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Nerdarchy What about Witch Bolt?It's a 1d12 lightning damage, and if you hit your enemy,you can keep concentrating and use it again.Since you're concentrating,you can keep rolling a d12,and it won't miss.But,you can't use any other spell when you're concentrating.
+WildcardWhirlm_ I type this spread objective information regarding Witchbolt and why it is one of the worst uses of a spell slot in the game. -If you miss the spell doesn't activate at all. -The lightning arc is visual so the target knows what and who is hurting them. -If the target or you get total cover the spell ends instantly. -If the target or you move beyond 30ft the spell ends instantly. -If you fail a concentration check, the spell fails instantly. -On top of that you cannot cast any other spells -Maintain existing concentration on other spells -Take actions (attack, dash, disengage, dodge) Hex is a FAR better spell to have known even at earlier levels. -Lasts for an hour minimum (8 hours at level 5 and 24 levels at level 9) -New target can be designated once the original target is dead -Grants disadvantage on ability checks of your choice on the target, great for making allies MUCH more likely to succeed at grappling, disarming, shoving and such. -1d6 per attack against the target, so it scales well as spells get more attacks (this includes eldritch blast, magic missile, scorching ray.) -Doesn't have the range issue meaning concentration checks are less likely to matter. -You can still cast non concentration spells, make attacks, dodge, take cover after attacking to break LoS, change targets and do any other non concentration impeding task. So yes, even at low levels. Witchbolt is a terrible spell that would require a GM be VERY lenient in how they played the enemies to have it being any real level of effectiveness.
I'll nominate Misty Step: 2nd level, bonus action, verbal only, instant teleport 30 ft range, and you still have movement and action(casting limited to Cantrips) left. As a DM, none of my jail cells have windows....anymore...
stopped a rogue from escaping with it. he moved down 35 feets, dashed up to 70. cunning action dashed out of there for a whooping 105 ft thiking im definitely out of range. monster ran to him 40ft, dashed 40ft. misty stepped 30 thats 110ft which puts him directly in front of him. The rogue was stumped and everyone was laughing at his hit and run strategy finally not working. also, the DM has a problem if in big metropols he let his prisons not have anti-magic properties. i mean in metropolis magic probably is a common thing. as a DM i preffer to let my player think they are fine because magic then when the druid try to wildshape his way out and i say, 5 seconds later, nothing happens. and they are like WHAAAAA. thats priceless. forces them to consider other things like the rogue for instance who i consider always have his thieves tools on his person even if he is naked. you know forcing them to understand non magical classes are important too.
@James Boll Exactly! As soon as a DM starts doing stuff like that I start looking out for more signs of a bad DM. Taking away windows, making magic not work (except in certain circumstances) and things like that are examples of DMs breaking the world and the character's abilities because they can't figure out a smarter way to do it.
so why isn't your world wizards only reigning people ? because seriously... i dont see fighters in a world where magic does it all and cannot be stopped in way or another. to me its unrealistick to have magic be a thing in a world and yet nbobody knows how to counter it. to me its that simple... in high end society magic is a thing and they know it. so why would they ever let the wizard in a jail cell without having his hands tied, his feets tied, his mouth gagged and without any component on his person ? seriously in a world where magic is porminent there is no reason for people not to know how to counter it. the same way we adapt to things and just counter them. you say its bad DM to remove window... but i guarantee you that in a world where windows were that easy. even our own jail cells by today wouldn'T have any. and guess what... todays jail cells dont have any windows to begin with. its called learning from mistakes. if wizards and sorcerer they arrest keep getting out of their cells by the windows... why would those guards keep the windows ? from my point of view, by keeping the players easy escapes, you are the bad DM because you keep giving players an easy time.
WARNING: Do not attempt to cast burning hands as Dave and Ted demonstrate it. You will injure yourself and possibly disintegrate. Refer to the spell description: "...hold your hands with thumbs touching and fingers spread..." and "outstretched fingers." Please cast responsibly.
I recently read Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and the authors paid enough attention to the D&D rules that I knew Raistlin was about to cast Burning Hands because he did that exact gesture. I hope some of the later books give that much attention to detail.
NightBringer Tenchy I have found Tasha's Hideous Laughter is favored more by classes like the bard which don't have as much blasting potential so they look for alternative ways of subduing monsters and find the wealth of spells like Laughter
Had fun with it.. until the laughter ended the next round. you a need a really high score to do that well and that includes the ability of the monster not to resist it. the spell is awesome at low levels, at high levels, its really not. because legendary resistances or very high stats from monsters. if i follow people discussions everywhere who say you can be thinking outside the box. Charm Person is the only spell you really need considering apparently it makes CR5 creatures fight for you wherever you go.
Tashas hideous laughter is still really good at high level. because you really don't want to waste a high level spell on forcing a legendary monster to use its legendary resistance. IF (and sometimes that a big if, sure, but your DC is the same regardless of the level of the spell you're casting) it fails the roll, it has to use resistance or be incapacitated. its a GREAT low level spell at high levels. sometimes.
one of my players is relatively new, and throws out all kinds of rarely-used spells as a cleric. in particular, he's used calm emotions very effectively to shut down battle.
Ironically, one of the best things at higher levels is silent image. Now of course you might be thinking "Why use that when you can have better illusions?" That is because you can get spell mastery of 1st levels spells... and as an illusionist wizard you can make one inanimate object real for 1 minute every time you cast an illusion spell of 1st level or higher. Granted, you "only" have a 15 foot cube... but that's enough to surround someone with a box of adamantine, or create a wall to hide behind, or well... any number of things, for no expended resources.
Kind of outclassed, though. You can easily just have a much better thing going by upcasting a Major Illusion at level 6. It becomes permanent until dispelled; and you already have Malleable Illusions, so it doesn't matter what form it takes. You could make it a little mole on your arm, carry it around with you, and then bring it out as an action into a wall, which you make solid with a bonus action. You can even be funny, and make it look like a Wall of Force so that an enemy caster will be trying to Disintegrate it, to no avail. The best use I've seen is a bridge, that the party crosses, but then you drop the solidity and the enemies fall through it behind you. And yes, it is an expended resource... but a permanent one, and easy enough to do while traveling if you wait until just before a long rest. The best thing yet? Also no concentration... so you can have *more then one*.
Also, Silent image is silent and so if made real should make no sound at all, allowing you to sneak by making silent image shoes real. This (probably) won't require a check if it literally can't make sound.
Fireball does like 60% more damage than a 3rd level Burning Hands and has a better range. However, that doesn't make burning hands useless, it still: - Can be aimed better in tight areas without damaging party members or squishy NPC's. - Doesn't have the habit of actually *exploding* and bringing the ceiling down on the party or worse... *the loot.* - Doesn't require a material component, which means you can use it without your focus/pouch in a pinch.
Burning hands would be good for casters who get into melee-range alot, I would think. Same with thunderwave. I'm surprised they'd think it's underrated.
I have an eldritch night who is a fire genasi and oh my god it so good for me because I get it for free and I waltz in and kill all of the tiny weak minions.
as well, area of effect. Fireball catches your allies in that blast. 5e got a comp out with being able to take your allies out of the spell effect, that's why 3.5 had better rules. You want the big bang, you're all at risk. Plus makes the more focused spells useful
Eric B I know this is 2 months old now, but my impression with 3.5 is simply that there are far too many rules. For better or not there is a rule telling you how to play every aspect of the game in detail. Honestly, after 2 months of playing, it has begun to stagnate for everyone and we are seriously considering just going back to 5e.
Thaumaturgy, only because it was used so excellently a few weeks ago in my game. The party was caught in a hairy situation with a group of orcs (combat was imminent as a few bad checks had already been rolled). Our cleric then decides to cast Thaumaturgy on the chief and attempts to convince him that he is going insane by making voices speak inside his head. A Persuasion check followed by an Intimidation check (both with advantage) later and the chief was on the ground freaking out, while the rest of the orcs stood in shock.
That sounds like a cool event but unfortunately it doesn't have really anything to do with the spell. It is all DM fiat really. Casting a spell and performing 2 skill checks takes 2-3 rounds (what was everybody else doing while the cleric was casting spells and staring at the chief?). The advantage on the skills checks is a fiat gift from the DM for doing something they though was cool, and you can't really stick the effect bound to a person it targets a location in space (people tend to move their head to see where the voices are coming from which will break the effect). The DM was kind in giving the effect of a second level+ spell for the casting of a cantrip. It would have been very cool the first time but will wear very thin as the player makes repeated use of the effect economy it provides (considering it has no save). The DM has built a rod for their own back with their soon-to-be-one-off ruling.
You could also start an avalanche. Imagine yodeling on a mountaintop at triple the normal sound level. This could be used to cut off travel routes, cave in underground areas, or maybe even smother that one orc fortress built a bit too close to the mountainside.
Uncle Peter Ik this is an old comment, but a player of mine (a tiefling) used thaum to amplify her scream against a huge group of homonuculi, deafining and frightening them to avoid getting slowly ripped to shreads. Great idea in my book so she got away with it.
Oh I do this with my Cleric in out d the Abyss. I got the kua'toans worshipping "Gross" because I made a religious idol of theirs say "gross" as they spit and puked on it. Priestess of Sune ain't got time for that
A sorcerer player of mine has come up with some fantastic uses for Animate Objects. He carries around several lengths of rope specifically so that he can turn any forest canopy or rafters into a stealthy living gallows. He is really, really inventive with that spell.
All I can hear in my head now is the narration, after carefully picking your way through the agromancer's abode, in Jack Patillo's voice: "Haha; get forked!"
Playing as a wizard in a spell caster heavy group. We just hit fifth level a couple of weeks ago, so as I'm going through the list of spells to add I decided to get Water Breathing. I figured, its a ritual spell that lasts 24 hours and can target 10 willing people. Assuming you have any kind of threat of drowning coming up, spending the time to cast a ritual spell every morning on your party to prevent that drowning would be very beneficial.
Agreed on sleet storm. I used it semi-recently to defend the party who had just stolen a very large ship from the folks who wanted it back. We were pursued by archers in canoes launching flaming arrows. Sleet storm douses exposed flames too.
Don't forget about Sleep too. You're either immune to it or you're in trouble. There is no save, so creatures that can be whittled down to 20-35 hp in a fight can be put down with this spell. It's also tops vs. stirges and other little pains in the neck.
Man the last time I used sleep i rolled like a 6 or something put one creature to sleep that his buddies immediately woke up. Wasted turn, wasted spell slot never used it again.
Acid Splash - It's one of those Cantrips that no one takes because it only has d6 damage but it gives your character an unlimited supply of acid that you can use for all sorts of cool stuff like destroying locks, melting metal bars, etc. Acid Splash has a lot of utility outside of combat that makes it worth picking as a secondary damaging Cantrip.
Even though the book specifies that acid splash targets 'creatures,' saying it can't target anything else is ridiculous. The DM could possibly rule that the acid isn't strong enough to eat through metal very well, but common sense tells me a caster should be able to splash acid on anything.
C Seider It's ridiculous to interpret the description in the handbook to mean you can target only creatures with the spell. 'Acid splash' creates a bubble of acid. You should logically be able to target anything with it. The DM interprets the rules for his campaign. The DM could rule that the acid disappears if the caster targets anything but a creature, or something like that. But it seems more reasonable to just let players throw the acid at anything.
What does everyone think about spike growth? Amazing spell imo. Second level, makes the area difficult terrain, and for every 5 feet they move they take 2d4 piercing damage. It's 150 foot range and covers a 20 foot radius. It doesn't knock anyone prone which is good if you have casters or archers (prone causes ranged attacks to roll with disadvantage). The only save is to see if you notice it's there if you end up walking INTO the area.
This is a personal opinion but in my experience my favorite 1st level spell that everyone looks at me weird for is the wizard "Find Familiar", which in this instance is my gnome wizard necromancer, the familiar is only slightly alluring for the 100ft shocking grasp, but the commonly overlooked (or i may have just somehow convinced my gm with my inexperience of playing D&D) providing the help action on its own turn.
