Tier Ranking First Level Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e (Part 5)
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- MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... We conclude our look at first level spells.
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TIME STAMPS
00:00 - Sponsor
01:34 - Intro
02:10 - Spell Tier Ranking
03:09 - Silent Image
09:20 - Silvery Barbs
17:13 - Sleep
21:24 - Snare
24:33 - Speak with Animals
30:36 - Tasha's Hideous Laughter
35:34 - Tasha's Caustic Brew
37:56 - Tenser's Floating Disk
41:47 - Thunderous Smite
45:40 - Thunderwave
49:13 - Unseen Servant
53:04 - Witch Bolt
58:58 - Wrathful Smite
1:00:39 - Zephyr Strike
1:05:35 - Final Thoughts
1:06:53 - Outro
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The real S-tier spell is the one the Dungeon Dudes have us all under.
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Ah yes, the Create Content spell. They're upcasting for sure, tho.
Glibness?
that'd be Wish as Mass Charm Monster.
Friends? Charm Person? Mass Suggestion?
There's a tactical wrinkle to the Sleep spell that you guys didn't mention: it is one of the very few crowd control effects that doesn't allow a saving throw. As long as the hit points of the target aren't above the threshold, the spell just works (barring charm immunity).
Its giga broken early game
Yeah, the real reason it drops off quickly is that Charm and sleep immunity get super common as CR goes up.
It's super useful in tier 1 of play, but it becomes obsolete pretty fast. Monsters have a lot of HP, upcasting doesn't scale well, and when there's multiple smaller monsters is doesn't affect the ones you probably wanted to.
Im running for 11year old new players with pre gens, 3 games in and the Sorcerer has cast Sleep each combat on a single enemy. 100% effective. Love it.
@@pairot01 yeah ofc but very early game (like lv 1-2 ish) its the best spell in the game almost
Something that you didn’t notice with wrathful smite is that you make a wisdom CHECK to try and end the effect, NOT a saving throw. Because the creature is frightened, they have disadvantage on the check.
Wrathful Smite, they need to use an action and a Wisdom Check not Save, which they have disadvantage because they are frightened to end the spell.
Yeah this is a massive plus in its favor
Yes, but even if it was a save, using your action to just TRY to get rid of the frightened condition mean the affected creature will probably not do much before being killed if it is a martial or an attack roll based caster.
Best 1st lvl smite spell IMO.
Yeah, *this* is the S tier smite spell.
You start casting Speak with Animals ritual to talk to the squirrel and it gets bored and leaves.
I love Tasha's Hideous Laughter because when I played as a caster, I would make a dad joke/pun in-character as the verbal component and now as a DM I make my players do the same thing. 😂
The best part is, the verbal component doesn’t HAVE to be funny a joke or a pun. I find it almost as funny to have a guard absolutely lose their shit over over a super bland or actively bad joke that makes the party groan.
Plus, you could flavor the saving throw at the end of the character’s turns as the caster attempting to keep them laughing, by trying to draw it out or explain the joke. Then, when a target succeeds on a saving throw, you can hav it so they get super offended by the caster’s remarks to snap them out of their laughing fit.
Also, if you substle cast it you can use it to ruin serious moments like funeral, wedings or meetings
There are few good 1st Level Spells for a Wizard if the DM keeps running you against single entity encounters - Hideous Laughter becomes almost mandatory to do much in these situations. Other classes can get other Spells, so I wouldn't say go out of your way for it, so yeah A rank seems about right.
Sorcerer creating a silent image of a ledge over a pool of lava was the 2nd part of our session 1 BBEG kill.
I really love your cantrips and spells deep dives but can I make a suggestion? Could you put the spell description box underneath you for a longer time or maybe as longer as you are discussing it? It would really help to look at range, casting time, school of magic, etc as you are talking about it. I can’t wait till level 2!
Yeees i agree like when i have some thought or an idea strikes my mind usually end up serching it in 5etools and would be very helpfull to see it in a corner of the screen or something like that
We've been suggesting they keep the spell / other name on screen for several years now. They have never listened yet.
I used Silent Image to avoid two guards by putting an image of the empty hallway in front of us. Totally channeled the kremlin scene from Mission Impossible. Then used disguise self to mimic one of those guards moments later.
The thing is, crits happen infrequently enough that Silvery Barbs is basically ensuring that nobody in the party almost ever suffers a crit. Sure, the caster could be out of 1st level spell slots or it could be that 1 in 20 situation where the attacker rolls a 20 again, but crits on the party will become so very rare.
or the character is out of reactions because they already used it on absorb elements or shield or an ability
@@Cz82There isn't enough reactions when you need them
I like using Silvery Barbs offensively, myself. One time, a boss could've downed multiple party members with a Cloudkill. My Sorcerer ended up beaning her to force a Concentration save, then make it at technical Disadvantage with Silvery Barbs, she nat 1'd, and the Cloudkill was dispelled.
