Incorporational creatures can use magic items and spells to affect their enemies, and they can make touch spell attacks. Magic items grant the innate ability to bypass incorporeal creatures, but they cannot use melee touch attacks. Incorporational creatures can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons, or spells, spell-like effects, or supernatural effects. They are immune to all nonmagical attack forms.
Incorporational touch attacks are normal touch attacks, but armor and shield bonuses can be added to your AC against it if the bonus is a force effect. A manifested ghost’s touch spells do not work on an incorporeal creature when it manifests, and that manifesting does not allow touch spells. Incorporational touch attacks do not work with full attacks, and spell touch attacks do not work with full attacks.
An incorporeal creature has a 50 chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source, except for a force effect or damage dealt by a ghost touch. Incorporational creatures are immune to all nonmagical attack forms and have a 50 chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source.
Incorporational creatures’ attacks are nearly always resolved as touch attacks when made against corporeal creatures, as they pass straight through them. Even when struck by spells, magical effects, or magic weapons, an incorporeal creature has a 50 chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source.
In conclusion, incorporational creatures can use touch spells and magic items to attack their enemies, but they are not immune to all nonmagical attack forms. They can also ignore any damage from a corporeal source, except for a force effect or damage dealt by a ghost touch.
📹 Love these spells as a DM. Hate them as a player
Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 2:03 True Strike (Cantrip) 4:25 Bane (1st level) 6:48 Crown of Madness (2nd level) 9:45 Gaseous Form …
How to beat incorporeal?
The Shattering Throw can be employed to vanquish incorporeal beings at periodic intervals, as a consequence of the implementation of a hotfix update. While warriors are indeed capable of employing this method, it is important to note that it has a three-minute cooldown period. Incorporeal beings have the capacity to spawn at a rate of once every 45 seconds.
Can familiars do touch spells?
You can only have one familiar at a time and if you cast a spell while already having one, it adopts a new form. When casting a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast it. The familiar must be within 100 feet of you and use its reaction to deliver the spell. If the spell requires an attack roll, use your attack modifier. Consume 10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs by fire in a brass brazier.
How does touch work scientifically?
Touch is the process by which specialized neurons sense tactile information from the skin and other organs, transferring it to the brain for perception as sensations like pressure, temperature, vibration, and pain. Our sensory neurons are diverse and heterogeneous, able to pick up different qualities of touch. The ends of these neurons are housed in sensory structures as specialized and diverse as the neurons themselves, making them visually striking. Photos of these sensory structures are used to decorate offices.
Can I attack and Cantrip?
The sequence of the cantrips is erroneous. Rather than executing a single melee weapon attack as part of the spellcasting action, the player should perform a single attack with a melee weapon as part of the cantrips, as these are intrinsic to the attack.
Can you attack a player with protection from creatures?
Despite the presence of protection from all sources, creatures may still attack the player character. However, any resulting combat damage will be prevented. Nevertheless, the acquisition of comprehensive protection results in the targeting of the player in violation of the rules governing spell and ability placement on the stack.
Does vampiric touch work on undead?
Vampiric touch, a powerful combat option, is nearly useless against undead creatures, especially in higher tier campaigns like Curse of Strahd. However, with proper tactical care, it can provide excellent damage throughput and durability. Clerics of the Death domain have a unique affinity for vampiric touch, as their divine access and necromancy focus allow them to capitalize on the spell’s capabilities, creating a formidable vampiric cleric.
Does banish work on incorporeal?
Incorporation Warlocks are powerful at sustaining damage over time and can temporarily remove threats with Banish, providing strategic control in dungeons. This affix, announced in the 2nd season, is one of the most painful in Warcraft: Dragonflight. It is a personal hell in the current WoW Mythic+ season and can be difficult to understand. To play the incorporeal affix in the current WoW Mythic+ season, players must understand the mechanics of the affix and what can help them in the WoW Incorporeal Mythic affix week.
Does blind work on incorporeal?
Incorporeal creatures, as described in the A. Aarnott/Lego Bin 8 game, move silently and cannot be heard with Listen checks if they don’t wish to be. They have no Strength score, so their Dexterity modifier applies to both melee and ranged attacks. Nonvisual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.
