Nystul's Magic Aura is THE MOST CURSED SPELL IN D&D!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ม.ค. 2025
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Happy birthday.
The more enchantments get broken, the more I think the necromanceres were kinda right.
i like the granola
9 day old comment on a 7 hour video, Pack Tactics is magician
This spell, like Planar Binding, is one of those spells where the literal intended use case of the spell is clearly bad for the game and not something that should have ever been allowed. The purpose of Planar Binding is to bind some kind of entity into your service which can easily become wildly unbalanced even without using summons because it is inevitable you encounter some powerful fey or fiend in combat. Similarly, Nystul's is now explicitly designed to be able to allow the fundamental rules of the games to be warped, it is almost like achieving Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE) in D&D. I always find it grimly hilarious when people complain about "abusing" these spells when the problematic function of the spell is the intended use case.
I feel like these spells should be in the books so that npcs can use them for story purposes, but then not appear on any class's spell list.
The spell school, flavour text, and original wording imply that the intended use case is to avoid detection from like dangerous magical glyphs or detect evil & good, not a means of making almost anything a legal target for almost anything.
Of course, as written nystul's is still problematic
@@aedwa021 Put them in the DMG with clear warnings that they break fundamental assumptions about how the game is played and are inappropriate for most games. It's fine for them to be on class spell lists as long as the game sets the expectation that these are only available if the DM allows it, much like the Death Cleric and Oathbreaker Paladin in 1st edition 5e.
What if the game .... wasn't designed to be balanced
Reminder that the Oblex exists, so a seemingly ordinary person whose magical signature is that of an ooze reeeeeally seems like an Oblex to a knowledgeable monster hunter.
That is a hilarious point.
Inversely, someone can cast this on an Oblex to mask it as an actual humanoid.
Now I have a new fear.
@@reiyoka And everyone wonders why I play my wizard as if everyone and everything is lying to me. I get weird looks but this was something that I looked at in the past. I had a wizard that used magic aura to suppress all magical indicators from his stuff.
I also placed a very fun security system in my Tower and changed it to illusion. Every time we went there I spoke the safe passage word and when asked I told everyone that it was a Magic Mouth glyph to announce an unexpected visitor in reality there were a chain of glyphs that among other things eventually included Power word kill.
I absolutely love this spell. Cursed or not, it is PEAK meme.
Edit: Happy birthday, Kobold! Appreciations for the video, especially.
Finally, i can make my PC in all ways but physical, a kobold... in a trench coat!
That song is a banger
Actually magic jar would let you do that also you can use Simulacrum and dominate person to make it 3 kobolds in the coat.
[advantage]
So perfect JKkk
This sounds like Slavery with extra steps, in fact it would make a great campaign. Party lands on a island or kingdom where the citizen are enslaved by a evil lich king.
That used Nytsul's aura and planar binding on them.
PackTactics literally said as much in the video.
Thematically, I like that you can use it to use magic items or access things you otherwise couldn't (it seems like a very DM or story oriented spell where you have things like Mindflayer or undead related items). I feel like if the party can somehow subdue something like an ancient dragon for 30 days and agree on who gets to try take the body, they are free to try (in my games). It could make for a decent endgame mission where the players help an NPC get back to their true form which was stolen from them previously or something.
There's the natural story thread of having a big forbiddance spell which disintegrates any, let's say demon, who enters naturally so all the more intelligent demons mask themselves with Nystul's Magic Aura to enter the forbiddance resulting in the players needing to identify them through other means. My favourite idea with it is having it as the passcode for a mages guild. There's a symbol on the front door which they change every day and if anyone who isn't a plant type on this specific day walks up to, it explodes. Is it entirely overly complicated and a waste of magical abilities compared to a simple codephrase? Yes, which makes it perfect for a mages guild.
Regarding niche interactions, shoutout to turning your entire party undead to get a +5 damage boost with the 2014 oathbreaker's aura of hate. Truly the most munchkin combination until your enemy breaks out their own divine smite.
