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Ohh I used this one once... But I had the item in the mouth of a dog and while the party was trying to chase it it would chew on it like a toy and trigger random barrier effects. It took them many game sessions to finally trap the dog. They let him run off with it in the end. GOLD!
This is one of those rare items in D&D that will make you a better DM. Nothing will teach you more about creating diverse, interesting encounters that mix melee combat, ranged combat, spellcasting, monsters, environmental hazards and terrain advantage like trying to design battles that actually challenges a party that has one of these darn things.
Ahem... The creature walks away, refusing to just let you kill it. After one minute it returns after the cube has worn off. Kite them until the item runs out of juice.
@@carsonrush3352 Agreed, any competent Creature, even if they didn't know what a Cube of Force does, they do know they should go for whomever isn't protected instead, or flee the scene knowing the futility of hitting the Cube wielder. If they did know, all the reason to flee faster.
The way our table handles this is by associating objects being worn or carried with their bearer. Face 1: Air Elementals / Breath Attacks can't get you Face 2: Undead and Constructs can't get you Face 3: Most creatures can't get you, but also your friends probably can't get out. Face 4: Fireball can't get you... but *your* Fireballs can't get out. Face 5: All of the above. The concept behind the cube is very cool, it stresses positioning and the action cost makes using it a very interesting choice in combat. I wish they had been more intentional with the phrasing because a generous (munchkin) interpretation of your game world's physics can make face 2 incredibly broken.
I had this as a necromancer in a campaign, freely commanding my undead minions while using the faces of the cube liberally to protect my party and hinder enemies. We were fighting a mirror version of the party at one point and locked myself in the cube with the other caster (I didn't have my minions at the time) and was disintegrated, though they were still locked in the cube until my party finished off the others. That cube solved a few fights single-handedly but that was my favorite moment.
It depends on your dm as to whether or not the DM would have it be a gas or more of a toxic sludge but it would be great against red and maybe white dragons too. It's a bit of a simplification but fire is a chemical reaction producing carbon dioxide and water where the carbon dioxide gets so hot it becomes luminescent. White dragons typically have breath so cold it does damage (I could be wrong here though).
The gases, wind and fog button allows you to dive into the ocean. Even if water can pass into the barrier, your air pocket can't pass out, so you'll always have a bit of air remaining in the barrier in shallow enough dives. Place the cube in your shoe for extra height in the barrier so you can dive deeper without pushing your face underwater! Additionally, you can use it to ignore gaseous poison and walk into a vacuum safely. It is actually pretty strong. You can even super-condense air by activating the barrier at low-altitudes with no solid or liquid matter in range, then throwing it down a hole just wide enough to fit the cube itself. The cube will either hang by the weight of the compressed air, or it will condense air enough to puncture solid matter, and can be used like a spear when dropping through a narrow chute onto an enemy waiting at the other side!
@@Tupadre97 Where in its description does it say the cube centers its effect on you? From what I read, it wasn't defined, and undefined features like that usually center on the magic item producing them.
I given these to a few of my groups before. Enemies who find they can't get to the player characters end up leaving, sometimes coming back with reinforcements and multiple attack options. It is effective, but it can hinder the group as much as it hinders the enemies, and it doesn't fully recharge each day. Giving one to your players will likely make you work a little more as a DM, but it can be a lot of fun for the players if you let them be creative.
The barrier against nonliving is great until the edge of the cube gets caught on a pebble and you have to figure out how to maneuver around it. (No, I wouldn't actually do this as a game master, I just think the visual is funny)
I trivialized the tomb of horrors with this thing. A year later It was instrumental to slaying Strahd. And to think I took it only because no one else in the party wanted it lol.
You missed one of the most OP facets.... flying characters using it to airlift the entire party out of, or into, a fight. Combine it with Expeditious Retreat for a shock and awe blitz attack. The cube stays centred on the character, and the living matter or non living matter barriers will scoop up the team by their bodies or gear. Not comfortable, but effective. It's a D&D drop pod. My artificer with boots of flight used it to airlift a prisoner, still caught in a net, out of a fortress.
I just realised an Homunculus Servant, which can fly and use magic items, could attune to and carry the cube, becoming the drop pod pilot. It would count towards the Artificer's attunement slots.
Though I'd rule as a DM that the flying creature is effectively carrying the weight of anything being held aloft by the cube, so if you want to carry other creatures, you're going to need to some strength.
A video elaborating on the concept of Default Killing would be good to see! I’m not really sure where else to look up something like that, and I think knowing to handle that sort of thing would be important for DMs.
We could select a magic item of rare quality after we won in a gladiator arena. I took this. I am really surprised this item is rarely talked about, not only did this item make it extremely complicated for the dm to challenge us but it also made fights really complicated. Its completely nuts and I don´t think it should be handed out to players.
In my CoS campaign I rolled randomly for magic items and the PCs found a Cube of Force in the begining of the campaign. It's really strong, and I knew beforehand that CoS is better withou magic items, but I love them, so I buffed all the encounters to fit random magic items. The cube was the star of the campaign, really save the ass of the PCs multiple times and allow them to use really cool strategies. I don't recomment unless you know what your doing, can really make encounters boring if the DM don't adjust the encounters. But what I liked most as DM is that I didn't have to worry with really deadly encounters, the cube was a panic button. btw, many times the rules are not clear, be ready to house rule on the spot some wierd situation.
