@@nothingnerdyNtertainment There are quite a few planar creature who don't. See the aboleth, pretty much any elemental, quite a lot of the demons and devils, etc. Don't give your monsters abilities designed to screw your players over. Just say "You banished Lord Dundernuts, but failed to slay him. Now he lurks in the planar mists, plotting his revenge!" Bam! Instant recurring villain.
21:20 - Now I'll have to introduce the coffeemug of silence, the perfect magic item for barbarians. You hit them over the head with it really hard multiple times and then they won't make a sound
I've seen the Barbarian Silence spell particularly effective against end-of-campaign boss casters. Barbarian get in melee range and grapples to rip the caster's tongue out of their mouths.
In theory, you can also justify such defenses as a reaction when PCs brag about a spell in public. However, this has the consequence that players may be less willing to role-play such bragging in the future. It's more justified if the players are bragging to a named NPC (especially if the NPC elicited this information via questioning) or the players were using such bragging as a means to gain some sort of benefit.
As a drone pilot, it’s REALLY EASY to lose sight of a drone in the sky. Even human sized drones. Also 30ft in the air is not very high. People aren’t going to see a character from miles away if they are just 30ft in the air. Not a bad video, just a small critique.
A foot is generally poorly understand in theater of the mind I think. 30 feet isn't that much. It's a lot if you're that TALL, but running 30 feet is pretty easy, throwing something that far isn't very difficult either.
I had a really fun session once with the silence spell, I was casting it to destroy a locked door discretely but there were lizards behind it, we started fighting and the DM just told us at the table "Well.. Since everyone is in the middle of your own silence spell, no one can talk anymore" Creating an encounter with very intense gazes between us as the only way of communicating .So yes, this spell has a very funny weakness...
If you are DM'ing 5th level characters, and your only solution to a single one of them flying is to say "If you do that, I'll make bad shit happen to you for no other reason than you're flying" then you're a shitty DM. If you can't take into account that one of your players (usually the squishiest) can take flight (at the cost of a 3rd level spell slot btw), then I can't help you, and maybe you should find a hobby you're good at.
"For breaking caster anti-magic concentration against your big bad spellcaster, use a rogue." That's why Liches have boneclaws in their employ who have invisibility as an innate skill, rather than a magical one.
I have one small note about the darkness spell, it cannot be countered by dancing lights no matter how you look at it since dancing lights happens to be a cantrip, and I don't think anyone has been upcasting eldritch blast, the spell description for dancing lights also says that it is a concentration spell, so using this would make your enemy wizard really have a lot of trouble for no reason and miss out on it's action for the turn since it has a 1 action cast time.
I have another interesting solution for banishment as a problem: Change the material component to 1cp. Now if they want to banish something they actually have to find something that is distasteful to the target. They can't just use a spellcasting focus. And now, banishment is not a universal weapon, but have to used targeted against some certain creature, where you found out what is hates. They have to learn to skip the fight, and with enough research they can it. Which is fine for me.
9:58 A trex could just do a high jump with it's +7 strength mod, it's 10 foot reach for either of it's attacks, and a athletics check to jump even higher still.
11:30 - communities where dragons, griffons, and stirges are a thing: extended awnings, slatted sunroofs, and netting is a part of a safe community that will provide full or half cover vs flight and to stay with the team the flyer has to stay within that dungeon roof of 6 to 10 feet, and city size communities can have laws against travel that walking, same as charm, illusion, and being armed and armored.
I think this is the first time the wizard has actually done anything besides sit around and judge everybody! Also, I just noticed that he's Gandalf, but he has the Elder Wand. Nice.
With the silence spell a good option could be to have the enemy mages use the dodge action until they can move out of the range if you don’t want to change their inventory or stats too much. Giving them reactions like absorb elements or reactions found in feats can keep them alive longer as well and spells like Hypnotic pattern do not have a verbal component but can easily take out a spell casters concentration. Potions of gaseous form and fire-breathing or giving bad guys levels in Metamagic with subtle spell can also easily counter Silence.
I say let your players be awesome when they catch you off guard. Their reputation will be your greatest weapon against your players. Whenever your players just destroy an encounter, always let a baddy get away.
In their defense, they did say it was only a problem when the party continually used these tactics/ combos on constant rinse/ reapeat. They also said several times to let the players have the win ...with the caveat of stepping in when the players were making things stale for themselves.
My Party: (Uses fly to skip a fortress built to challenge those who want to progress, to prove their worthiness to a god) Me as Fort's Commander: "Archers!" My Party: "Oh no..." (pc's in-game screaming as the poor mage and ranger gets pelted in open air by volleys of poisoned arrows, making it back bloodied and poisoned) And in my campaign most creatures had a ranged attack. I remember having quite a few spellcasters too, like 1/6 the enemies and half the bosses used some form of magic. The party gave up on fly pretty fast. Especially when they hit dragon territory, literally seeing ancient chromatic dragons of every color staring at a holy city of Bahumet from mountain tops. Ready to attack at any moment when Tiamat is summoned to the world. (I did have an alternate route though, there were mine entrances as far as the eye can see. Basically meaning they could navigate underground to get a safe distance within the city so that the dragons couldn't attack them.)
Counter to Banish, the BBEG had already cast banish on half his minions. When he gets unbanished he unbanishes them. Suddenly the group is getting hit from minions again and chances are, there isn't another banish ready.
I'd say the spells that cause the most headaches for me are (in order of least to greatest annoyance) are: good berry, healing spirit, and wish. If you have found ways to manage those I'd love to hear them!
Healing spirit house rule: a person can benefit from its healing only once. Goodberry: a caster can only create up to 10 at a time. Subsequent castings cause the originals to disappear or go bad. Or since the berries create a full day's sustenece, the consumer is full and can only benefit from one a day. Depends on how hard and bad they are being abused.
When I first read the few word on title of the video I thought to myself "Wow, there are 7 deadly sins on D&D no-" then when I *actually* finish reading the title "You should've finished reading first *DINGUS!* " (Anyway great and helpful content)
About flying. If they're doing charge attacks or flyby attacks, I usually have the enemies come together and ready their actions to attack the flying character as they come into range.
Banishment... This one can backfire HARD in the right scenario. The example I'm thinking of is Ashardalon in Bastion of Broken Souls (I guess spoilers for a 3.5e module). Banishing him at the end of his 3e arch would effectively send a pissed off dying ancient red dragon with a balor for a heart to the players own backyard. They get back thinking they won and find that their town or city was burned to the ground in their absence. Since the steady stream of souls in the astral plane was the only thing keeping Ashardalon alive, it's possible the destruction was the last thing he did before succumbing to his old injuries, denying them vengeance. ;)
I recently played a high-level campaign as a Bard who had an Instrument of the Bards and (obviously) the Hypnotic Pattern spell. Being able to not only cast Hypnotic Pattern, but to be able to impose disadvantage on the enemies' saving throws is - to say the least - a bit of a strong combination. Knowing this, I didn't use the spell very often, since I wanted to keep the game fun for everyone at the table. I knew I could do it, the DM knew I could do it, everyone else at the table knew I could do it, but it wasn't very fun. It was always there in the back pocket if we were getting overwhelmed, but I chose to leave it there for most of the campaign. Probably a lot of that was my inner DM throttling myself. That said, not every player will be so understanding. A lot of people treat D&D like a video game, and as is discussed in the video, the best solution is to talk to them about it. Also, most of these spells being Concentration-based gives a good mechanism for minimizing their effects. For single-target spells like Banishment, there is also Legendary Resistance for when they target the big bad. For Summoning spells, I create cards for every creature my PCs can conjure, and on it there are average hit values and average damage, so there is no dice rolling on their attacks. For example, If there are 4 summoned creatures, one will hit a high-AC foe each round, 2 will hit a medium-AC foe, and 3 will hit a low-AC foe. Then the player can apply those hits wherever they want in the combat for the listed damage value. One of the great things about D&D is that the players will sometimes completely wreck the DM's plans, so like you said in the video, you should never shut them down all the time. But it's also a lot of fun as a DM to see their faces when they realize their pet tactic isn't going to work this time.