Thanks for the post, Nerdarchy. Good points on Sleet Storm, but remember that's a heavily obscured area. So no ranging into an area which has targets that you can not see. Or at least disadvantage on all attacks sent into it. Under-rated spells? Consider the spell Heat Metal. As written, it is very, very powerful. It should probably be house-ruled so that the bonus action used in later rounds to reactivate the damage and effect (like on metal armor) can only happen if the original casting conditions (range, etc) are met. That spell will still be useful into the upper levels. Imagine a bard casting Heat Metal as a 6th level spell on something like a Death Knight: lots of damage, also inflicting disadvantage on that enemy's attacks, and NO SAVE. They would basically have to use Dispel Magic on the bard's Heat Metal, or try to catch him if that slippery bard can be caught and have his concentration broken.
You cannot see a target who is 5 feet into a heavily obscured area, so you can't target them. With that degree of clouds and downpour, taking any sort of calculated shot in is going to be tricky. Two seconds after it starts you have no clue anymore where anyone is/was. As a DM I'd hide the models of all creatures in the zone and make you guess what square to shoot at. Then if there's is someone there, you get disadvantage on the roll. You roll either way, and I never tell you if you hit something or not, because how would you know? Despite this, Sleet Storm is still amazing, able to lock out the enemy ranged and spellcasting support entirely while you kill their melee.
Yeah 5e has plenty of healing options, apart from someone back up throwing tiny healing here and there is usually not worth it as the BBG will just do more damage then was healed anyway.
+rr ww Probs reverse those. A pound of prevention rather then an ounce of cure. Tempest Clerics can bring some of the best hurt in the entire game if played correctly.
I'd say illusions as a whole are really under utilized. Simple stuff like even minor illusion lasts for a minute (and NOT concentration), and even though it can't change a loud shriek is very distracting, or a bright light, or even just an image of the wall in front of your group, or an image over the door to make it look like a wall, some weird writing tons of uses. The simple illusions that people don't bother to question can have a lot of power.
Tad Meissner the problem and advantage of minor image is it affects up to a 5ft cube. so nothing can be taller than 5ft. However, my forest gnome is well under 5ft. And my dm well knows it lol. She is pretty much a ranged rogue, honestly nothing short of anti magic zones have been able to counter 'I hide inside an illusory rock'
I love illusion spells, but i have a hard time to make it work correctly. As a DM im not sure how to react to a Wizard casting illusion in battle. Do i automaticlly make all the enemies in the room target it, do i roll some sort of check on it everytime. It's hard stuff :O
ArngrimTV yeah that makes it tricky! I usually go off how believable it is. If something just poofs into existence that's an illusion not a phantasm (in their mind) then I'd say that's not very believable. It depends on what it is though and how clever the players are.
5e's rule on illusions is that the observer acts normally and believes it is real (unless suspect of course) until physically interacted with. Once 'physically' interacted with, you act normally as if it weren't there. so in the case of wizard popping an illusion, common sense comes into play. For example my dm allowed me to spread the 5ft cube over a larger area, but was effectively paper thin in width. (we ruled 5ftcu volume as opposed to the singular block space for minor illusion) Using this, my first real application was 'setting a barn on fire' and 'a huge archdemon type thing walking out. Now to cite the example it was the barn in greenest from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (to explain, I used the spell first to make it sound like something was beyond the wall, then again to make it as if a fire was starting in the barn; thus the mercs left the barn. Once outside I used it again to do as mentioned above.) So if you looked at it from the side, we have a gnome standing in front of a barn, facing a platoon of mercs. from the front, we see a platoon of mercs frozen in fear at a flame engulfed barn as a firey demon lord falls from the roof to the ground and stares down the group. now I had help from the group, syncing in a thaumaturgy to add roaring and such to said demon. but nonetheless no one dared interacting with the illusion.
One spell that I've found to not only be UNDERused, but literally NEVER used in my D&D experience is Unseen Servant...so I took it on my Eladrin Arcane Trickster recently to help him thieve better. It is an excellent support spell since it does not require concentration to upkeep or any actions to command (just thoughts). Combining it with Minor Illusion and Mage Hand (neither of which require concentration), you can create EXCELLENT distractions for sneaking missions, luring enemies into traps, etc. As far as combat goes, the Unseen Servant may not deal damage, but its 2 Strength is high enough for it to be able to carry water to douse flames, pick up weapons heavier than 10 pounds (the limit of mage hand) that you disarm from enemies, or even carry potions to pour in characters' mouths. Then again I've always been a fan of spells that allow a lot of room for creativity and DM+Player compromise. Depending on player and DM, Unseen Servant can continue being a worthless overlooked spell or it can be super fun.
LeetMasterAce I put Unseen Servant on my Rogue Arcane Trickster too. She would summon him before battle and he would go fetch her daggers for her (slow moving daggers of returning lol, but useful nonetheless). She was also an alchemist and used him to supply the help action for almost all her survival checks to gather ingredients and use her alchemist's tools. Picking that spell was the best in-character decision I ever made.
There's a Bard in my party which constantly uses Unseen Actor, which is very similar, he's used it to douse flames, open boxes, bypass certain traps, and to help him perform juggling tricks.
I think my Players don't get that healing word is more usefull in combat than cure wounds, am I right by this one? I think that bless too never gets used.
ok, do they use them on characters that get knocked unconcsious or on low hp characters? My Players always want to be on max hp before every fight that means too they use to much resources, how should tell them? I give them some gaming tips during Sessions like you can't kill everything sometimes you have to flee from the dragon and they get upset about it.
Earlthepirate The Bard in the group I DM for multi-classed into a Life Cleric for the Wisdom plus Cleric level bonus. I house ruled Charisma plus Wisdom stack with healing word only and I'll tell ya whut, it's a GREAT "OH SHIT" button.
nice, my Player wants to multiclass the first time as a Aarockra ranger/ live cleric multiclass. he gets around really fast in the battle field and in worst case scenarios can lift Players to safty and fly away. ( in a fight with a normal amount of archers)
my players completely trivialised a twin boss encounter by holding two hold person spells withe the paladin casting bless for the bonus concentration saves. then they just wailed on them.
_Mending_. If armor and weapons actually break (as they should), and if bottles and pots actually shatter (ditto), mending is pretty useful, and saves lots of money on repairs (or new items). _Expeditious Retreat_. Probably the most underrated 1st level spell. Good for escaping, sure, but for any player able to think strategically, it is truly awesome. You can use it to stretch out a battlefield, draw monsters out to chase you, while your companions can go in and kill the boss or steal the item (free the person) that you need to steal (free). If you have curing ability, you can swoop in and save downed companions that would otherwise be doomed. And if you are an Arcane Trickster who also has Cunning Action, you can be a true terror, sweeping in and out of combat, and being near-impossible to hit except by the best shooters. _Alter Self_. More effective and versatile than _Disguise Self_ (which most players are aware of), in terms of sneaking into places you have no business being. And if you are near water, you get a water-breathing ability that everyone else needs _Water Breathing_ or a magic item to pull off. Fire spells, in my book, are overrated. Everyone uses them, but if the battle environment (trees, houses) is taken seriously, they are more trouble than they're worth.
Expeditious Retreat doesn't really mingle well with Cunning Action, since Cunning Action uses your bonus action and Expeditious Retreat allows you to cast Dash as a bonus action.
Expeditious retreat lasts for, I believe, a minute. So, it actually works really well with cunning action, just not for 1 round. For 9 other rounds it's great.
It lasts 10 minutes. We played through an AL mod that requires you to keep a timer, basically, since you only have 20 minutes. I cast Expeditious Retreat on round 1 and enjoyed it for the rest of the mod :)
You guys really like evocation and damage spells. When I play, I like playing like a Blue Wizard in Magic the Gathering. Never let the DM have a turn. Counterspell is the most important and powerful 3rd level spell. But for underrated spells. Telekinesis. It is one of the highest level spells that bypasses legendary saves. But yeah, I played a Lore Bard to 12th level that never had a dam age spell. The DM actually started creating encounters with monsters immune to some of my spells.
The strongest points about telekinesis are it's spell slot efficiency (you can make one 5th level slot last the full duration of 10 minutes EASILY since you can keep using your actions after casting it), and the ability to bypass legendary saves, as it involves an ability contest (target's strength vs. your spellcasting modifier). My favorite usage is to get an easy prone on any creature without a flying speed. It's much better than having a Strength-based character simply shoving the target because it's a contested Strength check for Telekinesis, not Athletics or Acrobatics. So any creatures with low strength or reliance on their Athletics/Acrobatics profiencies are pretty much boned, though this becomes less effective once you start seeing creatures with over 20 STR. Telekinesis gets even better if you're a sorcerer, since you can abuse your ability to break the action economy by spending every action on it while still getting to quicken spells. It can get silly if you optimize into a Sorcerer with a 2-3 level Warlock dip, because then you could use Telekinesis to pull someone into the air, and then smack them with Repelling Blast - Eldritch Blasts to send them flying. It's an absolutely fantastic controller spell. The biggest problem is that it's competing with other 5th level spells, namely Animate Objects, Dominate Person, Hold Monster, and Destructive Wave for bards.
lift up a 1000lb rock, and drop it on someones head. lift someone up, 30ft, flip them over, drop them on their head, or off a cliff. Grab ANY beholder, lich, wizard, basilisk, etc, that requires line of sight, turn them around and literally face them into a corner and hold them there. Its single target and not self cast... so I think you can twin spell it... its concentration and lasts many turns.. quicken spell+tk on later turns should also allow casting while still doing TK actions. TK almost seems like a must for sorcerer. so much versatility, and economy for the limited spells. hold a targets mouth shut, or arms behind their back, so they can't attack or use spells. Pick up your barbarian ally, and move them 30ft closer, over obstacles, etc. pick up and drop your rogue, directly on that giants back. or, save your tk as a reaction, to pull a wounded ally OUT of combat immediately. Or, move an enemy out of position, drawing attacks of opportunity on them. Pick up an enemy and hold them in the air as a meat shield in front of you. Pull rugs out from under people, tables, etc. Use it to fly, without fly.
All of this is delightful good fun, however, you can't use forced movement to provoke opportunity attacks. Also, facing isn't really a thing so they can always still look back at you so putting them in a corner doesn't work, but behind a wall does though you'd have to be able to see it... It's restrained, not stunned so the condition is very specifically laid out, so holding spellcaster's mouths shut is also a no go. Also, it doesn't say it can prone anywhere in the description, so that's a no. Pretty sure you can't twin it, since it has the potential to target more than one object with the spell, so no go there. It does work to use the action with quickened spells though. The rest is solid gold though, so managing allies around the battlefield is fun, as is making some non-strength melee enemy a piece of cover for yourself and all of the weight dropping and cliff tossing shenanigans. I'm playing a non-combat oriented Abjurer anti-caster who does nothing but counter and hinder, zero damaging, and this feels like a fun addition to his repitoire of annoyance for when no spellslingers are afoot!
I saved the entire party with Suggestion recently. We were being chased by a huge force of goblins led by a half-orc leader, and we were low on HP, abilities, spells, everything. We'd been trying to run from them for an entire day. I'm a bard, down to my last spell slot, when the barbarian and I finally manage to lure the half-orc leader behind a building out of sight of his army (who is going to catch up in 2 rounds, mind you). The boss crits the barbarian, dropping him down to 12Hp or so, and I very almost no offensive potential, so what do I do? I cast Suggestion on him to basically say "They went thatta way!" Half-orc boss goes haring off in that direction, his entire army follows, while we're just hiding behind a couple barrels a few feet away from them.
elie challita that sounds more like modify memory than suggestion. Suggestion suggests an action and it has to be reasonable. He wouldn't reasonably chase you going a different way if he can clearly see you in front of him. However with modify memory you could wipe his memory and hide and he could think you ran a way you didn't.
Justin Ashman The suggestion only needs to be worded in a way that sounds reasonable. It doesn't actually have to be reasonable, although it does have to be a suggestion, not simple misinformation like "they went thatta way!"
