it was already late in the game so it wasn't really a balance issue. Just lead to a lot of creative workarounds on both sides of the table. Also the party druid and paladin used to bond nightly by having the druid use dream to let the paladin torment a certain, mid level boss that escaped them... Every. Single. Night. Even when he made his save he still had to remember the feeling of being hunted, graphic imagery about how they'll extract justice, etc so even when we 'failed' or was still disturbing. By the time they ended up tracking him down he surrendered on the condition that we just let him rest.
Just a heads up, you cant distance locate object because its a range of self. as for spells/combos, my plays have killed multiple drangon level enemies by casting sickening radiance on them then casting wall of force, you either need a teleport disintegrate or dispell, or you will die from exhaustion.
what about planar binding? nothing derails a campaign like turning the CR 15+ monster the BBEG just summoned into a companion while the rest of the party are restraining it
The giant guarding the beautiful giant diamond racked his face with pain as he was forced to hand it over simply because the cleric told him to. Command is such horse#&*^
I had a wizard cast Legend Lore on a pretty powerful artifact that the villian wanted. I didn't even know that spell existed. Later on in the same campaign I had another wizard use Creation to make a Ouija board to talk to the dead gods in the Astral Planes as well as to get around no one having Speak with Dead.
I have used Locate Object just like that. We were fighting the BBEG (who we later found out was actually the secretary of the BBEG), we knocked her out in the first round of combat, but then a bodyguard teleported her away to safety. I used Locate Object on the pretty jewelry she was wearing, and found that the warehouse we were in was connected to this vast underground network that the criminal organisation was working in. Alternatively, we had a new party member (previous character died) who didn't yet have a spellcasting focus, so was looking for some specific materials. I Locate Object and suddenly no need for him to pass some Investigation check to find the material.
Imovable object has become one of my favorite spells. Playing a chronomancer when a bardbarian begins running toward me screaming. Used my momentary stasis ability to freeze him until the end of my next turn. Took a caltrop, placed it in the middle of his screaming mouth and cast immovable object on it. Returned to the last place he saw me with folded arms and a huge grin... Hilarity insued and my DM banged his head on the table. Then we had to go into the who "What does and does not constitute an evil act.." conversation.... again.
Our Oath of Ancients Paladin was trying to restore the heirloom of a Knight's house to his supposed son, but the heirloom was burried somewhere on the property, now controlled by the greedy town mayor who had denied any claims of legitimacy of the Knight's son's inheritance. So he went around to all of the dogs in the town using "Speak with Animals" telling them that they would all need to come to the Mayor's estate and their reward would be bones. He then went to the carrion and birds and asked them to bring bones to him in exchange for seeds and pumpkins (the town was celebrating the equivalent of Octoberfest or the end of the harvest season), which he bought at a cheap rate from some farmers. The evening the Mayor would be visiting the festival (including us the rest of the party), the Paladin went with all the dogs ( about a hundred) and dug up the entire yard of the estate, finding many items, but most importantly the heirloom. All that could be determined was that all the dogs in the town decided to ruin one guys yard, and the Knight's son got the heirloom back, and our Paladin got an inspiration point from the DM.
My paladin once used Locate Object to find a unique ring implementing the holder in treachery before eventually casting Zone of Truth to prevent said individual from lying about it.
Immovable Object makes narrow ravines that require a check to jump across a lot easier to cross. Put a branch, board, or anything else across it (or even set up as a stepping stone in the middle), cast Immovable Object, then waltz across.
I sometimes leave out things from identify, sorta how curses usually aren't picked up by it most of the time like Identify will show something as a Lantern of Dragon Tracking but it will leave out the fact that it doesn't track the holder if they are a dragon (something I did recently :P)
Okay, I didn't do this, wasn't even in the campaign that this happened in, but some friends of mine told about the time one of them ruined the DM's boss fight with Wall of Force. Basically they had to reach a lever or switch to shut off some artifact, and a powerful golem was blocking the way. The Wizard got first turn in initiative, and immediately trapped the golem in a cube of force. The golem had no way to break it or escape, so the fight was over pretty much instantly.
Another possible interesting use for Dream is to do that with a beholder and inspire it to involuntarily create anything you want; Beholders tend not to have any conscious control of it, but whatever they dream about with enough intensity tends to bleed over into reality, reshaping it to some degree.
Shape Water flair for Water Genasi. For roleplay purposes my DM allowed me to "use" it as a visual shield when I succeeded on a save. I was also basically a mobile bath house for my party, so we didn't smell that much. And my favourite flair - making enemy veins pop in their eyes, so now they need to walk around with pink eye.
I absolutely love utility spells, and in fact almost always have prestidigitation ready among them. My current character I'm working on also has control flames and shape water for starting cantrips. There is so much you can do just with those 3 cantrips.
Playing an Arcane Trickster Rogue, my character used Mage Hand Legerdemain to pickpocket a magical key from a villain, and subsequently used Wristpocket (Chronurgy spell) to make it disappear from the timeline till we could get away. The villain didn't even realize my character took it and left, thinking he stole it.
Another note for glibness is it turns bards into the best dispeller since the check to dispel for bards are charisma ability checks. So a 3rd level spell slot that is guaranteed to dispel even 9th level spells
Another fun use of Galder's Speedy Courier if to fill the box with stink bombs (emphasis on 'bomb') and send it to the big bad at a random time every day.
As a bard, minor illusion and programmed illusion are crazy good RP tools. Absolute must haves for any bard worth their salt IMO. Minor illusion is super fun to sprinkle in during npc interactions, monologues and storytelling for dramatic effect... but what it does for musical performances can not be understated. It's a "looper" to instantly give any bard the ability to make the single instrument they are playing seem like an entire band. The coup de grâce is what a clever bard can do with programmed illusion. Those illusions are permanent (unless some A-hole dispels them) and can be placed on the bard's instrument with the trigger set as the opening notes of a song. So, over time a bard can load up their entire song catalogue as programmed illusions. They would then be able to bust out live music video style productions (backing band, dance choreography, lighting effects, etc etc etc) on command with the ONLY limit being a 30' cube area, a 5 minute max duration per song and the creativity of the player. If this does not "break" the game socially and make your bard a crazy well known celebrity VERY fast, your DM does not do role playing worth a damn. Being a top tier celebrity opens doors like nothing else, and engaging "easy mode" for everything outside of combat will certainly make it more challenging for your DM to come up with engaging scenarios.
Silvery Barbs 100% deserves to be number one on this list. Your save or suck spells are so much better and gives an ally or yourself advantage on the next d20 roll. This is a REACTION spell, and remember, “Action economy is KING in 5e.” Another spell that deserves to be here is Dominate Person if your BBEG or target is a humanoid. This can end a fight easily or control the king in your DM’s world to do whatever you want, and works with Silvery Barbs amazingly. Great video overall and very accurate. Keep up the great work and I enjoy watching your videos.
Early on in my DM's campaign, they decided to have my character be poisoned by a drink at a party my character attended. But the DM didn't know that as a Cleric I had something that would take care of just that. First I had to ask the DM if I indeed had the Poisoned condition, to which they said I did. Then, I said confidently, "No, I don't think so. I cast Lesser Restoration!" The DM tried saying that this poison was different than your regular run of the mill poisons, but my entire party OOC backed me up on what I did. The DM had a whole plotline setup for the poison and I threw it all away. Felt good and bad at the same time tbh
Funny thing is that a Level 17 Mastermind Rogue has the second effect of Glibness on *at all times* .And something like an Identify spell to determine that they’re trying to cheat a Zone of Truth wouldn’t apply to them at all. They can even cheat mind-reading and it’s amazing. Big part of why I love that subclass in particular.
Players did this to me in our Livestream campaign recently(no plug here, not posted on anything that connects to this account that I know of) they walked up the side of the bosses tower and used a strixhaven spell to teleport him outside. Had to do some quick thinking for the fight to not just be over
Oneshot meant to take place adjacent to our campaign, small party was tasked to deliver a locked box from one city to another. My bard used Knock to open it and check out what was inside. It was some kind of interdimensional bomb meant to unleash demons in the city. We destroyed it before it could do so and ruined that city being destroyed.
Had my party use locate object on a cursed dagger I had been using (as another player). As the group rogue I was desperately trying to hide in our castle and an epic game of hide and seek ensued, we've me desperately trying to climb into a bag of holding to escape. Great use of the spell by our Paladin.