The game offers various abilities, such as Burn, Damaged, Drained, Focus, Ability Score Loss, Abjuration School, Aboleth, Aboleth Mage, Abomination, About Epic Magic Items, Epic Spells, Feats, Planes, Races, Absorbing Shield, Achaierai, Acid, Acid Arrow, Acid Effect, Fog, Resistance, Acid Splash, Acid Warding, Acidic Blast, Acrobatic, Action Types, Adamantine, Adapt Body, Additional Magic Item Space, Adept, Adult Arrowhawk, Adult Tojanida, Advanced Megaraptor Skeleton, Advanced Mummy, Advancement, Adventuring Gear, Affinity Field, Afflict, Agent Retriever, Agile, Aid, Aid Another, Aiming a Spell, Air Domain, Air Effect, Air Mephit, Air Walk, Alarm, Alchemical Silver, Alchemist’s Fire, Alchemist’s Lab, Alertness, Align Weapon, Aligned Attack, Allip, Alter Form, Alter Reality, Alter Self, Alter Size, Alternate Form, Ammunition, Amulet of Catapsi, Epic Natural Armor, Health, Inescapable Location, Mighty Fists, Natural Armor, Proof against Detection and Location, Amulet of the Planes, Analyze Dweomer, Anarchic, Anaxim, Anchored Navigation, Androsphinx, Angel, Animal, Animal Affinity, Animal Domain, Growth, Messenger, Shapes, Trance, Animal Type, Animate, Dead, Animated, Annis, Annulus, Antilife Shell, Antimagic, Antimagic Armor, Antipathy, Antiplant Shell, Antipsionic Feats, Antitoxin, Ape, Apopsi, Aporter, Apparatus of the Crab, Appraise Skill, Aquatic Subtype, Aranea, Arcane Archer, Arcane Eye, Arcane Lock, Arcane Mark, Arcane Mastery, Arcane Sight, Arcane Spells, Arcane Trickster, Archmage, Archon, Hound, Area Divine Shield, Aristocrat, Armor, Armor Class, Armor Type, and more.
The text describes various types of armor, including those for different creatures and their abilities. These include armor Proficiency (Heavy), Armor Proficiency (Light), Armor Proficiency (Medium), Armor Qualities, Armor Skin, Armor Spikes, Armor for Unusual Creatures, Armor of Arrow Attraction, Armor of Darkness, Armor of Rage, Armor of the Abyssal Horde, Armor of the Celestial Battalion, Arrow Catching, Arrow Deflection, Arrowhawk, Arrows, Artifacts, Artifice Domain, Artisan’s Outfit, Artisan’s Tools, Assassin, Assimilate, Astral Caravan, Astral Construct, Astral Deva, Astral Plane, Astral Projection, Astral Seed, Astral Traveler, Athach, Athletic, Atonement, Atropal, Attack (Creature Statistic), Attack Damage, Attack Roll, Attacks of Opportunity, Attraction, Augment Summoning, Augmented Alchemy, Augmented Subtype, Augury, Aura Alteration, Aura Sight, Autohypnosis Skill, Automatic Metamagic, Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Autonomous, Avatar, Average Salamander, Average Xorn, Aversion, Averter, Avoral, Awaken, Awesome Blow, Axe Weapons, Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, Axiomatic, Axiomatic Power, Azer, Azers (Race), Basics, Basilisk, Bastard Sword, Bat, Bat Swarm, Battleaxe, Battlesense, Bead of Force, Bear’s Endurance, Bearded Devil, Bebilith, Behemoth Eagle, Behemoth Gorilla, Behir, Belker, Belt of Dwarvenkind, Belt of Epic Strength, Berserking Sword, Bestow Curse, Bestow Power, Binding, Biofeedback, Bison, Bite of the Wolf, Black Bear, Black Dragon, Black Pudding, Black Tentacles, Blackguard, Blacklight, Blade Barrier, Blasphemy, Bless, Bless Water, Bless Weapon, Blessed Book, Blight, Blind-Fight, Blinded, Blinding, Blindness/Deafness, Blindsight, Blink, Blink Dog, Blown Away, Bludgeoning Weapon, Blue, Blue Dragon, Bluff Skill, Blur, Boar, Bodak, Body Adjustment, Body Equilibrium, Body Fuel, Body Purification, Bodyfeeder, Bolas, Bolt, Bolt of Glory, Bolt of Bedevilment, Bone Devil, Bonus Domain, Book of Infinite Spells, Boost Construct, Boots of Dancing, Boots of Elvenkind, Boots of Landing, Levitation, Skating, Speed, Stomping, Striding and Springing, Swiftness, Teleportation, Temporal Acceleration, Boots of the Winterlands, Bottle of Air, Bow Weapons, Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals, Bracelet of Friends, Bracers of Armor, Bracers of Epic Armor, Bracers of Relentless Might, Brachyurus, Brain Lock, Brain Mole, Brain Spider, Bralani, Brass Dragon, Brazier of Commanding Fire Elementals, Break Enchantment, Breastplate, Brooch of Shielding, Broom of Animated Attack, Broom of Flying, Brown Bear, Buckler, Bugbear, Bulette, Bull’s Strength, Bull Rush, Bullseye Lantern, Bulwark of Defense, Bulwark of the Great Dragon, Burning Hands, Burrowing Power, Burst, and more.
