In MTG, creature cards are considered spells only during the main phase of casting them from your hand onto the battlefield. Once you pay the mana cost and lay the creature spell on the table, it is affected by summoning. Creatures do not count as permanent spells in MTG, but they can be moved into the battlefield zone when a spell or ability tells you to do so.
Creatures are spells when you cast them and while they remain on the stack. Once they resolve and enter the battlefield, they become permanents instead of spells. A heroic ability triggers only when the creature’s controller casts a spell that targets it, not when any other creatures do.
Creatures only exist on the battlefield, and in every other zone, they are creature cards. Many spells and abilities affect creatures in some way, and they can be cast from the battlefield. The rules for casting spells are general, with permanents residing on the battlefield after being put there, usually after being cast or played.
When two creatures are put onto the battlefield this way, they fight each other. Casting a spell only if an opponent casts a creature spell this turn is required. The creature put onto the battlefield by Call to the Kindred is not cast, so it cannot be countered by things like Cancel. Enters-the-battlefield abilities are triggered after the creature enters the battlefield, so the creature could be a legal target.
In conclusion, creatures in MTG are considered spells only during the main phase of casting them from your hand onto the battlefield. However, they can be moved into the battlefield zone without paying its costs.
📹 Battlefield Control Spells are the Best for Game Masters
Hey Storytellers, There several different types of spells. The most notable is the easiest to explain: Damage Spells. Basically …
Do creatures put onto the battlefield have summoning sickness?
Summoning Sickness is a condition where a creature is summoned and cannot attack or use tap abilities until the next turn. This sickness is caused by the disorientation caused by being summoned, preventing the creature from defending itself or using basic abilities. Haste creatures do not suffer from summoning sickness effects and can attack immediately. Activated abilities can be used by a creature with Summoning Sickness, as long as they do not have or are part of its cost.
Are permanents on the battlefield considered spells?
The term “permanent card” refers to a card that can be placed on the battlefield, such as an artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, land, or planeswalker card. A “permanent spell” is a spell that enters the battlefield as a permanent as part of its resolution. If a permanent loses all its types, it remains on the battlefield. For example, the Dimir Doppelganger can be used to exile a creature card from a graveyard, transforming it into a copy of Jushi Apprentice, a flip card.
This ability can be used to flip the creature, making it a copy of Tomoya the Revealer with the Dimir Doppelganger ability. If the permanent is activated again, it will have the characteristics of Stabwhisker the Odious with the Dimir Doppelganger ability.
Does a mutated creature enters the battlefield?
The casting of a creature spell for its mutate cost does not result in the activation of “enter the battlefield” effects. This results in a mere alteration of the creature’s existing characteristics. In the event that a mutate spell is cast upon a creature that is already tapped, the status of being tapped remains unchanged. In the event of mutating a creature with counters, auras, or equipment, the resulting merged creature will retain the attributes of the original creature. The original creature retains its status as a tapped entity.
Does a creature’s ability count as a spell?
Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a game that uses abilities to keep the game interesting and dynamic. These abilities are not considered spells and cannot be countered or trigger effects. Modern sets are increasingly featuring more creatures with abilities, and WotC is pushing design space on cards. Abilities are any rules text on cards, even on instants and sorceries. They can be positive or negative, depending on the situation.
In a game as complex as MTG, it is possible to spin negative abilities into positive ones, making it a crucial aspect of the game. As more creatures with abilities are added to modern sets, the role of abilities in MTG is becoming increasingly important.
What doesn t count as a spell in MTG?
In MTG, spells are any type of card cast by a player, usually from their hand, but can also be cast from other areas of the battlefield, such as the library or graveyard. Land cards are the only card not considered a spell. During a game, players will take actions such as tapping and untapping their cards, casting spells, and attacking/blocking with creatures. Tapping and untapping are crucial for ensuring that a card has been used for the turn, such as using a land for mana, attacking with a creature, or activating an ability with a symbol as part of its cost. To cast a spell, players must pay its mana cost by tapping lands or other permanents to make the required amount and type of mana.
Do creatures count as spells in Magic?
The deployment of non-land cards from one’s hand entails the casting of said cards as spells. These spells may encompass creatures, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, instants, and sorceries.
Is a mana ability a spell?
The text explains that an ability with a target is not a mana ability, even if it can put mana into a player’s pool when it resolves. This applies to triggered abilities that produce mana but trigger from an event other than activating a mana ability, or triggered abilities that trigger from activating a mana ability but cannot produce mana. A spell cannot be a mana ability, even if it can put mana into a player’s pool when it resolves. Some older cards with the card type “mana source” have been errata and are now instants.
Do creatures count as permanents?
In MTG, there are five permanent types: planeswalker, creature, enchantment, artifact, and land. These types have subtypes, meaning every subtype of creatures, artifacts, enchantments, etc. are considered permanents. Since the dawn of MTG, some cards have existed on the battlefield and some have gone to the graveyard immediately after being cast. Cards that stay on the battlefield are called “permanents”.
Is a creature on the battlefield a spell?
In the context of Magic, creatures are regarded as spells when they are cast and remain on the stack. Upon resolution and subsequent entry into the battlefield, these objects become what is referred to as “permanents,” as opposed to “spells.” The term “spell” may prove confusing for novice players, as it may not be immediately apparent that it does not simply refer to instant or sorcery. Nevertheless, the input of a Level 1 judge can assist in elucidating the concept.
Is a creature on the battlefield a creature spell?
In the context of Magic, creatures are regarded as spells when they are cast and remain on the stack. Upon resolution and subsequent entry into the battlefield, these objects become what is referred to as “permanents,” as opposed to “spells.” The term “spell” may prove confusing for novice players, as it may not be immediately apparent that it does not simply refer to instant or sorcery. Nevertheless, the input of a Level 1 judge can assist in elucidating the concept.
📹 The Five Best Battlefield Control Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
4:12 Tasha’s Hideous Laughter 7:51 Web 11:33 Hypnotic Pattern 15:04 Banishment 18:32 Wall of Force 22:09 Honorable …
Plant Growth for the win. It doesn’t require concentration, is permanent, covers a ONE HUNDRED FOOT RADIUS and THERE IS. NO. SAVE. So it doesn’t matter if you are a goblin or a Tarrasque, it still gets you. A creature in the area with 30 feet of movement can only cover 6 feet with their move, so you have all day to pick them off. You can even shape the area to leave your allies out of the effect. It actually controls the battlefield, not a monster or two.
Do you know what I love about this website? 1- They go to the point. It is not forced just to be longer. They make a small intro and start talking about what matters. 2- they dont do weird faces that show on the thumbnails. 3- The quantity and quality of humor is just right to this kind of article. 4- they seem to know the game.