@@Tengokuchi ....with your description,suggestion is pretty much useless.the suggested (haha) effect listed in the spell is to "make a knight give his treasured warhorse to the first beggar he sees" Not very reasonable sounding,does it?
I like the choices in this video. I have benefited personally from using sleet storm, but you have given me some great ideas to add to my wizard with it. Thanks guys! Below is a short story of when I used sleet storm to my parties advantage. My one user of sleet storm came when our party was trapped in what was described as a giant oven with two big ass fire elementals. I use it to douse the residual flames on our melee characters (causing 3d6 for damage per turn) while making it a more difficult decision for them to approach the softer members of the group through difficult terrain vs. Trying to pummel our tanks.
I think for a Level 1 Spell (granted only just started using a spellcaster in 5th), Sleep is really quite useful. Seeing a couple of guards, or even a small collection of low powered enemies, allows you to remove the obstacle with surprising ease. Or at least cause some major confusion as one or two of their buddies suddenly drop to the floor snoring gently.
To be fair, a monster with 1hp is just as deadly or effective as it is at 100hp so its not terrible just trying to max dps concerning why the other referenced spells are popular. However I must say of the spells listed I definitely agree with sleet storm being under rated since battlefield control is very strong in my opinion for D&D 5e.
Never thought of sleet storm as a good spell. But now that you guys have broken it down, it really is an awesome spell! I am going to be taking this spell now!
Sleet storm has been used to great effect in one of the campaigns I'm running. It neutered a group of four Stone Golems to the point were 5 level 7 characters beat them handily. Definitely a spell everyone should consider since battlefield control in my experience ends up winning the day more often than not.
Underrated Spells: Cantrip - Minor Illusion (target has to inspect the illusion to disbelieve, which they lose one round doing so) - Prestidigitation (instantly light or snuff out torches or campfires allowing your group to get the drop on an enemy if they don't have darkvision; chill or warm 1 cubic foot of non-living material, which can be used in arctic or desert settings to keep warm or cool as needed) 1st lv - Shield (+5 shield AC as a reaction) 2nd lv - Pyrotechnics (cast on a fire (like a dropped or thrown torch or flame sphere) to create an AOE smoke cloud or bright light to make enemies save or be blinded, creatures that are susceptible to bright light get added problems) 3rd lv - Gaseous Form (used in conjunction with fog cloud and you can get behind the enemy or evade them completely, can get into areas where there is a crack or small opening like a keyhole) - Leomund's Tiny Hut (dome of force where you can change the color of the dome but still can see through it, you can't cast spells through it but can shoot arrows and other such things that are non-magical. 4th lv - Hallucinatory Terrain (the imagination is the limit on how you want to do this but as for obscuring a group for an ambush or setting up a hideout it works really well) 5th lv - Animate Objects (a fun way to do this is to use it in combination with other spells, animate a bunch of torches and then use pyrotechnics on one and then have all the torches attack at advantage) There are many more but I didn't want to dive into them all.
Left out the best imo 2nd level spell, Phantasmal Force, all you need to do is cast it on someone, make the image they see be a inside of a iron maiden and if they fail which they'll most likely do they'll spend all there time screaming and crying in pain standing still doing nothing and taking damage every round. Such a beast of a spell that has a crazy wide range of use.
Even though I haven't played a game, I feel like Unseen Servant is really under appreciated. This is essentially an extra pair of invisible hands to do whatever you wish with. Looks like a trap? Send Unseen Servant across. Want to cause a disruption/distraction in a crowded tavern? Have Unseen Servant punch someone. Want to get some information (assuming Unseen Servant can hear)? Send Unseen Servant to ease drop on the conversation, and write down whatever they heard when they get back. So many uses.
I prefer Thunderwave to Burning Hands. A fifteen foot square of 2d8 thunder damage and knockback just has a lot more utility, as far as I'm concerned, when compared with a 15 foot cone for 3d6 fire damage.
AlmightyK Really? My DM ruled it as merely having to originate from your tile, rather than being centered on it. Even still, the utility of the knockback would help if you're surrounded.
My favorite spells are always the terrain control ones. control the battlefield and you'll have a major (and visible) effect that helps your teammates. plus they always have such cool descriptors. I'd rather makes the trees and bushes rise to attack and snare my foes than chuck out some fire, any day XD
I like spells that add a control ability, even with low damage. Ice Slick from Pathfinder is one Im fond of. 5 foot burst of thin ice, knocks any targets in the area prone barring a reflex save on cast, and leaves slick ice terrain hindering movement. Great crowd control and zoning for a second level spell. 1d6 cold damage, +1d per level up to 10. Enlarge humanoid for allies to add into intimidation for a berserker. Because as a story teller, I have thought on it, just now many people would know magic on sight? If a guy could suddenly grow to twice his size and hulk out, some might have to pass intelligence checks an the like to recognize the effect for what it is, or detect magic. But how many in most areas would have that, and would monsters really get such a check? It adds a fun twist into things.
Light. Our fight was in the Underdark, and my allies were caccooned, so I cast Light on one caccoon, blinding the entire battlefield of enemies that had us surrounded, giving me the chance to cut my Allies free and rebalance the fight.
Aid is an amazing spell for a questgiving NPC. They send the party on an adventure but also give them a bump for the first 8 hours of it, giving them 5~40 additional HP. Imagine giving the first level party 40 extra hit points for their first quest tho.
sleet storm totally made a few hill giants useless. it was supposed to be a difficult encounter and turned out to be easy because of this spell. my players were loving it.
I can agree on Sleet Storm's effectiveness. Although my players were none to happy with this battle, for they were caught in this storm and suffered greatly.
Good question...the spells I most commonly see underused are conjuration spells and certain necromantic spells. I see people use disintegrate all the time, but I never see anyone trying to do the old horde master necromancer anymore. Which in 3.5 was my favorite thing to do. the biggest reason is that the raise dead spells in 5e suck ass. in the games I dm I actually modify the necromancy spells just to try and get more people to use them, and it still never happens. Conjuration, on the other hand, has great spells but most of them don't deal instant damage so most people aren't interested.
I love conjuration spells but the problem is the 1 minute casting time. Most encounters don't allow that kind of spell to be used, as for the necromancy spells, if you think about it they are rather good whilst being balanced at the same time, it's just difficult walking around with undead.
eh, depends on how the world works. I personally subscribe to the idea that necromancy is not inherently evil and should be studied like any other form of magic, so as I dm I build worlds and civilizations that have that mindset as well. with that being said, I don't think the necromancy spells in 5e are balanced in the slightest. by making it so you have to cast the spell every 24 hours they are actually punishing people who decide to play that way. which is why I make the spells permanent. makes more sense from the limited resources standpoint.
clericofchaos1 I like the whole mechanic of using the spell to control undead not merely create them. it also creates a situation of be careful what you do because the undead aren't intrinsically loyal to you so you can be killed by your own creations.
One of the other fantastic things about Aid is that If you have 2 or 3 allies making death saves - well, now they're back up. Can be one of the most efficient ranged ways to get people on their feet.
I've never seen anyone use the slow spell. it's so freaking powerful. also I've seen people use burning hands at a third level while they had fireball.
I've always thought the "Mend" spell from 2E was underrated. It's very useful for excusing thing most DMs handwave away. It can fix broken weapons, hole in armor, collapsed walls, cracked timber and most importantly all the hole in clothes after taking HP damage.
Sleet storm has been used once in my games, it covered all the enemies, the cleric that casted it kept using guiding bolt and things like that to negate disadvantage the ranged character peppered them while the martial kept pushing enemies back in if they got to the edge of the radius
In my group we never use Haste. It used to be our go to spell in Pathfinder but not here. I guess the nerf to it was to big and we have other concentration spells we would rather use.
If you have something overwhelming strong with a single swing [looks intensely at the new Hexblade's Curse Bringer] then throwing out Haste isn't so bad. I am working on a 14th level Cleric that dips into Hexblade and the numbers on a swing are beautiful. If I was a Sorcerer, I would gladly throw out Twinned Haste on that and a Barbarian.
Yeah. We also thought about using it when I was playing a Melee Druid and you become something with one powerful strike. And I really like the new Hexblade. I am playing a paladin right now and plan on dipping it.
My Wizard did use burning hands very effectively from right behind the tank. It was part of a whole battle strategy outside against smaller opponents as it would also destroy vegetative cover
Had a sorcerer using Mold Earth completely skip out on an encounter cause when I designed the cave they were gonna be in, the side room full on kobolds had a really small entrance and I had previously told them the cave walls felt like soft earth. Needless to say, he never took that spell for granted ever again lol
Thank you for pointing this out. I was almost screaming that a radius is half a circle, so double the radius would make 4 fireballs, or you miss out on half the total area.
Well, the equation would be ((pi)40^2)/(pi)(20^2) the pis cancel and then you're left with 1600 sq. ft/ 400 sq. ft which comes out to equal 4. Soooo yeah, OP is right.
They may have equivalent areas, but 4 fireballs could still not totally cover the area of the sleet storm. Some areas would be hit multiple times, and some not at all.
concerning the burning hands spell, it is a nice spell to follow up from another touch attack spell, (or to cut rope when you are tied) concerning the aid spell, it is also a nice spell to help unconscious people up, as it is sort of a ranged heal
Armor of Agathys is definitely a must for any hexblade warlock. Non-concentration spell which gives you temp hp that boost up with each increase in levels and whenever a target damages you with a melee attack and you still have the temp hit points, they take cold damage equal to the temporary hit point maximum, regardless of whether you have the max temporary hit points or just a single one left.
Personally, 3rd level is probably the best level of spells. Maybe mostly because that's when the fun *really* starts with spellcasting. Sure, Fireball and Lightning Bolt are fantastic, but you have alot of others like; *Revivify* A literal life-saver. It's a great way to get out of a terrible situation sometimes. *Dispel Magic* Fucking hilarious. A real "nope" moment of denying the opponent his big, massive attack or crippling effect. *Phantom Steed* Purely a roleplay thing, but *c'mon, man! How cool is that!?* Who'd turn down the opportunity to ride into battle on a flaming skeleton horse or a majestic steed that radiates with the colours of the rainbow? *Spirit Guardians* You are not a JoJo fan unless you use this spell when a Cleric at least once. *Tongues* Frankly, out of all spells in Dungeons and Dragons, this is the one that I feel you have the least amount of excuse to not have at any given time. Honestly, it's around level 5 where you also start seeing a steady downfall with spell-interest. They help, absolutely, but they get so... *boring.* 9th level especially is just "Hey, don't sweat it, guys. The game is over now".
I thought it was invincible, or at least had a sizeable amount of HP. As a mage, the steed would give you some really crazy movement speed bonuses while active.
There are so many good ones that I see players pass right over. I usually don't play magic users, but I DM a lot, and I always have to bite my tongue watching players pass over great spells when adding to their spellbooks. Grease, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Rope Trick, ..
Really interested in this rivalry. Who will be the ultimate 1ST forever tune in next episode to find out, will Claude be 1st or will earlthepirate be the upset victory.
Find out in the next Episode of Nerdarchy, but I don't know if I would be first because I am European and it was like evening in my country. But that will not stop me from beeing First. ^‿^
I like Catapult, from the free Elemental Evil pdf. 1st level spell. Very likely to hit something if there are multiple targets in a line. Nice way of delivering acid flasks / alchemist's fire / holy water. No verbal component, so if you're being chased or doing sneaky things, you can throw objects to distract and mislead enemies. Plus it arguably does magical (as it's a spell) bludgeoning damage, which few things have any resistance/immunity to.
My goliath cleric used Sleet Storm in a volcano to make the evil king's henchmen slip and fall into the magma below. Such an epic session. About a dozen henchies that we now didn't have to mess with. Hahaha!
Feather Fall. It lets you play with verticality far earlier than you normally could (although only in one direction). Also useful for when air cultists want to make sure gravity still works.