Crits happen a little to often especially online. Unfortunately most people in party have way to resist crits like barbarian, uncanny dodge, and adamantine armor. Anymore I keep it to make someone fail my spell saves.
You can cast silvery barbs with any spell slots you have, they don't have to be first level.
Monty, discussing Totem Barbarians having Speak With Animals: 'Weeeell, it's just a smidgen of utility of investigation, nobody ever uses it'.
Monty, discussing Speak With Animals: 'It's so cool, it's S tier, it's the best spell in the game, it's so good for investigation!'
(and by the way, yes, you forgot the totem barbarians when you were listing everyone it was available to!)
What a difference Baldur's Gate 3 makes.
In all honesty though, I think Monty is completely right. DMs should be putting the work in to make this an S tier spell, unfortunately up until BG3 came out, most people didn't realize how to do this. Hopefully that will change.
@@aniqueevans1547 larian studio has dozens of animals to talk to with speak with animals and that game came out in 2017-2018. Idk why everyone only thinks of BG3 when so many other video games even by the same game developers showed you how to create better NPCs.
This has nothing to do with BG3 and this has everything to do with DMs being low IQ or lazy. Examples have been around WAY BEFORE BG3.....
Same people who made BG3 made divinity 2 and they had 2 permanent animals follow you from first 5 minutes of the game until the final 5 minutes of the game and they had dozens and dozens of lines and even quests.
BG3 gets way to much praise when Divinity 1 and Divinity 2 has been out forever now with the SAME core rules and mechanics.
@@TheParallelSoundyou alright?
Is it still S-tier for Rangers when it actually costs a spell slot as they're not ritual casters?
Never seen people rate Wrathful Smite so low before! Also you two missed that the creature has to use an action to make a Wisdom skill check not a save to end the effect it definitely is an amazing spell
Yeah, and has Disadvantage because they're Frightened.
@@mattlockshin4744 & @robertlavallee8358 Yep, I was coming here to say just that. It's not great that they get an initial wisdom save & you need to hit them. It can sometimes be challenging to land. But once you do, they are probably frightened till they are dead or managed to flee fully out of the combat. I played a Conquest Hexadin that used this pretty heavily all the way to War 1 / Pal 16 before the campaign ended. In that entire time, I saw a creature break out of it after it landed once or twice tops. It is by far the stickiest Fear effect in the game.
My favorite use of silent image is silent spell and make an image of a displacer beast, even when they figure out it's an illusion, they are still going to be looking for a real displacer beast which uses an illusion to hunt . It does take some dm buy in like any illusion spell but it makes sense in lore .
That's a great use for pc's that are familiar with displacer beasts
I found a surprising use for witchbolt in BG3. The fact that it persists on a specific target was very helpful in the Auntie Ethel fight. I always knew which was the real Auntie Ethel.
Fortunately, it was buffed in BG3 so that it's slightly better.
it is still ultimately worthless in the fight, because you can just look at the intiative order and see who the real ethel is(she is greyed out after she clones herself), or use magic missile to destroy the clones
Tenser's Floating Disc is essentially movement speed 100 for the rest of your party, if you have a phantom steed.
The disk can be cast over a pit (gap, lava, etc.) that is 10 feet deep or less or partially covering the pit to make it easier to cross.
I have used Tashas Hidous Laughter up until 15th leve in games.
The fact that it takes out any create that is smart enough to have a sens of humor, and does that without any actually typed condition a creature could be immune to can be absolutely huge.Creatures can be immune to paralysed (and/orbe non-humanoid and need a 5th level spell) Creature cant be immung to Tashas, as long es they are smart enough.
Regarding Wrathful smite: The targets tages an Action to make a wisdom CHECK to shake of the fighten
This is a HUGE opportuntiy cost and makes it much harder to shake off, as it can be a) debuffed and b) wisdom save proficiency doesnt help.
Also, spamming Tasha's against a legendary flyer is great. They cannot afford to drop prone. 1st level slots are cheaper than legendary resistances.
Wrathful Smite is one of my favorite spells.
What I love most about Tasha's Hideous Laughter is that it will make a spellcaster lose concentration on whatever they're concentrating on. So many of our fights end up being really focused on trying to get a spellcaster to stop concentrating on a spell (especially if it's something like Dominate Person on a party member), and Tasha's Hideous Laughter comes up clutch in those situations.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter will always be an S-Tier for me, ever since I played through Storm King's Thunder and successfully used it on every dragon we faced, including saving our airship from a dragon attack by making it fall 500 feet to the ground XD
Despite having used Tasha's Hideous Laughter a lot I never realized that an incapacitated creature cannot concentrate on spells. So being able to potentially take a caster concentrating on a big spell out with a 1st level spell is really good on top of them being prone.