Hypnotic Pattern Problems? Give a wand of magic missile to an imp and have them troll your caster every time they cast the spell. That's all a devil would do, magic missile whatever falls asleep and then continue to use invisibility to get away.
@@theDMLair I used it once for a mass combat. Applied it to both sides, summoned creatures, raised undead, and retainers. It seemed to work fine for that scenario. If only applied to players I could see them feeling cheated but Summoning a dozen wolves (with pack tactics) kinda skews the action economy.
I have to admit that I home brewed a legendary magic item once that I took away from my 5th or 6th level party as soon as they got it. It was a magic item used by a Buehr Hag to amplify her Control Weather spell’s radius. It was made out of ice and it melted when she was dead and was no longer using it to keep the temperature below freezing.
My favorite spell has always been conjure animals. And it has the greatest amount of uses of any other spell I've ever used. One time my group encountered a collapsed house that we needed to get inside the basement of, so i just told everyone "step aside, I've got this. And i used conjure animals to summon apes to just go and clear out all the rubble to get to the basement. A few times, i used it to summon giant owls to fly the party around to various out of reach places. A few times i used it in combat in different ways of course; dire wolves, owls, Stirges, and my favorite.... 2 giant octopus to grapple strong foes while the party attacks them. Another time i used it to summon giant badgers to dig a tunnel under a wall into a city we needed to infiltrate. This all goes off the lenient nature of the DM to let you pick which animal gets summoned... But if your DM doesn't let you pick it's almost always a terrible spell. To players, what i did to help out the DM was i had every single stat sheet ready for every animal i would summon. I ran the spell by the DM first and told them I would use the list of animals from xanathars guide that was for druid wild shapes. And they were okay with it. As a player, i did all the leg work for keeping track of the animals and their stats to take that huge burden off the DM, cause they've already got enough on their plate keeping track of their own character stats (every single enemy)
I DM’d an Aarakroca PC from level 1 once and I didn’t have any problems with him flying. Once he took a couple of solid hits he landed until he’d healed back up because he didn’t want to get knocked to 0 HP and then fall and take damage. And since it was an aquatic adventure he really didn’t want to fall into the water and then sink and drown.
I never considered a sunblade to counter a Darkness spell but hearing that gives me a good Suprise round strategy with my Gloomstalker Ranger. Sneek in, activate sunblade, while rest of the party holds attacks until they can see the creature I attack. I may have to wait a few rounds for melee support but that is why my Longbow wielding Ranger has an AC 24 because sometimes you just need to pick a fight in person.
On Fog in Pathfinder (assuming it is Pathfinder 2e) - it does not make characters invisible, they must succeed in hiding check, and sneak at half speed, while enemies could roll perception checks with Seek in 30ft cone and also could attack with natural check of 5 (from Concealed condition), plus you could give enemies Blind Fight feat or hearing as precise sense. In PF2e GMs have legitimate ways to counter such strategy when it gets overdone by players
Silence the room, barricade entrances if possible, rush and crush. Wash, rinse, repeat. No worrying about rolling sneak once you get into the room, just go.
I ran a game in which the PCs ventured into a network of large, pitch black caves, inhabited by grimlocks, & a blind albino T-Rex, which hunted by sound, smell, & touch, but was completely unaffected by anything that effects vision or requires the target to see it. It could actually track the party by the heat from the torches they were using to see.
There are usually simple counters to most of these "problem spells" for creative dm's... for example the fog issue is easily countered by Gust of Wind... or natural wind patterns if outdoors... never forget to utilize your surroundings.
I use a part of older modules and other Games Into my Fantasy game. I like using the Palladium rule of 1-4 is always a mistake cast and failure (and yes uses up a spell slot). It's great.
I never played anything besides 5E. The way I make encounters challenging, (outside of straight homebrew) is just giving weaker enemies like Commners, Guards and Bandits player levels. Like the video said, I also like giving enemies spells. Giving classes to enemies has had mixed reception. Some players love it and some think it's unfair. Most players are indifferent though.
@@beancounter2185 You wanna know what the funny thing is? These same people who found player classes on monsters unfair didn't mind the actually broken and OP homebrew that I threw at them. For context, I didn't want to throw overpowered monsters at them. I messed up with balancing in those cases. They didn't seem the actually unfair encounters as unfair for some unknown reason.
Mirage Arcane: Even if the creature knows it's an illusion, the other elements of the illusion remain. You can't subtract from the environment with it, but you CAN add to it. Surround the creatures you wish to kill in an indestructible adamantine box. It remains there for 10 days, during which you can recast the spell if you think it'll take longer. Only downside is 10 minute casting time, so you can only use it before combat.
Thank you for bringing up putting things in a game and not letting players do likewise. Had a DM nerf my high level artificer but not letting me make magic items. I wasn’t even looking to make anything really big or powerful but the issue I had was that a previous character in the campaign I played wanted to make a magic item and I was told only an artificer can make magic items. Okay, I do so, and then I got denied after he set a rule. It was very frustrating. I have made it my mission to never do that to my own players. Game balance be damned. I mean, except I have the power to make encounters more difficult and interesting. So. Yeah…
One thing I don't think you mentioned is use natural weather effects and hazards, obviously need to make the weather reflect the environment but Sleet Storms, Fog, High Winds, Torrential Rain etc.. all change the tides of combat and can keep things fresh. See the Wilderness Survival section in the DMG, pg 110. Obviously Tasha's was published after this video was released, but for those reading this comment pg169 has a whole section on 'Natural Hazards' which is very useful.
Legit a thing. Especially in those lairs of flyingcaster folk (Dragons and Beholders). A valid notion is a beholder sleeps in the cavern above the one where the players find a snall anvil (or something) hung from a chain on the ceiling. When the beholder comes intothe fight he zaps the chain and then uses TK to lob the *Anvil of Silence* at whoever is yelling spells at him. Not as a weapon in itself but just to throw an AoE of Silence around
Flying character in a dungeon, rogues always check for traps on the floor, would be a shame if a complacent flying character hit a trip wire in the ceiling ^_^
Trip net. You just fly into it and you're caught. Spiders. Lots of spiders. 9 spiders. When you kill those, there's like 15 more. For no reason. Just tons of spiders, it never ends. Still stuck in the webbing. 69 more spiders. They don't attack or anything there's just so many spiders. After a while the party can't communicate because they're overrun by spiders and you (the DM) can take a break and get water. Bonus points for having a jar of spiders to throw on the players IRL. They can be plastic ones if you must.
Surprised distant come up, But per raw, Every instance of magic missile damage is individual so you must roll con saves for every individual missile that hits the Caster almost guaranteeing that they lose the con Save.
Legendary resistance is a perfect cure for banishment in bosses... For regular encounters however... I like to throw devils or extraplaner beings at my party. I'll have the main bad guys react to its abuse by deploying things like corrupted blink dogs in their groups. Or summoned devils that have a chance of reappearing via their own portals (with reinforcements). It's fun and makes the spell more tactical than nuclear because it's not a guaranteed win button anymore. It's just temporary crowd control.
What I have thought about is treating the summons the same as minnions, take the flat average damage or roll, each summon has 1 hp, and if they get hit they die if they make a save then its a flat miss no save damages. So 8 1/2 summons is 8 hp or 8 1hp lives, say they all have bite dealing 1d8 then they all do 4 on hit + relevent modifier.
9:42 100% Agree, mine were fighting Zombies, and I got a little tired of the Fairy flying away, and the Paladin just walking away from them. I ended up having them vomit a globule of saliva into their hands and throw it at them, to deal their Melee Attack as Necrotic Damage
I loved the conjure animals idea. With the druid as my favorite class, i always get booed every time i summon 8 beast for being the best option, while not being my go to strategy like the "foggy" player you mention. And, for me, summon only one beast is... sub-optimal at best. But having a personal "fey beast" pal with little improvements in comparison to it's kin, sounds awesome.
Assign the summoned creatures or familiar to another player. Spread the fun. Have summoned creatures get a save to throw off their shackles and attack the summoner who brought them to this world of pain.