A problem I've found with glibness is that while it might allow one to lie in a zone of truth, anyone casting zone of truth on a target may use detect magic to see if there is anything going on with the person who can cast up to 8th level magic. To which they'd then see an aura of transmutation. I'd say a court mage could easily request that they cast identify on the person to see what spells are in effect.
I'm running a Wild West style game. The first session started with the players on a train that gets attacked by bandits. Two of the bandit leaders were on top of the train. My wife (a wildfire druid) went to the top and asked what the roof was made of and I told her it was metal. She then cast Heat Metal on the whole roof, causing the bandit leaders damage and giving them disadvantage on attack rolls every round while getting shot at and trying to find a way into the train.
I won't go into details (due to Spoilers within Curse of Strahd) but my players had arrived at the Ruins of Berez...with one of the big encounters upcoming. I had bought specialized minis. Bought terrain. Bought everything needed to make this encounter memorable (also changed the skull to Argynvost's skull for added oomph, with accompanying mini). Party skulks up. They find the Hut. "She" isn't there. She's been watching them. The fairy Warlock rolls over a 30 on Perception. Telepathically starts talking to her. This is a new player. This player is always nervous when RP'ing and has yet to feel confident doing so even with the 20 Charisma to back them up. Proceeds to dialogue with "her" and, over the conversation...moves me (mentally tracking this NPC's opinion) from: Never going to convince her, to Okay, disadvantage, to Huh...straight Persuasion, to Advantage, to Wow...nope, you don't need to roll. You convinced her. I have never been prouder of wasting $200 on minis and terrain in my life. I was so proud of this player, I darn-near shed a tear even now, just thinking of it.
Spirit Shroud can be a really tricky one sometimes too. I had a friend DM'ing for a different group who told me he hadn't prepared for it, and it led to a player wrecking the encounter, because he was counting on the boss being able to heal itself.
This was a fun topic! I would add Misty Step to the honorable mentions. Since it only requires verbal components, I have used it countless times to escape capture, grapples or to take a shortcut. through
Totally used this to escape a shambling mound that had covered me while the party was trying to figure out how to free me from it.
If you have a familiar, it also makes doors moot - dismiss the familiar, summon it on the other side of the door, use your action to see through its eyes and BA to misty step to somewhere you can see on the other side of the door.
One of my favorite memories is when I completely negated an ambush on a caravan with a cantrip. It was a mini campaign where you as you walk down the road there is only one combat absolutely set. The final one before it ends which is an ambush with wolves goblins and trolls. We had a 5 minute time to prepare for the attack on the caravan or 50 turns. In those 50 turns I used mold earth to take a 5 foot by 5 foot cube of dirt and move it up and back one square. So over the course of 5 minutes I made a 5 foot wide and deep mote with effectively a ten foot high wall of dirt. It completely negated the goblins from the fight because we were able to pick them off and made it so the troll could not kidnap one of the caravan carts. The DM was annoyed but also loved it. I also roleplayed him missing the first 4 rounds of combat because he was utterly exhausted from the sheer physical exertion that came with making effectively a wall to protect the entire caravan. Each turn was my wizard just talking smack as he recovered. In the end we won and I got given the Vicious Mockery cantrip as a bonus prize for causing metal scarring to the goblins before we killed them lol.
lol
So anyone else *love* Speak With Animals 'cause they *enjoy* RPing every raven and bat in Barovia? It's a fun chance to tell the players things in an alien perspective. Depending on the animal and setting, they probably don't know what magic is. They don't know the names of towns. They wouldn't be able to name any creatures that aren't native to their habitat. A squirrel can't tell you "I saw a mind flayer headed to Vallaki," they'll have to say "I saw a man with wiggly tusks go to the houses by the lake." They're also just as likely to tell you "I saw a bear climbing a rock." They will definitely beg you for food.
Had a triton in one of my games, when they would try to look for information on people or creatures, he'd dive into ponds to ask questions of turtles. Then solemnly return saying the creatures of the woods knew nothing. The players would be laughing while the characters treated this with far more seriousness than they should. They weren't unknown because even the squirrels couldn't find them, they were unknown because he asked a catfish if there were caves nearby.
YES! I had player who tried to interview a spider, and the spider lived in a dark room behind a door all his life, so it didn't have a lot to tell. It was, however, very confused about words like inside and outside, and the druid kept him in her hair for the rest of the campaign, so he could learn what The Outside was.
@@osanneart9318 This story was unexpectedly wholesome and adorable, and I'm here for Spider Buddy's Adventures In The Outside ❤
Yes! I would probably be too self-conscious to try doing *voices* for them, but I could definitely get into the mindset of an animal friend and have a ton of fun doing it. We actually had this happen in a previous campaign I was in (as a party member, not the DM). It was our druid or ranger, can't remember which, and we were in a town and had been given instructions to meet someone at a specific location in town. Except we rushed too much and never actually asked *where* that place was. So she stops to ask a dog, and the dog goes, "Um... I... uh... I found a bone! On the side of the road! Do you want to see it?!" And she was like, "No no, please, where is [whatever building]", and he was like, "...um... what's that? I dunno. Bone! Wanna see the bone?!" We did not, in fact, ever see the bone, which in retrospect saddens me 🙃
@@IceMetalPunk I love doing voices, but I usually don’t do them for Speak With Animals because you’re not actually hearing them *speak*. I envision it working more like a translation app or something. I’ll still convey the emotions though because that’s the part that’s so exaggerated with animals.
Regarding Glibness and Identify: I notice that the spell Identify also allows you to target a living creature and determine what spells are currently affecting them. If a King or other important person was looking for completely truthful testimony, I imagine that in addition to the Zone of Truth they could have a spellcaster cast Identify on the person speaking to determine what spell effects they are under. Identify should be able to tell if someone is using stat boosting magic, is polymorphed or disguised, is being possessed or controlled, etc. So even if they didn't know about Glibness or didn't have access to a Zone of Truth, the Identify spell should be a cheap low-level way for someone to tell if a messenger is under some kind of spell before they deliver their message.
Also the thing about Zone of Truth, it makes the creature *incapable* of speaking a deliberate lie. It doesn't just detect if they would be lying, it physically makes them unable to do so.
@@echori. Tbf, I feel like if a player has used an 8th level spell to specifically get around this, it would suck for a 2nd level spell to counter it so easily.
Plus, based on the wording:
"On a failed save, the creature can't speak a deliberate lie while in the radius." - ZoT
"No matter what you say, magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates you are being truthful" - Glibness
You could make the argument that however ZoT determines if someone is telling a deliberate lie is also fooled by the Glibness spell. Makes more sense than a a powerful 8th level spell being overridden by a 2nd level one
@@echori. i wonder what other spells "discern truthiness" ...
@@jordanjamesstavrakis1683 I fully agree. In order to prevent you from lying, Zone of Truth must somehow magically determine if you're lying, then suppress your speech if you are. So Glibness would definitely fool it into letting you say anything, with the Zone magically assuming you're always telling the truth; IMHO anyway.
@@echori. And this is why @gortab's idea to use Identify in conjunction with Zone of Truth is a good idea. The rules of Zone of Truth are the same as the Veritaserum Potion in Harry Potter. The person under its effects, as you stated, cannot speak a deliberate lie. But if they believe they are telling the truth because of, say, a curse or mind control, than they aren't speaking a deliberate lie even if they're not telling the truth. And, thus, the Zone of Truth, just like Veritaserum, cannot prevent the person from speaking it. I feel like a lot people don't understand this about Zone of Truth. That it only prevents people within it from lying, not that it forces anyone who speaks within it to speak the absolute truth.
I once used prestidigitation to make a mug of acid taste like a warm cup of cocoa (the enemy's favorite drink) and served it to him. It was a horrifying and agonizing death, but also ruined a really fun fight the DM had planned for us.
He couldn't tell by the smell?
...holy shit, that's one of the most genius (and darkest!) uses of a cantrip I've ever heard.
@@codebracker Changes the smell too...
@@jacobking7840 the spell doesn't say it does
@@codebracker "You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor."
Counterspell: "Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you *see* a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell." Key word: "*see*". Improved Invisibility will end Counterspell, because the caster cannot be seen. This also goes for Darkness, and perhaps even lower level spells that obscure Perception checks like Fog Cloud.