If you're a rogue, get 3 levels of Sorcerer and use a quickened True Strike to get sneak attack damage at every turn (as long as you have spell levels to burn as sorcery points).
I actually had a Wizard with Sleet Storm (was focusing him as a CC and Ice or Water Mage). The only other caster, of any form, was a Warlock/Sorcerer combo. Sleet Storm from me for the set up, then the Warlock/Sorcerer basically turned into a twinned Agonizing Eldritch Spear (Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast Invo + Eldritch Spear Invo) gatling gun. It was priceless, to say the least.
Sleet Storm is such a wonderful spell! In my last campaign, we were storming a castle and there were bad guys coming down a flight of stairs. I cast Sleet Storm and the DM decided that since they were on stairs, they had to make an acrobatic roll to see if they're merely prone or if they're falling down the stairs as well - how far below the DC they rolled would determine how far they fell on the stairs. It was so wonderful to have the enemies fall to us, prone at our feet.
In my game? Bless. Cleric NEVER used it. Even after getting a necklace of prayer beads with three bonus action blesses on it. He FINALLY used it in our last session for the first time.
Centering a Cloud Spell on the Sleet storm is nice. Bonus points if you kill those that come out of this, resurrect them as Zombies and then send them back in to grapple those that are still trapped in there.
Shadow Blade. Level 2 Illusion Spell requiring concentration that does 2D8 Psychic damage and lasts a minute. "The spell lets you form a sword of shadow in your hand, which counts as a weapon you can use to make attacks. It’s a simple melee weapon that anyone who casts the spell is proficient with. It has finesse, so you can attack with either Strength or Dexterity.You can throw it like a handaxe if you’d like, and it does more damage than a greatsword on a hit (2d8 psychic plus your attack ability modifier).That damage increases when you cast it with a higher-level slot, up to 5d8 for a 7th level or higher spell slot. If you drop it or throw it for an attack, it vanishes at the end of your turn. And you can call it back with a bonus action, so long as you’re still concentrating on the spell.
Two friends of mine were able to create 2 gallons of water instantly, at first level we came across two swarms of giant spider and a pit, put the two together and you have yourself a pit full of spiders and they cant crawl out of it (Then followed by me throwing oil and a torch into that pit to ensure that none of those awful, awful creatures ever make it out.) D&D 3.5
I totally owned a boss fight with minions using Sleet Storm on my pacifist wizard gnome, Sir Duke Lord Baron Alabaster Barbatos Jr. IV, Esquire. I used no damage dealing spells on this guy, he was totally support and crowd control. (But mostly I ended up doing crowd control and let the rest of the party handle themselves.) And omg, once you have a wizard doing nothing but crowd control, you can really turn whole battles. Charms, Holds, Sleeps, Movement hampering effects, etc. and mostly all of them being AoE spells. It was just fun for being the one character that never did any damage.
The best thing about Aid is that the extra hit points aren't treated as temporary, so you the extra hit points can be healed, whether by other spells, potions or even hit die. Whilst not the best use of a ninth level spell slot you can give three PCs an effective 40 extra hit points, or 120 through the party. Depending on the situation its comparable, or even greater than, Wish.
I was running a West Marches game not too long back, and Burning Hands was pretty much on every Spellcaster of every type. I would actually go as far as to say that my players often disregarded other spells to use it more frequently.
sleet storm was a turning point in our storm kings thunder game saving our asses both against Chief Guh and her goons and on the boat where heckaton was held
Don't know if they are particularly underused, but, on the topic of multiple spellcasters stacking up AoEs: have a bard, a nature cleric, a druid, a warlock, a sorcerer and a mage; picking a target you wish to unleash the bowels of hell apon, the bard centers Stinking Cloud, the cleric centers Spike Growth, the druid centers Ice Storm, the warlock centers Hunger of Hadar, the sorcerer centers Sleet Storm, and the mage centers Evard's Inappropriate Tentacles. Now you will have an 80' circle that you need to make a dex save or suffer 2d8 bludgeoning and 4d6 cold (half on save), a _separate_ dex save or be prone (making the other saves disadvantaged); with a central core of 40' that is darkened, deals an automatic 2d6 cold, with a _third_ dex save vs 2d6 acid damage, and a _fourth_ dex save or suffer an additional 3d6 bludgeoning and be restrained, not to mention taking 2d4 slashing damage for every 5' through this difficult terrain, assuming that the con save to keep from being immobilized and retching succeeds, while on ice, dodging hailstones, dancing with otherworldly tentacles, in pitch blackness.
I had a necromancer once who would always cast "Slow" in the first round and then have his skeletons pile onto anyone who failed their save. Between the lowered AC, single attack and reduced movement + a gang of flanking skeletons it was a death sentence.
Tidal Wave 🌊, especially when a Bard pairs it with Slow and Bane. Not as much damage as Fireball and Lightning Bolt but you knock enemies prone, you can basically spell shape it, it has a range of 120ft, and as a Lore Bard you can Cutting Words to make sure you get fails on the saving through. Very good spell when you can’t spell shape.
Hold Person - level 2 spell. Paralyse on failed WIS save. Bump to level 3 for two humanoids, level 4 three humanoids, level 5 four and so on. Scales against DC for the save, so at high character levels, I use this to paralyse entire groups of enemies. Then the party gets ADV to hit them and critical on hits. I also have paired it with Create Thrall from the Great Old One Warlock.
I had a Cleric/Sorcerer built around False life and Aid. I had more hitpoints then the fighter and could deal comparable damage with Green Flame blade. Twinned spell and Extend spell as my sorcerer abilities turned me into a buff machine that drastically increased our groups survivability. Was pretty damn fun for me, and the rest of the group loved it to.
sticking under level 3 spells, I'd give honorable mention to command, hold person (auto crit), spirit weapon (use that bonus action), mirror image, blink (both making you untargetable), dispell magic(second counter spell if you are patient), and water walk
Summon Water. I love this spell, and no one hardly uses it. I did have a friend whose pet got killed by another member of the group. He waited until they were in an air tight room and filled it with water to drown them. It was boss!
Burning hands gets used a LOT at our table. one of our players said "Look at this, I want to show you something" then hit the enemy with a BURNING HANDS to the face. Now almost every time it gets cast, someone yells "SHOW EM SOMETHING"
I'm playing an eladrin bladesinger. Burning hands is essentially my go to, because I'm always in melee with my enemies. Misty step right behind a group of low level enemies and drop them all in one go.
I really like the Cantrip Light. Dark combat in the middle of the night? No issue. Cast Light on a dagger, and then make sure you plant that dagger in one of your foes? Now that one is really easy to track AND the light radius it gives off helps out your non-darkvision types like the human barbarian that really wants to smash something. I've gotten to use it on crossbow bolts, and arrows as well. Nice field expedient tracker for where your target is for everyone in the party.
I know it's not much, but Feather Fall helps a LOT either in dungeons or difficult terrains, like mountains and crevasses. And it can be used as an offensive spell as well. Given, you need a catapult, a subject and Feather Fall on the catapulted subject. Execution well done. Plus I really like the combo Flesh to Stone - Carve Stone - Stone to Flesh, but maybe it's just me.
I personnaly love Loemund Tiny Hut, it's ritual 3rd level so no spell slot and even no spell prepared for a wizard, it protects the party from ambush at night, it's a really good spell when you're outdoor. can be dispelled or desintegrated, but it's worth anyway. you can choose to have a small light inside but it's invisible from the outside and nobody can enter or peek in. I think it's underrated.
Sleet Storm heavily obscures the area so you won't be able to shoot into it with ranged attacks without penalty and arguably won't know where your targets are located. Thunderwave has made burning hands all, but obsolete. Better area, better damage type, useful secondary effect, and slightly less damage. A fire specialist might take burning hands over thunderwave. Thanks for pointing out aid is not temporary hit points. I had assumed it was temporary hp, but it does seem more useful now.
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Nerdarchy What about Witch Bolt?It's a 1d12 lightning damage, and if you hit your enemy,you can keep concentrating and use it again.Since you're concentrating,you can keep rolling a d12,and it won't miss.But,you can't use any other spell when you're concentrating.
+WildcardWhirlm_
I type this spread objective information regarding Witchbolt and why it is one of the worst uses of a spell slot in the game.
-If you miss the spell doesn't activate at all.
-The lightning arc is visual so the target knows what and who is hurting them.
-If the target or you get total cover the spell ends instantly.
-If the target or you move beyond 30ft the spell ends instantly.
-If you fail a concentration check, the spell fails instantly.
-On top of that you cannot cast any other spells
-Maintain existing concentration on other spells
-Take actions (attack, dash, disengage, dodge)
Hex is a FAR better spell to have known even at earlier levels.
-Lasts for an hour minimum (8 hours at level 5 and 24 levels at level 9)
-New target can be designated once the original target is dead
-Grants disadvantage on ability checks of your choice on the target, great for making allies MUCH more likely to succeed at grappling, disarming, shoving and such.
-1d6 per attack against the target, so it scales well as spells get more attacks (this includes eldritch blast, magic missile, scorching ray.)
-Doesn't have the range issue meaning concentration checks are less likely to matter.
-You can still cast non concentration spells, make attacks, dodge, take cover after attacking to break LoS, change targets and do any other non concentration impeding task.
So yes, even at low levels. Witchbolt is a terrible spell that would require a GM be VERY lenient in how they played the enemies to have it being any real level of effectiveness.
well misty step is great and all.. but your DM has a problem in his wrold if magic isn't accounted for when creating those jails.
Ye old gag and bind. Wizard cannot do anything at that point :P
Hex may be great if you're a warlock. But if you're a sorcerer or a wizard you don't have access to it while you do have access to witch bolt.
The 3 spells
...
..
.
1:10 Burning hands
3:45 Aid
7:10 Sleet storm
I'll nominate Misty Step: 2nd level, bonus action, verbal only, instant teleport 30 ft range, and you still have movement and action(casting limited to Cantrips) left. As a DM, none of my jail cells have windows....anymore...
Jim Seevers Now that one I've seen get a lot of play in games. Great spell.
Nerdarchist Dave
Yeah Misty Step is super common as an escape mechanism for casters (or Eladrin rogues :P)
stopped a rogue from escaping with it.
he moved down 35 feets, dashed up to 70. cunning action dashed out of there for a whooping 105 ft thiking im definitely out of range. monster ran to him 40ft, dashed 40ft. misty stepped 30 thats 110ft which puts him directly in front of him. The rogue was stumped and everyone was laughing at his hit and run strategy finally not working.
also, the DM has a problem if in big metropols he let his prisons not have anti-magic properties. i mean in metropolis magic probably is a common thing. as a DM i preffer to let my player think they are fine because magic then when the druid try to wildshape his way out and i say, 5 seconds later, nothing happens. and they are like WHAAAAA. thats priceless. forces them to consider other things like the rogue for instance who i consider always have his thieves tools on his person even if he is naked. you know forcing them to understand non magical classes are important too.
@James Boll Exactly! As soon as a DM starts doing stuff like that I start looking out for more signs of a bad DM. Taking away windows, making magic not work (except in certain circumstances) and things like that are examples of DMs breaking the world and the character's abilities because they can't figure out a smarter way to do it.
so why isn't your world wizards only reigning people ? because seriously... i dont see fighters in a world where magic does it all and cannot be stopped in way or another. to me its unrealistick to have magic be a thing in a world and yet nbobody knows how to counter it.
to me its that simple... in high end society magic is a thing and they know it. so why would they ever let the wizard in a jail cell without having his hands tied, his feets tied, his mouth gagged and without any component on his person ? seriously in a world where magic is porminent there is no reason for people not to know how to counter it. the same way we adapt to things and just counter them. you say its bad DM to remove window... but i guarantee you that in a world where windows were that easy. even our own jail cells by today wouldn'T have any. and guess what... todays jail cells dont have any windows to begin with. its called learning from mistakes. if wizards and sorcerer they arrest keep getting out of their cells by the windows... why would those guards keep the windows ?
from my point of view, by keeping the players easy escapes, you are the bad DM because you keep giving players an easy time.
