I only have one issue with this video, and it's not your spell choices. It's how you described "Dance Macabre". Yes, undead minions is the one thing EVERYBODY associates with Necromancers. But, those are the flashy, "Look At Me", wannabe Necromancers. A "True Necromancer" understands that the path to power and success is more subtle. Being able to manipulate the very essence of life and entropy is far more effective if you don't advertise your ability to do it.
I love steel win strike so much it is so cool and it does 6d10 to five characters this is the most amount of damage possible in one spell spread out over five people assuming five people and assuming average damage it does 30 time 5 damage or 150 spread over five people not assuming crit however you do have to hit people so it isn't a perfect spell but it is very very strong that and circle of power are available to tenth level bards so min maxers enjoy
@@rickzorlac9872 whoever told you that needs to learn to read. “Dragons setting out on these crusades for glory might consume their entire hoard before doing so. They find the notion of leaving all their hard-earned wealth for thieves utterly anathema.” That was literally copy and pasted from the Wiki.
Teleportation circle is one of the best ways of travel, depends a little bit on the campaign, but most settings have some teleportation circles around the world
@@matthewmiller1847 also, you choose your targets. The odds that in the middle of a battle you can fireball five enemies without hitting any of your allies are slim.
@@robertcarson9169 you're mathematically wrong 5th level Fireball: 8d6 = 8x3.5 = 28 SWS: 6d10 = 6x5.5 = 33 Also, you know you don't friendly fire SWS so it has a broader application use Fireball is still better if there are 6 or more targets (28x6= 168 vs 33x5= 165), which is quite rare to be honest (and probabily you wouldn't need to upcast it if you have that many lower CR in the fight)
Well multiple options: - a brothel but that might be a special service and can be quite expensive - ask a bard if he can persuade someone - get a child ... I would think not many people would be ok with any of the options though ... maybe aside of the bard
Duuuude, thank you! I've been trying to tell people how broken Animate Object is since I read it! * There's no limit to it's range after you cast it, so technically you could cast it, then immediatly DD away. * & The Object is technically a "Creature" now, so whenever any of the them attack a creature your allies have Advantage against that creature. * You also don't NEED to use your Bonus Action each turn, all you need to say is Defend Ally's - and as it's Your spell, they will know who your allies are. So you still have your whole turn while the enemies are taking 2d4+4 Slashing each turn (per Dagger), your allies are getting advantage on all Attacks, and you're 400 feet away!
Surprised Scrying isn't on the list. Feel like if a party has a caster who can get it, they most likely will. One of my favourite spells is Dream. I used it as a player and DM.
Dream is incredible. If you can wait until people are sleeping, it's FAR better than Sending and there are many hidden applications. And that's not even counting the ability to harry your enemies with it.
@@johnmichaelarnaud One great example of using Dream was in a campaign I’m currently watching called the Unexpectables. Their bard used it to help find and locate a employee of theirs that was kidnapped by fiends, a arcanaloth. Using Dream, he was able to replay everything that happened through her eyes in her dreams. Granted they were vague due to her being charmed, but it was enough to find a location and help them stop an invasion/take over of a city by fiends. That made me realize how good Dream really is and the many ways to utilize it.
@@joedan5366 As someone who’s currently playing a bard with bane, they’re both situational but have uses. When you’re fighting several enemies at once, bane act as crowd control for a low level spell slot (especially if they have low charisma saves). Sometimes bane helps avoid you getting hit, sometimes it doesn’t. In a pitch, one more hit might actually make a difference in an encounter. Plus if your party has other spell casters that cast with saving throws, you can help increase the chance of enemies falling. Same goes for bardic inspiration. Help your allies turn a near miss with an attack into a success. Barely failed a saving throw, bardic inspiration might make a difference and help them succeed. Outside of combat, inspiration can even help with important ability checks that you don’t want your ally to fail. Both bane and inspiration have a chance of not helping, but they also have a chance on making a huge difference.
rainpool989 I got that Bane can be clutch and instrumental sometimes But the real issue I have with Bain is that you rely on a creature failing a saving throw Note typically no monster has charisma but this a first level spell so even if you have a monster with a -2 to charisma saves your DC is really low at first level minimum of 11 max of 15 so assuming you have a 15 spell save DIfficulty class they still have a 15 percent chance of saving from bane Secondly Bain takes your concentration Thirdly why spend a turn debuffing when you could possibly be doing damage to the creature/creatures ie shatter ps play how you want thanks for your opinion ps I never have played dnd I decided that I want to be a writer on the side instead when I am older
@@joedan5366 I completely understand not wanting to take that risk using your concentration on a spell that might not work out. However, I’ve found a decent amount of bard lower level combat concentration spells are the same way (hold person, faire fire, hideous laughter, etc.) But if you don’t wanna use it and rather go for some damage that’s perfectly fine! There’s really no wrong way to play your character in D&D after all.
Great video! I'm currently trying to pick a new spell for my Level 9 sorcerer and I've been looking at a handful including Wall of Force. That one sounded like it could be so useful, but I was having a hard time deciding if it would be beneficial enough or if I just wanted another damage-dealing spell. I'm really starting to think I might go with WoF. I could see it being not only exceptionally utilitarian (even more so than before) and beneficial in unison with my damage-dealing spells. Thanks!
How did your plan work 6 months later?? Was WoF a clutch choice, or did you regret not getting something else? Because I too am torn between it’s flexibility versus Animate Objects in particular for my Wizard hehe 😉 Though I already have an Eversmoking Bottle, and I think the Blindsight and 10 lil Silver Skulls flying around head butting things to death would just be both hilarious and vicious simultaneously 😂🤘🥷🤘🤷♂️🤞🙏😎
I love animate object. There is a wizard character in a campaign I'm watching that has used it to just shred through tough encounters. Throws out 10 copper pieces, animates them, and the swarm just punches through enemies. He calls the maneuver "pay day".
I like to Animate silver coins. Why? First because they're cheap, and second because it gets around the damage resistance of devils, lycanthropes and a couple of undead creatures. ;) I just wish bypassing damage resistance with cold iron was still a thing; I'd carry around a pocketful of ten-penny nails CONSTANTLY.
