@@jorgh5255 This. We had a player with the Sunblade variant in Out of the Abyss get madness from Demogorgon when it attacked a kuotoa village and died trying to fight it. I used Catapult to save the sword after he died >.>
This strat is very DM dependent, but if you use the spell on a net, you've basically got a Net-Gun that you can use to knock flying enemies out of the sky. This is kinda my go-to option for all my Artificers now and it is so much fun when it works XD
I once tied a flask of oil to an alchemist fire and launched them together. I also like this spell with bags of caltrops, ball bearings, or even money (silver hurts werewolves and distracts bandits). I haven't thought of using it on nets yet, but hear me out. Carry a 160 lb metal weight in your bag of holding. Cast reduce on it in preparation for a fight. Run up to your target, and launch the missile straight up over its head. Release concentration, action surge + distant spell on enlarge. Watch 1400 lbs of death land on your target from 90 ft up. Instant siege weapon.
Quick thing on Alarm: it's a ritual spell and there is no concentration but also no wording that it disappears if you cast it again. You can take a hour, cast it six times, and have a good amount of area covered.
Bradley. that is actually how I always used this spell. Used sometime which other characters use for camp preparation to kind of ward of all or most of approach vectors
@@bradleyrichard9283Rules as written you can cast it as a ritual for Arcane Ward. Here is what the Player's Handbook says: "When you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, you can simultaneously use a strand of the spell's magic to create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest... While the ward has 0 hit points, it can't absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell." Doesn't say that it has to use a spell slot.
You can do a really goofy Scribes wizard build where you pick up a spell that does bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage at every level, and flavour your spells as ridiculous anime maneuvers with weapons. Like a slashing lightning bolt being a dash through the enemies in the line with a sword, or a bludgeoning fireball being you jumping into the air with a giant hammer and slamming the ground really hard. At the end of which you of course teleport back to your original location because you're just that cool.
For players who like to describe their spells in detail then Scribes is very rewarding! Another note is that if you upcast Catapult then you can infuse it with whatever damage types are available at the higher Spell Slot. Catapult becomes a totally new spell if you're dealing Mind Spike's Psychic damage, upcast at 2L... suddenly that rock you're launching phases into something else entirely! If that sparks imagination then Scribes is worth trying
@@veikkovuokila8012I made a Geomancer by taking spells that deal bludgeoning damage at every level (fun fact, the only level of Wizard spells that doesn't have bludgeoning damage is 8th) alongside the Crusher feat. Being able to cast "Rock Barrage" (bludgeoning scorching ray) is SO much fun.
Glad Command got an A. To me, the really good use of this spell is upcasting it at higher levels when you are already concentrating on something else. Like a Bard that is already concentrating on Hypnotic Pattern. Don't really have a ton of things you can do with your Action that are going to have a big impact. But, you upcast Command to 2nd level and tell a couple enemies to Grovel, and you waste their whole next turn without breaking concentration. On my Lore Bard I played before Tasha's, I actually took Command as one of my Additional Magical Secrets because I was looking for something to do with my actions that didn't require concentration, as Vicious Mockery was quickly losing its appeal.
My two best uses of Command: In a murder/mystery one shot we had a solid idea of who had done it, but weren’t able to get any solid evidence so we got everyone together in a Zone of Truth and then I cast Command “Confess” on them. The second was a funny situation. We were trapped by the BBEG and I was trying to buy the rest of the party a turn to help us escape so I cast Command “Monologue” on him. The whole table cracked up as the DM voluntarily failed the saving throw 😂
My favorite use of Command is "Betray". I haven't had a time yet were the DM didn't have that target attack their own party member. On my Divine Soul, I can upcast or use twin meta magic to get multiple targets for minimal resource use.
Alarm fully is a C, very situational, but those latter cases you started talking about are what I’d primarily use it for, especially if you’re a ritual caster. The mental version of it, which has a mile range, is a cheap way to keep tabs on more distant areas of your surroundings. Not just for ambushes, but also to keep yourself from being surprised, and to a degree track movement over distance. You can do things like alarm the door to the guard barracks to monitor comings and goings, alarm the entrance to the dragon’s lair while you’re trying to loot it while the dragon is absent, alarm the front door of a house you’re trying to rob to let you know when the owners get back (same idea, different type of house), if you’re doing defense or investigation alarming an unusual entrance to an area to see if anyone uses it, etc. The spell lasts for eight hours and it alerts you every time a tiny or larger creature interacts with it. The silent, mental version is great if you’re ever in a stakeout or heist or robbery type situation where you want to monitor access points. It definitely is a niche spell, but if you’re running particularly an urban intrigue or heist campaign, definitely might be worth a look.
And if the DM says the entrance to the dungeon is more than 20ft wide, you can just cast Alarm twice targeting squares that are next to each other (taking 20 mins instead of 10 as two ritual castings). It's not concentration so you can have as many Alarms active at once as you've cast in the last 8h!
Yeah, I'd be ok with basing it off the campaign and saying that in some campaigns it elevates almost to an A tier in terms of it's utility as a ritual, but can in other campaigns drop to worthless. Content with a low B high c tier rating here, which is kinda where i feel they were aiming for it to be put at the end of their discussion, but kept it C. The difficulty in this tier list is there are a lot of campaign/DM dependent utility on any level of spell almost.
I've seen Alarm used extensively, such as in Salt Marsh to ward a ship and a dock. I've also seen it used to tell people "When was the vault open" or alert other access to an area. Don't think of it as a burglar alarm, think of it as a trigger: "Is someone in this closed off area I'm interested in?" The one mile range is really useful. This is a great spell for scrolls too.
A subtle thing with Catapult is that it deals damage to the target and itself. So if you have a jar of Alchemist Fire, "drop it accidentally" and then catapult it at someone, the jar will shatter as it smashes into something. Which which also gives some options for things like a bag of ball bearings or caltrops, however that is up to the DM's discretion
I mean, it takes one action to cast and is instantanious, so it would be reasonable to just give the thing a toss into the air(no particular target, so rolling shouldnt be needed) then piledrive it into someone rather than "accidentally dropping it".
1st Level spells are especially hard to Tier rank, since their utility shifts by varying degrees the higher you go - some meh spells get better and become must-haves, and several must-have spells get crummy and useless by Tier 2. That said, this is a good start.
5:53 I will say that one thing I think raises Alarm’s utility is that it’s not concentration, and I don’t see anything in the description that prevents you from having more than one alarm active at once, which could drastically raise the area you can cover with it, especially since you can cast it as a ritual. Whether or not that works for you will depend on DM interpretation of course. Something my artificer did, utilizing that interpretation, was to alarm the woods AROUND the camp instead of the camp itself. That might not stop a fireball flung at you but it DID alert me to the abishai that were invisibly spying on our camp that night.
I would that the value of certain spells would vary depending on whether you are a preparation spellcaster who can choose their spells for the day or a known spells caster who is pretty much stuck with those spells permanently.
Ceremony is a great example of this. Clerics and paladins both prepare spells, and it's a spell that you'll probably know ahead of time that you're going to use it, so just prepare it on those occasions.
I don't know if anyone pointed this out, but Catapult has the highest range out of any level one spell. It says 60 ft, but what that means is that you can target an object within 60 ft. The object travels 90 ft. So if you target a random rock on the ground, that is 60 ft from you, you can launch it an additional 90 ft. 150 ft. It also let's you attack from a different direction. This can let you get around Cover. If they have a Boulder, the shooting from behind you can choose a rock behind into the side of them and hit them in the back. The same technique is useful for stealth. Because the enemy doesn't know where the attack is coming from. It's like that trick where they throw a rock to make a sound, and the guards go over there. Except this time they attack someone from a certain direction when they're really in the opposite direction. This technique is just super maneuverable. Finely, this technique pairs so well with so many other items and spells. You can only Throw a grappling hook so high on your own, but you could have a party member throw it and use this to fire it another 90 ft. Fire your lamp oil on someone from 90ft away well Also doing damage from the initial hit. Poison acid and elkonist fire all work the same. There is also magic stone, which pairs so well. Finely with the artificer Artilleryest sub class, you can make a tiny cannon with legs. It is not classified as a creature. Meaning at level one, you can fire it up to 90 ft. What's more it acts as if your the one firing the Cannon even if your not touching it. That means you can fire it over a castle wall and any Attack buffs you receive are applied to the cannon on the other side of the wall. (I am getting into artificer now, but the synergy is there.) Alarm is a Ritual so you can cast it as many times as you need. Even Graph it out so that each area has a different alarm. This is great for invisibility. If you know someone with Invisibility or high stealth is going to show up make a grid. You will know Not only that, they're here, but where they are. Afterward, it's just a matter of area of effect spells. The spell last 8 hours and it takes 10 minutes To cast it as a ritual. This means you can cast it 48 times. This makes the Assumption that only 1 of you know it. But many classes don't have to choose what spells they know. They get all of them. This Allows for multiple people to have the alarm spell and not waste any spell slots on or anything on it. The problem is it's a prep spell. It's great if you Do a lot of scouting and know what you're going to face ahead of time. (My favorite type of charicter) but not so much for Ambushes or entering the unknown area.
Wow, every spell by level and in alphabetical order???? This series will be epic! I already can imagine rewatching different parts for the discussions of specific spells
Armor of agathys on a conquest pally is a solid use of a slot. They're already terrifying walking tanks, and now they're terrifying walking tanks that hurt you if you try to stop them. Really works with their whole aesthetic too.
Oh man, this is going to be a long video series. Looking forward to all its episodes!!! Edit: I'm happy that Kelly mentioned how Burning Hands saved Pluto in the first Dungeons of Drakkenheim episode.
I'd like to point out that Cause Fear scales nicely since the debuff is relevant at all levels of play, unlike colour spray or sleep, and a level 1 spell that can cripple a strong creature is good value
Sleep is one of the best in my opinion, whatever or whoever you cast it on doesn’t get any saving throws and it doesn’t give a 💩about legendary/lair actions etc. It demands some meta gaming, I realize this but, it’s great for those of us who keep track on damage done to the BBEG’s and it’s minions etc. As long as your DM calls out your “bloodied” targets, it’s amazing. Just upcast it to whatever it needs to be and voila, it’s that easy. EDIT: If you play a Aberrant sorcerer it’s even better, put it on your Psi list and use it to great effect in “out of combat” situations. Not only can you now “collect” all sorts of BBEGs in your basement but, now you can also use it to make NPCs everywhere your thing…just cast Disguise Self to turn yourself into any of the NPCs you have “put to Sleep”, even better with the Actor feat.