WARNING: Do not attempt to cast burning hands as Dave and Ted demonstrate it. You will injure yourself and possibly disintegrate. Refer to the spell description: "...hold your hands with thumbs touching and fingers spread..." and "outstretched fingers." Please cast responsibly.
The verbal component is yelling "WU TANG!"
HADOKIN!
@@Treblaine that one got me pretty good. Wu-Tang!
I recently read Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and the authors paid enough attention to the D&D rules that I knew Raistlin was about to cast Burning Hands because he did that exact gesture. I hope some of the later books give that much attention to detail.
Wu-Tang Up The Yin-Yang, lol...
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
I find Tasha's Hideous Laughter surprisingly underused when it basically gives you a chance to literally incapacitate a creature with laughter.
NightBringer Tenchy I have found Tasha's Hideous Laughter is favored more by classes like the bard which don't have as much blasting potential so they look for alternative ways of subduing monsters and find the wealth of spells like Laughter
NightBringer Tenchy we killed a dragon with tashas hideous laughter. fallingdamage granted, but he had fun going...
a real bad-ass sends his/her minions on the enemy and casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter on him/herself.
Had fun with it.. until the laughter ended the next round. you a need a really high score to do that well and that includes the ability of the monster not to resist it. the spell is awesome at low levels, at high levels, its really not. because legendary resistances or very high stats from monsters.
if i follow people discussions everywhere who say you can be thinking outside the box. Charm Person is the only spell you really need considering apparently it makes CR5 creatures fight for you wherever you go.
Tashas hideous laughter is still really good at high level. because you really don't want to waste a high level spell on forcing a legendary monster to use its legendary resistance. IF (and sometimes that a big if, sure, but your DC is the same regardless of the level of the spell you're casting) it fails the roll, it has to use resistance or be incapacitated. its a GREAT low level spell at high levels. sometimes.
one of my players is relatively new, and throws out all kinds of rarely-used spells as a cleric. in particular, he's used calm emotions very effectively to shut down battle.
That's something that's so rarely done. A lot of players just have this kill-boner, granted a lot of enemies, you can't parlay normally.
I like that player who doesn't just kill everybody
I agree. You just have to be lucky enough to have a DM that doesn't have a kill-boner himself.
***** fair enough
It's something to think about for my own games. Non-violent options for encounters.
Ironically, one of the best things at higher levels is silent image. Now of course you might be thinking "Why use that when you can have better illusions?" That is because you can get spell mastery of 1st levels spells... and as an illusionist wizard you can make one inanimate object real for 1 minute every time you cast an illusion spell of 1st level or higher. Granted, you "only" have a 15 foot cube... but that's enough to surround someone with a box of adamantine, or create a wall to hide behind, or well... any number of things, for no expended resources.
Halosty this is brilliant.
Yup. I once launched a Tarrasque into the Astral Plane doing that. Mirage Arcane, baby!
Kind of outclassed, though. You can easily just have a much better thing going by upcasting a Major Illusion at level 6. It becomes permanent until dispelled; and you already have Malleable Illusions, so it doesn't matter what form it takes. You could make it a little mole on your arm, carry it around with you, and then bring it out as an action into a wall, which you make solid with a bonus action. You can even be funny, and make it look like a Wall of Force so that an enemy caster will be trying to Disintegrate it, to no avail. The best use I've seen is a bridge, that the party crosses, but then you drop the solidity and the enemies fall through it behind you. And yes, it is an expended resource... but a permanent one, and easy enough to do while traveling if you wait until just before a long rest. The best thing yet? Also no concentration... so you can have *more then one*.
The problem is, that you can't "drop the solidity" acording to RAW - it lasts for 1 minute solid, that is all...
Also, Silent image is silent and so if made real should make no sound at all, allowing you to sneak by making silent image shoes real. This (probably) won't require a check if it literally can't make sound.
I took Grease as a lvl 1 joke spell. It end up being my most casted spell. Pairs nicely with Divination Wizard.
Grease is flammable
Fireball does like 60% more damage than a 3rd level Burning Hands and has a better range.
However, that doesn't make burning hands useless, it still:
- Can be aimed better in tight areas without damaging party members or squishy NPC's.
- Doesn't have the habit of actually *exploding* and bringing the ceiling down on the party or worse... *the loot.*
- Doesn't require a material component, which means you can use it without your focus/pouch in a pinch.
MrZriael also burning hands is available at first level for casters who wanna start blasting immediately
Burning hands would be good for casters who get into melee-range alot, I would think. Same with thunderwave. I'm surprised they'd think it's underrated.
I have an eldritch night who is a fire genasi and oh my god it so good for me because I get it for free and I waltz in and kill all of the tiny weak minions.
as well, area of effect. Fireball catches your allies in that blast. 5e got a comp out with being able to take your allies out of the spell effect, that's why 3.5 had better rules. You want the big bang, you're all at risk. Plus makes the more focused spells useful
Eric B I know this is 2 months old now, but my impression with 3.5 is simply that there are far too many rules. For better or not there is a rule telling you how to play every aspect of the game in detail. Honestly, after 2 months of playing, it has begun to stagnate for everyone and we are seriously considering just going back to 5e.
Thaumaturgy, only because it was used so excellently a few weeks ago in my game. The party was caught in a hairy situation with a group of orcs (combat was imminent as a few bad checks had already been rolled). Our cleric then decides to cast Thaumaturgy on the chief and attempts to convince him that he is going insane by making voices speak inside his head. A Persuasion check followed by an Intimidation check (both with advantage) later and the chief was on the ground freaking out, while the rest of the orcs stood in shock.
That sounds like a cool event but unfortunately it doesn't have really anything to do with the spell. It is all DM fiat really. Casting a spell and performing 2 skill checks takes 2-3 rounds (what was everybody else doing while the cleric was casting spells and staring at the chief?). The advantage on the skills checks is a fiat gift from the DM for doing something they though was cool, and you can't really stick the effect bound to a person it targets a location in space (people tend to move their head to see where the voices are coming from which will break the effect).
The DM was kind in giving the effect of a second level+ spell for the casting of a cantrip. It would have been very cool the first time but will wear very thin as the player makes repeated use of the effect economy it provides (considering it has no save). The DM has built a rod for their own back with their soon-to-be-one-off ruling.
Thaumaturgy is great, just yesterday one of my players used it to give a screaming child a stern speaking to!
You could also start an avalanche. Imagine yodeling on a mountaintop at triple the normal sound level. This could be used to cut off travel routes, cave in underground areas, or maybe even smother that one orc fortress built a bit too close to the mountainside.
Uncle Peter Ik this is an old comment, but a player of mine (a tiefling) used thaum to amplify her scream against a huge group of homonuculi, deafining and frightening them to avoid getting slowly ripped to shreads. Great idea in my book so she got away with it.
Oh I do this with my Cleric in out d the Abyss. I got the kua'toans worshipping "Gross" because I made a religious idol of theirs say "gross" as they spit and puked on it. Priestess of Sune ain't got time for that
A sorcerer player of mine has come up with some fantastic uses for Animate Objects. He carries around several lengths of rope specifically so that he can turn any forest canopy or rafters into a stealthy living gallows. He is really, really inventive with that spell.
For an NPC, I created the idea of a wizard who uses a swarm of animated forks to defend himself. It is silly, but also a little scary.
All I can hear in my head now is the narration, after carefully picking your way through the agromancer's abode, in Jack Patillo's voice: "Haha; get forked!"
I was actually thinking about buying some caltrops and ball bearings and using Animate Objects on some of them.
or better yet fork you
Thats some pyrope level crazy there heh
Playing as a wizard in a spell caster heavy group. We just hit fifth level a couple of weeks ago, so as I'm going through the list of spells to add I decided to get Water Breathing. I figured, its a ritual spell that lasts 24 hours and can target 10 willing people. Assuming you have any kind of threat of drowning coming up, spending the time to cast a ritual spell every morning on your party to prevent that drowning would be very beneficial.
Tyler Williams If you are talking 3rd lvl rituals then Tiny Hut is a must must must.
Agreed on sleet storm. I used it semi-recently to defend the party who had just stolen a very large ship from the folks who wanted it back. We were pursued by archers in canoes launching flaming arrows. Sleet storm douses exposed flames too.
Up-Cast FOG CLOUD On The Ship, That Way The Canoer's CAN'T Target The Ship... 😂🤣😂
Don't forget about Sleep too. You're either immune to it or you're in trouble. There is no save, so creatures that can be whittled down to 20-35 hp in a fight can be put down with this spell. It's also tops vs. stirges and other little pains in the neck.
Yeah but doesnt everyone know how awesome sleep is?
Stirges? More like pains in the chest... hate those things...
Sleep is one of the most overpowered spells in early levels. It’s not underrated at all.
Yep
Especially potent vs swarms since it knocks out the lowest hp creature and works its way up
Man the last time I used sleep i rolled like a 6 or something put one creature to sleep that his buddies immediately woke up. Wasted turn, wasted spell slot never used it again.
Acid Splash - It's one of those Cantrips that no one takes because it only has d6 damage but it gives your character an unlimited supply of acid that you can use for all sorts of cool stuff like destroying locks, melting metal bars, etc. Acid Splash has a lot of utility outside of combat that makes it worth picking as a secondary damaging Cantrip.
However, acid splash can only target creatures. I think firebolt is only cantrip that damages that can target objects also
Even though the book specifies that acid splash targets 'creatures,' saying it can't target anything else is ridiculous. The DM could possibly rule that the acid isn't strong enough to eat through metal very well, but common sense tells me a caster should be able to splash acid on anything.
Ridiculous to read the text of a spell or the PHB?
C Seider
It's ridiculous to interpret the description in the handbook to mean you can target only creatures with the spell. 'Acid splash' creates a bubble of acid. You should logically be able to target anything with it.
The DM interprets the rules for his campaign. The DM could rule that the acid disappears if the caster targets anything but a creature, or something like that. But it seems more reasonable to just let players throw the acid at anything.
Not gonna argue but consider how fire bolt clearly says you can target an object meaning the spells are designed purposely
What does everyone think about spike growth? Amazing spell imo. Second level, makes the area difficult terrain, and for every 5 feet they move they take 2d4 piercing damage. It's 150 foot range and covers a 20 foot radius. It doesn't knock anyone prone which is good if you have casters or archers (prone causes ranged attacks to roll with disadvantage). The only save is to see if you notice it's there if you end up walking INTO the area.
Go to druid spell.
Nerdarchist Dave
I once had to jump in for our almost constantly absent druid player and oh boy casting spike growth was the best thing I did all session.
This is a personal opinion but in my experience my favorite 1st level spell that everyone looks at me weird for is the wizard "Find Familiar", which in this instance is my gnome wizard necromancer, the familiar is only slightly alluring for the 100ft shocking grasp, but the commonly overlooked (or i may have just somehow convinced my gm with my inexperience of playing D&D) providing the help action on its own turn.
Thanks for the post, Nerdarchy. Good points on Sleet Storm, but remember that's a heavily obscured area. So no ranging into an area which has targets that you can not see. Or at least disadvantage on all attacks sent into it. Under-rated spells? Consider the spell Heat Metal. As written, it is very, very powerful. It should probably be house-ruled so that the bonus action used in later rounds to reactivate the damage and effect (like on metal armor) can only happen if the original casting conditions (range, etc) are met. That spell will still be useful into the upper levels. Imagine a bard casting Heat Metal as a 6th level spell on something like a Death Knight: lots of damage, also inflicting disadvantage on that enemy's attacks, and NO SAVE. They would basically have to use Dispel Magic on the bard's Heat Metal, or try to catch him if that slippery bard can be caught and have his concentration broken.
sleet storm also has the effect of obscuring vision I don't see how your archers could see the targets within the sleet storm
Can Archers not free fire into an area? Would work better at castle defense when you have a lot of Archers.
they can shoot but will have all disadvantages.