Yeah but then you gotta get through Counterspell in the first place to use any of those and if your wizard npc rolls low as hell on initiative they're already getting rushed because the party recognizes that they are a huge threat.
Ok, well if I know I'm fighting something invisible, Sleet storm for the same slot, which mutually fucks casters. You could either counter or double down with silence to give anyone short of a bard a bad time.
"The wizard tosses a smoke bomb at his feet."
"The wizard ducks behind a desk/pillar/chair/chest."
Yeah but for most spells you have to see the target and seeing the target without the target being able to tell you are casting a spell would be tricky.
Unless you know subtle spell of course
Subtle spell. You can't counter a spell if you don't know he's casting a spell.
Regarding the dragon eggs: there is a mention of size and weight of black dragon eggs in hoard of the dragon queen. They are about 3 feet tall and weigh 150 pounds
So they 100% work no issue with the spell, official material supports it.
i remember hearing somewhere dragons and giants do NOT get along, i imagine a giant would pay major moolah to get a dragon egg for a mega-omelette; admittedly, the party would have to be willing to make a mortal enemy of an entity big enough to lay an egg that a giant would be interested in eating
Cool
I usually DM, but once as a player I beat a zone of truth.
We were in a city controlled by hell knights, and we were definitely in there working against them and we didn't want to get caught. The DM had the hell knights question us, and wanted a combat to ensue (he had prepared for the combat). As preparation for the questioning, the hell knights cast zone of truth on us.
I answered every question truthfully, and the hell knights went away knowing less than they started with.
When asked such questions as: What is your purpose in this city?
I would answer: what I really want to do is to return to my village, and my travels took me through this city.
This was true, my character did want to return home, and we were going there, after we left the city.
So, zone of truth can be used from either side to ruin the DM's plans.
Or if you are the DM, remember, although you have to tell the truth, you don't have to be honest 😁 😎
I've always loved that trope of lying through careful truth telling. It would also work fro a supernatural being, who simply cannot lie.
By RAW, such answers do bypass a zone of truth, but are still very suspicious unless you roll high on deception, sin e you are avoiding the question
Recently one of my NPC badguys was captured and placed in a zone of truth.
He gave away some valuable info, and they did get a bit more then he intended by using good question circle logic.
But when they directly asked who hired him his response was "If I tell you his name my wife and childs life are at risk".
And when one of the party threatened his life to answer he just said something like "if you must" or "i understand".
In the end they garnered enough info to know who it was without hearing the name or knowing for absolute certain, and they let the assassin go with his ZoT promise to sneak back into the city after a day or two to recover his family and leave town.
The spell doesnt even directly compell an answer, so it would be something of a jerk move , but an NPC could refuse to answer anything or just hurl insults, if they believe them...
@@mokane86 At one point I had a group of player trying to figure out who a bad guy was in a castle they were visiting, because they had a lead that someone was going to use mind control magic at an upcoming party.. The guards got suspicious, and called in a cleric to cast Zone of Truth. The Warlock rolled a 1, and roleplayed that as his character being overwhelmed by truth magic. It was a bit of a task failed successfully moment, because he spilled the whole story of what the party was doing there, and the guards knew they had to believe him,
@@JadeyCatgirl99 thats awesome. Definitely should consider the individuals loyalties and their strength at deception and their willpower to hold tongue vs desire to share when enabled.
I was running Curse of Strahd for my family and had prepped for a couple of weeks for the Baba Lysaga encounter by 3d printing and painting figures and terrain, even did the giant skull she flies around in as well as the hut. The time came and they got knee deep in the encounter when my wife playing the cleric asked if she could cast blindness on her, I said yes. She did and I rolled a 1 for her save, which led to a quick demise of the baddie in just a couple of rounds after. My wife had only been playing on and off for a couple of years and was still getting her feel for the cleric class, I just love her creativeness at using her spells.
Played in a CoS game and remember that fight. Monk jumped on the skull and did fisticuffs with Lysaga. Bard cast dispel magic on the hut later and the hut failed the save.
That definitely seems like good tactics, but I don't understand what's creative about it. Using Blindness to blind enemies is exactly what you're expected to do with the spell.
@@soldierswitheggs I was implying her over all creativeness not just that spell
I'm surprised Detect Thoughts isn't here! My players use that spell so much to heck up my plans XD
My players know that I run heavily home brewed campaigns and neither mind-reading or soul-trapping spells exist in my campaigns. Of course I throw in some homebrew spells for them to play around with to make up for the loss of options but they usually default to moonbeam anyway.
I agree. Detect Thoughts has ruined a few mysteries for my campaigns in the past. But it's easy enough to work around anymore. I usually make sure that the characters who have secrets to hide usually have nondetection or an item equipped that grants the same effect. But honestly, I only worry about that if they say they study them for longer than two minutes. By that point I usually have the npc notice the copper coin in their hand along with their gaze and realize what they're doing. That's when nondetection takes effect
Detect thoughts only gives surface level thoughts, unless they probe deeper which prompts a save, alerts the other person their mind was read, and still only returns the most pressing thing on their mind and theor emotional state.
So unless they're being interrogated and asked the right questions, they might not give the party what they want to know.
Also someone intelligent and with good will power, who knows the party is trying to read their mind, can try to keep their mind on some other useless thought.
Still definitely a cool and powerful spell.
In our campaign I used it on one of our party members to find out that there was actually no thoughts there, instead I got an image of some snowy place.
He's a Draugr.
My party is pretty suspicious of each other I think.
That spell is powerful but it is highly dependent on how the DM interprets what “surface thoughts” means.
Detect thoughts can be great, but half of all the DMs will just decide that the really important surface thoughts aren't there. Or the NPC automatically knows you're reading minds. I've gone through it myself.
In my last campaign, one of my players used Dream over the course of months to induce paranoia in a powerful lord that a terrible demonic invasion was imminent and that the party were his only hope and the only people he could trust. As a DM it was pure joy to see it actually play out and shape the campaign in ways I'd never contemplated.
Such creativity is wonderful to behold - treasure those players. I've had a similarly hilarious moment in my Shadowrun campaign not too long ago. The party was tasked with taking out the supply of a certain drug sold in the city. So they got in touch with a number of people who they had keep watch for dealers. One such person happened to be a bouncer at an ...establishment in the local red-light district. Some stuff happened in the meantime and suddenly the bouncer called the party to inform them that they caught a dealer and locked him up. As it turned out when the party got there, the dealer was held in the basement of the establishment. And now here comes the fun part: Instead of just dragging the dealer to their employer (a local syndicate), they opted to ...ask some questions themselves - by way of utilizing the various "tools" available in the basement of that establishment. I'm sure you can imagine how that went even without me going onto graphic detail. Let's just say I wouldn't want to be in that dealer's place ever. Nope.
For Immovable Object, I believe they just forgot to include "object that isn't worn or carried by anyone", how they do it with most spells that affect objects, I don't think that freezing enemy clothing in place with no save is intended use. If I were a DM, I certainly would rule it that way, or at the very least require a check/attack to touch a moving enemy.
A spell attack would be fine like shocking grasp.
@@Taking20 Even then it's too powerful I believe. Shocking Grasp is mostly just damage. So is Heat Metal, one of the few spells that do something to the enemy with no save. A total enemy disabling (because how else would you call an enemy with clothes frozen in place if not totally disabled? They need to spend an action just to move.) for a 2nd lvl spell is too much, even if it's not 100% chance.
Oh, and it's *not a Concentration,* I noticed just noticed now. Yeah, absolutely no use on enemies. One thing - creative use of spells, another - breaking the game by the snap of the fingers.
Even if you can't cast it on a worn or carried object, which I'd even restrict myself to as a player, it's still plenty broken. I'd even call for a check to attach an immovable object to someone. Ex. putting an immovable sheet over an enemy would require a grapple check, wrapping an immovable strip of cloth around someone's wrist would require a slight of hand check.
Because once you take your hands off the object, what can they do? Even if it only takes one action away from the enemy in the worst case, like Otto's Irresistible Dance, immovable objects don't require spell slots or have a finite duration. In other words, it's extremely repeatable; in that worst case scenario, you have as many casts of Otto's Irresistible Dance as you have immovable objects, which only cost half as much as health potions.
@@Taking20 Or you just run it the way it's supposed to be run? There is not a single chance in the world that the spell is intended to be used on creatures to pin them down like you described.
