The Five Best Damage Dealing Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- 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 have a blast discussing our top picks for the best damage dealing spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e.
3:35 Eldritch Blast
6:28 Spiritual Weapon
8:52 Fireball
11:50 Spirit Guardians
15:13 Animate Objects
19:00 Honourable Mentions
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Kelly mentioned Fireball, you don't need proficiency in insight to see that one coming.
I knew a 3rd ed campaign that had a sorcerer in it, his favorite party trick was a Fireball plus a Quickened Fireball at the same target. He called it his Kamehameha!
@@jekubfimbulwing5370 Did 3e not have the restriction of only casting one spell per turn?
@@AdmiralKarelia It did but, Sorcerers had access to a feat called Quickened Spell. It allowed a Sorcerers to a second spell with a casting time of one round in one round. Effectively giving them 2 spells a round. It raised the second spells level by 4 so it could get expensive in spell slots but, 20d6 fire damage in one turn pretty much solves most of, if not all, your problems!
@@jekubfimbulwing5370 One of their other videos talks about how you're not actually allowed to cast 2 spells like that. 1 normal spell as the bonus action, but the normal action can only be a cantrip cast.
@@Sergius648 But was that for 5th ed or 3rd/3.5?
Fun fact: Animate Objects turns the objects into full creatures, meaning they can take opportunity attacks as well.
Could they also be polymorphed, then?
@@ryanpratt6993Even if they could it might not be the best use of ur polymorph
Two more fun facts: moving through another creature's space is difficult terrain, and you can't willingly end your move in another creature's space.
So if you surround yourself with tiny animated objects, including one directly above your head, anyone who moves into your reach not only takes a movement penalty to do so, but they'll have to leave again before the end of their turn, drawing opportunity attacks from you and at least two of the animated objects. Since they can't end their turn within 5 feet of you, you can cast a ranged attack spell the next turn without being at disadvantage. (To make it harder on them, you can order your objects to hold their attack until an enemy approaches within 5 feet, so anyone who approaches immediately takes at least four attacks.)
Or you can put ten of these creatures in rows in a corridor to slow enemies down or even make it impossible for some enemies to approach.
(You may want to check with your DM before you try this. He may rule that it doesn't make sense for a dragon to be unable to finish its turn in a space occupied by a hovering coin.)
@@ryanpratt6993 The animated objects do not have a challenge rating, so they can't be polymorphed.
I'm not sure you guys are doing AoO correctly for creature size. Weapons would be considered tiny or dimunitive usually in terms of creature size, meaning they take up less than a 5 foot space like a small or medium creature. That means you can end your turn in the same space as them and they can only threaten the one 5 foot square they are in for the purposes of AoO.
Cast spiritual weapon
It takes the form of an arrow
*PC starts whistling*
COME A LITTLE BIT CLOSER...
Ooooooooo... Yondu style cleric. I like it.
Give him a ginger mohawk.
YONDU!
There's a type of ua mystic that is this exactly
czcams.com/video/PX6gmji-qSs/video.html
The opening joke is actually a double pun. "You can't say spell 'damage' without 'mage'" also has 'spell damage' in it. Peculiar.
Love it
Can’t believe I didn’t catch that
I'm 21 years old and I'm getting into D&D. I bought the Starter Pack and I'll soon be DMing "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" for my family, and then my friends. I got into D&D because of Critical Role's second campaign, but you Dungeon Dudes are the reason why I actually will try my hand at DMing. I just wanted to let you know. You're awesome.
Thank you! Let us know how your campaign goes!
These guys are awesome! So are the guys at web DM and Matthew Mercer
These dudes are solid, i recommend Aj pickett and Matt Colvile if your looking to branch out
DMing for friends and family is an amazing experience; as a DM myself, these guys continuously inspire me and give great insight as well.
Good luck friend!
Agreed I will be DMing for the first time with the starter set and I have been watching their videos to help prepare
I remember once when my party and I had been commissioned to deal with a Medusa in the nearby woods. We were unaware of just how dangerous such creatures were, and so eagerly agreed. The Medusa got the drop on us, and after only a few rounds of combat, my entire party had been petrified, leaving just me (a low health wizard) to deal with a nearly full health Medusa. There was only one thing for it, and I turn to my DM and say: "I cast animate objects." Now, it wasn't rare for me to cast this on some coins when damage needed to be done, and so my DM nods to me and starts to set the scene: "You reach into your coin pouch, grabbing a handful of coins and-." "No no." I interrupt, motioning to my party. "I cast animate objects on the party." The DM considers this for a moment, rubs his chin, and then nods. "You animate the statues that were formerly your party." From there, defeating the Medusa was simple. My allies were already petrified, so couldn't be petrified further, and many of them got an AC buff from being animated in this way. Morale of the story, always pick Animate Objects.
Edit:
A lot of people are saying 'this isn't how the spell works' or 'that's not what the rules say'. Let me tell you all something, in D&D there is only 1 rule that matters: Everyone is having fun. The DM can bend, break, ignore, or houserule anything they want, but the entire group should always be having fun. My spell gave the DM a way to still involve the group rather than having them sit and watch as he and I rolled dice at one another to what would have likely been a TPK.
To the people asking for specifics, the other players were limited to the actions of the animate objects spell. On my turn I had to give them a single command as a bonus action, and on their turn they had to carry out that command to the best of their ability. Their HP, AC, damage, and hit modifiers all became that listed under the spell. The only thing the DM changed was that we kept initiative order, this was so that the players still felt involved rather than just tacked onto my turn. Ironically, the pacifist bard in our party actually landed the killing blow, and this led to a whole story arc of him feeling guilty for killing, even though he was acting under my magical influence.
Ok, now this is an epic gaemer moment.
*bows repeatedly*
Yeah ok that was an absolutely incredible decision. Very well done!
that's illegal
@@mateusoliveira2776
Are you certain, or are you making a shit joke?
I swear to God you don't know how many times I'm dming a large boss monster and then the sorcerer in the back goes, "I'M GOING TO CONJURE 8 WOLVES"
I like Wolfball, but I have to roll randomly to see what I get, at least he lets me get the CR I ask for and not the CR I ask for or less. Eight Giant Owls isn't bad as I like Flyby and therefore don't really have to move the large miniatures.