Starting at 1st level, your Patron thought that armor dipping was too punishing. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields. Also you gain the Pack Tactics feature.
Yup, my BBEG has it. I homebrewed it to not be as broken though. Basically it only has It's 36 charges it came with and once they are used up the item disintegrates.
Have you ever taken a look at the Cavalier subclass? I think this may be the best fighter subclass next to Battle Master. Here's why: 3rd level: You can tag each enemy you hit, giving them disadvantage on every attack except against you. If they ignore your taunt and hit your teammates, you can slap with a bonus action attack with advantage and deal extra damage. This makes you a proper tank build. 7th level: You can give a d8 to a teammates AC if they get attacked. If they get hit anyway, they have resistance to the damage. 10th level: Free Sentinel feat 15th Level: You can charge people and knock them prone. Save DC is based on STR, which is quite rare. 18th level: You can now throw an opportunity attack once... during EACH CREATURE'S TURN. That druid that summoned 8 raptors? That's 8 attacks for you - which stack with the free Sentinel feat from 15th level btw. What's that? The Lich just summoned 20 zombies with the Cavalier next to him... and is concentrating on a spell? That bag of bones is gonna eat 20 more attacks and lose his spell!
Speaking of default killing, you should talk about one of the best ways to do so with low level spells; rope trick is one of the best ways to do so. Invisible, blocks spells and attacks, and has a limited size entryway for larger enemies
I actually just got this (by rolling) on my ranger that was already set up for fog cloud and blind fighting. Takes a few rounds to set up, but makes a rolling fog of advantage for me and disadvantage + blinding for my enemies. The giant in this example can and would absolutely just swing at the character, though? And the lich can still cast fireball inside the cube (or use disintegrate spells on it). It is incredibly handy against wolves, though.
Having to plan encounters around an item isn't always a bad thing. Mainly if you want to use stronger monsters the party will probably never be high leveled enough to handle. Give them the cube, BBEG learns they have the cube, trick/teleport them into a beholders layer, for example.
I got one of these in a campaign around 15th level, and I used it in so many different ways. protecting us from dragon breath, cave ins, and cloudkill. an all star item
"Most DMs wont design encounters around this broken item." if it somehow ends up in my players hands, you can bet your ass im going to counter it. I like tension XD
So wait if gasses and wind don't pass through what is the guy inside the barrier breathing? Also the cube of force is a two way street. Nothing in the description says that you can shoot outwards if you have one of the blocking effects up. You also can't have multiple effects up at once. So you just need to have multiple modes of attack to keep that Guy switching and eating up turns and charges. It's is a good at item but it not infallible.
I'd just make it a Rubik's Cube, it has a 30 second casting time or a number of rounds equal to the charges expended if you have proficiency with dice sets, You can choose to prepare one of the faces to reduce the casting time of that face to an action, if it's the first face you activate. This would make it less flexible, but that's kinda the point. (Also in my campaigns getting proficiency with dice sets is really easy, but you have to choose to do it.)
Options to rescue this fun item from being OP: 1. Read the rules and make sure you're not ignoring things. When things can't get in, they also can't get out, so some options are going to stop ranged attacks or spells from creatures inside. 2. Consider how intelligent opponents would respond to their attacks being thwarted. They are unlikely to just stand there taking cantrip damage until death. For example: any caster with a modicum of intelligence is probably going to figure out they just need to walk inside effect #4. 3. You could rule (consistent with many other spells and effects) that effect #2 doesn't apply to non-living matter that is being worn or carried. So it would stop arrows or thrown rocks, but wouldn't stop a creature wearing clothes/weapons. 4. You could homebrew the item to have non-recharging charges, or to lose its magic if a 1 is rolled on the daily d20, or to only be rechargeable with the use of a material component that costs gp, or any number of ways to make this less than fully infinitely repeatedly usable. 5. You could homebrew the item to have a random d6 effect when a button is pushed. Since the barrier is invisible, neither the PCs nor their enemies know which effect has been triggered till someone does something to reveal it. Or various other ways to reduce the tactical usefulness of the item (this might not be fun if you have a very tactically-focused party. I've found that mine really don't like random effects like the Wand of Wonder). 6. You could homebrew the item to have fewer charges refreshed each day, or lower max charges, or a single use of each face/button each day, or various other ways to limit the frequency of use. 7. You could homebrew more ways for opponents to reduce the charges of the Cube. For instance, by allowing Dispel Magic to reduce the charges by Xd3 where X is the level of Dispel Magic (so casting at level 3 would reduce 3d3 charges). Or by saying that a ranged attack stopped by effect #2 reduces 1 charge for each 10hp of damage it would have caused (rounded down). This stops most ordinary arrows from doing anything, but would mean that a giant throwing rocks can slowly drain the cube. 8. You could homebrew the cube's operation to require an action (and two hands?) to hold down one of the buttons for up to a minute per use, meaning that one PC would need to be giving up their actions to maintain the barrier. Or you could make each of five faces require a different ability check to successfully instigate (reducing the reliability of the cube's effect, and also meaning different PCs might be better at using different faces).