Anton Grigoryev - Do you know if they spelled out the limits to the spell on Critical Role or did Matt Mercer specify additional limitations on the spell? If not, then it's "The spell's effects are as written". As written, the only limitation is the 10 pound limit. Now, it's your table, so you're allowed to modify the spell as you see fit. Just make sure to let your players know beforehand what changes you've made.
In the combat situation that Taking20 mentioned, I would rule that if the target is a hostile combatant, the touch must be an attack roll if the target is unaware of what the player is doing, and a contested Athletics/Acrobatics check if the target is aware. (You could also make the argument for a grapple check. Bit much if all that is needed is just to touch.)
I had a massive mystery, where I had talked to one of my players and they had agreed to be the murderer for the game. We had brainstormed and discussed everything making sure stuff like Speak with Dead wouldn't give away who did it.
The players exit the first murder scene, and one of the players just turns asks me to describe, scene. Then moves over to the creep growing along the wall, and casts 'Speak with plants'. The murderer had right next to the plant.
(Long story short I justified, that vines can't recognize people. However it did drop them a massive hint by telling them what direction the went after the murder took place)
I mean, it's a vine. A player's use of Speak With Plants on it doesn't change the perceptions it had available to it at the time. Vines don't have eyes, they can't see - any perception of their surroundings is going to be more similar to tremorsense than anything else. So I think you were right in that call - the plant can say it sensed two medium sized bipedal animals nearby, one fell down and stopped moving and the other ran to the north.
@@mattkuhn6634 The players thankfully were very understanding (in me having to take a moment to actually think about how I wanted to do this). We had a laugh about it and occasionally bring it up.
Thank you for being kind in your response! I was somewhat nervous about posting it in case people thought my ruling was stupid.
In all honesty, I think this is the only way one could’ve replied without spoiling it or disappointing the players (kudos!)
Honestly Gumshoe is really great for mysteries. Players will get certain clues by default. Then they can spend points from pools determined by their skills to get additional clues. I.E. all players may get the idea that the victim was attacked from behind, but the forensic expert spends points from their forensics skill pool to find out that a blunt weapon was used. Another player may spend points from the interrogation pool to discover a hole in an alibi etc....
@@malkavthemad4249 neat :)
I had a situation where some apprentice wizards had accidentally opened up some sort of fire plane portal that let an efreeti through. But instead of fighting it, one player polymorphed it into a goldfish, then I cast otiluke's resilient sphere and tossed it back through the portal and shut it down avoiding the boss fight entirely.
Funny enough, the best way to use Glibness is to pair it with your party cleric casting Zone of Truth overtly while your Bard uses Glibness covertly. Just so that everyone KNOWS there is a zone of truth and lending even more credence to the Glibness.
This is why I advocate for any charismatic character to have Subtle Spell metamagic. It's an always-pick for me as a sorcerer, and I've taken it on a bard through metamagic adept feat for hilarious shenanigans as well. S-tier metamagic for roleplay purposes.
Correction: Locate Object has a range of self, so distant spell doesn't apply.
No, the range is not for the object being tracked. The range is who or what the spell can be cast upon. You can only cast the spell upon yourself. Once the spell is cast, you can track an object that is within 1,000 feet of you. That part is spelled out in the spell's description.
EDIT: With that being said, all a party needs to do is slip an object the spellcaster's familiar with on the target and then have the spellcaster track that object. I'd rule coins to be to generic to be tracked individually, thus having various false pings on the spell. But a simple broach or other piece of jewelry would work wonders.
@@jackielinde7568 The Locate Object spell is not cast upon the object being sought after. It is cast on yourself. By casting the spell, you are imbibing yourself with the ability to sense an object with which you are familiar. The spell itself has no range and is ineligible for Distant Spell.
For another example: You can use Distant Spell on Fireball. It does not double the size encompassed by the blast, but instead doubles the range at which you can center the blast. The range of the fireball spell only applies to how far away you can place the center. The blast radius is an effect caused by the spell. Likewise, the distance at which you can detect the object in question is also an effect caused by the spell and not the range at which it is cast.
@@Schmeethe88 Technically Locate Object does have a Range. It has a Range of Self (check the Spell Description, it's there) as @Jim Wolford mentioned in the original post. Because you're casting it on yourself. So, yeah, ineligible for Distant Spell, as you mentioned.
Guys, you can twin spell it on a familiar and send them in the other direction.
@@michaelbohannon527 I'm not so sure about that. There are three problems that I see, but I'm not a walking D&D 5E Encyclopedia, so I could be wrong.
The first problem is, according the Spell Description, you can only ever have ONE Familiar in existence at any given time. Furthermore, if you try to cast a second familiar, it will replace your first familiar. So, unless I am mistaken, if you Twin Spell Familiar, you'll still only end up with one Familiar in the shape of the second being that you picked.
The second problem I see is that, again, according to the Familiar Spell Description, you can only cast Spells with a Range of Touch through your Familiar. As we established through the conversation above, Locate Object has a Range of Self, not Touch, therefore, I believe Locate Object would not be a Spell you could cast through your Familiar.
The third problem arises if, for the sake of argument, you are actually able to Twin Spell Find Familiar and actually able to cast Locate Object through said Familiars. That problem is the fact that it is not your Familiar that casts the Spell. It is YOU who casts the Spell. Locate Object is Concentration Spell. And last I checked, you can only Concentrate on one spell at any given time.
Now, as I said at the top of the comment, I could be wrong. And if I am, please correct me. I don't know everything and am always willing to learn more about D&D.
I picked a random mine map with green goo and machinery for a location that had very little to do with the adventure. It was just a side bit from a rumor. The whole party got super interested and I had to make up that they found a place where dwarves had once fashioned an apparatus to mass produce potions of animal friendship. Fun stuff ^_^
I was just explaining to my DM yesterday why Immovable Object cast at 6th level is absurdly broken. (Very flexible use: cast on a sheet, where you can move it normally, and it becomes a portable, permanent, moldable wall of force. Cover a door, give it to a fighter to grapple someone with and just leave them under it, make it into an immovable tent Leomund would approve of.)
I would argue that “immovable” doesn’t necessarily mean “indestructible.” Per the text of the spell, this sheet you’re using can hold a lot of weight, but that doesn’t mean it could stop an arrow, for example, or some other piercing weapon that could just go right through. Or maybe someone could burn it with a spell.
Combine Immovable Object with every adventurer's favorite object: 50 feet of Hemp Rope.
@@goldfencer I think burning or acid works better than cutting or piercing as you could argue that cutting/piercing need to move the fabric threads in order to penetrate it.
The Bard/Cleric in my group used Locate Object to hone in on the Sword of Zariel as we speed ran The Scab. My DM was like, "Okay we're skipping this, this, & this..., cool."
Yeah divination is not very useful in combat but is completely broken for a cool narration.
As i DM i would rule locate object more like a mysterius suggestion where to find the item.
We knew where the sword was, we just didn't know how to get to the location until completing another quest. Once we got to the Bleeding Citadel/The Scab, our DM couldn't really finesse much. So once the spell was cast, he was like "Here's the highest concentration of divine energy".
If the spell was used prior to us discovering all this knowledge and we were still looking for answers, he could've easily been a little more vague.
The closest my group has gotten to derailing my plans is starting the evil guys plan early. Like, they saw something, where noticed, and forced them to improvise. This is mainly because they haven't really tried to do anything, but still.
Mundane net/ rope trap + Immovable Object + Programmed Illusion
Set one of those mundane, early game traps (Snare won't work), make the net or rope an immovable object with a password, and have a programmed illusion whisper the password whenever someone comes within 120' while the trap isn't sprung. The net or rope is movable for a minute, during which time the enemy might spring it, and they only have the remaining time to get out before the object becomes immovable again. Tom and Jerry shenanigans just got an upgrade.
Enlarge/Reduce: I had a Gnome Wizard literally Reduce themselves, then used Mage Hand to carry them across (what I thought was) an impassable chasm.
Polymorph: When faced with a Medusa mini-boss, he was Polymorphed into a stink bug, carried by a familiar up as high as the spell could be maintained, then dropped the spell, dropping the creature to it's death. I had miniature metal coffins also made for this use such that the container could be dropped at sea. Imagine coming back to normal size while trapped in sealed iron box....then possibly drowning even IF you got out.