Sorcerer conjures animals? How do they know that spell?
@@karenwoolley4279 What table do you use to roll for animals?
@@goldengaruda8935 1) you can pick it up if you take the Gruul Anarch background from Ravnica. It automatically adds some spells to your class spell list.
2) you can take one level in druid/ranger and cast it though cartomancer feat once per day as long as you have access to 3rd level spell slot at the end of a long rest.
3) you can also you the mizzium apparatus (uncommon item) to cast it as long as you have 1 level in druid/ranger and appropriate spell slot, but you'd need to pass an arcane check.
This are all the ways that I know of, there might be even more possible ways
@@karenwoolley4279I'm kinda surprised even AL DMs typically let you choose If you have a suggestion and there are so many added AL rules that they came just short from banning anything fun or creative under the guide of balance.
_" ... Animate several of the coins from a Dragons hoard, which then beat it to death."_
Oh, the horrrid , delicious, karmic and hillarious irony. 😂
Greed becomes the deadliest sin
3:35 Eldritch Blast
6:28 Spiritual Weapon
8:52 Fireball
11:50 Spirit Guardians
15:13 Animate Objects
19:00 Honourable Mentions
Guiding Bolt
Dissonant Whispers
Conjure Animals
Destructive Wave
You are the real MVP. Thanks!
Dungeon Dudes All you guys!! Thanks for making such helpful and fun content
You are everything I wanted out of this video. Bless you, child.
Thanks 😍
Thank you
"I'd like to buy some crossbow bolts."
"Sure, but why? You don't carry a crossbow."
Later: "Animate objects! Swarm of bolts!"
Flavour piece, whistle to command your bolts, instant yondo
Oooohohohho i like the way you think!
I prefer the classic:
czcams.com/video/ZhRFiHf8JUU/video.html
What's this, a bag of tricks?
-Cloud of Daggers
Part of me feels good seeing Animate Objects finally get the recognition it deserves, but part of me is a little bummed that the secret is out... my wizards bag of marbles used to be my ultimate trump card lol.
There was also something just incredibly satisfying about rp-ing my kookie old spellcaster busily scurrying around after a battle re-collecting all of his lost marbles. lol
James Ziegenbalg The game’s been out for years. People who cared already knew.
My total support wizard that carried his lucky marbles is sad to see the secret is out.
M0ebius this community doesn’t need comments like yours. Just be cool to people.
The items are animated, use the spell to put them back in your bag...
Harlan Mccoy Of all the comments to be triggered by, really? Do you need a safe space now?
Please talk to your DM to find if conjure animals is right for you.
If it lasts for more than four hours.....
@@gmat5046 Go to your local cleric if a constitution buff lasts more than 4 hours
@@maid_of_heart3261 lmao.
Whenever our party defeats a dragon, I harvest the dragon's teeth and use Animate Objects on those, almost like caltrops. When I fire them at an enemy my DM allows me to let the damage become magical based on the type of dragon they're harvested from (e.g. cold damage from white dragon teeth, acid damage from black dragon teeth, etc.)
Animate objects sounds broken. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆✧
Aaron Turnbull That gets around Animate Objects’ one weakness of nonmagical damage resistance/immunity. My party gets around that by comboing with Crusader’s Mantle.
Seems fun, but realistically speaking carrying dragon teeth would be really heavy. I didn't find any definitive resource on their weight, but I thought that the average dragon would have teeth weighing about 7lbs (3kg) basing myself on the size and weight of Rhino horns, which seem compatible, with bigger ancient dragons going for 10lbs or over. In game terms, the average wizard (10 to 12 STR) would probably struggle to carry anything more than 10 dragon teeth + their equipment even considering the very relaxed "carrying capacity" rules, while the encumbrance rules (which I'm using for my party) would put you at encumbered really quickly - like 2 dragon teeth would be enough to put you over considering the rest of your equipment.
But it is a nice idea. Depending on how your dm wants to act, I don't like having players able to just carry everything as if it didn't matter unless it fits with their character (a really strong half orc barbarian should be able to carry a lot of stuff.)
@@Galf506 I have two sets of wyrmling teeth and a set from a young dragon, so they're not too heavy at the moment. But yes, once we start fighting adult dragons I see what you mean about the weight, thanks for reminding me! Our bard has one bag of holding and hopefully we can get ahold of another one by then.
@@aaronturnbull6528 and if you have a big strong character imagine how fun it'd be to have him pass you "ammo" during the fight like some kind of anti tank crew Haha :D
Rogues carry a bag of ball bearings.
Animate Object and do a Magneto.
Whoa, this is a great spell ive managed to never use somehow! At the table I can imagine the 10 attack rolls being annoying, but still fun as hell
@@bassett_green I think the very annoying part is having a page where you list your ten constructs with their individual hp :')
@@bassett_green We usually just don't roll them all individually. You can just roll once for all of them, or split them into groups.
@@jamesziegenbalg7683 Agreed for practical purposes better to treat them like a swarm than as 10 individual creatures.
@@jamesziegenbalg7683 Or you could have a bunch of dice or do the cheaper way of using an online roller, at least just for those.
Hellish Rebuke: The only damaging spell you can cast as a REACTION
Combining hellish rebuke with Armor of Agathys on a hexblade warlock makes for quite the nasty surprise lol
Yeah you don't wanna mess with Hexblades @@jamesziegenbalg7683
Tempest vletics get wrath of the storm (wis nodifer per long rest) when you are hit eith a melle weapon it is 2d8 reaction and if you are lv.6 and make it thunder damage they get pushed back 10ft.
Unless you have War Caster...