Can you attack while incorporeal 5e?
Incontinential creatures can use a physical attack called an incorporeal touch attack, which resembles a slam attack. This attack ignores armor, natural armor, and shield bonuses, but force effects block it. Deflection bonuses work against incorporeal touch attacks, and defenders can resolve the attack using their touch Armor Class. Force effects, such as mage armor spells or shield spells, can also be used against incorporeal touch attacks.
An incorporeal creature uses its Dexterity modifier for melee attacks, and cannot use bull rush, disarm, grapple, overrun, sunder, or trip attacks against corporeal creatures or objects. Some attack forms are possible against other incorporeal creatures, but they cannot exert any strength and pass through material objects.
How do touch spells work?
To use touch spells in combat, you cast the spell and touch the subject. You can take your move before, after, or between touching the target. The rules for touch spells in combat are found in Pathfinder and D and D Third Edition. Touch attacks are considered armed and do not provoke attacks of opportunity. They come in melee and ranged types, and critical hits can be scored as long as the spell deals damage. Your opponent’s AC against a touch attack does not include any armor, shield, or natural armor bonus.
Holding the charge allows you to hold the charge indefinitely and continue making touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. Alternatively, you can make a normal unarmed attack or attack with a natural weapon while holding a charge, and you are not considered armed and provoke attacks of opportunity as normal. If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon, and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.
Can touch spells be twinned?
Twin casting is not a viable option, as it necessitates the utilization of a spell that targets a singular creature. Moreover, the creation of spiritual weapons is contingent upon the completion of the aforementioned process.
📹 Sorcerer Metamagic Guide for Dungeons and Dragons 5e
Timestamps for our discussion on specific metamagic options: 4:19 Careful Spell 5:53 Distant Spell 8:55 Empowered Spell 10:45 …
Love Cloudkill as a DM. Its like darkness with a cherry on top. As a player: too many creatures are immune to poison. As a DM: these creatures are minions to the caster (undead, fiends, constructs) and can stay inside the cloud indefinitely. Players will no longer get advantage on attack since that is caneled out by the darkness (unseen attacker but also blind target) ans most spells require sight amd no longer work. It does not kill outright or take players out of the fight. Also: the spell is made for evil casters. It is literally called CloudKILL.
I do think Bane is underrated. People discount it as “reverse Bless” because Bless always works while Bane allows a CHA save. But there’s more to it than that. Bless might make the different between a weapon hitting or not hitting. Bane can make the difference between being banished/charmed/incapacitated and not having any of those conditions. In other words, Bane’s debuff is far more dangerous to a target than the benefit an attacker gets from Bless when trying to hit that target.
Simulacrum has to be my favourite DM spell. Allows recurring villains without deus ex-machina enabling the villain to escape at the last moment. It also allows tuning the power level of the villain to the party to a degree. I also liked Monty’s use of Gate, very interesting and fun. Another interesting one is Find Familiar, creating paranoia that any hawk, rat, or frog could be the BBEG spying on them is very fun.
Aside from comic relief, I like Mordenkainen’s Sword as a good spell for BBEG or long-term mini-bosses to use against PCs in early campaign encounters, since it is a visually flashy spell that vets will clock as high-level but is unlikely to outright kill a character above 1st level (less you crti and roll high I guess, but that is true of a lot of things…). Tier I PCs might be random bystanders to a mysterious figure cutting their way into a museum and bisecting guards with a glowing blue blade of force to steal a McGuffin, and assuming the attacker doesn’t drop concentration on Mr M’s Mighty Sword unless things get dicey, the party would face a memorable encounter which would probably end in retreat, but could force the attacker to retreat with skilled play, and feel like facing a powerful opponent without feeling like the DM is trolling or stunting on the low level characters.
An anecdote on this theme: In PF1, I played a Banshee wrong. Insteadof having the death-scream require a full round to use, I treated it as a full-round casting spell. This the PCs knew that on the banshee’s next turn, they would have to save or die. Such a scramble to get away! This was a lot more fun than the RAW version,where the PCs would have to save or die. As played, it affected the PCs actions but in the end no-one actually needed to save. Much more fun and scary.
Speaking of spells that create a mood, nothing will evoke sheer terror from players faster than a spellcaster casting Disintegrate. Obviously it’s not a spell you cast often (unless you’re really sadistic), but for an end-of-tier boss fight, nothing will better communicate “these guys are really serious about killing you, and if you slip up it’s game over” (for the character of course).