An attack roll is still an attack roll even with disadvantage. No reason they still shouldn't attack
You cannot see a target who is 5 feet into a heavily obscured area, so you can't target them. With that degree of clouds and downpour, taking any sort of calculated shot in is going to be tricky. Two seconds after it starts you have no clue anymore where anyone is/was. As a DM I'd hide the models of all creatures in the zone and make you guess what square to shoot at. Then if there's is someone there, you get disadvantage on the roll. You roll either way, and I never tell you if you hit something or not, because how would you know?
Despite this, Sleet Storm is still amazing, able to lock out the enemy ranged and spellcasting support entirely while you kill their melee.
You can still target creatures you can't see, you just have disadvantage.
To our tempest cleric with a 20 strength, the most underrated spell is healing the god damned party...
DoctorSawbonesPHD It's not necessarily his job though
Yeah 5e has plenty of healing options, apart from someone back up throwing tiny healing here and there is usually not worth it as the BBG will just do more damage then was healed anyway.
when your cleric brings the pain
it's just using an ounce of prevention rather than a pound of cure
+rr ww Probs reverse those. A pound of prevention rather then an ounce of cure. Tempest Clerics can bring some of the best hurt in the entire game if played correctly.
As a War Domain Cleric, I too prefer to smash first, heal later. (I have Revivify and Raise Dead prepared... I got this ;)
I'd say illusions as a whole are really under utilized. Simple stuff like even minor illusion lasts for a minute (and NOT concentration), and even though it can't change a loud shriek is very distracting, or a bright light, or even just an image of the wall in front of your group, or an image over the door to make it look like a wall, some weird writing tons of uses. The simple illusions that people don't bother to question can have a lot of power.
Tad Meissner the problem and advantage of minor image is it affects up to a 5ft cube. so nothing can be taller than 5ft.
However, my forest gnome is well under 5ft. And my dm well knows it lol. She is pretty much a ranged rogue, honestly nothing short of anti magic zones have been able to counter 'I hide inside an illusory rock'
I love illusion spells, but i have a hard time to make it work correctly. As a DM im not sure how to react to a Wizard casting illusion in battle. Do i automaticlly make all the enemies in the room target it, do i roll some sort of check on it everytime. It's hard stuff :O
ArngrimTV yeah that makes it tricky! I usually go off how believable it is. If something just poofs into existence that's an illusion not a phantasm (in their mind) then I'd say that's not very believable. It depends on what it is though and how clever the players are.
5e's rule on illusions is that the observer acts normally and believes it is real (unless suspect of course) until physically interacted with. Once 'physically' interacted with, you act normally as if it weren't there.
so in the case of wizard popping an illusion, common sense comes into play. For example my dm allowed me to spread the 5ft cube over a larger area, but was effectively paper thin in width. (we ruled 5ftcu volume as opposed to the singular block space for minor illusion) Using this, my first real application was 'setting a barn on fire' and 'a huge archdemon type thing walking out. Now to cite the example it was the barn in greenest from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (to explain, I used the spell first to make it sound like something was beyond the wall, then again to make it as if a fire was starting in the barn; thus the mercs left the barn. Once outside I used it again to do as mentioned above.)
So if you looked at it from the side, we have a gnome standing in front of a barn, facing a platoon of mercs. from the front, we see a platoon of mercs frozen in fear at a flame engulfed barn as a firey demon lord falls from the roof to the ground and stares down the group.
now I had help from the group, syncing in a thaumaturgy to add roaring and such to said demon. but nonetheless no one dared interacting with the illusion.
HuchiaZ without auditory, olfactory or thermal- I dont see how anyone, even someone of animal intelligence, would fall for that.
One spell that I've found to not only be UNDERused, but literally NEVER used in my D&D experience is Unseen Servant...so I took it on my Eladrin Arcane Trickster recently to help him thieve better.
It is an excellent support spell since it does not require concentration to upkeep or any actions to command (just thoughts). Combining it with Minor Illusion and Mage Hand (neither of which require concentration), you can create EXCELLENT distractions for sneaking missions, luring enemies into traps, etc.
As far as combat goes, the Unseen Servant may not deal damage, but its 2 Strength is high enough for it to be able to carry water to douse flames, pick up weapons heavier than 10 pounds (the limit of mage hand) that you disarm from enemies, or even carry potions to pour in characters' mouths.
Then again I've always been a fan of spells that allow a lot of room for creativity and DM+Player compromise. Depending on player and DM, Unseen Servant can continue being a worthless overlooked spell or it can be super fun.
LeetMasterAce I put Unseen Servant on my Rogue Arcane Trickster too. She would summon him before battle and he would go fetch her daggers for her (slow moving daggers of returning lol, but useful nonetheless). She was also an alchemist and used him to supply the help action for almost all her survival checks to gather ingredients and use her alchemist's tools. Picking that spell was the best in-character decision I ever made.
That's awesome! Using Unseen Servant to get Help action advantage on skill checks in non-threatening situations. Very clever!
why use that when you have a invisible mage hand that can do almost all the same things already?
There's a Bard in my party which constantly uses Unseen Actor, which is very similar, he's used it to douse flames, open boxes, bypass certain traps, and to help him perform juggling tricks.
Turtle Pirate Master bonus action to command an active unseen servant vs your action for mage hand
Not exactly underrated, but Guidance is one that is either not touched at all, or used anytime anyone wants to do anything ever.
I think my Players don't get that healing word is more usefull in combat than cure wounds, am I right by this one? I think that bless too never gets used.
ok, do they use them on characters that get knocked unconcsious or on low hp characters? My Players always want to be on max hp before every fight that means too they use to much resources, how should tell them? I give them some gaming tips during Sessions like you can't kill everything sometimes you have to flee from the dragon and they get upset about it.
I agree, healing as a bonus action is potentially so useful and Ive hardly ever seen it used
Earlthepirate The Bard in the group I DM for multi-classed into a Life Cleric for the Wisdom plus Cleric level bonus. I house ruled Charisma plus Wisdom stack with healing word only and I'll tell ya whut, it's a GREAT "OH SHIT" button.
nice, my Player wants to multiclass the first time as a Aarockra ranger/ live cleric multiclass. he gets around really fast in the battle field and in worst case scenarios can lift Players to safty and fly away. ( in a fight with a normal amount of archers)
actually they don't Play such games or RPG's in General but they love D&D
my players completely trivialised a twin boss encounter by holding two hold person spells withe the paladin casting bless for the bonus concentration saves. then they just wailed on them.
Hold him down and beat the shit out of him. As someone for whom D&D was still the nerdy thing when I was young, I'm familiar with the technique.
Sounds like the rematch needs to be a Kraken!
(Freedom of movement, FTW!)
_Mending_. If armor and weapons actually break (as they should), and if bottles and pots actually shatter (ditto), mending is pretty useful, and saves lots of money on repairs (or new items).
_Expeditious Retreat_. Probably the most underrated 1st level spell. Good for escaping, sure, but for any player able to think strategically, it is truly awesome. You can use it to stretch out a battlefield, draw monsters out to chase you, while your companions can go in and kill the boss or steal the item (free the person) that you need to steal (free). If you have curing ability, you can swoop in and save downed companions that would otherwise be doomed. And if you are an Arcane Trickster who also has Cunning Action, you can be a true terror, sweeping in and out of combat, and being near-impossible to hit except by the best shooters.
_Alter Self_. More effective and versatile than _Disguise Self_ (which most players are aware of), in terms of sneaking into places you have no business being. And if you are near water, you get a water-breathing ability that everyone else needs _Water Breathing_ or a magic item to pull off.
Fire spells, in my book, are overrated. Everyone uses them, but if the battle environment (trees, houses) is taken seriously, they are more trouble than they're worth.
You really like transmutation spells don't you...
I didn't even notice that, but yes.
Expeditious Retreat doesn't really mingle well with Cunning Action, since Cunning Action uses your bonus action and Expeditious Retreat allows you to cast Dash as a bonus action.
Expeditious retreat lasts for, I believe, a minute. So, it actually works really well with cunning action, just not for 1 round. For 9 other rounds it's great.
It lasts 10 minutes. We played through an AL mod that requires you to keep a timer, basically, since you only have 20 minutes. I cast Expeditious Retreat on round 1 and enjoyed it for the rest of the mod :)
You guys really like evocation and damage spells. When I play, I like playing like a Blue Wizard in Magic the Gathering. Never let the DM have a turn. Counterspell is the most important and powerful 3rd level spell. But for underrated spells. Telekinesis. It is one of the highest level spells that bypasses legendary saves. But yeah, I played a Lore Bard to 12th level that never had a dam age spell. The DM actually started creating encounters with monsters immune to some of my spells.
what kind of things would you do with telekinesis?
The strongest points about telekinesis are it's spell slot efficiency (you can make one 5th level slot last the full duration of 10 minutes EASILY since you can keep using your actions after casting it), and the ability to bypass legendary saves, as it involves an ability contest (target's strength vs. your spellcasting modifier). My favorite usage is to get an easy prone on any creature without a flying speed. It's much better than having a Strength-based character simply shoving the target because it's a contested Strength check for Telekinesis, not Athletics or Acrobatics. So any creatures with low strength or reliance on their Athletics/Acrobatics profiencies are pretty much boned, though this becomes less effective once you start seeing creatures with over 20 STR.
Telekinesis gets even better if you're a sorcerer, since you can abuse your ability to break the action economy by spending every action on it while still getting to quicken spells. It can get silly if you optimize into a Sorcerer with a 2-3 level Warlock dip, because then you could use Telekinesis to pull someone into the air, and then smack them with Repelling Blast - Eldritch Blasts to send them flying.
It's an absolutely fantastic controller spell. The biggest problem is that it's competing with other 5th level spells, namely Animate Objects, Dominate Person, Hold Monster, and Destructive Wave for bards.
lift up a 1000lb rock, and drop it on someones head. lift someone up, 30ft, flip them over, drop them on their head, or off a cliff. Grab ANY beholder, lich, wizard, basilisk, etc, that requires line of sight, turn them around and literally face them into a corner and hold them there.
Its single target and not self cast... so I think you can twin spell it...
its concentration and lasts many turns.. quicken spell+tk on later turns should also allow casting while still doing TK actions.
TK almost seems like a must for sorcerer. so much versatility, and economy for the limited spells.
hold a targets mouth shut, or arms behind their back, so they can't attack or use spells.
Pick up your barbarian ally, and move them 30ft closer, over obstacles, etc. pick up and drop your rogue, directly on that giants back. or, save your tk as a reaction, to pull a wounded ally OUT of combat immediately. Or, move an enemy out of position, drawing attacks of opportunity on them. Pick up an enemy and hold them in the air as a meat shield in front of you.
Pull rugs out from under people, tables, etc.
Use it to fly, without fly.
All of this is delightful good fun, however, you can't use forced movement to provoke opportunity attacks. Also, facing isn't really a thing so they can always still look back at you so putting them in a corner doesn't work, but behind a wall does though you'd have to be able to see it... It's restrained, not stunned so the condition is very specifically laid out, so holding spellcaster's mouths shut is also a no go. Also, it doesn't say it can prone anywhere in the description, so that's a no.
Pretty sure you can't twin it, since it has the potential to target more than one object with the spell, so no go there. It does work to use the action with quickened spells though.
The rest is solid gold though, so managing allies around the battlefield is fun, as is making some non-strength melee enemy a piece of cover for yourself and all of the weight dropping and cliff tossing shenanigans. I'm playing a non-combat oriented Abjurer anti-caster who does nothing but counter and hinder, zero damaging, and this feels like a fun addition to his repitoire of annoyance for when no spellslingers are afoot!
Cassandra you can't turn creatures around only move them
I saved the entire party with Suggestion recently.
We were being chased by a huge force of goblins led by a half-orc leader, and we were low on HP, abilities, spells, everything. We'd been trying to run from them for an entire day. I'm a bard, down to my last spell slot, when the barbarian and I finally manage to lure the half-orc leader behind a building out of sight of his army (who is going to catch up in 2 rounds, mind you).
The boss crits the barbarian, dropping him down to 12Hp or so, and I very almost no offensive potential, so what do I do?