Multi class fighter battlemaster + warlock
Enemy miss-Repose attack as a reaction
Enemy hits- hellish rebuke
DM:Fffffffff
One of my favorite damage dealing combinations is just two cantrips, but it also requires two feats to really lay down the hurt. Create Bonfire, Thorn Whip, Sentinel, and War Caster. You lay a bonfire under your targets feet while they're in melee with you, it does its damage. When they get their turn they'll probably try to move out of that square because standing in fire is a bad idea. So you use war caster to make your opportunity attack with thorn whip, which does _it's_ damage, and lets you drag them back into the square with the bonfire, which does it's damage _again_ because they're entering the square. Then Sentinel drops their movement to zero, so they have to end their turn in that square, at which point the bonfire does its damage *_again._* so that's one thorn whip damage and three bonfire damages in a single round. At 17th level that's 16d8 damage from two cantrips. Because of sentinel they can't even Disengage to avoid this nonsense.
Rathmun I could understand a dm limiting to 2 hits from the bonfire. Since your thornwhip is a reaction, which depending on the dm,takes place as an opponent takes their action, it might not count as them fully leaving the space, thus you’re not actually pulling them back into the space with the thornwhip, you’re just preventing them from leaving it. But that’s still 2 bonfire and 1 thornwhip on one turn. It’s a great combo either way.
Nice combo. There are two outs, though - if they can move out of the fire without moving out of your threat range, they don't trigger your AoO. Also, if you were diagonal to them on the grid, they can move in such a way that thorn whip will pull them next to the fire instead of into it. Still, I like it.
I disagree completely, and talked about this with multiple DM's. for one, every bonfire is a dex save (which is reasonable to assume is going to at least succeed ones) and secondly, when you actually manage to both let him walk away from you in such a way that you can pull them back (which no dm of mine would ever do unless they are very low on health given that most monsters would still try and kill you with their last breath) the pull would pull him back if he had moved, which during the opportunity attack is also doubtfull already. so yea, that is 2 bonfires (both with saves) and a single whip at most under the perfect circomstances.
i dont see why the wouldnt simple sidestep, therefore not leaving your threatrange and avoding all that nonsense
@@RapidOne87 They probably would, _the second time._ At which point it's an exercise for the party to figure out how to prevent that. Like many combos, it's not _always_ applicable, but in dungeons it's more applicable than above ground. Just stand in a doorway or something, so they can't sidestep. (due to the way a door restricts _your_ threatened area, a sidestep ends up leaving your threatened area even if they're still only one square from you.) It's also good in 10' hallways, just stagger your position one square back and one square to the side of your party tank. If the enemy tries to get past them then they can't sidestep without entering the tank's space.
we all know the best damage you can deal to a BBEG is Vicius Mockery, cuz it hurt even the GM.
"You stinky poopoo face"
The dragons fells dead
You damn dirty trog
czcams.com/video/QSo0duY7-9s/video.html
"You ugly **clap** you ugly **clap** yo mama say you ugly **clap** ". -best bard, can't remember the year.
Hahaha yeah pissed off the DM so much because I kept getting the finishing blow with Vicious Mockery, which I would use to reference the whisper song and say "wait till you see my dick".
I am currently playing a divine sorcerer and he has access to almost every one if these spells, plus the metamagic... Let me tell you, It is called Divine for a reason...
How did you build your DS Sorcerer? Recently started playing one and I am currently unsure if I should lean more into blasting or be the party support that can cast all types of healing spells, status removals and buffs with metamagic twists.
Do you use DnD Beyond to create your character? I wanted to play a sorcerer but it had the only option of Draconic Bloodline which didn't interest me. Divine would have been such a cool pick!
@@Jemrisla dnd beyond isn’t great for making characters if you haven’t bought all the books specifically on dnd beyond, as they won’t count any books you physically own
@@Jemrisla dnd beyond would be so good for creating characters, and more used (by me in this case) but only if it wasn't so restrictive
I think the value of magic missile is highly underappreciated. Force damage that can't miss and can't be reduced outside of resistance. I think this is highly efficient.
It's great for breaking concentration too, but the fact that Shield completely nullifies it is a bit of a draw back.
I can honestly say I have never used it🤣
It was even better in 3.5 where the spell level didn't have to increase for you to get more missiles.
@@CerealNommer just make sure the spell caster use their reactions already or make sure they can’t use their reactions.
"Oh, nice spell u got going there. Make 6 concentration checks for me please."
Warcaster+Sentinel is also a freaking meme let me tell yah.
I never thought of Animate Objects as a good spell, much less a great one. It's little gems of knowledge like that that keep me coming back and watching your new videos. I am already excited to use it now!
Animate objects sounds broken. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆✧
The spell is so fun to use. Imagine if you will a small tavern just becoming embroiled in a brawl. Then to the wondering eye of everyone, 10 flagons rise into the air and begin chastising person after person until the bar once more is silent. (nice and simple to use vs. player and NPC alike... always see Durnan in my mind's eye behind the bar chortling gleefully)
You could also make the tavern building come alive 😆
I advocate for a few spells people discard or bash because their actual ability are much better than they get credit for.
@@AvangionQ Not really, one decent AoE spell/attack will finish them all off or just knock out the caster's concentration or simply Dispel it. It's a powerful spell, but has its limitations, but then so are a lot of 5th level spells - Bigby's Hand, Contagion, Hold Monster, Raise Dead .... The only real problem with the spell is that IMO Tiny objects are OP compared to Small or Medium objects or even Large objects. Plus any creature/effect that does damage in response to an attack (e.g. Armor of Agathys) or due to proximity (e.g. flame wall) can quickly obliterate them.
I just imagine a Bard animating 10 coins and then making finger gun motions as he has them attack the enemy.
We've got a Bard in our campaign who would love that!
my wizard has a coin purse on each hip. crosses his arms to grab coins then flings both arms out launching them like a swarm of missiles haha. animate objects is a great spell!
Eldritch Blast has verbal and somatic components. At our table we decided the somatic part is making a finger gun, and the verbal part is going, "pew!" for each beam.
SHOOTER MCGAVIN KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE FIELD AGAIN
So basically a charismatic version of Erron Black 🤣🤣🤣
Our Party had a Bard which was kind of a trickster, he carried Marbles with him so he could animate them with Animate Objects! Every single villain underestimated that spell, but one of our hardest fights against an Arch Demon was won due to those little marble balls. RIP Kemmotar
Chill Touch is my favorite cantrip, as it stops the regeneration of almost every creature. Might not do much damage, but stopping enemies from healing is even better.