"I am under DNA with WOTC [...]" (Text on screen at 9:44) - I know Kobold probably meant "NDA" but the idea of WotC getting sinister with "23 and me", while discussing this particular spell is funny.
I can see Nystul's essentially turning into a cold-war arms race where Evil Aligned creatures have little apprehension of doing this while Good Aligned creatures only do this so that no tyrant can come about and wreck havoc through mutually ensured destruction. Might Arcana/Knowledge Clerics work as police hunting these kinds of Wizards, with some nations requiring Wizards to be registered.
This is basically the only way I see this spell working. You'd have to have so much world building around it to essentially nerf it by adding complications and problems to using it.
I had used Nystul's Aura as a DM, but hadn't even considered this aspect. I used the effect on objects, a thief stole a powerful magic item and left a fake that had the Aura of the original. And an assassin with magic weapons used it to get his tools past a security team with Detect Magic. It was fun, these uses sound fun in a different way.
The focus on balance, I've now realized, is just a focus on battling against bad players.
Yay!! Nystul’s Magic Aura at last! I haven’t watched yet, but I am so happy!
WotC crafted Nystul's Box and left it to you to open. May Jeremy have mercy on our games.
Gotta admit I never thought about using Nystul’s magical aura like that at most I’ve used it for vampires to hide from a paladin’s divine sense.
y'know a fight between 2 really powerful wizards in 5e would be so extremely cursed, there's no energy beam slinging and barrier shields like you'd see anywhere else, just nystul, magic jar and prestidigitation tech lmao
that has always been the case. fireballs and lightning bolts are flashy and good against large numbers of fodder; but the flashy stuff is usually not very good at high levels. that's when you get into contingencies, counterspells, and one-hit incapacitations.
@@j.asmrgaming1228 i know, i'm not new to optimization or tech, the comment just happens to be on-topic to the video when it wasn't in any past ones
@octolyn5529 and I agree with you, my intent was not to say you were wrong, but continue your thoughts.
Great Video! I've been using a homebree for my campaign's villain. A cleric of Vecna infiltrated a cult of Orkus to use its secrets, using magic jar to constantly change bodies as convenient (multiple identities, lots of deception... a true mastermind in search of arcane secrets). One of his plans is to have a monstrous body that allows him to destroy kingdoms and everything else. The part about catching other creatures was outside the rules, but now I can do it within the rules 😃 I think the next arc will be to stop him from catching a dragon 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼
Just to clarify, this NPC is a multiclass carácter.
Happy birthday Kobold. It's funny I only noticed this spell recently when I was researching illusion spells specifically and Im certain I didn't think of whatever you're about to tell me
If you want to be an evil DM, and/or your players are into this type of "actions have consequences" thing, you could allow the Nystul's Magic Aura + Planer binding combo to let player's build an army... Then as that starts to get boring/difficult to manage have a creature show up that can cast "dispel magic" to end Planner Binding, create an "antimagic field" to suppress Planer Binding, and/or use the Wish spell for a non-spell effect, creating an encounter where some/all of that army of mind slaves are suddenly free from the players' control...
Who would win: a wizard with an army of powerful spellcasters enslaved via NMA+PB, or one beholder?
KOBOLD IS MY (FORMERLY-) SECRET SON!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUDDY!
I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!
You can False Aura Magic Weapons, making it appear nonmagical. And then cast Magic Weapon Spell on it. Stacking +1/2/3 on an already +1/2/3 OR other magical weapon.
This wouldn't work. "You touch a nonmagical weapon." & "make a magic item appear nonmagical"
You are only changing the appearance of it to magic that detects magical effects "You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects that detect magical auras, such as Detect Magic." This is NOT the same thing as making it a non-magical item which means it is an invalid target for magic weapon. So I would rule this as the weapon appears to be a valid target but when the spell is cast it fizzles and does nothing but gives the impression of success.
@Xayentist "Spells" and "Magical effects that detect magical auras" are two different criteria.