Tashas Hideous Laughter is my favorite legendary resistance counter, do you become incapacitated and prone or burn a legendary resistance, I find that nearly always the DM will burn that resistance. All it costs you is a first level slot, the spell is good at all levels of play for that reason, also because it does no damage I don't feel bad using it on the commoner or city watch type that I wouldn't want to kill, but I can tell a corny joke and have them in stitches on the ground and not feel like I made an enemy.
Dragon, I can do this all day. Can you?
@@solar4planeta923 even an ancient dragon can be incapacitated and is not immune to the prone condition so 3 times and they have no legendary resistances left. It works especially well if they are flying.
Wrathful smite is better than most give it credit for. It is a very sticky spell in that the monster is making a wisdom check not a saving throw to remove the condition which makes it much much harder to get out of. As stated this is fantastic for conquest paladins as it is also a damage bump from their aura that stays on reliably.
My main thing with silvery barbs: probably should be no lower than a 2nd level spell, so you get a couple uses out of it but after 3 uses now you have to decide if you want to spend a 3rd level spell slot on it. The other is it should probably be triggered by witnessing a roll happen, not by knowing it was a failure, so you have to inflict it before you know it you needed it like other features like heightened spell metamagic
I think silvery barbs was too much for a 1st level spell, I'd be more fine with it being a second level spell so that those multiclassing would need to put a bit more investment in getting it.
Certainly it should be triggered before the result is known. Even waiting until you can ‘negate a Crit’ like the Dudes suggest seems inappropriate for a Reaction.
RAW you don't know that the crit is a crit rather than a hit - you only are supposed to know success vs failure, not the rolled number. But that's... not how humans work 😅
@@xiadais Grave clerics know if a hit is a crit though
Y’all are madmen. Almost 5 hours worth of video, just ranking the level 1 spells. Let alone the rest of them!
Top tier content, keep it up 👍🏼
I like the idea of a Necromancer using Unseen Servant the same way it’d use their skeletons and zombies. Flavor wise, it’s like they’re summoning a sort of ghost.
I hope the OneDnD team is watching this series of videos when re-designing the spells for the new PHB.
The Unseen servant can also feed someone a potion in battle.
More than just that, it is effectively a Thief Rogue BA object interaction, but as a pre-made ritual.
Speak with animals FTW. I’ve always tried to create memorable moments as a DM when PCs use this. Mercer taught me this and it has served me well creating fun at the table.
Another tangential thing that makes Silvery Barbs even better is you can get it on basically anyone using the Fey Touched feat, which is itself already a great feat that isn't really gonna cause any problems for the person taking it; it barely slows down progression because it's a half-feat, and gives you free Misty Step, which is also a great spell
One surprisingly good usage of witch bolt was CR3 Imogen twinning it as a pseudo upcast during early levels.
That said, it’s not terribly difficult to make things serviceable: Scale the automatic damage with upcast and just end the connection, not the spell when broken. While you concentrate on it, you can make another attack roll to reestablish the connection. Incap might be a little too strong, but reducing speed to 0 wouldn’t be. Alternatively, you can extend the range to 60/90 feet so it takes a dash to leave.
@15:00 Silvery Barbs lets you, for the cost of a reaction and a level 1 spell slot, effectively immediately recast a level 9 spell. You cast level 9, they save, you silvery barbs (effectively like casting the spell again). I think that's why some people think it's broken.
This. The spell as a reaction essentially gives you another spell slot on offensive spells or effects. For a level 1 reaction spell slot being able to essentially recast spells is way too powerful
It's essentially the same reason they're nerfing the old Twinned Spell metamagic, even though they have 2 different use cases
What if you added the caveat of a negative modifier per spell level?
Not in most cases, I don't think their are many 9th level spells that effect a single creature, and the ones that do are generally not the best ones (like using true polymorph on an enemy which is pretty bad). Most use cases would be, for instance, casting psychic scream on 10 enemies, 4 of them succeed and you make one reroll, potentially adding one more enemy and making the spell a bit more effective.
@@luka2784 Even a 3rd level spell. Any save/suck spell. Who wouldn't trade a level 1 slot for another level 3,4,5+ slot. I'm not saying that *I* wouldn't allow it, I'm just saying that this is the reasoning for saying it's OP/unbalanced.
I have to agree with y'all on Silvery Barbs. I use it to make sure my Hold Monster/Suggestion goes through or to negate crits on my allies. Then I always give the rogue advantage for sneak attack. It's super powerful.
I’ve been waiting for this video and have a long drive today. Perfect timing!!