Quite smart, I was thinking of using ball bearings from a theives kit. After using them to attack they can be used to land on the ground and force Dex saves if a target tries to move through Thier space, and provokes opportunity attacks
Rary's telepathic bond is one of those spells that solves what I consider the non-problem of table talk. D&D is a game and we're all there to play and have fun together, clamping down on normal table talk if this spell isn't up sounds like a great way to kill a lot of fun of playing together
Regarding Rary's Telepathic Bond, I'm an actual Marine combat veteran. 6 seconds is a lifetime in a firefight, or in a fighting ring. The 3 keys to survival are "Shoot, Move, and Communicate" for a reason. Plus, since talking is a "free action", I allow my players to speak literally whenever in battle, even on enemy turns.
Animate objects looks excellent on paper until you realise that by the time you get 5th level spells, most enemies are resistant to nonmagical damage. When you half the damage, suddenly it doesn't look all that great any more.
I was running a campaign in which about a third of the campaign was supposed to take place in this giant maze. A maze large enough that there were villages, and different societies living in it. But, I had a wizard in the party smart enough to bring along Passwall. With repeated castings, instead of trying to find their way around the maze, they cut right through it. So instead of being a whole, many session story arc, it turned in to 2 sessions total, in getting through this giant maze.
I’m surprised Bigby’s Hand isn’t on the list. Great spell. One correction though: there is nothing about Wall of Force that prevents teleportation, you need Forcecage for that.
You dont have disadvantage from shooting someone within 5 feet of you if they are incapacitated (which is what the Paralyzed condition inflicts) because they can't threaten you, so its straight advantage if you want to walk up to someone and point blank them in the head with a crossbow.
@@ChrisCox-wv7oo "When you make a ranged Attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the Attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a Hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t Incapacitated".
In regards to Wall of Force, we had a long term campaign where one of my players was playing a Human Protection Domain (UA) Cleric, which has Wall of Force on their spell list. They were fighting a homebrewed Siren type creature that used Suggestion to have the Bloodhunter throw themselves off a cliff into the water below. Tough ruling on whether or not this was a suicidal act later, the Bloodhunter is Unconscious and sinking. Our Cleric uses her Wall of Force to create a surface beneath the Bloodhunter to stop them sinking and drowning, and enclose them from any further damage in combat. Brilliant usage, very impressed DM, love how clever my players are.
I am going to take 5 of these spells and give them to a Silver Dragon which uses them when she is shape changed into her Elven form because she lived with the Elves that used to live in the Sunken Citadel prior to being overrun by Dragonborn and Orcs. Thanks for these! It really helps a new GM like me to see videos like this.
I allow my players to communicate a little bit during combat, but when it gets too complicated, or especially if they are just too far away, I start to draw a line. Most of the time it is just the druid yelling at someone to "move back a bit", so I see that as fine, but when he starts to go "move over that way and then move back and to the right", that gets a bit too much, unless they have something like Rary's Telepathic Bond. But yes, I love all the 5th level information-gathering spells a lot. Commune, Commune with Nature, Contact other Plane, and Legend Lore. I also love Scrying, that's another great way for a players to actively look for information. I love teleportation circle because it lets them go back to a very long distance to a safe place with the whole group at a level where you won't have teleport or word of recall quite yet. Greater Restoration is a must have for any party, really. I wish Circle of Power got more love but unfortunately it is only for paladins with a few exceptions, which means most of the people who could use it won't be able to until level 17. I think Mass Cure Wounds doesn't get enough love, though. As much as I love Animate Objects, or Synaptic Static, I've never had them stop what could easily be a TPK the same way that Mass Cure Wounds has. Oh yeah, I've also used Steel Wind Strike in combination with Greater Invisibility for advantage on all of them. It's beautiful.
Danse Macabre love, nice. We homebrewed it, using Bard's Magic Secret to learn it, then "waste" other Magic Secrets to learn how to swap out proficiencies, like losing weapons and gaining Carpentry; so the recently deceased can build a roadside temple and dig their own burial plots while the Cleric held funeral services. Also a hand emergency band, as long as they're using percussion or stringed instruments.
My favorite use of Wall of Force that I've done: One of the game's BBEGs (there were 10 of them in total) was chasing the group thru a ruin that contained an artifact of some kind. The group knew nothing other than the BBEG wanted it. So clearly, we have to stop him from getting it. Anyway, thanks to magic (Wizards are the best!), we get there ahead of the BBEG. We go thru the ruin, traps and all and get to the room with the artifact. BBEG is catching up and is 2 rooms behind us. We get attacked by the guardian of the artifact. I close the door (which opened into the room only
Synaptic Static has been a mainstay on my hexblade since they've had access to it. If there's a bunch of enemies in a group, or a single really annoying one, just take a turn to drop that on them and then get right back to work.
I had a guest in a game I DM’d who was a Whisper Bard that picked Steel Wind Strike as one of his magical secrets. In his first combat encounter he used this spell and he crit on 2 of the 5 attacks. It was amazing
Cast passwall just as a group of enemies are charging at you and they fall into a 20ft hole,taking fall damage ,then attack them from above or put a wall of force over the top the hole and for atleast ten minutes you can either ran away or position yourself
Rary's Telepathic Bond - in the gameworld there are no 'next combat turns', so it is better to say you will heal a partymember 'soon' or something like that. Commune - I can imagine you can do nice flavor things. Asking an evil deity can be painful (1 hp damage) if the answer is no (and maybe yes too if they are annoyed for having to answer a question), and a good deity may perhaps reward a priest with 1 hp healing (or 1 temp hp).
I've only been able to do it twice but taking a handful of silver coins out and throwing them in the air + casting animate object is the best. 10d4+40 is just insane for offense or even if you just have them rotate around you to tank hits and attack whatever gets close, that's a 200 hp shield that needs to be broken through.
The most messed up my party used wall of force. Well my party was high level they were in a intense battle and about to be overwhelmed by the enemy so the 2 wizard devised a planned. So the first wizard said he was going to hold his action until the other one went so the the one cast delayed blast fireball and the one that was hold his action cast wall of forceand encircled the enemy horde and the delayed blast fireball went off the carnage was mind blowing. I could only congratulate my players for awesome teamwork
I love the party thinking we will just put a wall of force over the lava and walk over it. Surly no jets of lava are going to make them make dex checks. None of the fire elementals that would have chased them would get on the wall ahead of them. I am not a mean DM, I give my players situations to overcome. they mostly do. I don't tell them how to do that, and I don't make it simple. They seem to like it.