I love Bane as both a player and DM. Been playing in a group for several years where the bard has used this to fantastic effect. I’m playing a conquest paladin and when the Bane lands that almost always mean a frightened effect is landing next. Enemies rolling attacks at disadvantage and -1d4 practically ends encounters against a wide range of enemies. That party’s abilities really ended up complementing each other well and it usually starts with the humble Bane.
Definitely one of my favorite articles of yours – lots of very useful tips/thoughts here! Interesting point on true strike – it’s got a lot of mood for low levels, but could also potentially be fairly thematic/interesting at higher levels vs an enemy spellcaster (eg, the party knows they’re high level, and True Strike -> (Insert attack roll spell that can deal a lot of damage) could be fairly threatening. Bane is another interesting one – for players, I’ve never been impressed by it (it’s *fine*, but just never impressed me). But as a DM, it’s true it’s an excellent debuff that doesn’t take player characters entirely out of a fight. I’ll have to add it to my arsenal for sure! The others are all some I’ll have to throw in sometime!
Early on I houseruled True Strike to be a bonus action to cast and never looked back. It’s an incredible Cantrip that way, but it has some trade offs. An Arcane Trickster can reliably get off a sneak attack but misses out on a potential off hand attack. A polearm master misses out on their bonus attack. It’s not unbalanced.
Control Weather thought: you can use it for more than creating a mood. Party is just enjoying their time in a big city, taking a bit of a break. The wind starts to pick up… agonizingly slowly, over the course of the next 40 to 160 minutes (so, 40 minutes to 2 hours and 40 minutes), the wind picks up…! A Survival or Nature check with an increasingly easy DC reveals the weather to be unnatural — there’s no way a storm could build in place this fast! It must be a magical effect. The party has some length of time — maybe 20 minutes, maybe an hour and a half — to find the caster and disrupt their concentration before the wind builds into a hurricane that tears buildings apart and visits death and destruction on the city.
I wanted to say I LOVE that you brought up bane and talked about the tactical miss labelling of the spell. I have been using it and I absolutely love it specifically for its reduction in later saves. That combined with the reduction in attacks and another battle field controller makes for a powerful first level defensive spell. Yes it isn’t likely to work on ALL of your opponents but just getting 1 or 2 is pretty huge. Just an example, 1 person fails it and then one of your other party members casts “blindness/deafness” and now that target is basically taken out of the fight swinging at -d4 and disadvantage. If you have something like vicious mockery it makes it easier to land the mockery and he gets disadvantage and -d4 to attack rolls, Frost bite does it too. There are so many ways to take the fact that he has a -d4 to his attack roll AND saves to just stack negatives on this guy. I hit the 3 guys with this 2 failed, one of which was the biggest most powerful dude in the group. Then the next player cast Mind Sliver on him stacking negative saves and then the next Save/or suck took him out of the fight completely with his -2d4 on save. The extra guy that was just swinging at -d4 later got save or damage spells levied against him. Bane is very under-rated. Also I do like Dream when I play as an elf player. Because while others need 8 hours I only need 4 so I can cast a couple dream spells on the recurring big bad and give him nightmares during our rest and do that day in and day out until he takes levels of exhaustion before we face him.
Gaseous Form and I have some fun history: I was once running a Ravnica Game where a train metro system had been put into place, so this individual used the spell. As the battlefield was what was moving, it triggered no opportunity attacks and the players could choose to either let go, or jump and risk taking damage. Was a damn good moment, and somewhat improvised too. Many divination or long time spells are pretty damn useful, even if it’s just roleplay. A Bard villain, casting Plant Growth to feed the village his own forces raided? Is now heralded as their hero once the crops are about – and the players cannot quite just go burn the fields… if they care about their lives.
That’s about how I assumed you would use true strike. The enemy that spends turns charging up a powerful attack is a common trope in RPG boss fights. I’d probably homebrew an attack onto the hypothetical monster that can only be used while the monster has advantage, some sort of all out two handed strike similar in flavor to GWM
one important thing about bane is that it’s easier to take advantage of. if you have +1d4 to saving throws, a lot of the time an enemy can just avoid using saving throws against you, or target another party member instead. but if you give an enemy -1d4 to saving throws, they can’t really do anything to avoid you targeting them with saving throws.
You know what’d be mean… bane, causing worry in the players. They don’t want to fail they’re saves. They cast counter spell way more than they should., draining their resources and setting them up for capture. Escape from jail plots are hard to force because you never really know how things will pan out, but I do love a good heist.