As a player I try to follow the rule of cool. If I come up with an over powered or super amazing use for an ability or spell I will use it one time. After that I don’t use it in that way anymore to keep the balance. For instance i once used song of creation to make a 5x5x5 foot block of granite above the head of a bugbear, dropping it on their head, we did some math and my dm decided it insta killed the bugbear. I could’ve gone on to do that once per day instakilling one medium or small monster a day, but being a dm and knowing how annoying thst would get I havnt done it since that time. It was a cool moment I prevented another players death it was awesome and I left it there.
Regarding your idea at 22:05 - There was a 1st edition monster called an Obliviax (Monster Manual II, page 96) that stole memories and was able to cast spells. It was a moss instead of an ooze but you might find it interesting.
I had a fight set up where 12 yaun-ti (5 ranged, 5 melee, 1 melee captain and 1 high priestess of Tiamat) were fighting a party of 3 (dragonborn paladin, dragonborn warlock, Dwarf fighter). Out numbered 4 to 1 but 10 of the opposing force were mostly fodder/meat shields. It was a pretty even fight until: - The high priestess of Tiamat turns into a dragon - The warlock Hurls the dragon priestess through hell - The dragon priestess comes back and casts heal on herself - The warlock banishes the dragon priestess and the melee captain - The archers turn the Warlock into a pin cushion (breaking his concentration) - The Dragon Priestess returns, breathing fire on the Paladin, dropping him to zero - The warlock casts power word stun on the Dragon Priestess (and it works) - The party grabs the Paladin and flees the battle They managed to take down 1 melee fighter and hurt the priestess, in her dragon form, pretty badly but the fight was going back and forth and looked like it could take a turn for the worst at any moment; so they retreated while they could. The shear number of attacks had the party on its heels the whole time.
I think I currently have a GREAT group of friends to play D&D with. I got lucky that the first few campaigns I played through, (all of which include the current campaign I’m playing in) most of my group decide to avoid completely breaking the campaign or ruining it for everyone else. Of course, it’s not the PERFECT group, as some people occasionally ruin the experience for the rest. (for example, one campaign was completely ruined by 2 people to the point where the campaign just stopped abruptly. Their reasoning? “If you’re just going to kill us off, then what’s the point of playing?” I even talked to the DM about this and he said he wouldn’t’ve even killed them off like they were accusing him of planning!) Due to that campaign being ruined, we no longer play it anymore, despite it being INCREDIBLY fun to play before those two friends of mine ruined it.
In my recent game I played a druid with fog cloud. Our party had a bard who had faerie fire. We encountered an orc army we were supposed to only kill a few then they would run away, but with this combo we killed nearly all of them including their boss and 2nd in command. Fog cloud is dangerous.
Darkness + Faerie Fire + Warlock is a similar combo. Sub Warlock for the new Twilight cleric, and the whole party is running into the darkness and pounding on the glowing orcs.
@@Water64Rabbit advantage cancels disadvantage. So even through the fog, the party was making rolls normally, but the orcs were at disadvantage. Now, it does mean that there was no way to get actual advantage, but that's still a pretty powerful low-level combo.
Æons ago, some friends of mine (many of whom worked at or owned a video game company that would later make a hugely console game franchise) played an all goblin game of D&D. Their characters' longevity tended to be lower even than characters from Paranoia. It was quickly determined that the Sleep spell was so universally notorious and feared by goblins that they would all anybody they heard say that dreaded word... even a fellow goblin. I was said I missed that game, because every story from it was hilarious.
I think you focus too much on the actions, magic missling to beat your player's hypnotic pattern matches action economy, but then your monsters guaranteed 1st level spell beats your players 3rd level spell that has to beat a DC
If they all go in the same initiative, I would not have them act in the same turn (being woken up after the caster has completed their spellcasting). If they go on different initiative, probably half of them lost their turn. You also get free damage on the monsters. Plus I would say that if you do not have shield, well even a level 1 magic missile is a triple concentration check if focused on the caster (and guaranteed damage too). Sure the DC is very low, but for a level 5 wizard, it might not be the best thing.
The other thing with Banishment; Enforce the component aspect. It's a bit weird because it doesnt have a cost so technically you can component pouch it or whatever, but for what the spell is, I'd make the PC go find the item, especially if its for the Big Bad, that's an entire sidequest in itself. It also makes them think ahead, like... what's distasteful to a Rhemoraz? I should go get some of that before we go in the ice caves. Push it a little and make it consume on success, that way they can recast, they cant banish the same thing twice usually, which is rare anyhow.
Another creative option would be to make a spellcaster deaf by loud, distracting noises (machinery, blast furnace, sounds of pain and terror) that may cause the spellcaster to pronounce the verbal component wrong, causing unexpected results. These results could be taken from the Wild Magic Surge Chart in the PHB.
These are definitely some things to be aware of when creating encounters. If the encounter can be easily broken by a spell the party is capable of casting (and frequently prepared) then how challenging was that encounter for that party in the first place? If the actual challenge fell far short of the projected (calculated challenge) perhaps consider that encounter to have taken a commensurately smaller bite out of the daily XP budget than as listed. Maybe some creatures in subsequent encounters that adventuring day begin the encounter quaffing potions or reading spell scrolls, or using other consumables to augment themselves against an approaching party that is ahead of the curve because they have an MVP spellcaster. Or maybe there are more enemy spellcasters capable of countering, dispelling or duplicating the effects the players so frequently use themselves.
With the Summoner one. I suggest a small houserule. Make all characters have a summon limit of 1 effect at a time similar to concentration spells. but for summon effects. Pathfinder's Summoner uses an Eidolon. A summoner is also able to use summon monster as a spell like. The spell like ability states in pathfinder that you can not have your eidolon active if you wanna use the spell-like ability. Perhaps extend it so that you are only ever allowed to have one effective summon monster like effect per person at a time. This allows the summoner to use their spells as written. but if they use a summon spell. The old monsters poof away and the new ones appear. Preventing them from building up 40+ minions. Also make it so that Enemy encounters has the same ruling. That is my idea of a solution. This is the ruling that i am made to use as a summoner in my current game. If i ever wanna summon something. I usually have to dismiss my Eidolon or other summons first.
Solution for banishment is contingency. Real simple cast contingency and then mislead trigger will be being banished either way it triggers before spell goes off or after your returned your covered. So this is what happens party cast banishment your contingency triggers you turn invisible and a duplicate replaces you simultaneously. You'll still be transported and rendered incapacitated but the spell last for an hour banishment 1 minute. Thus when you return you illusionary double gets attacked. Now mislead doesn't specify what happens if illusion is attacked so I'm guessing it exposed the illusion. This means your big bad upon returning who is still invisible should book the heck put the room before the party attacks.
How about this as a way to handle anti magic? Make sure that the players are either in or will be going through an area where magic being there is good for them.. Think along the lines of magical dams or barriers that hold gas or energy or something that are up because the bbeg can at least likely survive but they don't want their tools n stuff damaged...
@@MrGBH Heck just make the entire lair a Mirage Arcane tower in a grassy meadow, but the actual terrain is sharp jagged rocks and thorns. The BBEG and all their minions can move through easily but anyone casting Antimagic Field is in for a bumpy ride. Bonus points if the villain is a beholder.
Speaking of a wizard ooze I am actually playing a slime wizard, named Night, in a Pathfinder 2e game. He builds and controls constructs that he fights with and can hide in, so people in town don't freak out.
Can you do an overpowered spell combo list. Two spells that when cast simultaneously can end any encounter. My two would be wall of force and create water. Literally if it can’t breathe underwater it will drown. Cause an indestructible box of water with no saves or counter. Plus they can’t cast verbal spells because they’re drowning
@@nemohimself2580 I really like this idea! I feel like allocating resources to languages should benefit a PC a bit more. I like the idea of languages (especially elemental languages) packing more power for a spell of a similar type/theme or letting you cast spells with verbal components in environments that usually wouldn't allow for casting.
Might be tough to cast 2 spells simultaneously at the level wall of force occurs. Also means you have twice the people that need to maintain concentration.
So im still a 3.5er so i dont know for sure but just how much water are you summoning and (im assuming you mean a forcecage, not wall of force) unless its changed the way is works, theres no line of effect to the inside from outside (and vice versa). So i looked it up like the fair question asking guy i am and 1. Thats a LOT of water 2. A force cage isnt an "open container" 3. Wall of force can be a hemisphere but is still not an "open container".