I have not used Wall of Force... but it combined with Sickening Radiance means you can trap the BBEG inside the sphere and with both spells lasting 10 minutes, it is likely that the BBEG will get the 6 fails and just strait up die from it.
I generally agree with the list outside of legend lore, the legendary importance caveat makes the spell supremely less useful to me for reasons you mentioned. I'd personally never take it especially since it has a gold cost attached which means you could be wasting money on something that doesn't work.
If you can combo the tiny version of animate objects with crusaders mantle you can get an extra d4 on all 10 attacks btw, since animated objects count as creatures
Wall of Force against an ancient red dragon is what caused my last campaign's TPK. The Raven Queen Pact warlock had it and used in on the dragon to keep it in place, with enough panels to form a bit of a cage so the party could still attack it. The way it worked out, the dragon's head and limbs were still able to act, so he still got attacks on the PC's. Now, the dragon was extra furious because of this, so when he eventually downed a PC, instead of leaving them be to focus on the ones who were still threats, he ripped their dying bodies up more (because some of the conscious PC's were out of reach) thus killing them outright. The other PC's tried to finish of the dragon (he was REAL close to dying), but also got downed. The warlock himself managed to flee, but none of them wanted to continue the campaign, understandably. As for another Top 10 idea, how about top 10 class archetypes? But from ALL of the official classes. It might end up as a Top 15 or even 20 because of how many there are, but I think that would be really cool and interesting to see!
My field control bard just took Wall of Force as a level 10 magical secret. I'm chomping at the bit to use it to push a dragon or the like down into the ground and leave enough gap to give everyone free hits on it while it has to burrow free.
The biggest drawback of Animate Objects is creatures with resistance to non-magical bludgeoning damage, drastically reducing damage output. Enter Order of Scribes Wizards; "I cast Animate Objects, but let's make it force damage" Or psychic, necrotic, fire, cold or poison. All available on the 5th level list, and if the enemy has vulnerability to 1 of those types, well, they're getting wrecked.
*Wall of Force* So I had a staff of power in a campaign, which means of course, 3 free uses of the spell every day. The 3 ways I used it to really annoy the dm was in the following manner. In a cave, a giant was slamming his club against a wall and causing the narrow walkway to begin to buckle, and the rocks would have fell and crushed us. So I cast wall of force against the top of the cave along the very long stone hallway to reinforce the structure, and even though the cave was buckling, it was completely fine, as wall of force has no weight restrictions. Another way was when we were fighting an ancient white dragon, and it was trying to burrow into the ground in the ruins of an old manor, I cast wall of force in the basement that it was trying to claw its way through, making it waste two turns as it was unable to realize what was going on. Lastly, we were fighting in a city of demons in a very specific area where experiments were going on with fey entities. And the boss creature had a magic item which allowed it to create portals that summoned the CR4 Barlgura fiends every 1d4 rounds. And there were a ton of them being summoned as we worked our way into the dungeon. Near the end there was a giant pool of acid like hundreds of feet long and with a round chamber at the end. It had 3 walkways, and in order to stop the summoning we had to destroy the creature's chair in the center walkway. So we all chose the middle path while the Barlgura were circling around on each side. I used wall of force as we were running, and my simulacrum used it on the opposite side of the path, and we more or less made a giant wall of invisible protection for us to get down this entire walkway, as each Barlgura jumped towards us, hit the wall and slid down into the acid. The dm was actually laughing cause he said because they are demons, and water doesn't exist in his version of hell, they wouldn't know how to swim. so they just started drowning in acid. Brutal stuff.
Best use of wall of force that I ever saw was back in I think 3rd edition . The wizard put a wall of force in front of a prismatic wall to keep out a small army while we waited for our reinforcements to arrive .The DM loved the idea so he had the army commander ordered his wizards to take down the prismatic wall and nothing happened . As frustration mounted the commander began killing his wizards and by that point our reinforcements were there .
@@neilm838 Oh yea having 10 silver pieces attack is more efficient, and I thought about the gloves' fingers counting as appendages and therefore they can't levitate, but I like the flavor of a wizard turning into half dozen archers.
Once had a fight going very poorly. Wall of Forced our 5 man group inside for 10 minutes as our Life Domain Cleric cast Aura of Vitality twice and everyone sorted themselves out and prepared actions.
My list is quite different: 1. Wall of Force 2. Animate Objects 3. Bigby's Hand 4. Greater Restoration 5. Telekinesis 6. Wall of Stone 7. Synaptic Static 8. Rary's Telepathic Bond 9. Cone of Cold 10. Seeming
I used animate objects to take down the BBEG in the final session of my last campaign! My Tiefling bard Ro used the silverware to maim and ultimately behead her father, who was absent most of her life and was secretly puppeteering all the worst things happening in the world. Real bad dude. Amazing spell.
For Animate Objects, you mentioned potentially casting it in another room because there is no stipulation of objects "that you can see." However, wouldn't total cover rules then apply? Have you made a video talking about total cover vs line of sight already?
Re: telepathic bond I bypass this issue because I encourage my players to "metagame" when it comes to pure combat tactics. So "I will heal you next turn" is a player to players communication and it does not matter if the characters can communicate. The characters don't know what turns are anyway. I realize that I am probably in the minority in using that play style.
each construct is a creature takes its own turn and has its own initiative and *is a creature* which means they can take the help action, they can do things like have dragon's breath cast on them
I think Holy weapon should be on this list.. Not for the Clerics weapon, but cast it on you ranged fighters bow, especially one with sharpshooter. By this time they will be soon getting a 3rd attack and with action surge that 2d8 per attack can make it massive damage and its up to an hour.
I DMed a game where for my BBEG had access to meteor swarm. The party wizard was holding wall of force for its breath attack, however when he heard whats actually hitting them, he just put the pannels 20ft above the party, effectively blocking all dmg to them and the terrain. From than on I give my wizards a sht tone of spellbooks if they dont take it. Anything but the wall.....