The thing with Ceremony is that there are uses, and you're not trapped with it. That's the case with all the cleric, druid and paladin spells. Whereas, Arcane casters minus wizards are kind of locked in when choosing spells.
I have a soft spot for Catapult. I was playing a diviner and I ended two separate encounters by killing the lead wizards of each encounter by using portent to make them fail their saving throws. Since we were low-level, they didn't have high HPs and were killed by the spell. Catapult has never been as effective since but at the time, I felt so powerful.
My party figured out a way to use alarm to help party members to communicate when we split the party. We put together what basically amounts to pocket telegraphs so that we can communicate via morse code. We did have to learn morse code (or at least have a cheat sheet handy) though, b/c our DM makes us literally spell everything out in code. He was annoyed that he couldn't think of a reason we wouldn't be able to do it. 😂
@@sarahmanalapan8443well the spell says Door, Window, or area no larger than 20 feet cubed. Doesn't say anything about door or window size. So get a toy door like a lego door frame and ward that. Boom, your door morse code tool is made.
@@sarahmanalapan8443 Alarm wards a set entrance or an area up to 20 square feet. So you could alarm a door or window without also warding the area inside the building. Or in this case just a pouch.
The potion version of animal friendship is very good if you know you'll be encountering a lot of beasts, because it lasts for an hour and lets you cast the spell at will. I bought one off hand in a Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign, and sessions later I managed to bypass an entire room of encounters because every enemy was a beast and I could see them before they could see me.
Ceremony : it's useless, but as a Cleric or Paladin, you don't have a limit to spells known, so no big deal, you can prepare it if you know you'll use it the next day and forget about it otherwise
One of my favorite situations in using Command was when we were fighting multiple giant eels who surrounded and grappled our Swashbuckler on low hp. After trying to figure out how to get him out alive I went with a single second level command: Cannibalize
So as a Bard who had Slow and Bane, I was impressed by how useful Bane was overall in comparison to Slow which sorta does the same thing, except they can roll to make the save again. That reroll for the save has proven to be Slow downfall, and so I had gotten ride of that spell can just kept Bane.
07:20 [Animal Friendship] This spell would be a great choice as a first level feat (via "Magic Initiate" ) for a non-spellcaster low level NPC. | A farmer or a soldier sometimes needs that "certainty" that even Expertise on the Animal Handling skill can not provide (a mere +4 on a nat1 roll). -> At least once per day, it knows that it will work. An emergency override on an otherwise wild/panic behavior.
This is going to be sooo helpful since I have almost no experience with choosing spells, especially for full casters. I would really love it if you guys finished the ''Everyone splays a...'' series, because it's so fun and interesting to theorise how a single class can fill multiple niches.
Bless is overpowered as hell. It's practically giving three allies +2.5 weapons, it stacks with the normal weapon bonus, and it works on spell attacks. The increase in damage is much higher than what Haste provides, except it uses a first level slot as opposed to a third level slot, and instead of having a huge downside you also get a crazy defense boost. Nuts.
A build where Cause Fear really shines is a Conquest Paladin with a Warlock dip, because it's another way to apply Frightened, the fear does not break on damage so Aura of Conquest doesn't end the condition, and while Wrathful Smite's better for frightening a single target because it is way stickier, upcasting Cause Fear allows you to target additional creatures. In situations where you want to frighten multiple creatures, but they aren't positioned in a way where you can catch them all in the Fear spell's cone, upcasting Cause Fear can be a good substitute.
Catapult is great for an subtle spell assassin sorcerer. A rock just flew out of nowhere and struck the prince as he was walking around the town, while the sorcerer watches from the crowd on the opposite side
Alarm has an insane number of creative uses. I am playing an artificer and its been my signature spell for nearly all 20 levels. For example, low level rogue scouting ahead and needs to communicate over a long distance and away from line of sight? Alarm the mouth of a small box, and have them set off the Alarm in a code fashion (Morse code, or just simple stuff like one ping = rescue me, two pings = wait, three pings = follow) Need to test the identity of a creature at low levels? Alarm and make the real creature an exception to catch imposters. Need to protect your items from theft? Alarm the mouth of your backpack. It's an easy A-tier spell for me.
Something about Command that tends to fly under the radar is that it doesn’t involve the Charmed condition, so enemies resistant or immune to Charm effects don’t get to apply that against Command. I also feel like there’s a potential meme build combining the Poisoner feet with Commanding people to drink, but that’s neither here nor there.
I think command is underrated as a control spell. Command word flee may provoke an opportunity attack, or even multiple opportunity attacks. As the enemy will use dash to escape, they probably will need to use their action and movement to return, which takes the enemy out of the fight for two whole rounds. If upcast to second level , and if both enemies fail, for the cost of one action and one second level spell, you may have taken two enemies out of the fight for two rounds.
Chromatic orb notably only costs 1 known spell for sorcerers while giving excellent element coverage. If you can hit vulnerabilities it's also quite good value even for a few levels after first and arguably does some nice utility like damaging locks etc
Agree. For funz, quicken chaos bolt and cast chaos orb. Later twin chaos orb for extea chaos if also wild sorcerer. Though I prefer draconic sorcerer with GEM ancestries! Hey WotC, you forgor that in the Fizban bookie!
If you actually use components when spellcasting Chaos Bolt is significantly easier to slot in as a Sorc since Chromatic Orb requires a diamond worth at least 50gp on your person. It's not impossible to get the diamond early on, but for most players Orb and Bolt will have lost most of their value when you can afford it. ...also if you haven't been following the UAs, Sorcs are set to get Sorcerous Burst which is basically a better chromatic orb in cantrip form so there'll be even less of a reason to grab it next year
I honestly dont understand why anyone would pay a spell slot to to damage on an attack roll to a single target that a martial could do with a single attack. Chromatic orb is just strictly worse than magic missle, disregarding the component. Chaos bolt is even worse. I would rate both as C-tier, at best.
Re: Catapult - would love to show y'all how that spell can break encounters. Bear in mind, it's a 60' range of the spell itself, with 90' targeting distance. So if they're 150' feet away... you can hit 'em with a free rock or sea shell or bit of debris that does 3d8 damage. Marty's Battlemaster with Disarming attack + Catapult makes the enemy's weapon a deadly threat to them if they drop it... or if they dodge it, now they have to spend time chasing it down. Catapult has a higher damage output potential than most 1st level spells, better range than most 1st level spells, and can be upcast to deal more damage. Unlike Guiding Bolt, for example, Catapult can be used to target an item behind your enemy (and slightly to the side) to hit them from behind, which can complicate their DEX save. Y'all might be underestimating this one.
Agree that Chromatic Orb is the best level one spell for Wizards, and Sorcs that aren't Divine Souls. The big drawback I've always found is that it has a costed spell component. Most DMs will handwave components that don't have a cost, but most I've encountered require you to have the component for anything with a gold cost. It can often take a while to get your hand on a diamond, by which point you've often moved past level one attack roll spells.
Ceremony also has Dedication as an option which adds a a d4 to saves for 24 hours concentration free. This stacks with Bless for a big bonus to saves. Since clerics choose spells daily this is actually a great option before a boss fight once a campaign.
Alarm comes into its own in the right campaign. We're a two player party in Ravenloft, so quite often we're sleeping in a room rather than out in an open field. For times we are out in a field, our Warlock can cast Tiny Hut as a ritual. Alarm is our more subtle option for when casting a 10 foot radius impenetrable dome would raise some eyebrows in town. So far it's caught people coming to kill us twice, and a ten foot cube (or multiple instances of Alarm cast as a ritual) can cover most or all of a room. Since it can be ritual cast, we've also used it as part of a defensive setup. We had to protect a farm and had a couple of hours of warning that enemies were on the way, but we didn't know which direction they'd be approaching from or whether they might split up and attack from multiple directions. We cast multiple instances of Alarm in strategic places where we thought enemies would be most likely to pass. An hour of casting gave us six instances of Alarm, and it's a good size at a twenty foot cube (big enough to cover an entire road, hallway, or trail) and lasts for eight hours. It did exactly what we needed it to do. They walked (well, floated- they were mindflayers) right through one of the Alarm spells, giving us time to set up an ambush.
Ceremony is great as a free spell for clerics. Love being able to give a proper burial to certain NPCs or to give a blessing off to a young and eager soldier. One of the best for RP things
Little note on the strength of Command that goes regularly overlooked. Carry a spare shield around with you, and use Command on spellcasters with the command word "Don". If they fail the save, they have to put on the shield, loosing a turn, disabling Mage Armour, and if they aren't proficient with it (note, creature stat blocks are only proficient with equipment that is referenced in their stat block, so unless they were already wearing a shield, they won't be) they are rendered unable to cast spells until removing the shield. Doffing a shield takes an entire action, meaning you effectively double the duration for how long this locks an opponent down. This turns command into a spellcaster slaying spell, even at high levels. One of the best uses for your first level spell slots in the late game (there's few things that feel better than burning through a legendary resistance with a first level spell slot).
Chromatic orb is my all-time favorite low-level damage spell. I never have to worry about resistances or immunities because I can always select a damage type that does its job. Further it can be upcast and therefore it keeps pace with leveling and damage creep.
With alarm, it's important to remember that you can cast it multiple times to cover more ground. A great way to burn left over 1st level spells or use ritual caster.
Catapult can be a lot of fun, especially as a sorcerer with subtle spell. Between him and the bard they had a fake exorcism racket going, with a "poltergeist" throwing stuff around the house. We also used it to start a fight between some goblins, having them blame each other over who is throwing rocks at whom. A highlight was when the bard persuaded both our party and some enemies to put down their weapons so we could talk things out, only to have the sorcerer catapult the leader's weapon into the bushes.