Like a barbs hp and healing applied to them counting for more bc of their resistance, your damage counts for more if it can't be healed and stops ALL your party members damage to the target from being healed too
In 3.5 i used to fell drain + chill touch + spectral hand + any other touch ability and garillons blessing and/or arms of plenty to drain about 8-16 levels at insane ranges, with the help of my familiar. Great for crowdwork and devastating for single target as everything is touch ac.
Ive always considered Heat Metal to be one of the best ones, I mean it really depends on circumstance, but its definitely a high ranking damage spell when you are fighting a heavy plated paladin
hope you like Paladin Roast for dinner!
@@MrKarma-dp8ud I was going to say divine barbecue but i do love some Paladin Roast.
Oh man Conjure Animals is just my favorite. I killed a hydra with a swarm of giant badgers once. It was brutal.
sounds awesome!
Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Zuggutmoy Zuggutmoy
Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Zuggutmoy Zuggutmoy
Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Zuggutmoy Zuggutmoy Naga Naga, Oh, A Naga!
I really dig them.
sorry
Animate Objects combos with Crusader’s Mantle for ungodly damage and radiant damage gets around most monster resistance. My all Hexblade group has a Divine Soul Hexblade and a Sword Bard Hexblade that both took this spell, and a Devotion Paladin Hexblade for CMantle. We also have a Lore Bard Hexblade that took Destructive Wave with Magical Secrets. The party Eldritch Knight took Crossbow Expert, Polearm Master, and War Caster to constantly spam Eldritch Blast in and out of melee.
In terms of roleplaying, our campaign is heavily Witcher/Taoist Monk inspired. The Hexblades are a True Neutral sect of monks who operate as itinerant knight-errants, picking up contracts to slay monsters. Each multiclass type represent a different school of fighting style, Sorcerer=Ravens, Paladin=Eagles, Bard=Owls, Fighter=Herons, etc.
Mechanically we all fight with arcane focus staffs shaped like a lacquered wooden sword covered in eldritch runes (common Taoist trope as well), all with War Caster for shield and for somatic component purposes. Hex Warrior is themed as a chakra/chi based martial art, Eldritch Blasts are forcewaves from sword slashes, Spirit Guardians are swirling blades of light, Spiritual Weapon is a chakra sword. There are also shenanigans like Booming Blade into Dissonant Whispers into multiple Booming Blade opportunity attacks, or Animate Objects surround into Dissonant Whispers 10x opportunity attacks, Aura of Devotion+Hypnotic Pattern spam.
An all hexblade group? So an unholy paladin group? I pity your dm
My god... your DM must have just given up.
Great you can play Monks without playing Monks! Way more fun, good on ya.
Just gonna say that booming blade no longer triggers from forced movement. The opportunity attacks from animate objects still will tho.
@@dimitripollard7781 Dissonant Whispers isn't technically forced movement. It forces you to use your reaction to use your movement. Therefore it's different than for example the pushback of a Thunderwave
Tl;Dr - The wizard destroyed a pirate ship with Animate Object, and it was magnificent. There was a pirate ship in the river attacking the party in the city, and he animated the cannons and blew a hole into the bottom of the ship, then had them crash through the hole on his next turn.
Full story please
At 9th level I once crit a 5th level inflict wounds and a 4th level spiritual weapon in the same round while I had a 4th level spiritual guardians up. That drow did not have a good day....
TheFirstLanx Talk about overkill...
And this is why the Cleric is the best
Sounds sick. What domain were you playing?
Knowledge! The best domain!
Okay, maybe not the best domain, but after rolling knowledge checks, I get to tell the barbarian "Sit down son and let me tell you the story of your people."
That has to count for something right?
Totally worth something as telling Barbarians to "sit down" isnt usually a good idea lol
I had to tell our two barbs to leave the ale cellar and the two casks of ale they had just found, by promising them we would stop in on the way past to drink more and most importantly I would find things for them to hit!!!
I'd also like to add Shatter to your honorable mentions. I like to call it the "poor man's fireball". It doesn't set everything on fire, makes use of its smaller size for working around allies, deals thunder damage that's seldom resisted, and most importantly can be used to attack stone, glass, or metal structures (all of which are crystalline).
This last feature has been used repeatedly to collapse tunnels, break walls, drop stalactites, collapse cliffs, collapses delicate building structures, destroy/ loosen locks and hinges, break aquariums, drop glass from skylights onto foes, knock foes free of their handholds on walls (spiders, ropers, etc.), and other such chaos.
This is a great spell for combat and utility, especially in the hands of a Tempest cleric, who makes this spell stronger than fireball with their channel divinity. It's very destructive, without being as wantonly destructive as the fireball spell. Burning the assassin's contract and other important papers is one of many very unfortunate side effects of fire.
In low-level sessions, shatter is my absolute bane since I like using swarms of small monsters. I've had entire groups wiped out by a couple shatters.
I remember in the first campaign I ever played in, how our Sorcerer managed to literally destroy a floating prison we were stuck in with a few well placed Shatters.
Does Shatter have the same pushing effect as Thunderwave?
Having the spell level show up on the graphic of the spell's name would make this video a LOT better.
Thanks for the suggestion. We will do this in the future.
Animate Objects on 10 coils of rope. Now the enemies are bludgeoned, tied up, and/ or strangled by the ropes. ten 30-ft ropes makes for 300-ft of lassoing glory. I heard of a guy that hid them in the rafters of a room, and yanked the enemy soldiers up into the rafters with nooses. This spell is crazy useful. Never go anywhere without it, if you can. I never thought of the coin idea. I also love the thousand-yard stare that Kelly gave when you described killing his dragon with his own hoard... priceless. Don't worry, Kelly, you'll get him back when he's the DM. There's always an unexpected use for a spell.
For instance, Plant growth creates a field of tall grass at the feet of a zombie hoard, which can then be set on fire to kill every one of those brain-dead idiots. That was the easiest 600 kills I ever made.
