Remember Players! Everything you character has.. the monsters also have. Never build Silvery Barbs if you don't want to tpk every single campaign.. as the enemy casters will have that bullshit CounterSpell for a lvl 1 slot burnage. Its not the same thing.. But Veterans and DMs will understand what I mean.
Another point in favor of magic missile is if you target an enemy caster with multiple darts they have to roll multiple concentration checks. Sure the DC won’t be high but you can eventually break their concentration.
That's my favorite use of it. Multiple guaranteed hits against an opponent that's concentrating on a spell makes for a pretty decent chance they'll lose that concentration. If only because it's also a good way to alert your table to your intention and what you think the best course of action is, without actually metagaming. Whether they (want to) pick up on that or not is always up in the air, but it's a good way to multitask without breaking any of the game rules.
@@jamiedorsey4167 You are correct. Jeremy Crawford specifically ruled on Concentration saves and Magic Missile requiring each missile to force a new save. The reason being that each missile was separate and could target different targets.
@@bjornstahle4652 Well actually I was arguing the opposite. One concentration check per MM spell not each missile is how all my tables have ruled it. It seems Crawford has said otherwise. But looking at the discussion for a minute most people say the language is a bit blurry, so it mainly comes down to table ruling. I guess if it were up to me, I'd say one concentration check. Multiple seems OP for a level 1 spell. Or an uncommon wand of MM for that matter.
By this ruling it would also cause three failed Death saves, as each would be an independant source of damage and each source of damage to a critical character is an automatic failed death save, instantly finishing them off.
Id add find familiar and counterspell to your list. Removing haste and slow. Pehaps wall of force instead of animate. From the perspective of what breaks the typical game rules. People multiclass ro get these low level spells and bards consistently take counterspell. Wall of Force breaks the rules by offering no save.
Class specific top tens are really cool, its less generic and more situational but in a good way. Kind of like the maneuver episode, you can do a metamagic or feats to take type of videos
Raw if you have a familiar they can appear within 25 feet of you in an unoccupied space. U can also cast misty step through a familiar. So unless a door has 25 feet of steel basically a wizard can go into any room he wants
A couple of drawbacks for animate objects is they don't deal magical damage so a lot of high lvl monsters might be resistant to their damage. It can also slow down gameplay if you play each object separately instead of bundling their attacks and movement together
What sucks is being roped into the needed spells. Like if one doesn't have counterspell then there are some nasty spells that can't be prevented. Remove curse is also a go to or else your party is stuck with a cursed item. Identify is great especially if the dm tells you if an item is cursed, since it normally doesn't. But if it doesn't any creature can take time to focus on the item and learn its properties in only an hour, making Identify not as important if downtime is had. However fireball is good, if you are forced to take counterspell, dispel magic, remove curse, now you only have one spot to take it before you start playing suboptimal. So in certain parties a wizards spell list is very predictable.
I’d like to submit a new contender for #1: Sending. The sheer number of campaigns I have seen completely rewritten when the DM underestimates the power of being able to text any powerful (or simply well-placed) NPC you’ve met at any time…!
@@micahaka I mean, that’s a fair question. But in terms of making a character that can shape the world and have a significant impact on the story, it’s both impactful and sometimes adds an interesting note of pseudo-realism. if your characters are investigating the BBEG and find she’s planning to invade the kingdom with an army, you can try to race back to deliver the message in time, or the king (or whoever) can be rallying his defense 10 minutes from now, you’re still out in the field, and your mission goes from “try to stop an entire army with four guys” to “try to SANDBAG the army with four guys,” which is a LOT easier, you get to have your cake and eat it too! Or alternatively, when the dragon turtle starts swimming threateningly towards your ship, (if your DM is willing to allow “I’m looking right at it” as a form of “being familiar with the target,”) the right 25-word message each way that ignores language boundaries can turn an enemy into an ally real quick! Those are both actual examples from play, and they did a lot more than Fireball would have.
"you're not always going to have the opportunity to use fireball if the campaign ends up favoring closer quarters at times" Me: "I didn't ask how close they are, I said I cast Fireball!" also Sculpt Spells if you really need it.