My personal favourite use of Catapult is a bag of caltrops (which can themselves be coated in something, for evil measure), or a bag of ball bearings. The 3d8 bludgeoning is nice, but the big advantage is it locks down an enemy and reduces their movement when the bag bursts and an area is covered in small spiky bits of metal, or 1000 iron balls. I should note that Command is limited to stuff that will not directly cause harm to the target (so Autodefenestrate wouldn't work unless the window was open, and they have Feather Fall or similar). It's definitely a solid A-tier spell though, if for no other reason than you're locking down an enemy for a round while they obey your command. Don't count on anything past those initial 6 seconds. That said, this is a brilliant spell for giving your party a set-up turn, and if you hit on the right command, this can be a fight winning spell. My personal best was using the command 'Monologue' on a major villain (we thought he was the BBEG for a one-shot, turns out he was being mind-controlled, and the Command just let him get it all out, and eventually surrender. Granted, the Vengeance Paladin then organised his fellow victims into a lynch mob, as mind-control or not, he had still served up his neighbours for decades of torture...).
I have seen Command be used for 'Disrobe'. Which made the AC of their opponent a whole lot easier to hit and depending on the armor takes a while to take off.
Our artificer uses alarm creatively to great effect. Most recently, he put it around the band of my signet ring when we needed to split the party. So it became a long distance communication device: if you get in trouble, slip this ring on your finger and we'll come running to help you!
Chaos Bolt is built to be used in tandem with Empowered Spell. The spell arcs to another foe if you match the d8's and Empowered Spell allows you to reroll a number of dice equal to your Cha. Modifier. I've played with a guy that arced Chaos Bolt into 3+ enemies several times in each fight we had.
But even then, you're spending a sorcery point for a 12.5 % chance to ricochet to a second target. Imho, that's pretty expensive, especially considering I could spend 2 sorcery points and a BA to quicken a spell, and just cast chromatic orb and firebolt. I would have enjoyed chaos bolt a lot more if it had had a much higher chance of bouncing (that tapers off with each bounce), but also a small chance to fail completely. Something like ... Roll 1d8 + 1d8 + 1d6 First d8 determines damage type, second d8 determines amount of damage from that type, d6 determines amount of damage from a fixed type (magical piercing damage). If both d8s roll an odd or both roll an even number, the spell bounces to a second target within 30 feet of the first, and you roll again. On your second roll, if all three dice roll an odd or all roll an even number, it bounces to a third target. On the third roll, if both d8s roll the same number, the spell bounces to a fourth target. On the fourth roll, if all three dice roll the same number, it bounces to a fifth target (max). If you ever roll a 1 on the d6, you discard the current target (even if it's the first one), and the spell ends (damage to prior targets is still applied normally). At higher levels: For every 2 spell levels beyond 1st, the damage of the type determined by the d8 roll increases by 1d10, the magical piercing damage by 1d4, and the bounce range increases by 10 feet. If that seems too weak, consider letting it hit the same target twice, as long as bounces to a second target in between, if you upcast it to at least 3rd or 5th level. Potentially a lot of bounces, especially using empowered spell, but effect and damage is truly chaotic. Plus, you have to admit that you've always wanted to roll 1d10 + 1d8 + 1d6 + 1d4 for spell damage :p
@TheRealMuckluck It's true that there are more consistent ways to deal solid damage, but in terms of 1st level spells, nothing has as much potential as Chaos Bolt. For example, you could also cast Chaos Bolt with quickened spell (with or without Empowered) and get the same output as chromatic orb and firebolt, trading a d8 for a d6 and gaining the chance it bounces 7 times.
Absorb Element is absolutely an S. It's the equialent of an auto-success against over 90% of Dex saves, and it stacks with saves on top of that. This spell is one of the most powerful tools casters have for protecting their concentration, and is the reason they basically never need to invest in Dex save proficiency, freeing up Resilient for Con or Wis as needed. It's more of a mandatory pick (if you can get it) than Silvery Barbs. The reflected damage shoud basically never come up since you shouldn't be in melee in the first place, but as long as it doesn't tempt you into bad habits a little extra damage is a cherry on top of an already overpowered spell. Bless is an excellent Cleric Spell, especialy before Spirit Guardians comes online. But actually, its real power is as a Paladin spell, precisely because there's so little competition for it. Divine Soul Sorcerer, being one of the best 1 level dips in the game (in no small part due to granting access to Absorb Elements btw), will also find great use for it. And, interestingly, in highly optimized parties it's as common to see it on Wizards as Clerics, since Wizards have the smallest oppotunity cost in picking up the Peace Cleric dip every party wants for the armour proficiencies and Emboldening Bond. Burning Hands is a C at best. If your caster is close enough to use Burning Hands, they're probably doing somehing wrong, and kiting with Fire Bolt with Shield as insurance is far safer and more reliable. To say nothng of the mediocre damage and terrible scaling shared by all blasting spells. Sleep is infinitely superior. Catapult is at least a C just due to the superior safety factor of a line, but that doesn't make blasting spells good. Cause Fear, Bane, etc all allow saves and do nothing of value on a sucess. There's a narrow window from about 3rd to 8th level where you have an excuse for casting spells in a fight that don't ignore Legndary Resistance, due to the dominating OPness that is Web, Hypnotic Pattern, and Fear and the requisite immunities and LR still being rare. And I guess Antipathy/Sympathy and Mirage Arcane have big enough areas to be worth the trouble. And even then that's only for a couple of classes; most casters never actually have to allow saves to be extremely strong. But between Sleep and Bless there's remarkably little call for allowing saves at level 1, most especially not against a single target. Interestingly, Command and Entangle are probably the two save-allowing 1st level spells I'd deign to call good. And even then Command is pretty situational.
I am looking forward to this, thanks! I think Command is really good especially to upcast, and I would not have guessed Color Spray would even be a C. Also, now I have more ideas for Alarm which is cool.
I like catapult because it's a rare occasion with an offensive spell that has utility uses too, and strange interactions. -Probably the only spell that can be used with Twinned Spell metamagic to attack the same target twice. -the keeps going thing they mentioned in the video if the initial target dodges it. -launch vials of stuff, caltrop, knifes or whatever else you happen to be carrying around in your "ammo bag" -can be used to get an item to where you need it to be. (grappling hook tied to a rope is a common for me, think my DM might have a fetish for "how to get a rope to the other ledge" puzzles.... or maybe it's a phase?) -while not by RAW, i think there's a strong argument for letting monks (and the magic item(s) with the same effect) catch the projectiles if they stand behind a target that dodged -some other stuff i probably don't think of in the moment, but it's a lot more interesting spell than the typical "make a spell attack, roll 3d8damage, no other effects or interactions"
Guys I just watched breakdown of your new Commander fighter subclass and all I can say is...WOW!!!! This is probably the coolest subclass I think I've ever seen. I absolutely love it. The idea of playing a full martial fighter with added social adaptability and party support with NO resource cost is just so, so good. Bravo! Love your content always :)
Everyone that gets ceremony is a prepared caster and can take it when needed, which keeps it out of D. I use this on my Cleric during downtime all the time to make holy water.
Tip for level 2 divination wizards: take catapult. If you have a low portant, cast it on a line of enemies, make all but the last target in that line roll the saving throw. If all of them somehow make the save, just use that portant on the last one in line. It guarantees your spell slot isn't wasted, and if one of those earlier enemies fails, great, you get to keep your low portant for another spell.
Command might be an S-tier Bard spell even at higher levels, since it's one of only few Bard spells that don't require concentration (in case you don't want your enemies to run away due to Dissonant Whispers, the other must pick). Upcasting it to make several enemies forego their turns is definitely a strong use of an Action while concentrating on your big spell.
Alarm could be used to force yourself to wake up, so if you are going to be fighting enemies that put you to sleep, maybe you could have a familiar or something constantly triggering it away from the battlefield to instantly wake you up.
Alarm can also be cast and in effect multiple times. You can cast it on your party camp area, and cast it again just around yourself, if you don’t trust someone in the party. You can also cast it in front of the door of a place you are staking out. Not arguing with the rating, but it is fairly versatile.
Great use of the spell Command: Upcast it to target several of a king's bodyguards and give them the command 'Regicide' Enjoy the chaos XD (seriously though, just look up words ending in -cide and you've got pretty much limitless options)
There’s a couple of cool things you can do with alarm. I’ve used it as a panic button, where an npc ally set it off if anyone followed us into the mine for instance. Also, a bit more up to DM discretion, but I also used it on a chest that we needed to locate later but couldn’t actively follow. Whet set off we knew that it was within a mile of us and the general direction which helped our search immensely.
One of my favorite uses of Command is “betray” because regardless of what the enemy chooses to do for that one round, you can really stress the loyalty that enemies feel towards each other mid encounter. Their betrayal may only last one round but the memory and ramifications of it rarely do.
Armor of Agathys is the poster child for B tier: It is INCREDIBLY OVER-POWERED when you build a build around it with an Earth Genasi, Goliath, Abjurer, Clockwork Sorcerer, or Barbarian dip. It is CERTIFIED DOGS--T on a character that isn't built around it. My 6 hit point wizard doesn't want to get hit ever!
Great series, excited for more lengthy videos covering the rest of spells. I do think, as many have commented, that looking at a spell utility based on the level you get it is somewhat weird with low level spells, as using a 1st level spell in high level that can take turns away from enemies is really good. So maybe take into consideration how that spell works in higher levels as well
I love animal friendship. I was recently in a campaign as a monk/druid multiclass playing basically drunk russian spiderman. Our group came across 2 hellhounds guarding a door that we needed to get past. We tried to make a friendly aproach but the hounds attacked us first and I brought 1 away from the group and kept it occupied while they group dispatched the other. I then cast animal friendship on the hellhound and offered it some of my jerky. I then made friends with the firepuppy and now the drunk russian had a pooch that breathed fire who he gave vodka and taught to belch fireballs as a trick.
Thank you for taking on this endeavor. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and hopefully getting some constructive discussion going in the community.