Magic Missile: Basically discounts Blur, Mirror Image, illusory creatures, traps based on reflections in mirrors and similar tricks of the eye. It hits a creature, and nothing else. If it fires, it hits. If it doesn't fire, it's fake.
Mold Earth: The cantrip that keeps on giving. Allows walls to be undermined, creates minor pits that can trip targets, blocks doorways with debris, upsets/imbalances siege engines, and more. And it's a Cantrip. So you can spam it. Spamming it twice with the same effect means you can create a 5'x5x10'deep pit...which a clever party will mask. Since it lasts for 1 hour, even a Minor Illusion can cover it.
Mage Hand has a 10 lbs limit. While Reduce reduces your weight to an eighth, that includes your armor, weapons, gold and equipment. So all of that plus your original body weight cannot exceed 80 lbs. This is a known exploit, and as a DM you need to decide whether or not to allow it.
@@DvirPick The character was already small for a Gnome, was a Wizard, and therefore no armor. I *did* rule, thank you. I allowed it. Keep in mind, that reduction to an eight INCLUDED your equipment, so everything you mentioned was also a fraction of the weight. I think my assessment was fair and true.
@@DvirPick it divides your weight by 8 I believe, so you just need to be less than 80 pounds when you begin.
My party was level 5, in a full 20 level campaign centered around a big bad who was supposedly leveling up with us over time. My DM decided to let us meet the big bad face to face early on in the campaign. His plan was to let us fight, but use Tree Stride to make his escape before we killed the boss. He then planned to never let us meet again until lvl 20. However, my Vengeance Paladin casted Locate Object on the big bad’s ring as soon as he teleported away. Since the range of teleportation was limited to 500ft, we were easily able to locate the almost dead boss. Of course we proceeded to swiftly decapitate the big bad and make our way to the nearest tavern for a celebratory drink. The utter shock on the DM’s face when I casted Locate Object was absolutely priceless.
Definitely sounds like a fun moment, and would have shocked me too if I had been the DM for that, though it would not have taken me long to put the pieces back together to keep my original idea going without taking anything away from the players' victory. Either someone restores the BBEG to life, and now they are more cautious (thus the reason you never see them again until level 20) or an underling or sibling or someone else close to the BBEG assumes their mantle and works behind the scenes, waiting for the right moment to exact their revenge upon the party. Regardless of how the villain returns later, the party is left with the impression that they are dead.
how did you cover the distance? in 3 rounds someone tree striding is out of range locate object leaving you with a general idea of the direction they were going and 1000+ feet of forest between you and them.
@@acember we simply walked. With the BBEG being on the brink of death, and under the assumption he had escaped successfully, it’s only realistic to find him laying in the dirt at the spot he teleported to. Don’t get me wrong, my DM totally had the chance to take that victory from us, but he’s a fantastic game master and all around a good human being. So he decided to reward our creativity instead of prioritizing his own plot line. I wouldn’t trade my DM for anybody. He truly makes D&D an incredible experience every single session. We’ve been playing this campaign now for 2.5 years and I have yet to feel any amount of dissatisfaction after a session.
Lesson Learned the hard way... NEVER let the PC's meet the BBEG before the Late Game. ALWAYS have it operate through Proxies. :-) :-P
@@austinheim if they think they're safe after just escaping 500 ft in a direction, then they clearly want meant to become the BBEG 😅
I was in a game where there was a murder mystery and I solved it immediately by using speak with dead, locate object, and Zone of Truth.
1. Awesome.
2. Boooooooooooo
Imagine all the work the DM put in just to have it get crushed immediately.
Murder mysteries are in general a bit of a mess in the face of divination magic.
Our party was escaping in a small boat while being chased by enemies in a same sized boat. I cast Control Water using the Part Water option, enemy boat fell in to the trench that was created, then I ended the spell and water filled in the area over the enemy boat.
So you went full Moses on them?
@@IceMetalPunk basically ya
Player: uses speedy courier to remove the macguffin
BBEG: instant summons the object back.
"I have more spell slots; do you have more sapphires?" 😂
Thanks for the videos! You're enthusiasm makes them fun to watch and I always get great player and DM ideas from you!
For Instant Summon, this could also be used to find out the true name of say a demon or devil, simply hand them the item and activate the spell. Anyone impersonating someone and you are suspicious (and you are rich), then bam, easy name drop. Expensive play but still cool
I don't get what u are saying... how's that gonna reveal their names?????????????
@@knurspgaming1681 That is what the spell does. If another creature is holding the item when you activate the spell (ie summon the item), then instead of summoning the item, you learn that creatures name and location. Sooooooo, give someone the item, activate the spell and you now know the name.
subtle spell + modify memory that's all you need
I had my party meet a faerie dragon locked in a cage… I had an entire session planned around them finding the key, freeing the dragon, etc… and as I’m describing the cage I hear my artificer say:
“Enlarge/reduce?”
So I adlibbed an entire session
Should've made that cage out of glass instead of bars 😁
If you want a little more speed, Phantom steed is also an option, because you can cast while riding, you can replace horses on the go and serve a party of 5 to 80 miles of travel, normal speed 8 hours of travel time, other than the normal 24 miles with walking, also 100 feet +dash or disengate for free in combat as long as you are not hit (which you won't if you stay out of range).
Lord knows how many times I've used Heat Metal to mess with my DM. I even use it to cook food or heat things up at camp at night so that a fire doesn't need to be lit and thus can't alert enemies to our location.
Campaign Killer:
For set-up, We started at level 3 and this took place at level 17. I was playing a Battlefield Control Wizard. I would also, let the DM know (99% of the time) when I was even thinking about doing something crazy, or taking certain spells (DM approval for spells like Simulacrum, etc).
Anyway, major baddie of the campaign was this Ancient Undead King guy. Lots of undead. LOTS of undead. Armies of them. Eventually, we annoyed the BBEG enough that he sent the entire army to our capital city. Thanks to scrying and other magical means, we knew roughly the where's and when's. So, I set up an Alarm spell at a very specific spot. In and of itself, completely harmless... except for the reason I set it there. That was my "Start Casting Right Now" Alarm...
So there I was... standing on the rampart walls. A city of archers (some real archers, mostly just towns people with bows) up there with me. And I'm just casting 1 spell. For 10 minutes. I had given instructions to not go out to attack.... stay inside the walls, etc. But only attack if they get close.... they never did. That 10 minute casting for 1 spell... DM had approved it levels ago... and I never used it. Until right now. The ground under the Undead Army erupted in lava. 1 square mile of lava spraying into the air. And thanks to a previous rules by Jeremy Crawford (not the 1st time we'd consult prior rulings to know if something worked or not), the End of the World BBEG Undead Army was... just gone. Destroyed in lava.
Mirage Arcane, with just a single casting, destroyed a major plot point/story arc that the DM set up for at least 7 levels.
Great vid. Just one note: Identify has been a spell for ages. It's in my AD&D Players Handbook from 1978, and my players have been using it since 1980.
I was hoping so much he'd mention my Dream video when he talked about Dream xD
I love that spell so much! There's so much you can do with it.
I recommend casting Darkness on a BBEG, rendering them at the same time a moving target and a blind target. Casting Darkness on people's hair, beard, eyelashes is perhaps my mage's greatest pleasure in life. The number of quests derailed by this spell has been astonishing.
keks in devils sight bbeg
Needs to be cast on an object that isn't being worn or carried though for that to work. Unless it's an item that YOU are holding.
I mean, find familiar has been used so many times for recon missions. I think the best use was we were trying to locate an object and steal it from the black market auctioneers who had it. We located it using locate object, but it was behind several large sections of guards, traps, etc. while also being underground. Thankfully, we were able to use find familiar to sneak past enough guards to get a good idea of the defenses of the auction house and formulate a plan to get around the DM's intended route.
This spell is OP, especially with a Pact of the Chain warlock with Voice of the Chain Master invocation; "You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar’s senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence."
@@Pacific-NW-Native it's just such a great spell overall. I absolutely love it, and I love seeing the ways my players use it
A low level group (3), An NPC that was supposed to be kidnapped. Bad guy caster lays down a a cloudkill spell to cut off the PCs. PC's don't want to enter it of course as it will probably kill them as they had already been fighting this guys goons and were fairly low HP. PC wizard Vortex Warps NPC hostageto them. Bad Guy and goons have no recourse at this point and have to flee. Turning my hostage scenario that spirals into the rest of the campaign into a hunt the bad guys scenario that my PC's may or may not do as it's far less pressing a matter now lol.