Fireball does not upcast well. Synaptic Staticdoes more damaged on average than a level 5 fireball just because it targets a weaker save and it deals a much more consistent damage type. Plus it won’t kill your party cause the damage is selective and it has a debuff attached. It is better in almost every way.
Top 10 homebrew spells, Top 10 homebrew monsters, Top 10 ways to use the environment to mess with your players, Top 10 traps (feel free to use Grimtooths traps).
Consider that corpses are objects when you talk about animate object. You think Danse Macarabe can be good on undead, you can animate parts of corpses with Animate Object. Attack the enemy with the parts of their comrade's bodies.
So used Wall of force as a Dm with the Blue abishai who was flying above the party who was spread out and for the majority of the fight I had the Paladin, rogue and barbarian trapped in the cube and they where so mad.
I had never considered the possibilities of passwall as a burglary tool, but it could be amazing in the right campaign. Why go into the room full of magical defenses to grab the artifact, when you can just go to the room underneath it and then make it fall through the floor?
When it comes to party communication mid combat I chalk it up to the fact that these adventurerers travel and practice combat scenarios together on the road for months. Essentially you're verbalising what your PC would inheritently know your teammate is likely to do in that scenario.
I, on the other hand, shut that stuff *right down* by telling players that (a) if they want to say more than two words, it uses up their entire turn and (b) as Ted says, I allow monsters who hear even short plans like "Get him!" with a pointed finger ... react to them. My philosophy is that, if players want to play the kind of inherent knowledge of each others' tactics that you're describing, let them *acquire that inherent knowledge, either through play or prior planning* rather than be allowed to fake it in the middle of combat.
@@morganpetros9635 Man am I glad I'm not at your table. That's a horrible way to have fun at game night. Sure, letting the enemy hear the plans and react accordingly is one thing. Completely shutting it down? That's incredibly boring and annoying. Hopefully you have a table of players who enjoy that. This is a high fantasy roleplaying game, not a real life simulator. You can take liberties every once in a while
Top 10 Underdark creatures/monsters. Top 10 Underdark cities. Top 10 Underdark Lore. ...Can you tell i'm running an Underdark campaign at the moment? :D
Once had an ancient red dragon coming straight for my party at a dive...wizard put a wall of force straight in front of the dragon. I don't have a limit on fall damage, so that dragon was mush.
It's a shame Eldritch Knights can't get 5th level spells for Steel Wind Strike. Fits so well. But they can always use through spell scrolls or multiclassing enough into wizard. The spellwrought tattoo works as well but I hate how those are single use. Basically the same as a scroll.
While I allow my players and like all dms I know allow their players to communicate. In a technical aspect probably shouldn't due to the fact a round is the 6 seconds. A player's turn is just an aspect of that 6 seconds that is all happening at once.
I'll be honest legend lore and commune are both options I'd just inherently give players. Legend lore is a history check and commune is just something all Clerics should have after a certain point without a spell.
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Top 10 D&D 5e 5th Level Spells
10. Legend Lore 01:17
9. Synaptic Static 03:40
8. Rary's Telepathic Bond 05:21
7. Commune 06:30
6. Danse Macabre 09:14
5. Hold Monster 10:54
4. Passwall 13:08
3. Steel Wind Strike 18:03
2. Wall of Force 21:43
1. Animate Objects 28:57
I only have one issue with this video, and it's not your spell choices. It's how you described "Dance Macabre". Yes, undead minions is the one thing EVERYBODY associates with Necromancers. But, those are the flashy, "Look At Me", wannabe Necromancers. A "True Necromancer" understands that the path to power and success is more subtle. Being able to manipulate the very essence of life and entropy is far more effective if you don't advertise your ability to do it.
Old Soldier agreed great idea for a character concept
I love steel win strike so much it is so cool and it does 6d10 to five characters this is the most amount of damage possible in one spell spread out over five people assuming five people and assuming average damage it does 30 time 5 damage or 150 spread over five people not assuming crit however you do have to hit people so it isn't a perfect spell but it is very very strong
that and circle of power are available to tenth level bards so min maxers enjoy
This spell made me like bard
I love how _Steel Wind Strike_ is almost universally seen as a completely anime ability.
Because it is.
I flash my net at the enemy and deal 6d10 force damage
Ahh, animate objects, the spell that will make dragons regret their greed...
@@rickzorlac9872 whoever told you that needs to learn to read. “Dragons setting out on these crusades for glory might consume their entire hoard before doing so. They find the notion of leaving all their hard-earned wealth for thieves utterly anathema.” That was literally copy and pasted from the Wiki.
Steel wind strike as a magical secret for college of blades bard
Our party's bard took Steel Wind Strike. It has been very useful and just epic
Steel Wind Strike is basically Vergil's Judgment Cut End.
Add three levels of Assassin Rogue to make this spell extra spicy.
@@Moleje1337iirc i built it as bard 14, battle master 3 and swashbuckler rogue 3
Teleportation circle is one of the best ways of travel, depends a little bit on the campaign, but most settings have some teleportation circles around the world
Steel Wind Strike is a must for Bladesingers
If you do the math it is technically worse than just upcasting fireball
@@robertcarson9169 maybe so but it's not as anime lol. Also you can teleport, potentially crit, and force damage is not resisted by much unlike fire.
I think it would be better if the strikes were weapon attacks instead of spell attacks.
@@matthewmiller1847 also, you choose your targets. The odds that in the middle of a battle you can fireball five enemies without hitting any of your allies are slim.
@@robertcarson9169 you're mathematically wrong
5th level Fireball: 8d6 = 8x3.5 = 28
SWS: 6d10 = 6x5.5 = 33
Also, you know you don't friendly fire SWS so it has a broader application use
Fireball is still better if there are 6 or more targets (28x6= 168 vs 33x5= 165), which is quite rare to be honest (and probabily you wouldn't need to upcast it if you have that many lower CR in the fight)
That horizontal, waist-height application of wall of force is absolutely devious and I love it.
So I am at the magic shop buying spell components and these guys don't even sell incest for my Legend Lore spell.