Blow out a chicken or quail egg, fill with powdered pepper, salt, vinegar, depending on the campaign fulminated mercury for dispersal, seal with wax. You have a hurled missile weapon of little damage but intense distraction. It ain't pepper spray, but it'll do!
Banishing could be countered by having a portal or another way from the plane back to the prime material plane. Oh, you banish the monsters, but somewhere hidden nearby is a rift that allows them to return... (I wrote this before listening to the rest of the video. Good to know we're on the same page!)
I always made my feelings known to players who like to use overpowering spells to let them know that if they constantly use the same spells, then word will get around, & the bad guys will take measures to defeat the problematic party. (Then the kid gloves come off.)
I play and DM Adventures league and I have always had difficulty seeing why flying is not allowed until lvl 5. even a T-Rex can tail attack a rock and "Catapault" an object as a flyer. if you drop to zero in the air you still take Fall damage. 30 foot fall can cause instakill dmg or at the least an auto death fail. Antimagic field can easily be negated by giving your caster a high dex and monk movement. to stop hypnotic pattern give the big guy blindsight instead of sight. This also works against Fog cloud and Darkness. My wizard has a dagger of blindsight from the DoMM hardcover. For Conjuration spells give the conjured a group initiative for speed and maybe allow pre roll for conjures.
Talking about multiple monsters reminds me of Animate Objects, where you get 10 coins flying around putting holes in the bad guys... Transforming the stat block to "a swarm of coins" sounds interesting... but what I ended up doing is calculating what the coins needed to roll to hit a target (the player always just had all of them attack the same guy), and had Roll20 (we played on VTT) roll 10d20s, and just count how many hit. Ended up taking no more game time than a normal attack.
This is what I did, treat the objects as a single entity on the board, the. Roll 10 d20s then count how many hit. The problem is this spell is absurdly powerful and dominates pretty much any combat that you can defend yourself in
Honestly Silence is the easiest spell to get around on the list because it doesn't completely shut down spellcasters, it literally only stops spells with verbal components which means you can still cast any spell that doesn't require verbal components. Or if you are a sorcerer using the subtle spell metamagic
Seems like a way to deal with flying in general is to sometimes take weather into account when it makes sense. In a mountain in a storm? Wind's probably a much bigger problem in the air than it is on the ground. A flying creature is more out in the open, so they might be an easier target for ranged attackers or a random chance of a large predatory bird. Just don't overdo it. Also if someone can fly, might as well make it part of solving a 3D terrain puzzle and quietly laugh when the out of combat scenario is the one time they don't think to use the ability.
I guess I must be simple cuz as the dm in my games I control what spells the characters can learn. Wizards have to find or buy copies of the spells so if they can't find it to learn then not a problem for me. If they do find it or take it from a defeated foe then I get to figure ways to counter it makes game fun and unpredictable.
When it comes to spell fighting(anti magic and counter spelling) at high levels this should be a chess game scenario. If your players get a good enough drop on a high level caster to get anti magic at their feet, it should be the nature of a checkmate. But getting there should be a trick. A good high level caster probably has a ring of perm detect magic, and a contingency teleport for when anti magic is close, for one foil. If magic is just guns with a different name, its not magic. This goes for the whole principle of OP spells. Work out your counter magic rules, and if the mages on your side cannot think to the level of their characters intelligence, you will have to aid/nudge a bit. High level minions, where banishment could apply, with component expense/difficulty(maybe even physically cumbersome, like a temple stone) or, give certain lt grade baddies an anchor charm that is just banish defense. This would be an insurance control measure a mastermind would have on things he didn't quite trust, where mastermind has an instant undo button if thy might turn on him. all of this seems more of a point to understand mechanics of magic better before play.
The evil wizard had dominated a strong fighter NPC. My monk was next to him and I wanted to dump all my ki points to stun him to break his concentration. Right before my turn, our warlock cast darkness around us. Now all my attacks are at disadvantage and I miss them all. I was pretty pissed off lol
Most of these can simply be solved by not running 'elemental' encounters of one enemy type with a blazingly obvious tactical disadvantage. A lot of creatures in the midfield have at least some response to being peppered from an aerial assault. Many without flight or burrowing abilities can simply find cover or concealment, or simply flee. Fleeing creatures pose a particular risk to the party, because the flyer can very casually become separated from the group and fall victim to a more competent encounter.
I'm a fan of a homebrewed barbed arrow set that causes massive pains at the cost of some damage to deal with concentration. Get a good ol penalty to the save, not disadvantage.
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DM Tears over Conjure Animals......feeds the soul 🤣
6:00 Fly
16:28 Antimagic Field
20:30 Silence
26:45 Hypnotic Pattern
40:14 Darkness
45:09 Banishment
51:40 Conjure Animals and Animate Objects
The true hero here!
you are a great man, thank you
thank you
*bard taking notes*
Dear God thank you for this
Them: "What if they banish your big bad?"
Me: Did you forget to give your big bad legendary resistances?
Banishment is only temporary. Your just buying time, not actually beating the encounter.
Most of the BBGs in campaigns I run or played in have had Regeneration, so banishment was never really the party's first choice.
@@agsilverradio2225 Not if they're an extraplanar creature.
@@geoffdewitt6845 if they're extraplanar, why wouldn't they have the planeshift spell?
@@nothingnerdyNtertainment There are quite a few planar creature who don't. See the aboleth, pretty much any elemental, quite a lot of the demons and devils, etc. Don't give your monsters abilities designed to screw your players over. Just say "You banished Lord Dundernuts, but failed to slay him. Now he lurks in the planar mists, plotting his revenge!" Bam! Instant recurring villain.
21:20 - Now I'll have to introduce the coffeemug of silence, the perfect magic item for barbarians. You hit them over the head with it really hard multiple times and then they won't make a sound
Yes, that would work quite well. 😁
I've seen the Barbarian Silence spell particularly effective against end-of-campaign boss casters. Barbarian get in melee range and grapples to rip the caster's tongue out of their mouths.
Your BBEG is going to know about that spell being used, so he or she should have defenses for it.
The big bad of the campaign. Yeah. They should be ready for a lot of things especially if the PCs always use the same spells.
Counter spells
In theory, you can also justify such defenses as a reaction when PCs brag about a spell in public. However, this has the consequence that players may be less willing to role-play such bragging in the future. It's more justified if the players are bragging to a named NPC (especially if the NPC elicited this information via questioning) or the players were using such bragging as a means to gain some sort of benefit.
Isnt fly concentration? Shouldnt there be the chance of bbeg shooting someone outta the sky and risking insta death?
Artefacts also beat anti-magic
13:37 I think we can agree that being in dragon territory, in general, is a bad move.
Yes, agreed. lol
As a drone pilot, it’s REALLY EASY to lose sight of a drone in the sky. Even human sized drones. Also 30ft in the air is not very high. People aren’t going to see a character from miles away if they are just 30ft in the air.
Not a bad video, just a small critique.
That's good insight. Conjecture is one thing. It's good to hear from someone with some actual experience. Thanks!
A foot is generally poorly understand in theater of the mind I think. 30 feet isn't that much. It's a lot if you're that TALL, but running 30 feet is pretty easy, throwing something that far isn't very difficult either.
I had a really fun session once with the silence spell, I was casting it to destroy a locked door discretely but there were lizards behind it, we started fighting and the DM just told us at the table "Well..
Since everyone is in the middle of your own silence spell, no one can talk anymore" Creating an encounter with very intense gazes between us as the only way of communicating .So yes, this spell has a very funny weakness...
the other thing with flying characters is, the enemies have less targets on the ground so that might be extra problem for the grounded players
True, if they swarm on the PCs on the ground. 😁
If you are DM'ing 5th level characters, and your only solution to a single one of them flying is to say "If you do that, I'll make bad shit happen to you for no other reason than you're flying" then you're a shitty DM. If you can't take into account that one of your players (usually the squishiest) can take flight (at the cost of a 3rd level spell slot btw), then I can't help you, and maybe you should find a hobby you're good at.
Wizard of Ooze. You’re welcome
"For breaking caster anti-magic concentration against your big bad spellcaster, use a rogue." That's why Liches have boneclaws in their employ who have invisibility as an innate skill, rather than a magical one.