I'm now imagining casting Immovable Object on the BBEG's trousers.
I had to roleplay squirrels thanks to the druid, several times a couple campaigns ago.
Both my current campaigns has a druid. So far, they haven't used speak with animals... but I know it is coming. One of the groups has a mule and I'm sure they are going to talk to it soon.
If they ask the mule anything, he could always just answer, "What do I know? I'm half-assed." #BadumTss
I so hope we get a part 2 for this. These are priceless to my hijinks character. My DM surely thanks you.
I had a 2e game I was running and the PCs were travelling from one continent to another. I had looked up and modified a whole system for ship to ship battles since the NPC captain they were on the ship of had a ton of enemies (and the PCs were 100% aware of this). I had a whole encounter using those rules set up against a massive pirate galleon and once it was underway, on the second round of combat my wife looks at me and asks "What would happen if I cast Passwall on the enemy ship's hull?"
Needless to say, encounter over. All that work for that encounter for absolutely no reason lol.
In 2e it was a touch spell.
"You dive into the water and swim to the hull of the ship. You touch the hull and cast your spell. You are immediately sucked inside as water moves in to fill the void...
The entire ship's crew you saved will never forget your selfless actions. Roll up a new character.
@@AKJRees Nope. In 2e it has 30 yard range. Page 217 of the revised (black book) 2e PHB.
I still love the Taliesin Jaffe method of negating a sea battle. "I cast Control Water, create a 20 foot tidal wave, and slam it into the enemy ship causing it to capsize into the nearby jagged rocks." And the enemies, being standard pirates, didn't have a caster on board so they couldn't do anything. Matt was like, "Ok... well we're out of combat. What do you guys want to do?"
Funny thing is, I thought of using Dream as a way for the bad guy to talk/threaten the party, but using it to trick them sounds like a good idea, too. Thanks Cody!
Recently we've had a LOT of fun with Dispel Magic !! First it saved our butts in the Rezmir fight in Castle Sky Reach -- our bard dispelled her darkness Every Single Turn and forced her to use 2/3s of her legendary actions if she still wanted it up. Literally saved our fighters life.
However, the more CHEEKY use was the next day -- we rolled into a fight with the two wizards on the castle: Azbara Jos and Rath Modar. We'd tangled with Jos before and had a bit of a rapport (I also play a necromancer, we didn't know he was part of the cult at the time, he spoke up for us not getting IMMEDIATELY killed when we were captured...) and we thought we had a good chance of either taking him or convincing him that it wasn't worth it to fight -- but the boss was a problem since we had never seen or met him before.
However, we WERE told from some clever info gathering that he was currently in a simulacrum of sorts -- that he was not actually on the castle. SO instead of trying to fight him we decided to throw a little Dispel magic at the problem! Right out the gate if we had a surprise round, no one could counterspell with no reaction, and between our Bard with Lucky and a Warlock with said Bards Inspiration... we had decent odds even if it was said 7th level spell. And even then, we were completely prepped to spend several rounds trying to hit that coinflip.
HILARIOUSLY, apparently he WASN'T using the high level spell Simulacrum... he was using some unknown 3rd level divination spell and a Flesh Golem. So needless to say the first counterspell took him out without even the need for a roll -- the golem just slumped to the ground while we turned around and had a ... friendly talk with a very surprised Jos. Needless to say, he took the offered way out (literally Dimension Doored *OFF THE FLYING CASTLE* lmaooo) and when the Flesh Golem stood up... well we had a nice little platform to hit it at range from and it no longer had its scary spell casting abilites lol. Our DM literally let us skip ahead the few rounds it would have taken to burn it down with cantrips and arrows lol.
Having some magic sorcerer guards using distant spell detect object is some high level police work! Love that.
Favorited and saved this video. I love that all of the spells you cover aren't inherently super mega awesome ultimate abilities of dungeons and dragons but rather just normal spells with creative applications. I don't know how many times I myself and other players have completely passed over immovable object or The limited times I've prepared to locate object. This is clever
The group I was DMing for was being hunted by an Invisible Stalker (one of the players used a cursed magic whistle and summoned it). They were walking thru the woods while the stalker was following and waiting for them to rest at night. As a joke, the party had bought a bag of Infinite Manure (it was a prank on my end, they bought it from a mage shop but they rolled to see what item they got). I thought it was a funny item that they'd have no use for. Noooo. They built a 10ft wall around their campsite at night. Pretty much making it unable for the stalker to claim its prey successfully
…how was the wall not a pile? Manure doesn’t make great walls without a bunch of mechanical stabilizers (mixing it with straw) and a time consuming drying process. And then you have to stack all those bricks.
@@demonzabrak they spent about 3 hours in game time. They explained how they did it and I went with it. It wasn't a literal wall. Just a giant mound that circled the camp but a wall of manure is easier to explain
@@CWayneMartin sure, but a mound doesn’t stop things, it just makes it a bit easier to notice an invisible thing that moves over said mound. That’s neutral at best with 5e rules, right? Advantage on stealth, invisible, disadvantage on stealth, terrain, and that’s that. Advantage and disadvantage just cancel out regardless of how many of each you have.
It just seems like one of those plans that players think is good, but logic and the rules make it absurd. Strings with bells would have done the same things without sleeping surrounded by shit lol. Better sight lines too. Doesn’t give the attacker high ground. Really, just because it’s creative doesn’t make it good. It isn’t terrible either, just… silly. Absurd. Not something that most people would choose if they had to actually do the work and smell the smells.
"I thought it was a funny item that they'd have no use for. Noooo." Matt Mercer thought the same thing about the Dust of Deliciousness... he, like you, will never make that mistake again 😂
I recently used Sequester as a DM. The villain (a 13th level spellcaster) had both contingency and sequester, and as soon as she dropped below 50 HP, she just disappeared, with no indication of where she'd gone.
Just hope none of the players have the See invisible spell
@@codebracker They haven't used it yet, but if someone tries it, and it works, then good for them, they'll manage to kill her!
Very cool use of the spells, although if you have any rules lawyers in your party you should be careful about how you reveal how it worked. Since Contingency can only store spells of 5th level or lower, maybe drop them a homebrew spell scroll of the villain’s creation for her Improved Contingency/Greater Contingency/Contingency Part 2/whatever
@@poe_slaw I mean generally the enemies don't have to follow the same rules as the PCs. That's why they have per-encounter spells instead of spellslots
Wow, that's an interesting idea! Imagine if a lich was getting attacked and had sequester cast on him, to end early "when my enemies are gone" or similar words. The party could then fight through a lich's lair, now filled with mind flayers or something. They kill the mind flayers and that ends sequester on the lich. The party have now released the bbeg for the campaign.
In the campaign I run, the spells that have been the most devastating have been Counterspell (with Subtle spell), Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, and Scorching Ray + Hex
I have a funny story about remove curse. They found a kitsune child that was cursed to kill she touched and the cleric was excited that he could cast remove curse. I’m thinking “oh no this will be too easy” while he double checks that he has everything to cure the curse and then he just is like “oh hey guys. Remove curse, range: touch.”
"Don't worry, you will be cured! I mean, *I* will be dead, but you will be cured! Someone get a resurrection spell ready, please..."
PCs Attacked by a group of greater invisible Owlin assassins flying at 200 feet. My wizard got within range and used hypnotic pattern. All of them failed the save, became incapacitated, therefore unable to fly, fell 200 feet to their deaths.
About to DM my first campaign and I'm honestly looking forward to something like this!
I was subscribed to your channel a few years ago and am re subscribing because you have gotten really good at this. Good work
Well it wasn’t a throw of plans but I do wanna share some fun uses I had with a spell I think it was wavering winds or something? Basically you know when aang goes into the avatar state and there’s the orb of wind around him, yeah the spell does that. It had 2 big uses. 1 was in a carriage where it got hit with flaming arrows, I used the spell and it stopped the fire from spreading aswell as it was big enough to just barely protect the whole carriage. It gave our party just the edge we needed to not be on the losing side. And in a second instance was when a Molotov or fireball landed in a hotel room and lit it ablaze I was able to go in there and activating the spell extinguish all of the fire that was in the room, May have been some tiny help from another player in that scenario but it was a while ago and I mainly just remember being proud of myself for having the spell to win over the scenario, plus I fight happened immediately after so I’m sorry I’m fuzzy on the details
Between “Modify Memory” and “Detect Thoughts” there are a LOT of shenanigans to commit.