A parallel is Animate Dead. A "pile of bones" or "corpse of a small or medium humanoid." Not a "pile of bones or corpse" of a small or medium humanoid.
@@xiongray Although it's ambiguous, in this case it's pretty clear that the phrase means "(spells and magical effects) that detect magical auras". If for some reason they wanted to include *all* spells, but only (non-spell) magical effects that detect magical auras, it would have made that clear.
"appear" nonmagical, not "is" nonmagical. Personally, I think that wording alone is enough to keep it balanced.
@@dizzydoom4230 It's kind of the whole point of Nystul's Magic Aura. Treating things as others for the purpose to be targetable by certain Spells.
Happy Birthday, Kobald and Gator! I'll be sure to like and comment on every video for the year! Subscribing has been ticked for years.
Personally, I would allow the spell and just run it in the way that makes the most sense based on the name and school of magic: it doesn't actually change anything about the target, it just causes magical effects to give wrong information about the target. So if you mask a dragon to appear humanoid, it doesn't make Hold Person work on them, but it does make it so Locate Creature can't find the dragon unless you ask it for the nearest humanoid. I realize there's probably some edge cases, but overall I think this interpretation is reasonable, although as you say, it is clearly not RAW in 2024, and probably not even in 2014.
On an unrelated note: I play in a campaign where the entire party is imbued with a very unusual magical effect, and my DM ruled based on the ambiguous language in the 2014 spell text that I could use the False Aura effect to hide this effect's magic aura on the party to avoid attracting attention. So I'm kind of annoyed that the 2024 spell text specifically limits False Aura to objects only, because it has a use (admittedly a rather niche one) for creatures as well.
2:36 Your birthday wish is my command... I have liked, now I comment "and subscribe"
I'll just put my comment here and not cause a cluster.
Everyone is trying to break the game with this spell meanwhile I'm putting together a combo with Nystul's to turn into my dream anthro furr- [the guards catch me and drag me away before I can finish the sentence]
Oh wow. That got dark, soon.
I SAW KOBOLD VENT!!!
This sounds like an excellent premise for an evil wizard who wants to become a dragon.
My only use I've used Nystul's for is to help a new player who joined as a goblin after we've had recurring enemies involving nilbogs. Outside of that I've agreed not to do anything with the spell.
P.S. Happy birthday!
Mask doesn't say "instead of". I think I would say that the masked orc can use the ancestral elf sword. I do not think it would hide it being an orc. Given this is a second level spell, I could see this being intended. It doesn't stop the magic jar stuff, but it does prevent the party immunity to hold person
but it does say it changes the way the target appears. typically when one uses the word change it means from one thing into another, not just adding type, especially and I could be wrong but I don't think multiple type entities exist in DND 5e.
While this is likely the intent, the big problem is that there are no duel type creatures in the game, nor is there any official rules on how that would work. While there are some UA guidelines from a handful of years ago that mentions hold person would work on a humanoid dragon, the fact that there nothing official would no doubt lead to arguments about the spell.
Damn, I thought that oozes rolled disadvantage against sunbeam. So I checked, and they certainly did. But not in 2024!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! LOVE YOU PACK TACTICS
❤
A wish is a wish, and I'm so happy you finnally made this video.❤ So I'm subscribing
I was one of those few players who used nystal's aura for normal reasons. My character was a tiefling wizard and I used magic aura on myself for a month to permanently appear to spells as a non-magical human. It was part of my end game set up where the DM and I were planning to have my character go through the Ceremony of Endless Night and become a lich. I am the final villian of the campaign.
Conglatulations on the 4th anniversary! Lots of loot for you
Happy Birthday Kobold & & Gator
Happy Birthday Pack Tactics!!
As a DM, I use Nystul's for making certain creatures undiscoverable. Rakshasas and shape changed dragons.
happy egg escape day!
Happy Birthday! Thanks for making so many great videos!
I felt magically compelled to comment on this video, I am unsure why. Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday Pack Tactics!