Did you know that the way sound travels is that particles of air bump into each other and transfer their energy in a cascading wave? It could be really useful if you were able to block those air particles from passing through a certain area wouldn't it....
"Non-living matter cant pass through the barrier" Proceeds to run into the 20 royal guards and with the barrier push the off the cliff as they are wearing full plate armor.
I was literally just thinking about this yesterday! xD one of my players mentioned wanting to have it. I looked it up in the DMG and I'm like it does WHAT? IT'S ONLY RARE?!?!
I added this item but i added the caveat that if something that cannot pass through the barrier impacts it with enough force then it removes charges to maintain the effect. Aka that giant smashing it with a sword for 25 damage removes 2 charges or a wolf striking for 9 removes 1. Like kobold says it has a boatload of charges that come back really quick so this makes it a 2 or 3 encounter item at most which is about right
One of my players, sorcerer, has used the 3rd and 5th face to block doorways, trap enemies nonlethaly, and let himself and his fellow casters attack through Summons since this isn't concentration. I've had a hard time dealing with it lol
This is essentially a instant Tiny Hut you could use. Gator gets eaten by a purple worm pops on the cube of force at the highest charge. I could see this being very fun to use but also quite overpowering you could essentially pin a bad guy to a corner of a room or do a bull rush and activate it just as your about to hit. Likewise if your chasing someone you could activate it and catch them if their within that 15ft. Course you’d hope their not big and tough but gators strong. 😂
With broken magic items like this I make it accessible in an encounter where the enemies are trying to escape and using the item during the fight so that if they players manage to defeat them they get the item
This could be a fun temp magic item for a dungeon, kinda like the control scepter from Twightlight Princess. A very powerful item to help you get through a dungeon, but fizzles out and breaks afterwards. Maybe they could fix it, but then you have all the liberty you want to nerf it.
I had this once. The DM let me pick whatever magic item I wanted as long as it wasn't an artifact, and I picked this. I used it exactly once, and then asked the DM if I could switch it for something less broken, to which the DM agreed because.. they didn't want a player having an instant win button and as a player, I didn't want access to an instant win button.
How about a dice of force that requires attunement to a spellcaster? It takes an action to throw the die and the face it lands on is the effect activated, on a 6 nothing happens but 6 charge's are still expended. The die has 36 charges like the cube but if a roll were to get it under 0 charges the die is destroyed and either nothing happens or the effect that would have been activated does so as normal but with no time limit or way to deactivate it
Just give the players one that doesn't regain charges and make them have to go through a super hazardous area. Whatever charges they don't spend after passing through the undead and living spell infested toxic magic hellscape they get to use to maybe break an encounter or two. :)
It sounds like this item could always be really op when used intelligently but nerfing the charges could make it at least somewhat balanced. The amount of charges regained should definitely be less, the average of a d20 is around 10 which is double the highest costing effect on the cube so you benefit from using it multiple times a day. A d6 or d4 regained a day makes it so you have to use it more sparingly so you don’t run out of charges, the cap should also be lower, 20 or less should be plenty. You could even consider giving it a flag 1 charge regained per day if you really want to avoid making it something your players use too frequently, forcing them to wait multiple days to make up for the charges they expended in one combat can be a fair enough trade off for how easily it can end the combat that it’s used in.
I think if i was to allow this item *again* i would remove option 5 so that its not the immediate go-to option and you would need to tactially choose which kind of specific effect youre trying to stop
Make it a dice and the player roll on the table, maybe lower the max amount of charges as well. It may be default winning or it may be useless for that encounter, the unreliability should be enough to make it easier to give it to players without breaking everything
I would never give my players one of these. 😅 However, I think a bad guy with one of these could make for a cool encounter. 🤣 Especially if I can make the different barrier types obvious.
Well in the video they used different colors for the different faces. I’d say just have the cube be multi colored and have the face color match the color of the barrier. With the 6th face being white or black. And I think you could give it to your players if you Just tweak it a little bit. (You don’t have to I’m just making suggestions for you or however else come across this) Maybe increase the number of charges the faces use. Add more spells to the list that when interacting with the barrier decrees the charges of the cube. Increase the number of charges that the spells that interact with the cube drain. Lower the total number of charges that the cube holds. Change the D20 into a D10 for recharging the cube’s charges. Again you don’t have to give it to your players. You do you.
Okay... But hot DM tip, never give an enemy something you don't want your players to have. They get it if they win, or perhaps even sneak up and take it before the fight.
I was thinking more of the swapping shields mechanic being part of a cool puzzle/fight. I wouldn’t actually equip the bad guy with the cube; I would just give them the powers. I made the “bad guy with an item” mistake in my second ever session. The crystal of mind control. Basically an on demand dominate person. Needless to say I’m a lot more careful with my home brew items. 😅
@@rhylin26 oh that sounds like a story. So did this “crystal of mind control” have any limitations at all? Or was it just a completely fee spam-able Dominate Person with no restrictions? Like could they use it every round? If it is all that needs to be done is to give magic items limits/ restrictions. Especial the strong the effect is. Give them limited charges or uses per day/per week. Or if it’s especially powerful a one and done limit. But yes just giving the bad guy the inherent power works just as well.