I'm currently playing a Graviturgy Wizard in a campaign and I did Immovable Object on a boss character in a dungeon my DM set up. We found out after that the boss was supposed to be able to travel between shadows and would throw daggers as they teleported around the room. I locked the boss under the chandelier in the room by casting this on the shirt under their chainmail, after the bard did a wombo-combo to temporarily incapacitate them.
Two monks in the party. So many stunning strikes make most boss encounters trivial after a couple rounds
6:00 Except that's dunamancy available only to two subclasses of wizards and those are usually seen as the most broken subclasses in the game.
Once I revealed that an ex-patron of a party member that was hiring us to escort him to Yartar was a Zentharim by spontaneously using zone of truth, which got him kicked out of the city, and since he was the one who provided food to the rest of the organization for a low price, kind of starved the Zentharim a bit, and got my group of The Munchies of the Zentharim lol
I think that by RAW Glibness doesn't actually work vs Zone of Truth considering the wording of both spells (Glibness doesn't let people find out if you are lying, Zone of Truth just doesn't let you lie). That being said, I'd 100% overrule it and have the 8th level spell that has a very specific purpose do the thing it's supposed to do.
By RAW Glibness states "...magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates that you are being truthful." It specifically bypasses Zone of Truth.
@@theochatzimaris2514 Exactly. The zone of truth spell itself is even convinced you're telling the truth, and therefore cannot prevent you from saying it.
Ivan is actually correct on both counts. It seems that Glibness is meant to overrule Zone of Truth (as well as spells or effects like Discern Lies) but it is poorly written if it is actually intended to do so. It has to do with order of operations and basic logic: ZoT is cast; then, under those conditions, a statement can be spoken IF AND ONLY IF it is not a deliberate lie. Glibness, as written, does not prevent ZoT from preventing a deliberate lie from being spoken. As an example in which Glibness works as written, a lie could be spoken (outside a ZoT) but Glibness would ensure that Discern Lies would, AFTER the statement is made, determine and then indicate truthfulness.
The specific wording in Zone of Truth says that "a creature can’t speak a deliberate lie." That is absolute; and, read as written, they literally cannot even speak a deliberate lie, even one that would later be determined and then indicated as truth by using Glibness under other circumstances. Glibness says "no matter what you say," which does NOT mean "you can say anything you want whether a deliberate lie or not, under any circumstances." You cannot say a deliberate lie if you cannot say a deliberate lie, even if later, by some other means, it would be determined as truthful.
Anyway, Glibness and/or Zone of Truth need to be rewritten to be used RAW, as implied in this vid. Also, a trickier and cooler work around could be to make it so someone lies without doing so deliberately.
@@jc6226 I mean, it could be argued that in order for Zone of Truth to prevent you from speaking a lie, it must first magically determine if what you're about to say is a lie. In which case, Glibness would cause Zone of Truth to determine that everything you say is true, and you'd be able to say it.
@@IceMetalPunk Glibness says "no matter what you say" not "no matter what you might say/think." As written, it has to be spoken before Glibness takes effect, which is why it works for Discern Lies but not ZoT.
im allways proud when my players outsmart me. last week the just tore appart an ecounter and thwarted both my contingencies, turning a most likely very deadly encounter into a pushover.
it was very frustrating on one hand but also amazing to watch :D
During the end of the first story of our campaign, our poor DM had built up an underwater fight with a powerful Saugwen mage wielding a scepter. Being mere lvl 2s, he was floored when his BBEG saugwen ended up getting one shot by ‘destroy water’ making a vacuum deep underwater. One numbers crunch later and he realized the saugwen just got hit with the equivalent force of a falling house.
Leomund's Tiny Hut. The party can take a long rest without the fear of getting attacked.
Side note for Immovable Object, if the cave, building or something is falling down on your party.
You can just take out that loose fabric thin long wide custom stitched blanket unfurl it, wave it around like your looking for your keys tangled in the blankey and cast Immovable Object, Bam instant room that can handle the weight
I had a high level wizard/artificer who used immovable object cast at 6th level pretty much every night before resting to create a whole arsenal of immovable objects that he used in creatine ways.
Immovable blanket can be instant shelter, a comfy hammocklike bed... An inescapable net.
Immovable rope was really useful, zigzagging it across a door we need to secure, tying people up, anchoring a climbing line, 'sculpting' it into different shapes to act as a structural support or similar.
Everyone got an immovable coin purse to prevent pickpocketing since only the owner can move it.
Immovable shoes/armor can make it incredibly hard to push someone back or knock them down.
Immovable arrows... The archer can move them, but once they stop moving (say, inside your chest) they stop.
It kind of became his thing. When he eventually made boots of flying we explained it as an offshoot of his immovable object technique letting him walk on air (read as fly equal to his walking speed) by subcutaneously switching the immobility effect on and off.
Even ended up working with the DM to come up with a magic item he invented that was essentially a set of 7 hexagonal tiles that slid against each other and locked together on the edges in any configuration you want so long as at least one edge is in contact with another and it could become immovable. So on a basic level it's a shield that negates pushback, but it can become a short staircase, a platform, a barrier, etc.
It was super fun and by the time he got 6th level spell slots it was already late in the game so it wasn't really a balance issue. Just lead to a lot of creative workarounds on both sides of the table.
Also the party druid and paladin used to bond nightly by having the druid use dream to let the paladin torment a certain, mid level boss that escaped them... Every. Single. Night. Even when he made his save he still had to remember the feeling of being hunted, graphic imagery about how they'll extract justice, etc so even when we 'failed' or was still disturbing. By the time they ended up tracking him down he surrendered on the condition that we just let him rest.
As a GM, I'm sending you this special heart felt thank you. I'm not at all thinking that the than should be replaced with a fuc.
Just a heads up, you cant distance locate object because its a range of self.
as for spells/combos, my plays have killed multiple drangon level enemies by casting sickening radiance on them then casting wall of force, you either need a teleport disintegrate or dispell, or you will die from exhaustion.
Yeah the rule lawyer in me came to say this. Can't distance a Self targeted spell was a big thing with the changes to booming blade.
@@HelicopterShark fun fact, you can distance dimension door since it has a range of 500.
@@Angryorc97 indeed
what about planar binding?
nothing derails a campaign like turning the CR 15+ monster the BBEG just summoned into a companion while the rest of the party are restraining it
The giant guarding the beautiful giant diamond racked his face with pain as he was forced to hand it over simply because the cleric told him to.
Command is such horse#&*^
I had a wizard cast Legend Lore on a pretty powerful artifact that the villian wanted. I didn't even know that spell existed. Later on in the same campaign I had another wizard use Creation to make a Ouija board to talk to the dead gods in the Astral Planes as well as to get around no one having Speak with Dead.
I have used Locate Object just like that. We were fighting the BBEG (who we later found out was actually the secretary of the BBEG), we knocked her out in the first round of combat, but then a bodyguard teleported her away to safety. I used Locate Object on the pretty jewelry she was wearing, and found that the warehouse we were in was connected to this vast underground network that the criminal organisation was working in.
Alternatively, we had a new party member (previous character died) who didn't yet have a spellcasting focus, so was looking for some specific materials. I Locate Object and suddenly no need for him to pass some Investigation check to find the material.
Imovable object has become one of my favorite spells. Playing a chronomancer when a bardbarian begins running toward me screaming. Used my momentary stasis ability to freeze him until the end of my next turn. Took a caltrop, placed it in the middle of his screaming mouth and cast immovable object on it. Returned to the last place he saw me with folded arms and a huge grin... Hilarity insued and my DM banged his head on the table. Then we had to go into the who "What does and does not constitute an evil act.." conversation.... again.
Our Oath of Ancients Paladin was trying to restore the heirloom of a Knight's house to his supposed son, but the heirloom was burried somewhere on the property, now controlled by the greedy town mayor who had denied any claims of legitimacy of the Knight's son's inheritance. So he went around to all of the dogs in the town using "Speak with Animals" telling them that they would all need to come to the Mayor's estate and their reward would be bones. He then went to the carrion and birds and asked them to bring bones to him in exchange for seeds and pumpkins (the town was celebrating the equivalent of Octoberfest or the end of the harvest season), which he bought at a cheap rate from some farmers.