Let me tell you a fun story about Tasha’s Hideous laughter. So our party was hired to assassinate a guy. We would get paid more if we did it quietly. We shadowed the guy for a while and discovered his routine, 23 hours at his near impenetrable fortress, and about an hour overseeing shipments at the nearby docks. Naturally, we decided to ambush him at the docks, but docks are crowded and have guards. We were confident we could get out of line of sight from most guards / pedestrians, but no one had silence. I had a bit of a grappling build, so I had the idea that we could do a running tackle and get the fight underwater. This ends up being the plan we go with, and within seconds of rolling initiative, splish splash we’re in the water. For those of you who haven’t had the joy of fighting underwater, let me save you some time. It is awful. Everyone has disadvantage on everything basically. Thankfully, we bypassed this by the bard casting Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on the guy once he was underwater. The funny thing about laughing is it isn’t possible to hold your breath at the same time. They poor guy passed out and died after 20 or so seconds, didn’t have to do a single point of damage to him. And that is the story of how Terri got a Flame-tongue greatsword.
In my first time ever DMing a 5e game (2nd time ever DMing) my all new players to DnD in their first session were on an airship being attacked by aarakocra bandits like 1,000 feet in the air. One of my players, a Ancient One Warlock, cast Tasha’s hideous laughter on one of the bandits still flying over the edge of the ship and he failed the save. The bandit immediately fell out of sight of the players. The rest of the battle played out over the next 3 turns. I kept rolling the save for the bandit as he was falling and he kept failing. After the battle was over my Warlock player asked did that guy who fell out of the sky die. I rolled one last save for him, failed, and died as he hit the ground. I told the player you lose concentration on the spell as the bandit splatters across the ground and the whole table cheered in laughter.
I know you guys weren’t going for high level abilities, but a wizard with school of illusion is unmatched for battlefield control. By the 14th level they get illusory reality, which means they can use Silent Image to create cages/walls/whatever and make them real. By the 18th level if they pick Silent Image as one of their spells to cast as a cantrip, they can literally cantrip cages on top of everyone. Not quiet as awesome as wall of force, but the shear re-usability is amazing.
My favorite use of Force Wall was keeping a cave in from collapsing on the party as we escaped a secret Mind-Flayer base hidden in a cave. As we ran to the door, with out squidly friends on our tail, I dropped the spell and crushed a great deal of them when the rocks fell. Quite literally, Rocks Fall, Everybody dies.
Great list guys! All really good spells. I might like the hold person/monster spells a bit less than you, otherwise, it’s pretty much identical to what I would choose. Some other low level battlefield control spells I think are very good: Fog Cloud, Sleet Storm, Fear, Slow, Bigby’s Hand and Watery Sphere
I think that the College of Lore Bard beats out the Wizard as the master of battlefield control in 5e because they can have access to EVERY battlefield control spell (including Wall of Force) and also use Cutting Words as needed for some precision battlefield control in the very moment. What is more, the Bard can use their high charisma + proficiency + expertise in social skills to add an extra element to battlefield control that a wizard just can’t compete with.
No mention of Slow? I’ve personally used it to decimate enemy Action Economy in my game. Sure they can repeat the saves at the end of each turn, but if you get 4-6 targets in it for a few rounds it cuts off multiattacks, potentially limits enemy spellcasters, removes the enemies’ Attacks of Opportunity and reduces their speed and AC allowing your frontline to carve through them easier.
While it is a high level spell, antigravity is one of my absolute favorites. It essentially requires magical movement to escape, which at the very least requires a full action, and they still have to leave the area. It gets even better if you have fly speed, or combo it with traps and aoe. I had a major Dragon villian catch all of the melee characters in an antigravity, then had free access to the backline, as few martial classes have any answer to antigravity.
Did an old one shot some years ago. I was playing a blackguard, and my friend was an earth cleric. We were assaulted by a couple of ogre sized demons, and he grew in size (can’t remember the name of the spell), then grappled with it, and proceeded to earth glide (I think that is the right name) it into the ground, and left it there. I was blown away by that.
Archfey Warlock: Plant Growth + Hunger of Hadar + Forceful Eldritch Blast + Devil’s Sight Average movement of 30 will only be able to move 15 feet even with dash action. 20 foot radius, they go 15 feet out after taking damage, push 10 feet back in, take damage again and move out 15 feet. Point is you can push them back into the damage a lot of times, dealing a good amount of guaranteed damage and more if they fail Dex throws. Best of all Plant Growth means they won’t be going anywhere quickly. If the don’t use dash action, then they can only move 5 feet (7.5 rounded down). My favorite way to use plant growth is to cast it on a wall cutting out areas of its effect to make my patron’s symbol across a giant 100 foot area. Yay, Vandalism in the name of the Archfey deity of Chaos.
Man, I love seeing articles like this because many players would not believe how easy encounters can be made with tactical use of good control spells. So often, we try to build our characters to be the “most powerful,” whether we mean to or not. But, trust me, as a veteran adventurer, it’s most often the players which find good uses of their resources to shut down the opponents which truly shine in combat. I don’t care if you dish out 5 times more damage than the rest of us; if the druid and wizard just found a way to trivialize most combat encounters before they begin, your min-maxed barbarian just became a useless sack of dead weight everybody else must now drag around
I love these options, and I personally have fallen in love with the Druid’s Entangle and Spike Growth. I understand they are more pointed towards lower level play or things that permanently grounded for that difficult terrain and bonus damage for the smaller foes that only have melee options. I still completely agree with this list, but just wanted to voice my opinion on these great druid spells
This is one of the reasons why I take 1 damage cantrip, 1 scaling damage spell from each level if there is one, at least 1 control spell from each level, and then everything else is utility with the only exception being if there is a unique damage type that is more rare. I would much rather have utility and control over damage when it comes to my spells due to how few casts of each spell I can get. Where as the cantrip (as long as it scales) is more or less my normal weapon and mundane weapons are only for either RP or for zones of no magic.
One of my groups ended a big boss battle before it even began using Polymorph. We had to assault a cultists keep that had an enormous dire drake on top. We were trying to figure out the best way to infiltrate and take out the keep. I knew that we needed to deal with the drake first because it had control of the sky. One of the other players suggested dropping a rock on top of it from the cliff. We discovered that there were no rocks big enough to throw down. Then I remembered that I had Polymorph. I changed into a woolly mammoth and dropped into it. I dealt so much damage from the drop alone, and survived, that not only was the drake taken out, but I then proceeded to trample any cultists that survived the impact. The DM wasn’t even able to ask for an initiative roll by the time the keep had been cleared.