MEGA KILL
Absolutely evil using ropes. Gonna try this when I can though.
Call lightning is my favorite when playing a druid, apears early, scales nicely and does plenty of damage
I take this whenever I can it has never dissapointed
My favorite routine with my Dwarven War Cleric
Round 1: spiritual guardians (for battlefield control and damage).
Round 2: spiritual weapon + sacred flame;
Round 3 on: cure wounds as needed (my current group is made of big sacks of HP, so I cure rarely) and guiding bolt (cast at many different levels) to pin down foes AND give advantage to attacks made by other party members (the rogue just LOVE this spell).
Round 1: Run at enemy.
Round 2: Hit with sword.
Round 3: Hit with sword again.
Round 4: Look for next enemy.
That might work in a minion, but not on "boss fights".
And if your DM like to pitch your 3 guys, level 5 party against 20 worg-riding orcs, you need to do area damage and some crowd control if you want to survive.
In our case, the cleric and the fighter stick side by side, with the fighter using its reaction to save the cleric from some attacks (protection style), the cleric do some magick stuff and healing, and the rogue dish out damage through sneak attack.
PS: and it is SO cool to see the DM’s face when you crit his gargantuan, demonic bad boy with guiding bolt, giving advantage to the rogue who also crit with his sneak attack.
Man, to put THE foe on the run after the first round of combat is priceless... Hehehehe
For a build, maybe go for an ecclesiastical lore bard? Take Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians at 6, get Animate Objects on your list, take fireball and EB at 10. Hooray, you've got the whole list!
IMHO bards got so freaking good in 5e; it's my favourite class in this edition lol "Here, let me play a fireball for you guys"
Even easier: be a Divine Soul sorcerer and just take the Spell Sniper or Magic Initiate (Warlock) feat.
@@vfranceschini bards are so op. Jack of all trades and expertise? They're so crazy and I love them
As an older player and GM, thanks for the time stamps to quickly get to the spells, but also I tend to see many of the "powerful....whatever" videos containing classes or specialties that i and many of my fellow players don't ever see or nobody picks. thanks for you time.
"I'd like elk, i have the stats right here"
"You get bunnies"
"Fine, please look up the statistics of the creatures in the MM for me"
Seems like you could encourage your DM to give you what you've planned for.
Nope, DM has me roll randomly, I have to find the stat block and I have to not take too much time doing my turn. It's good, but my DM is bending over backwards to make it easy. Last time I decided I was doing it first turn so I rolled all the stuff I needed and got my stat block. Took a couple of turns for the charging boars to reach the archers, but it kept some shots off the barbarian who hadn't yet rage, because hobgoblin archers 300 feet away. Then I turned into a Dire Wolf and waited for the dwarf cleric to mount up, then we started dashing. Moon Druid FTW!
maybe have it tied to a D6, 6 is what you want and the others have decreasing value down to 1, like small rats.
Flaming sphere has always been a favorite of mine. It’s second level, sticks around for a minute, and lets you slam it into enemies using your bonus action.
Devine Soul Sorcerer Human with Magic Initiate (Warlock) & Ritual Caster (Wizard)
When it comes to spells you can't go wrong with a Lore Bard
Marco be a multiclass lore bard get whatever spell u want
Heat Metal is one of my favorite spells. It just really can help with an encounter when someone is wearing armor or powerful weapon.
Divine Soul Sorcerer 18/ Hexblade Warlock 2 is a monstrous combination for a damage-dealing spellcaster
That's what I wanted to build after watching this
Since this afternoon, when I first used the ability in combat, I'd like you all to consider adding to the list the Channel Divinity of the clerical Light domain, Radiance of the Dawn. Sure, I might use the term spell loosely here, but the cleric channels energy into magical effects, so to me this makes it kinda of a spell.
Why is it so awesome?
1. Huge area of effect. A whopping 30 feet radius.
2. It discriminates between friendlies and hostiles. Only the baddies are hit.
3. Sure, half damage for constitution saves, which are pretty common, but base damage is great. 2D10 plus cleric level.
4. It deals radiant damage. Not a very common immunity
5. It recharges after a short rest.
6. It's available to a Light cleric at 2nd level.... Read that again... 2nd level.
I used it today in the middle of an ambush by 20 skeletons. I was a 3rd level cleric at the time, and I easily topped doing a 100 points of damage with my level 2 spell/spell ability.
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a better spell at that level.
As for the videos you guys do: they're great. Keep up the good work.
I recently killed 15 zombies in one usage. Much better than turn undead!
How did you do 100 damage if you only get to roll 2d10 I feel like I'm missing something important
@@aetherius6221 how did he do 100 damage am I missing something here?
@@thes1lv3rwolf27 20 skeletons × 10 damage= 200, take away about 50 for passing saves, 150 damage
I just wanna say you guys have been an incredible resource for me about the classes, spells, overlooked rules, etc. I've only been playing about two years but I've started writing crazy one shots and your class guides are just untouchable on CZcams.
“Fireball” is often mistaken for “grenade”
It isn't???
@@MsKeylas it's more of a molotov cocktail
I, a cleric, accidentally cooked our paladin by not knowing how strong fireball is when I used it for the first time 😆
My dm *hates* spirit gaurdians.. I've ruined so many of his plans with that spell. >^•^< he finally decided that it's not castable in another God's temple to stop me... Idk..
Sounds logical
@@cornstarch9435 Unless every boss fight is in another god's temple.
@@TaterRaider idk, that kind of forces the player to think more creatively instead of just casting spirit guardians for the 200th time that session
@@cornstarch9435 Every. Boss. Fight.
If I play a character I expect challenges. If the DM forbids me from doing something my character should be able to do, I have a problem. That being I'm needing to find a new group.
If he forbade the spell, no problem. Because the DM is being honest with me. But if my Ranger is unable to get an animal companion, for example, or my wild mage ALWAYS has a wild surge, or he doesn't allow me to count hexes to determine range then we have problems.
Ban the spell or allow me to cast it.
My DM made that rule I'd refuse to enter any temple because he doesn't want to be cut off from his deity, even if just one power. Role-play wise he'd take it as a sign of divine disfavor.