Absorb Element: I agree it's a great spell,, you are 100% right. But you are forgiving one big flaw of the spell. Wizard/Sorcerer do not like being in melee, so the "add 1d6 damage on your next melee attack" is useless for them. but it remains a great A rank spell if not S tier (S tier even if the extra damage is wasted. AS you said in late game, when my sorcerer have lvl 6 spell, and my firebolt deal on average more damage then magic missile level 1, I willl use my level 1 spell slot for only 3 reason: recovering my SP (if I'm a sorcerer) casting shield but when monster have a +12 to hit my 17 AC shield isn't as useful anymore, and absorb element remain the best spell I can use.
Good luck Dudes, I hope you're able to rank all spells before the release of the next edition! I hadn't even considered that until Monty mentioned that! Excellent video as always, and I'll be checking out all of these as soon as I can!
For a few weeks, I've been running my first Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign as a DM. I've given my players a modified Dungeon Dudes standard array. (6 instead of 8 as lowest stat) Now I have 2 caster with -2 in strength saving throws and arms of Hadar seems to be the right spells to mock them a little. Especially this one caster who loves to use his reaction for silvery Barb. ❤
Chromatic Orb is not useable at character creation because of the 50 gp costly component (not consumed). It means you're either waiting until level 2+ to take it or having a dead spell and hoping you can find that component.
I am using Command on an Order cleric to great effect: have Spirit Guardians up, use a Bonus Action (courtesy of the 6th level feature) to cast Command and tell people to Approach. It still costs them their turn, provokes AoO from melee allies next to them, sets them up for taking damage on their next turn as well, and lets me use my action for e.g. cantrips or Dodging to protect my concentration.
I think an important piece is considering how useful the spell is on the class that casts it. Guiding bolt blows all the other attack spells like chromatic or out of the water chromatic orb only stays relevant cause wizards, sorcerers etc don’t get guiding bolt.
I'm currently playing a wild magic sorcerer tiefling with chaos bolt as my big hitter. (we just hit level 3 so this is still very low levels) and last game I rolled a nat 20 on my chaos bolt after the bandit leader had just rolled a nat 20 on me and nearly killed me. It was so much fun and I killed them with psychic damage and it was wonderfully thematic and I loved it. I can see how it is far from the strongest spell, but for my character I love it so much.
This is a really interesting series, because it quickly shows the way the presenters lean towards a very specific style of spell to support a very specific style of playing D&D. That’s not a bad thing, and if I do not agree with the decisions I can certainly see the logic behind them. But it is part of a very strong… culture? Movement? I don’t know what to call it. But a way of thinking you see spread across parts of the internet that push towards optimal designs and system exploitation, which rely on GMs who are far more generous than the ones I grew up with - although not always myself, as I revolted against some of their ways of thinking - that devalue some of the situational spells. A prime example would be Beast Bond - I see this as an immensely valuable low level scouting spell with the potential for additional combat benefits. I can and have had GMs rule that certain types of animal are penalised on stealth roles due to being outside their native environment and thus extremely obvious to anyone local, indeed, I would use such rules myself. This isn’t a particularly ‘niche’ situation either, as unless you have a very generic familiar or the right summoned animal (far more likely) you’re almost always going to be in it - I mean, let’s be honest, wolves don’t go everywhere, and a Robin or small native bird is often a far better scout due to being basically utterly innocuous. It really surprises me no one uses it, I would abuse the heck out of it for pre-battle scouting. Heck, if your GM is generous enough to have dungeon eco-systems, then the ability to be *silently* lead through an area by the rat that knows how to avoid the traps or monsters is really priceless. But I love underground Druids or dungeon / adventuring environment expert Druids :-) I really find these differences in play style fascinating, particularly since I love Min-maxing for theory, but often when running games have to either push back against it or help uncertain players do it, in order to balance groups that otherwise would have very unhappy silent partners*. In that regard this series promises to be really useful, as I can look for the S-rated spells and decide what, if anything, I feel I need to do - recommend them, modify them or ban them as appropriate. Or put players in a situation where numerical superiority doesn’t always get optimal results, but that’s HARD. Particularly for Bless and Guidance. *I use this term to refer to the group members who turn up and contribute, but often less loudly than the more vocal/focused members, a long time of trying to tease out why these people stay quiet has revealed that a lack of familiarity with the system often contributes very strongly, and as one of the more vocal players I wanted to not simply moderate my play style down, but maybe meet them half way. Edit: Ceremony is another one, the RP effects alone raise it to at least a C, maybe a B - if C is ‘situationally useful’ then the Funeral Rites and Holy Water effects are absolutely worth it when fighting necromancers and undead, as well. Although I accept the others are only useful if you want your character to be able to perform legitimate sacred supernatural rituals. But as a GM, I would challenge any PC who refused to consider this spell with faith-related RP situations, as in any setting where gods can give divine blessings, an unwillingness to perform those blessings isn’t going to go down well in many faith communities or social groups :-)
The high level play for an Eldritch night on absorb elements, would be two cast the fireball using war magic, and then upcast absorb elements as reaction and make that extra attack. Hopefully on an enemy vulnerable to fire
In defense of color spray: I've never willingly taken it or seen it used until it came pre-loaded on my lunar sorcerer. When we were playing at very low levels (1-2), I found myself pulling this spell out nearly every combat and it absolutely saved my life at least three times so far. If you're picking spells, there are definitely stronger spells to pick. But as a freebie, it's been remarkably useful for me and fun for my party and DM, none of whom had ever seen it used before this.
I found Ceremony to be useful a couple of times, but the character always had to sleep a night to prepare it beforehand, which was fine in all those situations.
Use catapult with a bag of flour, when it takes 3d8 damage you have a big cloud of flour which a firebolt, torch etc will turn into an accelerant. Also great to use with a missile that missed, though you might owe the Barbarian a new handaxe as it takes 3d8 damage after embedding in the back of someone.
Haven't seen Charm Person used too often personally but there was one bard PC at my table who used it quite a few times to great effect, usually to de escalate situations (she'd charm foes, point blank tell them that she'd done so and then explain in detail how screwed they'd be if they actually fought us and ask why they were attacking, what's their deal etc all in a completely apathetic tone XD) or to infiltrate things like you guys said. She also kinda used it for kidnapping once during one of the rare times I was in the DM seat (was running a 'you guys have to do something big and flashy at X location as a distraction' for my usual PC to do some 'offscreen plot stuff' and to allow the regular DMs to relax a bit) and welp, she got attached to the acolyte she'd charmed while glamor barding the entire store into a riot and decided his cultist higher ups didn't deserve him so cue another cast of Charm Person then her dragging the guy into joining the party's escape from very angry cultist/police types. Cue me suffering the classic 'I have no idea how to RP this guy, he's just a one off NPC' issue for the first time (he kind of got forgotten about by all of us because of a large gap inbetween sessions so er, I just sorta excused his disappearance later as 'my psycho PC traumatized him so he ran away as soon as possible' and her player said 'sounds about right' so... Yeah, fun times)~ XDD Command on the other hand my whole table loved, if only to try out custom orders and see wtf the DMs would have the targeted foes do. I think my fav personal use of it was 'BETRAY' on an ogre; ended up having the guy just stand still for a turn out of sheer 'error' reaction rather than the 'attack your ally' reaction I'd hoped for but was a great moment for getting across that my adorable little tree person cleric/druid was quite a bit more clever and ruthless than it seemed (it was spacy, friendly and couldn't really talk outside of languages no one else knew and a few key words in Common it had practiced so up until that point it had come off as a super cutesy 'I am Groot' style character but the realization it had gone out of its way to practice a word like betray and then intentionally used it in combat like this kinda shocked everyone XD) and still bought my fellow players some relief from getting their teeth kicked in so that was fun. Alas the follow up commands of 'REPENT' and 'FALL' didn't have quite as much RP impact but they still helped so yeah, Command spell great, both for mechanical use and in sheer vibes
![Queens on a Quest | Dimension 20: Dungeons and Drag Queens [Full Episode]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MZhCgp-GRQ8/mqdefault.jpg)
Catapult gets really good once you get better objects to throw (acid, certain poisons, maybe even alchemist fires)
holy water and nets are fun options as well
Its is also really useful to get items that are on the ground towards you, giving it a lot of utility for a lvl 1 spell that is mostly ment for combat
@@jorgh5255 This. We had a player with the Sunblade variant in Out of the Abyss get madness from Demogorgon when it attacked a kuotoa village and died trying to fight it. I used Catapult to save the sword after he died >.>
This strat is very DM dependent, but if you use the spell on a net, you've basically got a Net-Gun that you can use to knock flying enemies out of the sky. This is kinda my go-to option for all my Artificers now and it is so much fun when it works XD
I once tied a flask of oil to an alchemist fire and launched them together.
I also like this spell with bags of caltrops, ball bearings, or even money (silver hurts werewolves and distracts bandits).
I haven't thought of using it on nets yet, but hear me out. Carry a 160 lb metal weight in your bag of holding. Cast reduce on it in preparation for a fight. Run up to your target, and launch the missile straight up over its head. Release concentration, action surge + distant spell on enlarge. Watch 1400 lbs of death land on your target from 90 ft up. Instant siege weapon.
Now THIS is an ambitious series... and I'll be watching every minute! Spell breakdowns/rankings are so helpful
I will be watching every minute as well!! Butttttt on 1.5x speed 😂
Me too😂
You mad geniuses..
1.75x speed for me.
Cowards in the replies! 0.25 speed. Drag out these videos as long as possible.
Casting bless has another effect that's not listed in the spell description: It makes the disposition of your party members towards you more positive.
Quick thing on Alarm: it's a ritual spell and there is no concentration but also no wording that it disappears if you cast it again. You can take a hour, cast it six times, and have a good amount of area covered.
I’m surprised they didn’t call out its interaction with abjurers’ Arcane Ward.
@@xySuperManxy only interacts if you cast using a spell slot though. Can't use a ritual to boost arcane ward
@@bradleyrichard9283 As far as l can tell (Twitter is near unusable these days for checking rulings) RAW says rituals work, RAI says no.
Bradley. that is actually how I always used this spell. Used sometime which other characters use for camp preparation to kind of ward of all or most of approach vectors
@@bradleyrichard9283Rules as written you can cast it as a ritual for Arcane Ward. Here is what the Player's Handbook says:
"When you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, you can simultaneously use a strand of the spell's magic to create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest... While the ward has 0 hit points, it can't absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell."