Arnt boneclaws failed liches though?
@@williamwontiam3166 yep, and they bond to and serve evil masters. So a boneclaw and lich pairing isn't uncommon
I have one small note about the darkness spell, it cannot be countered by dancing lights no matter how you look at it since dancing lights happens to be a cantrip, and I don't think anyone has been upcasting eldritch blast, the spell description for dancing lights also says that it is a concentration spell, so using this would make your enemy wizard really have a lot of trouble for no reason and miss out on it's action for the turn since it has a 1 action cast time.
They silence your wizard, cast hypnotic pattern on theirs, no verbal component. Or just cast mislead and get out of the way.
I mean, a lot of antimagic tricks are what martial classes are for.
Pretty much assumes the caster is in fact poor at melee. Giant witch doctor, green hag ... party might decide that dropping the AMF is a good idea.
Zombies throwing their own arms is so cool!
And their heads! 😁
I have another interesting solution for banishment as a problem: Change the material component to 1cp. Now if they want to banish something they actually have to find something that is distasteful to the target. They can't just use a spellcasting focus. And now, banishment is not a universal weapon, but have to used targeted against some certain creature, where you found out what is hates. They have to learn to skip the fight, and with enough research they can it. Which is fine for me.
9:58 A trex could just do a high jump with it's +7 strength mod, it's 10 foot reach for either of it's attacks, and a athletics check to jump even higher still.
11:30 - communities where dragons, griffons, and stirges are a thing: extended awnings, slatted sunroofs, and netting is a part of a safe community that will provide full or half cover vs flight and to stay with the team the flyer has to stay within that dungeon roof of 6 to 10 feet, and city size communities can have laws against travel that walking, same as charm, illusion, and being armed and armored.
I have my players a sentient broom of flying that is afraid of heights. Kinda solved that problem!
Mind if I steal that
Alpharius Omegon not at all! Enjoy lol
Sure it'll fly for you ... but all that horrible screaming sure draws attention
I think this is the first time the wizard has actually done anything besides sit around and judge everybody!
Also, I just noticed that he's Gandalf, but he has the Elder Wand. Nice.
With the silence spell a good option could be to have the enemy mages use the dodge action until they can move out of the range if you don’t want to change their inventory or stats too much. Giving them reactions like absorb elements or reactions found in feats can keep them alive longer as well and spells like Hypnotic pattern do not have a verbal component but can easily take out a spell casters concentration. Potions of gaseous form and fire-breathing or giving bad guys levels in Metamagic with subtle spell can also easily counter Silence.
Don't forget about blindsight! Some good tips overall. I disagree on some rules interpretations but its good to think about counters as a DM.
I say let your players be awesome when they catch you off guard. Their reputation will be your greatest weapon against your players. Whenever your players just destroy an encounter, always let a baddy get away.
In their defense, they did say it was only a problem when the party continually used these tactics/ combos on constant rinse/ reapeat. They also said several times to let the players have the win ...with the caveat of stepping in when the players were making things stale for themselves.
I liked the format of this video. I would watch more of these conversational DM chats.
Another nice thing to use against concentration spells is Sleet storm, it is a very underrated spell when you consider all the rules applying for it.
You mentioned that you could upcast dancing light but i believe you cannot upcast cantrips
Interesting. I'll look into that. You're probably right.
@@theDMLair
hows the looking into it going
Jeremy Crawford confirmed that cantrips cannot be upcast
@@theDMLair Cool and good
Just coming to say this. he really seems to have issues keeping the editions separate. Good thinking but jumping editions to do these ideas
My Party: (Uses fly to skip a fortress built to challenge those who want to progress, to prove their worthiness to a god)
Me as Fort's Commander: "Archers!"
My Party: "Oh no..."
(pc's in-game screaming as the poor mage and ranger gets pelted in open air by volleys of poisoned arrows, making it back bloodied and poisoned)
And in my campaign most creatures had a ranged attack. I remember having quite a few spellcasters too, like 1/6 the enemies and half the bosses used some form of magic. The party gave up on fly pretty fast. Especially when they hit dragon territory, literally seeing ancient chromatic dragons of every color staring at a holy city of Bahumet from mountain tops. Ready to attack at any moment when Tiamat is summoned to the world. (I did have an alternate route though, there were mine entrances as far as the eye can see. Basically meaning they could navigate underground to get a safe distance within the city so that the dragons couldn't attack them.)
Yes flying out in the open does a very vulnerable target make. 😁
Counter to Banish, the BBEG had already cast banish on half his minions. When he gets unbanished he unbanishes them. Suddenly the group is getting hit from minions again and chances are, there isn't another banish ready.
I'd say the spells that cause the most headaches for me are (in order of least to greatest annoyance) are: good berry, healing spirit, and wish. If you have found ways to manage those I'd love to hear them!
Healing spirit house rule: a person can benefit from its healing only once.
Goodberry: a caster can only create up to 10 at a time. Subsequent castings cause the originals to disappear or go bad. Or since the berries create a full day's sustenece, the consumer is full and can only benefit from one a day. Depends on how hard and bad they are being abused.
With 5e new restrictions on wish, I've had no issues with it.
Healing spirit is beyond broken.
Players develop allergies to goodberry causing debilitating problems
Eating more than one good berry a day causes violent diarrhea.
When I first read the few word on title of the video I thought to myself "Wow, there are 7 deadly sins on D&D no-" then when I *actually* finish reading the title "You should've finished reading first *DINGUS!* " (Anyway great and helpful content)
ahhhh.... But "Seven Deadly Sins of D&D" would be a GREAT title for a video! Now just need to figure out what would be in the video. lol
@@theDMLair maybe characters that fits certain sins?
@@theDMLair You've covered a lot of the DM sins - what about from the player side? "Thou shalt never split the party."
About flying.
If they're doing charge attacks or flyby attacks, I usually have the enemies come together and ready their actions to attack the flying character as they come into range.
Banishment... This one can backfire HARD in the right scenario. The example I'm thinking of is Ashardalon in Bastion of Broken Souls (I guess spoilers for a 3.5e module). Banishing him at the end of his 3e arch would effectively send a pissed off dying ancient red dragon with a balor for a heart to the players own backyard. They get back thinking they won and find that their town or city was burned to the ground in their absence. Since the steady stream of souls in the astral plane was the only thing keeping Ashardalon alive, it's possible the destruction was the last thing he did before succumbing to his old injuries, denying them vengeance. ;)
I recently played a high-level campaign as a Bard who had an Instrument of the Bards and (obviously) the Hypnotic Pattern spell.
Being able to not only cast Hypnotic Pattern, but to be able to impose disadvantage on the enemies' saving throws is - to say the least - a bit of a strong combination.
Knowing this, I didn't use the spell very often, since I wanted to keep the game fun for everyone at the table. I knew I could do it, the DM knew I could do it, everyone else at the table knew I could do it, but it wasn't very fun. It was always there in the back pocket if we were getting overwhelmed, but I chose to leave it there for most of the campaign. Probably a lot of that was my inner DM throttling myself.
That said, not every player will be so understanding. A lot of people treat D&D like a video game, and as is discussed in the video, the best solution is to talk to them about it.
Also, most of these spells being Concentration-based gives a good mechanism for minimizing their effects. For single-target spells like Banishment, there is also Legendary Resistance for when they target the big bad.
For Summoning spells, I create cards for every creature my PCs can conjure, and on it there are average hit values and average damage, so there is no dice rolling on their attacks. For example, If there are 4 summoned creatures, one will hit a high-AC foe each round, 2 will hit a medium-AC foe, and 3 will hit a low-AC foe. Then the player can apply those hits wherever they want in the combat for the listed damage value.
One of the great things about D&D is that the players will sometimes completely wreck the DM's plans, so like you said in the video, you should never shut them down all the time. But it's also a lot of fun as a DM to see their faces when they realize their pet tactic isn't going to work this time.
32:10 Did someone throw Darkness at the left shelf?
Probably the camera man...
Hypnotic Pattern Problems? Give a wand of magic missile to an imp and have them troll your caster every time they cast the spell. That's all a devil would do, magic missile whatever falls asleep and then continue to use invisibility to get away.