Silvery Barbs tale. Bard in our party is using the One Dnd playtest College Of Glamour and I'm a Sea Druid. So in addition to forcing monsters to reroll saves against my blasting spells since, and saving us from hard hits, AND granting advantage to one of our attack rolls, Saving throws, or ability checks.
The Playtest Glamour bard is allowed to attempt to frighten or charm an enemy within 60 ft of himself whenever he uses an illusion or enchantment spell.
So essentially as a reaction to damn near anything he can force a reroll on anything, grant advantage on anything, and attempt to charm or frighten any creature for a level 1 spell slot. Our DM literally was not prepared lmao
I bumped silvery barbs up to 2nd level and have enjoyed it in my games since, not only using it as a dm but my players using it. In my mind it's clear and away better than shield and absorb elements (in most cases) because you have that 60ft range and can do so much, but it's not as good as counterspell.
It also makes me happy to see them in a row like that, level 2 didn't have many fun reaction spells that i can recall
Since unseen servant doesn’t take concentration and is a ritual cast spell, you can get several servants up at once. The first one washes the dishes, the second works on raking the leaves, etc. or they all work on one more complicated task
What if witch bolt was basically a line spell you could cast on an ally so that anyone that gets in between the line get zapped. So you could run around clotheslining enemies with this lightning tether 🤔
One thing you guys forgot to mention on wrathful smite is that the affected creature rolls a Wisdom check (not saving throw) to get rid of the effect, which it can't get proficiency or expertise from and it rolls with disadvantage because it's frightened, which in my opinion makes wrathful smite the best smite spell by far unless the enemy is immune to the frightened condition. Once it sticks, it's devastating for the enemy.
Floating Disk has great utility in moving bodies. Sometimes thats a drunk person who you need to tell you where he found the magical doodad in the forest - pop him on the disk and play hot and cold in the forest. Sometimes thats a stealth mission where you need those guards quickly moving without leaving you vulnerable. Sometimes its a petrified little girl who you really want to not get damaged while taking her to the swamp witch that can cure the petrification.
The other thing is, lets be honest - Strength is a dump stat for near everyone that is not a Barbarian. If you keep track of equipment and weight, especially if you go Cleric dips for medium armor and shields, that weight can become an issue. Sure, maybe you have a DM who cannot be fussed with that and first quest rewards you with a Bag of Holding. Maybe they don't. Floating Disk for 500lbs (about 226kg) really alleviates that issue - as a ritual.
Definitely B for me.
Thank you! The explanations alone are great let alone examples.
Used Tasha’s hideous laughter to great effect on a dragon battle. Last spell left, allowed one member to escape its clutches as it was preparing to fly off, allowing our NPC troops to pin it down with large chains, and gave the main team time to focus on an ogre and 3 dark knights. By the time it’s chuckle fit was over, we had dealt with the mid-diff foes, our units had filled the defensive gaps, it had to use its action to escape its bonds and we all took one last hit which finally brought it down.
If nothing else I think it’s a good cheap way to burn through legendary resistances; as our DM now knows that if given enough time to prepare, we can come up with a winning combination to prevent any sort of retaliation in the process. Also good for any large enemies with low wisdom. Not sure if there’s a way you could scale it, either by improving the conditional prompts to save, number of targets afflicted, duration, or even making it a “performance” to-hit spell atk.
I loved watching this process and was pleasantly surprised to hear Monty give the one caveat use of the witch bolt spell. My last campaign I played a hobgoblin tempest clerc/sorcerer. I took the meta magic feat at some point and did exactly what you said and cast a 9th level witch bolt for maximum damage. Was so much fun doing 216 after twinning it.
Another nice thing about Silent Image is that you can cast Minor Illusion alongside it to create sounds, since the cantrip doesn’t require concentration.
Or even Thamaturgy, make a bird noise or mouse squeak as it moves buy
Agreed, I was surprised they didn't mention that.
One of the most hilarious moments in my D&D career revolved around a use of Unseen Servant (though to be fair, we may have made some mistakes with rules, but all things considered, it was worth it).
At the time, Artificer was not out yet, but I was given permission to use the UA Artificer. I had noticed that the class at the time had no cantrips, so I took Magic Initiate and rolled up as a Half-Elf to get some more. I decided to go with Warlock for Eldritch Blast (just for a strong cantrip option), so my level 1 spell I picked Unseen Servant. It was mostly a flavour choice - the character I was playing was a scientist and so I went with Unseen Servant to be his lab assistant. I had only ever got one good moment to cast the spell and this was it.
After completing Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, we went into Dungeon of the Mad Mage and, after clearing the 1st floor, we came across a goblin bazaar on the 2nd. There were some internal politics going on and one goblin tasked us with deposing the leader of the bazaar settlement - a goblin using a magic crown to disguise himself as an attractive human male. The leader had taken a slave/consort as well, who was a dwarf they had captured (and shaved). Now, funnily enough, we had met the revanant of a Cleric who was betrayed by her party and murdered by them. She came back in this form to seek revenge on her party and (you guessed it) the dwarf was one of her party members.