Just cast outside before you enter
"This well-loved spell is available exclusively to warlocks"
_Laughs in Bard_ -though Eldritch Blast is only really good with invocations-
*Vicious Mockeries in Warlock*
@@xarshoon7157 Vicious mockery isn't that exclusive, just play a variant tiefling.
eldritch blast is pretty good against alot of weak enemies tho
Spiritual weapon is also available to warlocks in "unearthed arcana" with the pact of the Raven Queen
Wait so you’re telling me I have an actually efficient use of half my spell slots?
It's now available to Sorcerers too, of the Divine Soul subclass - Divine Souls get access to the entire Cleric spell list. Which is slightly-broken, and beautiful. Twinned Cure Wounds has come in handy on quite a few occasions. Not to mention Guiding Bolt, which only gets more juicy if you Twin it.
You guys are great I did subscribe you have given me a lot of great ideas and helped explain a lot of rules and features. Keep up the great work!
Combine, Eldritch spear invocation and the spell sniper feat... Gains a range of 600ft
Couldn't you double that to 1200ft with some dabbling in Sorcery?
Hieronmus Nervig
Sure, but any DM worth their salt is going to have the player roll perception before each casting or impose disadvantage at 600ft. The further away, the higher the DC requirement for the perception roll maybe. At 1200ft they’d easily need to roll a natural 20 to even attempt an attack roll. If you’re against that, perhaps consider adding to the AC of the defender. Similar to the cover system.
@@rettwoods Nah, not gonna do that.
They just took an invocation, a feat and multiclassed to actually use the worst meta magic of them all, only to get a 1200ft Eldritch Blast.
Of course they need to FIND the enemy first but once they did so I don't think that would be anywhere near fair.
1200ft would be nowhere near the effective range of modern rifles (I think) so I guess a magical blast, after you specifically trained long range casting (spell sniper feat) and put special care into your cast (meta magic) and even invoke a greater power for greater range should be able to hit normally.
Now this actually sounds like not too bad of an idea, 1200ft / 120ft movement = 10 rounds of damage x4 missiles, at lvl 20, CHA 20 vs 18AC that's an average 26 hits with 10.5 average damage each resulting in ~273 mean damage before any monster moving at full speed will have caught up to you.
Gotta test this now, imma call this the Flak-lock.
Could actually look quite competitive in a battlefield / keep defense situation, or a dragon fight. Anywhere there might be enemies that are very far away and long ranges, in general. Meanwhile, it shouldn't be very game-changing in confined spaces and dungeon rooms.
@Lawn Bear, respectfully, the rule about doubling only applies to 3rd and maybe 4th edition. It never shows up anywhere in the 5th edition rule book, at least in the times I've tried to find that rule in this edition. It's weird that it isn't there anymore.
best combo ever for damage 2 levels tempest cleric 18 levels lore wizard (ua) lore wizards can change any non weapon damage type into any other non weapon damage type. tempest cleric can use there channel divinity to maximize lightning or thunder damage. cast 9th lvl meteor swarm change fire damage to lightning or thunder damage and get a spell that deals 20d6 +120 damage. honorable mention is do the same for disintegrate, change force damage to lightning or thunder, maximize with channel divinity deal up to 154 dmg to a single target ( cast with 9th level spell slot)
DUDE< WHAT THE FUCHK! thanks-- this defenetely breaks thing up! hahaah
I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned with eldritch blast: the Spell Sniper feat enables you to pick up a cantrip from any of the primary spellcaster lists, including Eldritch Blast. It also makes it ignore 1/2 and 3/4 cover, and doubles its range (which is already impressive. My bard took this feat and it is amazing to use as my action while my bonus action provides inspiration dice to my comrades.
Good point, would be handy for any of the charisma based casters!!! Could you imagine someone running from a paladin to have them smashing them with an eldritch blast.
@@joshholmes1372 I actually did exactly that as Conquest Paladin/Hexblade Warlock multiclass
Spiritual Weappn, Spirit guardians, and Animate Objects? Forge Clerics are beast
Moonbeam at low level against minions holds its own
Used it to wipe out 3 waves of orcs almost single handedly the other night, felt fantastic
moonbeam is how my party escaped Death House without any casualties
Moonbeam is an evocative spell that always sounds cool when you cast. I'd be interested in how you used it to thwart so many enemies though? Did they get funneled through a doorway or something?
Our druid toasts literally everything with it
I haven't tried moonbeam yet. Our DM tends to run bosses on us. 1 or 2 enemies at once with tanky hp and high strength. So they always move out of the way of my flaming sphere and I have to chase them down with it. But moving on a bonus action lets me throw an ice knife on the main action as well. Sadly no matter what aoe I use my party takes damage too because its all melee besides me and they rush in from the second we roll initiative before I can setup the field with spells.
Gentlemen, your product continues to improve steadily. This was a very informative and well done video. Keep up the excellent work.
In terms of fun with summoning spells, one of my favorites was conjure minor elementals. I summoned several mephits, and my DM ruled that, when the spell ends, mephits always detonate as though they had died. I know this is ruling oriented, but smoke and magma mephits breathing fire, then erupting in a blaze was always pretty great.
Surprised nobody mentioned lightning bolt as an honorable mention. It's basically fireball, but hits less people. And personally, I much prefer the flavor of it to that of fireball.
Other honorable mentions IMO include Flaming Sphere, Hex/Hunter's Mark, Heat Metal, Melf's Minute Meteors, and Insect Plague.
Heat metal absolutely destroyed my DMs big bad the other night. its an amazing spell when youre fighting most humanoids
Glad to see you guys backing making mechanics videos. Session vids are great too though.
Steel wind strike. 5 attacks and teleportation each attack does 6d10 dmg
not all on the same target though.
Hon reminds me of the dark templar shadow fury in starcraft
Always coming back to old videos to get ideas for characters! Thank you for the time stamps.
I'm glad you talked about Destructive Wave. I have a Tempest Domain cleric who maximizes the thunder half of of the spell. That's 30 damage before you even roll the 5D6 Radiant damage.