The reason no one ever talks about this item is because it’s one of those blatantly overpowered items that can trivialize the entire campaign if a DM gave it out. It’s very existence makes any possible combat encounter a non issue and the DM just has to watch as you plow through everything without thinking until you run out of charges.
If 1st face specifies "gases", does it mean that a) oxygen is included b) 5th face also blocks oxygen --> walk into a middle of enemies that do need to breath on a character that doesn't + a little bit of fire = 1) everyone starts to suffocate due to oxygen burning out 2) smells/etc do not escape ? (does sound count as something)
You got 10 weeks of downtime, 2000 gold and proficiency in arcana? Then you can make this item once researched and once you've gotten it from a high enough CR creature, you don't have to fight it, it just owns the ingredients. If your DM doesn't like Xanethars guide and it's downtime rules for making magic items then look in the DMG as you'll have a quicker and easier option, especially if you have the sage background.
So what happens if you try to fly with that cube in your hand while people who can't pass through are inside it? Could you effectively carry them around in a bubble if you're strong enough?
My players will be going through White Plume Mountain, and Wave acts as a cube of force. None of them worship any sea gods, so we'll see if any of them are willing to convert for this item.
if i eread though all magic itemz, i vould make a lizt of all the broken onez that vvith creativity can make them neigh invaluable to the party, like the imovable rod
wouldn't that giant require side 5 since he can just walk into the barrier? i doubt a giant would just throw a boulder at it then give up, his bare hands are still horrifically strong
One of the few times I've had to rule 0 something away from my players in a 5e game Suffice it to say that I basically drew a rare magic item out of a hate and didnt realize my mistake until 2 and a half session later
By raw, this item shouldn't even work, as it mentions that the cube is centered on you, and unless your flying 5 ft in the air, it would fail due to coming in contact with the floor. Otherwise, you could say you could be any non-corner square of the cube. Facing forward on ground, with 10 ft of space above you, not centered on you... _ _ _ _ _ _ | | _ _ you _ _
What if you activate the cube while jumping? Would the "floor" of the cube prevent you from falling back down? Would you just be suspended in air for 1 minute while you wait for the cube to run out?
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Ohh I used this one once... But I had the item in the mouth of a dog and while the party was trying to chase it it would chew on it like a toy and trigger random barrier effects. It took them many game sessions to finally trap the dog. They let him run off with it in the end. GOLD!
Can I join your game? I want to chase that dog!
Oh boy that sounds like a really fun encounter(s). This is just gold.
The catch and release was a nice touch.
Talk about a fetch quest.
unironically seeing a giant get naked in order to get into my barrier is fucking terrifying
2d10 psychic scaring damage
@@rorybeckstrom9602 damn it! i took max damage! that freaking kills me!
*crying and sobbing* no dont touch me there, this is my no no square
@@ConfyLizard cube*
Rock unexpectedly passes through, "It's alive 😱" Party now has a new pet rock.
This is one of those rare items in D&D that will make you a better DM. Nothing will teach you more about creating diverse, interesting encounters that mix melee combat, ranged combat, spellcasting, monsters, environmental hazards and terrain advantage like trying to design battles that actually challenges a party that has one of these darn things.
Ahem... The creature walks away, refusing to just let you kill it. After one minute it returns after the cube has worn off. Kite them until the item runs out of juice.
@@carsonrush3352 Agreed, any competent Creature, even if they didn't know what a Cube of Force does, they do know they should go for whomever isn't protected instead, or flee the scene knowing the futility of hitting the Cube wielder. If they did know, all the reason to flee faster.
The way our table handles this is by associating objects being worn or carried with their bearer.
Face 1: Air Elementals / Breath Attacks can't get you
Face 2: Undead and Constructs can't get you
Face 3: Most creatures can't get you, but also your friends probably can't get out.
Face 4: Fireball can't get you... but *your* Fireballs can't get out.
Face 5: All of the above.
The concept behind the cube is very cool, it stresses positioning and the action cost makes using it a very interesting choice in combat. I wish they had been more intentional with the phrasing because a generous (munchkin) interpretation of your game world's physics can make face 2 incredibly broken.
I had this as a necromancer in a campaign, freely commanding my undead minions while using the faces of the cube liberally to protect my party and hinder enemies. We were fighting a mirror version of the party at one point and locked myself in the cube with the other caster (I didn't have my minions at the time) and was disintegrated, though they were still locked in the cube until my party finished off the others. That cube solved a few fights single-handedly but that was my favorite moment.
durring a pirate campaign, my group used a Cube of Force to get to shore like one of those giant inflatable balls you can climb into
Face 1 of the cube sounds like it'd be useful for fighting a green dragon, I mean their poison breath is a gas, right?
It depends on your dm as to whether or not the DM would have it be a gas or more of a toxic sludge but it would be great against red and maybe white dragons too. It's a bit of a simplification but fire is a chemical reaction producing carbon dioxide and water where the carbon dioxide gets so hot it becomes luminescent. White dragons typically have breath so cold it does damage (I could be wrong here though).
Until the smart dragon realizes it can just point blank its breath weapon.