Well multiple options:
- a brothel but that might be a special service and can be quite expensive
- ask a bard if he can persuade someone
- get a child
... I would think not many people would be ok with any of the options though ... maybe aside of the bard
@@asimovvomisa4040 😂👍
"what are you doing, step-brother-mage?"
Ah, the joys of misspelling sometimes.
Stepbrother mage! I'm dead.
worth 250 GP too
Duuuude, thank you! I've been trying to tell people how broken Animate Object is since I read it!
* There's no limit to it's range after you cast it, so technically you could cast it, then immediatly DD away.
* & The Object is technically a "Creature" now, so whenever any of the them attack a creature your allies have Advantage against that creature.
* You also don't NEED to use your Bonus Action each turn, all you need to say is Defend Ally's - and as it's Your spell, they will know who your allies are.
So you still have your whole turn while the enemies are taking 2d4+4 Slashing each turn (per Dagger), your allies are getting advantage on all Attacks, and you're 400 feet away!
Surprised Scrying isn't on the list. Feel like if a party has a caster who can get it, they most likely will.
One of my favourite spells is Dream. I used it as a player and DM.
Dream is incredible. If you can wait until people are sleeping, it's FAR better than Sending and there are many hidden applications. And that's not even counting the ability to harry your enemies with it.
@@johnmichaelarnaud One great example of using Dream was in a campaign I’m currently watching called the Unexpectables. Their bard used it to help find and locate a employee of theirs that was kidnapped by fiends, a arcanaloth. Using Dream, he was able to replay everything that happened through her eyes in her dreams. Granted they were vague due to her being charmed, but it was enough to find a location and help them stop an invasion/take over of a city by fiends. That made me realize how good Dream really is and the many ways to utilize it.
Note: synaptic static doesn't affect saving throws, besides concentration checks. Still good with bane because it makes you less likely to be hit.
How good is Bain and bardic inspiration i think they aren't worth it help me see your point of view
@@joedan5366 As someone who’s currently playing a bard with bane, they’re both situational but have uses. When you’re fighting several enemies at once, bane act as crowd control for a low level spell slot (especially if they have low charisma saves). Sometimes bane helps avoid you getting hit, sometimes it doesn’t. In a pitch, one more hit might actually make a difference in an encounter. Plus if your party has other spell casters that cast with saving throws, you can help increase the chance of enemies falling. Same goes for bardic inspiration. Help your allies turn a near miss with an attack into a success. Barely failed a saving throw, bardic inspiration might make a difference and help them succeed. Outside of combat, inspiration can even help with important ability checks that you don’t want your ally to fail. Both bane and inspiration have a chance of not helping, but they also have a chance on making a huge difference.
rainpool989 I got that Bane can be clutch and instrumental sometimes
But the real issue I have with Bain is that you rely on a creature failing a saving throw
Note typically no monster has charisma but this a first level spell so even if you have a monster with a -2 to charisma saves your DC is really low at first level minimum of 11 max of 15 so assuming you have a 15 spell save DIfficulty class they still have a 15 percent chance of saving from bane
Secondly Bain takes your concentration
Thirdly why spend a turn debuffing when you could possibly be doing damage to the creature/creatures ie shatter ps play how you want
thanks for your opinion ps I never have played dnd I decided that I want to be a writer on the side instead when I am older
@@joedan5366 I completely understand not wanting to take that risk using your concentration on a spell that might not work out. However, I’ve found a decent amount of bard lower level combat concentration spells are the same way (hold person, faire fire, hideous laughter, etc.) But if you don’t wanna use it and rather go for some damage that’s perfectly fine! There’s really no wrong way to play your character in D&D after all.
rainpool989 I agree thanks for letting me know
2:04 What are you doing, step DM?
I feel like I've heard that somewhere but I can't put my finger on it...
@@ashmaker614 ewww can you oull out your fingeeer
Great video! I'm currently trying to pick a new spell for my Level 9 sorcerer and I've been looking at a handful including Wall of Force. That one sounded like it could be so useful, but I was having a hard time deciding if it would be beneficial enough or if I just wanted another damage-dealing spell. I'm really starting to think I might go with WoF. I could see it being not only exceptionally utilitarian (even more so than before) and beneficial in unison with my damage-dealing spells. Thanks!
How did your plan work 6 months later?? Was WoF a clutch choice, or did you regret not getting something else? Because I too am torn between it’s flexibility versus Animate Objects in particular for my Wizard hehe 😉 Though I already have an Eversmoking Bottle, and I think the Blindsight and 10 lil Silver Skulls flying around head butting things to death would just be both hilarious and vicious simultaneously 😂🤘🥷🤘🤷♂️🤞🙏😎
I love the Enlarge/Reduce door opener
I love animate object. There is a wizard character in a campaign I'm watching that has used it to just shred through tough encounters. Throws out 10 copper pieces, animates them, and the swarm just punches through enemies. He calls the maneuver "pay day".
What campaign? That sounds extremely interesting.
@@azrielslytherin2604 It is a campaign DM'd by Lanipator. It is called The Ties that Bind/ Role with Me.
@@StateBlaze1989 thanks for the fast reply! You are awesome ^^
Why not daggers they would also technically be "Tiny" as they fit in your hand, and add another 1d4 slashing for being a Dagger?
@@skullsquad900 nope, they only do the damage of the spell.
I like to Animate silver coins. Why? First because they're cheap, and second because it gets around the damage resistance of devils, lycanthropes and a couple of undead creatures. ;) I just wish bypassing damage resistance with cold iron was still a thing; I'd carry around a pocketful of ten-penny nails CONSTANTLY.
Good use of bonus action on a blade singer
Quite smart, I was thinking of using ball bearings from a theives kit. After using them to attack they can be used to land on the ground and force Dex saves if a target tries to move through Thier space, and provokes opportunity attacks
The Price of Legend Lore is far too high in your game.
Hell i never been a fan of the spell
or not high enough......
There’s usually way better ways of finding information about something than spending a 5th lvl spell.