Doesn't say that it has to use a spell slot.
Catapult is also useful for scribes wizards, as it gives them access to bludgeoning damage, which has some strong uses that are enemy dependent
Neat idea! I try to get it for my Psi Warrior fighter. Things hit all over the place by mind & magic!
You can do a really goofy Scribes wizard build where you pick up a spell that does bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage at every level, and flavour your spells as ridiculous anime maneuvers with weapons. Like a slashing lightning bolt being a dash through the enemies in the line with a sword, or a bludgeoning fireball being you jumping into the air with a giant hammer and slamming the ground really hard. At the end of which you of course teleport back to your original location because you're just that cool.
For players who like to describe their spells in detail then Scribes is very rewarding!
Another note is that if you upcast Catapult then you can infuse it with whatever damage types are available at the higher Spell Slot. Catapult becomes a totally new spell if you're dealing Mind Spike's Psychic damage, upcast at 2L... suddenly that rock you're launching phases into something else entirely! If that sparks imagination then Scribes is worth trying
object thrown also takes the same damage so try throwing vials of oil and acid .. now you add that too ..
@@veikkovuokila8012I made a Geomancer by taking spells that deal bludgeoning damage at every level (fun fact, the only level of Wizard spells that doesn't have bludgeoning damage is 8th) alongside the Crusher feat. Being able to cast "Rock Barrage" (bludgeoning scorching ray) is SO much fun.
Oh no. Ohhhhhhh no. This is gonna take a while.
>first level spells
>part 1
>ends at C
Well if we do all the way to ninth level that should take us up to the release of one dnd/5.5/whatever they call it.
You say "this is going to take a while" like that is a bad thing?
8th and 9th level could probably be done in 1 video tho
Hell yeah man another fun spell series
Glad Command got an A. To me, the really good use of this spell is upcasting it at higher levels when you are already concentrating on something else. Like a Bard that is already concentrating on Hypnotic Pattern. Don't really have a ton of things you can do with your Action that are going to have a big impact. But, you upcast Command to 2nd level and tell a couple enemies to Grovel, and you waste their whole next turn without breaking concentration. On my Lore Bard I played before Tasha's, I actually took Command as one of my Additional Magical Secrets because I was looking for something to do with my actions that didn't require concentration, as Vicious Mockery was quickly losing its appeal.
It should probably be S tbh it blanks a turn and gets you access to some insane utility.
Commanding an enemy to micturate or defecate would be a fun way of wasting their action (and making their armour uncomfortable).
Same thing. Both my lore bards had it and used it extensively. THe only downfall is it doesn't work on everything.
My two best uses of Command:
In a murder/mystery one shot we had a solid idea of who had done it, but weren’t able to get any solid evidence so we got everyone together in a Zone of Truth and then I cast Command “Confess” on them.
The second was a funny situation. We were trapped by the BBEG and I was trying to buy the rest of the party a turn to help us escape so I cast Command “Monologue” on him. The whole table cracked up as the DM voluntarily failed the saving throw 😂
My favorite use of Command is "Betray". I haven't had a time yet were the DM didn't have that target attack their own party member. On my Divine Soul, I can upcast or use twin meta magic to get multiple targets for minimal resource use.
Absorb Elements is S tier. The fact that the additional effect is useless for spellcasters can be ignored, the main effect is what counts.
Alarm fully is a C, very situational, but those latter cases you started talking about are what I’d primarily use it for, especially if you’re a ritual caster. The mental version of it, which has a mile range, is a cheap way to keep tabs on more distant areas of your surroundings. Not just for ambushes, but also to keep yourself from being surprised, and to a degree track movement over distance. You can do things like alarm the door to the guard barracks to monitor comings and goings, alarm the entrance to the dragon’s lair while you’re trying to loot it while the dragon is absent, alarm the front door of a house you’re trying to rob to let you know when the owners get back (same idea, different type of house), if you’re doing defense or investigation alarming an unusual entrance to an area to see if anyone uses it, etc. The spell lasts for eight hours and it alerts you every time a tiny or larger creature interacts with it. The silent, mental version is great if you’re ever in a stakeout or heist or robbery type situation where you want to monitor access points.
It definitely is a niche spell, but if you’re running particularly an urban intrigue or heist campaign, definitely might be worth a look.
And if the DM says the entrance to the dungeon is more than 20ft wide, you can just cast Alarm twice targeting squares that are next to each other (taking 20 mins instead of 10 as two ritual castings). It's not concentration so you can have as many Alarms active at once as you've cast in the last 8h!
Yeah, I'd be ok with basing it off the campaign and saying that in some campaigns it elevates almost to an A tier in terms of it's utility as a ritual, but can in other campaigns drop to worthless. Content with a low B high c tier rating here, which is kinda where i feel they were aiming for it to be put at the end of their discussion, but kept it C. The difficulty in this tier list is there are a lot of campaign/DM dependent utility on any level of spell almost.
I've seen Alarm used extensively, such as in Salt Marsh to ward a ship and a dock. I've also seen it used to tell people "When was the vault open" or alert other access to an area. Don't think of it as a burglar alarm, think of it as a trigger: "Is someone in this closed off area I'm interested in?" The one mile range is really useful. This is a great spell for scrolls too.
A subtle thing with Catapult is that it deals damage to the target and itself. So if you have a jar of Alchemist Fire, "drop it accidentally" and then catapult it at someone, the jar will shatter as it smashes into something. Which which also gives some options for things like a bag of ball bearings or caltrops, however that is up to the DM's discretion
I mean, it takes one action to cast and is instantanious, so it would be reasonable to just give the thing a toss into the air(no particular target, so rolling shouldnt be needed) then piledrive it into someone rather than "accidentally dropping it".
1st Level spells are especially hard to Tier rank, since their utility shifts by varying degrees the higher you go - some meh spells get better and become must-haves, and several must-have spells get crummy and useless by Tier 2.
That said, this is a good start.
5:53 I will say that one thing I think raises Alarm’s utility is that it’s not concentration, and I don’t see anything in the description that prevents you from having more than one alarm active at once, which could drastically raise the area you can cover with it, especially since you can cast it as a ritual. Whether or not that works for you will depend on DM interpretation of course. Something my artificer did, utilizing that interpretation, was to alarm the woods AROUND the camp instead of the camp itself. That might not stop a fireball flung at you but it DID alert me to the abishai that were invisibly spying on our camp that night.
actually it is intended to work that way. The more time you spend on it, the more alarms you have
Alarm is great for Wizards
I would that the value of certain spells would vary depending on whether you are a preparation spellcaster who can choose their spells for the day or a known spells caster who is pretty much stuck with those spells permanently.
Ceremony is a great example of this. Clerics and paladins both prepare spells, and it's a spell that you'll probably know ahead of time that you're going to use it, so just prepare it on those occasions.
I can see why you waited on this series so long, an ambitious undertaking... but I am VERY excited to see where this goes!
I don't know if anyone pointed this out, but Catapult has the highest range out of any level one spell. It says 60 ft, but what that means is that you can target an object within 60 ft. The object travels 90 ft. So if you target a random rock on the ground, that is 60 ft from you, you can launch it an additional 90 ft. 150 ft.
It also let's you attack from a different direction. This can let you get around Cover. If they have a Boulder, the shooting from behind you can choose a rock behind into the side of them and hit them in the back. The same technique is useful for stealth. Because the enemy doesn't know where the attack is coming from. It's like that trick where they throw a rock to make a sound, and the guards go over there. Except this time they attack someone from a certain direction when they're really in the opposite direction. This technique is just super maneuverable.
Finely, this technique pairs so well with so many other items and spells. You can only Throw a grappling hook so high on your own, but you could have a party member throw it and use this to fire it another 90 ft. Fire your lamp oil on someone from 90ft away well Also doing damage from the initial hit. Poison acid and elkonist fire all work the same. There is also magic stone, which pairs so well.
Finely with the artificer Artilleryest sub class, you can make a tiny cannon with legs. It is not classified as a creature. Meaning at level one, you can fire it up to 90 ft. What's more it acts as if your the one firing the Cannon even if your not touching it. That means you can fire it over a castle wall and any Attack buffs you receive are applied to the cannon on the other side of the wall. (I am getting into artificer now, but the synergy is there.)
Alarm is a Ritual so you can cast it as many times as you need. Even Graph it out so that each area has a different alarm. This is great for invisibility. If you know someone with Invisibility or high stealth is going to show up make a grid. You will know Not only that, they're here, but where they are. Afterward, it's just a matter of area of effect spells. The spell last 8 hours and it takes 10 minutes To cast it as a ritual. This means you can cast it 48 times. This makes the Assumption that only 1 of you know it. But many classes don't have to choose what spells they know. They get all of them. This Allows for multiple people to have the alarm spell and not waste any spell slots on or anything on it. The problem is it's a prep spell. It's great if you Do a lot of scouting and know what you're going to face ahead of time. (My favorite type of charicter) but not so much for Ambushes or entering the unknown area.
Wow, every spell by level and in alphabetical order???? This series will be epic! I already can imagine rewatching different parts for the discussions of specific spells
Armor of agathys on a conquest pally is a solid use of a slot. They're already terrifying walking tanks, and now they're terrifying walking tanks that hurt you if you try to stop them. Really works with their whole aesthetic too.
Oh man, this is going to be a long video series. Looking forward to all its episodes!!! Edit: I'm happy that Kelly mentioned how Burning Hands saved Pluto in the first Dungeons of Drakkenheim episode.
Treantmonk has a great series on spell brerakdwn and rrankings, whilke your waiting for the next episode of this one
I'd like to point out that Cause Fear scales nicely since the debuff is relevant at all levels of play, unlike colour spray or sleep, and a level 1 spell that can cripple a strong creature is good value
Sleep is one of the best in my opinion, whatever or whoever you cast it on doesn’t get any saving throws and it doesn’t give a 💩about legendary/lair actions etc.
It demands some meta gaming, I realize this but, it’s great for those of us who keep track on damage done to the BBEG’s and it’s minions etc.