It'd also work against the sleep spell
Or trapped chests.
The gases, wind and fog button allows you to dive into the ocean. Even if water can pass into the barrier, your air pocket can't pass out, so you'll always have a bit of air remaining in the barrier in shallow enough dives. Place the cube in your shoe for extra height in the barrier so you can dive deeper without pushing your face underwater!
Additionally, you can use it to ignore gaseous poison and walk into a vacuum safely. It is actually pretty strong. You can even super-condense air by activating the barrier at low-altitudes with no solid or liquid matter in range, then throwing it down a hole just wide enough to fit the cube itself. The cube will either hang by the weight of the compressed air, or it will condense air enough to puncture solid matter, and can be used like a spear when dropping through a narrow chute onto an enemy waiting at the other side!
@@Tupadre97 Where in its description does it say the cube centers its effect on you? From what I read, it wasn't defined, and undefined features like that usually center on the magic item producing them.
Presses face 4... The lich walks through the barrier and casts a spell...
And gets bonked by the fighter for walking into melee to cast
I gave this item to one of my frequent one-shot characters. It's saved my party more than once. Also great for protecting concentration.
I given these to a few of my groups before. Enemies who find they can't get to the player characters end up leaving, sometimes coming back with reinforcements and multiple attack options. It is effective, but it can hinder the group as much as it hinders the enemies, and it doesn't fully recharge each day. Giving one to your players will likely make you work a little more as a DM, but it can be a lot of fun for the players if you let them be creative.
The barrier against nonliving is great until the edge of the cube gets caught on a pebble and you have to figure out how to maneuver around it.
(No, I wouldn't actually do this as a game master, I just think the visual is funny)
I made my players fight a villain with a cube of force and getting rid of the cube was like the first phase of the boss battle it was really cool.
I trivialized the tomb of horrors with this thing. A year later It was instrumental to slaying Strahd. And to think I took it only because no one else in the party wanted it lol.
3:44 this sound instantly transported me back to an innocent era of bliss and joy
Finally someone notice it, i've been trying to explain to my friends for nearly for a year that the Cube of Force can change a battle a lot
You missed one of the most OP facets.... flying characters using it to airlift the entire party out of, or into, a fight. Combine it with Expeditious Retreat for a shock and awe blitz attack. The cube stays centred on the character, and the living matter or non living matter barriers will scoop up the team by their bodies or gear. Not comfortable, but effective. It's a D&D drop pod.
My artificer with boots of flight used it to airlift a prisoner, still caught in a net, out of a fortress.
I just realised an Homunculus Servant, which can fly and use magic items, could attune to and carry the cube, becoming the drop pod pilot. It would count towards the Artificer's attunement slots.
Though I'd rule as a DM that the flying creature is effectively carrying the weight of anything being held aloft by the cube, so if you want to carry other creatures, you're going to need to some strength.
4:20. And then the giant throws at you a mimic. Roll dexterity, please.
Have a great day!
A video elaborating on the concept of Default Killing would be good to see! I’m not really sure where else to look up something like that, and I think knowing to handle that sort of thing would be important for DMs.
When it comes to magical cubes, my most favorite one was always a Cubic Gate, but this one is pretty good as well 😁
We could select a magic item of rare quality after we won in a gladiator arena. I took this. I am really surprised this item is rarely talked about, not only did this item make it extremely complicated for the dm to challenge us but it also made fights really complicated. Its completely nuts and I don´t think it should be handed out to players.
THANK YOU Iv been touting the glory of the cube of force and it’s invincible defense for years
YES! My favorite magic item! Had it once with a Sorceress and she was so OP with it! Literally free cover.
In my CoS campaign I rolled randomly for magic items and the PCs found a Cube of Force in the begining of the campaign. It's really strong, and I knew beforehand that CoS is better withou magic items, but I love them, so I buffed all the encounters to fit random magic items. The cube was the star of the campaign, really save the ass of the PCs multiple times and allow them to use really cool strategies. I don't recomment unless you know what your doing, can really make encounters boring if the DM don't adjust the encounters. But what I liked most as DM is that I didn't have to worry with really deadly encounters, the cube was a panic button.
btw, many times the rules are not clear, be ready to house rule on the spot some wierd situation.
Wave has a cube of force inside it, that thing was the whole reason an encounter later in the dungeon was only deadly instead of a tpk.
Kobold! Please be my Warlock patron!?
He's probably "the great old one"
@@dragonhearthx8369 the great bold one?
Starting at 1st level, your Patron thought that armor dipping was too punishing.
You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields.
Also you gain the Pack Tactics feature.
@@PackTactics Thank you my Lord. I dedicante to you all the lives of Gnomes that I murder. And one day, the end of Gnome race. Long may be your reign!
*my kobold raises his hand*
Oh oh me too. I'll slay gnomes in your name for powers too!
And recycle Autognomes into Deceptakobolds
Sounds like the perfect item to give to a boss
Yup, my BBEG has it. I homebrewed it to not be as broken though. Basically it only has It's 36 charges it came with and once they are used up the item disintegrates.
@@acherem13 same. I usually remove recharge mechanics or change the conditions
4:34 good to see Insanity Wolf again after all these years.