Circle of the moon druid as an earth elemental + Whirlwind. Cast whirlwind, transform as your bonus action, and sink beneath the earth. You can keep concentration while transformed and the earth elemental having tremorsense allows you to keep the whirlwind on top of your targets as long as they aren’t airborne
I love control spells myself and I’d like to throw out some honorable mentions: Lvl1: Command. At higher levels you can cast it on multiple targets, making it more time efficient. Does not require concentration, and while it lasts one turn only, you can use it to open the enemy frontline by making them flee or pull in the enemy backline with approach. Lvl2: Hold a person. I love web, and it’s probably a better early campaign stage, but later on Hold a person scales SO HARD. If you have a couple of melee attackers they not only get advantage, they automatically crit! And the opponents fail ALL dext saving throws, meaning that you can quickly follow up with a fireball on the next turn for MASSIVE damage. Lvl3: Fear is just unbalanced. In a plain field, your enemies are taken out of the fight for several turns and lose their weapons, which you party can steal or just position in front of them to prevent the opponents from taking them back. It basically work like banishment, but it’s AOE, so you deal with the rest of the enemies and wait for you scared foes to come back one by one. But yeah, hypnotic pattern is insane as well, and prevents them from running away and call for help.
Sleep worth honorable mention for level 1 spell – its the king of level 1 at level 1 control spells, and the fact it doesn’t give a save means even very high level enemies can be knocked out by a sleep spell – it starts out with 5d8 and gains +2d8 per level.at level 4 you can be dealing 11d8 hp “damage” against an enemy with often high AC, Legendary Resistances, etc. Web – worth noting, you can cast on yourself against melee attackers to prevent them from getting close to you.
Just last weekend I had a situation in a game I am running where the big bad in a dungeon was a sorcerer gnome who rode a large mechanical rig. The rig was a construct with fighter levels who excelled at protecting his gnome master. One of our more seasoned players, who is playing a wizard Bladesinger, cast wall of force through the middle of the rig and was able to shunt the rig and the gnome apart. He effectively trapped the rig in the force bubble and left the squishy gnome exposed to all the melee combat players. This was a beautiful example of battlefield control mastery and though it effectively ended the fight, I couldn’t help but be impressed at the player.
Interesting selection, though I guess that it mostly has to do with your definition on a control spell. For me, a control spell is a spell that dictates what you enemies are capable of, and what options you shut off. For first level, my favorite is earth tremor, cause it’s non concentration and creates difficult terrain allowing you to control the movement of ground based enemies. As an honorable mention is dissonant whispers because location on the battlefield is huge. For 2nd I fancy arcane lock, to separate enemies and force them to take different routes. For 3rd, if you have setup time, leomands tiny hut creates a bunker that can’t be destroyed except by a disintegrate, and people can step out, fire spells and arrows and step back in. If you don’t have setup time, sleet storm is phenomenal. Huge aoe, cause saves every round to fall prone, it’s difficult terrain so melee units are boned, it’s heavily obscured so ranged units can’t attack and spellcasters suffer too, AND it forces a con save from no damage for enemy spellcasters to maintain concentration. Invulnerability won’t save you now! Yeah, that spell has saved my players so many times when enemy reinforcements start to show up. For 4th I’m partial to wall of fire, cause sure if the enemy really wants to run through it they can, but that requires desperation or some serious gall. For 5th, wall of force is my favorite spell in the game, but don’t you dare underestimate the power of Transmute Rock. 4:1 movement, and if they end their turn in the mud they become restrained, and it takes an action for them to pull themselves out.
The Ranger’s Spike Growth provides a huge boost to our ambushes. When enemies don’t have a reason to think there’s difficult terrain, they keep trudging and taking damage. You might ask what melee only characters did in this time while everyone’s blasting away at our hapless foes. It was night, so my Svirfneblin Arcane Trickster was firing a giant crossbow (Romans would have called it a catapult, but it got name swapped with ballista in the middle ages), helped by the barbarian, who had stacked several carrying capacity features to take such crap with us. We shot that a few rounds until they made it out of the thorn patch, then our duo also cut off their escape. It was probably the case of a new DM being too lenient in at least three different ways (he let me us sneak attack without proficiency too), but I thought it fit with your article because it’s an example of a large area of effect with damage to discourage movement on top of difficult terrain. It’s also a great example of getting high spell utility out of partial casters who have fewer spell slots, but just as much available concentration. My AT has THL of course, but I’ll probably take Mind Spike at level 8 to guard against foes that pose a flight risk.
I’ve been playing Solasta lately to get into D&D, and I’ve found that Hypnotic Pattern is just awesome. If I can get multiple enemies with it I’ll then have the team focus on them one at a time. It can make a hard battle so much easier. Banishing a creature also helps a lot. Even if they do come back you take the enemy force down by one making it a lot easier, and by time they come back (if they do) you’ll likely have killed a few enemies and now you can just all gang up on that one
I love how you teased out the sudden language of how many rollouts a spell grants. That’s something I am just learning the importance of. Also love how you point out how many burly monsters are bad in charisma. Very exploitable in a dungeon of dangerous foes. Finally, I’m discovering concentration is huge thing. And finding spells that can augment whatever you are concentrating on is huge. With that I would content that banishment for the mid-level of wizard is too much of a 4th level spell slot to waste for something that comes back most of the time. Many battles are single APL enemies rather than hordes so it does nothing for them to come back. If they are fey, fiend, celestial, having 1st level protection against good and evil prepared nerfs them substantially against the melee barbarian/fighter/paladin/etc and everyone else can shot/cast at will. And barbs take half damage if raging. I have personally found upcasting blindness to 4th over three additional enemies giving them disadvantage one attack + advantage to get attacked is nasty and now up to munches of enemies are hurting to hit and getting shredded easily. I might be wrong but I think it is something to consider. Banishment only shines for the other planar single monster and if it makes it save you are out a 4th level slot.
I know it’s late and all considering the article release date but Dungeon Dudes didn’t mention it so I thought I would, Since Web is a Strength Check not save it means Hex can grant disadvantage on the attempts to break free, making it even more effective since Hex gives disadvantage to checks Someone probably has already said it but just in case lol
Telepathic Bond is a good honorable mention in my opinion for both party and NPC communication as well as Battle Field Control as it allows once cast any creature connected to through the link to communicate over any distance so long as they are on the same plane of existence. Meaning you and your party and potentially a few NPCs can communicate with one another without informing the enemy of what you have planned or may be doing. On larger battlefields for more end game play styles, it can be extremly effective in coordinating large numbers of troops/people while giving your commanders information in regards to other parts of the battlefield. This spell is also only available to Wizards.
My favorite control combo (which I haven’t actually gotten a chance to use) is plant growth and transmute rock. Super slow movement that stacks with difficult terrain, restrained condition that requires an action to break out of, plus they’re both indefinite effects with no concentration so you can pile a concentration-based control spell on top of that.
One of my favorite battlefield control spells would have to be wall of ice. I was playing a game once in a group of 4 others where we ended up in a fight with roughly a hundred enemies in a small cavern. Using a staff of frost I had managed to find I summoned a double layered wall of ice to separate the majority of the enemies from us, placing the wall in such a way as to maximize how many would be damaged by the summoning. While we focused on the group of enemies on our side, the group on the other side of the wall were forced to hack away at the first layer, then enter the area of the first layer to attack the second – taking cold damage every time they did so. When they finally managed to break through the second layer, I let go on my concentration and then summoned another double layered wall right on top of them, while they just happened to be in a perfect line. The damage from the second summoning managed to kill alot of the enemies right there, then quite a few died while trying to break through the wall. Any that survived the second time round we easily finished up as they staggered through.