2:36 happy birthday, I’m glad my players can’t read and don’t know what any of the spells do and don’t pick spells if they don’t see a big dice notation (8d6)
I think my BBEG might use this...
You said this in another video (love your stuff by the way), but it is typically called a 'Non-Disclosure-Agreement' (NDA) rather than DNA :)
Happy birth!
When I was looking at spells for a funny little rat-loving wizard character I was kind of doubting if I really wanted Nystul's cuz it took away my chance to get a cooler spell
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized...
animate object on a sandwich, nystul's aura on the creature, magic jar, now you are a baloney sandwich
Happy birthday! Many happy returns and wish you many more years!
The Birthday Magic compelled me.
Happy birthday for TH-cam algorithm engagement
It feels like one of those things where different people probably wrote each of these spells and the interaction between them was never considered so explicitly. Or if it was, it was probably assumed that most DMs wouldn't be okay with one of the players creating an army of mind slaves
Things like the original usecase of making yourself read as a dragon or an Ooze or something make sense and is probably a lot more in-line with what they were thinking and was the end of the thought process. Hell I might see if I can do that in a future game cause it actually sounds interesting. But yeah the combination with suggestion and then planar binding is uh... yikes
tho ngl the idea of using this and soul jar as a means to defeat a normally unkillable boss or to fulfill some story thing like you mentioned like the whole "There must always be a lich king" thing is also kinda cool and I could see that being like the backstory for a BBEG who is secretly trying to guide the heroes to do the same thing to them because they want to end their time or something
Happy birthday. I did all 3, thank you for the wonderful content you put out. I wish for many more years for you to celebrate
Happy Birthday to my favorite Kobolds [creature type masked]
If there's a broken rule, make a villain that exploits it. Enter the Slaver of Dragons.
I got a good chuckle out of your disclaimer because i just got out of a meeting with my DM about changes i made to my character and the idea i have for what she wants to do
Thanks for the video, Kobold! Happy birthday!! 🎉🎂
So I’ve never heard of this spell, so you can imagine my surprise as the video progressed. And its a shame cuz there’s REALLY COOL uses like you said. Like maybe you trick a corrupt king by promising to turn them into a dragon in exchange for the McGuffin, and then use this spell to fulfill your end of the bargin. Though the change to Suggestion seems to be the bigger problem. Anyways happy birthday!
Happy birthday, Kobold! Isn't modern science wonderful? We now have grain-free granola 🤭 Here, my birthday present for you is that I promise to never use Nystal's Magic Aura without talking to the DM about it first
12:30 see, kobold is a good sport. Idk why everyone gives him a hard time
Happy Birthday! Love your channel
The old oathbreaker paladin made it so that all nearby fiends and undead Got a damage boost so you could boost all of your other martials it isnt broken but it is teamwork
Happy Birthday Kobold and Gator!
Can't argue with these birthday wishes.
Happy birthday Kobold! Love your style and your content.
Happy Birthday Pack Tactics!🎉
My rule for willing is:
Treat ‘willing’ as a metaphysical question asked to the essence of a creature; “would you like this to affect you?”. This means that creatures can be willing targets without knowing they are targeted by a spell; or unwilling. It also means that no spell or effect in the game can deceive a creature or player into being willing.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO FOR SO LONG
Part of me wants to do this as part of a plot to actually become an ooze using magic jar. My party will now be joined by a morally neutral, sentient ooze that is actively trying to figure out how to cast while in ooze form.
I actually love the non-broken uses of this spell! Make your ring of protection detect as nothing. Change your alignment to neutral. Make your mundane sword look magic, make your magic sword look mundane!
So many fun little things!
I failed my save against the birthday wish but you already earned all 3! Happy birthday!
I was hoping this would cover the weird things you can do with Polymorph too. Great video though.
Nystul's use on a Suggested, Charmed or Commanded creature to make the willing is a fallacy. Suggesting something to force a choice of action is not within the creature's actual will. Despite charm and suggestion and command, the true will of the individual is not usurped, only the ability to control their actions. Otherwise, every magical villain could override the PC's will, and player agency is dead.