Have you ever taken a look at the Cavalier subclass? I think this may be the best fighter subclass next to Battle Master. Here's why:
3rd level: You can tag each enemy you hit, giving them disadvantage on every attack except against you. If they ignore your taunt and hit your teammates, you can slap with a bonus action attack with advantage and deal extra damage. This makes you a proper tank build.
7th level: You can give a d8 to a teammates AC if they get attacked. If they get hit anyway, they have resistance to the damage.
10th level: Free Sentinel feat
15th Level: You can charge people and knock them prone. Save DC is based on STR, which is quite rare.
18th level: You can now throw an opportunity attack once... during EACH CREATURE'S TURN. That druid that summoned 8 raptors? That's 8 attacks for you - which stack with the free Sentinel feat from 15th level btw. What's that? The Lich just summoned 20 zombies with the Cavalier next to him... and is concentrating on a spell? That bag of bones is gonna eat 20 more attacks and lose his spell!
i could give it to my players but without the recharging part, so they have a limited use of it. sounds fun
Damn, been thinking about this for weeks and now there's a video.
I would actually rule that phase 1 can block sound, which makes it slightly more interesting to use
In one of my current games I used this as a scribes wizard so my manifest mind can still cast spells while I am protected.
Speaking of default killing, you should talk about one of the best ways to do so with low level spells; rope trick is one of the best ways to do so. Invisible, blocks spells and attacks, and has a limited size entryway for larger enemies
the giant drops it’s weapons and reaches in with their bare hands to pick you up and throw you at a mountain
I actually just got this (by rolling) on my ranger that was already set up for fog cloud and blind fighting. Takes a few rounds to set up, but makes a rolling fog of advantage for me and disadvantage + blinding for my enemies. The giant in this example can and would absolutely just swing at the character, though? And the lich can still cast fireball inside the cube (or use disintegrate spells on it). It is incredibly handy against wolves, though.
Having to plan encounters around an item isn't always a bad thing. Mainly if you want to use stronger monsters the party will probably never be high leveled enough to handle. Give them the cube, BBEG learns they have the cube, trick/teleport them into a beholders layer, for example.
I got one of these in a campaign around 15th level, and I used it in so many different ways. protecting us from dragon breath, cave ins, and cloudkill. an all star item
I was just looking this up and thought "you can break so much with this. Why haven't I heard about it before?" And here you are with a video
Brooo, I just used this for a one shot. It was hilarious.
Encounters giant: Haha! I'll turn on the force field that blocks all non-living matter!
Giant picks up nearby dire wolf and throws it at you.
"Most DMs wont design encounters around this broken item."
if it somehow ends up in my players hands, you can bet your ass im going to counter it. I like tension XD
If you item that you gave them to be useless, why give it at all?
So wait if gasses and wind don't pass through what is the guy inside the barrier breathing? Also the cube of force is a two way street. Nothing in the description says that you can shoot outwards if you have one of the blocking effects up. You also can't have multiple effects up at once. So you just need to have multiple modes of attack to keep that Guy switching and eating up turns and charges. It's is a good at item but it not infallible.
It's a 15x15 cube, there should be more than enough oxygen inside for you to breath for the 1 minute that the cube lasts.
I'd just make it a Rubik's Cube, it has a 30 second casting time or a number of rounds equal to the charges expended if you have proficiency with dice sets,
You can choose to prepare one of the faces to reduce the casting time of that face to an action, if it's the first face you activate.
This would make it less flexible, but that's kinda the point.
(Also in my campaigns getting proficiency with dice sets is really easy, but you have to choose to do it.)
Options to rescue this fun item from being OP:
1. Read the rules and make sure you're not ignoring things. When things can't get in, they also can't get out, so some options are going to stop ranged attacks or spells from creatures inside.
2. Consider how intelligent opponents would respond to their attacks being thwarted. They are unlikely to just stand there taking cantrip damage until death. For example: any caster with a modicum of intelligence is probably going to figure out they just need to walk inside effect #4.
3. You could rule (consistent with many other spells and effects) that effect #2 doesn't apply to non-living matter that is being worn or carried. So it would stop arrows or thrown rocks, but wouldn't stop a creature wearing clothes/weapons.
4. You could homebrew the item to have non-recharging charges, or to lose its magic if a 1 is rolled on the daily d20, or to only be rechargeable with the use of a material component that costs gp, or any number of ways to make this less than fully infinitely repeatedly usable.
5. You could homebrew the item to have a random d6 effect when a button is pushed. Since the barrier is invisible, neither the PCs nor their enemies know which effect has been triggered till someone does something to reveal it. Or various other ways to reduce the tactical usefulness of the item (this might not be fun if you have a very tactically-focused party. I've found that mine really don't like random effects like the Wand of Wonder).
6. You could homebrew the item to have fewer charges refreshed each day, or lower max charges, or a single use of each face/button each day, or various other ways to limit the frequency of use.
7. You could homebrew more ways for opponents to reduce the charges of the Cube. For instance, by allowing Dispel Magic to reduce the charges by Xd3 where X is the level of Dispel Magic (so casting at level 3 would reduce 3d3 charges). Or by saying that a ranged attack stopped by effect #2 reduces 1 charge for each 10hp of damage it would have caused (rounded down). This stops most ordinary arrows from doing anything, but would mean that a giant throwing rocks can slowly drain the cube.