So to summarize the scenario, we were to overthrow the goblin bazaar leader any way we could and also kill his personal dwarf "pet". One other wrinkle in the plan was that we absolutely could -NOT- be caught being the ones who did this, or else the goblins would turn on us and we'd be killed. He also had two bugbear bodyguards who were hired to protect him.
So, we need a plan.
First, we get permission from the leader to have somewhere private to rest. He avails us to his dungeon/torture room for the night. While there, we had to intimidate a goblin (let's call him Boblin for fun) into silence, since we need to plan how to do this. Our party decided on two things right away. First, this will be an assassination of both the leader and the dwarf (easiest way is to just kill them both at once). Second, our party's rogue wants that crown and will not agree to anything else.
Neat.
So, next we decide on how we're going to do all of this. In doing so, we look through our spells (myself and our party's bard) and our inventory. With the rogue hell-bent on stealing the crown, the bard decides it best to cast Invisibility on the rogue, let them sneak in and nick the crown. But that doesn't handle the assassination. That's when I saw that, from our Waterdeep campaign before, we still had a Necklace of Fire Beads with one bead left...
...and then I just smiled.
For the first (and sadly only) time, I summoned my Unseen Servant and instructed it to carry the bead into the room the leader and the dwarf sleep in (after the rogue steals the crown) and either throw the bead onto the ground or I just dismiss it. Either way, the DM ruled that yes, the bead would explode, causing a Fireball to be cast in the small room. Then when the explosion goes off, we just open the door to our room while all the other goblins are rushing to their leader's aid and do a bit of deception (as from everyone's appearance, we have an obvious alibi - we were in our room when the explosion hit).
So, a successful sleight of hand check later, explosion and deception check later, we all run into the blasted room to "see if the leader is okay" (aka: to confirm the kills). When we arrived, we see one dwarf corpse (side-objective complete) and a larger, ugly, charred, but -BARELY ALIVE- goblin lying on the ground next to him.
Uh oh.
Then the DM says that the two bugbear bodyguards (remember them?) run into the room behind us. He begins rolling dice... then he facepalms... then he starts laughing. The DM's roll was to see if the bugbears recognized the leader who hired him (if he was wearing the crown when he hired them or not). So, as the DM catches his breath, he narrates that the bodyguards run into the room, see the dwarf's body that they -DO- recognize and this big, ugly goblin that they -DON'T- recognize, both draw their mauls, yell out "ASSASSIN!" and proceed to beat up the goblin lying defenseless on the ground! As the one is bringing down the killing blow, one of the other goblins run in and yell "Leader, NO!" as the bugbear caves his head in... then looks at the goblin... looks at the leader... looks at the goblin... looks at his friend... looks at the leader...
Uh oh.
Both bugbears, knowing the goblins might shank them if they stayed to explain (and aren't getting paid anymore), quietly (and quickly) get the heck out of there while the goblins lament the loss of their "glorious" leader. They begin wondering aloud "who will lead us now?", when for the second time, my Artificer smiles. I lean into the bard and get him to go along with me and, from the back of the crowd, we begin calling out:
"Hey! What about Boblin?"
"Yeah! Boblin would know what to do!"
After one good roll, the grief-struck goblins begin going with it, chanting Boblin's name! We tell the goblins that we'll go get him and, with a little convincing (a bit of intimidation telling him that he'll be next if he double-crosses us), some Prestidigitation and music to make him look as regal as possible, parade him back to the other goblins. They all promptly lift him over their shoulders in celebration and name them their new leader!
Our jobs now done, we exchange knowing nods with Boblin and made our way out of the bazaar.
I don't think any of us left that sessions without painful cheeks from all the laughing we did from the whole situation and how flawless it worked.
Silvery Barbs ALSO gives another character advantage on their next roll. Not only does it do the things you say, it also makes the next move better.
Yeah silvery barbs is S tier without that advantage taken into consideration.
They said that.
@@zachsmith6279 must have missed that
@@zachsmith6279 if they said it I must have missed it and they must have only said it once (when reading the spell) because they definitely didn't focus on it lol
I played in a campaign in which I and another player both took Silvery Barbs. In the beginning there was some debate about whether it should be banned or nerfed or something. After a few sessions, we all agreed that it looks much stronger on the paper than in actual gameplay. Yes, it definitely is on the strong side, but it is also definitely not OP or game-breaking or anything like that. For everyone who considered banning this spell at his/her table, I can only say: playtest it first.