Shield has to be my personal #1, but not necessarily for Wizards - I think it really shines with a small Wizard, Sorcerer, or (Hexblade) Warlock multiclass dip. Two of my favorite characters that I've played were a Fighter/War Magic Wizard and a Paladin/Wild Magic Sorcerer, both of whom made extensive use of the spell to increase their survivability. There's a certain benefit to low level spells for exactly this reason, even above crazy stuff like Fireball, Wish, Polymorph, Animate Objects, etc. Even the 1 level difference up to Misty Step makes it less universal, though I'll still almost always pick it once I can.
Eldritch Knights also love the spell because they generally want spells that don't use their Intelligence stat or don't have good scaling. And they can wear plate armor by default.
My scribe wizard carried a two braces of silvered daggers across his chest. When he wanted to animate them he’d summon ten glyphs in the air that attached to the hilts and made them fly. Then he’d roll low on all the attacks and do zero damage but it was cool to imagine XD Cagwen was cursed
One of the best benefits of magic missile is to try to drop someone's concentration I've seen this done to drive on spellcasting Boss monsters to almost instantly nullify some of the strongest spells they can cast.
That one time the DM tells you a story where 100 genies all cast the wish spell. While, you sit there listening to a 4 hour story your not involved in.
I'd honestly suggest a spell that fits your character more than a "must-take" spell. There's a point of table hyper-competency where just about every campaign prominently features at least half of these spells, despite the existence of over 500 spells in the game. Basically, unless you have a bard that uses illusions to augment their performances and would believably take the likes of Hypnotic Pattern or Major Image (both great spells), I strongly recommend picking a "neat" Magical Secret instead.
Also, if you are a lore bard for magical secrets gained at 6th level I suggest taking counterspell and revivify. If two other characters in your party already have either of these spells you could substitute in the fireball spell. If your bard is not a lore bard for your 10th level magical secrets counterspell and greater steed are good choices because you have access to the resurrection spell so the revivify spell is less important but cheaper to cast.
I've used polymorph as a utility spell often: giant eagles, burrowing giant badgers, a last ditch giant ape for a low HP fighter, squids when our ship was attacked. Good spell. Most of these wizard spells in this vid are bard ones too, bards are great!@@davea6314
If one single target of the Hypnotic Pattern spell makes its' saving throw, then it shakes one other creature out of the spell. This creature does the same until all the targets are no longer affected. So you got one round out of the spell.
A truly evil combination if you can get it to land on a target is to start with Polymorph to turn the target into a worm or other low-HP creature. Next available turn, drop Power Word: Kill on the effected creature. This will bypass the rule that when a creature reaches 0 hit points, they revert to their original form, as RAW, Power Word: Kill doesn't reduce the creature to 0 hit points - it kills them outright. The creature *could* revert to their original form, but they're still dead.
Top 10s are fine but I'm curious what spells people use Wish to duplicate most often in combat. How many lvl 17-20 wizards are throwing up Spirit Guardians at 9th lvl with a Wish spell or have you found a potential better use for it.
There are plenty of spells that have minute long or longer casting times or spells with costly components. Choosing from 1 of those every day shouldn't be a problem
I've been looking for something different than the same old standard fare that everyone usually takes, you know, the spells that fly under the radar. How about Ray of Enfeeblement? After an attack roll the monster does half damage with weapon attacks that rely on STR... claws and bites are natural weapons that rely on STR, so are horns, tail swipes etc. And at the end of the monsters turn it makes a CON save to end the effect, if it fails it suffers around round of being weak as a new born kitten. No matter who he attacks in your group he deals half damage. This effectively gives everyone in your party the best ability of a barbarian... taking half damage.
Concentration and saves per round is why I went back to 2e for my group. Too many ways to shrug off the affects of bosses, instead of getting the upper hand the party feels no fear of anything.
I don't know man, 30ft is really short, and you can only hit each creature once for an average of only 33 force damage, also teleporting to within melee range as a wizard feels like something you don't want to do (maybe save blade singer). For the same 5th level spell slot you can cast animate object, for instance, from which you get 10 summons dealing 1d4 + 4 with +8 to hit as a start, sooo sorry gotta disagree here.