Happy birthday you two!
Happy birthday Kobold and Gator
Happy birthday!! May many more video's follow!
Everyone in my home is an ooze! Honestly, this is the stupidest spell ever written in 5e. It breaks so many things and mechanics and can easily lead you to rabbit holes so large of the rules it's a big meme how dumb it is. And now the mechanics even allow stuff to be stronger due to changes!
The False Aura part is extremely situational and useless... and in fact, that part is the one from the original version of this spell in 3e (simply named Magic Aura... I guess 10 years ago Nystul swooped in and added the broken part). If the False Aura effect was the only remaining one, this would be as strong as a situational 1st level spell. With the Mask effect? Probably high level of 7th level spell if we're generous about its power.
Happy Birthday Engagment. Great vid!
I love breaking the game like this
Been waiting for this one! Woohoo!
Suggestion also says "must not involve anything that would obviously deal damage to the target or it's allies." I feel like "let us cast whatever spell we want on you" is pretty obvious code for "we'd like to fuck up your day."
A good litmus test for Suggestion is the Jedi Mind Trick. You can tell the guard "just let us pass with my pet owlbear, he's tame." You can't tell the guard "hey lie down and let my pet owlbear use you as a chew toy for a bit. Don't worry, he's tame."
Yeah. It used to be 'anything that would obviously harm the target'. But now it's damage. Nystul's Magic Aura doesn't deal *damage*.
This is probably a flaw.
@@basedeltazero714 Yep, this is one change in 2024 I'm conflicted on. Obviously they were trying to improve the clarity of the spell; it allows one to make the yes/no decision in the shortest amount of time, but it ends up taking away the DM's right to say "No, that Suggestion may not lead to immediate damage, but there's no way you're convincing this guy to do something that could clearly lead to bodily or mental harm." For Nystul's Aura (or any similar tricky spell), I'd require some very solid role-play setup and a very high-DC Deception check to justify it.
I would Wish you a happy birthday Kobold, but I lost the ability to cast it the last time I did... Ho well here is a comment & like.
Good vid. Honestly old Magic Aura was good if you roleplayed it as a illusion, creature appears but isn't. Changing creature type is crazy.
Suggestion doesn’t make a creature “willing”. It is using magic to control a creature’s actions that specifically bypasses that creature’s willpower, therefore it is not “willing”. Also, it’s assumed that most games have limits on torture regardless of how optimal it may be. It’s very common for tables to have bans on torture and violence on captives outside of combat. Looking to an analogous system, the Pathfinder baseline rules assume torture and slavery commuted by players in game seasons is not allowed. Overall, I wouldn’t count on being able to use this spell of enemies even if the spell is not banned.
The game never actually provides a definition of 'willing'.
Counterpoint: that's literally sociopath logic, a creature being mind controlled is in no way willing
- Evil Gator doesn't exists, he can't hurt you!
Evil Gator: B̶̨̨͍̯̲͙̟͕̺̥̥̊̇̿̒̈̌̎̅̊̆̒̚̕͠ͅŭ̴͍̱̠͍̺̏͛̋͐̄̚͠t̴̨͖̖̤̼͔̩̥̼̜͖͍̫̞̮͕̱͗̽̔́̑̒ ̶̢̙̄͛̏̒͗͆͘͝ͅĶ̷̰̤̰͙̞̝͉̒͊̀̓̾̉̓̾̊̇̈́̕͠o̶̠̠͙͔͊̈́̎̓̈́̓̂̄̂̒̓̌̽͑͠͠͝b̷͕̾̐̓̇̿͒̿͠o̸͉̎̉͌͊͋͜ļ̶̢̙̯̰̠͔͔̭͓̳̈́̇͊͌̓̾̑̐́̾͐̈̚͝ḍ̷̨͔̱̻̙̬̝͖͓͎̙̥̹̈̓̍̾̄̆̿̎̔̽̑̃̕̕̕͠
Happy Birthday! I hope the numbers on the Dice Project do well for everyone involved! So is Nystul how litches make simulacrum litches?