@@mikeharris6429 umm.... We're just poking fun that Ted accidentally said incest instead incense as a cost
Rary's telepathic bond is one of those spells that solves what I consider the non-problem of table talk. D&D is a game and we're all there to play and have fun together, clamping down on normal table talk if this spell isn't up sounds like a great way to kill a lot of fun of playing together
Regarding Rary's Telepathic Bond, I'm an actual Marine combat veteran. 6 seconds is a lifetime in a firefight, or in a fighting ring. The 3 keys to survival are "Shoot, Move, and Communicate" for a reason. Plus, since talking is a "free action", I allow my players to speak literally whenever in battle, even on enemy turns.
Animate objects looks excellent on paper until you realise that by the time you get 5th level spells, most enemies are resistant to nonmagical damage. When you half the damage, suddenly it doesn't look all that great any more.
5d4 + 20 as a bonus action though. Spiritual Weapon at that level would only deal 2d8 + spellcasting modifier.
I was running a campaign in which about a third of the campaign was supposed to take place in this giant maze. A maze large enough that there were villages, and different societies living in it. But, I had a wizard in the party smart enough to bring along Passwall. With repeated castings, instead of trying to find their way around the maze, they cut right through it. So instead of being a whole, many session story arc, it turned in to 2 sessions total, in getting through this giant maze.
You could've made it a magical maze so that when they did that it just lead to a random other location not their intended destination.
I’m surprised Bigby’s Hand isn’t on the list. Great spell. One correction though: there is nothing about Wall of Force that prevents teleportation, you need Forcecage for that.
You dont have disadvantage from shooting someone within 5 feet of you if they are incapacitated (which is what the Paralyzed condition inflicts) because they can't threaten you, so its straight advantage if you want to walk up to someone and point blank them in the head with a crossbow.
Is that supported in the rules?
@@ChrisCox-wv7oo "When you make a ranged Attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the Attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a Hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t Incapacitated".
@@Cynndora thanks!
In regards to Wall of Force, we had a long term campaign where one of my players was playing a Human Protection Domain (UA) Cleric, which has Wall of Force on their spell list. They were fighting a homebrewed Siren type creature that used Suggestion to have the Bloodhunter throw themselves off a cliff into the water below. Tough ruling on whether or not this was a suicidal act later, the Bloodhunter is Unconscious and sinking. Our Cleric uses her Wall of Force to create a surface beneath the Bloodhunter to stop them sinking and drowning, and enclose them from any further damage in combat. Brilliant usage, very impressed DM, love how clever my players are.
I agree with so many of these spells, and I love when you go in depth for the description and potential uses
I am going to take 5 of these spells and give them to a Silver Dragon which uses them when she is shape changed into her Elven form because she lived with the Elves that used to live in the Sunken Citadel prior to being overrun by Dragonborn and Orcs. Thanks for these! It really helps a new GM like me to see videos like this.
I allow my players to communicate a little bit during combat, but when it gets too complicated, or especially if they are just too far away, I start to draw a line. Most of the time it is just the druid yelling at someone to "move back a bit", so I see that as fine, but when he starts to go "move over that way and then move back and to the right", that gets a bit too much, unless they have something like Rary's Telepathic Bond.
But yes, I love all the 5th level information-gathering spells a lot. Commune, Commune with Nature, Contact other Plane, and Legend Lore. I also love Scrying, that's another great way for a players to actively look for information. I love teleportation circle because it lets them go back to a very long distance to a safe place with the whole group at a level where you won't have teleport or word of recall quite yet. Greater Restoration is a must have for any party, really. I wish Circle of Power got more love but unfortunately it is only for paladins with a few exceptions, which means most of the people who could use it won't be able to until level 17. I think Mass Cure Wounds doesn't get enough love, though. As much as I love Animate Objects, or Synaptic Static, I've never had them stop what could easily be a TPK the same way that Mass Cure Wounds has.
Oh yeah, I've also used Steel Wind Strike in combination with Greater Invisibility for advantage on all of them. It's beautiful.
Danse Macabre love, nice. We homebrewed it, using Bard's Magic Secret to learn it, then "waste" other Magic Secrets to learn how to swap out proficiencies, like losing weapons and gaining Carpentry; so the recently deceased can build a roadside temple and dig their own burial plots while the Cleric held funeral services. Also a hand emergency band, as long as they're using percussion or stringed instruments.
Re: Hold Monster - You'll be happy to know that a paralysed foe is 'incapacitated', so ranged attacks within 5 feet don't suffer disadvantage.
37:30 pro tips for your wizardly murder hobo party, animate a bunch of knives and then loot the bodies
My favorite use of Wall of Force that I've done:
One of the game's BBEGs (there were 10 of them in total) was chasing the group thru a ruin that contained an artifact of some kind. The group knew nothing other than the BBEG wanted it. So clearly, we have to stop him from getting it. Anyway, thanks to magic (Wizards are the best!), we get there ahead of the BBEG. We go thru the ruin, traps and all and get to the room with the artifact. BBEG is catching up and is 2 rooms behind us. We get attacked by the guardian of the artifact. I close the door (which opened into the room only
Synaptic Static has been a mainstay on my hexblade since they've had access to it. If there's a bunch of enemies in a group, or a single really annoying one, just take a turn to drop that on them and then get right back to work.
I had a guest in a game I DM’d who was a Whisper Bard that picked Steel Wind Strike as one of his magical secrets. In his first combat encounter he used this spell and he crit on 2 of the 5 attacks. It was amazing
Cast passwall just as a group of enemies are charging at you and they fall into a 20ft hole,taking fall damage ,then attack them from above or put a wall of force over the top the hole and for atleast ten minutes you can either ran away or position yourself
I rule Wall of Force as frictionless. That's a good time when players try to use it as a bridge.
I do the opposite. To me that's the point of wall of force, to be able to create a shape and use it creatively.
Oh I love that idea of pushing the enemies to the ground. I’m using that :D
Rary's Telepathic Bond - in the gameworld there are no 'next combat turns', so it is better to say you will heal a partymember 'soon' or something like that.
Commune - I can imagine you can do nice flavor things. Asking an evil deity can be painful (1 hp damage) if the answer is no (and maybe yes too if they are annoyed for having to answer a question), and a good deity may perhaps reward a priest with 1 hp healing (or 1 temp hp).
Dominate Person is a pretty sweet one too.
I've only been able to do it twice but taking a handful of silver coins out and throwing them in the air + casting animate object is the best. 10d4+40 is just insane for offense or even if you just have them rotate around you to tank hits and attack whatever gets close, that's a 200 hp shield that needs to be broken through.