Wall of force allowed us to kill Strahd to end the campaign. The mage captured him inside the wall in its spherical form. We had sunlight going so that he wouldn’t regenerate while inside the wall and my cleric kept casting Sacred Flame (ignores cover) on him. We managed to kill him with mere seconds left until the end of the wall spell.
I know you limited the list to 5th level and down, for usability reasons. But, rituals don’t consume slots… Forbiddance, from the Cleric list, is pretty amazing. Obviously, it is defensive in nature. But control is control, and the combination of huge area, long duration, no concentration and no slots has GOT to earn honorable mention.
I like to re-skin Tasha’s Hideous Laughter so that it produces the same game mechanics but has a different flavour. My abjurer calls it, “Why are you Slapping Yourself?” and the effect is that the affected person falls to the floor, slapping themselves (harmlessly) until the spell ends or they succeed at a saving throw. My girlfriend plays a bard who re-skinned Tasha’s Laughter as “Earworm”, magically calling to mind some song from the affected character’s past, which they then sing to themselves uncontrollably until the spell ends. It’s a great way to personalize the spell and make it your own.
You made a mistake in this article. Its one that many players make, but is a big one none the less. You described Web as having a radius of 20 ft. This is incorrect. Radius a straight line from the center to the circumference of a circle or sphere. Web is a cube, and therefore doesn’t have a radius. This isn’t just nitpicking, because spells that say they create a radius of a certain distance actually cover twice that much space. So while Web creates a 20 ft cube and covers 20 ft of space, Darkness creates a 15 ft radius sphere and covers 30 ft. I’m not saying Web isn’t good. I’m saying that your Fireballs are probably half as large as they should be.
I killed an adult red dragon with a wall of force… My party was ambushed by a red dragon after the BW and a few rounds in combat it took to the sky so i polymorph into a Red Dragon and give chase meeting him in dragon melee thousands of feet in the sky my party members perusal two red specks collide far overhead. But it a real dragon so it tears my fake ass up in 3 runs it’s clear im going to lose this fight hp is real low. I drop early falling from the sky reverting to my wizard form and soon find myself at terminal velocity with a POed RD swooping down towards me gaining ground going to catch up in 2 rounds still above 1000 ft. So i ask the DM is it going faster than terminal velocity? To which he said yes what do you do? I cast wall of force about 5 ft. In front of the dragon, with a big ass grin on my face… it took 26d6 damage because terminal velocity is 20d6. Snapped its neck fast. So i float down with Feather fall torn to shreds no sign of the dragon just a speck of red unmoving in the sky. Dismissing that wall as the party starts to move on and allowing the dragon to crash to the ground as the party walks on like bad asses with a dead dragon in a dust cloud in the background epic moment so sweet, until the ranger ruins my epic moment of glory and runs back to “harvest the teeth, ckaws, scales, and head for mounting” grrrrr… just walk away like a bad ass bro but no…
Sleep is actually a great battle ending spell at any level if your DM gives a good indication of hit points. I use Roll20 and health bars. So my players get a pretty good indication of when an enemy has only a few hp left. Even a CR 10 bad guy (assuming no legendary resistance) with only 10 hp or so can be finished off with sleep with no chance for failure. Tasha’s is good but I tend to take sleep at 1st or second level as it is a generally a decent AoE spell for low level play.
Command is definitely my favorite one. While it is limited to one turn if you are creative enough it can go for way more. Flee is the obvious one. They spend all their turn running away so they need another full turn to come back. However, my favorite one is strip. They take of their armor so their ac goes to 0, They need at least one hand to strip so they have to drop their weapon if it is one-handed or drop one of their weapons if they have 2 one-handed weapons. All of this plus the turn wasted is just amazing.
Honorable mention: Sleet Storm. 3rd level, HUGE area, heavily obscures, difficult terrain, might trip and fall (slowing them down even more), and can break concentration on spells. This can wreack armies. They come stumbling out one-by-one, and your party can take them out as they come, instead of all at once.
Wall of Force is great but I think you are over estimating how “ultimate” it is in terms of battlefield control….if you are casting 5th level spells for wall of force, it is highly likely an enemy spell caster is casting 6th level spells which means disintegrate. No saving throw needed the wall just disappears. So yes you costed the spell caster 1 turn and a 6th level spell which is good but you lost a turn and a 5th level spell so the exchange isnt that big of one….especially when you compare it to successfully banishing the target, holding them, etc which could last multiple turns and takes lower level spells to do.
Grease against giants. Last year during the Storm King’s Thunder adventure, I was made aware of just how powerful 1st level Grease is against most types of Giants. Grease delays non-agile brutes by knocking them prone and slowing their advance, allowing your allies to get more ranged attacks before having to engage with these creatures in melee. Not as good as Tasha’s or Web, but worth a consideration if you often find yourself fighting melee brutes with no ranged attacks.
Evard’s black tentacles is a godly area control spell of fourth level, it has some of the things stated with web and the fact that it not only does damage, but it automatically does damage to those trapped by it with no save, it might not be much but it’s amazing if they don’t take the action to try to escape or just can’t then it really traps a part of the battle field, great when fighting a lot of creatures or just when fighting people you can push into the area making them not only make the save when they enter the area but also when they start their next turn if they passed the save they have to make the save again, amazing for a co-ordinated party, only thing is it kinda makes it so that melee attackers don’t have much they’re able to do
I have two combos I love to use for battlefield control, I will start by casting light on an enemy, and then follow up with fog, this works great is a boss type encounter where you want to take out the big bad dealing a ton of damage, then take care of the lackeys afterwards, my next combo is my absolute favourite, Transmute rock x2, the first cast reduces the enemies speed in a fairly decent sized area, and the second cast locks them in place, unable to get into melee range, perfect for hordes of minions or large battles
3.5, house rules were that Prestidigitation was basically Baby’s First Wish Spell so if you could cast that, you could cast any other cantrip. I used Create Water with Energy Substitution feat of Ice and Energy Admix which doubled it. We did the math and I ended up dumping 720lbs of slushy snow on the brutes looking to start a bar fight. We called it the Snowball Showstopper.