Ok, I have to ask.
What class does the skeleton-masked one represent?
Warlock?
Yeah, I do believe it's a warlock.
yeah he's a warlock, it's been mentioned that he knows eldritch blast.
(and i dont think he got it through bardic secrets)
The summoning minions - use a variant on the minion rules (minions have 1hp) give the conjured hp equal to 1 or its CR value.
Have you tried that before? How did your players feel about that change?
@@theDMLair I used it once for a mass combat. Applied it to both sides, summoned creatures, raised undead, and retainers. It seemed to work fine for that scenario. If only applied to players I could see them feeling cheated but Summoning a dozen wolves (with pack tactics) kinda skews the action economy.
I wanna hear about the time he killed Lolth!
Lol yeah me too!
the DM Lair it needs to be animated!
Five crits people!
Love this video format. You and your people should make a podcast.
I have to admit that I home brewed a legendary magic item once that I took away from my 5th or 6th level party as soon as they got it.
It was a magic item used by a Buehr Hag to amplify her Control Weather spell’s radius. It was made out of ice and it melted when she was dead and was no longer using it to keep the temperature below freezing.
What do you mean I love hearing about people's PCs that's one of my favorite parts about D&D
Wizard ooze: intelligent black pudding (from one of the official modules). I don't want to post the source so as to not reveal spoilers
My favorite spell has always been conjure animals. And it has the greatest amount of uses of any other spell I've ever used.
One time my group encountered a collapsed house that we needed to get inside the basement of, so i just told everyone "step aside, I've got this. And i used conjure animals to summon apes to just go and clear out all the rubble to get to the basement.
A few times, i used it to summon giant owls to fly the party around to various out of reach places.
A few times i used it in combat in different ways of course; dire wolves, owls, Stirges, and my favorite.... 2 giant octopus to grapple strong foes while the party attacks them.
Another time i used it to summon giant badgers to dig a tunnel under a wall into a city we needed to infiltrate.
This all goes off the lenient nature of the DM to let you pick which animal gets summoned... But if your DM doesn't let you pick it's almost always a terrible spell.
To players, what i did to help out the DM was i had every single stat sheet ready for every animal i would summon. I ran the spell by the DM first and told them I would use the list of animals from xanathars guide that was for druid wild shapes. And they were okay with it. As a player, i did all the leg work for keeping track of the animals and their stats to take that huge burden off the DM, cause they've already got enough on their plate keeping track of their own character stats (every single enemy)
I DM’d an Aarakroca PC from level 1 once and I didn’t have any problems with him flying. Once he took a couple of solid hits he landed until he’d healed back up because he didn’t want to get knocked to 0 HP and then fall and take damage. And since it was an aquatic adventure he really didn’t want to fall into the water and then sink and drown.
I never considered a sunblade to counter a Darkness spell but hearing that gives me a good Suprise round strategy with my Gloomstalker Ranger. Sneek in, activate sunblade, while rest of the party holds attacks until they can see the creature I attack. I may have to wait a few rounds for melee support but that is why my Longbow wielding Ranger has an AC 24 because sometimes you just need to pick a fight in person.
On Fog in Pathfinder (assuming it is Pathfinder 2e) - it does not make characters invisible, they must succeed in hiding check, and sneak at half speed, while enemies could roll perception checks with Seek in 30ft cone and also could attack with natural check of 5 (from Concealed condition), plus you could give enemies Blind Fight feat or hearing as precise sense.
In PF2e GMs have legitimate ways to counter such strategy when it gets overdone by players
Silence the room, barricade entrances if possible, rush and crush. Wash, rinse, repeat. No worrying about rolling sneak once you get into the room, just go.
Breaking concentration on an anti magic field. A fireball won't do it. Well, yeah, it's magic.
Just give the caster a bow of some kind lol
Yep kind of my immediate thought ... just a brainstorming oops I'd imagine though.
The summoning solution is amazing, kudos!
I ran a game in which the PCs ventured into a network of large, pitch black caves, inhabited by grimlocks, & a blind albino T-Rex, which hunted by sound, smell, & touch, but was completely unaffected by anything that effects vision or requires the target to see it. It could actually track the party by the heat from the torches they were using to see.
There are usually simple counters to most of these "problem spells" for creative dm's... for example the fog issue is easily countered by Gust of Wind... or natural wind patterns if outdoors... never forget to utilize your surroundings.
The overall issue is that 5E mechanics are weighed heavily in the players favor. I would like to see 5E players deal with 1E and 2E mechanics
Totally true. Players are designed to win in 5e. 1e and that era was DEADLY. 😁
I use a part of older modules and other Games Into my Fantasy game.
I like using the Palladium rule of 1-4 is always a mistake cast and failure (and yes uses up a spell slot). It's great.
I never played anything besides 5E. The way I make encounters challenging, (outside of straight homebrew) is just giving weaker enemies like Commners, Guards and Bandits player levels. Like the video said, I also like giving enemies spells. Giving classes to enemies has had mixed reception. Some players love it and some think it's unfair. Most players are indifferent though.
@@Zulk_RS I never understood why some people don't want a challenge playing D&D. They might as well just read a fantasy novel instead.
@@beancounter2185 You wanna know what the funny thing is? These same people who found player classes on monsters unfair didn't mind the actually broken and OP homebrew that I threw at them. For context, I didn't want to throw overpowered monsters at them. I messed up with balancing in those cases. They didn't seem the actually unfair encounters as unfair for some unknown reason.
Mirage Arcane: Even if the creature knows it's an illusion, the other elements of the illusion remain. You can't subtract from the environment with it, but you CAN add to it. Surround the creatures you wish to kill in an indestructible adamantine box. It remains there for 10 days, during which you can recast the spell if you think it'll take longer. Only downside is 10 minute casting time, so you can only use it before combat.
I usly watch Netflix in the morning befor work and I was thinking I will watch this video befor netflix ... lol bye Netflix
Netflix has nothing on D&D. 😁
Thank you for bringing up putting things in a game and not letting players do likewise. Had a DM nerf my high level artificer but not letting me make magic items. I wasn’t even looking to make anything really big or powerful but the issue I had was that a previous character in the campaign I played wanted to make a magic item and I was told only an artificer can make magic items. Okay, I do so, and then I got denied after he set a rule. It was very frustrating. I have made it my mission to never do that to my own players. Game balance be damned. I mean, except I have the power to make encounters more difficult and interesting. So. Yeah…
One thing I don't think you mentioned is use natural weather effects and hazards, obviously need to make the weather reflect the environment but Sleet Storms, Fog, High Winds, Torrential Rain etc.. all change the tides of combat and can keep things fresh. See the Wilderness Survival section in the DMG, pg 110. Obviously Tasha's was published after this video was released, but for those reading this comment pg169 has a whole section on 'Natural Hazards' which is very useful.
Weather is another solution for fly. Or cover that the enemies on the ground can hide under to where being in the air is useless.
With the fog blindsense feat helps and tremorsense blindsight also helps. Also light spells may counter darkness they used to atleast.
Spell absorbing towers
Clyde crimsoncrow Like having zero bars on your cellphone. Sorry bad magic field reception here.
Legit a thing. Especially in those lairs of flyingcaster folk (Dragons and Beholders).
A valid notion is a beholder sleeps in the cavern above the one where the players find a snall anvil (or something) hung from a chain on the ceiling. When the beholder comes intothe fight he zaps the chain and then uses TK to lob the *Anvil of Silence* at whoever is yelling spells at him. Not as a weapon in itself but just to throw an AoE of Silence around
15:00. You could also give the monsters class levels.
Magical slime that's eaten a magical weapon
As a player i would try to get intentionally swallowed to see if i can get it and attack from inside!!
Flying character in a dungeon, rogues always check for traps on the floor, would be a shame if a complacent flying character hit a trip wire in the ceiling ^_^
Trip net. You just fly into it and you're caught. Spiders. Lots of spiders. 9 spiders. When you kill those, there's like 15 more. For no reason. Just tons of spiders, it never ends. Still stuck in the webbing. 69 more spiders. They don't attack or anything there's just so many spiders. After a while the party can't communicate because they're overrun by spiders and you (the DM) can take a break and get water.