Fighting a pit fiend I casted animate objects on 10 tiny vials of holy water! The dm was upset lol
The most messed up my party used wall of force. Well my party was high level they were in a intense battle and about to be overwhelmed by the enemy so the 2 wizard devised a planned. So the first wizard said he was going to hold his action until the other one went so the the one cast delayed blast fireball and the one that was hold his action cast wall of forceand encircled the enemy horde and the delayed blast fireball went off the carnage was mind blowing. I could only congratulate my players for awesome teamwork
I love the party thinking we will just put a wall of force over the lava and walk over it. Surly no jets of lava are going to make them make dex checks. None of the fire elementals that would have chased them would get on the wall ahead of them. I am not a mean DM, I give my players situations to overcome. they mostly do. I don't tell them how to do that, and I don't make it simple. They seem to like it.
I have not used Wall of Force... but it combined with Sickening Radiance means you can trap the BBEG inside the sphere and with both spells lasting 10 minutes, it is likely that the BBEG will get the 6 fails and just strait up die from it.
A stone golem is made out of stone, and has a surface... passwall right trough a stone golem!
Another thing to remember for the Hold spells is that Paralyzed interrupts concentration as an incapacitated creature cannot maintain concentration
I generally agree with the list outside of legend lore, the legendary importance caveat makes the spell supremely less useful to me for reasons you mentioned. I'd personally never take it especially since it has a gold cost attached which means you could be wasting money on something that doesn't work.
My Bard used Animate Objects to attack rahadin with his own office furniture.
If you can combo the tiny version of animate objects with crusaders mantle you can get an extra d4 on all 10 attacks btw, since animated objects count as creatures
Wall of Force against an ancient red dragon is what caused my last campaign's TPK. The Raven Queen Pact warlock had it and used in on the dragon to keep it in place, with enough panels to form a bit of a cage so the party could still attack it. The way it worked out, the dragon's head and limbs were still able to act, so he still got attacks on the PC's. Now, the dragon was extra furious because of this, so when he eventually downed a PC, instead of leaving them be to focus on the ones who were still threats, he ripped their dying bodies up more (because some of the conscious PC's were out of reach) thus killing them outright. The other PC's tried to finish of the dragon (he was REAL close to dying), but also got downed. The warlock himself managed to flee, but none of them wanted to continue the campaign, understandably.
As for another Top 10 idea, how about top 10 class archetypes? But from ALL of the official classes. It might end up as a Top 15 or even 20 because of how many there are, but I think that would be really cool and interesting to see!
Passwall should be a cleric spell, it's literally a perfect deus ex machina
the Inquisition do not need to knock.
we just Passwall :D
Swell Foop!!
My field control bard just took Wall of Force as a level 10 magical secret. I'm chomping at the bit to use it to push a dragon or the like down into the ground and leave enough gap to give everyone free hits on it while it has to burrow free.
The biggest drawback of Animate Objects is creatures with resistance to non-magical bludgeoning damage, drastically reducing damage output. Enter Order of Scribes Wizards; "I cast Animate Objects, but let's make it force damage" Or psychic, necrotic, fire, cold or poison. All available on the 5th level list, and if the enemy has vulnerability to 1 of those types, well, they're getting wrecked.
*Wall of Force* So I had a staff of power in a campaign, which means of course, 3 free uses of the spell every day. The 3 ways I used it to really annoy the dm was in the following manner.
In a cave, a giant was slamming his club against a wall and causing the narrow walkway to begin to buckle, and the rocks would have fell and crushed us.
So I cast wall of force against the top of the cave along the very long stone hallway to reinforce the structure, and even though the cave was buckling, it was completely fine, as wall of force has no weight restrictions.
Another way was when we were fighting an ancient white dragon, and it was trying to burrow into the ground in the ruins of an old manor, I cast wall of force in the basement that it was trying to claw its way through, making it waste two turns as it was unable to realize what was going on.
Lastly, we were fighting in a city of demons in a very specific area where experiments were going on with fey entities. And the boss creature had a magic item which allowed it to create portals that summoned the CR4 Barlgura fiends every 1d4 rounds. And there were a ton of them being summoned as we worked our way into the dungeon. Near the end there was a giant pool of acid like hundreds of feet long and with a round chamber at the end. It had 3 walkways, and in order to stop the summoning we had to destroy the creature's chair in the center walkway. So we all chose the middle path while the Barlgura were circling around on each side. I used wall of force as we were running, and my simulacrum used it on the opposite side of the path, and we more or less made a giant wall of invisible protection for us to get down this entire walkway, as each Barlgura jumped towards us, hit the wall and slid down into the acid. The dm was actually laughing cause he said because they are demons, and water doesn't exist in his version of hell, they wouldn't know how to swim. so they just started drowning in acid. Brutal stuff.
Best use of wall of force that I ever saw was back in I think 3rd edition . The wizard put a wall of force in front of a prismatic wall to keep out a small army while we waited for our reinforcements to arrive .The DM loved the idea so he had the army commander ordered his wizards to take down the prismatic wall and nothing happened . As frustration mounted the commander began killing his wizards and by that point our reinforcements were there .
Would you allow a wizard to have 10 sets of animated manacles and then use them to grapple 10 humanoids?
Would that be a contested strength roll though? The small/tiny objects have a low strength
If I animated 10 gloves, could I arm them with 5 bows? Unleash a storm of arrows as a bonus action for 10 rounds
Would it not work out better just to have each attack? Would the fingers count as appendages?
@@neilm838 Oh yea having 10 silver pieces attack is more efficient, and I thought about the gloves' fingers counting as appendages and therefore they can't levitate, but I like the flavor of a wizard turning into half dozen archers.
Once had a fight going very poorly. Wall of Forced our 5 man group inside for 10 minutes as our Life Domain Cleric cast Aura of Vitality twice and everyone sorted themselves out and prepared actions.