Thanks for saying so. I consider it setting specific, so have effectively banned it if we're not playing Strixhaven, but that was because it seems so meta to me, not related to anything the characters would experience. But it sounds like a lot of people like using it as a support spell and I do like teamwork a lot.
When Larian announced they were making BG3, I knew speak with animals was going to be the best spell. All will revere Septa the ineffable!
I have a story about Tenser’s Floating Disk. I was once playing a Conjurer Wizard, and the party needed to get down river without a boat. I used Tenser’s Floating Disk, told the party to get on it, used Shape Water to make a Ice Raft, and then Minor Conjuration to create an oar to propel myself down the river while the party followed on the Floating Disk. DM gave me inspiration for that one.
This was an amazing serie, thank you both for your insight in the 1st level spells. Im looking forward to the 2nd level spells. Keep the good job!
Silent Image great for the heist story staple of looping the security cameras!
One of my favorite series you've done to be fair. Great for new players!
We did it!! 🎉
I like the idea of witch bolt for flavor.
Thank you so much for doing this, really helpful to hear how you can use the spells for new players
The cheering when I use silvery barbs against an enemy who are critting against a squishy party member... and I give the advantage to our rogue, who can use it to sneak attack... it is really nice :)
It's a great spell
This deep dive into all the spells to me is the most useful thing you've made and I thank you for it and hope you get through allow it. It will be a massive aid to anyone who wants to use spells in this game. I've been playing and dming for years and found these vids very helpfuk.
In defence of Tenser’s Floating Disk, there’s a play my party used several times in a previous campaign where everyone would stack speed buffs on my Artificer/Arcane Trickster while he cast a couple of Floating Disks, and it basically allowed the entire party to travel at the top speed of my Artificer which got close to 400 feet when using action, hasted action and bonus action to triple dash. Provided we had a turn or two of lead time we could basically outrun anything in the Monster Manual.
I love the idea of witch bolt, and homebrewed a small fix in the hopes that it can scale better: upcasting witch bolt increases all damage by 1d12 (both initial and sustained), and it also increases the reach of the spell by 10 feet. I haven't tested it yet, but I really want the spell to be better.
Imo the best way to use witchbolt is to quicken spell use your action for the extra damage that way even if they move out of range you've already gotten the initial damage and a second d12
25:28 I can't even exaggerate how much I agree with this statement. If the random squirrel you found inside a tree isn't a mafia boss sitting on a throne of acorns, isn't smoking a small rolled leaf or twig and isn't in the most stereotypical italian accent saying "It's nuts or nothing and i'm talking both ones.", than you aren't playing this game right.
Good stuff. Thank you!
So the thing about animals not knowing who someone is crows (who by they way live in wild and urban environments) can recognize and remember faces and can even pass on that information to other crows. So potentially you could get an entire murder of crows looking for someone (as long as they know that person beforehand). With that being said crows are probably smart enough to negotiate for a good reward.
Great analysis as always. We used floating disk when only 1 character had swim speed to cross a river before characters had access to water walk.
12 wizards arange themselves in order around a circle like a clock. They all have tensers disk active. They all stand 40 feet from each other. In initiative order, the one at the top of init sits on the lowest init order disk. Then 2nd in init sits on the disk of #1 init. #3 suts on number 2 disk. Finally, when initiative order gets to the last person, their disk catches up to them, pulling initiative #1 along. Top of initiative, #1 sits there and drags his disk, pulling #2. Repeat for the hour like a merry go round until the spell effect ends
I agree that Tenser's Floating Disk is a C... but one nice use of it is that it's a portable short rest. Let's say that you've had a combat encounter, and the rest of the party wants to keep hiking, but someone (the warlock maybe) really wants a short rest. You can cast the disk, the Warlock sits on it, and since the disk lasts one hour, they can relax and get their rest while the majority of the group keeps on moving.
I'd like to hightlinght, in this video, the ending. The "hapiness" of having to cover all 2nd level spells, plus the fact they mentioned how this series was... how they started it all, just discusing things together. It was just sooo wholesome.
One of my favorite spells in the game, solely due to how my DM ran it is Speak with Plants! My Australian Harengon Ranger used it several times to talk to a flower at the scene of a murder, and a piece of coral entering the lair of an underwater entity.
The flower, having been given an amount of sentience, immediately was thrown into an inescapable existential dread with a high pitched voice, screaming into the void. I loved it so much that I put him in my hat to keep talking to him later 😅 S tier spell
Are we officially not getting this series for higher level spells? Been four months without 2nd level spells
Was looking forward to the full series. But maybe it didn't get the feedback they wanted.
I have very fond memories with the floating disc. My first campaign was very strict about the encumbrance rules, so we had to find a way to carry all of our stuff and our wizard kept casting it all the time.