Bonus points for having a jar of spiders to throw on the players IRL. They can be plastic ones if you must.
@ the fog issue, why not introduce wind generating creatures or flying creatures?
There are literally spells that say they disperse or move fog
The Conjure Animals or similar spells are Concentration, much like Fly or Antimagic, so all the same ways to stop them should still apply
Surprised distant come up, But per raw, Every instance of magic missile damage is individual so you must roll con saves for every individual missile that hits the Caster almost guaranteeing that they lose the con Save.
Legendary resistance is a perfect cure for banishment in bosses...
For regular encounters however... I like to throw devils or extraplaner beings at my party. I'll have the main bad guys react to its abuse by deploying things like corrupted blink dogs in their groups. Or summoned devils that have a chance of reappearing via their own portals (with reinforcements).
It's fun and makes the spell more tactical than nuclear because it's not a guaranteed win button anymore. It's just temporary crowd control.
What I have thought about is treating the summons the same as minnions, take the flat average damage or roll, each summon has 1 hp, and if they get hit they die if they make a save then its a flat miss no save damages. So 8 1/2 summons is 8 hp or 8 1hp lives, say they all have bite dealing 1d8 then they all do 4 on hit + relevent modifier.
9:42 100% Agree, mine were fighting Zombies, and I got a little tired of the Fairy flying away, and the Paladin just walking away from them. I ended up having them vomit a globule of saliva into their hands and throw it at them, to deal their Melee Attack as Necrotic Damage
I loved the conjure animals idea. With the druid as my favorite class, i always get booed every time i summon 8 beast for being the best option, while not being my go to strategy like the "foggy" player you mention. And, for me, summon only one beast is... sub-optimal at best. But having a personal "fey beast" pal with little improvements in comparison to it's kin, sounds awesome.
Yes, agreed. It's a great middle ground. And yeah because of action economy more summons is almost always better.
8 Stirges is pretty brutal, if not knocked out quickly, they'll liquidate big CR creatures like Giants for example.
Assign the summoned creatures or familiar to another player. Spread the fun. Have summoned creatures get a save to throw off their shackles and attack the summoner who brought them to this world of pain.
As a player I try to follow the rule of cool. If I come up with an over powered or super amazing use for an ability or spell I will use it one time. After that I don’t use it in that way anymore to keep the balance. For instance i once used song of creation to make a 5x5x5 foot block of granite above the head of a bugbear, dropping it on their head, we did some math and my dm decided it insta killed the bugbear. I could’ve gone on to do that once per day instakilling one medium or small monster a day, but being a dm and knowing how annoying thst would get I havnt done it since that time. It was a cool moment I prevented another players death it was awesome and I left it there.
Regarding your idea at 22:05 -
There was a 1st edition monster called an Obliviax (Monster Manual II, page 96) that stole memories and was able to cast spells. It was a moss instead of an ooze but you might find it interesting.
I had a fight set up where 12 yaun-ti (5 ranged, 5 melee, 1 melee captain and 1 high priestess of Tiamat) were fighting a party of 3 (dragonborn paladin, dragonborn warlock, Dwarf fighter). Out numbered 4 to 1 but 10 of the opposing force were mostly fodder/meat shields. It was a pretty even fight until:
- The high priestess of Tiamat turns into a dragon
- The warlock Hurls the dragon priestess through hell
- The dragon priestess comes back and casts heal on herself
- The warlock banishes the dragon priestess and the melee captain
- The archers turn the Warlock into a pin cushion (breaking his concentration)
- The Dragon Priestess returns, breathing fire on the Paladin, dropping him to zero
- The warlock casts power word stun on the Dragon Priestess (and it works)
- The party grabs the Paladin and flees the battle
They managed to take down 1 melee fighter and hurt the priestess, in her dragon form, pretty badly but the fight was going back and forth and looked like it could take a turn for the worst at any moment; so they retreated while they could. The shear number of attacks had the party on its heels the whole time.
I think I currently have a GREAT group of friends to play D&D with. I got lucky that the first few campaigns I played through, (all of which include the current campaign I’m playing in) most of my group decide to avoid completely breaking the campaign or ruining it for everyone else. Of course, it’s not the PERFECT group, as some people occasionally ruin the experience for the rest. (for example, one campaign was completely ruined by 2 people to the point where the campaign just stopped abruptly. Their reasoning? “If you’re just going to kill us off, then what’s the point of playing?” I even talked to the DM about this and he said he wouldn’t’ve even killed them off like they were accusing him of planning!) Due to that campaign being ruined, we no longer play it anymore, despite it being INCREDIBLY fun to play before those two friends of mine ruined it.
Is there a reason the rest of you didn't keep playing the campaign even after those 2 players did that?
In my recent game I played a druid with fog cloud. Our party had a bard who had faerie fire. We encountered an orc army we were supposed to only kill a few then they would run away, but with this combo we killed nearly all of them including their boss and 2nd in command. Fog cloud is dangerous.
How did you see them in fog cloud? (if you can't see them and they can't see you, that brings everyone back to even as far as attack rolls go.)
@@theDMLair Faerie fire stacked on fog cloud by the bard. Glowing orcs make easy targets.
Darkness + Faerie Fire + Warlock is a similar combo. Sub Warlock for the new Twilight cleric, and the whole party is running into the darkness and pounding on the glowing orcs.
That doesn't work unless you can see through the fog as both are effectively blinded. But kudos if your DM let you play it that way.
@@Water64Rabbit advantage cancels disadvantage. So even through the fog, the party was making rolls normally, but the orcs were at disadvantage. Now, it does mean that there was no way to get actual advantage, but that's still a pretty powerful low-level combo.
Æons ago, some friends of mine (many of whom worked at or owned a video game company that would later make a hugely console game franchise) played an all goblin game of D&D. Their characters' longevity tended to be lower even than characters from Paranoia.
It was quickly determined that the Sleep spell was so universally notorious and feared by goblins that they would all anybody they heard say that dreaded word... even a fellow goblin. I was said I missed that game, because every story from it was hilarious.
Number 1. Prestidigition you could make an egg throw it at someone then it disappears after 6 seconds but then you have another egg. Rince and repeat.
I think you focus too much on the actions, magic missling to beat your player's hypnotic pattern matches action economy, but then your monsters guaranteed 1st level spell beats your players 3rd level spell that has to beat a DC
If they all go in the same initiative, I would not have them act in the same turn (being woken up after the caster has completed their spellcasting).
If they go on different initiative, probably half of them lost their turn.
You also get free damage on the monsters.
Plus I would say that if you do not have shield, well even a level 1 magic missile is a triple concentration check if focused on the caster (and guaranteed damage too). Sure the DC is very low, but for a level 5 wizard, it might not be the best thing.
The other thing with Banishment; Enforce the component aspect. It's a bit weird because it doesnt have a cost so technically you can component pouch it or whatever, but for what the spell is, I'd make the PC go find the item, especially if its for the Big Bad, that's an entire sidequest in itself. It also makes them think ahead, like... what's distasteful to a Rhemoraz? I should go get some of that before we go in the ice caves. Push it a little and make it consume on success, that way they can recast, they cant banish the same thing twice usually, which is rare anyhow.
Another creative option would be to make a spellcaster deaf by loud, distracting noises (machinery, blast furnace, sounds of pain and terror) that may cause the spellcaster to pronounce the verbal component wrong, causing unexpected results. These results could be taken from the Wild Magic Surge Chart in the PHB.
These are definitely some things to be aware of when creating encounters.
If the encounter can be easily broken by a spell the party is capable of casting (and frequently prepared) then how challenging was that encounter for that party in the first place? If the actual challenge fell far short of the projected (calculated challenge) perhaps consider that encounter to have taken a commensurately smaller bite out of the daily XP budget than as listed. Maybe some creatures in subsequent encounters that adventuring day begin the encounter quaffing potions or reading spell scrolls, or using other consumables to augment themselves against an approaching party that is ahead of the curve because they have an MVP spellcaster. Or maybe there are more enemy spellcasters capable of countering, dispelling or duplicating the effects the players so frequently use themselves.