As long as your DM calls out your “bloodied” targets, it’s amazing.
Just upcast it to whatever it needs to be and voila, it’s that easy.
EDIT: If you play a Aberrant sorcerer it’s even better, put it on your Psi list and use it to great effect in “out of combat” situations. Not only can you now “collect” all sorts of BBEGs in your basement but, now you can also use it to make NPCs everywhere your thing…just cast Disguise Self to turn yourself into any of the NPCs you have “put to Sleep”, even better with the Actor feat.
The thing with Ceremony is that there are uses, and you're not trapped with it. That's the case with all the cleric, druid and paladin spells. Whereas, Arcane casters minus wizards are kind of locked in when choosing spells.
Agree! I’ve used Ceremony a few times in role playing situations and love the weight it can give to campaign or character turning points.
I have a soft spot for Catapult. I was playing a diviner and I ended two separate encounters by killing the lead wizards of each encounter by using portent to make them fail their saving throws. Since we were low-level, they didn't have high HPs and were killed by the spell. Catapult has never been as effective since but at the time, I felt so powerful.
My party figured out a way to use alarm to help party members to communicate when we split the party. We put together what basically amounts to pocket telegraphs so that we can communicate via morse code. We did have to learn morse code (or at least have a cheat sheet handy) though, b/c our DM makes us literally spell everything out in code. He was annoyed that he couldn't think of a reason we wouldn't be able to do it. 😂
Props to that dm tho, instead of just saying no he said yes with a catch
More details its 20 foot square so how did it fit in your pocket? Deets.
@@sarahmanalapan8443well the spell says Door, Window, or area no larger than 20 feet cubed. Doesn't say anything about door or window size. So get a toy door like a lego door frame and ward that. Boom, your door morse code tool is made.
@@sarahmanalapan8443 Alarm wards a set entrance or an area up to 20 square feet. So you could alarm a door or window without also warding the area inside the building. Or in this case just a pouch.
The potion version of animal friendship is very good if you know you'll be encountering a lot of beasts, because it lasts for an hour and lets you cast the spell at will. I bought one off hand in a Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign, and sessions later I managed to bypass an entire room of encounters because every enemy was a beast and I could see them before they could see me.
Ceremony : it's useless, but as a Cleric or Paladin, you don't have a limit to spells known, so no big deal, you can prepare it if you know you'll use it the next day and forget about it otherwise
One of my favorite situations in using Command was when we were fighting multiple giant eels who surrounded and grappled our Swashbuckler on low hp. After trying to figure out how to get him out alive I went with a single second level command: Cannibalize
So as a Bard who had Slow and Bane, I was impressed by how useful Bane was overall in comparison to Slow which sorta does the same thing, except they can roll to make the save again. That reroll for the save has proven to be Slow downfall, and so I had gotten ride of that spell can just kept Bane.
07:20 [Animal Friendship] This spell would be a great choice as a first level feat (via "Magic Initiate" ) for a non-spellcaster low level NPC. |
A farmer or a soldier sometimes needs that "certainty" that even Expertise on the Animal Handling skill can not provide (a mere +4 on a nat1 roll).
-> At least once per day, it knows that it will work. An emergency override on an otherwise wild/panic behavior.
This is going to be sooo helpful since I have almost no experience with choosing spells, especially for full casters. I would really love it if you guys finished the ''Everyone splays a...'' series, because it's so fun and interesting to theorise how a single class can fill multiple niches.
Bless is overpowered as hell. It's practically giving three allies +2.5 weapons, it stacks with the normal weapon bonus, and it works on spell attacks.
The increase in damage is much higher than what Haste provides, except it uses a first level slot as opposed to a third level slot, and instead of having a huge downside you also get a crazy defense boost.
Nuts.
A build where Cause Fear really shines is a Conquest Paladin with a Warlock dip, because it's another way to apply Frightened, the fear does not break on damage so Aura of Conquest doesn't end the condition, and while Wrathful Smite's better for frightening a single target because it is way stickier, upcasting Cause Fear allows you to target additional creatures. In situations where you want to frighten multiple creatures, but they aren't positioned in a way where you can catch them all in the Fear spell's cone, upcasting Cause Fear can be a good substitute.
Catapult is great for an subtle spell assassin sorcerer. A rock just flew out of nowhere and struck the prince as he was walking around the town, while the sorcerer watches from the crowd on the opposite side
Alarm has an insane number of creative uses. I am playing an artificer and its been my signature spell for nearly all 20 levels.
For example, low level rogue scouting ahead and needs to communicate over a long distance and away from line of sight? Alarm the mouth of a small box, and have them set off the Alarm in a code fashion (Morse code, or just simple stuff like one ping = rescue me, two pings = wait, three pings = follow)
Need to test the identity of a creature at low levels? Alarm and make the real creature an exception to catch imposters.
Need to protect your items from theft? Alarm the mouth of your backpack.
It's an easy A-tier spell for me.
Something about Command that tends to fly under the radar is that it doesn’t involve the Charmed condition, so enemies resistant or immune to Charm effects don’t get to apply that against Command. I also feel like there’s a potential meme build combining the Poisoner feet with Commanding people to drink, but that’s neither here nor there.
I think command is underrated as a control spell.
Command word flee may provoke an opportunity attack, or even multiple opportunity attacks. As the enemy will use dash to escape, they probably will need to use their action and movement to return, which takes the enemy out of the fight for two whole rounds.
If upcast to second level , and if both enemies fail, for the cost of one action and one second level spell, you may have taken two enemies out of the fight for two rounds.
Chromatic orb notably only costs 1 known spell for sorcerers while giving excellent element coverage. If you can hit vulnerabilities it's also quite good value even for a few levels after first and arguably does some nice utility like damaging locks etc
Agree. For funz, quicken chaos bolt and cast chaos orb. Later twin chaos orb for extea chaos if also wild sorcerer. Though I prefer draconic sorcerer with GEM ancestries! Hey WotC, you forgor that in the Fizban bookie!
@@odinulveson9101 Can't cast 2 leveled spells in one turn my friend. So no quicken Chaos bolt and then orb in same turn.
If you actually use components when spellcasting Chaos Bolt is significantly easier to slot in as a Sorc since Chromatic Orb requires a diamond worth at least 50gp on your person. It's not impossible to get the diamond early on, but for most players Orb and Bolt will have lost most of their value when you can afford it.
...also if you haven't been following the UAs, Sorcs are set to get Sorcerous Burst which is basically a better chromatic orb in cantrip form so there'll be even less of a reason to grab it next year
@@M9Seradon Oh wow! I completely forgot about the material cost, and I didn't think a 1st level spell could be that costly
I honestly dont understand why anyone would pay a spell slot to to damage on an attack roll to a single target that a martial could do with a single attack. Chromatic orb is just strictly worse than magic missle, disregarding the component. Chaos bolt is even worse. I would rate both as C-tier, at best.
Re: Catapult - would love to show y'all how that spell can break encounters.
Bear in mind, it's a 60' range of the spell itself, with 90' targeting distance. So if they're 150' feet away... you can hit 'em with a free rock or sea shell or bit of debris that does 3d8 damage.
Marty's Battlemaster with Disarming attack + Catapult makes the enemy's weapon a deadly threat to them if they drop it... or if they dodge it, now they have to spend time chasing it down.
Catapult has a higher damage output potential than most 1st level spells, better range than most 1st level spells, and can be upcast to deal more damage.
Unlike Guiding Bolt, for example, Catapult can be used to target an item behind your enemy (and slightly to the side) to hit them from behind, which can complicate their DEX save.
Y'all might be underestimating this one.
Agree that Chromatic Orb is the best level one spell for Wizards, and Sorcs that aren't Divine Souls.
The big drawback I've always found is that it has a costed spell component. Most DMs will handwave components that don't have a cost, but most I've encountered require you to have the component for anything with a gold cost. It can often take a while to get your hand on a diamond, by which point you've often moved past level one attack roll spells.
Ceremony also has Dedication as an option which adds a a d4 to saves for 24 hours concentration free. This stacks with Bless for a big bonus to saves. Since clerics choose spells daily this is actually a great option before a boss fight once a campaign.
Alarm comes into its own in the right campaign. We're a two player party in Ravenloft, so quite often we're sleeping in a room rather than out in an open field. For times we are out in a field, our Warlock can cast Tiny Hut as a ritual. Alarm is our more subtle option for when casting a 10 foot radius impenetrable dome would raise some eyebrows in town. So far it's caught people coming to kill us twice, and a ten foot cube (or multiple instances of Alarm cast as a ritual) can cover most or all of a room.
Since it can be ritual cast, we've also used it as part of a defensive setup. We had to protect a farm and had a couple of hours of warning that enemies were on the way, but we didn't know which direction they'd be approaching from or whether they might split up and attack from multiple directions. We cast multiple instances of Alarm in strategic places where we thought enemies would be most likely to pass. An hour of casting gave us six instances of Alarm, and it's a good size at a twenty foot cube (big enough to cover an entire road, hallway, or trail) and lasts for eight hours. It did exactly what we needed it to do. They walked (well, floated- they were mindflayers) right through one of the Alarm spells, giving us time to set up an ambush.
Ceremony is great as a free spell for clerics. Love being able to give a proper burial to certain NPCs or to give a blessing off to a young and eager soldier. One of the best for RP things
I LOVE these spell videos you guys put out, it feels like nerding out with your buddies. So good!
Little note on the strength of Command that goes regularly overlooked.
Carry a spare shield around with you, and use Command on spellcasters with the command word "Don". If they fail the save, they have to put on the shield, loosing a turn, disabling Mage Armour, and if they aren't proficient with it (note, creature stat blocks are only proficient with equipment that is referenced in their stat block, so unless they were already wearing a shield, they won't be) they are rendered unable to cast spells until removing the shield. Doffing a shield takes an entire action, meaning you effectively double the duration for how long this locks an opponent down.
This turns command into a spellcaster slaying spell, even at high levels. One of the best uses for your first level spell slots in the late game (there's few things that feel better than burning through a legendary resistance with a first level spell slot).