About Elemental Bane – note that it works every turn, from any attack, not only yours, so it can proc multiple times in a round. It’s not enough to justify using it as a player – unless your whole party somehow can deal one particular type of damage – but in hands of an enemy, when you can set up several minions each with elemental damage on the attack, it can actually become really scary. Also, immunities aren’t a problem since players have very few ways of getting them.
Another great list and awesome ideas as how to roleplay villains, thank you! Since it isn’t mentioned (probably because it isn’t so bad for players), I would like to suggest the spells “Summon Lesser/Greater Demon”, and make the demon kill the summoner (reference is WoW youtube.com/watch?v=oAOWpQXoJQ8 )
Honestly Gate seems like it would be really fun to use on the player’s side as a DM, too! As the DM, you have the opportunity to give the party powerful allies, or set them up to recruit those allies. Maybe you need to appeal to heavenly forces to gain the favour of a celestial army (or at least a celestial A-team) to assault the BBEG’s stronghold. Or maybe a player character is eladrin nobility, and the party arranges to Gate in the armies of a fey court from the Feywild to aid in defeating the BBEG.
This article was very interesting. A lot of these spells I’ve thought I’ll just homebrew buff them to make them more on par for their level, but this did make me think twice. In the end I think I’d still buff them, as usually the ways they are made effective for a dm is circumstantial rather than mechanical, and for cases like mordenkainens sword I could always use the original version to show how bad the mage is. I also think the flavour of a spell can be kept while buffing it, I’ve thought of making true strike make the next attack guaranteed to hit, or maybe even crit, and that wouldn’t change the usage here. I have recently used the dream spell as a basis for a plot point for a character, but word of warning my player was new and didn’t understand the consequences of exhaustion and almost let the problem kill her character without informing her friends. That said I think for most groups it’s perfectly good for a narrative reason, even if it isn’t a spellcaster bad guy but a magical effect that they know how to stop. Great job thanks for the suggestions.
Gaseous Form would be really cinematic to use just as the players have cornered the bigbad against a door or cracked window of some kind! “The bigbad backs up, back against the locked iron door. But instead of dread you see a knowing smirk spread across their lips. With a subtle flick of their wand and a mumble under their breath their form seperates into a million tiny, dust-like specks as they seep away into the cracks of the door. What do you do?”
Tsunami is a spell I used on an Avatar of Sekolah during a big cathedral fight. Things were getting low on both sides, so the three headed shark god walked away from the players then used a single action to blow the away the front of the church along with all the players. Super cool spell, but the minute casting time makes it unusable for most PCs
I dont completely agree with your negative take on mind control spells. From my experience as a player, The fact that mind control effects completely changes the status quo of how certain party members behaves is really interesting and can be very fun. i still have very fond memories of a time where a NPC came on our ship, and charmed a majority of the party. He then went on to have a disagreement with one of the party members he couldn’t charm, and every other party member was taking the NPCs side instead of our party members side because we were charmed. That was a very funny and memorable experience.
I’ve been mocked by my group for years for regularly taking gaseous form. It’s not great at any one thing, but it’s so versatile that I often get a lot of use out of it, and I get a lot of peace of mind knowing it’s on my list. Infiltration, scouting, stealth, flight, escape… It certainly isn’t as good as invisibility, or fly, or feather fall, or dimension door, or divination etc. at doing the things they’re used for, but a lot of the time it is good enough, and a lot of characters either don’t have access to those kinds of spells, or can’t afford a lot of extra preparations. Ideally I’d take a machete to a knife fight, but a Swiss army knife is better than nothing, and hey, it doubles as a bottle opener! I didn’t even know Bane was considered a poor choice, I’ve only used it on one character who took it as part of their gimmick, but I used it almost every combat at low levels and it worked very well.
This isn’t a combat option, but for 7th level I’m a huge fan of Mirage Arcane. It’s not something you can use often or your players will suspect something, but the idea of taking a landscape and making it look entirely different, potentially making it a trap without it even appearing to be one, is absolutely brilliant for setting the stage for some encounters. It’s situational, but it’s great.
I found myself in the curious situation of being up against a high AC enemy with the shield spell (more than 4 slots too) and solid saves against our groups cantrips as well as condition immunities that negated most of our spell options. I also happened to have spell scroll of True Strike I acquired as a joke, hoping to pull it out in a less stressful situation, use it and hopefully everyone laughs. Well since short of a nat20 there was no way for me to eldritch blast the enemy with shield up: I cast True Strike. Laughter ensued – I still missed. Excellent spell, just not for combat.