What about Mage Armor? Like Shield, an absolute life saver for a squishy caster, and it lasts 8 hour with no concentration. Detect Magic and Identify are must-haves, and I would make a case for Dimension Door (you can save another beside you). And Fly, other than Find Familiar of course? Wizards are also about utility, not only blast and damage, dude! (Says the Bladesinger wielding a 5th level Shadowblade 😂)
If a spell can end a combat encounter then that combat wasnt a challenge for you in the first place. So many monsters at higher levels will have immunity or advantage on those effects plus the dm can always put that on other monster's
No Prestidigitation? It is the single most USEFUL spell in the entire spellbook. All you have to do is be a bit creative with it and you would be SHOCKED just what you can break with it.
Yep! It is, by far. With honorable mentions going to Mold Earth, Mage Hand, and Shape Water, at least for creative players. The amount of game breaking shenanigans you can do with a pocket backhoe, a 3D printer spell, or a way to manipulate things from 30 feet away is simply ridiculous. Especially when none of those things use up spell slots. Then again, he didn't mention Find Familiar either... Scouting, spying, using them to teleport through doors or walls, giving your party members advantage, giving downed party members Healing Potions, manipulating small objects from 100 feet away, casting touch spells through them, or even using the effects of the Dragons Breath spell through them, and the list goes on. Instead he has Haste... Meh.
@anonymouse2675 my players once used Mold Earth to do a CATASTROPHIC amount of damage to, and cripple, a Clay Golem. After all... clay is just a type of EARTH. He used it to pop its arms off like Lego pieces.
Haste feels much stronger than it actually is. I believe tabletop builds calculated how good it is compared to bless and the difference is so small it's negligable. But bless doesn't have the downside of robbing your ally one turn if your concentration breaks. Not to mention the 3rd level spell slot.
Bonus points to Magic Missile, as it being multiple instances of guaranteed damage means that one casting of it can take a party member from unconscious-but-stable to instant dead from three failed death saves. Good for when big bosses are ruled to make death saves by the DM.
You say "hasn't appeared as often" and then pick the literal third most mentioned spell. Just for that, may your DM only ever let you pick animals you've personally seen in game as Polymorph creatures!
I want to add to Magic Missile here, in that it's VERY good at busting concentration. Each dart is its own damage instance, which means a caster has to save X amount of times (qual to spell level +2) to maintain concentration. Assuming a CON saving throw equal to effective attack bonus, this tends to have a minimum 14.3% chance to break concentration without disadvantage at CR 16. At tiers 1 & 2 it averages to 72.5% effective chance to break concentration without disadvantage if all missiles strike a single target, unless they Shield, but that takes their reaction which then can't be used to Counterspell or trigger opportunity attacks. The only other spell that's comparable to busting concentration (without massive damage, so no Fireball or Lightning Bolt) is Sleet Storm, which forces the conc. check against your own Spell Save DC, which (assuming effective accuracy) is an average 35% chance to bust concentration (assumiing +4 spellMod at 5th and +5 spellMod at 8th, and without magic items).
I like the idea of doing class-specific top tens! More please!
Not even an honorable mention to Counterspell ?
Screw that spell, lol
Counterspell is probably best save for a "great for all casters" not pointing out just wizard spells
Sorcerers are better at casting it
Remember Players! Everything you character has.. the monsters also have.
Never build Silvery Barbs if you don't want to tpk every single campaign.. as the enemy casters will have that bullshit CounterSpell for a lvl 1 slot burnage.
Its not the same thing.. But Veterans and DMs will understand what I mean.
@@davelynx2937 barbs isn’t even broken for the players if they don’t spam it every single opportunity which 99% of players won’t
Another point in favor of magic missile is if you target an enemy caster with multiple darts they have to roll multiple concentration checks.
Sure the DC won’t be high but you can eventually break their concentration.
Pretty sure that's not RAW, the spell says the missiles all strike simultaneously. I think Crawford has said likewise.
That's my favorite use of it. Multiple guaranteed hits against an opponent that's concentrating on a spell makes for a pretty decent chance they'll lose that concentration. If only because it's also a good way to alert your table to your intention and what you think the best course of action is, without actually metagaming. Whether they (want to) pick up on that or not is always up in the air, but it's a good way to multitask without breaking any of the game rules.
@@jamiedorsey4167 You are correct. Jeremy Crawford specifically ruled on Concentration saves and Magic Missile requiring each missile to force a new save. The reason being that each missile was separate and could target different targets.