I cast Suggestion on him to basically say "They went thatta way!"
Half-orc boss goes haring off in that direction, his entire army follows, while we're just hiding behind a couple barrels a few feet away from them.
elie challita that sounds more like modify memory than suggestion. Suggestion suggests an action and it has to be reasonable. He wouldn't reasonably chase you going a different way if he can clearly see you in front of him. However with modify memory you could wipe his memory and hide and he could think you ran a way you didn't.
Justin Ashman The suggestion only needs to be worded in a way that sounds reasonable. It doesn't actually have to be reasonable, although it does have to be a suggestion, not simple misinformation like "they went thatta way!"
@@Tengokuchi ....with your description,suggestion is pretty much useless.the suggested (haha) effect listed in the spell is to "make a knight give his treasured warhorse to the first beggar he sees"
Not very reasonable sounding,does it?
I like the choices in this video. I have benefited personally from using sleet storm, but you have given me some great ideas to add to my wizard with it. Thanks guys! Below is a short story of when I used sleet storm to my parties advantage.
My one user of sleet storm came when our party was trapped in what was described as a giant oven with two big ass fire elementals. I use it to douse the residual flames on our melee characters (causing 3d6 for damage per turn) while making it a more difficult decision for them to approach the softer members of the group through difficult terrain vs. Trying to pummel our tanks.
I think for a Level 1 Spell (granted only just started using a spellcaster in 5th), Sleep is really quite useful. Seeing a couple of guards, or even a small collection of low powered enemies, allows you to remove the obstacle with surprising ease. Or at least cause some major confusion as one or two of their buddies suddenly drop to the floor snoring gently.
While it's definitely a great spell, it's not underrated as it's widely considered one of the best spells in low level 5e
To be fair, a monster with 1hp is just as deadly or effective as it is at 100hp so its not terrible just trying to max dps concerning why the other referenced spells are popular. However I must say of the spells listed I definitely agree with sleet storm being under rated since battlefield control is very strong in my opinion for D&D 5e.
Arthur DeLuca there are several monsters that grow weaker as their hit points are whittled down. Swarms being a prime example.
Never thought of sleet storm as a good spell. But now that you guys have broken it down, it really is an awesome spell! I am going to be taking this spell now!
I'm a 2nd edition player and I love hearing you guys talk about it with nostalgia I only play 2nd
Animate objects? The arrows in my quiver put out 10d8+20 with a fifth level cast
Minor Illusion. Always overlooked by the groups I've run.
Sleet storm has been used to great effect in one of the campaigns I'm running. It neutered a group of four Stone Golems to the point were 5 level 7 characters beat them handily. Definitely a spell everyone should consider since battlefield control in my experience ends up winning the day more often than not.
Wait, that Nerdarchy is a physical thing! I've not noticed, I thouht it was put in doing post.
People tend to not think about battlefield control unless it's kill monster.
Underrated Spells:
Cantrip - Minor Illusion (target has to inspect the illusion to disbelieve, which they lose one round doing so)
- Prestidigitation (instantly light or snuff out torches or campfires allowing your group to get the drop on an enemy if they don't have darkvision; chill or warm 1 cubic foot of non-living
material, which can be used in arctic or desert settings to keep warm or cool as needed)
1st lv - Shield (+5 shield AC as a reaction)
2nd lv - Pyrotechnics (cast on a fire (like a dropped or thrown torch or flame sphere) to create an AOE smoke cloud or bright light to make enemies save or be blinded, creatures that are susceptible
to bright light get added problems)
3rd lv - Gaseous Form (used in conjunction with fog cloud and you can get behind the enemy or evade them completely, can get into areas where there is a crack or small opening like a keyhole)
- Leomund's Tiny Hut (dome of force where you can change the color of the dome but still can see through it, you can't cast spells through it but can shoot arrows and other such things that
are non-magical.
4th lv - Hallucinatory Terrain (the imagination is the limit on how you want to do this but as for obscuring a group for an ambush or setting up a hideout it works really well)
5th lv - Animate Objects (a fun way to do this is to use it in combination with other spells, animate a bunch of torches and then use pyrotechnics on one and then have all the torches attack at
advantage)
There are many more but I didn't want to dive into them all.
please do :)
thank you bi
Reverse Gravity is fun as well as Enlarge Reduce.
Left out the best imo 2nd level spell, Phantasmal Force, all you need to do is cast it on someone, make the image they see be a inside of a iron maiden and if they fail which they'll most likely do they'll spend all there time screaming and crying in pain standing still doing nothing and taking damage every round. Such a beast of a spell that has a crazy wide range of use.
Even though I haven't played a game, I feel like Unseen Servant is really under appreciated. This is essentially an extra pair of invisible hands to do whatever you wish with. Looks like a trap? Send Unseen Servant across. Want to cause a disruption/distraction in a crowded tavern? Have Unseen Servant punch someone. Want to get some information (assuming Unseen Servant can hear)? Send Unseen Servant to ease drop on the conversation, and write down whatever they heard when they get back. So many uses.
vampiric touch never have seen it used but it makes a good warlock tank in my opinion
melee while concentration kind of hurts it.
I prefer Thunderwave to Burning Hands. A fifteen foot square of 2d8 thunder damage and knockback just has a lot more utility, as far as I'm concerned, when compared with a 15 foot cone for 3d6 fire damage.
2d8 around you also has you surrounded which is bad
AlmightyK Really? My DM ruled it as merely having to originate from your tile, rather than being centered on it. Even still, the utility of the knockback would help if you're surrounded.
AlmightyK www.sageadvice.eu/2015/04/13/thunderwave-spell-cube/
I mean that means you have put yourself in the middle of a group, as opposed to burning hands which lets you attack an opposing line
AlmightyK You still don't have to. It's a 15 foot cube you're standing outside of, as opposed to a 15 foot cone.
My favorite spells are always the terrain control ones. control the battlefield and you'll have a major (and visible) effect that helps your teammates. plus they always have such cool descriptors. I'd rather makes the trees and bushes rise to attack and snare my foes than chuck out some fire, any day XD
I like spells that add a control ability, even with low damage.
Ice Slick from Pathfinder is one Im fond of. 5 foot burst of thin ice, knocks any targets in the area prone barring a reflex save on cast, and leaves slick ice terrain hindering movement. Great crowd control and zoning for a second level spell. 1d6 cold damage, +1d per level up to 10.
Enlarge humanoid for allies to add into intimidation for a berserker. Because as a story teller, I have thought on it, just now many people would know magic on sight? If a guy could suddenly grow to twice his size and hulk out, some might have to pass intelligence checks an the like to recognize the effect for what it is, or detect magic. But how many in most areas would have that, and would monsters really get such a check? It adds a fun twist into things.
sleet storm and cloud of daggers sounds fun
Cloud of daggers in a sleet storm even funner.
Nerdarchist Dave
@@Nerdarchy oh god!
Remember. 40' radius is FOUR TIMES - not twice - the area of 20' radius. Radius is squared.. (3.14*400 vs 3.14*1600)
Curse you maaaaaath!
Nerdarchist Dave
Light. Our fight was in the Underdark, and my allies were caccooned, so I cast Light on one caccoon, blinding the entire battlefield of enemies that had us surrounded, giving me the chance to cut my Allies free and rebalance the fight.
Aid is an amazing spell for a questgiving NPC. They send the party on an adventure but also give them a bump for the first 8 hours of it, giving them 5~40 additional HP. Imagine giving the first level party 40 extra hit points for their first quest tho.
sleet storm totally made a few hill giants useless. it was supposed to be a difficult encounter and turned out to be easy because of this spell. my players were loving it.
I can agree on Sleet Storm's effectiveness. Although my players were none to happy with this battle, for they were caught in this storm and suffered greatly.
Good question...the spells I most commonly see underused are conjuration spells and certain necromantic spells. I see people use disintegrate all the time, but I never see anyone trying to do the old horde master necromancer anymore. Which in 3.5 was my favorite thing to do. the biggest reason is that the raise dead spells in 5e suck ass. in the games I dm I actually modify the necromancy spells just to try and get more people to use them, and it still never happens. Conjuration, on the other hand, has great spells but most of them don't deal instant damage so most people aren't interested.
I love conjuration spells but the problem is the 1 minute casting time. Most encounters don't allow that kind of spell to be used, as for the necromancy spells, if you think about it they are rather good whilst being balanced at the same time, it's just difficult walking around with undead.
clericofchaos1 Wizards are terrible summoners in 5e. Druids totally stole their cake.
eh, depends on how the world works. I personally subscribe to the idea that necromancy is not inherently evil and should be studied like any other form of magic, so as I dm I build worlds and civilizations that have that mindset as well. with that being said, I don't think the necromancy spells in 5e are balanced in the slightest. by making it so you have to cast the spell every 24 hours they are actually punishing people who decide to play that way. which is why I make the spells permanent. makes more sense from the limited resources standpoint.
yea, pretty much.
clericofchaos1 I like the whole mechanic of using the spell to control undead not merely create them. it also creates a situation of be careful what you do because the undead aren't intrinsically loyal to you so you can be killed by your own creations.
I really like plant growth as it doesn't create a obscured area.
One of the other fantastic things about Aid is that If you have 2 or 3 allies making death saves - well, now they're back up. Can be one of the most efficient ranged ways to get people on their feet.
Ottos Iressitible Dance. 6th level. Target has to do comical dance, no save upon casting, everyone has advantage on attacks.
I've never seen anyone use the slow spell. it's so freaking powerful. also I've seen people use burning hands at a third level while they had fireball.
I agree. IMO, in D&D 5e, Slow is better than Haste.
Burning Hands is better at close quarters or while in a small room than Fireball.
I'll trade less damage for more accuracy any day.
mdiem Lightning bolt has the same damage as fireball and has a line shape.
@@ollie6458 and your in no way garunteed to have that prepaired
I've always thought the "Mend" spell from 2E was underrated. It's very useful for excusing thing most DMs handwave away. It can fix broken weapons, hole in armor, collapsed walls, cracked timber and most importantly all the hole in clothes after taking HP damage.
Sleet storm has been used once in my games, it covered all the enemies, the cleric that casted it kept using guiding bolt and things like that to negate disadvantage the ranged character peppered them while the martial kept pushing enemies back in if they got to the edge of the radius
How about Augury. Anybody ever use Augury in your games?
In my group we never use Haste. It used to be our go to spell in Pathfinder but not here. I guess the nerf to it was to big and we have other concentration spells we would rather use.
I agree. In Pathfinder, Haste is supreme, in D&D 5e, Slow is better imo.
I have very few concentration spells, and Slow is one that i always have memorized, it helped so much for the one round that it worked on the Kraken.
Morten Dreier I have noticed that sacrifice in action to cast haste becomes a detriment when battles rarely last longer than a couple rounds
If you have something overwhelming strong with a single swing [looks intensely at the new Hexblade's Curse Bringer] then throwing out Haste isn't so bad. I am working on a 14th level Cleric that dips into Hexblade and the numbers on a swing are beautiful. If I was a Sorcerer, I would gladly throw out Twinned Haste on that and a Barbarian.
Yeah. We also thought about using it when I was playing a Melee Druid and you become something with one powerful strike. And I really like the new Hexblade. I am playing a paladin right now and plan on dipping it.
My Wizard did use burning hands very effectively from right behind the tank. It was part of a whole battle strategy outside against smaller opponents as it would also destroy vegetative cover
Had a sorcerer using Mold Earth completely skip out on an encounter cause when I designed the cave they were gonna be in, the side room full on kobolds had a really small entrance and I had previously told them the cave walls felt like soft earth.
Needless to say, he never took that spell for granted ever again lol
10:10
Technically 40 foot radius is equivalent to 4 fireballs. Just saying.
Devin Colborn k
Actually, Fireball has a 20ft radius
Thank you for pointing this out. I was almost screaming that a radius is half a circle, so double the radius would make 4 fireballs, or you miss out on half the total area.