Chromatic orb is my all-time favorite low-level damage spell. I never have to worry about resistances or immunities because I can always select a damage type that does its job. Further it can be upcast and therefore it keeps pace with leveling and damage creep.
With alarm, it's important to remember that you can cast it multiple times to cover more ground. A great way to burn left over 1st level spells or use ritual caster.
I can't wait for Colby to eventually take a spell that you guys gave a D or C rank and make a build around using that spell lol
Quite the ambitious undertaking! Excellent video, I look forward to seeing more.
Catapult can be a lot of fun, especially as a sorcerer with subtle spell. Between him and the bard they had a fake exorcism racket going, with a "poltergeist" throwing stuff around the house. We also used it to start a fight between some goblins, having them blame each other over who is throwing rocks at whom. A highlight was when the bard persuaded both our party and some enemies to put down their weapons so we could talk things out, only to have the sorcerer catapult the leader's weapon into the bushes.
My personal favourite use of Catapult is a bag of caltrops (which can themselves be coated in something, for evil measure), or a bag of ball bearings. The 3d8 bludgeoning is nice, but the big advantage is it locks down an enemy and reduces their movement when the bag bursts and an area is covered in small spiky bits of metal, or 1000 iron balls.
I should note that Command is limited to stuff that will not directly cause harm to the target (so Autodefenestrate wouldn't work unless the window was open, and they have Feather Fall or similar). It's definitely a solid A-tier spell though, if for no other reason than you're locking down an enemy for a round while they obey your command. Don't count on anything past those initial 6 seconds. That said, this is a brilliant spell for giving your party a set-up turn, and if you hit on the right command, this can be a fight winning spell. My personal best was using the command 'Monologue' on a major villain (we thought he was the BBEG for a one-shot, turns out he was being mind-controlled, and the Command just let him get it all out, and eventually surrender. Granted, the Vengeance Paladin then organised his fellow victims into a lynch mob, as mind-control or not, he had still served up his neighbours for decades of torture...).
I have seen Command be used for 'Disrobe'. Which made the AC of their opponent a whole lot easier to hit and depending on the armor takes a while to take off.
Our artificer uses alarm creatively to great effect. Most recently, he put it around the band of my signet ring when we needed to split the party. So it became a long distance communication device: if you get in trouble, slip this ring on your finger and we'll come running to help you!
Fun use of command: “Betray”
Armor of Agathys on a Barblock is incredible. You only need one level of barbarian too.
Chaos Bolt is built to be used in tandem with Empowered Spell. The spell arcs to another foe if you match the d8's and Empowered Spell allows you to reroll a number of dice equal to your Cha. Modifier. I've played with a guy that arced Chaos Bolt into 3+ enemies several times in each fight we had.
But even then, you're spending a sorcery point for a 12.5 % chance to ricochet to a second target. Imho, that's pretty expensive, especially considering I could spend 2 sorcery points and a BA to quicken a spell, and just cast chromatic orb and firebolt.
I would have enjoyed chaos bolt a lot more if it had had a much higher chance of bouncing (that tapers off with each bounce), but also a small chance to fail completely.
Something like ...
Roll 1d8 + 1d8 + 1d6
First d8 determines damage type, second d8 determines amount of damage from that type, d6 determines amount of damage from a fixed type (magical piercing damage).
If both d8s roll an odd or both roll an even number, the spell bounces to a second target within 30 feet of the first, and you roll again.
On your second roll, if all three dice roll an odd or all roll an even number, it bounces to a third target.
On the third roll, if both d8s roll the same number, the spell bounces to a fourth target.
On the fourth roll, if all three dice roll the same number, it bounces to a fifth target (max).
If you ever roll a 1 on the d6, you discard the current target (even if it's the first one), and the spell ends (damage to prior targets is still applied normally).
At higher levels: For every 2 spell levels beyond 1st, the damage of the type determined by the d8 roll increases by 1d10, the magical piercing damage by 1d4, and the bounce range increases by 10 feet.
If that seems too weak, consider letting it hit the same target twice, as long as bounces to a second target in between, if you upcast it to at least 3rd or 5th level.
Potentially a lot of bounces, especially using empowered spell, but effect and damage is truly chaotic. Plus, you have to admit that you've always wanted to roll 1d10 + 1d8 + 1d6 + 1d4 for spell damage :p
@TheRealMuckluck It's true that there are more consistent ways to deal solid damage, but in terms of 1st level spells, nothing has as much potential as Chaos Bolt.
For example, you could also cast Chaos Bolt with quickened spell (with or without Empowered) and get the same output as chromatic orb and firebolt, trading a d8 for a d6 and gaining the chance it bounces 7 times.
Absorb Element is absolutely an S. It's the equialent of an auto-success against over 90% of Dex saves, and it stacks with saves on top of that. This spell is one of the most powerful tools casters have for protecting their concentration, and is the reason they basically never need to invest in Dex save proficiency, freeing up Resilient for Con or Wis as needed. It's more of a mandatory pick (if you can get it) than Silvery Barbs. The reflected damage shoud basically never come up since you shouldn't be in melee in the first place, but as long as it doesn't tempt you into bad habits a little extra damage is a cherry on top of an already overpowered spell.
Bless is an excellent Cleric Spell, especialy before Spirit Guardians comes online. But actually, its real power is as a Paladin spell, precisely because there's so little competition for it. Divine Soul Sorcerer, being one of the best 1 level dips in the game (in no small part due to granting access to Absorb Elements btw), will also find great use for it. And, interestingly, in highly optimized parties it's as common to see it on Wizards as Clerics, since Wizards have the smallest oppotunity cost in picking up the Peace Cleric dip every party wants for the armour proficiencies and Emboldening Bond.
Burning Hands is a C at best. If your caster is close enough to use Burning Hands, they're probably doing somehing wrong, and kiting with Fire Bolt with Shield as insurance is far safer and more reliable. To say nothng of the mediocre damage and terrible scaling shared by all blasting spells. Sleep is infinitely superior.
Catapult is at least a C just due to the superior safety factor of a line, but that doesn't make blasting spells good.
Cause Fear, Bane, etc all allow saves and do nothing of value on a sucess. There's a narrow window from about 3rd to 8th level where you have an excuse for casting spells in a fight that don't ignore Legndary Resistance, due to the dominating OPness that is Web, Hypnotic Pattern, and Fear and the requisite immunities and LR still being rare. And I guess Antipathy/Sympathy and Mirage Arcane have big enough areas to be worth the trouble. And even then that's only for a couple of classes; most casters never actually have to allow saves to be extremely strong. But between Sleep and Bless there's remarkably little call for allowing saves at level 1, most especially not against a single target.
Interestingly, Command and Entangle are probably the two save-allowing 1st level spells I'd deign to call good. And even then Command is pretty situational.
I am looking forward to this, thanks!
I think Command is really good especially to upcast, and I would not have guessed Color Spray would even be a C. Also, now I have more ideas for Alarm which is cool.
I like catapult because it's a rare occasion with an offensive spell that has utility uses too, and strange interactions.
-Probably the only spell that can be used with Twinned Spell metamagic to attack the same target twice.
-the keeps going thing they mentioned in the video if the initial target dodges it.
-launch vials of stuff, caltrop, knifes or whatever else you happen to be carrying around in your "ammo bag"
-can be used to get an item to where you need it to be. (grappling hook tied to a rope is a common for me, think my DM might have a fetish for "how to get a rope to the other ledge" puzzles.... or maybe it's a phase?)
-while not by RAW, i think there's a strong argument for letting monks (and the magic item(s) with the same effect) catch the projectiles if they stand behind a target that dodged
-some other stuff i probably don't think of in the moment, but it's a lot more interesting spell than the typical "make a spell attack, roll 3d8damage, no other effects or interactions"
Guys I just watched breakdown of your new Commander fighter subclass and all I can say is...WOW!!!! This is probably the coolest subclass I think I've ever seen. I absolutely love it. The idea of playing a full martial fighter with added social adaptability and party support with NO resource cost is just so, so good. Bravo! Love your content always :)
I hope y’all enjoy doing these cause I love y’all’s takes.
Everyone that gets ceremony is a prepared caster and can take it when needed, which keeps it out of D. I use this on my Cleric during downtime all the time to make holy water.
Tip for level 2 divination wizards: take catapult. If you have a low portant, cast it on a line of enemies, make all but the last target in that line roll the saving throw. If all of them somehow make the save, just use that portant on the last one in line. It guarantees your spell slot isn't wasted, and if one of those earlier enemies fails, great, you get to keep your low portant for another spell.
Command might be an S-tier Bard spell even at higher levels, since it's one of only few Bard spells that don't require concentration (in case you don't want your enemies to run away due to Dissonant Whispers, the other must pick). Upcasting it to make several enemies forego their turns is definitely a strong use of an Action while concentrating on your big spell.
Alarm could be used to force yourself to wake up, so if you are going to be fighting enemies that put you to sleep, maybe you could have a familiar or something constantly triggering it away from the battlefield to instantly wake you up.
Alarm can also be cast and in effect multiple times. You can cast it on your party camp area, and cast it again just around yourself, if you don’t trust someone in the party. You can also cast it in front of the door of a place you are staking out. Not arguing with the rating, but it is fairly versatile.
Great use of the spell Command: Upcast it to target several of a king's bodyguards and give them the command 'Regicide'
Enjoy the chaos XD
(seriously though, just look up words ending in -cide and you've got pretty much limitless options)
There’s a couple of cool things you can do with alarm. I’ve used it as a panic button, where an npc ally set it off if anyone followed us into the mine for instance. Also, a bit more up to DM discretion, but I also used it on a chest that we needed to locate later but couldn’t actively follow. Whet set off we knew that it was within a mile of us and the general direction which helped our search immensely.
I had a player at my table who loved to cast Chaos Bolt and combine it with heightened spell. This combo was amazing and everybody loved it.
One of my favorite uses of Command is “betray” because regardless of what the enemy chooses to do for that one round, you can really stress the loyalty that enemies feel towards each other mid encounter. Their betrayal may only last one round but the memory and ramifications of it rarely do.
Armor of Agathys is the poster child for B tier:
It is INCREDIBLY OVER-POWERED when you build a build around it with an Earth Genasi, Goliath, Abjurer, Clockwork Sorcerer, or Barbarian dip.