I love the spell Bones of the Earth. It’s good for players and great for DMs. It turns any boring open-field combat arena into a dynamic battlefield. When in an open field, I wouldn’t hesitate to cast it on a party of any level – 1 to 20. Dream truly is great to inject some tension into the campaign. Used it my Dragon Heist game once my players were getting too comfortable. And now I’m excited to try Crown of Madness and all these other spells against my players!
I get the mortdenkhein sword move, but I aways show my players what spell is being cast, since my NPCs knows what spell is being cast, I think is fair the players knows too. BUT… I sometimes allows in my game you fake a spell cast with prestidigitation or some illusion spell using an arcane or deception check.
I agree on all but one spell again. I love Dream. It doesn’t fit every character, but there’s so many uses for it if you’re not playing a dungeon crawling campaign. Some of which include: pranking other players murderhoboing NPCs long distance communication (that requires a lot more than 25 words) Meanwhile as a DM I almost dislike it. When you use it once, there’s always the feeling of “why not using it more?” And I’ve made really bad experiences with the Exhaustion caused from failing against the spell.
Trap Idea: • Players enter a space just large enough for two medium creatures • Bars drop on either side, trapping two players close together • A Glyph of Warding goes off with a Twinned Crown of Madness 👑 👑 • A Magic Mouth says: “Two men enter, one man leaves!” 👄 • The other party members have to figure out how to get the two players out before they kill each other • Mood set! 🗡 🩸
Something you missed on mordenkainens sword: it’s an action to cast it, and it does the attack when you cast the spel, then it’s a bonus action to do the attack on your turns. But it doesn’t say SUBSEQUENT or FUTURE turns. So, you cast the spell, make the attack, the bonus action to do it again. Turn 1 it’s 6d10 force, then 3d10 after.
On Bane (versus Bless), I think there’s a big difference depending on the party size. For a conventional party with around four members, Bless is probably better, since you can put it on all the allies who are likely to attack (and sometimes yourself or another spell caster, who may only need it for saves). But if the party is much bigger, you probably can’t Bless everyone who you might wish to, and debuffs like Bane gets better in comparison. While theoretically the DM might be deploying proportionally larger groups of enemies, a lot of the time they’ll just increase the power of a modest number of enemies, since running hordes is slow and fiddly. Even if there’s a lot of minions or other “chaff” enemies supporting some bigger guys, there are probably few enough important targets so that you can bane them all (and then maybe ignore them for a turn or two while you mop up the chaff). Slow versus Haste has a similar balance situation. Slow is amazing in a big party. So much so that after I used it a whole bunch while playing a Wizard in a 6-player campaign, the DM banned it in the followup campaign (after we TPKed). I’m surprised that Summon Greater Demon didn’t make it into the list. I think it is mostly intended for DMs. Other summoning spells are a lot more player-oriented, as they are a lot safer for the summoner. Having a NPC cultist summon a demon and then promptly lose control of could be great fun. The cult might not have been much of a match for the party of PCs, and a demon might be too hard for the PCs if it was exclusively focused on them.
D&D has always had a lot of spells that are fairly crummy for PCs but useful for foes. I think part of it is just due to the fact that D&D in Ye Olde Days assumed that the real goal of PCs was to build a stronghold and then engage in mass battles. (It’s quite obvious in 1E.) A number of spells made way more context in that context, such as Hallucinatory Terrain or Guards and Wards. These are much more useful for foes. Others, such as Gate, have pretty well always been better for foes. A number of the kind of meh spells are also good when there are many lower level support casters who can fling spells at PCs.
I really like these articles where you emphasize the narrative effect it has beyond just talking about the mechanical effects. Don’t get me wrong, even though I’ve read most of the published stuff and have access to it, perusal your articles on mechanics always highlights something I misunderstood or didn’t think of. But when you throw thematic elements into the mix it really makes it feel like an RPG and not just a article game. Side note: Dream states “the messenger can also shape the environment of the dream, creating landscapes, object, and other images.” and “you can make the messenger appear monstrous”. Do you think it’s within the scope of the spell to have the messenger appear, sound like, and feel like (within the realm of the dream) a different non-monstrous person? Perhaps to pretend they’re an ally?
I saw this article, and its companion vid, back when they first came out, and have been repeatedly thinking about them since. I’ve figured out why. There’s a fair small bit of DM advice articles out there, but there all general and minimal in topic and content (10 things good DM’s do, and the like). What you’ve done here is really drill down on the topic and provide a lot of very specific and detailed examples. I really love these 2 vids of yours and hope to see more good DM Optimancy from you. 👍
One question about elemental bane (not questioning your affirmation that it is a terrible spell for PC). It says that it only delivers damage per turn. Not per round. So technically, if you had a full party of people doing that type of damage… you perhaps could get… 8d6 per round? More. With pets or similar creatures.