To get everything you listed you would have to be Divine Soul 18/ Great Old One Warlock 2.
Not a bad multiclass. I could see a way to make that concept work.
Ok. My wizard needs to buy some marbles
Benjamin Brogren what if they are soaked in oil and put on fire before animating? 🤔😄
Silver pieces... For those resistant to non-magic, non-silvered weapons.
Nice work on the video this format is so concise!
This is the second-most rewatchable vid I have come across on CZcams. Chock FULL of info and ideas outside of the spells noted.
And poor Kelly's face when you guys are discussing Animate Object. Ya mad, bro?
One extra point in EB's favor is the repelling blast's potential to combo with environmental/battlefield hazards. Push people into cloud of daggers or spike growth (not to mention higher-level spells) and get huge guaranteed damage!
If you get some time to prepare: make a chokepoint into difficult terrain. Cast a wall of fire in front of the difficult terrain, facing away from you. Prepare reactions to repelling blast people back through the wall. Laugh as they BOTH enter the wall on their turn AND end their turn on the wrong side of the wall for 10d8 fire damage each round you pull it off!
Create a choke-point with Create Bonfire, and then push any creatures that come through back into the fire with Repelling Blast. Both are cantrips!
I actually did something similar with my battlemaster archer and spike growth.
I really wanna try Animate Objects and see the light fade from my DM's eyes some day, but no campaign I've been in ever got far enough for me to reach that level. :c
Your videos are always informative and entertaining.
Thank you for your time.
I'm really glad they mentioned Destructive Wave, reading it's description it just sounds so cinematic. I pictured all the aspects of a nuke going off without the fireball, the flash followed on a delay by a deafening boom.
Great video guys!
"eldrich blast is exclusive to warlocks"
me: laughs in magic initiate
Warlock: Laughs in Agonizing and Repelling Blast
high level wizards: LAUGHS IN METEOR STORM
Brave statements for a bunch of people within Fireball Distance.
@@borntodie297 you can make fireball deal force damage if you play a lore master wizard
@@filipthunell8631 Yeah I know, but that is one of those UA's that needs to be polished and published officially or I won't allow it on my tables. Because, forget swapping damage types, the switching of which stat is required to save for a spell in broken in the hands of a player with brains.
Really appreciated the overview of Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, and Animate Objects. Rad.
Fun Fact: The classic 2/18 (Divine Soul) Sorlock has access to every single spell on that list.
2 in warlock or sorcerer?
@@Thedancingorange That was a while ago, but since there is no point to go 18 Warlock, it's 2 Warlock (probably Hexblade)/ 18 Divine Soul Sorcerer. Pump Charisma to stratosphere.
Great Video dudes you've opened my eyes
Animate- I never realized the potential!
Love your series. So great to see some fellow Canadians making their mark in the DND multi-verse. Though it isn’t an overly complex topic, I would love to see you guys do a video on how spell scrolls work - if you want to flush it out you might consider combining it with something else - maybe with best common magical items? Keep up the good work!
Love your videos guys! Keep them up!
Animate Objects sounds great! My Wizard will have to take it if I ever make it that far! :D
i never thought to use animate objects like that lol. It kind of reminds me of a player i had who was a storm sorcerer with the catapult spell. He had a bag of 1,000 ball bearings which he used for ammo and destroyed a few of my bosses with it.
Animate objects sounds broken. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆✧
marc, youre right. Going by RAW its just kind of a rude spell to use, however, a careful reading shows that you can really only give one command to all ten, and since they all usually do the same thing, most will simply condense the 10 rolls to 1 or 2.
3d8 a turn with a dex save required doesn't seem so bad
@@qaz012345678 It doesn't seem that bad, until he does almost half of the bosses health in one turn, and then kills it on his second turn.
Wait until you meet a clone of your self that uses it against you if you don't have aid or temporary hit points good luck
Personally, I think inflict wounds is one of the more powerful 1st level spell. 3d10 necrotic damage with a 1st level spell. The only thing limiting it is the fact it is touch and is limited to clerics and oathbreaker
And divine soul sorcerer.
@@willow7610 And the divine soul can get the Distant Spell metamagic to give it a range of 30 feet, so that helps you stay away from damage
Really love your new filming set up. you guys look great
for evocation wizards that reach 10th level, magic missile can do some pretty nice damage as the bonus is added to the single damage roll, max out your INT so that it deals 1d4+6 for each missile and then use your highest spell slots to get as many missiles as you can
Another pretty good 2nd lvl spell is Dragon's Breath from Xanathar's guide. It's only really worth it if you have a familiar tho.
It's 15feet range cone 3d6 of a chosen damagetype per round for a total of 10 rounds if you can keep concentration. Since it's a touch spell you can also cast it through your familiar on itself at range and since it's not actually using an attack, just an action, you familiar can use it to deal damage as long as you keep concentrating. Not as strong as Spiritual Guardians but more versatile and doesn't require you to be in the middle of things and risk breaking concentration. Oh and it's +1d6 per lvl above 2nd, which is pretty neat
Level 3 warlock Level 3 sorcerer. Take sorcerer for the spell and then warlock to get pact of the chain for the Imp who can go invisible and use actions while invisible. You have an invisible flying familiar who can zip around the field vaporising everything.
My DM doesn't let me cast it on my familiar but it's a cool spell even then. We've combined it with the fighter's action surge to kill "ALL OF THE STIRGES! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!".
I roleplay it on my old lady wizard as handing out magic sweets to the teammates with puns like "this mint will make your breath extra fresh". Any spell that gets my adult friends to ask granny for sweets is a win in my book.
(NB: I'm aware of the Sage Advice saying you CAN cast it on your familiar, it's an agreement at our table specifically that I can't)
@@TheFirstLanx My condolences that you're not allowed to use it to it's full potential but that sweets idea is gold, i love it!
@@wea1117 Oh shit man, that's evil
Thanks!