@@bjornstahle4652 Well actually I was arguing the opposite. One concentration check per MM spell not each missile is how all my tables have ruled it.
It seems Crawford has said otherwise. But looking at the discussion for a minute most people say the language is a bit blurry, so it mainly comes down to table ruling.
I guess if it were up to me, I'd say one concentration check. Multiple seems OP for a level 1 spell. Or an uncommon wand of MM for that matter.
By this ruling it would also cause three failed Death saves, as each would be an independant source of damage and each source of damage to a critical character is an automatic failed death save, instantly finishing them off.
Id add find familiar and counterspell to your list. Removing haste and slow. Pehaps wall of force instead of animate. From the perspective of what breaks the typical game rules.
People multiclass ro get these low level spells and bards consistently take counterspell. Wall of Force breaks the rules by offering no save.
100%
My party has taken out an adult dragon with wall of force... it sort of trivialized the encounter.
Class specific top tens are really cool, its less generic and more situational but in a good way. Kind of like the maneuver episode, you can do a metamagic or feats to take type of videos
Raw if you have a familiar they can appear within 25 feet of you in an unoccupied space. U can also cast misty step through a familiar. So unless a door has 25 feet of steel basically a wizard can go into any room he wants
A couple of drawbacks for animate objects is they don't deal magical damage so a lot of high lvl monsters might be resistant to their damage. It can also slow down gameplay if you play each object separately instead of bundling their attacks and movement together
What sucks is being roped into the needed spells. Like if one doesn't have counterspell then there are some nasty spells that can't be prevented. Remove curse is also a go to or else your party is stuck with a cursed item. Identify is great especially if the dm tells you if an item is cursed, since it normally doesn't. But if it doesn't any creature can take time to focus on the item and learn its properties in only an hour, making Identify not as important if downtime is had. However fireball is good, if you are forced to take counterspell, dispel magic, remove curse, now you only have one spot to take it before you start playing suboptimal. So in certain parties a wizards spell list is very predictable.
I’d like to submit a new contender for #1: Sending. The sheer number of campaigns I have seen completely rewritten when the DM underestimates the power of being able to text any powerful (or simply well-placed) NPC you’ve met at any time…!
Probably my wizard's most used spell 😊
Why is this good?
@@micahaka I mean, that’s a fair question. But in terms of making a character that can shape the world and have a significant impact on the story, it’s both impactful and sometimes adds an interesting note of pseudo-realism. if your characters are investigating the BBEG and find she’s planning to invade the kingdom with an army, you can try to race back to deliver the message in time, or the king (or whoever) can be rallying his defense 10 minutes from now, you’re still out in the field, and your mission goes from “try to stop an entire army with four guys” to “try to SANDBAG the army with four guys,” which is a LOT easier, you get to have your cake and eat it too! Or alternatively, when the dragon turtle starts swimming threateningly towards your ship, (if your DM is willing to allow “I’m looking right at it” as a form of “being familiar with the target,”) the right 25-word message each way that ignores language boundaries can turn an enemy into an ally real quick! Those are both actual examples from play, and they did a lot more than Fireball would have.
More class specific one this was great. I'd love to see the best for all the casters
I love playing an Eladrin since their “Fey Step” works better than Misty Step and allows them to also cast a leveled spell in the same round.
Wall of Force?
Magic missile is making to break concentration. That is three saves.
Haste? Top 10? No way. Reverse Gravity? Counterspell? Wish? Bigby's Hand? Clone? FORCECAGE?
"you're not always going to have the opportunity to use fireball if the campaign ends up favoring closer quarters at times"
Me: "I didn't ask how close they are, I said I cast Fireball!"
also Sculpt Spells if you really need it.
Shield has to be my personal #1, but not necessarily for Wizards - I think it really shines with a small Wizard, Sorcerer, or (Hexblade) Warlock multiclass dip. Two of my favorite characters that I've played were a Fighter/War Magic Wizard and a Paladin/Wild Magic Sorcerer, both of whom made extensive use of the spell to increase their survivability.
There's a certain benefit to low level spells for exactly this reason, even above crazy stuff like Fireball, Wish, Polymorph, Animate Objects, etc. Even the 1 level difference up to Misty Step makes it less universal, though I'll still almost always pick it once I can.