Well, the equation would be ((pi)40^2)/(pi)(20^2)
the pis cancel and then you're left with 1600 sq. ft/ 400 sq. ft which comes out to equal 4. Soooo yeah, OP is right.
They may have equivalent areas, but 4 fireballs could still not totally cover the area of the sleet storm. Some areas would be hit multiple times, and some not at all.
slow for flying creatures.
concerning the burning hands spell, it is a nice spell to follow up from another touch attack spell, (or to cut rope when you are tied)
concerning the aid spell, it is also a nice spell to help unconscious people up, as it is sort of a ranged heal
Nawh, u Wana upcast precast aid before the fight in one of your higher spell slots. It's legit
Armor of Agathys is definitely a must for any hexblade warlock. Non-concentration spell which gives you temp hp that boost up with each increase in levels and whenever a target damages you with a melee attack and you still have the temp hit points, they take cold damage equal to the temporary hit point maximum, regardless of whether you have the max temporary hit points or just a single one left.
Personally, 3rd level is probably the best level of spells. Maybe mostly because that's when the fun *really* starts with spellcasting. Sure, Fireball and Lightning Bolt are fantastic, but you have alot of others like;
*Revivify*
A literal life-saver. It's a great way to get out of a terrible situation sometimes.
*Dispel Magic*
Fucking hilarious. A real "nope" moment of denying the opponent his big, massive attack or crippling effect.
*Phantom Steed*
Purely a roleplay thing, but *c'mon, man! How cool is that!?* Who'd turn down the opportunity to ride into battle on a flaming skeleton horse or a majestic steed that radiates with the colours of the rainbow?
*Spirit Guardians*
You are not a JoJo fan unless you use this spell when a Cleric at least once.
*Tongues*
Frankly, out of all spells in Dungeons and Dragons, this is the one that I feel you have the least amount of excuse to not have at any given time.
Honestly, it's around level 5 where you also start seeing a steady downfall with spell-interest. They help, absolutely, but they get so... *boring.* 9th level especially is just "Hey, don't sweat it, guys. The game is over now".
Isn't Phantom steed useful in combat too? :o
It might, but there's a big drawback to it. If the phantom steed itself suffers any damage whatsoever, it disappears and ends the spell early.
I thought it was invincible, or at least had a sizeable amount of HP.
As a mage, the steed would give you some really crazy movement speed bonuses while active.
There are so many good ones that I see players pass right over. I usually don't play magic users, but I DM a lot, and I always have to bite my tongue watching players pass over great spells when adding to their spellbooks.
Grease, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Rope Trick, ..
My Light Cleric Tortle roasted a charging mob of goblins with Burning Hands while trying to hold a door last session
Wow actually first...
No I am first.
hmm the beginning of rivalry... ( just kidding )
Really interested in this rivalry. Who will be the ultimate 1ST forever tune in next episode to find out, will Claude be 1st or will earlthepirate be the upset victory.
Find out in the next Episode of Nerdarchy, but I don't know if I would be first because I am European and it was like evening in my country. But that will not stop me from beeing First. ^‿^
I like Catapult, from the free Elemental Evil pdf. 1st level spell. Very likely to hit something if there are multiple targets in a line. Nice way of delivering acid flasks / alchemist's fire / holy water. No verbal component, so if you're being chased or doing sneaky things, you can throw objects to distract and mislead enemies. Plus it arguably does magical (as it's a spell) bludgeoning damage, which few things have any resistance/immunity to.
My goliath cleric used Sleet Storm in a volcano to make the evil king's henchmen slip and fall into the magma below. Such an epic session. About a dozen henchies that we now didn't have to mess with. Hahaha!
Feather Fall. It lets you play with verticality far earlier than you normally could (although only in one direction). Also useful for when air cultists want to make sure gravity still works.
If you're a rogue, get 3 levels of Sorcerer and use a quickened True Strike to get sneak attack damage at every turn (as long as you have spell levels to burn as sorcery points).
Sleet storm + Call Lighting = BOOM!!
Trapped in a slippery thunder storm caused by a powerful and sexy X-men mutant!!!
I actually had a Wizard with Sleet Storm (was focusing him as a CC and Ice or Water Mage). The only other caster, of any form, was a Warlock/Sorcerer combo. Sleet Storm from me for the set up, then the Warlock/Sorcerer basically turned into a twinned Agonizing Eldritch Spear (Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast Invo + Eldritch Spear Invo) gatling gun. It was priceless, to say the least.
Sleet Storm is such a wonderful spell! In my last campaign, we were storming a castle and there were bad guys coming down a flight of stairs. I cast Sleet Storm and the DM decided that since they were on stairs, they had to make an acrobatic roll to see if they're merely prone or if they're falling down the stairs as well - how far below the DC they rolled would determine how far they fell on the stairs. It was so wonderful to have the enemies fall to us, prone at our feet.
In my game? Bless. Cleric NEVER used it. Even after getting a necklace of prayer beads with three bonus action blesses on it. He FINALLY used it in our last session for the first time.
I loved using burning hands and pumping it with KI points with my way of the sun monk. I set fire to 3 taverns while fighting in them, good times :D.
My players stacked a BUNCh of area effects last game, including sleetstorm. Our druid is very resourceful with little used spells, i love it
Centering a Cloud Spell on the Sleet storm is nice. Bonus points if you kill those that come out of this, resurrect them as Zombies and then send them back in to grapple those that are still trapped in there.
Oh my God, thank you for pointing out that Aid is NOT temp HP.
My Artificer is going to stack it with Heroism.
Awesome stuff! Love it!
Shadow Blade. Level 2 Illusion Spell requiring concentration that does 2D8 Psychic damage and lasts a minute. "The spell lets you form a sword of shadow in your hand, which counts as a weapon you can use to make attacks. It’s a simple melee weapon that anyone who casts the spell is proficient with. It has finesse, so you can attack with either Strength or Dexterity.You can throw it like a handaxe if you’d like, and it does more damage than a greatsword on a hit (2d8 psychic plus your attack ability modifier).That damage increases when you cast it with a higher-level slot, up to 5d8 for a 7th level or higher spell slot.
If you drop it or throw it for an attack, it vanishes at the end of your turn. And you can call it back with a bonus action, so long as you’re still concentrating on the spell.
Two friends of mine were able to create 2 gallons of water instantly, at first level we came across two swarms of giant spider and a pit, put the two together and you have yourself a pit full of spiders and they cant crawl out of it (Then followed by me throwing oil and a torch into that pit to ensure that none of those awful, awful creatures ever make it out.)
D&D 3.5
I totally owned a boss fight with minions using Sleet Storm on my pacifist wizard gnome, Sir Duke Lord Baron Alabaster Barbatos Jr. IV, Esquire. I used no damage dealing spells on this guy, he was totally support and crowd control. (But mostly I ended up doing crowd control and let the rest of the party handle themselves.) And omg, once you have a wizard doing nothing but crowd control, you can really turn whole battles. Charms, Holds, Sleeps, Movement hampering effects, etc. and mostly all of them being AoE spells. It was just fun for being the one character that never did any damage.
The best thing about Aid is that the extra hit points aren't treated as temporary, so you the extra hit points can be healed, whether by other spells, potions or even hit die.
Whilst not the best use of a ninth level spell slot you can give three PCs an effective 40 extra hit points, or 120 through the party. Depending on the situation its comparable, or even greater than, Wish.
I was running a West Marches game not too long back, and Burning Hands was pretty much on every Spellcaster of every type. I would actually go as far as to say that my players often disregarded other spells to use it more frequently.
sleet storm was a turning point in our storm kings thunder game saving our asses both against Chief Guh and her goons and on the boat where heckaton was held
Don't know if they are particularly underused, but, on the topic of multiple spellcasters stacking up AoEs: have a bard, a nature cleric, a druid, a warlock, a sorcerer and a mage; picking a target you wish to unleash the bowels of hell apon, the bard centers Stinking Cloud, the cleric centers Spike Growth, the druid centers Ice Storm, the warlock centers Hunger of Hadar, the sorcerer centers Sleet Storm, and the mage centers Evard's Inappropriate Tentacles.
Now you will have an 80' circle that you need to make a dex save or suffer 2d8 bludgeoning and 4d6 cold (half on save), a _separate_ dex save or be prone (making the other saves disadvantaged); with a central core of 40' that is darkened, deals an automatic 2d6 cold, with a _third_ dex save vs 2d6 acid damage, and a _fourth_ dex save or suffer an additional 3d6 bludgeoning and be restrained, not to mention taking 2d4 slashing damage for every 5' through this difficult terrain, assuming that the con save to keep from being immobilized and retching succeeds, while on ice, dodging hailstones, dancing with otherworldly tentacles, in pitch blackness.
I had a necromancer once who would always cast "Slow" in the first round and then have his skeletons pile onto anyone who failed their save. Between the lowered AC, single attack and reduced movement + a gang of flanking skeletons it was a death sentence.
Tidal Wave 🌊, especially when a Bard pairs it with Slow and Bane. Not as much damage as Fireball and Lightning Bolt but you knock enemies prone, you can basically spell shape it, it has a range of 120ft, and as a Lore Bard you can Cutting Words to make sure you get fails on the saving through. Very good spell when you can’t spell shape.
Hold Person - level 2 spell. Paralyse on failed WIS save. Bump to level 3 for two humanoids, level 4 three humanoids, level 5 four and so on. Scales against DC for the save, so at high character levels, I use this to paralyse entire groups of enemies. Then the party gets ADV to hit them and critical on hits. I also have paired it with Create Thrall from the Great Old One Warlock.
I had a Cleric/Sorcerer built around False life and Aid. I had more hitpoints then the fighter and could deal comparable damage with Green Flame blade. Twinned spell and Extend spell as my sorcerer abilities turned me into a buff machine that drastically increased our groups survivability. Was pretty damn fun for me, and the rest of the group loved it to.
sticking under level 3 spells, I'd give honorable mention to command, hold person (auto crit), spirit weapon (use that bonus action), mirror image, blink (both making you untargetable), dispell magic(second counter spell if you are patient), and water walk
Summon Water. I love this spell, and no one hardly uses it. I did have a friend whose pet got killed by another member of the group. He waited until they were in an air tight room and filled it with water to drown them. It was boss!
Burning hands gets used a LOT at our table. one of our players said "Look at this, I want to show you something" then hit the enemy with a BURNING HANDS to the face. Now almost every time it gets cast, someone yells "SHOW EM SOMETHING"
I'm playing an eladrin bladesinger. Burning hands is essentially my go to, because I'm always in melee with my enemies. Misty step right behind a group of low level enemies and drop them all in one go.
I really like the Cantrip Light. Dark combat in the middle of the night? No issue. Cast Light on a dagger, and then make sure you plant that dagger in one of your foes? Now that one is really easy to track AND the light radius it gives off helps out your non-darkvision types like the human barbarian that really wants to smash something. I've gotten to use it on crossbow bolts, and arrows as well. Nice field expedient tracker for where your target is for everyone in the party.
I know it's not much, but Feather Fall helps a LOT either in dungeons or difficult terrains, like mountains and crevasses. And it can be used as an offensive spell as well. Given, you need a catapult, a subject and Feather Fall on the catapulted subject. Execution well done.
Plus I really like the combo Flesh to Stone - Carve Stone - Stone to Flesh, but maybe it's just me.
I personnaly love Loemund Tiny Hut, it's ritual 3rd level so no spell slot and even no spell prepared for a wizard, it protects the party from ambush at night, it's a really good spell when you're outdoor. can be dispelled or desintegrated, but it's worth anyway. you can choose to have a small light inside but it's invisible from the outside and nobody can enter or peek in. I think it's underrated.
Sleet Storm heavily obscures the area so you won't be able to shoot into it with ranged attacks without penalty and arguably won't know where your targets are located.
Thunderwave has made burning hands all, but obsolete. Better area, better damage type, useful secondary effect, and slightly less damage. A fire specialist might take burning hands over thunderwave.
Thanks for pointing out aid is not temporary hit points. I had assumed it was temporary hp, but it does seem more useful now.