Oozes have disadvantage on saves against Sunbeam.
I feel like a way to use Nystul's Magic Aura with Planar Binding in a not problematic way is to combine it with your own summons, like Summon Draconic Spirit/Summon Dragon. Which is probably the strongest one a Wizard can combo with as it'd give them resistances as long as the Dragon exists. It's also a very gold heavy way for a Necromancer with Summon Undead to get a strong army of sturdy undeads. I still think this is very powerful, but to me still feels within the realm of what a player should be able to do with Planar Binding and doesn't feel icky like enslaving various NPCs. You might be able to reduce the gold cost by making an Enspelled Staff/Armor, but that's again only if the DM allows it. (You'd also probably need to use Glyph of Warding for the summon, because casting Planar Binding would take your concentration since it takes more then 1 action to cast it. Again very gold heavy... which might not matter to some who's DMs actually give out gold.)
There are still of course problem parts to this since the number of minions might get out of hand and drag down combat, doesn't mean you can't have a Dragon or Undead Army, just means aside from probably 1-2 of your minions they should be elsewhere, possibly storming a castle while your party sneaks through the back, or protecting your Bastion free of charge. Point is, don't let an army drag down combat if you or one of your players want to do this. It's a game everyone wants to play, not your army simulator.
All this being said, I really do like the False Aura part of Magic Aura as it can camouflage your gear to seem mundane, or the opposite by making a random stick seem like it has great and mighty evocation magic inside of it, or throwing a toy ball to a enemy Wizard with Detect Magic up to make them think it's a bomb. Give an enemy a powerful artifact... that's really just a creepy statue the rogue sticky fingered while your party pockets the actual artifact also with Magic Aura on it. False Aura is fun, Mask is broken.
This combo sounds great for a villain NPC. Someone is going around and enslaving the most powerful monsters they can to use for some nefarious means which the players will end up fighting. The NPC can end up being a lich or something.
Edit: Happy Birthday!
What about Wild Shape? I seem to remember that this was something that could happen in 5e.
Previously subscribed, but liked and commented for your birthday
Gator is just a good follower of tiamat
1. Liked
2. Already suscribed
3. Posting a comment
I, for one, believe the suggestions from our kobold overlord are achievable
At last! I thought my dream of nystul's actually changing your creature type for real would forever remain a dream. I am clinging to this like a madman now! Time to turn monstrosities into beasts to speak with animals them all!!!
My players are the unicorns. In our campaign setting being Undead can get you attacked on sight, but two of the players are undead and another is a paladin. I secretly gave the Undead players access to Nystul's Magic Aura so the paladin's Divine Sense wouldn't lead to infighting.
Happy Birthday! Hope you have a great one!!!
I wouldn't ban the spell, I would just rule that "willing" doesn't apply if you have to coerce the creature first, such as through charm or others.
That doesn't fix the "party is immune to Hold Person" aspect.
@hweidigiv I'm ok with that. There's always Hold Monster and Charm Monster, as well as the fact that I've played a hexblood and a satyr, both fey that are not humanoids. Same is true for autognome as a construct, or plasmoid as an ooze. That's just as cool as playing a mission suddenly requiring swimming and the Triton or Sea Elf or Water Genasi players finally get a chance to use their special skills.
For my table I'm sure it's gonna be fine. It's easy to ban magic jar and the DM will never make a usefull target for the planar binding combo
My character in this game i was playing had a lich-heavy storyline. My macguffin when combined with my weapon allowed some level of soul manipulation and magic. So i used Nystul (False Aura) to hide its capability with 30 day permanence.
I only use Nystul on items, usually cursed ones
Okay, but gator's "joke" about becoming a pokemon master might be an actual fun way to include nystal and binding. As long as the DM limits it to creatures that aren't unreasonably strong for that party level, having a handful of pocket monsters to fight for you could be super fun. Like eidolons or something
Happy Birthday fellow kobolds!