Eldritch Knights also love the spell because they generally want spells that don't use their Intelligence stat or don't have good scaling. And they can wear plate armor by default.
How dare you leave the mighty Counterspell off this list?!?!
Recommend Banishment, Find Familiar, Levitate and Wall of Force. Don’t leave home without.
My scribe wizard carried a two braces of silvered daggers across his chest. When he wanted to animate them he’d summon ten glyphs in the air that attached to the hilts and made them fly.
Then he’d roll low on all the attacks and do zero damage but it was cool to imagine XD
Cagwen was cursed
Oooo, i like the spell cards tenplate, is that available somewhere? 😁😁😁
the fact that silvery barbs is only #4 is scary, but then again it has to compete with polymorph.....
One of the best benefits of magic missile is to try to drop someone's concentration I've seen this done to drive on spellcasting Boss monsters to almost instantly nullify some of the strongest spells they can cast.
That one time the DM tells you a story where 100 genies all cast the wish spell. While, you sit there listening to a 4 hour story your not involved in.
I never use Fireball.
Lightning Bolt is my third level choice every game.
It is just so awesome to shoot a beam of pure energy from your finger tip.
It's a good choice too
Nice list
As a bard that gets a 4th level spell I’m still not sure what to take.
I'd honestly suggest a spell that fits your character more than a "must-take" spell. There's a point of table hyper-competency where just about every campaign prominently features at least half of these spells, despite the existence of over 500 spells in the game. Basically, unless you have a bard that uses illusions to augment their performances and would believably take the likes of Hypnotic Pattern or Major Image (both great spells), I strongly recommend picking a "neat" Magical Secret instead.
The best two 4th level spells from the bard spell list might debatably be polymorph and greater invisibility.
Also, if you are a lore bard for magical secrets gained at 6th level I suggest taking counterspell and revivify. If two other characters in your party already have either of these spells you could substitute in the fireball spell. If your bard is not a lore bard for your 10th level magical secrets counterspell and greater steed are good choices because you have access to the resurrection spell so the revivify spell is less important but cheaper to cast.
I've used polymorph as a utility spell often: giant eagles, burrowing giant badgers, a last ditch giant ape for a low HP fighter, squids when our ship was attacked. Good spell. Most of these wizard spells in this vid are bard ones too, bards are great!@@davea6314
If one single target of the Hypnotic Pattern spell makes its' saving throw, then it shakes one other creature out of the spell. This creature does the same until all the targets are no longer affected. So you got one round out of the spell.
A truly evil combination if you can get it to land on a target is to start with Polymorph to turn the target into a worm or other low-HP creature. Next available turn, drop Power Word: Kill on the effected creature. This will bypass the rule that when a creature reaches 0 hit points, they revert to their original form, as RAW, Power Word: Kill doesn't reduce the creature to 0 hit points - it kills them outright. The creature *could* revert to their original form, but they're still dead.
For fireball, being in close quarters doesn't always stop the spellcaster from using it.
Top 10s are fine but I'm curious what spells people use Wish to duplicate most often in combat. How many lvl 17-20 wizards are throwing up Spirit Guardians at 9th lvl with a Wish spell or have you found a potential better use for it.
There are plenty of spells that have minute long or longer casting times or spells with costly components. Choosing from 1 of those every day shouldn't be a problem
I've been looking for something different than the same old standard fare that everyone usually takes, you know, the spells that fly under the radar. How about Ray of Enfeeblement? After an attack roll the monster does half damage with weapon attacks that rely on STR... claws and bites are natural weapons that rely on STR, so are horns, tail swipes etc. And at the end of the monsters turn it makes a CON save to end the effect, if it fails it suffers around round of being weak as a new born kitten. No matter who he attacks in your group he deals half damage. This effectively gives everyone in your party the best ability of a barbarian... taking half damage.
magic missile might not be the strongest, but, using the 10th level evocation wizard ability you can deal an average of 40-70 dmg per turn
Did I miss it or did you not mention contingency one of the best spells in the entire game in only available to wizards
Concentration and saves per round is why I went back to 2e for my group. Too many ways to shrug off the affects of bosses, instead of getting the upper hand the party feels no fear of anything.