With the Summoner one. I suggest a small houserule. Make all characters have a summon limit of 1 effect at a time similar to concentration spells. but for summon effects.
Pathfinder's Summoner uses an Eidolon. A summoner is also able to use summon monster as a spell like. The spell like ability states in pathfinder that you can not have your eidolon active if you wanna use the spell-like ability. Perhaps extend it so that you are only ever allowed to have one effective summon monster like effect per person at a time. This allows the summoner to use their spells as written. but if they use a summon spell. The old monsters poof away and the new ones appear. Preventing them from building up 40+ minions. Also make it so that Enemy encounters has the same ruling. That is my idea of a solution. This is the ruling that i am made to use as a summoner in my current game. If i ever wanna summon something. I usually have to dismiss my Eidolon or other summons first.
Could you also do an episode of impractical advice?
Yes! That would be tons of fun. Lol
Solution for banishment is contingency. Real simple cast contingency and then mislead trigger will be being banished either way it triggers before spell goes off or after your returned your covered.
So this is what happens party cast banishment your contingency triggers you turn invisible and a duplicate replaces you simultaneously. You'll still be transported and rendered incapacitated but the spell last for an hour banishment 1 minute. Thus when you return you illusionary double gets attacked. Now mislead doesn't specify what happens if illusion is attacked so I'm guessing it exposed the illusion. This means your big bad upon returning who is still invisible should book the heck put the room before the party attacks.
How about this as a way to handle anti magic? Make sure that the players are either in or will be going through an area where magic being there is good for them.. Think along the lines of magical dams or barriers that hold gas or energy or something that are up because the bbeg can at least likely survive but they don't want their tools n stuff damaged...
Like a magical energy platform that the BBEG is standing on, above a lava pit
@@MrGBH Heck just make the entire lair a Mirage Arcane tower in a grassy meadow, but the actual terrain is sharp jagged rocks and thorns. The BBEG and all their minions can move through easily but anyone casting Antimagic Field is in for a bumpy ride. Bonus points if the villain is a beholder.
I always think about adding spellcasting monsters/npcs all over the place. I think they are pretty fun.
What class is the skull faced guy? I've always kinda assumed Warlock.
He is a Warlock.
Speaking of a wizard ooze I am actually playing a slime wizard, named Night, in a Pathfinder 2e game. He builds and controls constructs that he fights with and can hide in, so people in town don't freak out.
Can you do an overpowered spell combo list. Two spells that when cast simultaneously can end any encounter. My two would be wall of force and create water. Literally if it can’t breathe underwater it will drown. Cause an indestructible box of water with no saves or counter. Plus they can’t cast verbal spells because they’re drowning
Our DM decided to give actual advantages for different languages, so for example you can speak aquan underwater and cast spells using it
@@nemohimself2580 I really like this idea! I feel like allocating resources to languages should benefit a PC a bit more. I like the idea of languages (especially elemental languages) packing more power for a spell of a similar type/theme or letting you cast spells with verbal components in environments that usually wouldn't allow for casting.
Might be tough to cast 2 spells simultaneously at the level wall of force occurs. Also means you have twice the people that need to maintain concentration.
Alternatively, they pull out a bag of holding and hop in, with its 10 minutes worth of air
So im still a 3.5er so i dont know for sure but just how much water are you summoning and (im assuming you mean a forcecage, not wall of force) unless its changed the way is works, theres no line of effect to the inside from outside (and vice versa).
So i looked it up like the fair question asking guy i am and
1. Thats a LOT of water
2. A force cage isnt an "open container"
3. Wall of force can be a hemisphere but is still not an "open container".
Blow out a chicken or quail egg, fill with powdered pepper, salt, vinegar, depending on the campaign fulminated mercury for dispersal, seal with wax. You have a hurled missile weapon of little damage but intense distraction. It ain't pepper spray, but it'll do!
Banishing could be countered by having a portal or another way from the plane back to the prime material plane. Oh, you banish the monsters, but somewhere hidden nearby is a rift that allows them to return...
(I wrote this before listening to the rest of the video. Good to know we're on the same page!)
I always made my feelings known to players who like to use overpowering spells to let them know that if they constantly use the same spells, then word will get around, & the bad guys will take measures to defeat the problematic party. (Then the kid gloves come off.)
I play and DM Adventures league and I have always had difficulty seeing why flying is not allowed until lvl 5. even a T-Rex can tail attack a rock and "Catapault" an object as a flyer. if you drop to zero in the air you still take Fall damage. 30 foot fall can cause instakill dmg or at the least an auto death fail. Antimagic field can easily be negated by giving your caster a high dex and monk movement. to stop hypnotic pattern give the big guy blindsight instead of sight. This also works against Fog cloud and Darkness. My wizard has a dagger of blindsight from the DoMM hardcover. For Conjuration spells give the conjured a group initiative for speed and maybe allow pre roll for conjures.
Talking about multiple monsters reminds me of Animate Objects, where you get 10 coins flying around putting holes in the bad guys...
Transforming the stat block to "a swarm of coins" sounds interesting... but what I ended up doing is calculating what the coins needed to roll to hit a target (the player always just had all of them attack the same guy), and had Roll20 (we played on VTT) roll 10d20s, and just count how many hit.
Ended up taking no more game time than a normal attack.
This is what I did, treat the objects as a single entity on the board, the. Roll 10 d20s then count how many hit. The problem is this spell is absurdly powerful and dominates pretty much any combat that you can defend yourself in
Honestly Silence is the easiest spell to get around on the list because it doesn't completely shut down spellcasters, it literally only stops spells with verbal components which means you can still cast any spell that doesn't require verbal components. Or if you are a sorcerer using the subtle spell metamagic
was probably mentioned, but RAW/RAI, you can't use a spell slot to cast a cantrip (can't upcast dancing light)
Seems like a way to deal with flying in general is to sometimes take weather into account when it makes sense. In a mountain in a storm? Wind's probably a much bigger problem in the air than it is on the ground. A flying creature is more out in the open, so they might be an easier target for ranged attackers or a random chance of a large predatory bird. Just don't overdo it. Also if someone can fly, might as well make it part of solving a 3D terrain puzzle and quietly laugh when the out of combat scenario is the one time they don't think to use the ability.
I guess I must be simple cuz as the dm in my games I control what spells the characters can learn. Wizards have to find or buy copies of the spells so if they can't find it to learn then not a problem for me. If they do find it or take it from a defeated foe then I get to figure ways to counter it makes game fun and unpredictable.
When it comes to spell fighting(anti magic and counter spelling) at high levels this should be a chess game scenario. If your players get a good enough drop on a high level caster to get anti magic at their feet, it should be the nature of a checkmate. But getting there should be a trick. A good high level caster probably has a ring of perm detect magic, and a contingency teleport for when anti magic is close, for one foil. If magic is just guns with a different name, its not magic. This goes for the whole principle of OP spells. Work out your counter magic rules, and if the mages on your side cannot think to the level of their characters intelligence, you will have to aid/nudge a bit. High level minions, where banishment could apply, with component expense/difficulty(maybe even physically cumbersome, like a temple stone) or, give certain lt grade baddies an anchor charm that is just banish defense. This would be an insurance control measure a mastermind would have on things he didn't quite trust, where mastermind has an instant undo button if thy might turn on him. all of this seems more of a point to understand mechanics of magic better before play.
The evil wizard had dominated a strong fighter NPC. My monk was next to him and I wanted to dump all my ki points to stun him to break his concentration. Right before my turn, our warlock cast darkness around us. Now all my attacks are at disadvantage and I miss them all. I was pretty pissed off lol
For banishment, what if the enemy doesn't come back.
In state, your PC now have a powerful plane-shifting monster hunting them.
Most of these can simply be solved by not running 'elemental' encounters of one enemy type with a blazingly obvious tactical disadvantage. A lot of creatures in the midfield have at least some response to being peppered from an aerial assault. Many without flight or burrowing abilities can simply find cover or concealment, or simply flee. Fleeing creatures pose a particular risk to the party, because the flyer can very casually become separated from the group and fall victim to a more competent encounter.
I'm a fan of a homebrewed barbed arrow set that causes massive pains at the cost of some damage to deal with concentration. Get a good ol penalty to the save, not disadvantage.