This is such a great tips for DM kind of thing ! I love the idea of using true strike to arrive fear into a players heart and get the players moving! And yes whe you said -2xD4s to a saving throw I immediately thought “like disintegrate🤔” keep it up these are great. He first o was liw Subtle “how not to tick off your DM” but this one is full blown “here is a spell book to give your casters for maximum fun and entertainment “
Disintegrate is always the spell that gets my attention when coming from NPCs. Had a moment in a campaign where the party was in a dream-like state and basically fighting every single BBEG we had fought up to that point all at the same time, and something “went wrong” and the BBEG we had yet to fight showed up and used Disintegrate, the party immediately stopped having fun and exited stage left. Not to say the DM was ruining our fun, more that he really got the message across that the next BBEG ain’t playing around, so from that point onwards my druid would constantly take single strands of hair from the party to reincarnate them incase the rest of their body gets disintegrated. Edit: Fun fact, nothing about the Gaseous Form spell says your immune to the grappled condition, i don’t know how but you can grapple that gas.
Dream is one of those spells I don’t think I’d ever prepare or learn, but I think I would grab a couple of spell scrolls for it. As mentioned, long range communication that can convey more than Sending. I think there are some creative applications, though. And the players can potentially use it if a BBEG or their heavy escapes after a large battle.
Crown of Madness is a pretty janky debuff spell for players to use, but I’ve seen it shine on the battlefield. Once was during a siege that my party was defending against, when our sorceress cast it on a big goon (reskinned Gladiator) who was overwhelming our paladin and my monk with its three brutal melee attacks. From then on, we had the upper hand in the fight, as it could only make one attack on it turn.
30:16 I could see making Gate more interesting by making it a 9th Level ritual that consumes the material spell component and takes 8 hours to cast. That way, as a Wizard at least, you can get this spell in your book without having to worry about missing out on other 9th level spells you could have learned instead, and can even cast it without expending a slot, but it still has drawbacks by consuming the material component and needing a safe place to concentrate and successfully carry out the ritual in order for it to work.
I think Bane really shines in that it makes enemy saving throws worse. Bless is great, but few spells do this, which opens up great combos for your teammates. If you have a caster with save-based area concentration moves like Black Tentacles or even just a fighter with a weapon of Wounding, you could make it far easier to trap the enemy in that effect, or make it harder for them to shrug off the bleeding wounds.
I’ll add Mislead to the list, in the same function as Gaseous Form. As a player, it’s just a very expensive single-use mirror image. But as a GM, it lets you create recurring villains in a way that still give players a chance to disrupt their escape mechanism when they figure out what’s going on. Also, seeing an enemy cast a spell with no apparent effect can really set their minds racing. I’ll add my voice to the chorus of commenters saying this is a really interesting approach to spell use as a GM.
Gate is the ultimate rescue spell for anyone who is lost, trapped, kidnapped, or taken hostage. Travel to a safe plane different from the one the target is on. Cast Gate and say the victim’s name to pull them out. Travel home and celebrate. This can absolutely wipe out an entire multi-session quest or campaign in five minutes.
Control Weather is awesome as a DM! I gave a Buehr Hag an artifact made of ice that expanded the radius of Control Weather by 5 feet every consecutive day that Control Weather was cast. She was turning the land into an icy wasteland until the PCs found and defeated her. Then her artifact melted on them when it got warm!
I think your not giving Gate the benefit it rightly deserves, Gate is amazing for the creative player who keeps track of the extraplanar hazards out there, for instance, open a portal to the lower planes situated under the water level in the River Styx, now water that erases memories is pouring into the room, open a portal to the Plane of Fire, now the most potent fire in the multiverse burning the face of enemy, open to the negative energy plane and toss a poor in, you just summoned a nightwalker, a creature that’s very easy to control as an 17th level necromancer.
I love the idea of elemental bane. Seeing your tiefling fighter get ripped apart by the big bad guy with flame tongue and hellish rebuke is scary. Especially if the dm incorporate fire damage commonly and the character starts to build an identity around not being scared of fire. Then when you finally beat the big bad and your tiefling gets to field the firepower that wrecked it it feels all the better. Plus it makes the magic item look really strong when the enemy uses it while not being broken after the players get it, since it was only stronger because of a condition the players don’t want to replicate.
I house rule Flesh to Stone differently, so it’s at least a worthwhile consideration for players to use, and utterly terrifying when I use it against them. First failed save is restrained, second failed save adds incapacitated, and third failed save is petrified. Still needs 3 successful saves to end it, ends if they make the first save, and the minute concentration to make permanent. One less save, and a growing level of dread as they turn more and more to stone with each failed save.