8. You could homebrew the cube's operation to require an action (and two hands?) to hold down one of the buttons for up to a minute per use, meaning that one PC would need to be giving up their actions to maintain the barrier. Or you could make each of five faces require a different ability check to successfully instigate (reducing the reliability of the cube's effect, and also meaning different PCs might be better at using different faces).
For a rare item this is insane.
Seems prudent to increase the cost of the field based on which one you are using, what it's doing, or lower the number of charges.
🐊🚧
Did you know that the way sound travels is that particles of air bump into each other and transfer their energy in a cascading wave?
It could be really useful if you were able to block those air particles from passing through a certain area wouldn't it....
Even Gator can be a good player with Cube of Force, best item 11/10
I think a good "fix" could be by having to roll a d6 when pressing face 6, the number you get is the number of rounds the face 6 effect lasts.
"Non-living matter cant pass through the barrier"
Proceeds to run into the 20 royal guards and with the barrier push the off the cliff as they are wearing full plate armor.
You can't move if an object that can't pass though is in front of you
I was literally just thinking about this yesterday! xD one of my players mentioned wanting to have it. I looked it up in the DMG and I'm like it does WHAT? IT'S ONLY RARE?!?!
I added this item but i added the caveat that if something that cannot pass through the barrier impacts it with enough force then it removes charges to maintain the effect.
Aka that giant smashing it with a sword for 25 damage removes 2 charges or a wolf striking for 9 removes 1. Like kobold says it has a boatload of charges that come back really quick so this makes it a 2 or 3 encounter item at most which is about right
Played a bard with the cube. My monk friend was in the box with me and it was set to "no nonliving" while we fought undead.
Also had it on a pole arm fighter. No living plus reach is broken af.
One of my players, sorcerer, has used the 3rd and 5th face to block doorways, trap enemies nonlethaly, and let himself and his fellow casters attack through Summons since this isn't concentration. I've had a hard time dealing with it lol
#TeamGator
Lol I just got one of these... the timing on this video could NOT be better!
an enimy with the face 4 effect active would force casters into melee, making an interesting encounter
If my players ever triggered face five I’d laugh and describe how they all go blind because NOTHING can pass through the barrier, including light
Still safe. And can cast light cantrip inside the barrier. Infact they are so safe they can just blind walk their way on out.
This is essentially a instant Tiny Hut you could use. Gator gets eaten by a purple worm pops on the cube of force at the highest charge. I could see this being very fun to use but also quite overpowering you could essentially pin a bad guy to a corner of a room or do a bull rush and activate it just as your about to hit. Likewise if your chasing someone you could activate it and catch them if their within that 15ft. Course you’d hope their not big and tough but gators strong. 😂
With broken magic items like this I make it accessible in an encounter where the enemies are trying to escape and using the item during the fight so that if they players manage to defeat them they get the item
This could be a fun temp magic item for a dungeon, kinda like the control scepter from Twightlight Princess. A very powerful item to help you get through a dungeon, but fizzles out and breaks afterwards. Maybe they could fix it, but then you have all the liberty you want to nerf it.
in the "nothing can pass through this barrier", does it include light? does this make you effectively blind?
My DM said there is a Tarqse-eating creature somewhere in his world so I am going to try and get a couple of these if y'all don't mind
My Druid laughs with his Wave Trident
I had this once. The DM let me pick whatever magic item I wanted as long as it wasn't an artifact, and I picked this. I used it exactly once, and then asked the DM if I could switch it for something less broken, to which the DM agreed because.. they didn't want a player having an instant win button and as a player, I didn't want access to an instant win button.
How about a dice of force that requires attunement to a spellcaster? It takes an action to throw the die and the face it lands on is the effect activated, on a 6 nothing happens but 6 charge's are still expended. The die has 36 charges like the cube but if a roll were to get it under 0 charges the die is destroyed and either nothing happens or the effect that would have been activated does so as normal but with no time limit or way to deactivate it
Just give the players one that doesn't regain charges and make them have to go through a super hazardous area.
Whatever charges they don't spend after passing through the undead and living spell infested toxic magic hellscape they get to use to maybe break an encounter or two. :)
It sounds like this item could always be really op when used intelligently but nerfing the charges could make it at least somewhat balanced. The amount of charges regained should definitely be less, the average of a d20 is around 10 which is double the highest costing effect on the cube so you benefit from using it multiple times a day. A d6 or d4 regained a day makes it so you have to use it more sparingly so you don’t run out of charges, the cap should also be lower, 20 or less should be plenty. You could even consider giving it a flag 1 charge regained per day if you really want to avoid making it something your players use too frequently, forcing them to wait multiple days to make up for the charges they expended in one combat can be a fair enough trade off for how easily it can end the combat that it’s used in.
What are your thoughts on witch bolt
Couldn't the lich cast dispel magic to remove the barrier, it says spell can't pass it, but doesn't say spells can't be used on it.
The cube itself is in the center. Also dispell magic only affects spells (Jeremy Crawford confirmed this multiple times and is in sage advice)
This has been nerfed since 3.5e too. Used to give offensive capabilities too, and always refreshed with all 36 charges!