Personally I think Grease is a fantastic low level battlefield control spell. If the party is facing a single difficult enemy, you can center it on the enemy and this allows your party to surround him and stay within 5 feet without stepping into the grease, allowing attacks from everyone. All of them would have advantage if the enemy fails the dex save too, as he would be prone. At that point, if he tries to leave the grease, he would provoke opportunity attacks from the entire party, as well as spending 10 feet of movement to get out of it. This is so good in the early game, when even difficult enemies for the party will have maybe a 50/50 shot at passing the dex save. It can also potentially take out several enemies at once, allowing for very tactical play. Tasha’s may scale better into the later stages of the game, but as it’s only single target, I think the versatility of Grease in the early game makes it a better pick. Keep in mind, you said yourself Tasha’s doesn’t have too much out of combat use. There’s some potential, but I think Grease has more. Say the party is being chased by a group of guards after being wrongly accused of conspiring to murder the local lord. Grease solves that problem right quick. It’s also only available to Wizards and, more recently added, Artificers, once again making Wizards far superior in terms of battlefield control.
The championship trophy of battlefield control has to go to illusionist wizards with Mirage Arcane. The 7th level spell allows you to reshape the terrain of one square mile of land, removing pits, creating structures, even creating rivers of lava. It takes 10 minutes to cast, so it requires preparation to be useful in battle, but it doesn’t require concentration, and it lasts for 10 days. With the illusionist’s ability to mold existing illusions to their will with their action, it becomes a devastating trap. As long as you have 10 minutes to prepare the battlefield beforehand, you can make lava pits appear under your enemies with just a thought. The biggest weakness is dispel magic, so be ready with counterspell if you’re facing hostile casters, and make them your first priority to lock down with a silence spell or some other means of impeding their ability to cast spells.
This is a REALLY old article fellas, BUT I cast wall of force to save our guild hall from a gargantuan mech homebrew monster that had a fiend running/fueling it…after it was whittled down it was set to explode….which it did and leveled most of the city….except for the area behind my wall of force. One of my proudest moments to date in game 🙂
You’re missing Fog Cloud and Sleet Storm (for Arcane casters) and Plant Growth and Spike Growth (for Druids and Rangers). Fog Cloud blocks line of sight in a 20 foot radius. If the enemy gas a bunch of casters or archers in the back, you can put Flog Cloud between you and them to prevent them from attacking you while you deal with the melee enemies, and then the ranged enemies will come though later. A lot of mileage from only a 1st-level spell. Sleet Strom also blocks vision in a MUCH larger area, 40 foot radius. On top of that, it creates difficult terrain and has a chance to cause enemies to trip and fall prone. Cast this over all the enemies. And then wait at the edge of the effect as they slowly trickle out of the blizzard one by one for you to pick them off. Unlike Hypnotic pattern, blocking line of sight and difficult terrain doesn’t give enemies a chance to make a save. As if that weren’t enough… If any enemies inside the Sleet Storm are concentrating on a spell, they have to make concentration check against your spell DC, every single turn.
I once had a character who couldn’t swim and fell into the ocean. One of the party’s wizards cast wall of force (spherical form) just before he hit the water and our second wizard cast levitate to get him out and back on deck. he ended up dropping my character on a goblin. The goblin was stunned and my character was prone but hey it worked. I used half my movement to get up and a few well placed strikes to dispatch the nasty little goblin.
I remember when our party had to face down this huge Fire Elemental that was trying to transform the land into a new Plane of Fire, we managed to corner it and it began trying to tear a hole into the Planes of Fire, the rest of the party all thought it was trying to escape but I instead wagered that it was trying to make a portal to let allies through. So instead of targetting the big guy I cast Hunger of Hadar at the portal he was opening, on his turn the Elemental pulled away from the Portal and the Spell and the rest of the party all thought I’d wasted the spell, but it wasn’t long before the DM started making Dex saves for all the minions the Elemental had spawned that were now appearing right in the centre of my Hunger of Hadar spell. Which left us free to focus on and handle the Elemental. It was a good fight.
We trivialized a fight our DM had prepared for us by using battlefield control. Using Hypnotic pattern, plant growth, and slow. Before anyone had barely moved (I think one of the enemies that wasn’t hit by Hypnotic Pattern moved to wake up one of their allies), we killed one decently beefy enemy with ranged abilities (I ended up borrowing a bow and using it to do as much damage before they got to us). The session was running late already, so he decided to end the fight, stating that we would have definitely won. They would have wasted a few rounds to wake up the whole group, then they would only have 1 square of movement per round and were 90 ft away. It just wouldn’t have been interesting combat. After some gaffs with our table misunderstanding the rules for a couple of spells that made some very difficult fights tip in our favor, I felt pretty bad (just being part of the party), but in this case I at least felt we had used proper tactics to obtain victory. I don’t think the DM was mad at us, but I could tell he was frustrated that we haven’t had challenging combat for a few sessions. I’m anticipating something nasty coming our way soon though…
Hold off on using sleep until a higher HP enemy is damaged a fair amount. (A lot of people use bloodied or near death info for players) and you can end that creatures fighting back early or capture it. So sleep doesn’t become totally useless at high level. It is based on current HP. Just make sure no allies in the AOE are hurt worst than the intended target.
Forever druid here so… 1) entangle 2) spike growth 3) plant growth 4) confusion 5) wall of stone Bonus, any conjure spell in druids list is an excellent battlefield control (in my opinion and experience) So even though mages can be excellent battlefield controllers, I believe that druids are even better (again, my personal opinion)
So, I’m looking at the comments, and I’m noticing that we all agree that Warlocks are far from built for control, but it’s my favorite class so I’d like to point out their better control options, most of which deal decent damage too! It’s worth pointing out that GOO locks get Tash’s, so naturally that’s great, especially for taking out Dragons. Hunger of Hadar is good for low levels, and Evards Black Tentacles might be the best one to get good mileage out of with your limited spell slots. I also find that Mental Prison and Maddening Darkness are great control options for your Mystic Arcanum!
My bard used Plant Growth to lock down the enemy team in a large arena fight and we easily picked them off with our bows as they tried to rush in and close the distance. My character was out of the 60 ft range to be counter-spelled by the enemy spell caster and we picked him off first. Plant Growth uses no concentration and it’s permanent so you can’t even dispell it. Important to note, it’ doesn’t create difficult terrain it makes 1 foot of movement cost 4 feet so even rangers are slowed. As a bonus, you can use the 8-hour version of the spell for RP purposes and ask farmers if they would like to double their harvest to either make some money and/or be celebrated as a local hero.