It is CERTIFIED DOGS--T on a character that isn't built around it. My 6 hit point wizard doesn't want to get hit ever!
Loved this ! Just finished your cantrips so I could watch these as you release. Looking forward to the next set!
Great series, excited for more lengthy videos covering the rest of spells. I do think, as many have commented, that looking at a spell utility based on the level you get it is somewhat weird with low level spells, as using a 1st level spell in high level that can take turns away from enemies is really good. So maybe take into consideration how that spell works in higher levels as well
I love animal friendship. I was recently in a campaign as a monk/druid multiclass playing basically drunk russian spiderman. Our group came across 2 hellhounds guarding a door that we needed to get past. We tried to make a friendly aproach but the hounds attacked us first and I brought 1 away from the group and kept it occupied while they group dispatched the other. I then cast animal friendship on the hellhound and offered it some of my jerky. I then made friends with the firepuppy and now the drunk russian had a pooch that breathed fire who he gave vodka and taught to belch fireballs as a trick.
Thank you for taking on this endeavor. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and hopefully getting some constructive discussion going in the community.
Absorb Element: I agree it's a great spell,, you are 100% right. But you are forgiving one big flaw of the spell. Wizard/Sorcerer do not like being in melee, so the "add 1d6 damage on your next melee attack" is useless for them. but it remains a great A rank spell if not S tier (S tier even if the extra damage is wasted. AS you said in late game, when my sorcerer have lvl 6 spell, and my firebolt deal on average more damage then magic missile level 1, I willl use my level 1 spell slot for only 3 reason: recovering my SP (if I'm a sorcerer) casting shield but when monster have a +12 to hit my 17 AC shield isn't as useful anymore, and absorb element remain the best spell I can use.
A very clever way to ensure a year's worth of upcoming content. Well done.
I love the thumbnail using the student from a practical guide to wizardry book.
Loads of nostalgia just on sight.
Good luck Dudes, I hope you're able to rank all spells before the release of the next edition! I hadn't even considered that until Monty mentioned that!
Excellent video as always, and I'll be checking out all of these as soon as I can!
I am so excited for this Playlist. I love playing as spellcasters and have done similar lists before for my characters in the past
It's crazy that you guys are still making videos and being enthusiastic about 5e.
Whew, talking about the ultimate TDD project of all time. Love the ambition, my dudes
I CANT BELIEVE YOURE DOING THIS
but also this is going to be so helpful to me as I get into my spellcaster era
Ambitious my dudes, excellent 😊
For a few weeks, I've been running my first Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign as a DM. I've given my players a modified Dungeon Dudes standard array. (6 instead of 8 as lowest stat)
Now I have 2 caster with -2 in strength saving throws and arms of Hadar seems to be the right spells to mock them a little. Especially this one caster who loves to use his reaction for silvery Barb. ❤
Chromatic Orb is not useable at character creation because of the 50 gp costly component (not consumed). It means you're either waiting until level 2+ to take it or having a dead spell and hoping you can find that component.
I am using Command on an Order cleric to great effect: have Spirit Guardians up, use a Bonus Action (courtesy of the 6th level feature) to cast Command and tell people to Approach. It still costs them their turn, provokes AoO from melee allies next to them, sets them up for taking damage on their next turn as well, and lets me use my action for e.g. cantrips or Dodging to protect my concentration.
I think an important piece is considering how useful the spell is on the class that casts it. Guiding bolt blows all the other attack spells like chromatic or out of the water chromatic orb only stays relevant cause wizards, sorcerers etc don’t get guiding bolt.
Oh wow, this tier list is gonna end by December next year xD
I'm currently playing a wild magic sorcerer tiefling with chaos bolt as my big hitter. (we just hit level 3 so this is still very low levels) and last game I rolled a nat 20 on my chaos bolt after the bandit leader had just rolled a nat 20 on me and nearly killed me. It was so much fun and I killed them with psychic damage and it was wonderfully thematic and I loved it. I can see how it is far from the strongest spell, but for my character I love it so much.
This is wonderfully helpful content as a new player. Looking forward to parts 2 through 200
This is a really interesting series, because it quickly shows the way the presenters lean towards a very specific style of spell to support a very specific style of playing D&D.
That’s not a bad thing, and if I do not agree with the decisions I can certainly see the logic behind them.
But it is part of a very strong… culture? Movement? I don’t know what to call it. But a way of thinking you see spread across parts of the internet that push towards optimal designs and system exploitation, which rely on GMs who are far more generous than the ones I grew up with - although not always myself, as I revolted against some of their ways of thinking - that devalue some of the situational spells.
A prime example would be Beast Bond - I see this as an immensely valuable low level scouting spell with the potential for additional combat benefits. I can and have had GMs rule that certain types of animal are penalised on stealth roles due to being outside their native environment and thus extremely obvious to anyone local, indeed, I would use such rules myself. This isn’t a particularly ‘niche’ situation either, as unless you have a very generic familiar or the right summoned animal (far more likely) you’re almost always going to be in it - I mean, let’s be honest, wolves don’t go everywhere, and a Robin or small native bird is often a far better scout due to being basically utterly innocuous.
It really surprises me no one uses it, I would abuse the heck out of it for pre-battle scouting. Heck, if your GM is generous enough to have dungeon eco-systems, then the ability to be *silently* lead through an area by the rat that knows how to avoid the traps or monsters is really priceless.
But I love underground Druids or dungeon / adventuring environment expert Druids :-)
I really find these differences in play style fascinating, particularly since I love Min-maxing for theory, but often when running games have to either push back against it or help uncertain players do it, in order to balance groups that otherwise would have very unhappy silent partners*.
In that regard this series promises to be really useful, as I can look for the S-rated spells and decide what, if anything, I feel I need to do - recommend them, modify them or ban them as appropriate. Or put players in a situation where numerical superiority doesn’t always get optimal results, but that’s HARD. Particularly for Bless and Guidance.
*I use this term to refer to the group members who turn up and contribute, but often less loudly than the more vocal/focused members, a long time of trying to tease out why these people stay quiet has revealed that a lack of familiarity with the system often contributes very strongly, and as one of the more vocal players I wanted to not simply moderate my play style down, but maybe meet them half way.
Edit: Ceremony is another one, the RP effects alone raise it to at least a C, maybe a B - if C is ‘situationally useful’ then the Funeral Rites and Holy Water effects are absolutely worth it when fighting necromancers and undead, as well. Although I accept the others are only useful if you want your character to be able to perform legitimate sacred supernatural rituals. But as a GM, I would challenge any PC who refused to consider this spell with faith-related RP situations, as in any setting where gods can give divine blessings, an unwillingness to perform those blessings isn’t going to go down well in many faith communities or social groups :-)
The high level play for an Eldritch night on absorb elements, would be two cast the fireball using war magic, and then upcast absorb elements as reaction and make that extra attack. Hopefully on an enemy vulnerable to fire
In defense of color spray: I've never willingly taken it or seen it used until it came pre-loaded on my lunar sorcerer. When we were playing at very low levels (1-2), I found myself pulling this spell out nearly every combat and it absolutely saved my life at least three times so far.
If you're picking spells, there are definitely stronger spells to pick. But as a freebie, it's been remarkably useful for me and fun for my party and DM, none of whom had ever seen it used before this.
I found Ceremony to be useful a couple of times, but the character always had to sleep a night to prepare it beforehand, which was fine in all those situations.
Use catapult with a bag of flour, when it takes 3d8 damage you have a big cloud of flour which a firebolt, torch etc will turn into an accelerant. Also great to use with a missile that missed, though you might owe the Barbarian a new handaxe as it takes 3d8 damage after embedding in the back of someone.
Catapult + generic bag/mage hand/summons + magic stones&(whatever ammo you can fit in a bag) + upscale = more damage than you would have thought
Haven't seen Charm Person used too often personally but there was one bard PC at my table who used it quite a few times to great effect, usually to de escalate situations (she'd charm foes, point blank tell them that she'd done so and then explain in detail how screwed they'd be if they actually fought us and ask why they were attacking, what's their deal etc all in a completely apathetic tone XD) or to infiltrate things like you guys said.
She also kinda used it for kidnapping once during one of the rare times I was in the DM seat (was running a 'you guys have to do something big and flashy at X location as a distraction' for my usual PC to do some 'offscreen plot stuff' and to allow the regular DMs to relax a bit) and welp, she got attached to the acolyte she'd charmed while glamor barding the entire store into a riot and decided his cultist higher ups didn't deserve him so cue another cast of Charm Person then her dragging the guy into joining the party's escape from very angry cultist/police types. Cue me suffering the classic 'I have no idea how to RP this guy, he's just a one off NPC' issue for the first time (he kind of got forgotten about by all of us because of a large gap inbetween sessions so er, I just sorta excused his disappearance later as 'my psycho PC traumatized him so he ran away as soon as possible' and her player said 'sounds about right' so... Yeah, fun times)~ XDD
Command on the other hand my whole table loved, if only to try out custom orders and see wtf the DMs would have the targeted foes do.
I think my fav personal use of it was 'BETRAY' on an ogre; ended up having the guy just stand still for a turn out of sheer 'error' reaction rather than the 'attack your ally' reaction I'd hoped for but was a great moment for getting across that my adorable little tree person cleric/druid was quite a bit more clever and ruthless than it seemed (it was spacy, friendly and couldn't really talk outside of languages no one else knew and a few key words in Common it had practiced so up until that point it had come off as a super cutesy 'I am Groot' style character but the realization it had gone out of its way to practice a word like betray and then intentionally used it in combat like this kinda shocked everyone XD) and still bought my fellow players some relief from getting their teeth kicked in so that was fun. Alas the follow up commands of 'REPENT' and 'FALL' didn't have quite as much RP impact but they still helped so yeah, Command spell great, both for mechanical use and in sheer vibes
This series will help point put all those "Trap" spells like well....find traps. Can't wait to watch dudes
I love the rating videos you guys do, thanks so much!
Can't wait to eat this up and expand my perspectives on all them spells. Here for the long haul
Oh hell yeah! I'm so excited for this series!