I am baffled that almost every list never includes the spell Steel Wind Strike. It is literally, THE best damage dealing spell in the game.
I don't know man, 30ft is really short, and you can only hit each creature once for an average of only 33 force damage, also teleporting to within melee range as a wizard feels like something you don't want to do (maybe save blade singer). For the same 5th level spell slot you can cast animate object, for instance, from which you get 10 summons dealing 1d4 + 4 with +8 to hit as a start, sooo sorry gotta disagree here.
What about Mage Armor? Like Shield, an absolute life saver for a squishy caster, and it lasts 8 hour with no concentration. Detect Magic and Identify are must-haves, and I would make a case for Dimension Door (you can save another beside you). And Fly, other than Find Familiar of course? Wizards are also about utility, not only blast and damage, dude! (Says the Bladesinger wielding a 5th level Shadowblade 😂)
No Dispel Magic, Find Familiar, or Absorb Elements? Shield below Silvery Barbs? Haste even makes the list? Haste wouldn't make my Top 30.
Find Familiar was an honorable mention for the number 1 spot, alongside Wish.
Haste is terrible. There's almost never a reason to use it outside of running away. I don't even put it on my bar lol.
If a spell can end a combat encounter then that combat wasnt a challenge for you in the first place. So many monsters at higher levels will have immunity or advantage on those effects plus the dm can always put that on other monster's
No Prestidigitation?
It is the single most USEFUL spell in the entire spellbook.
All you have to do is be a bit creative with it and you would be SHOCKED just what you can break with it.
Yep! It is, by far. With honorable mentions going to Mold Earth, Mage Hand, and Shape Water, at least for creative players. The amount of game breaking shenanigans you can do with a pocket backhoe, a 3D printer spell, or a way to manipulate things from 30 feet away is simply ridiculous. Especially when none of those things use up spell slots.
Then again, he didn't mention Find Familiar either... Scouting, spying, using them to teleport through doors or walls, giving your party members advantage, giving downed party members Healing Potions, manipulating small objects from 100 feet away, casting touch spells through them, or even using the effects of the Dragons Breath spell through them, and the list goes on.
Instead he has Haste... Meh.
@anonymouse2675 my players once used Mold Earth to do a CATASTROPHIC amount of damage to, and cripple, a Clay Golem.
After all... clay is just a type of EARTH. He used it to pop its arms off like Lego pieces.
" I cast fireball Joe."
best spells to overchannel?
Haste feels much stronger than it actually is. I believe tabletop builds calculated how good it is compared to bless and the difference is so small it's negligable. But bless doesn't have the downside of robbing your ally one turn if your concentration breaks. Not to mention the 3rd level spell slot.
As a wizard, I approve👍
Bonus points to Magic Missile, as it being multiple instances of guaranteed damage means that one casting of it can take a party member from unconscious-but-stable to instant dead from three failed death saves. Good for when big bosses are ruled to make death saves by the DM.
You say "hasn't appeared as often" and then pick the literal third most mentioned spell. Just for that, may your DM only ever let you pick animals you've personally seen in game as Polymorph creatures!
I’ll say it: 🗣️Haste🗣️Is🗣️Not🗣️That🗣️Good!!!!!!!!
I want to add to Magic Missile here, in that it's VERY good at busting concentration. Each dart is its own damage instance, which means a caster has to save X amount of times (qual to spell level +2) to maintain concentration. Assuming a CON saving throw equal to effective attack bonus, this tends to have a minimum 14.3% chance to break concentration without disadvantage at CR 16. At tiers 1 & 2 it averages to 72.5% effective chance to break concentration without disadvantage if all missiles strike a single target, unless they Shield, but that takes their reaction which then can't be used to Counterspell or trigger opportunity attacks.
The only other spell that's comparable to busting concentration (without massive damage, so no Fireball or Lightning Bolt) is Sleet Storm, which forces the conc. check against your own Spell Save DC, which (assuming effective accuracy) is an average 35% chance to bust concentration (assumiing +4 spellMod at 5th and +5 spellMod at 8th, and without magic items).
No way, Hirumaredx?!
i cast fireball
😮 DC 😮😮
WISH WISH WISH WISH WISH WISH WISH WISH WISH WISH
OzO