I have a group of irredeemable murder hobos that would just as happily join the BBEG as kill him so long as they where paid sufficiently (as they did in my last campaign). So i started giving enemies these spells and the tone of the table changed almost instantly. The frustration in their eyes when the untouchable mage/rogue archetype enemies just would not let the barb&monk players get close was priceless. The very next session after that was so great because they started strategising and working as a more coherent group to try and thwart my control spells. They are still murder hobos, but at least now they are being smart about it. My favorite control spell is either Bones of the Earth or Transmute Rock.
one time our party was going through a castle to rescue a dwarf, one of our party used shatter on a door to break it down and alerted the entire castle, we had maybe a minute before we were overtaken, i ask the player if that spell would work on stone to break the stone tiles on the ground, he said it would so i put together a plan: the cleric would use shatter, break the stone tiles, i would use mold earth and barricade the doors with about 125 cubic feet of dirt (a 5 foot cube) with the adds taken care of, we focused on the boss who was in the room, and that fight took no time, it was a doppelganger who turned into a skull…thing…that was weak to radiant damage…the cleric, and the 6 other party members promptly beat the crap out of it and the bug bear and the wolf didn’t really stand a chance. then when the rest of the monsters had nearly broken through one of the barricaded doors i had placed a a field of darkness around it so they didn’t know what was waiting for them (previously i used darkness on an area with some goblins who were on top of a raised platform causing them to stumble and fall prone and get really really murdered) so 2 of the party members escorted the dwarf out and the rest of us prepared for the combat, soon as one of them made it out of the darkness the cleric unleashes thunderwave maximized and just wipes em out, the next wave gets thunderwave again and about 5 make it to us, of them one was killed by the warrior, i put 3 to sleep and then we all ganged up on the last one.
Step 1: Make a Swarmkeeper Ranger. Step 2: At Level 2, choose Druidic Warrior, and choose Thorn Whip as one of their cantrips, which drags an enemy up to 10 feet towards you on a hit, no save allowed. Step 3: At Level 3, Swarmkeepers gain Gathered Swarm, which gives you options when you hit an enemy with an attack (can be ranged or melee, spell or weapon). One of the options means the target has to succeed a Strength save, or be moved 15 feet horizontally. Step 4: At Level 5, take the 2nd level spell Spike Growth, which covers a 20 foot radius area with spikes which inflict 2d4 damage per 5 feet travelled through it, no save allowed. Step 5: Cast Spike Growth between you and your potential targets. Step 5: Combine Spike Growth, Thorn Whip and Gathered Swarm to drag an enemy 10 feet into and then 15 feet across the spikes, inflicting 10d4 damage (plus 2d6 damage from Thorn Whip) on the unlucky target, between 12 and 52 points of damage (potentially as high as 64 damage if you crit on the Thorn Whip).
I personally love blindness/deafness and cloud of daggers at lower levels, although cloud of daggers is far more situational. Also, I’m pretty fond of fog cloud even though it can be hard to use it in a way that benefits your team more than causing you problems. Finally, hallucinatory terrain. How long can your players come up with an overly complicated plan to cross an 80ft crevasse in the middle of the path when all they had to do was keep walking? Endless fun for the dm!
WALL OF LIGHT, is crazy good. Often I see it get slept on because it doesnt fit neatly in ONE category of usefulness. What it provides is a LOT of utility for a single spell, allowing it to be used in a lot of different situations, including different forms of Battlefield control. 1) The wall blocks line of sight, and blinds anyone caught in it if they fail a saving throw. So bye bye line-of-sight spells, also makes projectiles from vantage points useless if placed well. 2) It doesnt wall off your melee players from combat or from retreat. Sure its great as a mage when you can totally control the flow of melee combat but tell that to your fighter, paladin, rogue, barbarian, monk, etc party members when they cant even attack an enemy that was within walking distance. Or when you boxed them in and now they’re dying. This wall allows for tactical play at the melee player’s discretion. If they are worried about getting hit by spells or arrows on one side of the wall they can chose to dip to the other side and gain cover. Since the wall blocks sight they could even hold their action on one side to wait for a disgruntled mage or archer to walk through. Regardless, this spell ensures your melee players can move freely. Freedom!!! 3) Any tall enemy, or enemy with higher ground is fucked. The wall can be free-floating and placed Horizontally. It has a chance to blind enemies caught in it, and does 4d8 radiant to enemies caught in it at the end of their turn. In other words if you place it horizontally your party will still see the giant but the giant wont see you.
The current game I’m playing my party has become known as the, “Blind yourselves with Fog Cloud and still somehow survive,” party. Basically anytime we run into a large room filled with enemies, which happens quite often with both a Dragonborn Paladin and a Dwarf Cleric running around in heavy armor, our Druid just fires off fog cloud, the Cleric casts Spiritual Weapon, and our Wizard and Warlock sit in the corner and cry because they can’t hit anything and roll waaaay to many 1’s to risk firing into a cloud of fog.
Well it’s not spells directly but rather magic items, I hosted a Halloween party for my group where I put on a Dark souls themed one shot, I say one shot lightly, as my party used their current characters with all their gear and things. It was set under the understanding that the players fall asleep listening to a strange traveling bard named Sam (later revealed to be samhain himself) and awaken in a strange dark place, where the group fought their way through a horde of ghouls only to end up in a ruined coliseum, face to face with the wolf knight himself. The template for this monster I found was absolutely incredible, and a complete and utter powerhouse. My party had previously come into the ownership of a wand of fireballs, immediately, as the boss was rising to his feet, my Blood Hunter whipped out the wand, and expended all of it’s charges in a nuke of a hit. Full disclosure, I had intended for this boss fight to not be won from the start, as I simply wanted to give them a massive thrill and a big cinematic fight where they inevitably all get brutally murdered and then wake up by the campfire perfectly fine, albeit mighty frightened. However because of this nuke this boss was now missing a full third of it’s health, and that was just a surprise round. So combat goes on, and my boss puts two players unconscious, and my cleric (forge domain) comes up in his turn. Well, he came into some extremely rare material by way of a gift from his goddess, the goddess of luck. With it, he crafted a longsword that functioned similarly to a slot machine, being that in addition to the weapons initial damage on hit, the wielder rolls 3d6 and certain combinations land certain magical effects.
Okay this is presuming that wall of force panels are razor-thin and that the spell banished brings the creature back to the exact position when it left. Cast banished on a dragon if it does leave place wall of force panels. Where are the dragon was.when the dragon comes back the dragon comes back in 10 different pieces
I LOVE Wall of Force. We were in a high level one shot & we were ambushed by dragon, balor, terrasque, & solar. I cast Wall of Force, which gave the Bard 1 minute to cast Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion. We then got a comfortable long rest & were able to sneak out of the mansion for a surprise round (we won w/ no deaths btw).
Right now I am playing a multi-class bard with cutting words, suddenly realized that cutting words allows you to absolutely incapacitate enemies. I mean hell, wrathful smite, a lvl 1 spell that requires an action to do a wisdom check against your spell save dc, most creatures have crap wis, with a -d10 he’ll never make it, and I have 5 of those to spam every short rest (6 actually because of an item).