I specifically remember one instance when we had to cross a nasty river and the wizard didn't want to get wet, so my barbarian was just holding him over the water (barbarian was a half-orc, wizard was a gnome) and the disc was following us when I swam with him.
One of my favorite moments as a Scribes wizard was using a wand of Web to trap around 7 enemies, then using thunderwave and changing it to fire damage. Conveniently, the AOEs on Web and Thunderwave are the similar, so most of the enemies were in the cube for thunderwave. All of the enemies took the thunderwave damage, plus extra damage from the flaming webs. Most of the ones that survived were pushed back, and the ones that had a higher initiative than me had already lost their movement. It was awesome.
Granted, it would be much more effective with a spell that needs a Dexterity save, but thunderwave pushing them back when they’ve already lost their movement was hilarious. (And I didn’t have fireball yet.)
Wrathful Smite after the initial save is an ability check. Which means if you are a Conquest Hexblade you can Wrathful Smite, and attack, then if they’re still frightened the next turn you Hex their Wisdom and they are left with 0 move making their check with disadvantage. Pretty nasty combo for enemies not immune to fear.
Quick thing, Wrathful Smite requires concentration to maintain after the initial attack, so you can't Hex it as well, but Frightened effect already applies disadvantage on all ability checks.
True, but as you said they have disadvantage because of the condition so still pretty good.
@@GaiusTulliusCatallusXXC saves a spell slot
@@birubuYes but you don’t get the damage from Hex which is fine because many enemies are so controlled they are effectively dead but unfortunate because they’re not actually dead.
i actually used a combination of Phantom Steed and Tenser's Disk to make a sorta magic sled thingy for my party once. we needed to get somewhere over land and our mobility options were slim pickings, so we ended up having me ritual cast both spells then had the party hop on and sit on the disk while my steed rode off toward our destination.
The floating disc was AMAZING in my frost maiden campaign. One person transformed the wizard into a giant owl and the owl pulled the party on their floating disc. It was super sledding at high speeds across the frozen lakes. It felt like S tier.
One of my favorite characters I've played was a gnome eagle totem barbarian who took a two level dip into ranger for Hunter's Mark and Zephyr Strike, and he also had the Mobile feat, and his whole deal was being fast as hell. That was so much fun. I would use Zephyr Strike to engage, then either hunters mark or rage depending on the context of what we're fighting. That did a great job of keeping me entertained while playing barbarian, a class that I hadn't previously had much fun with
Talking about the Sleep spell, one of my campaigns just finished a combat where they ended up stacking polymorph with sleep to incapacitate a full health high level threat and then tie them up. A niche use for sure, but just something I had never considered and worked very well!
Thank you for explaining Silvery Barbs so well.
When I was running games for my sons and the neighborhood kids, I let them upcast Tenser's Disc to create linked platforms, and the caster rode a broom of flying. Thus the aerial attack roller coaster, or AARC , maneuver was born.
These are the best videos right now. Can’t wait for level 2 and beyond.
Silvery Barbs is really good, but I have seen people use it to negate that crit or to land that control spell and then get bodied by a monster because they couldn't cast shield. Just because it make people make choices to spend a reaction on, makes it an interesting spell in my book.
You guys are awesome! Great work!
Silvery barbs is OP because it gives everyone heightened spell. One change I have been experimenting with is that if it’s a case of teamwork and another teammate helps you that’s fine, but YOU yourself cannot cast silvery barbs on a creature who succeeds on a saving throw against a spell you cast.
I actually got unseen servant on my latest guy for as someone to help with downtime activities. It speeds up the process of creating items for each pair of hands you got working with you. The trap thing is still pretty useful, but most people don't know you can also have it drop items for battlefield control like a bag of marbles and the like to make hurdles for your enemies.
The thing about silvery barbs is that it has a meta aspect to it where you always know if a roll failed or succeeded, and that's more problematic than the actual use of the spell
Always... if you have spell slots and haven't used your reaction.
Yeah, I'm playing a PBP campaign right now with people who thing everything is metagaming. This makes Shield worse (I have no idea if I'd be hit *without* using it), and would make Silvery Barbs insane. I don't have SB though - my DM would probably hate me for it.
About the sleep conversation, I have had a DM create a scaling hp pool for it so it remains viable for much longer when cast at higher levels.
My Pact of the Tome Warlock used 2 bags of holding and 1 floating disc to move all the Dwarven ale out of Undermountain into our bar to resell it.
We have also used Floating Disc to let the Monk get a short rest while the rest of us kept walking. Nobody was injured but the Monk ran out of Ki points.
Love the E-bard mind sliver + unsettling words + (insert wizard here) + silvery barbs combo. Just nukes anything.
Fellow Silent Image appreciater here. My DM allows illusions to work as I think they were intended, and I've used it to make an image of myself leaning against the wall in a tavern near friends while I snuck out. Worked like a charm.