I would love to use Guards and Wards as a DM. I think it would make a good low-level dungeon since most of the effects do not deal damage. For example, you could put a powerful wizard, and potential ally, in a tower with Guards and Wards cast on it. The PCs could find his password hint at the beginning of the dungeon. If they don’t decode the password hint, then they can still make their way through the dungeon, but they’ll have to do more problem solving.
From my experience with past DMs, I’ve become extremely adverse to save or suck leveled spells. I try to get away with expending as few spell slots as possible knowing that another encounter could always be around the corner so wasting a spell slot on nothing isn’t ideal. DMs love to eat away at all your resources and then throw you right into an encounter when you’re at your most vulnerable (not that its a bad thing). I also dislike spells or abilities that take players out of combat as well. You join a campaign to play DnD and have fun. When you’re petrified or unconscious the whole battle you aren’t playing DnD anymore, you’re just perusal the game being played and it sucks. This isn’t as much as an issue for DMs because they often have multiple enemies that they control so Its fine for players in my book.
Guiding Bolt is one of my favorites for both situations as a player or dungeon master. 4D6 radiant damage and the next attack are all made against them has advantage, you throw this on a heavily armored tank like a fighter or a barbarian or you throw this on another squishy caster and the big broot of the group just annihilates them
I cast bane a while back on the big baddie with a low ac we were fighting a whole back. It didn’t make sense to bless when he has a 12 AC and wasn’t forcing us to make saving throws. After the fight the DM told me I saved a few other players by keeping him from bashing our low level melee fighters into goo.
I disagree with the take on true strike. If i have a monster cast true strike, the players aren’t going to start panicking or anything like that, and its not going to create suspense. They’re going to breathe a sigh of relief or just laugh, because they know that true strike is terrible, and objectively a waste of an action. They’re going to think “Oh, so now we only have to deal with one attack.” Sure, something with high damage and low to hit seems like it would be scary here, but frankly that doesn’t make much difference – its still the same as if it just attacked twice, and advantage only increases the odds – it doesn’t garuntee a hit. While a lot of people have the psychology of “advantage means it should hit” that’s not how chance works. Even if you have a 99.9% chance to hit, you can still miss. Furthermore, true strike is an ACTION that affects ONE attack. A lot of monsters have multiattack, so they’re not just trading one roll for one roll, they’re trading two, or three, or even four or five in some cases. Rather, what i do to create a feeling of suspense and reactivity in combat is simple – If a monster has a recharge ability, It rolls recharge at the END of its turns, rather than the start, and i give some sort of description indicating it has recharged – while still giving the party a round to prepare. If i say “The dragon’s throat becomes illuminated with orange light and smoke begins fuming from its nose” at the end of a dragon’s turn, the party are probably going to immediately think to spread out and get behind cover.
Gaseous Form would be a great spell if the creature didn’t have to be willing. Like, if I was going to make a few homebrew additions to the 5e spell list, that would be a change I would make. Suddenly it becomes a less powerful polymorph or banishment type of spell that also allows you a bit of party mobility or utility. Elemental Bane might be fun to cast as a player teaming with a dragon monk character, if a party member was so unfortunate as to pick that subclass. Like a bargain bin holy weapon spell.
Here is my list, I intentionally chose different spells even though I agree with all your choices. Cantrip: Poison Spray – Bad range and damage type for players but good for enemies to use as most PC’s don’t have poison resistance or immunity, especially good if it is a higher level enemy caster. 1st level: Arms of Hadar – Being a spell unique to Warlocks, it scales pretty well for an enemy Warlock to use against players, plus an enemy warlock may not care about friendly fire. 2nd level: Skywrite – This will add suspense if used by the BBEG. 3rd level: Erupting Earth – A good way to cause difficult terrain for your players while dealing a little damage. 4th level: Phantasmal Killer – Could be terrifying when you use it against a player. 5th level: Enervation – Your villain can continuously harm a player and heal themselves. 6th level: Otto’s Irresistible Dance – Not that reliable for players but I had a blast as a DM casting it against one of my players. I played “Everybody Dance Now,” while the spell was in effect. 7th level: Finger of Death – A good way to terrify your players by threatening to turn them into zombies. 8th level: Power Word Stun – Especially good if used against tier 2 players. The stun won’t last but a lot of damage can be done. 9th lvl: Blade of Disaster – For players this spell would be good if it was 8th level. But because it is 9th level, it is not a good choice for players imo, compared to Wish or True Polymorph, and you only get one 9th level spell slot.