Tasha’s hideous laughter saved my lvl 3 party from fighting a shambling mound. It had just enough INT to be affected IIRC. I hit with tasha’s told everyone to run away and for 6 whole rounds it failed it’s saves. Also fun build: Mountain Dwarf Arcane trickster with medium armor + Mobile feat if you can. THL and while on the ground grapple them. They are prone and grappled because they didnt take damage. They cant end prone because no movement speed. And you and the party can wail on them. BUT as a rogue with cunning action bonus movement I did the following: Grappled someone prone in a barfight. Dragged them 17.5 feet with movement up 10 feet of stairs and 7.5 back. Bonus action: Move back 2.5, Run forward 10, Long Jump 9 feet and make your DM angry about calculating jump velocity into fall damage, smashing the guy’s face into a chandler damage and improvised damage because you are running long jump powerbombing him into caltrops you threw all over the bar 8 feet horizontally and ten feet down in an arc. TL;DR: OH BAH GAWD HE’D KILLED EM and yes my dwarf’s name was Foley.
Confusion, a lot of people don’t like it, but it singlehandedly won a very unfavorably fight, I was seperated from my party and hiding from the bad guy and their entourage, I was hiding in a closet, cast confusion, run out the room and put a special arcane lock potion on the door to lock it. By the point my party caught up to me, most of the goons were down and the baddy severly hurt, all while I was being in complete safety.
these spells are awesome . . . . when the DM fails their save . . . every DM I ever played with seemed to have superunnatural luck with their dice rolls. . . . . . and it seems like my DMs always set up encounters such that all the enemies are spread out and my aoe’s can only ever affect 1 or 2 of the enemies at most, and almost always require me to include one of my allies in the radius, so i end up not being able to use them. . .
Slow has helped my players walk through deadly+ encounters with ease…. And left me holding a fist full of dice that remain unrolled Evards black tentacles is ridiculous as well as Spirit Guardians. Both are super useful as they offer control + DPR. I get why they might not be mentioned because they aren’t pure control but they are incredibly powerful control spells in the right hands. If slow is a debuff and not a battlefield control spell… Then I might want to cast a second level spell and Suggest you guys cover a article on the best debuff/target control articles.
Nitpick. Web is a square with sides of 20 feet. The way you said it (20 feet radius square) made me think of a square with sides of 40 feet. Though it is possible that I was lost in the translation. Out of curiosity, how do you handle careful metamagic and web? Do you use Crawford’s ruling (basically that web and careful don’t interact with each other) or not?
Wall of Force, my personal favorite, first casting of it used a checkerboard pattern of corner-touching panels to trap a dragon in one section of its cave, where we proceeded to shoot it to death. Good times. My DM likes creative spell use too, so I’ve been told I can use it to cut holes in the terrain if I want. Just waiting for an opportunity to drop a hemisphere of cave ceiling-rock on something. I’d point out that Web is less useful than portrayed though. The things it works best against (melee fighters) have the best chance to resist/ignore it (high dex/str)
I am seeing some disturbing comments on this session. I understand that “creative” use of spells are fine – but to a point. I see people mixing up and chery-picking science and magic as it is more advantageous for them. One example: polymorph a creature to become a giant killer whale and let it die. So many wrong with this… this form of magic is by definition non lethal. And the whole “it’s a mamal and not a fish” is arbitrarily biological real life scientist decision. Does not make a lot of sense in terms of what the magic spell is for. And exactly when did the character actually saw such and animal? As the animal is dying how it does not qualify for break the spell? Other uses like use a mage hand and/or enlarge to drop heavy stones ob people, don’t you ser it is far removed from the idea of these spells? So I ask: where is chance of actually hitting something with such coordinated maneuvers? Have you trying something analog to this is sports? Try doing something like this in dodgeball if your opponent will just stand there. Regarding the uses of clever illusions made real… again: if a cage appears around a character, usually the situation calls for a saving throw (depending on DnD edition). Who says how long it take for the cage to materialize? Who says magic has no noticeable effect before it “poof” into reality? The Tashas Laughter drowned example is alful to me. The intention behind the spell os to disable someone until shit get real for them (the pain, the wounds etc.
So I bought a starter kit for DND I wanted to play and my cousin is a DM on occasion so he agreed to DM for me we created a level 15 cleric and used that as a base for a starter kit I used insect plague to basically kill an entire ambush party without realizing I had done so and when I came out of the dungeon and examine the area I had then found that my inside plague had killed said people it was pretty fun also we did boost up the bad guy characters so it wasn’t an easy time for my character evil buffed and good was solo pretty crazy adventure
My Pathfinder character is a battlefield control Oracle (Dark Tapestry) and his primary focus is on battlefield control, using Fear and Mind affecting spells as well as his Oracle revelations and some Lovecraftian classics like Black Tentacles to keep the enemy wrapped in slimy limbs and gibberingly insane whilst the rest of the party chews them to pieces. I’d like to port this guy to 5e, where I was thinking he’d make a good Warlock..what are people’s thoughts on a Great Old One Warlock, probably Tome pact, as a Battlefield Controller?
Okay, these recommendations are very hit, or miss. Web, Hypnotic Pattern, Wall of Force are spot on. Tasha’s hideous laughter and Banishment not so much. Tasha’s Hideous laughter: At low levels this is outdone by the sleep spell, by a large margin I might add. They represent this as just costing a single 1st level spell slot, and therefor be good at high levels. But your concentration is too valuable. There is a sweet spot, where it is okay, but not great. Banishment: In most cases, this is just a Tasha’s Hideous laughter with a different flavor, and a different save. At these higher levels, Legendary resistances are also more common on the big boss like creatures. If you want to prepare banishment, probably consider if you should prepare hypnotic pattern instead and get an effect that is pretty equivalent, but is AOE and a lower spell slot. But of course, the big problem is that both spells are single target, do nothing if they save, that makes them very swingy. If you are spending spell slots, a very valuable resource, you want to be sure they do at least something. Think about it like this, over the course of your adventuring career, you will have many boss fights, so in some of those boss fights, the dice gods will be with you, and you might curb stomp those boss fights when relying on swingy spells. But inevitably, one boss fight, the dice will be against you, and you will do nothing in that fight. So yeah, you might hear about that cool story where someone banished the Demon, and think wow Banishment is strong.
sleet storm is a great battlefield control spell and at least worthy of an honorable mention its a 3rd level transmutation spell that creates a 20-foot-tall Cylinder with a 40-foot RADIUS that is heavily obscured, difficult terrain, creatures that start their turn or enter the cylinder must pass a dex save or fall prone and caster that are concentration have to make a con check every turn they spend in it vs your spellsave DC so sam the sniper cant fucking see you willy the wizard cant keep his spells up and boblin the goblin is going to be moving at a mighty 6 feet per turn if he keeps falling prone
Slow is pretty bad ass. While they do get a save each turn, you can hit a lot of enemies with it at once, and it has a pretty sizable list of nasty effects that make them less dangerous overall, and, while hypnotic pattern is great, slow is unaffected by how much damage the enemy takes, making it my preferred choice of the two.