Another time, since it doesn't say the spot where you put it has to be unoccupied, I put an image of a door right where the door was, then opened the (well- oiled) door. The party knew it was an illusion, so we could see through it. Unfortunately, we were dealing with a foe who had true sight, but it would have worked any other time!
The eggs in the vat of vinegar line has CONSUMED my brain every time someone says vinegar or I think of DOS2, we spent so much time around that NPC
The blink to blink shirt transition was seamless
As a big Charisma paladin, I used Thunderous smite to destroy a castle door while signalling I was coming, "Here's Johnny" style.
Its a good day when the Dudes be posting. Lets go!
My most memorable Sleep experience:
I was second level, in a watchtower, my Familiar flying overhead... The DM rolled once for a group of goblins to climb the tower and sneak around me and rolled really high (even though there was effectively no cover from the circling owl). So when I was surrounded by 6 goblins, I cast sleep on myself, guessing that they were all low hp, and I would give myself an avenue for escape...
They all had higher hp than I did, and the DM said they "could tell I was casting an offensive spell" so slit my throat, even though all that happened is that they snuck up on me, and then I passed out 😝
That was the last session I played with that group 😝
Tenser's Floating disc also has the funny property of allowing you to make something fall from any height the moment you get a certain distance away from said object
Are we getting more of these? Your ranking videos are my favourite. I often find myself looking at spells/abilities differently
Tenser's disk is an excellent way to ferry your party over dangerous or difficult terrain. There is no limit on how many you can have at once, so you cast several, put your party on them, cast fly on yourself and just float them across that lava river, or acid, or mud, whatever
About the floating disc: If they're both immobile (but follow the caster) then even if you've got two and get on each other's, you won't be riding it anywhere. However, if you've got two, you can daisy chain it so that the second caster and a third party member can piggy back it while one wizard walks.
Silvery barbs is X Tier - exiled from my table. Especially since we use spell points, it's way too good. I suspect players wouldn't like it if suddenly a bunch of NPCs started casting it.
increase the points needed then
Don't ban the spell. Use it against the players and let them use it as intended. It does not break anything.
@@RLKmedic0315 yes it does lol either way it’s their table, if it works there and people don’t have a problem with it then it’s fine. Our dm never banned it but we never used it, too cheap. And the higher level you are the better it becomes, too much value ina single 1st level REACTION spell.
@@RLKmedic0315That just invites an awful attitude at a table
Nothing more fun for the players than telling them their NAT 20 meant nothing 🙄
@@JinJinJinJinJinJinJinJinJinJin Yeah I agree, their are some spells that are fine when used by players but need to be very carefully considered as a DM. Like casting hold person on the barbarian and making them sit out of the whole fight can really suck, but if the party wizard casts hold person on one of the enemies theirs's no problem, and the DM can still have fun playing all the rest of the enemies.
Sleep = no saving throws
This spell is a definite S-tier spell, all you have to do as a player is pay attention and you’ll never miss.
If your party has made about X damage and “it’s looking blooded” you should know how much you need to upcast the spell for it to work etc.
Myself and another party member have cast this a bazillion times, it’s awesome.
All it takes is a DM that gives good enough descriptions on battle damage frfr. My party was fighting an Oni and it had 37 hit points. My bard cast level 2 sleep and rolled 38, essentially he did 38 damage and ended the combat lmao. The only reason we all stomped him afterwords while he was sleeping to finish him is because we didn't have a way to hold him non-lethaly lol. He did not survive the next onslaught of attacks after getting his turn skipped lmao
@@grantgarbour yeah as long as you have a note pad it’s not difficult…and why would you play without one?
Bard Silent image, in the shadows soft flute with sparkles dancing in the moon light, in the sparkles are images of beautiful creatures beckoning you. the night Harker slept outside of the safe room in Castle Dracula his three wives appear.
So glad you're doing second level too!
Loved this series! Looking forward to 2nd level spells!
Just want to say : i loved that serie of videos. It took me awhile, but i just completed the entire thing.
I know it must have required a tremendous amount of work, but i'm still hoping you'll find the motivation to cover 2nd and 3rd level spells as well : those are the most interesting choices in my opinion.
(higher level spells lead to more obvious choices IMHO)
Witch bolt just seems like the devs were asking themselves what spell they can have in place in the event that a low level sorc wants to take twin spell.
Maybe home brew Witch Bolt so the target's movement is reduced by 10 feet and they may not take the dash action? I would probably also increase the spell's range and rule it that cover between the caster and the target only negates damage for that round if the caster cannot create a line of sight rather than ending the spell.
Id love to hear more about 3E. I started out playing 3.5
6:44 my kid made an illusory wall first time he used silent image. The orc kept having to run around the long way, negating the Aggressive feature.