The evening the Mayor would be visiting the festival (including us the rest of the party), the Paladin went with all the dogs ( about a hundred) and dug up the entire yard of the estate, finding many items, but most importantly the heirloom. All that could be determined was that all the dogs in the town decided to ruin one guys yard, and the Knight's son got the heirloom back, and our Paladin got an inspiration point from the DM.
My paladin once used Locate Object to find a unique ring implementing the holder in treachery before eventually casting Zone of Truth to prevent said individual from lying about it.
Immovable Object makes narrow ravines that require a check to jump across a lot easier to cross. Put a branch, board, or anything else across it (or even set up as a stepping stone in the middle), cast Immovable Object, then waltz across.
I sometimes leave out things from identify, sorta how curses usually aren't picked up by it most of the time
like Identify will show something as a Lantern of Dragon Tracking but it will leave out the fact that it doesn't track the holder if they are a dragon (something I did recently :P)
Okay, I didn't do this, wasn't even in the campaign that this happened in, but some friends of mine told about the time one of them ruined the DM's boss fight with Wall of Force. Basically they had to reach a lever or switch to shut off some artifact, and a powerful golem was blocking the way. The Wizard got first turn in initiative, and immediately trapped the golem in a cube of force. The golem had no way to break it or escape, so the fight was over pretty much instantly.
Another possible interesting use for Dream is to do that with a beholder and inspire it to involuntarily create anything you want; Beholders tend not to have any conscious control of it, but whatever they dream about with enough intensity tends to bleed over into reality, reshaping it to some degree.
Shape Water flair for Water Genasi. For roleplay purposes my DM allowed me to "use" it as a visual shield when I succeeded on a save. I was also basically a mobile bath house for my party, so we didn't smell that much. And my favourite flair - making enemy veins pop in their eyes, so now they need to walk around with pink eye.
I absolutely love utility spells, and in fact almost always have prestidigitation ready among them. My current character I'm working on also has control flames and shape water for starting cantrips. There is so much you can do just with those 3 cantrips.
Playing an Arcane Trickster Rogue, my character used Mage Hand Legerdemain to pickpocket a magical key from a villain, and subsequently used Wristpocket (Chronurgy spell) to make it disappear from the timeline till we could get away. The villain didn't even realize my character took it and left, thinking he stole it.
Another note for glibness is it turns bards into the best dispeller since the check to dispel for bards are charisma ability checks. So a 3rd level spell slot that is guaranteed to dispel even 9th level spells
I call shenanigans! Shenanigans! I love all the videos you do of this type!
Another fun use of Galder's Speedy Courier if to fill the box with stink bombs (emphasis on 'bomb') and send it to the big bad at a random time every day.
I’m suddenly imagining a high level wizard with a bundle of sticks making immovable prisons all over the place
As a bard, minor illusion and programmed illusion are crazy good RP tools. Absolute must haves for any bard worth their salt IMO.
Minor illusion is super fun to sprinkle in during npc interactions, monologues and storytelling for dramatic effect... but what it does for musical performances can not be understated. It's a "looper" to instantly give any bard the ability to make the single instrument they are playing seem like an entire band.
The coup de grâce is what a clever bard can do with programmed illusion. Those illusions are permanent (unless some A-hole dispels them) and can be placed on the bard's instrument with the trigger set as the opening notes of a song. So, over time a bard can load up their entire song catalogue as programmed illusions. They would then be able to bust out live music video style productions (backing band, dance choreography, lighting effects, etc etc etc) on command with the ONLY limit being a 30' cube area, a 5 minute max duration per song and the creativity of the player.
If this does not "break" the game socially and make your bard a crazy well known celebrity VERY fast, your DM does not do role playing worth a damn. Being a top tier celebrity opens doors like nothing else, and engaging "easy mode" for everything outside of combat will certainly make it more challenging for your DM to come up with engaging scenarios.
Silvery Barbs 100% deserves to be number one on this list. Your save or suck spells are so much better and gives an ally or yourself advantage on the next d20 roll. This is a REACTION spell, and remember, “Action economy is KING in 5e.”
Another spell that deserves to be here is Dominate Person if your BBEG or target is a humanoid. This can end a fight easily or control the king in your DM’s world to do whatever you want, and works with Silvery Barbs amazingly.
Great video overall and very accurate. Keep up the great work and I enjoy watching your videos.
Woo! New video!
Early on in my DM's campaign, they decided to have my character be poisoned by a drink at a party my character attended. But the DM didn't know that as a Cleric I had something that would take care of just that. First I had to ask the DM if I indeed had the Poisoned condition, to which they said I did. Then, I said confidently, "No, I don't think so. I cast Lesser Restoration!" The DM tried saying that this poison was different than your regular run of the mill poisons, but my entire party OOC backed me up on what I did. The DM had a whole plotline setup for the poison and I threw it all away. Felt good and bad at the same time tbh
Funny thing is that a Level 17 Mastermind Rogue has the second effect of Glibness on *at all times* .And something like an Identify spell to determine that they’re trying to cheat a Zone of Truth wouldn’t apply to them at all. They can even cheat mind-reading and it’s amazing. Big part of why I love that subclass in particular.
The grease spell plus 40 chickens and one invisible rogue equals one hilarious snatch and grab.
Players did this to me in our Livestream campaign recently(no plug here, not posted on anything that connects to this account that I know of) they walked up the side of the bosses tower and used a strixhaven spell to teleport him outside. Had to do some quick thinking for the fight to not just be over
Oneshot meant to take place adjacent to our campaign, small party was tasked to deliver a locked box from one city to another. My bard used Knock to open it and check out what was inside. It was some kind of interdimensional bomb meant to unleash demons in the city. We destroyed it before it could do so and ruined that city being destroyed.
Watching this to anticipate my players using these spells. Then figuring out how to reward them for it.
My DM is the opposite: making sh*t up to foil his smarter-than-him players.
Had my party use locate object on a cursed dagger I had been using (as another player). As the group rogue I was desperately trying to hide in our castle and an epic game of hide and seek ensued, we've me desperately trying to climb into a bag of holding to escape. Great use of the spell by our Paladin.
A problem I've found with glibness is that while it might allow one to lie in a zone of truth, anyone casting zone of truth on a target may use detect magic to see if there is anything going on with the person who can cast up to 8th level magic. To which they'd then see an aura of transmutation. I'd say a court mage could easily request that they cast identify on the person to see what spells are in effect.
Just cast Nystul's magic aura on yourself
@@codebracker true true
The imfamous 'abandon quest because we can't be asked' spell has derailed my campaign several times.
I'm running a Wild West style game. The first session started with the players on a train that gets attacked by bandits. Two of the bandit leaders were on top of the train. My wife (a wildfire druid) went to the top and asked what the roof was made of and I told her it was metal. She then cast Heat Metal on the whole roof, causing the bandit leaders damage and giving them disadvantage on attack rolls every round while getting shot at and trying to find a way into the train.
I won't go into details (due to Spoilers within Curse of Strahd) but my players had arrived at the Ruins of Berez...with one of the big encounters upcoming.
I had bought specialized minis. Bought terrain. Bought everything needed to make this encounter memorable (also changed the skull to Argynvost's skull for added oomph, with accompanying mini).
Party skulks up. They find the Hut. "She" isn't there. She's been watching them. The fairy Warlock rolls over a 30 on Perception.
Telepathically starts talking to her.
This is a new player. This player is always nervous when RP'ing and has yet to feel confident doing so even with the 20 Charisma to back them up.
Proceeds to dialogue with "her" and, over the conversation...moves me (mentally tracking this NPC's opinion) from:
Never going to convince her, to
Okay, disadvantage, to
Huh...straight Persuasion, to
Advantage, to
Wow...nope, you don't need to roll. You convinced her.
I have never been prouder of wasting $200 on minis and terrain in my life. I was so proud of this player, I darn-near shed a tear even now, just thinking of it.
Spirit Shroud can be a really tricky one sometimes too. I had a friend DM'ing for a different group who told me he hadn't prepared for it, and it led to a player wrecking the encounter, because he was counting on the boss being able to heal itself.