My list is quite different:
1. Wall of Force
2. Animate Objects
3. Bigby's Hand
4. Greater Restoration
5. Telekinesis
6. Wall of Stone
7. Synaptic Static
8. Rary's Telepathic Bond
9. Cone of Cold
10. Seeming
I used animate objects to take down the BBEG in the final session of my last campaign! My Tiefling bard Ro used the silverware to maim and ultimately behead her father, who was absent most of her life and was secretly puppeteering all the worst things happening in the world. Real bad dude. Amazing spell.
No reference in passwall which suggests you can end the spell early. If it had that then it would become a great escape mechanism.
For Animate Objects, you mentioned potentially casting it in another room because there is no stipulation of objects "that you can see." However, wouldn't total cover rules then apply?
Have you made a video talking about total cover vs line of sight already?
Re: telepathic bond
I bypass this issue because I encourage my players to "metagame" when it comes to pure combat tactics. So "I will heal you next turn" is a player to players communication and it does not matter if the characters can communicate. The characters don't know what turns are anyway.
I realize that I am probably in the minority in using that play style.
10:58
"If you've ever been able to enjoy the benefits of _Hold Person..."_
No, no I haven't... *Sob*
Swell Foop it is
I used Wall of Force in a Glyph of Warding to bisect the party and protect my vampire spawn spellcaster :3
Danse Macabre is both thematic and effective
Cool name too: 'Dance of Death'
I love animating the rocks and gravel on the road or ground
each construct is a creature takes its own turn and has its own initiative and *is a creature* which means they can take the help action, they can do things like have dragon's breath cast on them
Combining the Slow spell with Steel Wond Strike is very fun. I am speed!
I think Holy weapon should be on this list.. Not for the Clerics weapon, but cast it on you ranged fighters bow, especially one with sharpshooter. By this time they will be soon getting a 3rd attack and with action surge that 2d8 per attack can make it massive damage and its up to an hour.
I DMed a game where for my BBEG had access to meteor swarm. The party wizard was holding wall of force for its breath attack, however when he heard whats actually hitting them, he just put the pannels 20ft above the party, effectively blocking all dmg to them and the terrain.
From than on I give my wizards a sht tone of spellbooks if they dont take it. Anything but the wall.....
But what about upcasting fireball at 5th level?
Fireball does not upcast well. Synaptic Staticdoes more damaged on average than a level 5 fireball just because it targets a weaker save and it deals a much more consistent damage type. Plus it won’t kill your party cause the damage is selective and it has a debuff attached. It is better in almost every way.
@@logancuster8035 bold words from someone within fireball distance.
Top 10 homebrew spells, Top 10 homebrew monsters, Top 10 ways to use the environment to mess with your players, Top 10 traps (feel free to use Grimtooths traps).
Consider that corpses are objects when you talk about animate object. You think Danse Macarabe can be good on undead, you can animate parts of corpses with Animate Object. Attack the enemy with the parts of their comrade's bodies.
So used Wall of force as a Dm with the Blue abishai who was flying above the party who was spread out and for the majority of the fight I had the Paladin, rogue and barbarian trapped in the cube and they where so mad.
An older topic but I think the ten feet vs 5 feet is to simulate a coup de grace style attack.
I had never considered the possibilities of passwall as a burglary tool, but it could be amazing in the right campaign. Why go into the room full of magical defenses to grab the artifact, when you can just go to the room underneath it and then make it fall through the floor?
When it comes to party communication mid combat I chalk it up to the fact that these adventurerers travel and practice combat scenarios together on the road for months.
Essentially you're verbalising what your PC would inheritently know your teammate is likely to do in that scenario.
I, on the other hand, shut that stuff *right down* by telling players that (a) if they want to say more than two words, it uses up their entire turn and (b) as Ted says, I allow monsters who hear even short plans like "Get him!" with a pointed finger ... react to them. My philosophy is that, if players want to play the kind of inherent knowledge of each others' tactics that you're describing, let them *acquire that inherent knowledge, either through play or prior planning* rather than be allowed to fake it in the middle of combat.
@@morganpetros9635 Man am I glad I'm not at your table. That's a horrible way to have fun at game night. Sure, letting the enemy hear the plans and react accordingly is one thing. Completely shutting it down? That's incredibly boring and annoying. Hopefully you have a table of players who enjoy that. This is a high fantasy roleplaying game, not a real life simulator. You can take liberties every once in a while
Great video Ted!
Probably a bit of a stretch, but do you have any opinions on any of the PanzerLion stuff re: the Book of Cylinders edits?
Top 10 Underdark creatures/monsters. Top 10 Underdark cities. Top 10 Underdark Lore. ...Can you tell i'm running an Underdark campaign at the moment? :D
Animate objects in a bunch of brooms and dusters to clean my wizards library
Best build to incorporate as many of these as possible? I'll take any recommendations
Man of culture right here
Do you think the Crusher feat would work with Animate Objects?
I remember a friend of mine animated a trebuchet and that was interesting
Once had an ancient red dragon coming straight for my party at a dive...wizard put a wall of force straight in front of the dragon. I don't have a limit on fall damage, so that dragon was mush.
It's a shame Eldritch Knights can't get 5th level spells for Steel Wind Strike. Fits so well. But they can always use through spell scrolls or multiclassing enough into wizard. The spellwrought tattoo works as well but I hate how those are single use. Basically the same as a scroll.
Homebrew. Pay extra gold to make it once per day, recharge at dawn/dusk.
My wizard carried a bag of marbles & a bag of caltrops for use with Animate Objects. It was frustrating to the DM.
AI campaign when Jim Darkmagic used Animate Objects on the Froghemoth statue in Chult :)
Love long videos keep up the great work.
1 swell foop. Good book.
Does synaptic static's debuff stack with cutting words
Would you give Commune to a Warlock ? I have been debating on doing it for a while.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that
While I allow my players and like all dms I know allow their players to communicate. In a technical aspect probably shouldn't due to the fact a round is the 6 seconds. A player's turn is just an aspect of that 6 seconds that is all happening at once.
Top 10 most versatile spells and their applications
I'll be honest legend lore and commune are both options I'd just inherently give players. Legend lore is a history check and commune is just something all Clerics should have after a certain point without a spell.
Material component, inc*st, every time you cast this spell Sweet Home Alabama plays in the background.
the wizard in my group used wall of force on both paladins (i was one of them) trapping them in a sphere when vampire charmed both paladins