I think if i was to allow this item *again* i would remove option 5 so that its not the immediate go-to option and you would need to tactially choose which kind of specific effect youre trying to stop
Damn, I have to get this!
Make it a dice and the player roll on the table, maybe lower the max amount of charges as well. It may be default winning or it may be useless for that encounter, the unreliability should be enough to make it easier to give it to players without breaking everything
Laser-vision wolf!
Our part once had a mobile tank with this item and a wagon
This + Helm Teleport = party can escape 99% of the encounter without problem
Primal form.. yes!
Oh look a d6 *rolls the “die”* lands on 1. entire party has to make a roll for acrobatics.
I would never give my players one of these. 😅 However, I think a bad guy with one of these could make for a cool encounter. 🤣 Especially if I can make the different barrier types obvious.
Well in the video they used different colors for the different faces. I’d say just have the cube be multi colored and have the face color match the color of the barrier. With the 6th face being white or black.
And I think you could give it to your players if you Just tweak it a little bit. (You don’t have to I’m just making suggestions for you or however else come across this)
Maybe increase the number of charges the faces use.
Add more spells to the list that when interacting with the barrier decrees the charges of the cube.
Increase the number of charges that the spells that interact with the cube drain.
Lower the total number of charges that the cube holds.
Change the D20 into a D10 for recharging the cube’s charges.
Again you don’t have to give it to your players. You do you.
be warned. Anything you give an enemy to use against your party will inevitably end up in the party's possession.
Okay... But hot DM tip, never give an enemy something you don't want your players to have. They get it if they win, or perhaps even sneak up and take it before the fight.
I was thinking more of the swapping shields mechanic being part of a cool puzzle/fight. I wouldn’t actually equip the bad guy with the cube; I would just give them the powers.
I made the “bad guy with an item” mistake in my second ever session. The crystal of mind control. Basically an on demand dominate person. Needless to say I’m a lot more careful with my home brew items. 😅
@@rhylin26 oh that sounds like a story. So did this “crystal of mind control” have any limitations at all? Or was it just a completely fee spam-able Dominate Person with no restrictions? Like could they use it every round?
If it is all that needs to be done is to give magic items limits/ restrictions. Especial the strong the effect is. Give them limited charges or uses per day/per week. Or if it’s especially powerful a one and done limit.
But yes just giving the bad guy the inherent power works just as well.
The reason no one ever talks about this item is because it’s one of those blatantly overpowered items that can trivialize the entire campaign if a DM gave it out. It’s very existence makes any possible combat encounter a non issue and the DM just has to watch as you plow through everything without thinking until you run out of charges.
If 1st face specifies "gases", does it mean that a) oxygen is included b) 5th face also blocks oxygen --> walk into a middle of enemies that do need to breath on a character that doesn't + a little bit of fire = 1) everyone starts to suffocate due to oxygen burning out 2) smells/etc do not escape ? (does sound count as something)
*laughs in Wave*
Surprised it took so long for this item.
You got 10 weeks of downtime, 2000 gold and proficiency in arcana? Then you can make this item once researched and once you've gotten it from a high enough CR creature, you don't have to fight it, it just owns the ingredients. If your DM doesn't like Xanethars guide and it's downtime rules for making magic items then look in the DMG as you'll have a quicker and easier option, especially if you have the sage background.
So what happens if you try to fly with that cube in your hand while people who can't pass through are inside it? Could you effectively carry them around in a bubble if you're strong enough?
@@Tupadre97
Gotcha.
I will name it Indus Tarbella
My players will be going through White Plume Mountain, and Wave acts as a cube of force. None of them worship any sea gods, so we'll see if any of them are willing to convert for this item.
if i eread though all magic itemz, i vould make a lizt of all the broken onez that vvith creativity can make them neigh invaluable to the party, like the imovable rod
#5 sucks when you use up all your oxygen. And you are in the mud pit of White Plume Mountain. Yes, as a dm I would limit this item to one per group.
Hmm... It says spell effects can't pass *through* the barrier...
But what if the spell *originates* inside the barrier where the user is?
Heal, buff, your other 3 companions all you want. Cast that fireball, and boom inside a ten foot cube.
wouldn't that giant require side 5 since he can just walk into the barrier? i doubt a giant would just throw a boulder at it then give up, his bare hands are still horrifically strong
One of the few times I've had to rule 0 something away from my players in a 5e game
Suffice it to say that I basically drew a rare magic item out of a hate and didnt realize my mistake until 2 and a half session later
Its only a rare item?
Yeah, that sounds like it should be legendary
By raw, this item shouldn't even work, as it mentions that the cube is centered on you, and unless your flying 5 ft in the air, it would fail due to coming in contact with the floor. Otherwise, you could say you could be any non-corner square of the cube.
Facing forward on ground, with 10 ft of space above you, not centered on you...
_ _ _ _ _ _
| |
_ _ you _ _
What if you activate the cube while jumping? Would the "floor" of the cube prevent you from falling back down? Would you just be suspended in air for 1 minute while you wait for the cube to run out?
Cube of Force? More like Cube of ForceYourDMToComeUpWithBetterTactics.