I don't mind not being able to use it with the familliiar to push an advantage in combat, I'm actually playing her to be a weak character for a change anyway (surprisingly enjoyable, I'd recommend giving it a try. Weak =/= useless). I do rather regret not being able to use it on the familiar while the familiar is doing its scouting runs. I would love to have my hummingbird familiar pick a fight with an owl and breathe lightning on it.
"You can't spell Damage without Mage"
sure you can ~ dmg.
Dungeon Masters Guide?
Deranged Monk Goths?
Dirty midget goblins?
Deformed Magical Gorgon?
Directed Missionary Goblin?
fantastic councels as always! Thanks!
I really like Crown of Stars. For 7 turns you can hurl a 4d12 projectile as a bonus action. I just really like for aesthetic reasons though. For flavour I had the lights be rosey pink and be connected by thorny green vines to give me a crown of roses. Combine that with a glowy sword and you've got yourself a celestial looking queen of roses!
Dissonant Whispers totally saved the day on my first Adventurer League styled adventure. I had been saving my little warlock girl's spell slots until the final area of a maze we were going through and this massive crustacean beast- an Ankheg I think- was messing with the party. So after exhausting my daggers and finding little luck with Eldritch Blast hitting, I targeted this presumably weak-willed monster's Wisdom with Dissonant Whispers. It hit, the beast fled, causing the two melee combatants it was fighting to get opportunity attacks that killed it.
What we didn't know was that there was actually a Specter possessing the Ankheg. It flew out of the corpse and would have killed us all had we not been given an escape route by some Drow. But it was amazing to hear from the DM that the Specter's high Wisdom was the stat I was actually targeting, and that the Specter had rolled a gosh darned 1.
How to become Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy:
1. Cast spiritual weapon, and have it become an arrow.
2. Whistle.
3. Profit.
Love your stuff dudes. thanks for the great content. You guys have any online groups that you are aware of for online D&D?
I devised my own damaging cantrip- when I use a thrown weapon action, I cast bounce as a bonus action, it makes a spell attack on nearby foe, if it hits, it attacks the next, bouncing as many times as regular cantrips at level get dices. Its not very efficient for a regular caster, but its fun, and my character is using Whelm :)
I feel like Green-Flame Blade is a very underrated cantrip for spellsword characters
I don't think Green Flame Blade is so underrated as much as spellsword characters in general are.
Geen Flame!?
Animate Dead is an underrated damage spell. You can accumulate a platoon of skeleton archers that deals massive amounts damage. Especially nasty with a Paladin who has Crusader’s Mantle.
Pally in a party with undead.. not happening
Nobody Important Maybe not in a boring white bread setting. But then there’s always oathbreaker.
Why would the Paladin have to hate it? It spares the living from dieing fighting evil.
Jared Mabbutt My home setting actually have registered Necromancer guilds that specialize in raising undead for manual labor and transportation of goods as a regular part of the economy.
@@nobodyimportant3627 sounds like your table is very limited
As a Great Old One warlock you gain access to Eldritch blast, Dissonant whispers, and Hellish rebuke (the only damaging spell that can be cast at a reaction) with the latter two scaling as your level increases because of the fact that the level of a warlock's spell slots increases as his level does, so you can do 6d10 damage as a reaction once you reach level 9...
I started playing a light cleric and wow, damage is amazing! covers Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, Fireball, guiding bolt on this list as well as being able to channel energy for a party friendly 30' AoE, and even inflict wounds which upscales very well as a bad guy ender. Doesn't have Eldritch Blast but they did throw Toll the Dead as a distant replacement and if you have access to that spell there's no real need to go get EB. Light Clerics are insanely good damage dealers!
I know its not a 5th or lower spell, but Forbiddance is probably my favorite spell due to one instance. We were standing outside a tomb and we knew it was filled with Undead. I decided to pray for 10 minutes and cast this spell. 40,000sq ft of ground was turned into essentially holy ground dealing heavy radiant damage to everything in the area. Which was the entire tomb and then some. I wiped out the Gm's entire dungeon in a matter of 12 in game minutes (spell cast and the time to kill everything in there) with a single use of a 7th level spell slot and some patient players. They didnt know this spell was a thing, so it took about 20 minutes of discussion after to figure out what happened and how much exp/loot we got from the tomb. Needless to say, that spell is now banned from our group, but boy does it hold a place in my heart.
That is incredibly awesome but it must have been a quite compact dungeon. 40,000 sq feet is only a 200ft x 200ft area.
More fun-spoiling from the rules on spellcasting: "If you place an area of effect at a point that you can’t see and an obstruction, such as a wall, is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction. [...] A spell's effect expands in straight lines from the point of origin. If no unblocked straight line extends from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn't included in the spell's area. To block one of these imaginary lines, an obstruction must provide total cover." So unless you were able to see the entire tomb from your vantage point, it shouldn't have covered the dungeon. A single door should have been sufficient to block the effect.
I had that issue when I was running a sorcerer and all my spells dealt fire damage and the party was attacked by magma mephits
Transmute Spell metamagic option! All basic spell damage types become available
Idk why this intro in particular gave me the serotonin boost I needed, but thank you Dungeon Dudes.
These are some great best of videos. As someone who hasn't played much DND table top it's helping me get ready for the launch of BG3.
My DM uses the same strategy every encounter. Lots of enemies. Swarm! I cast spirit guardians with extended spell. They all die within a few rounds. He gets so mad but never changes it up. It's annoying.
what about half elf sorcerer with the feat Magic Initiate, pick warlock class cantrips eldritch blast...does ist get the multibeams ?
Yes
SO! How about, if you're a cleric, you first cast Spirit Guardians and on your next round, cast Sanctuary on yourself. :^) I mean, it sais that the sanctuary breaks if you "make an attack" but technicly, you already made your attack. Now you can get to prepare actions for healing,
I've used animate objects to great effect, especially combined with some way of achieving advantage. I used to carry around a bunch of silver cutlery because I found it hilarious to have the tableware from Beauty and the Beast soloing bosses while serving me afternoon tea. I also found it was a useful tool for extracting information. Shatter a glass bottle, animate the fragments and have them go on an adventure through a prisoner's innards. They'll be spilling their guts in no time (Literally and metaphorically).