Banishment actually saved our lvl 9 party from a TPK once. We had be set upon by two Steel Predators. One had gotten a successful 12d8 roar off at the start of the round. Most the party failed the save and took full damage, meaning the second roar would likely kill half the party and make killing the rest easy. My wizard spent his brand new 5th level slot to successfully banish both Steel Predators. Our party had an entire minute to recover, re-position and prepare attacks. Banishment single handily turned what was going to be a swift death, into an easy victory.
You missed an implication that makes Hideous laughter even better. I’m happy you mentioned the flying creatures going prone. Quick question, can you hold your breath while laughing? Hideous Laughter immediately starts the drowning process! Giving creatures that can’t breathe water a round or two before they drop to 0hp.
My GM wanted to challenge us one time in combat so he had us fighting several demons and I use one up cast of banishment and all of them fail their saves effectively ending the fight in one turn to which my GM gives me the stink eye for and I respond saying it was only practical to do so also I had been playing a sorcerer war wizard combo so with extended spell meta magic I made a fly spell last for 24 hours and got an AC bonus so I could blast people from afar and never worry about none ranged attacks it got to the point where my GM just assumed I had a fly spell on at all times
Silent Image and his big bro Major Image are great for battlefield control at low levels: you can create illusory walls, cover your allies or yourself, or areas of difficult vision. The fact that these spells require an investigation check means that only someone that is actively looking for you can find you, and it still needs to use his action! They can also be used as a distraction or a performance… Not to mention that Major Image at 6th level does not require concentration! Put this with an illusionist wizard, and all the tricks with Mirage Arcane and you have the perfect battlefield controller. And it still could have Tasha’s, Web and so on!
I’ve seen Fog Cloud end encounters immediately multiple times, as only a 1st level spell, albeit nonlethally. There is absolutely no saving throw or attack roll whatsoever. It doesn’t restrict movement, so they could walk out, but it does quite a lot that is written into game rules more so than the ability. They can’t see you, which makes their attacks need to target a *location*, not you — if you aren’t there, they miss, and even if they guess correctly, because you are heavily obscured, the attack is made with disadvantage. If your party isn’t also in the cloud, their melee attacks are impossible. They also can’t easily attempt to leave the area safely if your party readies actions to attack them when they leave or the terrain prevents them from doing so (such as near a chasm or large body of water). It is a concentration spell, but you are so unlikely to take damage and then also fail the save that it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that it will last the full 1 hour (or whatever part of that hour you want it to) 99% of the time. Where it is weak is against enemies with a large blindsight range or ranged AoE attacks that don’t use an attack roll, but the spell has a rather long range of 120 feet.
I love your articles and they have helped me get into dnd (just starting I’ve done a few oneshotsand stuff) I’m even thinking about starting a dnd club at my school! However I do think you should add music to your articles considering the the talking can get kinda bland even though the content is interesting. Thanks for making these great articles!
Atlas hat race based earth moving magic item race based effects. The dwarf of course get’s the best effect a three foot cube of rock shrinks and becomes a small pocket item.It only travels an inch if thrown. Half lingsa three foot cube becomes clay like for one hour (can be molded).Giants remove 2 lb per level in the shape of a crater. Dragon borne only remove 1/2 lb bur their breath attack gets damage over time magma spit wad. Elf’s need to own land to use it though it teleport’s polished slabs home.
Sleet Storm doesn’t Remove enemies from the fight, but the suppression effect it has on group combat is extremely dramatic. Repetitive Dex saving throws upon penalty of 1/4 movement, in additon to forcing spell casters to make concentration checks, with heavily obscured as icing one top. Its an A- in my book.
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter isn’t battlefield control, it’s save-or-suck. A more fitting choice would be Color Spray 😉 Actually I take that back; I’d say a spell that controls the enemy (the two above spells, etc.) by definition must be a SoD/S spell. Battlefield Control must affect the field of battle itself rather than the enemy(ies) directly: Web, Fog, Sleet Storm, Walls, etc. 🙂
There’s at least one thing that can pass through a Wall of Force, or rather, doesn’t have to pass through it to be effective: Sacred Flame. Sacred flame can do a fair amount of damage over the span of 10 minute when you keep in mind that’s 100 rounds. By the time you can cast 4th level spells, the cleric should be at least level 7 and deal 2d8 radiant damage every time the enemy fails its dex save. Assuming the enemy has a 50% chance of doing so, that’s 45 points of damage for one 4th level spell slot and 10 minutes of your time. I played a protection domain (UA) cleric of Bahamut once in a Rise of Tiamat campaign and it was a lot of fun to have access to both Wall of Force and Sacred Flame. When I was being really mean, I trapped an enemy behind the the barrier with another spell like Spiritual Weapon which has 10 rounds to do damage atop of the damage I already do with sacred flame. It’s a bit cheesy, but there’s something really satisfying about basically placing your foe in 10 minutes of Purgatory. which is also what I’ve named the combo. Granted, most of the times, you won’t be able to catch all your enemies within the spell or your singular foe might simply be too big to fit inside it. My DM ruled it wouldn’t work on adult/Large dragons (who occupy a 15ft square) while their wings were spread out.
You guys talking about the dome/sphere option and the 10×10 panels of Wall of Force gave me a thought: anyone else noticed that the names of some of the spells are sometimes quite odd and misleading? I think it’s part of the fun absolutely and highlights the need to read the text carefully, because things like Chill Touch being a ranged attack, Leomund’s Tiny Hut not being a hut and Wall of Force not necessarily having to be a wall have caught me out! (Fantastic article always great content on this website thank you)
For low level battlefield control (levels 1-4), the spells Sleep and Color Spray are very effective for the cost of a single 1st level spell slot. The first wizard I created saved our party numerous times, and even once from a TPK due to our party being surprised at level 1, through the use of the Sleep spell. It allows you to completely eliminate for certain one, and very possible two, three, or if you’re insanely lucky even four enemies from the battle for the cost of 1 action. A highly underrated magic that is also a classic DnD spell, contending with something as iconic as fireball in my opinion. Especially for us Dragonlance readers
Perfect list, right down to the honorable mentions. I love Web/Hypnotic Pattern on a Sorcerer with Careful Spell to eliminate friendly fire. Twinned Spell Tasha’s Hideous Laughter is also good on a Sorcerer dipping Bard for getting a ton of bang for the buck. A couple of Honorable Mentions I’d like to add: from the cantrip spot, Eldritch Blast with the Repelling Blast invocation, the most consistent and reliable way to move enemies around the battlefield (and deals a huge amount of damage with Agonizing Blast); also Dissonant Whispers, a soft control that can also triggers a lot of Opportunity Attack damage if played tactically (my favorite being War Caster+Booming Blade).
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter really is fun. As a fan of warlocks it’s my favorite low level control spell. I know warlocks don’t have many spell slots, but that very thing is why their spells need to be useful. A spell like that can save the entire party, taking a threatening foe and reducing them to nothing but a laughing fool. And of course make it easier for the warlock to keep spamming their normal method of attack.